Premium servers in Rust: Release date and how to join

Premium servers in Rust will be coming to the game on March 6/7, 2025, depending on your region, with the month's force wipe. The title's executive producer, Alistair McFarlane, has provided detailed insights into what players can expect from this new feature and why it will be introduced.

This article takes a look at Premium servers in Rust and what players can expect from them.

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Release date and time for premium servers in Rust

The premium servers in Rust will go live for all regions on Thursday, March 6, 2025, at 11 am PT/ 7 pm ET/ 12:30 am IST (next day). Players can expect a short downtime as Facepunch Studios incorporates these servers into the game alongside other changes.

Here's a list of the release dates and times for the debut of premium servers in Rust:

Time Zone	Date and Time
Pacific Time (PT)	March 6, 2025, at 11 am
Mountain Time (MT)	March 6, 2025, at 12 pm
Central Time (CT)	March 6, 2025, at 1 pm
Eastern Time (ET)	March 6, 2025, at 2 pm
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT/UTC)	March 6, 2025, at 7 pm
Eastern European Time (EET)	March 6, 2025, at 8 pm
Moscow Standard Time (MSK)	March 6, 2025, at 10 pm
Indian Standard Time (IST)	March 7, 2025, at 12:30 am
China Standard Time (CST)	March 7, 2025, at 3 am
Japan Standard Time (JST)	March 7, 2025, at 4 am
Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT)	March 7, 2025, at 6 am
New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT)	March 7, 2025, at 8 pm

Check out — Rust Primitive update: Everything we know

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How to join premium servers in Rust

As the name suggests, Rust's premium servers feature a paywall that players must pass to access them.

According to Alistair McFarlane, the gateway price to join a premium server in Rust is 15 USD (or the equivalent value in a player's local currency).

However, players don't need to pay money upfront to gain access to the premium servers. Those who have a Rust Steam inventory worth over 15 USD (or the equivalent value in a player's local currency) will directly gain access to them.

Here's a step-by-step guide to joining premium servers in the game:

1. Launch Steam and log in with your credentials.
2. Boot up Rust. Once everything's loaded up, click on the 'Play' button.
3. Head to the 'Official' tab on the left side of your screen.
4. Here, you can select any official premium server that will go live with the debut of the March update.

According to Alistair McFarlane, the introduction of premium servers is an experiment to combat cheaters in the game. To that end, he stated:

"This is experimental in being a gate against cheat users. It's not going stop every cheat users, but based on data we have now and behaviour patterns, it'll stop over 98%."

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That's everything that you need to know about joining the premium servers that will debut with the Rust March force wipe. If you're interested in more about the game, you can also check out the following guides:

• 5 base-building tips for beginners in Rust (2025)
• Homing Missile Launcher in Rust: How to craft, how to use, and more
• Rust Minigun and Military Flamethrower: How to get and use
• 5 best monuments to build near in Rust in 2025