Light up the nights of RUST with Neon Lights
If you are wondering how to set up neon signs in RUST, rest assured that the process is quite similar to painting on a wooden sign. However, neon signs provide the added benefit of being a brilliant light source at night–something your wooden signs and canvasses just cannot match.
With Facepunch’s addition of neon lights into RUST, players were introduced to a pack of sign options that included 5 different ways to light up the night. Static neon signs come in small, medium, and large variations and animated neon signs come in medium and large variations. The medium animated sign provides 3 frames for animation and the large neon sign provides 5 frames for animation.
When neon signs first premiered, they came in a pack of 5 signs from Facepunch but have now transitioned to being available only on the Steam community market. In this guide, we’ll show you:
- How to purchase the neon sign addon
- How to craft and power the signs
- How to draw and animate neon lights
How to purchase neon signs in RUST
As with most RUST addons, neon lights were introduced to the game through Facepunch’s steam storefront as a five-piece neon sign pack for $44 USD. Once purchased, the neon signs became a steam inventory item that users can safely buy and sell on the Steam Community Marketplace.
Since Facepunch has discontinued the neon signs’ sale, players can now only get them through the community market. While this may seem daunting, it’s quite a simple procedure to acquire them.
- Start by opening your steam client.
- Mouse over the “COMMUNITY” tab at the top of the window
- Select the “MARKET” dropdown
- On the right-hand side, under “Browse by game,” select RUST.
- In the search bar on the right, type “neon sign.”
- You can now see the listings for the 5x Neon Sign Pack.
- Click on the Neon Sign Pack listings.
- Press The large green Buy button on the right
- Follow the prompts to add funds to your steam wallet.
Once purchased, the neon signs will appear in your RUST steam inventory, which you can then keep, give away, or resell in the future.
How to craft and place neon signs in RUST
Once you have purchased the neon signs, you will have the blueprints enabled by default on any RUST server. With the pack, you should have the five neon sign blueprints enabled.
The small, medium, and large signs can be crafted at a level one workbench for 150, 200, and 250 metal fragments. Medium and large animated signs require a workbench level three to craft and an extra 100 metal fragments each and up to five high-quality metal.
Like the old wooden signs, you can place the neon signs on flat wall surfaces. Just remember that the power socket at the base of the signs has to be reachable so that you can plug it into a power source.
You’ll need to run constant power to the signs from a power source. All signs have a power input and passthrough. Each sign requires a different amount of electricity to function.
- Small Neon Sign – 4 power
- Medium Neon Sign – 6 power
- Large Neon Sign – 8 power
- Medium Animated Neon Sign – 10 power
- Large Animated Neon Sign – 15 power
How to draw and animate neon signs in RUST
Once placed, walk up to the sign and press the E key to access the canvas. On the painting screen, you’ll have access to three levels of brush thickness, an eraser, and eight color options. Unlike on wooden signs, there is no color blending, so if you draw over a line with a new line, the old line will disappear underneath.
If you’re ready for your sign to appear for others, press the green update button on the bottom right.
In the animated signs, you will see an extra window above the brush selection listing five frames. Each frame will display for a second before moving onto the next. Select the first frame and draw the beginning of your sign.
If you want the same thing to appear for longer or only change slightly, select the second frame and press the Copy Previous Frame button. This button will copy the last frame and include any edits or changes you made.
If you’ve made changes you’re not happy with, and don’t want to spend time erasing parts, press the red cancel button to back out of the sign-making entirely.
If you’re happy with the sign, don’t forget to hold the E key while looking at the sign and selecting the lock edits option so that nobody but you can change the sign’s contents.
Express yourself, within reason
So now you know how to purchase, craft, and animate neon signs in RUST. Neon signs bring a new level of customization and decoration to bases and are a great way to see at night. Although this is RUST we’re talking about, if there are a few too many unsavory signs about the place, you can always turn them off entirely in your options menu.
