The developer Facepunch Studios have stated that the reason why players won’t level up in Rust anymore because it “changed the feel of Rust as a sandbox.” It turned the game into a race to see who could reach the max level first, but then that made the game boring once you had leveled to the max.
So now instead of an XP system, there is the component system, which makes every basic item within the game craft-able from the moment you start; there are no more locked items or blueprints. Now items that are beyond the most basic, require the use of a components to craft, and these can only be discovered in the world (components can’t be crafted). Along with this system, you will see the return of radiation.
You can read more about the latest update on the official Rust devblog.
So have you tried out the new component system in Rust yet? Let me know in the comments down bellow.