rayblon

As I said in the second sentence in the op, I don't think it's something that should be default.

Nobody likes having their stuff destroyed, and yet the most effective way to stop an onslaught is a few blocks of soil. I think this is fine -- good even, to keep as an option (possibly even the *default* option given peoples' friction with storms). My idea is that, during temporal storms, the besieging enemies could be capable of damaging blocks they deem "in the way", for the duration of the storm, making them fracture or become glitchy in some new way, and allowing them passage through otherwise impassible barricades. More durable materials would prove more resilient. At the end of a storm, any temporally shattered blocks would return to their normal, undamaged state.

High instability is kind of like simulating a temporal storm with a good chunk of the loot that entails, and temporal storms are fun. So, by placing down and powering a rust ward, you can stay at 0 stability without shredding yourself -- and your armor -- to fight drifters at your leisure. It might have a chance to prevent drifters spawning directly on top of you too, to add a bit more utility for temporal storms. It doesn't actually ward off stability loss, so it's more for managing the consequences of being in a low stability area for a long time. It might not even necessarily need to be its own item -- maybe just an upgrade for the existing rift ward. It's what inspired the idea, at any rate.