Rust Friends with Benefits update: New Party System, Attack Outpost Spawning, Patrol Helicopter changes, and more

The Rust Friends with Benefits update went live on July 3, 2025, and the latest force wipe has brought forth some unique changes to the title. The July update primarily focused on improving players' gameplay loop and enhancing the general quality-of-life experience of playing Rust.

This article will explore all the major changes incorporated with the Rust Friends with Benefits update. Read below to know more.

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New Party System in Rust Friends with Benefits update

In Rust, finding your friends on the server and partying up with them was a cumbersome experience. Furthermore, the UI limited teams to a maximum of eight players at a time. With the latest update, the developers have streamlined the party system, offering players an easy way to team up prior to hopping into a server.

Party system in Rust (Image via Facepunch Studios)

With the new Party System, you can invite your friends to your party before booting up a server. As party leader, once you've invited all your friends and they're in your Party UI, you can hop into a server.

The first person to spawn into a server will be the anchor point for the team. All other members will spawn nearby each other, and will be incorporated into the team UI within the server.

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Outpost Spawning in Rust Friends with Benefits update

With the latest update, Facepunch Studios has incorporated a unique new change that allows players to have a single spawn point at the Outpost. This can be unlocked by completing a vendor challenge within the Monument.

Outpost spawning is now possible in Rust (Image via Facepunch Studios)

Once you complete this challenge, you will have a permanent spawn point within this Monument until the server wipes. Unlike other respawn points, it will have a 30-minute cooldown. Furthermore, it will not count towards your maximum bag limit within a server.

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Patrol Helicopter changes with the Rust July update

The Patrol Helicopter has incorporated numerous changes in the past few updates. However, the community feedback on these updates was not very positive. Facepunch Studios has carefully considered the community's wishes and has incorporated certain changes to the Patrol Helicopter behavior. The latest changes will encourage more PvP across servers.

Destroying the Patrol Helicopter (Image via Facepunch Studios)

As per the official patch notes, the Patrol Helicopter will now exhibit these behaviors in the game:

• Will always flee towards a monument.
• Flees will be capped to 1 grid maximum.
• Flee location is now shown on the map.
• Patrol Helicopter will no longer flee if you take it from nearby/inside a monument.

The multi-stage combat involved in taking down this entity will become more streamlined, incentivizing players to go all-out when it comes to taking down the Patrol Heli in the game.

Check out: All bug fixes in the Rust July update

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Other changes

Alongside these key changes, we also have deployable snapping. This mechanic will help place deployables in strict order, enhancing a player's ability to organize their base storage effectively.

Deployable snapping in Rust (Image via Facepunch Studios)

Furthermore, new hand animations have been added, and the viewmodel camera has been updated with the Rust Friends with Benefits update.

Last but not least, the roof stability in the game has been fixed with the latest update. Certain bunkers will no longer be feasible, but all in all, the general quality of building bases will improve.

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That's everything you need to know about the Rust Friends with Benefits update. Check out some of our related articles below:

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