Document Control¶

Field	Value
Document ID	rust-raiding-costs-defence
Version	1.0.0
Status	frozen
Confidence	Low
Category	Building & Raiding
Region	Global
Game build checked	Livestock Update, 1 October 2026 [1]; HP and damage tables from a 22 September 2026 build per a third party [10]
Owner	Rust KB Research Pipeline
Created	2026-10-08
Updated	2026-10-08
Review due	2026-11-08

Executive Summary¶

This deep-dive goes below the foundation document into what it costs to break a base and what defends one: structure and door hit points by tier, explosive damage and sulfur cost, how many explosives each wall or door takes, the upkeep rules that keep a base alive, and the protections that exist in vanilla Rust. The only vanilla protection found in Facepunch sources is the Softcore raid window and TC raid-blocking system added in July 2026 [3], plus the upkeep grace after a TC is destroyed [5].

Confidence is Low. The Facepunch wiki item pages do not list hit points or damage [6][7][8], so the numeric tables come from third-party raid charts that say they were derived from server files or live game data [10][11][12] and that disagree with each other in places. Anything that disagrees is shown side by side and also listed in Open Questions.

Key Facts¶

From a third-party table said to come from the 22 September 2026 server files: wood wall 250 HP, stone 500, sheet metal 1,000, armoured 2,000 [10].
The same source gives C4 as 550 explosion damage, rocket as 275 explosion plus 75 blunt, and satchel as 75 explosion plus 200 blunt plus 200 stab [10].
Sulfur to craft: C4 2,200, rocket 1,400, satchel 480; three independent third-party pages agree [10][11][12].
Third-party charts put a stone wall at 2 C4 (about 4,400 sulfur) and a sheet metal wall at 4 C4 (8,800 sulfur) from the hard side [10][11].
C4 crafts from 20 explosives, 5 cloth and 2 tech trash at Workbench Level 3 [6]; the satchel from 4 beancan grenades, 1 rope and 1 small stash at Workbench Level 1 [8].
Facepunch's wiki gives decay timers after upkeep runs out (twig 1 hour to armoured 12 hours), and a destroyed TC burns up to 24 hours of upkeep to hold a base for 24 hours [5].
Since 2 July 2026, Softcore servers default to raids only 6 PM to 9 PM server time, and a TC at least 1 hour old blocks raids on walls, floors, roofs, doors and ladder hatches outside that window [3].
No vanilla offline-raid protection was found in Facepunch sources; offline protection on normal servers appears only as plugins [14] (assessed from absence of evidence).

Scope¶

Covered: structure and door HP by tier, explosive damage and craft cost, explosive counts per target, upkeep and decay as they affect defence, and offline-raid and raid-window mechanics. Vanilla PC Rust on the build named above. Modded plugin behaviour is mentioned only as a contrast. Console excluded. Not covered: weapon stats and ammo (see rust-weapons-ammo), the general damage model (see rust-combat-damage-model), and full convar listings (see rust-server-convars-reference). Overview material is in the parent, rust-building-raiding-foundation.

Definitions¶

Hard side / soft side: the outer face of a wall or door versus the interior-facing face, which takes less explosive damage; the soft side is described as the face with the X-shaped braces [10].
Raid cost (sulfur): the raw sulfur needed to craft the explosives used, a standard way third parties compare options [10][11].
Honeycomb: layered walls that multiply the cost of raiding through one side [11].
Softcore raid window: a scheduled period in which raiding is allowed on Softcore servers [3].
Group upkeep tax: the player-count based surcharge on TC upkeep [2].

Core Mechanics¶

Why counts are not simple division. C4 is listed at 550 explosion damage but a 500 HP stone wall is listed as needing 2 C4 [10]. The source does not explain the gap; damage falls off with distance, with C4 at full damage at 0 m and zero at 4 m [10]. Treat the per-target counts as the figure to use and the damage numbers as context [10].

Explosive damage. The listed profiles are C4 550 explosion; rocket 275 explosion and 75 blunt (full at 1 m, zero at 3.8 m); satchel 75 explosion, 200 blunt and 200 stab; beancan 15 explosion, 50 blunt and 50 stab [10]. The Facepunch wiki pages for C4, satchel and the armoured door do not publish damage or HP; they give recipes, recycling and loot sources only [6][7][8].

Soft side. The interior face takes less damage, so fewer explosives are needed. One source gives beancans on a stone wall as 46 from the soft side instead of 64 [10]; another says the soft side takes "roughly half" the explosives without counts [11]. Most calculators default to the hard side [11].

Weakest-path principle. Per the charts, the cheapest breach point sets a base's real cost. A sheet metal wall is listed at 4 C4 and a sheet metal door at 1 C4 [10]. A wooden door can be defeated by fire or melee, or one satchel [11].

Upkeep. The TC draws a fraction of build cost every 24 hours; the wiki gives no percentages [5]. A 2017 devblog set the fraction by base size (10% for 1 to 15 blocks, up to 33% above 75 blocks) and made it convar-configurable [4]. The September 2026 group tax adds 2% per player for players 5 to 10 and 4% each beyond, capped at 300% [2]. Treat the 2017 percentages as historical only [4]. The Power Trip update (6 August 2026) gave high external walls a static 20% upkeep, described as the middle of the building-block range of 10% to 33%, so the 2017 band endpoints are still the range Facepunch cites in 2026 [9]. The Breach and Clear text says the group tax is adjustable or disableable through convars in the Decay class, with no names given [2]. No Facepunch source gives upkeep fractions per tier or piece.

Decay and grief protection. After a material runs out in the TC, parts made of it decay on the timers in Reference Data [5]. A destroyed TC holding resources eats up to 24 hours of upkeep so the base does not decay for 24 hours, designed so a raided player does not lose their base [5]. Raiders can take over the base with their own doors [5].

Softcore raid windows and raid blocking. In the Common Ground update (2 July 2026), Softcore raids default to 6 PM to 9 PM server local time. Outside windows, a TC projects a raid-blocking system covering players inside its radius: walls, floors, roofs, doors and ladder hatches cannot be raided. Deployables and an unprotected TC can still be attacked, and the TC must be at least 1 hour old [3]. A third party adds that outside the window explosive and projectile damage on core building parts is blocked while twig, high external walls and gates, and melee stay vulnerable [10]; this was not confirmed against Facepunch text.

Offline raiding on normal servers. The Tool Cupboard wiki page does not use the term [5]. Offline protection appears as server plugins: one limits the number of offline raids per player or team per day and per wipe [14]. That is configuration of individual servers, not a vanilla rule [14].

Reference Data¶

Third-party tables are from a build dated 22 September 2026 [10] unless stated; the Livestock Update (1 October 2026) did not list structure HP or explosive damage changes [1]. Counts are hard-side.

Target	HP [10]	C4 [10]	Rockets [10]	Satchels [10]
Wood wall	250	1	2	3
Stone wall	500	2	4	10
Sheet metal wall	1,000	4	8	23
Armoured wall	2,000	8	15	46
Wooden door	200	1	1	2
Sheet metal door	250	1	2	4
Garage door	600	2	3	9
Armoured door	1,000	3	5	15
Ladder hatch / armoured ladder hatch	250 / 1,000	1 / 3	2 / 5	4 / 15
High external wood or stone wall	500	2	3 (wood) / 4 (stone)	6 (wood) / 10 (stone)
Metal window bars	500	2	4	12
Strengthened glass window	350	2	3	9
Tool Cupboard	100	1	1	1

Another chart dated 4 June 2026 (stated as current for the June 2026 build) gives overlapping but different values: wood wall satchels 4, stone wall satchels 8, armoured door 800 HP and 3 C4, garage door 600 HP and 3 rockets [11].

Explosive	Sulfur to craft	Source
Timed Explosive Charge (C4)	2,200	[10][11][12]
Rocket	1,400	[10][11][12]
Satchel Charge	480	[10][11][12]
Beancan Grenade	120 in [10][12] against 60 in [11]	conflict
Explosive 5.56 ammo (per round)	25	[10][11][12]
Incendiary rocket	610 in [11] against 300 in [12]	conflict

Raid cost example (hard side, C4 only)	Sulfur	Source
Stone wall (2 C4)	4,400	[11]
Sheet metal wall (4 C4)	8,800	[11]
Armoured wall (8 C4)	17,600	[11]
Sheet metal door (1 C4)	2,200	[11]
Three stone layers (6 C4)	13,200	[11]

Crafting inputs	Value	Source
C4	20 explosives, 5 cloth, 2 tech trash; Workbench 3; 30 s craft; stack 10	[6]
Satchel Charge	4 beancan grenades, 1 rope, 1 small stash; Workbench 1; stack 10	[8]
Armoured Door	20 high quality metal, 5 gears; Workbench 3; repair 25 metal fragments and 10 HQM	[7]

Decay timer after material exhausted	Time	Source
Twig	1 hour	[5]
Wood	3 hours	[5]
Stone	5 hours	[5]
Metal	8 hours	[5]
Armoured	12 hours (HQM exhausted)	[5]

Upkeep and protection rule	Value	Source
Group tax, first 4 players	none	[2]
Players 5 to 10	2% each	[2]
Players beyond 10	4% each; cap 300%	[2]
Destroyed TC grace	up to 24 hours of upkeep consumed	[5]
Softcore raid window default	6 PM to 9 PM server time	[3]
Minimum TC age to block raids (Softcore)	1 hour	[3]
Decay convars	decay.scale 1, decay.upkeep true (no version stated)	[13]

Version & Patch Notes¶

December 2017, devblog 189: introduced size-banded upkeep (10% to 33%), TC-stored upkeep and outside-in decay; its decay times (twig 1 h, wood 2 h, stone 3 h, metal 5 h, armoured 12 h) differ from the current wiki [4][5].
2 July 2026, Common Ground: Softcore raid windows and TC raid blocking [3].
6 August 2026, Power Trip: high external walls get a static 20% upkeep [9].
3 September 2026, Breach and Clear: group upkeep tax [2].
1 October 2026, Livestock Update: fixed the battering ram hitting TCs through walls; client prediction for grenades, C4 and satchels [1].
Volatile: raid counts and HP shift with balance passes, and two third-party charts about three months apart already disagree on satchel counts and armoured door HP [10][11].

Common Pitfalls¶

Using soft-side counts for a hard-side wall or vice versa; calculators default to hard side [11].
Trusting a chart that does not name its build; the two compared here differ on armoured door HP (1,000 against 800) [10][11].
Overbuilding walls and leaving a cheap door; the weakest path sets the cost [10].
Assuming vanilla Rust protects offline bases; protection found was plugin-based or Softcore-window based [3][14].
Assuming Softcore protection covers everything: deployables and an unprotected TC are still attackable [3].
Using 2017 upkeep percentages or decay times [4].

Parent overview, upkeep and tax summary: rust-building-raiding-foundation [2][5].
Damage types and falloff: rust-combat-damage-model [10].
Explosive, rocket and ammo stats: rust-weapons-ammo [10].
Decay and Softcore convars: rust-server-convars-reference [3][13].
Offline-protection plugins and hooks: rust-plugin-development-hooks [14].
Monthly changes: rust-update-timeline-2026 [1][2][3][9].
Recipes and workbenches: rust-items-crafting-foundation [6][8].

Assessed Guidance¶

Guidance 1 — Make the cheapest entry point as expensive as the walls¶

Guidance: Put your best door tier and any airlock on the shortest path to the TC rather than adding wall layers elsewhere.
Evidence basis: A sheet metal door is listed at 1 C4 while a sheet metal wall is 4, and a honeycomb of three stone layers is 6 C4 [10][11].
Confidence: Medium. The relative counts agree across two charts, but absolute numbers are third-party.
So what: Spend resources on the weakest link first.

Guidance 2 — Keep the TC stocked and expect it to be targeted¶

Guidance: Keep upkeep resources in the TC and expect raiders to look for it; a destroyed TC still buys a day of decay protection.
Evidence basis: The Facepunch wiki describes the 24-hour grace and that raiders look for the TC [5].
Confidence: Medium. Official page, but undated.
So what: Do not rely on the 24-hour grace to survive an absence; restock after a raid.

Guidance 3 — On vanilla servers, plan for no offline protection¶

Guidance: Assume no offline protection unless the server advertises Softcore or a plugin.
Evidence basis: No vanilla offline mechanism was found; only plugins and Softcore windows appear in sources [3][14].
Confidence: Low. This rests on absence of evidence and community plugin pages.
So what: Check server rules and tags before committing to a base location.

Guidance 4 — Verify counts against the current build before a raid¶

Guidance: Treat all numbers here as approximations and check an up-to-date calculator or an in-game test.
Evidence basis: Two charts conflict and the Facepunch wiki gives no HP [7][10][11].
Confidence: High. The conflict is directly visible in the cited sources.
So what: Do not budget a raid from a stale chart.

Open Questions¶

Structure HP and explosive damage have no Facepunch source opened; they need in-game or server-file data. The third-party figures [10] claim server files but are unverified.
Armoured door HP is 1,000 in [10] against 800 in [11]; satchel counts for wood and stone walls also differ.
Current per-tier, per-piece upkeep fractions; the wiki gives none [5]. Official percentages are the 2017 band [4] and, from 2026, only the 10% to 33% building-block range and the 20% high-wall figure [9]; the per-piece mapping is unresolved.
Whether the Softcore blocking details beyond the Facepunch text are accurate [10].
Softcore raid-window convar names were not published in the update text [3].
Whether vanilla Rust has any offline-raid protection outside Softcore. Re-checked 8 October 2026 against the Tool Cupboard wiki [5], Livestock [1], Breach and Clear [2] and Power Trip [9]: none mentions it, so the finding stays one of absence.
Re-search for a Facepunch or in-game-data source for HP and explosive damage (8 October 2026) found none; the rustlabs successor host returned HTTP 403, so it could not be opened. Livestock [1] and Power Trip [9] list no HP or explosive damage change.
Beancan and incendiary rocket sulfur costs conflict across sources.

References¶

Primary Sources — Facepunch devblogs and wiki.

[1] Facepunch — Livestock Update. https://rust.facepunch.com/news/livestock. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[2] Facepunch — Breach and Clear. https://rust.facepunch.com/news/breach-and-clear. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[3] Facepunch — Common Ground. https://rust.facepunch.com/news/common-ground. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[4] Facepunch — Devblog 189 (7 December 2017). https://rust.facepunch.com/news/devblog-189. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[5] Facepunch Wiki — Tool Cupboard. https://wiki.facepunch.com/rust/the_tool_cupboard. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[6] Facepunch Wiki — Timed Explosive Charge. https://wiki.facepunch.com/rust/item/explosive.timed. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[7] Facepunch Wiki — Armored Door. https://wiki.facepunch.com/rust/item/door.hinged.toptier. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[8] Facepunch Wiki — Satchel Charge. https://wiki.facepunch.com/rust/item/explosive.satchel. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[9] Facepunch — Power Trip (6 August 2026). https://rust.facepunch.com/news/power-trip. Accessed 2026-10-08.

Community & Practitioner Evidence — third-party charts and plugin pages.

[10] GameServerKings — Rust Raid Chart (2026). https://www.gameserverkings.com/knowledge-base/rust/rust-raid-chart/. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[11] XGamingServer — Rust Raid Cost Chart, 4 June 2026. https://xgamingserver.com/blog/rust-raid-cost-chart-how-much-c4-rockets/. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[12] Physgun — Rust Raid Calculator. https://physgun.com/tools/rust-raid-calculator/. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[13] XGamingServer — How to Change Decay and Upkeep on Your Rust Server. https://xgamingserver.com/docs/rust/decay-settings. Accessed 2026-10-08.
[14] Codefling — Offline Raid Limiter plugin. https://codefling.com/plugins/offline-raid-limiter. Accessed 2026-10-08.

Further Reading

None cited.

Revision History¶

Version	Date	Author	Change	Approved By
0.1.0	2026-10-08	Research Pipeline (virtual agent)	Initial draft.	—
1.0.0	2026-10-08	Orchestrator	Frozen at Low confidence after a second research pass; core figures remain community or third-party sourced and are labelled as such.	Auto-approve mandate