Raiding In Rust

One of the most critical, 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 essential building tips.

The Tool Cupboard

This is the crown jewel of any raid. Gaining access and control over this will allow you to raid the rest of the base more efficiently and give 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 you should use for raiding.

Soft Side vs. Hard Side

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

• Wood walls can be beaten 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, it 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.

• Standard tools can also pick armored walls from the soft side at a much slower rate.

• 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.

Things That Go Boom

C4
The original raiding tool, C4, is a powerful explosive that you can stick to any surface, and it is especially useful for going through doors quickly. They have no splash damage on buildings but deal splash damage to players and are deployable within a foundation's amount of space.

• They currently cost 20 explosives, 5 cloth, and 2 tech trash.

• One C4 will deal 550 damage.

Rockets
Rockets are easily the most popular raiding tool. A rocket can damage up to 4 walls each if placed center between all 4 walls.

• A rocket launcher will cost you 40 high-quality metal and 4 metal pipes.

• Each rocket runs 10 explosives, 150 gunpowder, and 2 metal pipes in crafting cost.

• Each rocket will deal 350 damage.

Satchel Charge
These unreliable explosives are the poor man's C4. They behave just like bean can grenades, with long and short fuse times and a tendency not to go off the first few times. No splash damage to other building blocks but they will hurt you and deployables.  

• Craft using 4 beancan grenades, a small stash, and 1 rope.

• They'll deal 75 damage. While they'll get the job done, don't expect any rush jobs with them..

F1 Grenade
It's not the greatest for raiding buildings, but it's handy to clear around blind corners.

Beancan Grenade
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.
   

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

Counter-Raiding

Counter-raiding is essential in several ways.

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

• If you are the one being raided, a counter-raid can give you time to upgrade or hold your defensive position.

• As a counter-raider, you can potentially gain huge loot, 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 kits!

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.