[Guide] RUST Best Ways To Get Scrap (Top 5 Ways)

Updated:

28 Dec 2022

5.Farming the road (best for early game)

Junkpile by the side of the Road

The first method I am going to talk about is farming the barrels and the crates that occasionally spawn on the side of a road in Rust. Roads are fairly easy to come by, they are used to connect monuments together and are denoted on the map with a thick black line.

Farming the roads in Rust is a good way to begin collecting scrap; in fact, after setting down a starter base, it should be your main priority. The roads provide no radiation most of the time, unless they are part of a radioactive monument. This is good because it is very likely you will not have any radioactive protection. The red tool crates that can also spawn next to the roads have a chance of containing metal tools, a crossbow, good melee weapons like a mace or machete, and rarely guns like the waterpipe.

However, the roads are heavily populated by players; after all, you aren’t going to be the only one naked on the server. Make sure you come somewhat prepared, with bandages and a bow at least. To reduce the possibility of losing your loot to a player, try looting in short but frequent trips as the loot.

This is not going to be a fast way to get scrap; since barrels give around 1-2 scrap per barrel, you will need to recycle the components that you get from the barrels to really benefit from this method. Even then, you are going to be making around 25-50 scrap per trip (depending on how long your trips are).

The details:

From the roadside spawns, farm the barrels and crates.
Keep the components that you get from the barrels, as they are worth the most scrap.
Occasionally, you can break the road signs at the side of the road to get pipes and road signs.
Take everything you have collected to a recycler and recycle all of your components.
Somehow manage to get back to your base without dying.

4.Farming the sea (best if you live next to the beach)

Junkpile in the Sea

If you have situated yourself next to the beach and even have a fishing village nearby, farming the sea for scrap is a good way to start collecting a decent amount of scrap. The sea spawns floating debris, which can spawn the same type of loot as on the road. These will be harder to come by, and you will need a boat.

The previous method can be quite dangerous, as you are out in the open for long periods of time. Farming on the sea is low-key, and you aren’t likely to meet any players on your loot trips. You will also be safe from radiation while farming.In the event that you run into a player, you can easily run with your tail between your legs while you make it to a fishing village which is a safe zone. While at the fishing village make sure you buy some diving gear. Sunken ships have a chance of spawning, and are made visible by a floating water bottle above. These provide fairly good loot but less scrap and components. Be aware of the sharks though.

While farming on the sea you will come by barrels and crates at a slower pace than on the road. Having a boat makes up for it though as it also provides a good escape route. You will need to invest some scrap to get a boat from the fishing village or just find one on the beach and put some fuel in it. Buying one from the fishing village will already come with fuel. Getting extra fuel is easy as fuel barrels will spawn on the floating debris.

The details:

Acquire a boat, and potentially a diving kit for extra loot.
Take the boat out to the sea and you will see the floating debris start to spawn.
Stop by the debris and turn off the engine on the boat to save fuel.
Farm the barrels and crates. Repeat until you have enough components and scrap.
Head to the fishing village and decide where you want to recycle your components. The safest place will be the Outpost or the Bandit Camp.

3.Monument Farming

Power Plant Monument

There are many monuments in Rust, some are better than others, but they all come with their own unique puzzles and amounts of scrap that can be farmed. Farming the monuments is straightforward. Many loot crates and barrels will spawn within the monument, your goal is to get your hands on as many as you can without dying, of course. More prosperous monuments like the Launch Site can be quite the danger zone. You will likely need to come with the right amount of radiation protection and some good gear to fight off other players.

The good thing about farming monuments is that you can make a base fairly close to them and transport loot quickly out of the monument and into your base. It is up to you to consider which monuments are the best for you, but some of my favorites are the Military Tunnels, Swer Branch, and Arfield. Dome is a good shout if you are looking for some quick loot. There are 3 Military crates on the top of Dome, and these will always contain 8 Scrap each, provided you are able to parkour up the Dome and get down safely.

Some important points to consider when looting monuments; Most monuments are radioactive and they will slowly drain your health if you are not equipped with good radiation protection. Monuments are constantly contested by players; come prepared, or bring a double barrel shotgun and sneak behind a geared player; from there, it's lights out, and you just got yourself a brand new kit.

The details:

Decide on a monument to farm and build a small base next to it so that you have somewhere to store the loot.
Farm the monument, make sure you are well prepared.
Consider bringing Green/Blue/Red cards depending on the monument you visit to get extra loot by completing the puzzle. You will also need a fuse.
Grab all of the scrap and head back to your small base. Prepare yourself and get all of the components, and head to a recycler nearby.

2.Building a Horse farm

Horse Farm

The 2nd best way to acquire scrap is to make a horse farm, specifically a horse dung farm. Why horse dung? Well, you can use the dung to make fertilizer. No, you will not be growing Scrap trees; those don’t exist. What you will be doing is selling the fertilizer at the bandit camp. In the bandit camp there is a shop called "Produce Exchange", where you can trade 2 fertilizer for 3 Scrap. One horse will produce around 10 dung per hour if it is kept fed. Every 5 minutes, Dung will bring you 10 pounds of fertiliser from the composter.In other words, one horse will generate approximately 150 scrap per house.

The horse farm is a pretty good way to make a lot of Scrap. You can expand the farm and make it as big as you want. Your main goal is to get as many horses as possible inside your farm.The more horses you have, the more Scrap you will have.

The downside is that you will need to find a way to feed all of these horses. I recommend having a "Feeding Trough" for every two to three horses. As for the actual food, you can buy "Pickles" from the Bandit Camp for a very low Scrap cost. Another downside is that you have to transport all of the fertilizer to the Bandit Camp safely. For that, I would recommend a Mini Helicopter. While you sell your fertilizer you can buy Pickles for your horses.

At last you have all this dung, but how do you put it in the composter? Well, there isn’t an automatic way for this; you will unfortunately have to pick it all up by hand and put it in the composter.

The details:

Build a base with long hallways that will fit horses on the left and on the right. Place a feeding trough per tile and try to fit at least two horses in a tile.
Optionally, you can also expand upwards as long as you find a way to get the horses to the second floor. A roof tile or elevator will do.
The base should be close to a Ranch so that you can keep buying horses.
Feed the horses, and they will start producing Dung.
Collect said Dung and place it in the Composter.
After a while Dung will turn into Fertilizer.
Once you have enough fertilizer, typically a full inventory head to the Bandit Camp via helicopter.
Sell your fertilizer for Scrap.
Buy Pickles for your horses and head back to your base.
Feed the horses and repeat.

1.Building a Cloth farm

Cloth Farm

The cloth farm is by far the most efficient way to generate a large amount of scrap in Rust.This works by constructing a foundation for growing the hemp plant, which can be found in rust by simply running around.You will need to supply the base with water, but not salt water. I recommend building the base next to a river so that you don’t have to purify salt water, it’s just easier. A cloth farm can be any size, the sky’s the limit, but I usually build mine in 6x6 layouts with 4 floors. This layout fits 36 Large Planter boxes per floor, and a total of 144 for the whole base. In a Large Planter box, you can place 9 seeds for growing hemp, which is a total of 1,296 slots for growing Hemp Fiber plants. At its maximum efficiency, this farm can produce 160,000 Cloth per harvest, but it takes 2 hours and 30 minutes for a harvest to be ready. The Bandit Camp has a deal where you can trade 80 cloth for 10 Scrap. Putting all this information into a calculator, we get about 20,000 Scrap per harvest.

The benefit of this farm is that it can be used for so much more than getting Scrap. Cloth is a vital resource in Rust and it is used for many crafting recipes like explosives. It is somewhat automatic, as all you have to do is wait for the plant to grow, unlike a Horse farm where you constantly have to gather dung.

Just like the Horse farm you will also have to transport all of the Cloth to the Bandit Camp, and the Heli is still the safest way to do so. Some downsides to the Cloth Farm is the gathering and replanting of the Hemp plant, this can take a considerable amount of time, especially if you build a big farm. You will also need electricity to power your lights and water pumps, so make sure you have the blueprints before you begin building.

The details:

Find a good spot for the farm and start building the layout, you can find many YouTube videos online but you can try a 3x3 design if it’s your first time building one.
Make sure to build the base next to a freshwater source like a river, this will make your life so much easier as you won’t need to purify the water.
Keep cloning Hemp plants until you get a good seed. Again, many tutorials on YouTube on how to get the best seed for the Hemp plant.
Once you planted all of your Hemp, wait for it to grow, gather all the cloth and replant all of the plants.
Take the Mini helicopter to Bandit Camp and trade in all of the Cloth for Scrap.
Wait for the plants to grow and repeat the process.