Base building is an essential feature of almost every good survival game. A good base allows the player to take shelter from the elements, but more importantly, it puts a sturdy set of walls between the player and anyone--or anything--that would like to kill them.
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Survival games don't get much more hardcore than Rust, so any player who's serious about surviving will want to make building a good base a top priority. There are several materials to choose from, but most are either too weak or too expensive to be practical, especially when starting off. For that reason, stone is easily the most popular material for constructing good walls and keeping the enemy out. Here's everything there is to know about constructing stone walls in Rust.
Just like players need good armor to avoid being killed, bases need good walls to avoid being robbed during a raid. Unfortunately, building a stone wall isn't as simple as slapping a pile of stones down in an empty field. To start, the player will need to gather wood and stone with which to build. Next, they need a Building Plan, which costs 20 Wood and is necessary for constructing the base's foundations, and a Hammer, which costs 100 Wood and is necessary for upgrading the base.
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Equip the Building Plan and open the Building Wheel, then begin laying down a foundation. Rust is an immersive crafting game, and there is a variety of building options available on this menu, but only the foundation is absolutely necessary before wall placement can begin. Once a foundation is constructed, the player can start construction on walls for their base.
A stone wall is not an independent entity: it is the upgraded form of a twig wall. For this reason, players who want stone walls must first build twig walls (50 Wood) and then convert them. With the Hammer in hand, the player can highlight a wall and open the radial menu, revealing the different upgrade options available to them. This build system makes it easy to get a fast start after wipe.
By choosing Upgrade to Stone, the player can upgrade the selected wall. Each stone wall requires 300 Stone to build. Having stone walls isn't much good if the walls beneath them are easily destructible twigs, of course, so the player will want to upgrade the rest of their base to match. Failing to do so is just asking to be raided.
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Walls have two sides: hard and soft. The soft side is much easier to destroy, and for that reason, it's imperative to build walls with the soft side facing in, to prevent enemies from easily raiding the base. Walls can be rotated for a brief period of time after being placed, allowing the player to fix their mistake if they accidentally construct a wall with the soft side facing out, but the easiest way to avoid this problem is to stand within the base and face outwards when building, as the soft side will then face inwards by default. With stone walls built, raiders will need to bring some serious firepower in order to get inside.
Just because the player has built sturdy walls doesn't mean no one will try to tear them down. One of the most common mid-wipe methods of trying to raid stone bases is Satchel Charges. It takes 10 Satchels to destroy a stone wall. This is a serious improvement over wooden walls, but by no means does it make a base indestructible. Serious raiders, especially clans, can acquire Satchels or necessary crafting materials for stone base raids without too much trouble, so the player should always be looking for ways to further fortify their base against attacks.
Rust is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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