Rust – What is the Best Armor? (Early & Late Game)

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Rust can be a very dangerous game for most players, as you can get shot at from any direction, at any moment. It does not matter if you looked before crossing the road, someone might still run over you.

However, a good way to avoid dying from two shots to the chest is to wear good armor. With a decent chest piece, you can make sure that nobody will one-shot you with a stray bullet.

Recommended Read: How to Get Cloth in Rust

Still, armor has a huge disadvantage in Rust: it slows you down. This is why, even though there are armor combinations that almost negate all damage, they will lower your movement to a halt.

Though there is no simple answer to this question, the best armor combination in Rust when it comes to protection is a full set of heavy plate armor. However, it all depends on what you want to do.


Table of Contents


The Best Early Game Armor in Rust

In the early game of Rust, you don’t have many chances to get rare resources, and you will have to make do with what you have. The best armor combination in the Rust early game has to be:

  • Wolf Headdress
  • Bone Armor

The Wolf Headdress is an amazing helmet in the early game that will provide a lot more defense than you would expect from a combination between cloth and a wolf skull.

The Bone Armor is extremely easy to make, as all you need is a lot of bone fragments, and it provides relatively decent armor for the first day after a wipe.

In total, you will have around 30% defense from guns for all your body parts and 50% from melee. You will also get 20% defense from explosions, which should be enough to keep you alive from one or two grenades.

Players will also get around 20% defense from wild animal attacks, which will be one of the main problems in the Rust early game.

This is a great armor set for the first day since you can easily make it even if you get killed once or twice, just by collecting some cloth, bone fragments, and a few wolf skulls. If you want to become a professional wolf hunter, then this is the perfect outfit for you.


The Best Mid Game Armor in Rust

The second day after a wipe, you should be able to get this armor, which should be the best at that point in Rust:

  • Coffee Can Helmet
  • Road Sign Jacket
  • Road Sign Kilt
  • Hoodie
  • Tactical Gloves
  • Pants
  • Boots

In general, the best clothes you can wear are a hoodie, tactical gloves, pants, and boots. These provide above-average defense and good cold and radiation defense.

Otherwise, the best thing that you can get with a level 2 Workbench in Rust is an armor combination between the Coffee Can Helmet, Road Sign Jacket, and Road Sign Kilt. This will give you around 50% defense from projectiles and melee for both head, chest, and legs.

The Road Sign armor can easily be made with the help of leather and sewing kits. If you just want to use scraps to get these resources, you can buy a few tactical gloves to recycle them and get 10 leather and 5 sewing kits per glove.

This combination won’t provide a lot of explosive defense, but most players won’t have bazookas at this point in the game. You will, however, have at least 20 radiation protection, which will allow you to explore the Airfield, Train Yard, and the Water Treatment Plant.


The Best Late Game Armor in Rust

The best late game armor in Rust doesn’t stray far from the previous one, as we keep many parts and just change the head and chest armor:

  • Metal Facemask
  • Metal Chest Plate
  • Road Sign Kilt
  • Hoodie
  • Tactical Gloves
  • Pants
  • Boots

There aren’t any clothes that could work better than these. Depending on your needs, you can try to wear other things besides the hoodie, but pants, boots, and tactical gloves are the best pieces of clothing in Rust.

The Metal Facemask and Chest Plate are the next level after the Road Sign armor, as they require a level 3 Workbench. Unfortunately, there aren’t any next-level legs armor, so we will have to keep the Road Sign Kilt.

Though this armor isn’t that much better than the previous one, and it also doesn’t have as good radiation and cold protection as the Road Sign armor. However, it has the best defense against projectile damage while also allowing you to run without restricting your movement.


The Best Armor in Rust for Defending Your Base

The best armor combination in Rust when it comes to protection is the Heavy Plate Helmet, Jacket, and Pants. With this armor, you will have almost 80% defense against projectile and melee damage all around and 50% defense from explosions.

Unfortunately, this armor will limit your vision, and it will slow you down a lot. Your sprinting speed will be the same as the normal walking speed. Though this can be problematic, it is the best armor to use while being sieged by other players. 

To make this full Heavy Plate armor, you will need 7 metal sheets, 17 high quality metal, and 5 rope.


That’s everything you need to know about the best armor in Rust!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Adrian Oprea

Based in London, United Kingdom, Adrian Oprea is a Guides Writer. As a professional single-player RPG player, Adrian has often been stigmatized. He has decided to pour his frustration into writing guides!

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