Beginner Tips – Rust

In this guide, we will go over some general Tips and Tricks for Rust. These tips will mostly apply to console and PC, but be warned: not everything will match 100% across the platforms. We will cover Base Tips, Raiding, Combat, and a few Bonus Tips. If everything goes according to plan, you should come out of this guide a better player than you went in.

Base Tips

Welcome to the wonderful world of building in Rust. Most of the tips that you will find below can help you with a number of general things, including what to do after an online raid, and how to improve your building and base experience overall. Now, the tips:

1. Destroying a TC (Tool Cupboard) makes it so 24h of upkeep is lost after destroying it. From a raider’s perspective, this means you can lose a lot of loot by destroying a TC. For a defender, this means that your base can be safe from decay for 24 hours without a TC. So, if you have been raided, focus on repairing your base and getting your externals repaired before placing your new TC, to use this upkeep to its advantage.
2. Wind Turbine height is measured from the foundation directly below it. This relates to its electrical output: each Turbine starts at 60 and gains 3-5 charges per floor above the foundation.
3. Holding SPRINT disables the snapping feature of high external walls, gates, and planter boxes.
4. All workbenches lose HP (Hit Points) when you pick them up. For tier one and two WB (Workbenches), each pickup causes a loss of 200 HP. For tier 3, each pickup causes a loss of 300 HP. As for repairing: tier one gains 51-55 per hit, tier two gains 49-53, and tier 3 gains 51.
5. If you want to prevent people from seeing your legs through a wall, sleep with your back facing towards the wall and stepping a small box distance away from the wall before logging off (see image below). This will prevent raiders from knowing where to blow through, keeping your loot just a little safer.

Raiding Tips

Raiding is the riskiest, but also most rewarding part of Rust! It could either get you extra loot or cost you everything you had. To ensure you are successful when you raid, here are some useful tips:

1. For eco-raiding (Non-Sulfur based raiding), repair nearly broken wooden spears to stone when soft-siding!
2. If you hold out a seed, this shows where your spear will hit. Use this to check if a wall is soft-sideable.
3. You can use a water gun or a bucket on a flamethrower fire to make it go out sooner and cause less damage.
4. If a door is open, it will take slightly more explosive ammo to destroy.
5. When online raiding, carry grenades: this can be a powerful, yet cheap tool for clearing rooms before entering them.
6. You can pass through a double-door airlock if a teammate pushes you on the head. This can also be used to get through a door peak on a shooting floor — as shown below.

Combat Tips

Combat is the most critical part of Rust. Wipes are made and broken on the PvP interactions you have. Every single advantage you can get can help you win, that’s why we give you the following tips:

1. Throwing rocks at an item on the floor can allow you to push it. Use this to loot guns that may be stuck behind window bars.
2. You can revive 2 teammates at a time by using a medical syringe on one, and the normal revive on another (Holding [E] on a downed player).
3. To avoid ago (Attacking from) by the Patrol Helicopter, wear no more than two pieces of clothing and no weapons other than a hunting bow or a melee weapon. Use this to your advantage to continue the fight when Heli is around.
4. You can drink water to heal to 43 HP.
5. Have you ever managed to take down a patrol helicopter, but a crate gets stuck underneath a piece of debris? Use a spear thrown into the foot of a teammate to push it out.
6. Monument loot will not spawn if a player is within 20 meters of the loot spawn point.
7. 55.6 ammo can shoot through trees, pistol ammo does not. Use this to your advantage to shoot hiding players. Just make sure you aim a little higher — there is extreme bullet drop-off when shooting through a tree.

Bonus Tips

Here are some final bits of advice to make your playing experience just a little bit better!

1. It is faster to switch back-and-forward between another slot and a salvaged clever than it is to just swing it repeatedly.
2. Miss the first spark on a node when farming with a salvaged pickaxe. This will allow you to farm the node faster if you hit the spark every time thereafter.
3. To heal with comfort you must be above 100 calories, above 40 hydration, and at least at 10 degrees. In addition, 10 seconds must also have passed from the last time you were attacked, you can’t be bleeding, and you must have low radiation. After all of these criteria have been met, you will heal to 80 with 50% comfort, to 90 with 75%, and to 100 with 100% comfort.
4. All animals will roam from west to east. This means there will be more animals on the east coast. You can also use this to stalk your prey.
5. Horses do not care if the food they are eating is cooked or raw! They will eat it either way. Horses can also drink health teas to gain HP.

With all of these carefully picked tips and tricks, you should now, at the very least, be a slightly better Rust player! Hopefully, you will be able to win your PvP fights and take control of your area more easily. Until next time, happy rusting!