Rust: the Attack Helicopter's armor falls off in panels since Breach and Clear — 680, 595 and 510 HP, and what these numbers mean

Facepunch released Breach and Clear, the monthly update for Rust, on Thursday, September 3, 2026, force wipe day. The Steam relay of the announcement carries a publication timestamp of 17:26 UTC, i.e. 19:26 Paris time: that's our conversion, the studio does not publish any French time.

The section that concerns us fits in five sentences and six lines of numbers, and it opens with a rare admission: "We've heard your feedback - the Attack Helicopter is too difficult to counter." The cockpit armour of the player-piloted Attack Helicopter no longer holds as a single block: it now falls off panel by panel as the vehicle takes damage, and the same mechanic applies to Hot Air Balloons fitted with their Hot Air Balloon Armour.

A word on names. This devblog exists only in English: rust.facepunch.com/fr returns a 404. The client itself is fully localised — French interface, subtitles and audio on the Steam page — and we use its labels, with the original English in parentheses on first occurrence. Two terms from the post remain in English for lack of an equivalent displayed in the game: the Armoured HAB that titles one of the tables, and the patrol heli from the changelog.

The six lines Facepunch published, without a single word of explanation

The studio lines up two small tables and comments on neither. Here they are as is, under their original subheadings.

"Attack heli armour conditions"

"Armoured HAB armour conditions"

Three panels for the Attack Helicopter — left, right, front — and four for the fitted Hot Air Balloon, which adds a Back panel. Around these lines, the devblog states only that the armour "will now fall off in stages as it becomes damaged, exposing both the pilot and gunner," then concludes: "Pilots will now have to be more careful with how close they fly to the sun." The changelog adds two twin entries, one for the Attack Helicopter, the other for the Hot Air Balloon. That's it.

What "680hp" means: our reading, division included

Two interpretations were possible, and they don't lead to the same game. Either the percentage is a health threshold of the vehicle and the number in HP — hit points — gives the panel's sturdiness. Or the two columns say the same thing, the threshold and its absolute value. Dividing settles it.

Seven divisions, two results, no remainder. So the second reading is the right one: the numbers in HP don't measure panel resistance, they give the health of the vehicle at the moment the panel breaks. The other hypothesis would assume a coincidental ratio landing exactly right seven times in a row.

It must be said plainly: Facepunch nowhere writes 850 or 2,500. These totals are our deduction, drawn from its own figures. Nor does the studio say whether a dropped panel comes back after repair. Don't fill in these gaps with values read elsewhere.

What that changes when you shoot at an Attack Helicopter

Once the reading is established, the thresholds become damage budgets. These conversions are ours, not data from the publisher.

• First panel at 170 HP of damage on the Attack Helicopter (850 minus 680). That's not much: the armor plating falls apart very early in the engagement.
• All three panels down at 340 HP cumulative (from 850 to 510). The vehicle is bare below 60% health, even though it still has 510 left.
• On the equipped Hot Air Balloon, 250 HP for the first panel, then 1,000 HP for all four. It's much more resilient, but ends up just as exposed.

The benefit, Facepunch writes it itself: the degradation exposes "both the pilot and gunner". The studio quantifies no damage and names no weapon: we won't go further than it does.

A detail only the changelog carries, if you're on the stick's side: "Equipping HAB armor now plays an effect and takes 3 seconds". Re-equipping Hot Air Balloon Armor is no longer instant and produces a visible effect. Nothing equivalent has been published for the Attack Helicopter.

Three lines from the same patch that shouldn't be mistaken for anti-air

The SAM Site has not been buffed against helicopters. The devblog only talks about unmanned vehicles: "The SAM site will now do a much better job of destroying hostile drones. Missiles will fly faster vs drones and have a larger detonation fuse area, meaning drones get taken down much more reliably." The changelog says the same thing. Speed and fuse radius go up, with no numerical value given, and nothing is written about behavior against a piloted vehicle.

The homing launcher locks on faster, with no target specified. The devblog writes "The homing launcher lock-on duration has been reduced, allowing for earlier firing", the changelog rephrases it as "Reduced homing launcher lock-in time". Neither the Attack Helicopter nor the Hot Air Balloon are mentioned, and the duration is given neither before nor after.

The "patrol heli" in the changelog is not your target. The line "Improved saveloading of server events (oil rigs, cargo, patrol heli, bradley, satellite)" refers to the server's patrol helicopter and loot disappearing on a restart. Nothing to do with players' own vehicle.

The Heavy Plate Helmet: two contradictory sentences, and a set that doesn't match itself

Two tweaks in this patch touch on noise, and thus on how you approach a base while a helicopter is circling overhead. The devblog writes, about the Heavy Plate Helmet: « The heavy plate helmet now suppresses noise when worn. We've also increased the crafting costs. » Read this way, the helmet makes you quieter to others. The changelog on the same page writes: « Wearing a heavy plate helmet now muffles game audio ». Read this way, it's you who hears less well — the opposite effect. Both sentences come from the same September 3, 2026 post, and the studio hasn't settled the matter: consider this point undocumented.

The companion tweak is clearer, but its scope changes from one version to the other: the devblog targets two specific pieces of clothing, « Players wearing the Heavy Plate Jacket or Pants will now make noise when moving », while the changelog generalizes to « heavy armor ». These are the Heavy Plate Jacket and the Heavy Plate Pants.

Look again at these three names: the set doesn't agree with itself in French. Helmet and pants are « en tôles lourdes » [heavy sheet metal], the jacket « en plaques lourdes » [heavy plates], for three pieces that share the same Heavy Plate in English. Search for « plaques » in your inventory and you'll miss two pieces out of three.

Last defensive counterpart: Radwater has been strengthened against Sprinklers. « Radwater will now seep through more armour types, causing significant radiation to those in full kits, or lower radiation protection gear. Hazmats are still an effective counter. » No exact figures are published, and the only counter the studio names remains the Hazmat Suit.

What to remember

The published fact is simple: since Thursday, September 3, 2026, the cockpit armor of the Attack Helicopter breaks off in chunks at 80%, 70%, and 60% health, that of the Hot Air Balloon fitted with its armor at 90%, 80%, 70%, and 60%. The deduced fact, which is ours, is nearly as solid: these thresholds equal 680, 595, and 510 HP out of a total of 850, and 2,250, 2,000, 1,750, and 1,500 HP out of a total of 2,500.

In flight, the consequence fits in one line: 340 HP of damage is enough to expose the pilot and gunner, while the aircraft still has 510 HP left. On the ground, don't count on either the Surface to Air Missile or the Homing Missile Launcher: the studio writes neither one nor the other as effective against a piloted aircraft. The rest — weapon-by-weapon damage, whether panels return after repair, lock-on duration — remains undocumented as of September 6, 2026.