Rust's latest update adds mortars but 'no visual guide to help you land shells,' so get ready for some chaos

Facepunch Studios may have only just released S&box, but the launch of its spiritual successor to Garry's Mod has done nothing to slow down its monthly Rust update. It is as predictable as the tide, or having your base raided by your half-naked neighbours. This month's "Upgrade hard, raid harder" patch brings a major overhaul to one of Rust's key systems, though personally I'm more interested in the addition of mortars, sicko for explosions that I am.

We'll eat our vegetables first, however. The headline change affects workbenches, which according to Facepunch have received "a whole new upgrade system". This includes nine new upgrades, each of which provides a different bonus to a workbench's functionality.

Crucially, these upgrades cannot be crafted and are relatively rare, so you'll need to brave the wilderness to find them and ensure they are well-protected in your base. This is clearly another attempt by Facepunch to encourage competitive play, to coax players out of their bases and into the sights of other survivors. Given that friction is precisely what makes Rust special, let's hope it works.

Now, onto dessert. Mortars are a new weapon that players can deploy into battles, letting them pummel opponents from afar with portable artillery. On the face of it, this sounds ludicrously powerful. But Facepunch stresses that using mortars won't be easy. "Firing a mortar requires mastery through trial & error as there is no visual guide to help you land shells," the developer explains. "Instead, you'll need to pair it with binoculars to estimate how high to aim the mortar for it to land on your target."

In other words, you'll need to do proper spotting to get the most out of your mortar. In addition, Facepunch points out that the recoil from a shell's launch will affect the position of the tube, meaning you can't fix a target and then bombard without making further adjustments. It sounds pretty complicated to use, and given players tend to gravitate toward the most direct solution to a problem, it'll be interesting to see whether Rust's community finds it useful.

Elsewhere, tin can alarms can now be customised with various trap items, such as flashbangs, Molotov cocktails, and bee grenades, the vending machine UI has received an overhaul, and a new "crypt stone" building skin has been added to the Rust store for those players who want a base that constantly reminds them of their virtual mortality.

For the five of you reading this who still don't own Rust, the game's currently available for half price at $20 (£17.50). That discount ends tomorrow, though, so if the addition of mortars or workbench upgrades has finally tipped you over the edge, you'd better get in quick.