In a post-apocalyptic world, the currency of that setting is usually a really important item that is also useful, such as bullets or food.
In Rust, the most popular item that is mainly used as currency is scrap. You can find scrap almost everywhere, and it is used to trade at most monument vendors.
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Scrap can be found in many locations and in most crates that are scattered across the map. Usually, the way most people get scrap in Rust is by breaking down the barrels that appear next to roads.
However, that is a slow method that will take a lot of time and will usually be more annoying than anything. If you want to learn more ways to get scrap in Rust, continue reading below.
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How to Get Scrap in Rust
There are many ways to get scrap in Rust, but the simplest, most obvious choice is getting it from barrels.
All highways and concrete streets in Rust have random loot points spawn near them. If you follow a street and look left and right, you will see a million barrels and crates that also usually hold scrap.
But there are also a few other things you can do to get scrap:
Loot Road Signs
As you walk around the highways of Rust, looking for barrels everywhere, you could also destroy every road sign you see on the way.
Each stop sign will drop a metal pipe and a road sign, which both can be recycled for 5 scrap each. So, just following a road should get you pure scrap from barrels and crates, and hundreds of scrap by recycling road signs.
However, try to be careful and recycle in safe zone monuments such as the Outpost to make sure that nobody steals your hard work.
Since you can find stop signs every few steps along roads, this is an amazing way to get scrap in Rust.
Loot Trash Piles and Shipwrecks on the Sea
If you think that the streets can be too dangerous due to NPCs and players, you can search for scrap on the high seas, with a much lower risk.
If you get a boat and have a bit of low grade fuel, you can head out and search for trash piles that usually have one to three barrels.
There will be two types of barrels that you will find, red barrels, which hold low grade fuel and crude oil, and normal barrels, which give 2 scrap each time you destroy them.
Players can also, occasionally, find crates on the trash piles, which hold 5 scraps each. Since you have an endless supply of fuel, you can spend days on the seas collecting scrap, and you only risk the occasional player pirate.
You can also head over to the Bandit Camp and sell your extra crude oil for scraps. The exchange rate is 6 oil per scrap at the Scrap 4 Sale vendor.
Another thing to look out for, if you have diving gear, is the random bottles that float around the ocean. At those locations, you can dive and find a shipwreck full of loot.
Even if you don’t find pure scrap, you can recycle most of the items you get on these Rust sea adventures when you get back to land.
Fish for Scrap
In any one of the fishing villages, Rust players can sell some of the rarer fish, which require at least quality 10 bait, for scrap.
If you enjoy fishing and think that this is a relatively simple way to get scrap, then head over to a fishing village and prepare to spend all your time staring at the water.
Horse Dung/Fertilizer Trade Strategy
One of the main ways farmers used to get scrap in Rust is by farming horse dung. Every hour, your horse will produce 10 horse dung, which can then be converted into 1 fertilizer at a composter.
At the Produce Exchange vending machine in the Bandit Camp, players can then trade 2 fertilizer for 3 scraps.
If you know how to keep your horse fed and well, and you like farming vegetables, then the horse dung strategy is incredibly good if you want a passive source of scrap in Rust.
Loot Monuments
One of the final ways to get scrap in Rust is to look through monuments for crates. Since normal crates hold 5 scraps, you can find a good amount of scrap at the Mining Outpost, Oxum’s Gas Station, and Abandoned Supermarket.
These are some of the only locations in Rust where there is no radiation risk, no dangerous NPCs, and the possibility to loot without fighting too many players.
These locations are also really good choices if you want to venture at night to get some materials and don’t want to bring important equipment with you.
Just run there, loot the crates, which can also be military grade sometimes, and run back home with minimal risk of dying.
Junkyard Magnet Crane
If you have a lot of low grade fuel on hand and think that the Junkyard is safe enough, you can head over there and use the magnet crane to destroy some cars.
Just place the fuel inside the gas tank next to the door and mount the machine. You can control the crane with the movement controls and mouse.
You will have to pick up the white cars and throw them in the scrap machine. Each car that you destroy in the machine will get you around 50 scrap.
You can also recycle normal cars using the magnet crane for around 100 scrap per car. This means that you can pick up random cars around the map, bring them to the Junkyard, and destroy them for scrap.
The white cars also respawn relatively often, so if you go looking for other cars, you are very likely to find some white cars in the Junkyard to recycle as well.
Missions
If the server just got a wipe and you don’t have many items, missions are also a decent way to get scrap. Doing the quest chain from the fisherman in the Fishing Village or from the hunter at the Ranch will get you at least 100 scrap.
The fisherman will give you three quests, one where you have to get an item and will receive a fishing rod in exchange, one where you have to fish and get a kayak as a reward, and one where you have to get oil on the seas, which will reward you with 100 scrap.
For the hunter, you can instantly pick up either one mission where you kill a boar or one where you kill 3 deer, and you will get 100 scrap for each one of these quests.
You cannot repeat missions in Rust until a server wipe, but you can use them at the start of one when playing solo to get easy resources.
That’s everything you need to know about how to get scrap in Rust!
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