Raiding in Rust comes down to spending the least sulfur to reach the loot. C4 is the most sulfur-efficient way through stone and metal walls, explosive ammo wins on most doors, and rockets are for speed and range rather than value. Pick the cheapest path through the base, not the shortest, and plan for someone showing up to take it off you.

Hard side vs soft side

Every wall has two faces. The hard side is the clean, finished face. The soft side shows the frame and bracing, and on a properly built base it faces inward. Foundations have a soft spot in the middle too.

The soft side matters most for melee and tool damage. Picks, axes and spears do a lot more to it than to the hard side, which is why soft-siding (picking through from the weak face) works on badly built bases. Explosive ammo also needs a few rounds less on the soft side, but on a well built base you only ever see the hard side from outside. If you spot a soft side facing outward, it is the cheapest entry on the base. All counts below are for the hard side.

Sulfur cost of each explosive

These costs assume gunpowder crafted at a workbench (20 sulfur and 30 charcoal for 10 gunpowder), which makes 1 gunpowder worth 2 sulfur.

Explosive Recipe Sulfur
Timed Explosive Charge (C4) 20 Explosives, 5 cloth, 2 tech trash 2,200
Rocket 10 Explosives, 150 gunpowder, 2 metal pipes 1,400
Satchel Charge 4 Beancans, 1 rope, 1 small stash 480
Beancan Grenade 60 gunpowder, 20 frags 120
Explosive 5.56 Rifle Ammo 20 gunpowder, 10 frags, 10 sulfur per 2 rounds 25 each

One Explosive is 50 gunpowder, 10 sulfur, 10 frags and 3 low grade fuel, so 110 sulfur each. That is why C4 and rockets are expensive: most of their sulfur is locked up in Explosives. Plug your own numbers into the crafting calculator for the charcoal, frags and fuel you need on top.

Explosives per wall

Wall (HP) C4 Rockets Satchels Explosive ammo
Stone (500) 2 (4,400) 4 (5,600) 10 (4,800) 182 (4,550)
Sheet metal (1,000) 4 (8,800) 8 (11,200) 23 (11,040) 399 (9,975)
Armoured (2,000) 8 (17,600) 15 (21,000) 46 (22,080) 798 (19,950)

Sulfur totals are in brackets. C4 wins every wall, explosive ammo is close behind on stone, and rockets are the worst value on walls. Satchels only need a level 1 workbench but can dud, so bring spares.

Explosives per door

Door Best value Other options
Wooden (200) 18 explosive ammo (450) 1 rocket, or a couple of molotovs
Sheet metal (250) 63 explosive ammo (1,575) 4 satchels (1,920), 1 C4 (2,200), 2 rockets (2,800)
Garage (600) 150 explosive ammo (3,750) 3 rockets (4,200), 9 satchels (4,320), 2 C4 (4,400)
Armoured (1,000) 250 explosive ammo (6,250) 3 C4 (6,600), 5 rockets (7,000), 15 satchels (7,200)

A good trick from the Facepunch wiki: shoot one rocket less than the door needs and finish it with explosive ammo. Explosive ammo is the cheapest option on every door, but it takes time and a lot of rounds, so many groups still use C4 on armoured doors to get through fast. Doors are usually the cheaper route through sheet metal, while walls start to make sense once you hit armoured doors stacked one behind another. Always count both before you craft anything. The raid calculator totals a full path for you.

Eco raiding

Eco raiding means getting in without sulfur, or close to it. It is slow and loud, so it suits offline bases and early wipe.

  • Wood. Molotovs are the community favourite: about 2 for a wooden door and 4 to 5 for an upgraded wood wall or foundation. A pile of wooden spears or a few salvaged axes also chews through wood walls given time.
  • Stone soft side. Around 7 salvaged icepicks gets you through a stone wall from the soft side in about 7 minutes.
  • Sheet metal doors. Nearly 25 salvaged hammers, or 4 satchels if you have beancans.
  • Twig and missing upkeep. Any melee tool for twig. If the base is decaying, sometimes the cheapest raid is waiting.

Beancans now stack to 4 (September 2026), so carry them in smaller piles than you are used to.

Common raid paths

Look at the base from every side before committing. Most bases have a weak line somewhere.

  • Door path. Following the owner's own doors. Cheap when they are sheet metal, expensive when it is garage door after garage door.
  • Wall path. Straight through walls to the loot room or TC. Usually the play against armoured doors.
  • Roof in. Coming down through the roof skips the honeycomb on the sides. Common on small bases.
  • Peeking. On a big base, blow one layer and look before blowing the next. Raiders who skip this waste rockets on empty rooms.

Loot and the TC are usually in the middle, behind the most layers. Swapping their TC for yours means you can build inside the base (to seal the hole) and the owners cannot. On softcore servers, time it right: by default a TC at least an hour old protects building blocks and doors outside the 6pm to 9pm raid window.

The May 2026 mortar adds another option: a deployable aimed through binoculars with a dedicated anti-structure shell. It needs flat ground and gives no landing guide, so a spotter helps.

Counter-raiding

Explosions carry, and every group within a few grids hears your raid. Plan for it.

  • Build a raid base nearby: a small stone or metal box with a TC, so you can store explosives, heal and fall back.
  • Watch the neighbours. Corrosion Hour suggests keeping an eye on bases within 3 to 4 grids of your target, and bigger groups nearby are the most likely to roll you.
  • Add a buffer. Craft about 10% more than your estimate. If you think it takes 10 rockets, make 11.
  • Secure, then loot. Once inside, lock it down with your own codes and a TC before emptying boxes.
  • Know when to pull out. If counters keep coming, seal the entrance and come back later rather than losing your whole kit.

If you are on the defending side, counter-raiding works the same in reverse. Raiders burn their sulfur on your outer walls and then have to hold a hole open, so logging on with a few rifles mid-raid is often the cheapest defence there is. For keeping that base alive between raids, see the upkeep and decay guide.

Sources