Rust Raiding: How Much C4, How Many Rockets and Explosive Rounds for Walls and Doors

Wall durability and resistance to different damage types

A building block's durability depends on its material tier. Walls, foundations, ceilings, half walls, doorways, and triangles of the same tier have the same durability: their shape multiplier is 1.

Doors, hatches, and deployables have their own durability. For example, a Sheet Metal Door has 250 durability, a Garage Door has 600, and a Tool Cupboard has 100. You can't use a wall calculation for a door made of the same material.

Durability alone isn't enough to work out the cost. Targets resist different damage types in different ways, so explosive and bullet costs don't scale with durability. A wall's hard, outer side resists melee and bullet damage. Explosives are barely affected by which side you hit.

Rust Raid Table: How Many Explosives You Need for Walls

For wooden walls, explosive ammo uses the least sulfur of the 4 methods. C4 costs less for stone, sheet metal, and armored walls. Siege weapons and fire are separate options with different costs and prep requirements.

Walls by TierRust raid calculator

What we break	C4	Rocket	Satchel Charge	Explosive 5.56 Ammo
Wooden Wall250 health	12,200	22,800	31,440	481,200
Stone Wall500 health	24,400	45,600	104,800	1824,550
Sheet Metal Wall1,000 health	48,800	811,200	2311,040	3999,975
HQM Wall2,000 health	817,600	1521,000	4622,080	79819,950

When checking how many rockets you need for a wall in Rust, first identify its tier. High External Walls need separate calculations. A High External Stone Wall and a High External Stone Gate take the same amount of explosives as a standard stone wall, while High External Wooden Walls are tougher than standard wooden walls.

Sulfur cost per explosive

The sulfur cost per item includes the sulfur in the gunpowder and explosives used to craft it in Rust. Compare complete loadouts for each target: a cheaper individual charge may take more units to do the job.

Stone wall, armored wall, and sheet metal door

C4 uses less sulfur than explosive ammo, satchels, or rockets against a stone wall. For armored walls, only the order of rockets and satchels changes. Sheet Metal Doors are the opposite: explosive ammo costs less than C4.

Of these methods, explosive ammo is the cheapest way to break a wooden wall: 48 rounds use 1,200 sulfur. Next come 3 satchels at 1,440, then 1 C4 at 2,200, and 2 rockets at 2,800. A single loadout for every material will use sulfur at different rates.

Doors, garage doors, Tool Cupboards, and defensive items

Of explosives, explosive ammo is the cheapest option for doors, garage doors, hatches, and Tool Cupboards. Double doors take the same number of charges as single doors of the same material. Calculate garage doors separately.

Doors, Gates, and Base DeployablesRust raid calculator

What we break	C4	Rocket	Satchel Charge	Explosive 5.56 Ammo
Wooden Door200 health	12,200	11,400	2960	18450
Sheet Metal Door250 health	12,200	22,800	41,920	631,575
Armored Door1,000 health	36,600	57,000	157,200	2506,250
Garage Door600 health	24,400	34,200	94,320	1503,750
Metal Shop Front750 health	36,600	68,400	188,640	3007,500
Ladder Hatch250 health	12,200	22,800	41,920	631,575
Tool Cupboard100 health	12,200	11,400	1480	9225
Auto Turret1,000 health	24,400	45,600	41,920	1002,500
SAM Site1,000 health	24,400	45,600	41,920	2005,000
High External Stone Wall500 health	24,400	45,600	104,800	1824,550
High External Stone Gate500 health	24,400	45,600	104,800	1824,550
High External Wooden Wall500 health	24,400	34,200	62,880	962,400
High External Wooden Gate500 health	24,400	34,200	62,880	962,400

Even for an Armored Door, explosive ammo costs less than C4: 250 rounds use 6,250 sulfur, while 3 C4 use 6,600. C4 is the better deal for an armored wall. The same material label doesn't make a wall and a door the same target.

• Of all explosives, 3 HV Rockets use the least sulfur against a turret: 600 in total.
• 20 F1 Grenades are the cheapest option for an SAM Site, at 1,200 sulfur.

Catapult, battering ram, and mortar

Catapult propane bombs use less sulfur than C4 against stone, sheet metal, and armored walls. But you'll need to build the catapult first. The same goes for the battering ram and mortar: ammo costs don't include the cost of the weapon itself.

A catapult uses 13,500 sulfur to break an armored wall, compared with 17,600 for 8 C4. A battering ram uses no sulfur, but you'll need 2 ram heads for a stone wall or an Armored Door. Factor those costs into your raid prep, too. A battering ram can't break sheet metal or armored walls: by default, servers let it damage structures up to stone tier.

A mortar takes 17 shells to break a stone wall and 67 for an armored wall. Each shell uses 300 sulfur. You can't compare a mortar and a catapult by shot count alone because their ammo costs differ.

Eco Raiding: Fire and Melee from the Soft Side

Fire only works on wooden targets. Use other methods on stone and metal walls. The table shows the median of 4 attempts for each combination, with the range listed where applicable.

An Incendiary Rocket costs 300 sulfur. It didn't destroy a standard wooden wall in every attempt, so don't treat the median as a guaranteed cost. You'll also need to account for how long the fire burns.

How Many Spears You Need for Wood and Stone

A wall's soft side can make a big difference in melee costs. It takes 100 hits with a wooden spear to break a wooden wall from the soft side, and 1,000 from the hard side. The gap is even bigger for stone walls: melee damage barely works against the hard side.

Doors can only be attacked from the front; wall soft-side rules don't apply to them. The calculation comes to 364 hits with a Salvaged Axe for a wooden door.

Rust Raid Calculator: How to Plan the Whole Route

A raid rarely ends at the first barrier. Count doors, walls, and Tool Cupboards in order to see the cost of the whole route. The Rust Raid Calculator maps it out and finds the cheapest mixed loadout.

We'd plan the whole route before crafting. Saving explosives on one door won't help much if there's an uncounted wall behind it. A mixed loadout is useful for exactly this kind of route: explosive ammo for doors, C4 for stone, sheet metal, and armored walls.

ToolRust raid calculatorHow many C4, rockets, satchels, explosive rounds, fire and spears you need for walls, doors and the tool cupboard, how much sulfur it costs and which set is cheapest for a path through the base.Walls, doors, cupboardSulfur and resourcesPath through the baseOpen

When calculations change and how Softcore works

These calculations use files from Rust dedicated server build 25823813. A test on our own server on October 9, 2026, confirmed 39 exact combinations. We tested fire in 60 combinations with 4 attempts each, so those results include a median and a range.

Rust updates on the first Thursday of the month. Caseway checks the build number and recalculates values from the new files after each update. Check the latest calculation before raiding, especially if there's been an update since you last prepared.

In Softcore, the raid window runs from 18:00 to 21:00 server local time by default. Outside this window, you can't destroy building blocks or doors within Tool Cupboard range. Standard servers don't have a raid window.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much C4 Does It Take to Break a Stone Wall in Rust?

It takes 2 C4 and 4,400 sulfur to break a stone wall. Of C4, rockets, satchels, and explosive ammo, this is the cheapest loadout in sulfur.

How Many Rockets Does It Take to Break an Armored Wall?

It takes 15 rockets and 21,000 sulfur to break an armored wall. If you choose C4 for an armored wall, bring 8 charges for 17,600 sulfur.

What's Cheaper in Sulfur: C4, Rockets, or Explosive Ammo?

C4 costs less for stone, sheet metal, and armored walls. Explosive ammo is cheaper for wooden walls, doors, garage doors, hatches, and Tool Cupboards. The best option depends on the target, so plan the whole route with a mixed loadout.

How Many Explosive Rounds Does It Take to Break a Sheet Metal Door?

It takes 63 5.56 Explosive Rifle Ammo rounds and 1,575 sulfur to break a Sheet Metal Door. A double Sheet Metal Door and a Ladder Hatch take the same number of rounds.

How to break a wooden wall without sulfur

A battering ram takes 3 hits over 14 seconds and uses no sulfur, but you still need to build it. The game's code calls for 100 wooden spear hits on the soft side, which breaks 6 spears. On the hard side, it takes 1,000 hits and 59 spears. These melee figures haven't been tested on a server.