diff --git a/.busybox-versions b/.busybox-versions
index e7bfa0395e..83c5d09653 100644
--- a/.busybox-versions
+++ b/.busybox-versions
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Auto generated by busybox-updater.sh. DO NOT EDIT
-amd64=42977f138f0655240a4bd4aed4fe1731cff3bc57077ff695ea7cd4653fc1c6e6
-arm64=2f0470d84715de55c3446dd074e954b8d84f887c16fd0bb2de54b3734ba5ae83
-arm=5fb75cf689dcccfc5198aa4cbd7ecf04bc7e44e74220154b4f0f75a7c855318f
-ppc64le=a9a9102107c48b12f1e31e722a26d6ad985111b9840d0f72b92e1cce815b83f7
-s390x=9f6a7897398d997568a69d3c5badc9cdc75c71cd0aedc497571e5c6e9635e7db
+amd64=43ffc578ff003ad18001c2113b903d236c82160c1a15491ec5f0e9b4268c4f82
+arm64=127fc3a6349a3c038e34553c6bb2b25555fad4efc46ee5e8d6cbf3eb8b8d3481
+arm=00876e80943db090f3310bc6ead8af89c0dfcb4c966a5e04363ab4792042e799
+ppc64le=818b8ead5e414228347fdc75c059b7b35d855e75e1acbe1bad7ccf93a8522a24
+s390x=0595b0070eb8000faaf952fc0001c695e4258009f3079ce7082ceae7a70b716c
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 48ff0df42d..8852f7620b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,13 @@ NOTE: As semantic versioning states all 0.y.z releases can contain breaking chan
 
 We use *breaking :warning:* to mark changes that are not backward compatible (relates only to v0.y.z releases.)
 
+## [v0.25.2-rc.0](https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/tree/release-0.25) - 2022.03.18
+
+### Fixed
+
+- [#5202](https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/pull/5202) Exemplars: Return empty data instead of `nil` if no data available.
+- [#5242](https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/pull/5242) Ruler: Make ruler use the correct WAL directory.
+
 ## [v0.25.1](https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/tree/release-0.25) - 2022.03.09
 
 The binaries published with this release are built with Go1.17.8 to avoid [CVE-2022-24921](https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2022-24921).
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index af2dabf3ff..b0265862b4 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.25.1
+0.25.2-rc.0
diff --git a/cmd/thanos/rule.go b/cmd/thanos/rule.go
index dd9256c95e..897f8a2500 100644
--- a/cmd/thanos/rule.go
+++ b/cmd/thanos/rule.go
@@ -357,11 +357,10 @@ func runRule(
 			return errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to parse remote write config %v", string(rwCfgYAML))
 		}
 
-		walDir := filepath.Join(conf.dataDir, "wal")
 		// flushDeadline is set to 1m, but it is for metadata watcher only so not used here.
 		remoteStore := remote.NewStorage(logger, reg, func() (int64, error) {
 			return 0, nil
-		}, walDir, 1*time.Minute, nil)
+		}, conf.dataDir, 1*time.Minute, nil)
 		if err := remoteStore.ApplyConfig(&config.Config{
 			GlobalConfig:       config.DefaultGlobalConfig,
 			RemoteWriteConfigs: rwCfg.RemoteWriteConfigs,
@@ -369,7 +368,7 @@ func runRule(
 			return errors.Wrap(err, "applying config to remote storage")
 		}
 
-		agentDB, err = agent.Open(logger, reg, remoteStore, walDir, agentOpts)
+		agentDB, err = agent.Open(logger, reg, remoteStore, conf.dataDir, agentOpts)
 		if err != nil {
 			return errors.Wrap(err, "start remote write agent db")
 		}
diff --git a/pkg/exemplars/exemplars.go b/pkg/exemplars/exemplars.go
index 36b0ce9ffb..2817d15555 100644
--- a/pkg/exemplars/exemplars.go
+++ b/pkg/exemplars/exemplars.go
@@ -89,6 +89,10 @@ func (rr *GRPCClient) Exemplars(ctx context.Context, req *exemplarspb.ExemplarsR
 		return nil, nil, errors.Wrap(err, "proxy Exemplars")
 	}
 
+	if resp.data == nil {
+		return make([]*exemplarspb.ExemplarData, 0), resp.warnings, nil
+	}
+
 	resp.data = dedupExemplarsResponse(resp.data, rr.replicaLabels)
 	return resp.data, resp.warnings, nil
 }