Rust does not update every Thursday any more. Weekly patches are history, as Facepunch wrote in December 2025: "For almost 12 years we have managed to deliver weekly updates or, in more recent years, guaranteed monthly updates with meaningful changes." Today the big update comes once a month, on the first Thursday at 19:00 London time, and it brings the forced wipe with it. Hotfixes land between those on any day of the week, and a few times a year there is a mandatory event update in the middle of the month, like the Halloween update on 22 October 2026.
Any of those can break a plugin. The staging branch is where Facepunch tests what comes next, and a test server is where you find out what breaks before your players do. This post covers both, with times and commands checked against Facepunch, Oxide and Carbon on 25 October 2026.
When Rust updates actually land
| What | When | What it means for your server |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly update | First Thursday of the month, 19:00 London time | New build and the forced map wipe. Oxide needs a new build |
| Hotfix | Any day, no fixed time | New build. Check Oxide's release list for a matching build |
| Event update (Halloween, Christmas) | Announced in the monthly devblog | Mandatory, so you update that evening. No wipe announced for the recent ones |
The monthly update. Rust's in-game wipe timer counts down to the "First Thursday every month at 19:00 (London time)" by default, and Facepunch's wipe timer page says that default "aligns with force wipes". Facepunch called it "the regular time of 19:00 GMT" in the same December devblog. London time means 19:00 GMT in winter, which is 19:00 UTC, and 19:00 BST in summer, which is 18:00 UTC. Every monthly update of 2026 so far came on a first Thursday: 1 January, 5 February, 5 March, 2 April, 7 May, 4 June, 2 July, 6 August, 3 September and 1 October, as the news archive shows.
Hotfixes. Hotfixes are why no fixed weekday is a safe rule. Oxide's release list shows builds for Rust hotfixes on Friday 2, Thursday 8, Friday 9, Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 October 2026 alone, and one for a hotfix on Sunday 7 June.
Event updates. The Halloween update was announced in the Livestock devblog as "a mandatory server and client update" for 22 October at 18:00 BST, an hour earlier than the monthly slot. The Christmas update of 18 December 2025 was announced for 19:00 GMT with "no wipe, no progress will be lost".
The next monthly update is expected on Thursday 5 November 2026 but had not been announced when we checked. Our Halloween update checklist has the November outlook, with the time in eight zones after the autumn clock change.
What is the Rust staging branch?
Facepunch describes it on its staging page:
"The Staging Branch in Rust is a separate version of Rust where new updates and features are tested before being released to the main game. It's essentially the experimental build, allowing us to identify bugs, balance changes, and performance issues with help from players who opt in."
For players it is a separate Staging Branch entry in the Steam library that you launch on its own. You do not need it to play Rust. It is opt in and it is the experimental build, so expect bugs. Facepunch runs its own staging servers for it.
Two details matter for server owners:
- Staging wipes a week early. "Staging map wipes occur one week prior to regular Rust," says the same page.
- Staging is not always next month's update. In its December 2025 devblog Facepunch pointed players to staging to try the naval content early, and that content skipped the December and January updates and shipped in the Naval Update on 5 February 2026. Carbon's update docs add that staging "only begins to have significant changes necessary for Carbon to update to, roughly mid-month."
So staging shows you where the game is heading. It does not give you a fixed 24 or 72 hour preview of the next patch.
Setting up a staging server
Facepunch's server guide lists the beta branches you can install with SteamCMD. The Rust server is app 258550, and -beta staging picks the staging branch. With the argument order from that guide:
./steamcmd.sh +force_install_dir ../rust_staging +login anonymous \
+app_update 258550 -beta staging validate +quit
Give it its own install folder and its own server.identity, so nothing it writes ends up next to your live saves. Other branches such as aux01 work the same way.
To move an install back to the normal build, update it with -beta public. Oxide's install guide asks for that switch and advises against the release branch, which it says is not always in sync with the public branch. Facepunch's guide adds that once you have moved up to a newer build you have to name the public branch to go back, or delete the steamapps folder in the install.
Oxide and Carbon on staging
This is where staging gets less useful for a modded server.
Oxide. The builds on Oxide's GitHub releases follow the public Rust updates and hotfixes, and Oxide's docs tell you to take the newest release that is not a pre-release and not to mismatch Oxide and server versions. Oxide does keep a staging branch in its repository (its latest commit, on 2 October 2026, reads "Patch for staging branch changes"), but its documentation does not say where to download those builds. Do not plan your month around one.
Carbon. Carbon publishes a Rust (Staging) Build on GitHub, marked as a pre-release; it was v2.3.1501 when we checked on 25 October 2026. Its own description: "This build might and probably will be very unstable and its sole purpose is for testing and/or exploring Rust's future update features in a modded environment." According to Carbon's update docs, a server on the staging branch with the Carbon staging build and self updating switched on picks up a newer staging build on the next restart "regardless of protocol".
In practice: on an Oxide server, staging shows you what changes in vanilla Rust, such as new convars, monuments and performance work. Your plugins get tested on a public branch test server during the month and on the update evening itself.
A test server on the public branch
For plugin updates and config changes, a second server on the normal public build does more for you than staging, because Oxide supports it on the day.
Use it for:
- new versions of plugins before they go on the live server
- config, permission and loot table changes
- a new map seed or custom map
- the first update on update night, so you see which plugins fail before you touch the live server
Set it up with a copy of cfg/server.cfg and the oxide/plugins, oxide/config and oxide/data folders from your live server. A smaller map loads faster and needs less: Facepunch's guide says "The larger the map, the more disk space and memory you need." Before you copy anything, make a backup of the live server; our backup and restore guide lists which files matter.
Pre-update testing checklist
When a new build or a new plugin version reaches your test server, run through:
□ Server starts without errors
□ oxide.version shows the Oxide build made for this Rust build
□ oxide.plugins lists no plugin as failed
□ No compile errors in the console or in oxide/logs
□ Core gameplay works: gathering, crafting, building
□ Plugin features work: kits, economy, permissions, teleports
□ Entity counts look normal after 10 minutes of play
□ RCON commands still work
□ server.save completes without errors
oxide.plugins lists every plugin "including ones that failed to load", with the reason (Oxide plugin commands). Anything that fails gets fixed or parked before the live server takes the same step. Check the plugin's page for an update. There is no fixed timetable for plugin fixes, so give yourself room.
Keep your own caution list
After every update, save the oxide.plugins output and the errors from oxide/logs. After a few months you will see which of your plugins break on most updates and whose authors patch them fast. Decide for each plugin in advance:
- Can the server open without it? Chat tags, cosmetic UI, extra commands. Unload it with
oxide.unload PluginName, open, and tell your players. - Does it enforce your rules? Team limits, permissions, economy, anti cheat. Keep the server closed until it works.
That list is worth more than any general list of "fragile plugins", because it is built from your own server.
Update night timing
The monthly update and the event updates are mandatory. Facepunch announced the Halloween one as "a mandatory server and client update": your server has to take the new build that evening, so waiting a day with your live server is not an option. The test server work happens before; on the night itself:
- During the month: test plugin updates and config changes on the test server.
- On the day: announce the maintenance window in your players' time zones.
- Shortly before release: run
server.save, stop the server and back it up. - At release: update the server from your panel or with SteamCMD and
-beta public. - Install Oxide for the new build. The release notes name the Rust build, for example 2.0.7783: "Patch for October 1st Rust update (2634.289.1)". For the monthly updates of 2026, Oxide published its build between 12 and 38 minutes before 19:00 London time. For the Halloween update it came about an hour after the release: 2.0.7839 at 18:02 UTC, against the announced 17:00 UTC release. If the build is not there, wait.
- Start, check, open:
oxide.version,oxide.plugins, update what failed, join and test, then open.
Our plugin update guide covers steps 5 and 6 in detail, including which plugin data to reset after the wipe.
A test server with us
Our Rust server hosting plans are set up for Oxide. A second STONE plan, 8 GB RAM for €10.20 a month in Europe, Canada, Singapore, India and Australia and €11.00 in the USA, works as a public branch test server for plugin updates and config changes. We do not list the staging branch as a plan feature, so ask in live chat whether your server can run it before you plan around that. The same goes for Carbon: our plans are set up for Oxide, so ask in live chat first.
Support is online from 08:00 to 20:00 UTC every day, by live chat, Discord and email. The monthly update at 19:00 London time, 19:00 UTC in winter and 18:00 UTC in summer, falls inside those hours.
FAQ
What is the Rust staging branch?
Facepunch's test version of Rust, where upcoming updates and features are tested before they reach the main game. Players launch it as a separate Staging Branch entry in their Steam library; server owners install it with app_update 258550 -beta staging.
Do you need the Rust staging branch to play Rust? No. It is opt in, separate from the normal game, and buggier. Normal Rust servers run the public build.
When do Rust updates come out? The monthly update comes on the first Thursday of the month at 19:00 London time, which is 19:00 UTC in winter and 18:00 UTC in summer, and it includes the forced wipe. Hotfixes can come on any day, and event updates such as Halloween are announced in the monthly devblog.
Does Oxide work on the staging branch? Oxide's public releases follow the public branch, and its docs do not say where to get staging builds. Carbon publishes a staging build on GitHub, with a warning that it is likely to be very unstable.