Survival mechanics can sometimes become very complex, but the basis is always very simple – the two most important materials you start with after every wipe are always wood and stone. Although you will need wood first in order to make basic survival tools, the next material you must find is stone, which can be used to build the foundation of your base as well as the walls. There are many ways to secure these resources with or without tools, and for a complete guide on how to find Stone in Rust, keep reading.
Where to Find Stone in Rust
When you start a new game and don’t have any tools, the only way to secure a Stone is to find smaller rocks lying around that you can pick up. If you hover your cursor over a stone and a prompt reading “Stone” appears, you can interact with it and pick it up. However, if there is no prompt, it indicates that the stone is too large and you will need tools to move it. Collecting smaller rocks will earn you 50 Stone each, which is fine to start with, and get enough stones so you can make some tools for faster farming.
Related: What is the Rust Staging Branch on Steam? – Answered
How to Farm Stone in Rust Using Tools
Another way to farm stone is by mining with tools. You will need at least a Stone Pickaxe to mine Stone Nodes that can usually be found near mountains, cliffs, and similar places where you would expect to find a source of stones. The better the Pickaxe you use, the more material you will be able to extract from Stone Nodes in less time. Basic Stone Pickaxe will get you around 794 stones, but you will have to wait a bit. The more advanced tools such as Metal Pickaxe, Salvaged Icepick, and Jackhammer will be able to extract 1000 stones from a node, each in progressively less time, with the Jackhammer being the best tool for stone farming that will completely harvest a node in just a few seconds.
Alternative Ways to Get Stone in Rust
Other ways to get stone include using the Recycler that can break down stone tools and other stone-based items back into the 50 Stone materials. Alternatively, you can also trade in some other materials for stone via the Outpost vending machine. The exchange rate is pretty good – you get 1000 stones for 50 scraps. Scrap is considerably easier to collect than stone, so this option is very good, the only thing remaining is the risk of getting to the Outpost, which is always a challenge in the dangerous world of Rust.
And if you really want to go crazy and go all in with the stone farming you need to locate the Giant Excavator monument on the map. This monstrosity of machine requires 30 diesel fuel units to activate and in a period of one hour, it will excavate as much as 150,000 stone material. Using the Giant Excavator is noisy and all players will know exactly what you are doing and will be able to attack you – so only use this tactic if you are very strong and able to defend the dig site.
For more Rust guides here on Prima Games check out how to catch fish and find out when is the next console wipe.
