Building a base in Rust seems like a huge task. There's a lot of moving parts, and not enough help to show you how to work through them. On top of all the stress that comes from learning how to play Rust, the smallest mistake in your base can lead to someone destroying hours worth of hard work. Thankfully, we got you covered. If you're a complete beginner, you've come to the right place. In this guide, we will show you how to:

  • Find the Right Place to Base
  • Craft Items for a Base
  • Build and Secure Your Base

In this guide, we will show you how to build a simple 2x2 base. This will be enough to get you and a few friends started. The 2x2 base design can be used as a jumping off point for hundreds of different base design guides you can find online. You might want to start off the bat with the huge base designs you've probably seen online, but it's important to start small to understand the basics.

Step 1: Find a Spot to Build a Base

The best places to build a base in Rust are remote, but also accessible to everything that you need to farm, scavenge, and PVP with other players. There are lots of different ideas about the best locations, but if you are a new player, pick a location near a mid tier monument. (Water Treatment, Airfield, Sewer Branch etc.) Try to avoid basing near high value monuments like Launch Site, Oil Rigs, or Military Tunnels if you are a newer player, as these areas tend to be where the more experienced and skilled Rust players like to base and raid.

Pick spots that are close to resources like wood, rock nodes, and scrap. If you are close to a road or a monument, but not close enough for your base to be seen from the road or monument, you are in a good spot that will be harder for potential raiders to find. Try to avoid spots that are so far away that you don't have easy access to resources and monuments that you want to run for the wipe.

Step 2: Gather Resources and Building Tools

Before doing anything, you're going to need the resources to build your base out. Grab a few stacks of wood (2-3k at least) and around 5000 stone. Check out our tutorials on getting wood and getting stone if you need help farming.

Note: You do not need to collect all of the resources required right off the bat. You can start with a simple 1x1 with a roof, TC and a door, then expand out later on. Just make sure that you are always planning for expansion in the future. It's always a good idea not to have too many resources on you at one time.

Crafting a Building Plan

To start placing down structures to build your base, you're going to need a building plan. To craft a building plan:

  1. Gather Materials:
    • 100 Wood: You can gather wood by chopping down trees with a rock, hatchet, or other tools.
  2. Open Crafting Menu: Press the key to open your crafting menu (default is Q).
  3. Find the Building Plan Recipe:
    • In the crafting menu, navigate to the Tools section.
    • Look for the Building Plan icon.
  4. Craft the Building Plan:
    • Click on the Building Plan icon.
    • Ensure you have the required 100 wood in your inventory.
    • Click on the Craft button.

After a short crafting time, the building plan will appear in your inventory. The building plan is crucial for placing and planning structures in Rust. To use the building plan, equip it in your inventory, hold right click, and click on the piece you want to build with. For our base design, we are using

Crafting a Hammer

Once you place down parts of your building with the building plan, you will need a hammer to turn your twig foundations, walls and roofs into stone. To craft a hammer:

  1. Gather Materials:
    • 100 Wood: You can gather wood by chopping down trees with a rock, hatchet, or other tools.
  2. Open Crafting Menu: Press the key to open your crafting menu (default is Q).
  3. Find the Hammer Recipe:
    • In the crafting menu, navigate to the Tools section.
    • Look for the Hammer icon.
  4. Craft the Hammer:
    • Click on the Hammer icon.
    • Ensure you have the required 100 wood in your inventory.
    • Click on the Craft button.

After a short crafting time, the hammer will appear in your inventory. To use it, equip it in your inventory, right click while looking at the structure you want to upgrade, then select the material you want to upgrade the structure to in the circle menu.

Step 3: Craft a Tool Cupboard, Doors, and Locks

Once you have the materials required to build your base, you can start crafting the items. This next step involves crafting the items required to make a Rust base, well, a base. There are a few items that we will be crafting for your 2x2 base: a Tool Cupboard, Doors, and Locks.

What is a Tool Cupboard?

In Rust, a Tool Cupboard (TC) is a critical part of your base, crafted to secure your base and manage building permissions. When placed and authorized, the Tool Cupboard prevents other players from building or upgrading structures within its radius (a sphere of influence around it). You and your teammates must authorize yourselves on the Tool Cupboard to build and upgrade within its protected area. Unauthorized players cannot place or upgrade structures, even if they have building materials.

The Tool Cupboard also prevents your base from decaying if it contains enough resources. You must keep the Tool Cupboard stocked with building materials like wood, stone, metal fragments, and high-quality metal (depending on what your base is made out of) to prevent your base from decaying over time. To craft a tool cupboard in Rust:

  1. Gather Materials:
    • 1000 Wood
  2. Open Crafting Menu: Press the key to open your crafting menu (default is Q).
  3. Find the Tool Cupboard Recipe:
    • In the crafting menu, navigate to the Items section.
    • Look for the Tool Cupboard icon.
  4. Craft the Tool Cupboard:
    • Click on the Tool Cupboard icon.
    • Ensure you have the required 1000 wood in your inventory.
    • Click on the Craft button.

Once you have crafted the Tool Cupboard, you can place it down by equipping it, and left clicking where you want to place it. Before placing a Tool Cupboard, make sure you:

  1. Choose a Secure Location: Place the Tool Cupboard in a secure and hidden location inside your base.
  2. Authorize Yourself: After placing the Tool Cupboard, approach it and press E to open the authorization menu. Click on Authorize to grant yourself building privileges.
  3. Stock the TC with Resources: Open the Tool Cupboard inventory and place building materials (wood, stone, metal fragments, high-quality metal) to prevent your base from decaying.

How to Make a Key Lock in Rust

Once you have a tool cupboard down to secure building permissions around your base, the next step is to secure entry to your tool cupboard. There are two options to lock doors in Rust, Key Locks, and Door Locks. The main difference between the two is that key locks can only be accessed by one person (unless you produce keys, which is a terrible idea) and code locks can be accessed by multiple people (if you give them the code). To make a key lock in Rust, get 75 wood and craft it in the menu. You can place it on the doors by left clicking the door with the lock equipped in your inventory.

How to Make a Code Lock in Rust

Code locks on the other hand are a little more complicated. While they are a little more expensive, they are ideal for groups larger than 1 person that are looking to have easy access to a base. To make a code lock in Rust:

  1. Gather Materials:
    • 100 Metal Fragments: You can obtain metal fragments by smelting metal ore in a furnace or by recycling various items.
  2. Open Crafting Menu: Press the key to open your crafting menu (default is Q).
  3. Find the Code Lock Recipe:
    • In the crafting menu, navigate to the Items section.
    • Look for the Code Lock icon.
  4. Craft the Code Lock:
    • Click on the Code Lock icon.
    • Ensure you have the required 100 metal fragments in your inventory.
    • Click on the Craft button.

After a short crafting time, the code lock will appear in your inventory. You can then attach it to doors or storage containers to secure them with a code.

Step 4: Placing Foundations

The next step you are going to do is get the foundations for your base down, to do this:

  1. Equip the Building Plan:
    • Open your inventory (default key is Tab).
    • Drag the building plan to your hotbar and select it.
  2. Select the Foundation Component:
    • With the building plan equipped, right-click to open the building menu.
    • Select the Foundation component by left-clicking on the foundation icon.
  3. Place the Foundation, Floor, or Triangle:
    • Move your cursor to the desired location where you want to place the foundation.
    • The foundation outline will appear, indicating where it will be placed.
    • Make sure the outline turns blue, indicating a valid placement location. Red indicates an invalid placement.
    • Left-click to place the foundation.

Once you have your foundations down, you will want to upgrade them to stone with your hammer in your hand by right clicking on the foundations and clicking "Stone".

For this build, you will want your floor foundations to look like the image below:

Step 5: Securing Your Build Site

Once you have your floors down, the next things you will want to do is secure your base with a Tool Cupboard, walls, an airlock, and doors. This will allow you to secure your loot in a safe place after scavenging and farming. Follow the steps below to get your base secured:

Placing the Tool Cupboard

Once you have your floors down can place your Tool Cupboard in either the back left or back right corner of the floor. Make sure to lock your tool cupboard to ensure that other players can't access it.

Building Walls in Rust

Next, you are going to build walls. To build walls in Rust, take out your building plan and right click to select the wall option. Left click where you want to place the walls.

In Rust, there are two different sides to each wall. The soft side, and the hard side. The hard side of a wall is the strongest, and the hardest part for raiders to break through. The soft side is the weakest part of the wall, and makes raids far easier for people with explosives. Below is an image that shows the difference between hard and soft side walls:

When you have built all the walls for your 2x2 using the hammer and building plan, your base should look like this:

While you have the walls up, take the time to build the roof of your base by switching to "Floor" on the building plan. Don't forget to make the roof for your airlock as well.

Feel free to put the wall built on the triangle floor on either side, we recommend picking the side that is harder for someone to door camp you from. This is where we are going to build your airlock.

Building an Airlock

An airlock is one of the most important parts of a Rust base. Without one, all players watching your door (door campers) need to do to get into your base is wait long enough for you to walk out. To fix this problem, you will need to build an airlock. There are two ways to build an airlock in Rust, inward and outward facing. We will show you the best method, making an inward facing airlock. To build an airlock in Rust:

  1. Place down a triangle foundation and a wall.
  2. Place two doorways down to get into the base.
  3. Place the first door (on the outside doorframe) in a way where it opens into the triangle.
  4. Place the second door (on the inside doorframe) in a way where it opens into the triangle.

Once you are done building your airlock, it should look like this from the outside:

Building Doors in Rust

Doors are the most important part of your base. How your doors are placed will decide how easy it is for other players to get inside. To build doors in Rust:

  1. Gather Materials:
    • 300 Wood: Gather wood by chopping down trees with a rock, hatchet, or other tools.
  2. Open Crafting Menu: Press the key to open your crafting menu (default is Q).
  3. Find the Wooden Door Recipe:
    • In the crafting menu, navigate to the Construction section.
    • Look for the Wooden Door icon.
  4. Craft the Wooden Door:
    • Click on the Wooden Door icon.
    • Ensure you have the required 300 wood in your inventory.
    • Click on the Craft button.

Once you have your wooden doors crafted, build doorways where you are going to place the doors. Equip the door in your inventory, then left click on the doorway with the door to place the door down.

Locking a Door in Rust

To lock a door in Rust, craft a code lock, equip the lock in your hand, and left click on the doors you placed to lock the door.

If you have the metal fragments off the bat to craft code locks, you can also lock a door in Rust with a code lock by left clicking on the door with your code lock, and picking a code that other players won't be able to guess. We recommend using something like a 4 number code generator to avoid accidently picking a popular base code.

Now that you have done all of these steps, you have successfully locked down your base! You now have a working base in Rust!

Step 6: Keep Your Base From Decaying

The last thing you need to know to build a Rust base is how to keep it from disappearing. In Rust, bases need resources to keep the structures health at 100%. This can be done by placing resources inside of your Tool Cupboard. By pressing E on your tool cupboard, you'll be able to see the resources that your bases needs every 24 hours to ensure that it doesn't start decaying.

Once you have figured out what you need to keep your base up, go out and farm the resources. For the 2x2 base built in this guide, you will need 546 stone, and 68 wood every 24 hours to keep your 2x2 base upkeeped. This is a little bit of farming, but nothing that is too hard.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can create a secure and functional base that will protect you from the harsh elements and aggressive players in the game. Remember to start with a strong foundation, reinforce your structures with durable materials, and secure your entrances with locks to ensure maximum security. Continually upgrade and maintain your base to adapt to new threats and challenges.

Fixing Common Building Mistakes

When building a Rust base, there are a lot of mistakes that are very easy to make, here are a few common problems you might experience, and how to fix them.

Moving a Tool Cupboard

To move a tool cupboard in Rust, you will need to destroy it completely. Use items like the jackhammer or an axe to make destroying the tool cupboard easier.

Picking Up a Door In Rust

To pick up a door in Rust, remove the locks you have placed on the door and hold E on the door.

Removing Walls in Rust

To remove walls in Rust, equip your hammer, right click on the wall, and click "Demolish". You will lose all the materials you used to build the wall.