Paintball

Overview

Paintballs are a DLC-exclusive ammunition type introduced with the Artist Pack in RUST. They are the only compatible ammo for the Paintball Gun and are designed to support both creative expression and experimental combat mechanics.

While visually playful, Paintballs are fully functional projectiles. They interact with players, NPCs, deployables, world surfaces, and even water, applying temporary color effects while also dealing damage based on equipment interactions.

How to Acquire Paintballs

Crafting: Once the Arist Pack DLC is unlocked, Paintballs can be crafted when standing near workbenches.
Loot Sources: Does not appear in loot tables.
Research: Cannot be learned via Research Tables.
Purchase: Cannot be bought in-game from NPC vendors or player shops.
Console Access: Spawnable via F1 console on servers with appropriate permissions.

Crafting Details

Workbench Required: Level 1
Crafting Cost: 10 Plant Fiber, 5 Water
Blueprint: Automatically unlocked with DLC
Stack Size: 128

Usage & Functionality

Ammunition Behavior

Ammo Type: Paintballs
Weapon Compatibility: Paintball Gun only
Damage Model: Conditional (determined by target equipment)

Paintballs are intentionally non-traditional ammunition. While their damage output is negligible in most scenarios, they are still capable of:

Triggering hit detection
Aggroing NPCs
Applying paint effects
Killing players and NPCs

Color System

Paintballs are available in five selectable colors, chosen by the Paintball Gun user:

Blue
Yellow
Orange
Green
Purple

Color Interactions

Players & Armor:
- If the shooter is wearing Paintball Overalls, the overalls automatically change to match the selected paintball color.
World Surfaces & Deployables:
- Paint splatter appears in the selected color and persists briefly before fading.
Water:
- Paintballs create a visible colored splash when impacting water surfaces.

Paint Persistence

Splatter Duration: ~1 minute
Paint effects automatically fade and cannot be permanently applied.
Paint does not alter the durability, ownership, or structural integrity of objects.

Strategic Value

Paintballs support a wide range of sandbox and social gameplay uses:

Event & Minigame Ammo: Ideal for arenas, tagging games, and competitive paintball-style events.
Creative Marking: Used to label routes, mark bases, or create temporary visual signals.
Conditional Combat: Works in tandem with Paintball Overalls to enable meaningful PvP scenarios.
Psychological Play: Visual chaos and confusion can disorient opponents without lethal force.
Roleplay Utility: Commonly used for law enforcement, crowd control, or non-lethal tagging on RP servers.