How to Find Animals in RUST

The Best Ways to Find Animals in RUST.

Being able to find animals in RUST is a crucial survival skill, as animals are one of the most important resources in the game. Hunting animals can be the difference between having a lousy early-game and having a great early-game since animals provide many resources needed for crafting furnaces,  weapons, tools, armor, and food.

Materials from most animals include:

• Animal Fat
• Leather
• Cloth
• Meat
• Bone Fragments

Knowing how to find animals and how to utilize them effectively comes through experience, but we can give you a head start. There are six different types of animals in RUST, and while each appears almost everywhere on the map, they seem to have general locations where they’re more likely to spawn.

Here’s where to find the 7 animals of RUST

1. Chickens tend to spawn in grassy temporal biomes and are most often found in fields and green wooded areas. They are rare to find in mountain and desert zones.
2. Boars tend to spawn in temporal and desert biomes and are often found near sources of water, such as rivers, lakes, and beaches. As such, they can be found roaming almost anywhere, but the desert beaches feature the most spawns by far. 
3. Deer can be found spawning and roaming in temporal biomes. If you hunt inside of heavily wooded temporal and grassy plains, you are sure to encounter a buck.
4. Wolves spawn in all biomes and are often roaming around rocky features, and as they are known to die less frequently than the other animals, they are encountered more frequently.
5. Bears can spawn in the temporal and arctic biomes and are found less usually in desert biomes. However, over a long period of time, bears will eventually migrate to the far East beaches.
6. Horses can spawn in temporal and desert biomes but are most abundantly found spawning in the desert. Horses, like many other animals, are less likely to spawn in winter biomes. Unlike other animals, horses can be domesticated and hoarded by other players, making them difficult to find in the wild as the wipe progresses.
7. Fish can be caught in survival fish traps in any body of water or purchased from a vendor inside the Bandit Camp monument at a price of 5 scrap per small trout.

Chickens

Chickens are mostly harmless. Unless you deliberately go up close to them, they will attack. The chicken is a small animal and is easy to kill, and usually in threes. If you get too close, they will peck you for two damage per hit. Chickens can be heard clucking and flapping their wings when nearby. 

When harvested with a bone knife or hatchet, a chicken will give: 

• 10- 12 Bone Fragments
• 5-6 Cloth
• 2 Raw Chicken Breasts

Boars

Boars are slightly more lethal, but still a good choice to hunt early-game. The easiest way to hunt a boar is with spears and bows. Guns will do the job faster, but their resources are not worth the extra attention you’ll draw. Boars make a bit of a stomping sound and occasionally some out-of-this-world grunts that are down-right terrifying at night. 

If you kill a boar and harvest it with a bone knife or hatchet, you will get:

•  39-41 Animal Fat
• 49-51 Bone Fragments
• 10 Cloth
• 20 Leather
• 8 Pork

Deer

The RUST Deer is a flighty animal that will run away from you if you get too close to it. If you manage to catch up to a deer, they will fight you, doing a surprising amount of damage. Unlike predators, the deer will give up chase quickly. The best way to kill a deer is to damage it from a distance with a bow. Deer hooves have a very distinct tapping sound that can be heard from afar. On a rare occasion, you will hear deer clashing with one another. 

Once you have managed a kill, harvesting them with a bone knife or hatchet will give: 

• 10 Animal Fat
• 50 Bone Fragments
• 25 Cloth
• 50 Leather
• 5 Raw Deer Meat

Wolves

The wolf is swift and highly aggressive. It will attack you from only 3 meters away and even run up cliffs in seconds. Sometimes found in packs, wolves are particularly dangerous for beginners and low tier equipment. Bows and spears will get the job done, but you may want to use a shotgun or pistol in a pinch. Wolves on the prowl can be heard pacing around and they bark at their victims when attacking. If you hear someone else getting attacked, it can be a great time to take advantage of the situation.

If you manage to kill them and then harvest them with a bone knife or a hatchet, you will receive: 

• 10 Animal Fat
• 40 Bone Fragments
• 35 Cloth
• 75 Leather
• 5 Raw Wolf Meat
• 1 Wolf Skull

With a wolf skull, you can craft a Wolf Headdress, an excellent piece of armor. Its primary buff is the projectile protection, which reduces damage from any projectile by 30% that includes guns. The headdress is helpful, especially in the early game, as a headshot from a bow is fast to die with all your gear.

Bears

Bears are the most lethal and dangerous animals at any stage of the game. They run at four times the speed of a player and deal significant damage. Killing a bear in early game will grant you the largest boost to materials and food over any other animal.

Strategies for killing bears with minimal gear such as a spear, include carrying a building plan, placing a foundation, and jumping on top of the foundation, spearing the bear from the foundation. Exploits like this are a very effective method as a bear cannot climb on top of a foundation. Another technique is to lead the bear into the water where they slow down, making them easy prey. Bears can be heard growling and stomping very heavily when nearby.

Once you have killed a Bear and harvested it with a bone knife or a hatchet, you can receive: 

• 100 Animal Fat
• 50 Cloth
• 100 Leather
• 150 Bone Fragments
• 19 Bear Meat

Horses

Horses are one of the most valuable modes of transport and can vary in performance per breed. The fastest breed is the white or black thoroughbred and can take you to your destination in no time. Another nifty feature of horses is boosting over fencing into opponents bases and other areas you wouldn’t have reached by using a horse as a “Step Ladder.” 

If you are desperate for materials and must kill your beloved horse, who helped you get to your new home, you will receive:

• 10 Animal Fat
• 50 Bone Fragments
• 25 Cloth
• 50 Leather
• 5 Raw Horse Meat

Killing a horse is barely profitable, but if you need it, you need it, you monster.

Fish

Fish are the least lethal of animals, as they do not attack players, and are only visible after they’ve been caught inside of a fish trap. Fish traps work in all bodies of water and in a passive manner. Traps require bait and over time will result in either small trout or minnows being caught. The better the bait you use, the better the catch.

Once you have caught a small trout in your trap, you can gut them and receive:

• 8 Animal Fat
• 5 Bone Fragments
• 4 Raw Fish

Minnows can be eaten and will result in:

• 1 Bone Fragments

Final thoughts on finding animals in RUST

So now you know where to find RUST’s most dangerous and harmless animals and what resources they can provide when harvested. In the early game, animals can prove to be an essential resource as much as a deadly threat. So choose your battles wisely.

Remember that animal populations can also be altered by server administrators, and the density at which the animals appear can vary greatly depending on the server’s settings. It’s possible for some servers to disabled animals entirely. Happy hunting!