Rust's October update adds cows, sheep, milk, and cream — and yes, cream is stronger

Facepunch Studios' October update for Rust brings livestock into the game — cows and sheep are now roaming around, and they're not just walking meat bags. Both animals produce dung, meat, bones, and leather, while cows also give milk and sheep produce wool.

The update builds a small economy around these animals. A new Stable vendor will buy your livestock and wool, though if you haggle too aggressively, the NPC locks you out for 15 minutes before accepting another sale. New fencing lets you build proper pens, and you can breed animals chasing what Facepunch calls "a god clone." As for capturing livestock in the first place, the studio says it "should all be pretty intuitive" — no further explanation given. On the consumables side, milk can be refrigerated for up to four hours and then skimmed to produce both skimmed milk and cream. Facepunch is clear on the hierarchy here: cream is a more powerful consumable. Both milk and cream can be added to tea to buff its effects. Raw and spoiled meat, meanwhile, can be fed into a biofuel generator. Squirrels, rabbits, frogs, turtles, and other small critters have also been added to the game.

Rust has been running monthly forced-wipe updates for years, with Facepunch using them to steadily layer in survival and base-building systems. Livestock and animal husbandry are a natural fit for a game that already has farming and crafting economies — this update pushes that loop further, giving players renewable resource streams that reward patience and pen management over just hunting.

The October update is live now. The full patch blog is considerably longer, but the cream-is-stronger confirmation is arguably the headline finding.