Get your wipe day blueprint strategy.
Sifting through the pile of options on wipe day means that new and veteran players must choose wisely when deciding what blueprints they intend to spend their limited scrap on. Solos and teams can increase their odds of surviving to the next day by having a blueprint plan. To help create this plan, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 must-have blueprints for wipe day in RUST to get you thinking.
Suggested must-have wipe day blueprints in no particular order
1. Pistol / 5.56 Bullet
Depending on what weapons you have at your disposal, it might make more sense to go with one ammunition type over the other. If your scrap stores permit, it isn’t a bad idea to go ahead and research both the pistol and 5.56 bullet when available.
Early in a wipe, learning blueprints via the research table is much more economically friendly and will advance a team faster than reaching either bullet via their respective tech trees. This method does, of course, depend on you or your team’s ability to acquire the item for blueprinting.
2. Medical Syringe
Undoubtedly, this is one of the most vital blueprints players need. Without ‘meds,’ you are at a tremendous disadvantage in all PVP and PVE scenarios where taking damage is foreseeable. Be sure to learn medical syringe sooner rather than later.
3. Wooden Ladder
Perhaps the base design you are going with this wipe requires a lot of vertical floor access points. Maybe you’re just a compound-hopping bandit that loves to snatch resources from your local zerg.
No matter what the reason is, wooden ladders are one of the most versatile tools you can have at your disposal. Many a base has been raided on wipe night because of weak roof access points – make sure you have the tool to get you up there.
4. Garage Door
Some groups make finding a Garage Door a competition amongst their players, often offering incentives to the player that brings one home first. They are THAT important.
Garage Doors offer a more open-feel base core. At the same time, increasing raid costs over the traditional sheet metal door by roughly 250%. They are required for several more extensive base builds and discourage most smaller groups from raiding until further into the wipe.
It is a popular option for groups to utilize the tech tree for learning the Garage Door, so we’ve omitted the items in the tree sequence leading up to this blueprint.
5. Weapon Flashlight
Vision is one of those trivial things people prefer to have at all times, especially at night or while navigating assorted underground monuments or tunnels. Weapon flashlights are also much more focused beams of light than the Torch, potentially attracting less attention when used at night. They also make lovely stocking stuffers during the holidays.
Sidenote: the click noise when turning on, added in late 2022, is rather addicting.
6. Wooden Barricade Cover
Acting in more of a defensive PVP capacity, the wooden barricade cover is a very cheap blueprint on the tier 1 workbench. Lesser known to most players is that its crafting doesn’t actually require you to be at the said workbench.
For the small sum of 250 Wood, players can craft these items on the run and never be caught out in the open with no cover again.
7. Hatchet / Pickaxe
While it is typical for groups to skip entirely over lower-tier tools and rush to the Chainsaw and Jackhammer, picking up these blueprints can have ulterior purposes over the long haul.
In addition to being very cheap to craft compared to any of their superior versions, the hatchet and pickaxe are also terrific for barrel farming and flesh gathering. If you are one of the unfortunate to get wiped overnight, having these blueprinted allows for faster reacquisition of a base when rebuilding.
Finally, should you find yourself ‘going deep’ on an enemy and get locked in in the process, either of these tools can be crafted at the enemy workbench and used to pick your way out of the building for much cheaper than Wooden Spears.
8. Preferred Tier 2 Gun
Instead of electing to pick a specific weapon in the Work Bench Level 2 tech tree, we’re leaving this one as the dealer’s choice. Speaking from personal experience, when working within a smaller team, the weapon researched first is what is found first.
The Python Revolver is a solid option, while the Thompson or Semi-Automatic Rifle are the preferred pick of most teams. This initial research can also determine which ammunition type is learned first.
9. Molotov Cocktail / Fire Arrow
Moreso with the Molotov Cocktail than the Fire Arrow, early-wipe flame raids have quickly become a favorite RUST pastime in recent months.
More important, still, is the ability to craft something quiet, both cheaply and quickly. A fire type is helpful to raid an external TC that an enemy compound is putting up or on a base that you’ve ‘gone deep’ on. Molotovs are better for door raiding, while fire arrows are clutch for breaking those hard-to-reach Tool Cupboards. Whatever your choice, happy flaming.
10. Beancan / Satchel
Due to the nature of RUST, sometimes it’s necessary to exact your will upon neighbors with different ideas for your neighborhood than yourself. Personality conflicts happen, mistakes get made, and words get said that shouldn’t. All that matters is who is left standing. Don’t find yourself on the side of those that failed to act by having beancan grenades or satchels on hand.
Honorable mentions
There are a few items that players should keep their eyes out for, mainly because researching them for blueprints directly can save a lot of scrap later.
- Triangle Ladder Hatch & Ladder Hatch
- Directly researching either of these items for the cost of 125 scrap will cause the player that learns the blueprint to also learn the other hatch type simultaneously at no additional cost, a savings of 125 scrap overall.
- Floor Grill, Floor Triangle Grill
- Like the hatches, researching either of these items for the price of 75 scrap will cause the player that learns the blueprint to gain the other grill type at no additional cost, a savings of 75 scrap overall.
Final thoughts on must-have blueprints for wipe day
RUST is a game filled with hundreds of items and these items add noise to the planning process, so it’s worth the effort to develop a blueprint plan for your team before starting your wipe. As with all things RUST, blueprint priority is a matter of preference and necessity; we urge you to look at this list as a starting point for your group and adjust accordingly.
Should you feel we made a booboo with this list, we welcome all constructive feedback via our Discord server. We’d love to hear how you think we did.
