Rust October 2026 Force Wipe Preview: Livestock, Biofuel and Airwolf Rumors

Rust’s next PC force wipe is scheduled for Thursday, 1 October 2026, following the previous wipe on 3 September. The usual first-Thursday cadence points to the update arriving at approximately 19:00 London time, which is 18:00 UTC while the UK remains on summer time. Individual servers can take longer to update and restart.

CONFIRMED: The October force-wipe date is 1 October. Expect a mandatory map reset when servers install the monthly build. Blueprint policy remains server-specific, however, so do not assume every community server will erase BPs. Check your chosen server’s announcement before committing to a wipe plan. The current countdown can be followed through our Rust force-wipe tracker.

CONFIRMED STATUS: As of 23 September, Facepunch has not published the October devblog or officially assigned any headline feature to this particular wipe. Everything below is therefore either work visible on Facepunch’s public development feed or community reporting from staging. Active branches are strong evidence that systems are being developed, but commits alone never guarantee release on 1 October.

The strongest signal: livestock and farm expansion

RUMOR — IN DEVELOPMENT: Livestock is the largest visible feature branch in the fresh Facepunch commit feed, with 56 listed commits on 23 September. Recent work includes cows and sheep, milk, wool, breeding fixes, sales rewards, dung production, animal transport behavior and livestock pathfinding.

The breadth of that work makes livestock the leading candidate for October’s headline system. The feed shows polishing rather than only early prototyping: developers are fixing failing tests, correcting wool outlines, revising item icons, changing animal dung rates and preventing animals from remaining mounted when a vehicle rolls or sinks. Critter work involving rabbits, frogs, squirrels, crabs and jellyfish is also being merged into the wider animal branch.

Still, the distinction matters. Facepunch has confirmed that this code is being worked on; Facepunch has not confirmed livestock for the October wipe. A large branch can be delayed if testing exposes progression, AI or performance problems.

Community staging coverage adds possible details. One video claims milk can be separated into cream and skimmed milk, then mixed into teas or pies to alter strength or duration. Beef and mutton pies, sheep shearing and wool have also appeared in community reports. These claims line up with commit names, including new pie toppers and wool assets, but their recipes, buffs and numerical values remain RUMOR. Do not build an October strategy around reported resource-yield multipliers until the official patch notes appear.

Biofuel could turn farm waste into low grade

RUMOR — IN DEVELOPMENT: A dedicated biofuel-generator branch had 37 commits in the 23 September snapshot. The work references processing biomatter, producing fuel, animations, sounds, pickup rules, stirring interactions and an electrical output that indicates when the machine needs attention. A particularly recent commit states that dung gives one fuel, although that value can change before release.

If it ships alongside livestock, the intended loop appears straightforward: feed animals, collect dung or other organic leftovers, process that material and recover low grade fuel. That could make an enclosed farming base more self-sufficient and give spoiled food or excess meat a purpose.

Community footage describes a powered Tier 1 deployable that must be stirred and that converts different foods at different speeds. Treat the workbench tier, recipes, processing times and output rates as RUMOR. They are staging observations, not an October release commitment.

Airwolf may need to be repaired before helicopters are sold

RUMOR — POSSIBLE OCTOBER SHIP: Facepunch’s repairable-Airwolf branch received ten commits between 21 and 23 September. The latest listed work sets a helipad repair requirement of 30,000 wood, 10,000 metal fragments and 100 rope, while also mentioning an Airwolf CCTV identifier and scene-to-prefab work.

The apparent design would begin the wipe with Bandit Camp’s Airwolf helipad damaged. Players would collectively supply materials and repair it before minicopters or scrap transport helicopters become available for purchase. If that interpretation is correct, early clans would lose immediate access to purchased aircraft, while the server gains another shared monument objective.

Those costs are development values, not final patch notes. The entire feature could be adjusted, disabled or held back. A community staging overview also shows the damaged helipad, ladder-hatch changes and beach crabs, making it the broadest available video preview, but it remains RUMOR rather than confirmation.

Skinnable ladder hatches look closer to release

RUMOR — HIGHER CONFIDENCE: The public feed shows the skinnable-ladder-hatch branch being merged into main on 23 September. Separate commits adjust armored triangle-hatch positioning, collision meshes and building-frame clipping. A merge toward main plus final collision fixes generally suggests a feature is approaching release readiness.

That may mean refreshed default ladder-hatch models and future Workshop skin support for square and triangle variants. It does not guarantee that skins will be sold immediately, nor does a main-branch merge prove the models will be enabled in the October build. Consider this one of the more plausible smaller additions, but keep it in the rumor column until Facepunch publishes the devblog.

Other development signals to watch

• RUMOR — base occlusion: Eighteen commits focus on identifying interior and exterior areas of player bases, handling complex compounds and excluding remote-controlled entities. This looks like longer-term performance and anti-ESP groundwork rather than a clearly player-facing October feature.
• RUMOR — underground rail update: Nine commits add station rooms, signals, pipes, wires and decals. The work is visibly active but still includes explicitly marked work-in-progress rooms, reducing confidence in an October launch.
• RUMOR — critter wildlife: Crabs, frogs, squirrels, rabbits and jellyfish appear across animal-development branches. Some may accompany livestock, but no final spawn rules or October release commitment exists.
• RUMOR — store and model refreshes: Main-branch activity includes a machete refresh and store-memory fixes. These are more likely to be supporting improvements than wipe-defining content.
• RUMOR — character customization: An active branch contains camera, networking, hair and appearance-saving work. Its scope looks substantial, but nothing currently ties it conclusively to 1 October.

What is actually confirmed?

At this stage, the short answer is the date and force-wipe event, not the feature list. Facepunch’s public commits officially demonstrate that development is happening, but they are not release notes. The October devblog is the point at which livestock, biofuel, Airwolf repairs or any other system can be called confirmed for this wipe.

Be especially skeptical of exact recipes, prices, buffs and production rates. These values are frequently tuned during staging. Likewise, ignore claims that the monthly force wipe automatically means a universal blueprint reset: server owners determine BP policy unless Facepunch explicitly requires otherwise.

What it means for wipe day

Prepare for two possible openings. If livestock and biofuel ship, prioritize a defensible farm footprint, refrigeration, electricity and storage instead of treating animals as a novelty. Use our Rust Labs item database and calculators to check final recipes and resource costs after the build goes live.

If the Airwolf repair system ships, do not base your first-hour plan on buying a minicopter. Have a road, horse or modular-car route ready, and decide whether contributing materials to the helipad is worth accelerating aircraft access for the entire server. Base builders should also inspect ladder-hatch collision and placement before committing expensive upgrades.

Watch the force-wipe countdown, download the client update as soon as it appears, and verify whether your server is wiping blueprints. If you still need a home for October, compare the rules and wipe schedules on our Rust servers. Most importantly, wait for Facepunch’s official October devblog before locking in a strategy around any rumored feature.