RedBear · classic Rust 2015 · v1069
Why Rust Legacy was shut down
The game was not switched off overnight. Facepunch was rewriting Rust from scratch, and at some point maintaining two versions became impossible. First the old branch stopped receiving updates, then it disappeared from Steam.
Experimental became the main game
The new version was developed in parallel and became the default launch option during 2015. Every update, fix and anti-cheat improvement went there.
Legacy remained available as a separate launch entry, but frozen: 2015 bugs stayed 2015 bugs.
December 2016: the branch was removed
Facepunch pulled Legacy from Steam for good. Anyone who had not kept a copy of the folder simply lost it from their library.
Official servers went down with the branch. From that point on the old version has lived entirely on the community: preserved clients, server mods and people who keep hosting it.
What players were left with
Build v1069 survived intact and still runs. Server-side modding platforms exist for it, so you can not only start the game but also add what was missing back in 2015.
Rust belongs to Facepunch, so every project around the old version is a fan effort. We do not hide that: our server and launcher are unofficial and unaffiliated with the developers.