Rust gets rusty boat building, so you can sail in search of ghost ships, floating cities and tropical islands

Rust, the survival game also the world’s foremost simulator of rock-chucking battles between naked people, has gotten a naval update adding in the ability to cobble together your own watercraft and sail the high seas. Those seas have plenty to discover and point your cannons at too, especially the “high risk, high reward, and intentionally unforgiving” deep sea region.

As shown off in the update rundown from devs Facepunch, the ships you can build as part of this naval update are as bowling shoe ugly as your average early game scrap for resources. Think of the sort of square hunks of metal, wood, and sail that might come out of an episode of Scrapheap Challenge about floating tanks, and you’ve got the picture.

These tugs are slapped together at deployable boat building stations, fitted out with boaty accoutrements like engines, cannons, and anchors, then cast off in search of plunder. Engine and sail placement factors into your vessel’s handling and speed, so maybe don’t stick them all at the very back of the deck because you’re trying to build the barge version of a Porsche 911. Naturally, you can also install a plank just in case any bickering over loot breaks out among your crew.

Then, it’s heave ho and off you go to the edge of the map, where a new region dubbed the deep sea awaits. “This is not a place to live: you cannot build, and nothing respawns,” Facepunch warn. “First come, first served. The deep sea will open and close intermittently, like a world event.” Within the bounds of these dangerous waters, you’ll find ghost ships protected by hostile scientists and their new turret-equipped PT boats and tropical islands boasting mystery loot. In between battles over goodies, you can drop anchor at ramshackle floating cities “built from abandoned barges and the framework of an unfinished oil rig”, where you can restock and hang out at the Deep Deck casino.

It all sounds ripe for piratey antics that build on Rust’s well-established scramble for survival among base-building hoarders. The good news is that it’s out now and Facepunch have included five new naval missions to get you started.