In Rust, gears are arguably the most frequently used building component after the primary building materials. Gears are crucial for constructing many vital base components. If a component involves any moving parts, it's highly likely that gears are a necessary ingredient for its crafting.

While gears are not the rarest component to find, their frequent usage means you will often need more than you naturally come across during your regular roaming and scavenging. It's important to dedicate some time each wipe to gather at least a small stockpile of gears to ensure you have enough for your crafting needs.

Gears in Rust are important to craft lots of items, such as:

  • Armored Doors
  • Modular Car Lifts
  • Vending Machines
  • Garage Doors
  • High External Wooden Gates
  • High External Stone Gates
  • Elevators
  • Snap Traps
  • Chainsaws
  • Electrical Components for Creating a Smart Base
  • Flame Turrets
  • Shotgun Traps
  • And more...

How to Find Gears in Rust

To find gears in Rust, you will need to scavenge, craft, or buy them. Read below to learn how to do these three methods.

Method 1: Scavenging for Gears

To find gears in Rust is scavenging. The most common place to discover them is in the basic crates scattered along the roadside and in many monuments. If you're feeling adventurous and prefer exploring the ocean, sunken chests also offer a 14% chance of containing two gears. While hunting for these chests, you might come across barrels. These barrels have a small chance of containing gears, though the drop rate is quite low, capping at just 1%. You will need to farm a lot of barrels to find gears.

Another option for finding gears is running Oil Rig. Oil-rig scientists on Large and Small Oil Rig both have a small chance of dropping gears.

In addition to scavenging for gears directly, you can also recycle more complicated components to get the gears you need. If you aren't planning on using electricity in your base, you can recycle all of those components for a fair amount of gears. Items like ladder hatches, armored doors, CCTV cameras and tech trash can also be recycled for a fair amount of scrap. A good rule of thumb for if something can be recycled into gears is whether or not there's something inside of it that moves or has moved.

Method 2: Buying Gears

Don't want to get down and dirty hitting barrels? Just go to an outpost or bandit camp and purchase the gears! Gears can be purchased for 125 scrap a piece.

Feeling risky? You can also buy components to recycle down to gears directly. You can buy a shotgun trap for 150 scrap that you can recycle down to wood, metal fragments, a gear, and rope. There are also a few items that you can purchase to gamble at getting a gear in the recycler:

  • Modular Car Lift: This can be bought from the Bandit Camp for 175 scrap and recycled to yield 2 gears.
  • Chainsaw: This item can be purchased for 125 scrap and recycled into 2 gears.
  • Targeting Computer: While not always available, these can also be a good source of gears when recycled.

Method 3: Crafting Gears

Note: In order to craft gears, you will need to have a Tier 3 workbench.

If you want to craft gears on your own, you can research gears at a research table for 125 scrap. Once you have researched gears, you can craft 1 for 100 scrap and 25 metal fragments at a tier 3 workbench.

Generally speaking, this is the least efficent method of gathering gears, since you can get more resources for your scrap by buying gears at outpost or scavenging.

In conclusion, whether you're just starting or well into a wipe, there are always effective methods available for gathering gears in Rust. From farming basic crates to recycling specific components, you have numerous options to ensure you never run out of this essential item.