Rust Adds "Softcore" Mode For A Slightly Gentler Survival Experience

The notoriously brutal survival game Rust has gotten a little bit softer, with the addition of a new game mode that lets you take it easy. Well, easier. The new mode has a number of changes aimed at more casual players, either to entice more players to join or just let the existing player base relax once in a while.

As detailed in the announcement, the changes make death a little less punishing, and help make you less of a target. When you're killed, you can reclaim half of your inventory either where you died or at a Reclaim terminal. (Items left there will expire after two hours). You can only view the inventory contents of wounded players. You can also spawn at the Bandit Town or any Outpost safezones, and the maximum team size in Softcore mode is four players.

There will be 10 servers to launch with the update and run the Softcore mode, but developer Facepunch assures players that the majority of servers will continue running the standard vanilla Rust experience.

And speaking of vanilla Rust, the latest update adds some new features for it as well. Marketplaces have been added to Bandit Camp and Outpost monuments, which let you order items from vending machines and have them remote delivered via drone. But like any delivery service, you'll need to pay a fee for the convenience--in this case 20 scrap. You'll also need to wait to receive your items, which can take up to five minutes. Then you'll need to claim the items within 10 minutes.

Facepunch says the goal is to make trading safer and encourage more of it, and to that end, the drones are invincible. No shooting them out of the sky to loot their sweet contents. That Facepunch immediately recognized this was necessary should say something about how how not-soft the usual experience actually is.