The most important mechanic in Rust is crafting. If you want to survive the hostile island in Rust, full of aggressive players and NPCs, you will need to craft tools, weapons, and many other useful items.
Just entering the crafting screen is relatively easy. However, since you have an incredibly large library of craftable items, you might not know what to start with.
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You might also think that there aren’t enough recipes to make what you really want. Well, for some craftable items, you will need to discover their blueprints first.
To help you get used to the systems in this game and start actually thriving in this world, here is an extensive crafting guide for Rust with all you will ever need to know.
Table of Contents
How to Craft Items in Rust
The first thing you will need to know in Rust is how to craft items. To do this, you will need to open the Crafting Menu by pressing Q on the keyboard (hold D-pad down on the controller). If you have the necessary resources, you can just select an item and craft it.
Players that open their inventory will also find some quick craft options that are mostly semi-transparent in the bottom right. Those items will be fully visible if you have the necessary resources to make them.
As long as you have resources, you can start crafting a lot of items just by opening the Crafting Menu and looking through it for viable options.
What Should You Craft First in Rust
There are a couple of things that players should craft first in Rust to survive the naked start:
- Stone Hatchet, Stone Pickaxe, and Stone Spear
- Building Plan, Hammer, and Tool Cupboard
- Bone Knife and (Optional) Armor
Stone Tools and Weapons
The very first things that you will always need to craft are the Stone Hatchet and Stone Pickaxe. The starting rock is a horrible harvesting tool, and you will need something much more efficient if you plan on making a base using Wood and Stone.
This is why Rust players need to craft first the Stone Hatchet and Pickaxe to start getting real resources from stone nodes and trees. Since you will need more Wood, it might be better to make the Stone Hatchet first.
Once you have those tools, you will need a way to protect yourself from players that just started and wild animals. This is why you will first have to craft a Wooden Spear and then upgrade it into a Stone Spear.
Just look for the Stone Spear in the Crafting Menu after you’ve made the Wooden Spear and craft it. The Wooden Spear is one of the needed items to craft the Stone Spear.
Building a Base
Now that you have some basic tools and a weapon to defend yourself, you should start looking for a place to set down your base. To make a base in Rust, you will need to first craft a Building Plan.
It only costs 20 Wood to craft a Building Plan. This item is what you will have to use to start building foundations, walls, and floors for your base. Since you will likely place the walls the wrong way the first time around, you will also need a Hammer to rotate them.
The Hammer is also used to fix buildings and items in your base, which you will need to use if someone is attacking your base. Unfortunately, buildings will start to degrade over time and they will lose their durability even if no one attacks you.
To make sure that your base doesn’t get destroyed by the time you get back online, you will also need to craft a Tool Cupboard. The TC is a special item that will maintain your base if you place the necessary resources inside of it.
For example, if you have a base fully made of Wood, you will need to place a lot of Wood inside the TC. Once you do, you will also see how many hours the Wood you placed will keep your base from deteriorating, as the TC will automatically fix and maintain them.
In general, you can see exactly what types of resources you will need to provide if you open up the TC, as you will get a warning that the base will deteriorate.
Bone Equipment
If you started your playthrough exactly when a wipe was done, then you will also be surrounded by a lot of players on the beach. This is why you will often need protection right from the start.
If you use your rock on players’ bodies, you can get their bones. If you get enough Bone Fragments you can make yourself a Bone Knife.
This is the best tool in the early game to harvest players, animals, and NPCs. You will get the largest amount of resources, and you will be very happy when you get much more Cloth from an animal than you would with a rock or hatchet.
If you also want some protection from possible attacks from players and NPCs, you can also Bone Armor. You will just need to also get some Cloth to make it, though.
In the early game, the Bone Armor is the best possible protection as it is easy to make, and you won’t regret it if you die while wearing it. It also provides above-average protection. You just need to avoid also making the Bone Helmet, as everyone will be able to see you from miles away.
Still, the Bone Armor is optional, and you don’t really need to make it one of your first crafting priorities in Rust. The Bone Knife, though, will be extremely useful in your quest to get early-game Cloth.
How to Unlock Crafting Recipes Using Blueprints and Workbenches in Rust
At the start of Rust, you will have a really wide selection of crafting recipes that you can make on the go. However, the really good items in the game can only be made if you unlock new crafting recipes using Blueprints or the Workbenches.
Unlocking Crafting Recipes Using a Workbench
To make higher-level crafting recipes, you will need to first craft a Workbench. Most crafting items can be placed in 4 different categories based on the Workbench level required to make them.
So, there are basic items, which don’t require any Blueprints and Workbenches to make, level 1, level 2, and level 3 crafting items. To make a level 2 crafting item, you will need a level 2 Workbench.
The easiest and most straightforward way to unlock new crafting recipes in Rust without getting Blueprints is to build a Workbench and invest Scrap in the Tech Tree. Just craft a Workbench, interact with it, open the Tech Tree, and select one of the options that don’t have a lock over it.
You will now see an option to pay Scrap to unlock that crafting recipe. You can only unlock crafting recipes in the order they are connected to each other. However, there is a way to unlock them without going through the tree by using Blueprints.
Unlocking Crafting Recipes Using Blueprints
Another way to unlock new crafting recipes in Rust is to learn them from Blueprints. You can find Blueprints either randomly while looting random places on the map or by using the Research Table.
To get Blueprints using the Research Table, you will have to find the item you want to craft first. For example, if you want to craft an AK (Assault Rifle), you will have to first get its Blueprint.
If you already have an AK but can’t craft it, you can place it in the Research Table and sacrifice it to get the AK Blueprint. You will also have to pay the required amount of Scrap you would have paid at the Workbench.
After you lose your AK and Scrap, you will get an AK Blueprint that you can Learn. Just select the Blueprint in the inventory and choose to Learn Blueprint.
You will now find the option to craft that item if you open the Crafting Menu. However, you will usually have to stand next to the necessary Workbench to make it.
How Much Scrap You Need to Unlock All Crafting Recipes and Blueprints at Workbench in Rust
Usually, most players prefer using the Workbench to learn new crafting recipes and Blueprints in Rust, as it is relatively simple and straightforward. However, fans also plan beforehand how many Scrap they will need to completely unlock all the recipes for a Workbench.
The level 1 Workbench has 104 crafting recipes that have various Scarp costs:
- 6 Blueprints worth 125 Scrap each
- 36 Blueprints worth 75 Scrap each
- 62 Blueprints worth 20 Scrap each
This means that you will need 4690 Scrap to complete the Tech Tree at the level 1 Workbench.
The level 2 Workbench has 107 crafting recipes that will have these Scrap costs:
- 4 Blueprints worth 500 Scrap each
- 45 Blueprints worth 125 Scrap each
- 41 Blueprints worth 75 Scrap each
- 17 Blueprints worth 20 Scrap each
This means that you will need 11040 Scrap to complete the Tech Tree at the level 2 Workbench.
For the level 3 Workbench, the most expensive and powerful one available, you will have to unlock 24 Blueprints:
- 10 Blueprints worth 500 Scrap each
- 9 Blueprints worth 125 Scrap each
- 5 Blueprints worth 20 Scrap each
Though this one is supposed to be the hardest to complete, you will only need 6225 Scrap to fully unlock all the recipes for the level 3 Workbench. This is so easy, however, due to the low amount of items that are available at this Workbench.
That’s everything you need to know about crafting in Rust!
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