If you’re looking to succeed in Rust, the proper armor is a must-have. Here are five armor combinations for each stage of the game that’ll keep you protected and safe—ready to face anything the island can throw your way. Learn how to craft, find, and use every piece of armor with this guide!
Early Game
Early in the game, you can’t beat the combination of wood chest piece, wood pants, and a wolf headdress. Easy to make and even easier to find, wood armor is good at protecting against melee damage (from spears, cleavers, maces, and the like) and lower-tier projectile weapons, like bows, revolvers, and the occasional Python, making it an excellent, easily accessible combination to get started with. The wolf headdress adds to the projectile weapon protection, making it an essential addition to your kit.
Mid-Game
The coffee-can helmet, when combined with the road sign kilt and chestplate, is an excellent mid-game option for roaming, raiding and other mid-game endeavors. The coffee-can is an inexpensive, high-protection option against projectiles and melee attacks, and offers some radiation protection. The road sign jacket and kilt, both requiring road signs, leather, and sewing kits to craft, provide slightly more protection than bone armor (an early-game use for ‘bones,’)but do make the wearer cold. If you head out the door in this kit, be sure to wear a shirt or pants underneath for optimal coverage and protection.
Late-Game
Around day three or four of the wipe, you can expect to see more and more people roaming with metal armor and a metal facemask—a formidable late-game combination. In some cases, a day or two earlier in the wipe you can expect to see a metal facemask paired with some road sign armor—generally, however, metal facemasks are accompanied by metal armor. Each of these pieces is a bit pricier to craft than their road-sign alternatives, with a metal jacket costing you 50 leather, 25 high-quality metal, and eight sewing kits. It also decreases your cold protection by eight points when worn, so be sure to pair it with a hoodie and pants!
Base Defense
Although the ‘heavy plate’ armor options offer more protection and are cheaper than the simple metal armor discussed above, the massive plate armor options reduce mobility by 40%. This reduction in movement makes it a useful choice for only last-stand base defense situations, or other situations that don’t require movement. The plate helmet also reduces your ability to see-- so wear with caution! In case you weren’t scared enough with the mobility and visibility reductions—the kit also reduces your cold protection by a factor of 8, so keep that in mind if you want to give these armor pieces a try!
Roaming
Although not technically a kit of armor, the hazmat suit does offer some protection against melee and ranged projectile damage. The radiation protection also makes it ideal if you are roaming near a rad-town or monument—you can easily head into places that your pursuers don’t have the radiation protection for. However, it only offers 30% projectile damage, which is less than a road-sign kit would. The bright yellow and red coloring makes it high profile-- so be aware that you’re extremely visible!
Do you have any kit recommendations, or want to learn more about the options listed above? Leave us a comment in the comments section below!
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