Greetings, hard-working adventurers! If you've been enjoying Necesse, we have good news: the Rust and Romance update has arrived! Otherwise known as update 1.3.0, this is the biggest update the game has had since its 1.0 launch, and it brings plenty of new features, fixes, and more in its patch notes!

What's New in the Necesse Rust & Romance Update?

Released on July 30, 2026, the Necesse Rust and Romance update has brought new features for you and your friends to enjoy. One of the big focuses for this update was to target NPC settlers and make them feel even more alive. With Settler Personalities, each settler now has their own identity split between their perks and preferences. Perks allow settlers to become more proficient at certain tasks, such as combat or overall work efficiency. Meanwhile, preferences tell you more about a settler's specific needs and wants. With these, not only will your settlers be more unique and expressive, but you can also optimize them and place them in roles that suit them best. Additionally, you can now romance any of your settlers! Simply bring them a pretty flower, and you'll begin a series of quests. Complete these quests for your targeted romantic interest, and they may just return your affections. Of course, it wouldn't be the game's biggest update without some gameplay additions. The biggest and scariest addition is a new tier 8 incursion called The Scrapyard. This includes new enemy types, armor, and weapons for crafting, and a brand-new boss with even more brand-new drops. But The Scrapyard isn't all! Biomes are now larger based on player feedback. There's even a chance for you to encounter entirely new content in the new massive biomes, such as Charred Forests. These feature new flaming bird enemies, massive golems, and more to discover. All of this is only scratching the surface, as the Rust and Romance update also includes new craftable summon weapons, a new Transmutation Station for converting Essences in the endgame, a new settler list to help you more effectively navigate the settlement and command menus, four new achievements, and more. If you're eager to see it all, hop into your Necesse file with friends and start exploring!

Necesse Rust & Romance Update Patch Notes (Version 1.3.0)

Additions

• Added settler quality-of-life level mechanic.
• Added 50 different settler personalities.
• Added settler recreation system instead of work breaks.
• Added 6 different recreation activities for settlers to do.
• Added romance personalities, dating activities and partner mechanics.
• Added the ability to become partners with settlers and other players.
• Added Pretty Flower item used to start dating settlers.
• Added Pretty Bouquet item crafted in the inventory or workstation when having a Pretty Flower.
• Added Divorce Papers item bought from Elder when in a relationship.
• Added settler list in the top left while in the settlement menu.
• Added an extra button for closing the settlement menu.
• Added happiness bonus to recently recruited settlers.
• Added the ability for settlers to sit down next to you while in your adventure party.
• Added new Scrapyard incursion at tier 8 or above.
• Added new boss to the Scrapyard incursion.
• Added 5 new enemies found in the new Scrapyard incursion.
• Added 2 new music tracks to the new Scrapyard incursion.
• Added Rev Sword melee weapon crafted at the Fallen Anvil.
• Added Patchwork Grenadier ranged weapon crafted at the Fallen Anvil.
• Added Pyromancy magic weapon crafted at the Fallen Anvil.
• Added Ignition Key summon weapon crafted at the Fallen Anvil.
• Added 4 new Makeshift armor sets crafted in Tungsten Anvil.
• Added 6 different Bumper Car mounts dropped from the new Scrapyard incursion boss.
• Added new Charred Forest mini biome to the surface.
• Added 2 new enemies to the new Charred mini biome.
• Added new Phoenix armor set crafted in Tungsten Anvil.
• Added Hive Scepter summon weapon crafted in Iron Anvil.
• Added Bat Cage summon weapon crafted in Demonic Anvil.
• Added Transmutation Station crafted at the Fallen Workstation.
• Added recipes to convert essences and shards at the Transmutation Table.
• Added Crystal Essence tier 3 essence found in the Crystal Hollow Incursion.
• Added Radiated Essence tier 3 essence found in the Scrapyard Incursion.
• Added Frozen Berry pet item only obtained from "Fluffy friends!" incursion perk.
• Added Dragon Egg pet item only obtained from "Fluffy friends!" incursion perk.
• Added Caveling Display dropped rarely by cavelings.
• Added Witch Cauldron sold by witches.
• Added 12 new objects found on expeditions.
• Added 9 new objects found on deep cave expeditions.
• Added 7 new objects found as rewards on Incursion Tablets.
• Added Speeding Ticket achievement for driving a Bumper Car at maximum speed.
• Added True Love achievement for becoming Life Partners with a settler.
• Added Rich Character achievement for recruiting a settler with 6+ personalities.
• Added Cloud Ten achievement for achieving Unrivaled Quality of Life on 10 settlers at the same time.
• Added Message in a Bottle boss summon item crafted in the Demonic Workstation.
• Added 4 new hairstyles.

Changes/Misc

• Adjusted and increased the sizes of biomes overall.
• Replaced settlement quests and tutorial with new Story Objectives system.
• Improved settler interaction UI.
• Improved settler command menu to show some stats and more actions.
• Increased the happiness penalty for settlers sharing rooms.
• Reworked Cloud Nine achievement to be based off quality of life instead of happiness.
• Reworked Adventure Begins achievement to trigger on first major objective.
• Removed Village Helper achievement.
• Changed Upgrade Station to not require essences to craft.
• Changed Salvage Station to not require essences to craft.
• Adjusted equipment tier upgrade requirements to the following:
• Tier 1 essences are now required to upgrade equipment from Tier 1 to 4.
• Tier 2 essences are now required to upgrade equipment from Tier 5 to 7.
• Tier 3 essences are now required to upgrade equipment from Tier 8 to 9.
• Ascended Shards are now required to upgrade equipment from Tier 9 to 10.
• Tier 3 essences can now show up as a Tablet Reward on higher tier Incursion Tablets.
• The recipes for Crystal themed incursion tier weapons now also require Crystal Essence to craft.
• Adjusted rarity color on Altar Dust, Upgrade/Alchemy Shards and all Essences to be more in line with Incursion tier progression.
• Moved "Are you not entertained?" incursion perk to tier 6
• Moved "All the buffs!" incursion perk to tier 7
• Moved "Fluffy friends!" incursion perk to tier 10.
• Replaced "A New Hope" Incursion perk with the new "Feeling Hopeful" Incursion perk which makes rescued Settlers from Incursions spawn with more Personalities.
• Reduced deep cave bosses max health slightly in incursions.
• Removed the Dungeon Map from the Elder's House starter chest.
• It's now possible to select settlers from their bed flag.
• Improved performance and stability of the Cartographers table when sharing large maps.
• Sharks can now no longer spawn within settlement boundaries.
• Reduced falling icicle damage to settlers.
• Reduced the damage of Bashy Bush summoning weapon.
• Changed Ravenlord set feather damage to scale with total speed instead of bonus movement speed.
• Buffed Battle Chef armor set slightly.
• The Masked Hunter Hood cosmetic helmet is now sold by the Hunter.
• Slightly reduced the spawn rate of secret update presets.
• Forest, Plains and Swamp Deep Caves now also generate rivers.
• Made Plain Deep Caves generate Spirit Water instead of lava.
• Greatly increased the health of raiders.
• Reduced the damage raiders deal.
• Reduced the movement speed of raiders.
• Settlers will now have a small hit cooldown similar to players.
• Reworked doors and fence gate rotations, allowing them to be placed next to each other without rotating.

Fixes

• Fixed settler rooms with incomplete floor sometimes not getting updated properly.
• Fixed some of the final boss's attacks dealing extreme damage to settlers.
• Fixed explosions not respecting shared hit cooldowns like on worms and swarms.
• Fixed doors and fence gates closing when a wire deactivates them, even when another wire is still activating them.
• Fixed being able to lock Survivor Whip room without being able to open it again.
• Fixed Chieftain not spawning with max health on higher difficulties.
• Fixed being able to dash infinitely with Wind Boots and Ghost Boots with certain key press combinations.
• Fixed multi objects sometimes generating without the other half.
• Fixed Lifeline sometimes triggering when another death prevention already happened.
• Fixed sometimes being able to shoot projectiles through doors from the bottom.
• Fixed settlement notifications not showing the settler names if you are not close to them.
• Fixed the Incursion Perk: "IT'S IN THE WALLS!" tooltip not clarifying that it drops Essences from the current Incursion you are in.
• Fixed Stabby and Bashy Bush summons gaining more Summon Speed from the player than intended.
• Fixed Ravenlord set feathers not spawning when moving around while mounted.
• Fixed Bashy Bush dungeon loot containing full berry bushes.
• Fixed Spider Eggs in the Spider Incursion not glowing with Tracker Potion.
• Fixed some bosses not glowing with Tracker Potion when they're not hostile yet.
• Fixed bug where dropped items would sometimes despawn if targeting someone who teleports away.
• Fixed players not spawning in with their loaded health on worlds that does not allow outside characters.
• Fixed removing Settlement Storage, Workstation or a recipe not cancelling scheduled settler jobs instantly.
• Fixed Sharpshooter Boots being upgraded directly to tier 2 the first time you upgrade them, instead of tier 1.
• Fixed players not being able to break their own Ascended Void tiles.
• Fixed Captain Shirt item sprite not matching actual armor.
• Fixed Sharks sometimes able to spawn in shallow water.
• Fixed debug menu staying open if you change to a non-cheat world.
• Fixed placing flowers desyncing which object ends up being placed.
• Fixed Crystal Dragon sometimes not ending their charge attack when it should.
• Fixed Swamp Cave adventure party journal challenge only completing on level change.
• Fixed raiders sometimes spawning with gear they shouldn't if you haven't obtained it on multiplayer worlds.
• Fixed Cryo Queen map icon having a couple of white pixels.
• Fixed bosses and other mobs going out of sync with clients when outside the bounds of levels.
• Fixed settlement storage config menu header not showing item icons.
• Fixed Banner of War incursion perk not working correctly.
• Fixed some raiders not spawning with correct gear on specific game states.
• Fixed the Pirate Captain not dropping the Pirate's Lair Vinyl.
• Fixed Pirates not dropping the Pirate's Horizon Vinyl.
• Fixed Dressers and Armor Stands being able to store other items than armor.
• Fixed double boss Incursion perk sometimes spawning it prematurely.

Modding/Servers

• Changed Mob.doHasKilledTarget to be called by all attackers that was part of killing a target