RUST: 18 Best Armor Pieces [Early and Late Game]

Surviving in the brutal world of Rust is a tough thing to do, especially when every player who sees you is shooting at you, regardless of whether you're naked or armored. The best way to protect yourself from gunfights and such situations is to make the best armor combinations possible.

In addition to projectile protection, armor combinations also provide cold protection, radiation protection, and protection against melee damage. Without decent protection, you are unlikely to survive in the game's hostile environment.

In this article, you will learn the best armor combinations for the early game and late game that will give you all that protection you need to survive.

Best Armor Combinations in Rust for Early Game

The most affordable armors in the early game are the Hide Armor combination, the Wooden Armor combination, and the Bone Armor set. These armor combinations in Rust are usually viable when you are still using Tier 1 weapons such as Bows, Crossbows, or Revolvers. 

1) Wood Armor Combination

Wooden Armor is the most common armor set in the early stages of the game. This Wooden Armor set is quite easy to craft and is a good option as it gives relatively high armor.

If you use Wooden Armor, you can wear pants and sweatshirts under your armor and increase your protection much more. For the head, a Wolf Headdress or Bone Helmet would be much better because the Wood Armor Helmet provides the least protection but can be used in desperate situations because it is cheap to craft. The Wolf Headdress provides good head protection in all parts of the game and is even more powerful than the Tier 2 Coffee Can Helmet.

2) Bone Armor Combination

Bone Armor, which looks like the scariest-looking armor combinations, is actually not that scary because it offers very little protection.

The biggest disadvantage of the Bone Armor set is that after wearing Bone Armor, you can't wear any pants underneath and you will not have extra leg armor. Although the Wood Armor has less protection, you can wear other armor underneath it and get better protection.

If you don't want to waste wood and ropes in your base and want to make use of bone fragments, you can choose this armor combo.

3) Hide Armor Combination

If you think the best base location in Rust is the snow biome, this combination will be very useful for you. With this combination, you will be able to protect yourself from the cold in a very cheap and easy way. Hide Armor grants high cold protection, although it doesn't offer much protection for PvP encounters.

Icon	Item Name	Projectile	Melee	Bite	Radiation	Cold	Explosion
	Wolf Headdress	30	60	10	4	6	13
	Wood Armor Helmet	15	25	3	2	7	-
	Wood Chestplate	10	40	5	5	-	5
	Wood Armor Pants	10	40	5	5	-	5
	Hide Poncho	10	40	5	8	8	5
	Burlap Trousers	10	10	3	2	7	-
	Hide Boots	5	5	3	2	5	-
	Bone Helmet	25	40	13	4	-	7
	Bone Armor	25	40	13	4	-	7

Best Armor Combinations in Rust for Mid-game / Late Game

These armor items are used in the mid and late game. They are very difficult to craft and even more difficult to find and research.

1) Metal Armor Combination

This armor set consisting of Metal Facemask, Metal Chest Plate, and Road Sign Kilt is the most preferred and most powerful armor combination in the late game stages. The metal armor set gives you high protection against ranged and melee attacks without reducing your movement speed or visibility.

This armor combination is hard to find and very costly to research, so this set is very valuable. It would be great to add Sweat, Pants, and Road Sign Kilt for lower protection under these armor pieces. You can also add a pair of gloves or boots for extra protection.

2) Road Sign Armor Combination

The Road Sign Armor combo is slightly cheaper than the Metal Armor and offers less protection, but it is one of the best mid and late-game armors. If Metal Armor cannot be crafted, you should definitely try to craft this set. It provides much more protection than Hazmat Suit.

Just like other armor sets, pants and sweatshirts can be worn underneath and extra protection can be provided with shoes or gloves.

3) Hazmat Suit Combination

If we take the simplest armor combination in the table, the Hazmat Suit is the most trouble-free and simplest solution. The Hazmat Suit provides 30 protection against ranged attacks, which is not much, but in mid-game, this Hazmat Suit can be used in all roams. The best part of this suit is that it is very easy to put on, but once you put on the Hazmat, you cannot add any other armor or clothing.

Hazmat Suit is one of the most used armor in Rust. The biggest reason for this is that it does not require crafting and space like other sets. Hazmat takes up only 1 slot in inventory and chests and is very cheap to craft.

Many people prefer this armor because it is very easy to get out of your home quickly without crafting a lot of different items.

4) Heavy Plate Armor Combination

Not all armor combinations are for all situations, for example, one of them is the Heavy Plate Armor combination. The Heavy Plate Helmet and Heavy Plate Armor will protect you best, but wearing them will noticeably reduce your movement speed, and wearing the Heavy Plate Helmet will drastically reduce your visibility.

That's why the Heavy Armor combination can be very useful for base defense in Rust. The high protection provided by this set allows you to hold the angle enemies will come from and stay one step ahead of them. Another use for this set of armor is for helicopter pilots, it might be good for helicopter pilots to wear this set because other players can't easily hunt them down.

You can wear your best clothes in Rust under other armor combinations except for Bone Armor, Heavy Plate Armor, and Hazmat Suit.

Icon	Item Name	Projectile	Melee	Bite	Radiation	Cold	Explosion
	Metal Facemask	50	70	8	-	-4	8
	Metal Armor	25	20	3	-	-8	-
	Coffee Can Helmet	35	50	8	5	-	8
	Road Sign Armor	20	25	10	-	-8	-
	Road Sign Glove	10	25	10	-	-8	-
	Road Sign Kilt	20	25	10	-	-8	-
	Heavy Plate Helmet	90	80	13	7	-17	17
	Heavy Plate Jacket	75	70	12	7	-17	17
	Heavy Plate Pants	75	70	12	7	-17	17
	Hazmat Suit	30	30	8	50	8	5