A raid in Rust is priced in sulfur. Crafted from scratch, a Timed Explosive Charge (C4) costs 2,200 sulfur, a rocket 1,400, a satchel charge 480 and one explosive 5.56 round 25. Which one is cheapest depends on whether the target is a door or a wall. The counts below are the ones the raid calculator uses, checked against Rust Labs in October 2026.

What each explosive costs from scratch

Explosive Sulfur Workbench Fuse and quirks
Timed Explosive Charge (C4) 2,200 Level 3 10 second timer, sticks to the target
Rocket 1,400 Level 3 splash, 3.8 m explosion radius
Satchel Charge 480 Level 1 6 to 12 second fuse, 20% dud chance
Explosive 5.56 Rifle Ammo 25 per round Level 3 crafted two at a time, needs a rifle

The workbench column is the second filter. Satchels are the only raiding explosive a tier 1 bench can make, and the beancans and gun powder inside them are tier 1 too. Rockets need a tier 3 bench even though the launcher (40 high quality metal, 4 metal pipes) is a tier 2 craft, because the Explosives component in every rocket and C4 is a tier 3 recipe.

Explosive ammo is the cheapest door opener, and the slowest

On every door in the calculator, explosive 5.56 is the cheapest single option: 18 rounds for a wooden door (450 sulfur), 63 for a sheet metal door (1,575), 150 for a garage door (3,750), 250 for an armored door (6,250). On that sheet metal door, 4 satchels cost 1,920, one C4 2,200 and two rockets 2,800.

The price is time. Rust Labs lists 1 minute 18 seconds of continuous Semi-Automatic Rifle fire to drop a stone wall with explosive rounds, against 11 seconds for two C4. A garage door is 150 rounds, five full AK magazines with reloads between them, all of it loud while the people inside put kits on.

Why C4 wins on walls

On every wall from stone up, C4 is the cheapest tool per piece, and the gap grows with the grade. A stone wall is 2 C4 (4,400 sulfur) against 4,550 in explosive ammo, 4,800 in satchels and 5,600 in rockets. A sheet metal wall is 4 C4 (8,800) against 9,975, 11,040 and 11,200. An armored wall is 8 C4 (17,600) against 19,950, 22,080 and 21,000.

C4 is also the fastest and most predictable: it sticks where it lands, goes off on a fixed 10 second timer and, as Rust Labs describes it, damages only the piece it is stuck to. The hidden costs are 2 tech trash per charge and the tier 3 bench.

Where rockets fit

A rocket is never the cheapest tool on a single piece. It wins when one shot damages several. Rust Labs puts the explosion radius at 3.8 m and says the splash can hit up to four walls at once; the Facepunch wiki says to aim at the seams where pieces meet. Two stone pieces per rocket turns the 5,600 for a stone wall into 2,800 each, which C4 cannot match. Stacked doors or a doorway with walls either side are rocket targets; a lone sheet metal door is not.

Rockets are also quick: four on a stone wall is 18 seconds on Rust Labs' timing. The Facepunch wiki's tip trims the bill: fire one rocket fewer and finish with explosive rounds. Three rockets leave a stone wall on roughly 87 health, about 33 rounds (825 sulfur) instead of a fourth rocket (1,400), so the wall costs about 5,025. The mortar added in May 2026 is not a cheaper rocket either: Rust Labs lists 17 mortar shells (5,100 sulfur) for a stone wall.

Satchels for the first days of a wipe

Satchels exist for the window before anyone has a tier 3 bench. The blueprint is 60 scrap at a research table, and 480 sulfur is a sum one player farms between two deaths. The counts are fair for the price: 2 for a wooden door (960), 4 for a sheet metal door (1,920), 9 for a garage door (4,320), 10 for a stone wall (4,800).

Rust Labs gives satchels a 20% dud chance and a 6 to 12 second fuse; a dud has to be picked up and re-armed, and sometimes re-ignites on a very short fuse when you do. With a tier 3 bench, satchels lose to explosive ammo on every door and to C4 on every wall from stone up.

Hard side and soft side

Every wall has a hard face meant to point outwards and a soft face, the side that faces you as you place it. Rust Labs' stone wall page notes it "can easily be pickaxed on the weak side", which is where the soft side matters: pick and jackhammer raids. For explosives, the same page lists identical counts on both faces of a stone wall, 2 C4, 4 rockets and 10 satchels. Explosive ammo is the exception, since part of each round is bullet damage: 173 rounds from the soft side against 185 from the hard side with a Semi-Automatic Rifle. Every count here and in the calculator is a hard side figure.

A worked raid budget

Take a common small base: two sheet metal doors, a stone wall through the honeycomb and a garage door on the loot room, priced per explosive type:

Target C4 Rockets Satchels Explosive 5.56
2 sheet metal doors 2 (4,400) 4 (5,600) 8 (3,840) 126 (3,150)
1 stone wall 2 (4,400) 4 (5,600) 10 (4,800) 182 (4,550)
1 garage door 2 (4,400) 3 (4,200) 9 (4,320) 150 (3,750)
Total 6 (13,200) 11 (15,400) 27 (12,960) 458 (11,450)

Mixing tools beats any single column: explosive ammo on the three doors (276 rounds, 6,900 sulfur) plus 2 C4 on the stone wall (4,400) is 11,300 sulfur. The rocket column looks worst because every target was priced alone; two sheet metal doors in adjacent frames can share one rocket. The tool cupboard, at 9 explosive rounds, is a rounding error.

The resources behind the sulfur

The crafting chain pulls in a second pile. Per unit, from the crafting calculator recipes: a C4 is 2,200 sulfur plus 3,000 charcoal, 200 metal fragments, 60 low grade fuel, 5 cloth and 2 tech trash; a rocket 1,400 sulfur plus 1,950 charcoal, 100 fragments, 30 low grade and 2 metal pipes; a satchel 480 sulfur plus 720 charcoal, 80 fragments, 10 cloth and a rope; an explosive round 25 sulfur, 30 charcoal and 5 fragments.

The mixed budget above comes to 11,300 sulfur, 14,280 charcoal, 1,780 metal fragments, 120 low grade fuel, 10 cloth and 4 tech trash. Wood turns into charcoal at a 75% rate, so that is about 19,000 wood, and the furnace smelting your sulfur covers only a tenth of it: 11,300 ore through one large furnace takes just over an hour and leaves about 1,400 charcoal. The furnace calculator does the sums for your own furnaces.

Padding the estimate

The table is the floor, not the budget. Counter-raids: dying with the explosives on you is the expensive outcome, so split them across bodies and a stash near the target. Duds: at a 20% dud chance, a 27 satchel raid should expect around five re-arms, and that time is what a counter-raid takes from you. Missed rockets: a rocket in the dirt is 1,400 sulfur gone, and rockets drop over distance, so carry a spare or two per ten. Unknown interiors: the second door is often a third, and honeycomb adds walls you did not price.

A fair rule is to farm 20 to 30% over the calculator's total and keep a few hundred explosive rounds as the flexible part; they finish a damaged piece cheaply whatever opened it. The sulfur farming guide covers where to get it. The asymmetry cuts the other way too: a stone wall is 300 stone to place and 4,400 sulfur to remove, which is why honeycomb works, and the upkeep guide prices keeping those walls standing.

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