Raiding in Rust

One of the most important, well-liked, incredibly hated, and the hardest things to do in Rust is raiding. Raiding mechanics are constantly being tweaked and balanced as players push this game to its limits.  Please check our Building: What you need to know guide for some basic building tips.

The tool cupboard

This is the crown jewel of any raid.  Gaining access and control over this will allow you to more efficiently raid the rest of the base as well as giving you the ability to build protection and potentially grief a base later

Raiding tools

Just about any item that does damage can be used for raiding, but that doesn’t mean it should be. This is a list of what items should be used for raiding.

Soft side vs. hard side

One of the most important factors in base building is ensuring that your walls are facing the right way. Building a base with the soft sides of walls exposed can make your upgrades practically useless.

Wood walls can be beat down to 11 health with a single hatchet from the soft side, then easily finished off with anything else. The hard side takes 3 hatchet hits to do 1 point of damage.

Stone walls from the outside take one damage per 8 pickaxe hits, but from the soft side takes 1.2 damage every hit (7 pickaxes for one stone wall). Spears are a great early or late game soft side raiding option as they are cheap to craft and relatively silent.

Sheet Metal, while being near impervious to melee from the outside, will take 1 damage every 2 pickaxe hits, as well as take damage from other tools.

Armored walls can also be picked,  albeit at a much slower rate, from the soft side with standard tools.

All foundations will take damage as soft sides from above, and ceilings will be soft side from underneath and hard side from above.

While these numbers may seem ridiculous, if you have a group of 5 people all pickaxing through soft side walls and ceilings, they will make quick work of any base like annoying little termites.

From left: Armored, sheet metal, stone, wood, twig

Things that go boom

C4
The original raiding tool, C4 is a powerful explosive that you can stick to any surface, especially useful for going through doors quickly especially if you are being counter raided or raiding online to deal massive damage. They currently cost 20 explosives, 5 cloth, and 2 tech trash. While dealing tons of damage, they have no splash damage on buildings, so whatever wall they are placed on is the only wall that will take damage. However, C4 deals splash damage to players and deployables within a foundation's amount of space, killing you regardless of what armor you’re wearing. One C4 will deal 550 damage.

Rockets
Rockets are easily the most popular raiding tool currently for their incredible range and splash damage. A rocket can damage up to 4 walls each if well placed, though deals significantly less damage compared to C4 to keep it balanced. Each rocket will deal 350 damage. A rocket launcher will cost you 40 high quality metal and 4 metal pipes, with each rocket running 10 explosives, 150 gunpowder, and 2 metal pipes in crafting cost.

Satchel charge
The poor man’s C4, these unreliable explosives are made up of 4 beancan grenades, a small stash, and 1 rope. No splash damage to other building blocks but they will hurt you and deployables. They behave just like beancan grenades with long and short fuse times and the tendency to not go off the first few times. . They’ll deal 75 damage. While they’ll get the job done, don’t expect any rush jobs with them..

F1 grenade
Basically useless for raiding in the current state.

Beancan Grenade
When you’re raiding with these, you know you’re desperate. These glorified party poppers can have either a long fuse, a short fuse, or a very short fuse. Half the time they won’t even go off and you’ll have to attempt to throw them again. Dealing a measly 15 damage each, they’re hardly worth their cost of 60 gunpowder and 20 metal fragments unless you’re crafting satchel charges or are trolling your friends. They throw the same way as F1 grenades, left click to lob it and right click to stick it to a wall.
 

All explosives deal equal damage to the hard side and soft side of structures.

Counter-raiding

Counter-raiding is important in a number of ways.

• The raid you are conducting could be interrupted and potentially overtaken by roaming opportunists.

• If you are the one being raided, a counter-raid can buy some time to move loot to another part of the base or another location all together.

• As a counter-raider there is potential for huge loot gains including unused raiding tools (C4, rockets, etc.) or the ability to continue the raid if you take control.

• As most counter-raids produce a ton of dead bodies this situation is a goldmine for scavengers trying to pick up a lucky gun or kit!

Online vs. offline raiding

Perhaps the most controversial topic surrounding raiding is the debate of online vs. offline raiding.

• Online gives the party being raided a chance to defend while opening the opportunity for great PVP challenges.

• Online raiding also allows the raided party to despawn loot.

• Offline raiding can be easier if you are not met with counter-raiders, it's also generally more profitable.

• Offline raiding is generally cheaper from a cost standpoint as well.