Food, glorious food! You won’t get far in Rust without a handful of Mushrooms, at least to begin with. As a survival game, Rust pushes the player to keep their healing, calories, and hydration up, without falling sick with poison or starving to death.
To stay competitive in Rust you need to make sure your stamina is up, so you can sprint into or away from danger, and provide a bit of health regen during the middle of a fight. Here are some of the best food sources in Rust.
10 It All Begins With Mushrooms
Though you’re definitely, 100 percent not supposed to walk into an irradiated apocalyptic wasteland and start munching on random Mushrooms you find on the floor, it works wonders in Rust.
These little guys are found dotted around on the ground, usually in sizable stacks of 3-4 mushrooms at once. A short foraging trip can net you enough Mushrooms to last out the early game. They’re one of the best items you can get in the early game. They provide calories, hydration, and 3 points of healing. Won’t even poison you either, which is nice.
9 Tasty Tuna
When you’re getting sick of Mushrooms, it’s time to start looking out for food crates and trash piles. There’s a chance you might a Can of Tuna inside. This healthy protein alternative to buckets of Mushrooms provides boosts to health, hunger, and hydration.
The can itself has other uses, as when it’s smelted down it will provide the player with 15 Metal Fragments. This isn’t really enough to get anything useful, but every extra resource helps.
8 Granola Bar
If anything is going to survive an apocalypse, it’s the granola bars. They’re found in both Ration Boxes and Food Crates, with a 21 percent at finding 1, 2, or 3 bars.
They provide 60 calories and +5 health regen and offer a bit of thirst. That doesn’t seem overly realistic, as granola bars are dry as a bone. You should be careful while looting food crates because they’re a hotspot for players looking for easy food supplies.
7 Corn, Great For Setting Up Your Own Farm
Corn is first found alongside rivers and can be harvested in quite large numbers. Harvested corn plants will drop corn itself but also seeds, which can be used later to set up your own farm. This reduces the need to keep heading out for food.
You do need to manage your farm though. Unwatered corn plants won’t yield as much corn. Corn is not the best food to use during combat as it provides health regen rather than a flat boost, so better to be snacked on in the safety of your base. Setting up a farm isn’t something a new Rust player will be considering, but it’s worth aiming for.
6 Pumpkin, Like Corn, But Better
Pumpkin is also found near rivers. Each consumed Pumpkin drops one seed which can be planted to grow another one. With enough water, a pumpkin plant will yield more than one pumpkin. Infinite pumpkins, what more do you want?
Compared to Corn, Pumpkins provide a lot more health and hydration, and they can even be worn on your character’s head. They even prevent bullet damage, although this spoils the food…it’s full of bullets.
5 Chicken Meat For A Fledgling Hunter
Hunting animals is a good way to get food and other resources in Rust. In the very early game, you don’t want to tackle too much with wolves and bears, but chickens are an easy way to get meat and some cloth.
Chickens are found clucking around the forest areas and can be taken down with a swift blow of a hatchet. They’ll try to run away but they don’t move very fast. Watch out for other players while you’re chasing after chickens.
4 Wolf Meat, Worth The Hunt
Wolves are one of the most hunted animals in Rust and as a result, can be a bit tricky to find deep into a weekly wipe. They’re more common in snowy or grassland biomes. Hunting wolves provides meat, animal fat, and wolf pelts, all useful items.
When harvested with a hatchet, the corpse of a wolf can yield up to 5 pieces of raw meat, which are then cooked to provide the best health, thirst, and hunger benefits.
3 Cooked Pork, Easier To Find
Boars are more common in the world of Rust and therefore a bit more sustainable than hunting wolves. They can also provide more meat per corpse, up from 5 to 8. Take a Bone Knife with you to harvest the food.
Boars can be taken down with a few blows of the rock, or one or two shots from the beginner bow. They drop animal fat, bone fragments, cloth, leather, and pork, so are useful for a variety of different reasons.
2 Bear Meat, A Bit Of A Struggle
Hunting a bear is not something you should approach lightly. They have 400 health, can run faster than the player, and have attacks that apply Bleeding damage. You should be geared up, or at least go after a bear with a team of players. They’re the deadliest animal in Rust.
If you do manage to take one down the rewards are worth the battle: 100 Animal Fat, 19 Bear Meat, 150 Bone Fragments, 50 Cloth, and 100 Leather. Bears should not be approached by new players, though if you do find yourself being chased by one, make a break for a stretch of water and swim away. The bear should lose interest.
1 Chocolate Bar, Comfort Food In The Apocalypse
It seems fitting to end the list with a chocolate bar, and if your desire for chocolate outweighs everything else, you can find these in Food Crates and Ration Boxes. Each chocolate bar provides 100 Calories, a small amount of hydration, and +2 health regen.
As we already mentioned, areas with Food Crates should be approached with caution, as they’re a hotspot for players looking for easy food supplies. It’s recommended to go over the area with a group of friends.
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