Aggravator RUST Base Design
The Aggravator, a RUST base design created by our content partner Evil Wurst.
This base design was inspired by Evil Wurst’s Frustrator base family. This base is a smaller, more affordable version that utilizes triangle foundations wrapped around its core. This design makes the base much more compact and lowers the overall cost to roughly 2/3rds cheaper than the original Frustrator.
This base has 3 loot rooms, each protected by well-placed shotgun traps and drop down pits to access the boxes. This base is extremely costly to raid and provides a fantastic level of active and passive base defense, with 360 degrees of visibility around the base.
The Aggravator RUST base design is a “starter-to-main” base. Starter-to-main bases allow players the ability to incrementally build their base designs as the necessary resources become available. This makes larger size base plans available to smaller groups and more importantly, it allows for the base to function at all stages of the build.
Build Cost
- High Quality Metal: 226
- Metal Fragments: 6,320
- Stone: 18,270
- Wood: 5,190
Upkeep Cost
- High Quality Metal: 41
- Metal Fragments: 2,824
- Stone: 3,251
- Wood: 18
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Video Transcript
The frustrator family is arguably the most successful design from this channel. It introduced loot rooms that are reached by drop-down shoots and rigged with undrainable traps, making every door raid a challenge. However, for many smaller groups, even the upkeep of the original frustrator version 2 of 4.3 k metal fragments per day is too much to handle. Many of you have asked for smaller, more affordable version.
Recently, my fellow base builder Crimstick showed me a huge multi-TC grand frustrator like clam based design that he was working on. It was based on triangles only. To make the shotgun traps of the loot room point at the shoot, he had extended them to use three plus one triangles. Inspired by this design, I set out to see how compact the triangle only footprint could be if I wrapped three of those loot rooms around the tiny core, and here is the result.
Meet the aggravator.
Three loot rooms surround the central to see, which makes the footprint extremely compact and cheap. Even in the most upgraded version, the upkeep in terms of metal fragments is only 2/3rds of the original frustrator V2. You can cover this upkeep by farming four stone and five metal nodes, plus a bit of recycling for the high wall. With a full TC, you can leave it unattended for more than three days, but let’s be honest, which serious Rust player would do that?
Please don’t worry too much about the HQM upkeep. You can delay parts of the costly upgrades until you accumulate enough resources. While being cheaper and more compact, the aggravator is as strong as its frustrator cousins. Once the base is fully upgraded it takes at least 25 rockets to reach the TC from any angle. The loot rooms are spaced out to require about 40 rockets to break into all three of them. And this assumes the best possible raid strategy that I could come up with. So an actual raid is likely to be more costly.
The base further retains its open living and crafting area on the second floor, which provides mobility and a sense of space. Optionally, there can be up to five turrets, which as usual can be put in and out of action from within the safety of the base, and which guard the immediate surroundings and help to defend against raids. The starter unit of the base can already be built, while you do not yet have any of the blueprints.
However, your life would be a lot easier if you already learned the reinforced glass window when starting the build. And it will require garage doors, ladders, and shotgun traps to reach its maximum strength. And of course you will need auto-turrets for the optional anti-door camper pots.
The airlock provides a large field of vision to check the surroundings before leaving the base. This step brings you onto the second floor. To the right you find a seven box drop chest loot room. To the left we enter the main living space. Here, you find the workbenches, a few other items, as well as the entrances to the shoots and the auxiliary rooms. This auxiliary room serves as utility room. This one serves as bedroom.
Down the chute we enter one of the loot rooms. Since the unlootable loot rooms are nerfed, I decided to use garage doors instead of windows or low walls. As you can see, the traps point towards the shoot and will make short work of any raider. Since they are behind the second garage door, they hit raiders only after they are trying to blow through the second garage door. And since there were no traps behind the first door, raiders might feel safe at this point and enter the chute with all their team members and all the explosives. Each loot room has seven boxes, so you hopefully never run out of space. Please note though that only the four rear boxes are protected by traps, so put the most valuable loot there.
Down this chute we find the loot room that allows to access the TC as well. To make sure that the TC is very well protected, no matter which angle the raiders are coming from, I’d recommend to upgrade the outer walls to armoured. In addition, you find an auto-turret here, which thanks to its health, is an even tougher nut to crack than the shotgun traps.
If you decide to build external auto-turrets, each of the shoots will have a window on one side. Above which, the bulky part of the garage doors are sticking through the wall. These allow you to open up the defense turrets compartments, which cover virtually every angle around the base. They’re very useful in shutting down online raids, and dealing with door camping zurks.
Finally, this chute leads up to the roof access. Having roof access is vital, not only to being able to over watch the surroundings of the base, but it also allows to extend the base if you desire. Another auto-turret compartment can be placed at the end of the exit to guard large parts of the roof.
To ensure that the roof exit won’t be a weak point, we can stability seal it. Place a twig triangle on the chute, and the roof with this orientation on top of it. If you upgrade the roof to sheet metal, it blocks the entrance to the base. Now that you’ve seen the base, let’s check out how to build it.
While you can build the aggravator from scratch right after spawning, I recommend building this base from a small starter such as a two by one. In particular, if you have not yet found reinforced glass windows. The first thing you want to do is to claim the land on which you want to build. Do this quick, or else your favorite spot might be taken.
Optionally, verify that the footprint fits where you want to build. It’s compromised of a centre triangle, one ring of triangles around the centre, three more triangles on each of the long sides, one more triangle on each of the short side, and a square for the entrance. Unlike the original frustrator, we build this base from the inside out.
To claim the area, upgrade the centre triangle. Place a wall towards the side of the entrance, place another wall left of it, and put a ceiling on top. The TC goes in the forward left corner, but not too far forward so you can still place a wall in front of it. If you have a reinforced glass window ready, place down a window frame and close it off.
If you’re just starting out, consider to temporarily use wooden single doors with the soft side facing outwards. It just needs to hold off players until you’ve found enough materials for a few more walls. Later, it takes three machetes to remove a door frame and replace it with a window. To protect the access to the TC, add three more triangles and a double door on the outside. Place a few temporary boxes in the back. The sleeping bag of your builder can go in front of the door.
Now that the area is claimed, let’s make the starter unit functional. I’ll be upgrading everything to stone first, and later show you which parts to upgrade to metal or armoured. This is more realistic, as during your early build, you rarely have spare metal. Upgrade the next four triangles, add walls around the sides, and two double doors at the end.
The floor tile above the innermost double door needs to remain wood. This is where one of the chute entrances will be. Throw down furnaces and more sleeping bags in a newly built corridor. Once the furnaces are running, start to replace all wooden doors with sheet metal doors. In front of the TC, we already start to build the first loot room, which can hold four large boxes.
Next we’re going to extend the build along the inner ring of triangles around the TC, which eventually will hold the three main loot rooms. Before you continue, if you can, upgrade the foundation on which the TC is located to armoured, or at least to sheet metal. Upgrade the rest of the foundation around the TC to stone, and build a wall all the way around.
Put down a furnace here to be able to jump onto the second floor. Build three chutes at the tips of the triangles with the TC’s. If you do not plan to build external turrets, or do not care about servicing them from within the base, you can replace the window with a solid wall. Doorways should be on the left-hand side seen from the centre of the base, however, before you place them, add floor tiles at half height to make the chutes stronger. If you want roof exits, leave the roof on the chute next to the square wood.
To get onto the second floor from the outside of the base, place a half-height floor triangle on here, next to the square. Upgrade the foundation as well, because you cannot replace it if it gets destroyed. The inner ring of the base is now done, and can be used to house more boxes. Also I place the tier workbench down here somewhere.
To prepare to close off the first floor and begin using the second floor, we build the airlock next. Locate the site with the square foundations, and upgrade all the adjacent foundations. Looking from that square, close off the triangle to the right. Place window frames and door frames as shown. Fill in reinforced glass windows and doors.
Note that you could replace these windows with shop fronts if you like the reinforced glass window blueprint, but want to go ahead right now. Place the ceiling above the square, and the adjacent triangle. Make sure that they are upgraded to sheet metal to avoid soft side tool raiding. A large box for quickly dropping off loot can fit underneath this half height triangle.
On the second floor, place windows left and right, and four walls around the square above the entrance. The ceilings can remain stone. Place a wall here towards the core, and add two double doors here. Now that you have a secure way up onto the second floor, close off the second floor of the core. Place four walls right next to the doors of the chute, and double doors next to those four walls. Once you added the ceiling, the central living space of the base has become usable.
The tier two workbench can go next to one of the chute entrances. Next, let’s turn the space above the entrance into a drop chest room. Since the room is a square, you can fit a seven box room in here. Click the pop-up for a detailed walkthrough of how to do that. Or, if you’re too lazy, just use shelves. This extra space would be very helpful later to temporarily store all the loot while you remodel the main loot rooms.
Once you’re done, protect it with another double door. Since I assume that at this point, metal fragments are still mostly going into doors, tools, and weapons, let’s continue with the honeycomb, which is made out of stone. Upgrade all the remaining foundations to stone.
At those single triangles, place a floor tile between the first and the second floor, and walls around the first floor. At those triple triangles, simply place a two story wall around the outer perimeter.
Since you aren’t able to reach the ceiling from the ground, let’s run inside. Cover the floors with twig for now, and then place ceilings. Before you close all of them off, climb onto the roof to complete the second floor of the single triangles.
If you plan to use them for auto-turrets, add wall frames and double doors, or garage doors. If not, use full walls instead. Being on the roof, it’s easy to complete all the ceiling, and upgrade everything to stone.
The loot rooms are still a mess, so let’s work on them next. From this point on, I assume you have the blueprints of at least reinforced glass windows, garage doors, ladders, and shotgun traps. Before you continue, make sure that all the chutes are open, so hatchet out the wooden floor tile that you placed in the beginning. Let’s start with one of the two regular loot rooms.
Jump down the chute that’s located behind the airlock. Remove all doors and items. Furnaces and sleeping bags can temporarily go into the main living space. Use the drop chest room to store the loot from these boxes while you are remodelling the loot room. Close off the section by placing a wall next to the chute, and another wall in front of the rear door. Upgrade them to sheet metal. Upgrade this inner wall behind which the TC is located to armoured.
Upgrade all other foundations and walls to sheet metal. This includes the chute. The three floor tiles above the loot room should be armoured. Place a floor tile at half height. Place five boxes onto the floor like this. Place two shotgun traps again the wall, one to the left, one to the right. Both of them should be behind the last wall frame, but as far forward as possible, just so that they don’t stick through the door. Otherwise, they might end up out of range of raiders, stay as far back in the shoot as they can.
Add a second half height floor tile. If you want, try to place a shotgun trap dead centre. It’s very hard to do so, but if done right, two boxes fit left and right. This last shotgun trap is best placed from as far back, and as high up as possible. Therefore, temporarily extend the half height floor tiles, and jump onto a small box.
Have the bulky part of the inner garage door pointed towards you, and of the outer garage door point away from you. Place a ladder to the right to get out. The design steps for the second loot room are the same for the first loot room. Just go ahead and repeat them.
The loot room in front of the TC will be a bit different in order to keep the TC well protected. Again, remove all items before you proceed. As before, the foundations will be upgraded to sheet metal, and the ceiling to armoured. The window frame in front of the TC and the triangle floor tiles should be upgraded to sheet metal. If you were to upgrade the outer walls to sheet metal, only like in the other two loot rooms, the TC would be protected from nineteen rockets if raiders guessed the right side.
To increase that number to twenty five rockets, I recommend to eventually upgrade these four walls to armoured for hundred HQM, however, this will also increase the HQM from twenty-five to forty-three per day. Feel free to hold off with the upgrades until you’re confident you can afford that. Another thing you have to do is to add a third wall frame here. The boxes on the lower floor are placed the same way as in the other two loot rooms. Same goes for the two lower shotgun traps.
For the upper part, I’d recommend to replace the right box with the first auto-turret you find, as it provides extra protection for the TC. Instead of two, we use three garage doors. The real one provides the needed extra strength in case raiders blow in from the side. Your loot rooms are now ready for use. Remember to put the most valuable stuff into the rear boxes.
Now let’s turn our attention to the second floor, which will be the main living space. First, upgrade the floor tile above the TC to armoured, so that all floor tiles are armoured. Bit by bit, replace all double doors with garage doors. The walls next to the honeycomb should eventually be upgraded to sheet metal, and turned around to prevent raiders from cheaply tool raiding into the outer compartments.
Further, upgrade all the ceiling to sheet metal. This includes the floor tiles above the chutes, with the exception of the wooden tile for the roof access. In terms of item placement, it’s up to you. I would place the tier three workbench in front of one of the other chutes. The wall in front of the entrance should stay clear for the stability seal of the roof entrance. Also, do not hesitate to add more garage doors wherever they fit.
Next, we need to discuss splash damage protection. If the centre of the base stays open, raiders can fire rockets onto the central triangle, and break into the TC and one or two loot rooms at the same time. Thus, we need to create a splash damage barrier. If you prefer mobility, surround the central triangle with garage doors.
A much stronger solution, proposed by my teammate Oldfool, was to place half height walls, and then fill out the inside with three furnaces. It’s less convenient in terms of mobility, but a lot more efficient in preventing the use of splash damage. You could also use window frames, something I’ve seen in many redesigns of the original frustrator. This might be even stronger, but also a lot more tedious. For the remainder of the video, I will stick with Oldfool’s solution.
The honeycomb has still two empty spaces, which you can use as you like. Let me use two examples of how to use them. This one is going to be a bedroom for two people. Place floor tiles, and upgrade them to stone or sheet. Here, place a ladder.
Downstairs, you can fit a bed, a locker, and a large box for food, meds, ammo, and personal belongings. The second bed goes onto the second floor. Place it as close to the wall as you can. The small box for food, meds, and ammo fits right next to it. The locker for this team member has to go next to the chute.
The other part of the honeycomb could be turned into a utility room. Jump down here, and place two twig half-walls as separators. Now fit up to three furnaces per triangle, which means there can be up to nine furnaces down here. Make sure to empty them if you don’t use them because they’re not very well protected. Place floor tiles here, and one half height floor in the corner. Put a repair bench on top, and two boxes below it.
In front of the garage door leading to this room, place the research bench for the large box underneath. This concludes the build of the main living space. Let’s turn to the roof next.
It’s always good to have a roof exit because it allows you to check the surroundings of the base, and to engage your campers and raiders. Locate the wooden floor tile, and start chopping it out. Three machetes, or one sword should do. A minimal roof exit requires only two doors and three windows. Even with only two doors, the roof exit won’t be a weak point because we can seal it. Remember that I asked you to leave this wall free? Thanks to that, we can now place a twig triangle here, then go into the airlock part and place a roof on top like that. The placement is a bit tricky, so keep trying different angles if this does not work immediately. Upgrade only the roof to sheet metal. This roof completely blocks the entrance into the core of the base, and has the same strength as the rest of the ceiling. When you come online, destroy the twig to unseal the way up to the roof.
If you’re willing to spend a little more materials, and also like to have an auto-turret on the roof, extend the exit by one triangle, but this time use a double door. If you place a turret a little offset, it should not block your passage, while covering a good chunk of the roof. Then place two wall frames with garage doors in front of the double door. If you’re worried about the angles left and right of the door, place two more shotgun traps, one covering each of the sides.
Of course, there are no limits to extending your roof even further. It can easily fit the full shooting floor to take down the heli. Just keep an eye on the upkeep while you’re expanding. And before we forget it, there are four additional spots for external auto-turrets. Three of them are just behind the windows of the chutes.
To place them, you’ll have to climb up to the compartments from the outside of the base. If the turrets are placed far enough back, you should be able to reach them through the window. The final auto-turret can go in front of the main exit, similar to the design used in the original frustrator V2.
And voila! The aggravator is fully functional. As always, I hope it’ll bring you safety through the wipe.
Until then, Evil Wurst out.
