Change Deep Sea Settings on Rust

The deep sea is the offshore region that came with Rust's Naval Update in February 2026. Facepunch describes it as an area players reach by boat that "will open and close intermittently, like a world event". Its timing, spawns and access rules are controlled by deepsea. settings that you can put in server.cfg. This guide lists the ones that matter, with the defaults the game itself prints. Checked against Rust server build 2635 and Facepunch's Naval Update and Shipshape posts (February and March 2026), October 2026.

Where to put the settings

Rust reads server.cfg at start-up, and our servers don't have one until you make it.

1. Open the File Manager and go to server/rust/cfg.
2. Create a file named server.cfg, or open it if you already made one for another setting.
3. Add one setting per line, with no + in front, for example deepsea.island_count 4.
4. Save, then Restart the server.

After it starts, check a value in the Console by running find deepsea.island_count. The game prints the current value in brackets. Facepunch's wiki notes some settings can't be set from server.cfg; we tested deepsea.island_count 3 and deepsea.ghostship_count 2 in the file and after a restart the game reported 3 and 2.

Rust server.cfg and admin commands explains the file and the admin commands it can hold.

Turn the deep sea on or off

deepsea.enabled is True by default. The game says it "Toggles the deep sea. Needs a server restart to take effect" and that any saved deep sea entities are destroyed at the next start. Set deepsea.enabled false in server.cfg to remove it.

When it opens and closes

Facepunch's March 2026 post says the deep sea no longer opens right after a server wipes, and that the changes are configurable.

What spawns inside

The two loot settings are population multipliers: the game says 1.0 is unchanged, 0.5 half and 2.0 double. loot_scale applies to loot the deep sea spawns with, and loot_respawn_scale to loot it respawns over time.

Who can go there

• deepsea.allow_all_vehicles (False) lets any vehicle travel there, instead of only the whitelisted ones.
• deepsea.allow_swimmers (False) lets players swim in.
• deepsea.block_building is True.
• deepsea.forceentranceportaldirection is 0 for random, or 1 North, 2 East, 3 South, 4 West.

Commands to run from the Console

A command typed into the Console lasts until the next restart. Put a setting in server.cfg to keep it.

If the server lags while it opens

For three of the spawn intervals the game says to raise them if you see lag when the deep sea is opening: deepsea.entities_spawninterval (5), deepsea.navmesh_spawninterval (5) and deepsea.spawngroups_spawninterval (0.15). They are seconds between steps, so a higher number spreads the work out.