Rust is getting hydro power through water wheels that can also be powered by humans: 'Before you ask, yes, you can force handcuffed players into them'

A player reclines on a deckchair while another players runs in a giant hamster wheel in Rust. — (Image credit: Facepunch Studios)

Not content with adding one kind of sea power to Rust in February's Naval Update, Facepunch studios has introduced a whole other way to exploit the oceans in its latest patch for the survival game. The Spring Clean update adds a bunch of small but significant changes to the game, but the one that immediately caught my eye was the addition of water wheels.

"You liked wind and solar? Now it's time for another classic, hydro!" wrote Facepunch in a Steam post, referring to Rust's previous additions of wind turbines and solar panels. Water wheels are the newest way to harness renewable energy in Rust, letting you generate current from currents by placing them in rivers or oceans.

Where things get interesting, though, is that you don't necessarily need water to make use of a water wheel. "The wheels can also be used as giant hamster wheels if you want to hop in and convert some calories into power", Facepunch points out. But as the capricious gods who govern Rust's world teach us, why waste your own energy when you can steal someone else's? "Before you ask, yes, you can force handcuffed players into them," Facepunch adds. Truly, Rust remains the cruellest game out there.

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Water wheels and indentured servitude aren't the only new feature the update introduces. The headline addition is actually an armoured ladder hatch, designed to maximise protection of any vertical access points of your base. Others include snazzy coloured buttons to help you remember which is the right one to push, an overfishing mechanic so that players can't exclusively rely on the bounty of the sea, and a more efficient system for unlocking multiple technologies on tech trees.

Using a ladder hatch as a shield from gunfire, a player reaches out of the aperture toward a discarded assault rifle in Rust. — (Image credit: Facepunch Studios)

Finally, this being Easter weekend, the patch also folds in some seasonal extras. Rust's Easter Egg Hunt returns, letting you scour the wilds for colourful painted eggs, which can be combined and upgraded to valuable bronze, silver and gold eggs. There's also some deeply unsettling bunny costumes and a knockoff Fabergé egg available for purchase in Rust's Steam item store, just in case you're really committed to showing off your love for Jesus and/or chocolate to your murderous virtual neighbours.

Outside of its ever-dependable updates, there's a small chance we might be seeing a Rust movie sometime in the future. Facepunch's director and COO Alistair McFarlane recently told PC Gamer that the developer had been "talking to people" about the idea, including "big-name companies", though we shouldn't expect it to happen anytime soon.

"When they approach us, they'll take it, they'll pitch it, they'll want writers to come and pitch it, and they'll want to nominate themselves," he elaborated. "They'll go away and create a script, and then they have to pitch it to another layer, and then that gets another layer, then they'll need to pitch it to the studios. So it's a whole pyramid to try and get anything off the ground."

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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