Rustoria™ - Our Guides and Articles - Scrap Laps: Scrap in Rust

Gathering scrap can be a real pain. You spend what can sometimes be hours looking for a weapon or object for your base, only to have that hard-earned item taken away by a naked lady with a bow. It’s not fair!

Let’s try to change that! This guide aims to give new players quick but somewhat safe method of efficiently gathering scrap to research that beloved semi-auto rifle that you have just found in a random toolbox.

Scrap!? What is it for!?

If you are very new to Rust, and you don’t know what it is; let me explain. Scrap was released as an update for Rust in 2017 as part of the blueprint progression system. This system dictates that if you manage to find that elusive rocket launcher in one of the crates around the map, you now need a certain amount of scrap in order to create a blueprint and learn how to craft it.

This sounds a bit annoying, right? I mean, why can’t we just have it!?

It’s a great system, to be honest. The blueprint progression system means that although large groups may still manage to collect the blueprints quicker than solo players and small groups, but it evens the playing-field somewhat. Instead of becoming red mist after being hit by a rocket on wipe day, you could be making the red mist!

Back to it. The new blueprint system dictates that for many of the items found in-game, you will have to gather a certain amount of scrap and craft a research table. Once you have done this, yet more scrap is required in order to research the item that you want to be able to craft. Oh, and it’s worth noting that you will lose the item you research.

Essentially, you need a boat-load of scrap and it’s a pain to gather.

What a load of cra-… I mean, scrap… How do I get it?

Don’t worry! It’s not too difficult, honest. There are a couple of different methods of gathering scrap in Rust. Sadly, there are not many safe ways to gather it. They all require some form of risk, although some more than others, so let’s get into it!

The most basic method of gathering scrap is by looting any form of crate in Rust. This can be anything from food crates, military crates and barrels, all the way up to tool boxes. Although you can obtain scrap from the corpses of scientists… so there’s that. Essentially, anything you can loot that isn’t a horribly deformed corpse, you can obtain scrap from. Do not disregard other items in your quest for scrap, as practically every component in Rust can be turned into scrap using the recyclers found around the map. It’s a little annoying and risky carrying around so much, but you can make it somewhat safe.

You can obtain anywhere from five scrap in a tool box, all the way up to thirty-three scrap from the corpses of scientists.

Below I will detail some somewhat safe ways of gathering and obtaining scrap in Rust without risking too much whilst doing so.

The Methods

Roads

There are roads linking every single monument in Rust together, with a few excepts. There might be an underwater road linking the mainland to the oil rig, but who knows… These roads all have single barrels dotted around the sides of them as the worm their way between monuments. In addition, they also have scrap piles that have barrels, tool boxes, food crates and loot crates on top of them and no, you cannot harvest the scrap piles sadly.

The roads are the most common place for players to quick and efficiently farm scrap at early stages of a wipe cycle. It is very common for players to build bases on the edges of roads in order to give themselves easy access to the resources they provide, but this is always why this method of gathering is also extremely dangerous. If you opt for to gather scrap this way, you will likely take an arrow to the head, or knee… You’ll probably die, either way.

If you choose to collect scrap using the roads, we recommend following a specific route repeatedly. You can change this route slightly depending on the number of bases you see on your route, making it somewhat less dangerous. It is recommended that if you do choose to risk everything this way, that you make use of the bushes on either side of the roads where possible, so you can hide and wait for the herd of nude players to pass you by.

Finally, I would also recommend spending enough time farming to gather enough resources to craft a sleeping bag, tool cupboard, and a 1×1 building. You’ll at least be able to bleed out in the privacy of your own shack if you are attacked.

Below is an example route taken generated using a random Rust map. Ideally, stay away from large areas when possible.

Monuments

Monuments are another one of the most common places to find and gather scrap in Rust and are arguably one of the best as you can quickly run around them and collect any barrels and crates you find.

The smaller and less commonly used monuments such as the Harbor and Junkyard are somewhat good options, as not as many people frequently visit these monuments unless collecting and using their keycards. There are also lots of places to hide, so you might just be able to escape that pesky masked bandit and his shotgun.

The larger, irradiated monuments such as the train-yard and water treatment plant are much better as they have a higher volume of crates and barrels than the monuments mentioned previously. The first issue you need to consider whilst deciding if you’re going to risk going here is whether you have the correct clothing required to survive the radiation.

Below is a the amount of the radiation resistance required for every monument you are likely to encounter doing this in Rust.

Power Plant – 25
Airfield – 10
Trainyard – 25
Water Treatment Plant – 25
Military Tunnel – 25
Launch Site – 25+ (Main building has slightly higher radiation)

Remember that if you choose to use this method and use the monuments that have radiation, there will likely be players here attempting to access the keycard rooms and trying to find crates for their sweet, sweet loot. There are lots of places to hide at large monuments, but sadly most of the crates are in the locations that players are likely to be. Play like you’re playing a Hitman game and you’ll be fine, unless you’re one of those people that run around spraying semi-automatics… that’s how you die.

It is recommended that you choose monuments with a recycler close by, as shown below. That way you do not risk as much by gathering scrap this way.

Recycler at the Satellite Dish in Rust — One example of where a recycler can be found is at the Satellite Dish

Ocean Man

This method involves becoming one with the ocean and embracing your inner ocean man, as it involves fueling up the nearest boat with low grade fuel and setting out to sea. It is a relatively safe method of collecting scrap as you can use the floating debris piles found in the ocean to your advantage. The debris piles can contain normal loot crates, tool boxes, oil barrels and blue and brown barrels. All of these give you scrap, and you can peacefully collect it with little-to-no competition.

Whilst there isn’t really any route that can be provided for this, it’s best to start to one near the shore and ideally close to your base and work your way clockwise in a circle. This is your basically route, and by the time you get back to where you started, the barrels and crates at the first debris pile should hopefully have respawned. Make sure you deposit everything you collected first, please…

The only thing worth mentioning here is that you should be careful if doing this near the oil rigs, as players will inevitably be going there to loot the crates there. If you’re feeling brave, you could also do this but come on… why would you want to mix up being ocean man with monument looting.

Peaceful Mode

Did you know that Rust has a peaceful mode? I’m kidding. This method is possibly the safest method of collecting scrap in Rust as it makes use of the safe zones created around the outposts found around the map.

The strategy for this is to find one of the outposts and create a small base next to it, ensuring you have a way to spawn there via a sleeping bag if you’re playing vanilla Rust, or a home set there if you’re playing on a modded server. Once you have done this, it’s time to begin!

Before you start, craft a bow and plenty of arrow, as these will come into the strategy slightly later.

Start by locating a barrel as far out from the outpost as you can, but still close enough that you can see the outpost through the trees. From there, start working clockwise around the outpost whilst getting closer to the outpost itself. At a certain point, you will be right on the edge of the boundary that is designed to prevent people attacking each other whilst at an outpost.

You’re not done yet, so pay attention! Now that you’re here you can stand just outside the boundary of the outpost, and use that trusty bow to destroy any barrels within the zone. It’s slightly annoying to locate the items sometimes, but it’s very safe so continue to do this whilst continuing to work clockwise around the outpost. When you hit the point where you think you have enough or struggling to stay away, you have an important choice to make; You can either take the scrap to the nearest recycler which is inside the outpost, or you can take it inside the large building inside the “bandit camp” and gamble it away using the gambling machine there.

Here is what it looks like. Sit in a chair, click the machine nearest to the chair you’re sat in and put scrap on the numbers you want to bet on; I recommend putting small amounts on either one or three, although there is not surefire way to win 100% of the time, these just have good win percentages.

Hopefully you found this guide informative. If you wish to check out more of our guides, click here!