TOP 10 Rust Armor Items in 2022

It is no secret that the world of Rust is a harsh environment with numerous threats around each corner. The player needs to wear Rust armor in order to survive. In Rust Scientists and Dwellers are looking to get you. In turn, bloodthirsty beasts want to eat you. And even mother nature is working against you sometimes. Thus, you need all the help and protection, including the rust armor, to stay alive in Rust.

To make sure that you are going into the world of Rust prepared, we have created a list of some of the best armor pieces that you can get your hands on. In this gamer’s guide you will find TOP 10 rust armor items to move your gameplay to the new level! 

10. Wood Armor – Rust Armor

Wood armor is the best armor in Rust, at least when we are talking about the early game. Surviving the numerous threats should always be your top priority when starting out anew. And the wooden armor gives you a great head start.

Luckly, wooden armor is very easy to build due to the abundance of trees and other required materials. It also provides a decent level of protection from simple melee and ranged weapons such as Maces and Spears. However, it takes increased fire damage.

More often than not, players will combine wooden armor with a wolf headdress, because it provides a decent level of protection against arrow damage. It is worth noting that you will be required to kill a few wolves to make a wolf headdress. But that shouldn’t be too difficult, even with the basic weapons like the hatchet. If you don’t want to go after the wolf headdress, you can always go with the wooden helmet instead.

Materials required:

• 300 Wood and One Rope for the Chestplate
• 200 Wood and One Rope for the Wood Armor Pants
• 15 Cloth and 200 Wood for the Wood Armor Helmet

Provides the following resistances:

• 40% resistance against melee damage
• 10% resistance against ranged damage
• 5% resistance against blast damage
• 5% resistance to bite damage

9. Coffee Can Helmet – Rust Armor

The Coffee Can Helmet is one of the best rust armor pieces when it comes to mid-game. It provides better protection against projectiles such as bullets and arrows compared to the wolf headdress and wooden helmet. It also offers better projectile defense compared to the Bucket helmet and the Riot helmet. Many players chose to go for this helmet; so you will definitely see a lot of it.

Materials required:

• 15 Cloth
• 60 Metal Fragments
• One Sewing Kit

Provides the following resistances:

• 5% protection against Radiation
• 50% protection against melee damage
• 35% protection against bullets
• 8% protection against animal attacks
• 8% blast protection

8. Road Sign Jacket – Rust Armor

The Road Sign Jacket is a piece of Road sign armor. It is also one of the best rust armor sets that you can get mid-game.

While it isn’t really the most fashionable piece of armor that you can obtain in Rust, it will provide the user with decent protection against melee damage, bullets and animal attacks. The Road Sign armor combinations don’t offer any cold protection so you might want to consider wearing a shirt underneath.

Materials required:

• Leather
• One Road Sign
• Three Sewing Kits
• A Tier Two workbench

Provides the following resistances:

• 25% protection against melee damage
• 20% protection against bullets
• 10% protection against animal attacks

7. Road Sign Kilt – Rust Armor

Just like our previous entry on the list, the Road sign kilt is one of the TOP mid-game leg armor pieces that you can obtain. However, there has been some debate within the Rust community on whether the Road Sign kilt or the Bone Armor is better. Regardless, it will provide the player with some well needed protection against bite damage as well as melee damage and projectile damage.

However, it also comes with an 8% cold penalty. It means that you will want to put on some pants underneath in order to stay warm and alive.

Materials required:

• 20 Leather
• One Road Sign
• One Sewing Kit

Provides the following resistances:

• 20% protection against projectile damage
• 25% resistance against melee damage
• 10% resistance to bite damage
• 8% cold penalty

6. Metal Facemask – Rust Armor

The metal facemask is one of the best armor pieces that you can get as you slowly approach the end-game of Rust. Players usually tend to pair up this item with a metal chest plate and a road sign kilt.

The metal facemask provides excellent protection to the player and is considered to be the best headpiece in the game aside from the Plate Helmet. While this item does provide the highest protection against projectiles, it comes with a small cold penalty. On the other hand, it is not something that you should be concerned about as it is very low.

Materials required:

• 50 leather
• 15 High-Quality Metal
• Six sewing kits

Provides the following resistances:

• 70% protection against melee damage
• A decent 50% against ranged damage
• 5% cold penalty

5. Metal Chest Plate

Similarly to the metal facemask, the metal chest plate is considered by many to be one of the best chest pieces in Rust. Due to its design, the armor provides excellent protection from both back and front, however, its sides are still vulnerable to both bullets and elements. While wearing a hoodie will provide protection against cold, bullets will still be able to get you.

Materials required:

• 20 Leather
• 25 High-Quality Metal
• Eight sewing kits

Provides the following resistances:

• 25% protection against bullets
• 20% protection against melee damage
• 3% protection against animal bites
• 8% cold penalty

4. Heavy Plate Jacket

The heavy plate jacket is a part of the heavy plate armor set and it provides the best protection in the game. However, this protection comes with a cost, a 40% reduced mobility in this case. Players who chose to wear the heavy plate jacket are also unable to equip any other chest or hand armor combinations. This essentially means that the armor is only useful in niche situations such as when you are defending your hideout from enemies. The jacket also has a 17% cold penalty and players who are using it are unable to aim down sights so in many situations, its penalties outweigh its usefulness.

Materials required:

• Three Sheet Metal
• Eight High-Quality Metal
• Three Rope
• A Tier Two Workbench or higher

Provides the following resistances:

• 70% reduction of melee damage
• 75% protection against ranged damage
• 12% protection against explosive damage
• 12% protection against animal bites

3. Heavy Plate Helmet

Just like the heavy plate armor, the heavy plate helmet offers the most protection in the game, but also at a cost. Players who choose to wear this item suffer a 40% movement speed reduction as well as greatly reduced vision. This means that the use for this item is extremely limited, and many players tend to completely avoid using it, or only use it when defending their bases from raiders.

Materials required:

• Two Sheet Metal
• Five High-Quality Metal

Provides the following resistances:

• 80% protection against melee damage.
• 90% protection against ranged damage
• 8% protection against blast damage
• 13% protection against animal attacks

2. Heavy Plate Pants

Heavy plate pants are the final piece of the heavy plate armor and just like the other members of this set, it comes with a 40% movement speed penalty, however the movement penalty doesn’t stack and maxes out at 40% so it doesn’t matter if you are wearing a single piece of armor or the whole set. In addition, the heavy plate pants will make your character feel cold or hot extremely quickly. All these downsides make the heavy plate pants useful only in specific situations and players only recommend them in close-quarter gunfights.

Materials required:

• Two Sheet Metal
• Four High-Quality Metal
• Two Rope

Provides the following resistances:

• 70% protection against melee damage
• 75% protection against ranged damage
• 12% protection against animal attacks
• 12% blast protection
• 7% protection against radiation

1. Hazmat Suit

The Hazmat suit is arguably one of the best items in Rust. While the suit itself offers very little protection to the player in terms of melee or projectile damage, in fact, its bright yellow color can more often than not make you a target for other players. Nevertheless, this rad suit makes up for it by protecting the player from radiation and keeping the player dry in water. This means that once you have the hazmat suit on, you are more or less free to roam the world safely as you seem fit with the exceptions being the Power Plant and the Factory at Launch Site monument.

Materials required:

• Two Tarps
• Eight High-Quality Metal
• Sewing kit
• A Tier Two Workbench or higher

Provides the following resistances:

• 30% protection against range damage
• 8% cold resistance
• 50% protection against radiation
• 8% protection against animal attacks

What Is The Best Armor In Rust?

Whether you are looking for the best armor in Rust altogether or the best armor in Rust for PvP, you will have a plethora of armor combinations to choose from. And depending on who you ask, the answer to this question may differ.

Most Rust players tend to agree that the Coffee Can Helmet is the best choice when it comes to PvP encounters, combined with the Road sign kilt and Road sign jacket. While these Rust items don’t offer as much protection as a few others, they also come with fewer disadvantages. For example, no movement speed reduction.

Still, depending on specific situations, going for a heavier armor set can be a better choice such as when defining your base from enemy attackers, and you require less mobility and more protection.

Summary

This article will provide a list of some of the best armor pieces in Rust as well as detailed information about them such as the crafting materials they require as well as the protection that they provide to the player. In addition to that, the article will provide the reasons that make them the best.