Getting charcoal in Rust is easier than you might think. Since the electric furnace update, getting charcoal has been a bit more of a pain for larger groups looking to automate the entire smelting process. Compared to the conventional furnace and the large furnace, the electric furnace produces far less charcoal. This guide will show you how to easily farm for charcoal in a way that's headache free.
Step 1: Get Wood to Smelt Into Charcoal
Before making charcoal, you are going to need wood. Charcoal is created by burning wood, about 75% of the wood that you burn in a campfire, furnace, or other wood fire entity will be given back to you as charcoal.
There are lots of interesting tricks to get wood quickly, but the easiest way to get it is to craft a hatchet and hit trees in the forest. Check out our guide on how to get wood in Rust if you are having trouble farming lots of wood in a short period of time. It's a comprehensive guide on how to farm for wood effectively that will make it a lot easier for you to get charcoal.
Step 2: Craft an Oven Item
The next thing you are going to need to do is place your wood inside of an oven item. You do not need to actively be cooking, refining, or smelting items for the oven item to be generating charcoal, so just leave your wood in the oven and turn it on until it all turns into charcoal.
Charcoal can be burned in any oven item, such as:
- Furnaces
- Large Furnaces
- Campfires
- Barbeques
- Hobo Barrels
- Refineries
Out of all of these oven methods, the best way to get charcoal in Rust is to smelt wood in an Oil Refinery. This is the fastest way to get charcoal in Rust. If you have the resources, you can stack oil refineries at your base to farm charcoal very quickly.
Step 3: Wait for Your Charcoal
Now all you need to do is wait for your charcoal to be finished smelting. Below is a table with all the different burn rates for wood, updated for 2024.
| Smelting Item | Wood Used per Minute | Smelt Time per 100 Wood |
|---|---|---|
| Campfire | 30 | 3 minutes 20 seconds |
| Furnace | 60 | 1 minute 40 seconds |
| Large Furnace | 300 | 20 seconds |
| BBQ | 40 | 2 minutes 30 seconds |
| Hobo Barrel | 60 | 1 minute 40 seconds |
| Refinery | 10 | 10 minutes |
Congratulations, now you have a method to get a lot of charcoal in Rust! Enjoy the gunpowder! Happy farming and happy raiding!