Rust Loot Crates: Elite, Military and Locked Crate Drops

Every crate in Rust has a job. The plain Normal Crate feeds you components, the Military Crate is where Basic Blueprint Fragments start showing up, the Elite Crate is the first realistic source of high-tier guns, and the hackable Locked Crate is the best single box in the game. If you know which crate drops what, you know which monument to run.

All the chances below come from the wiki's loot tables and show the odds of an item appearing in one crate. Facepunch adjusts loot from time to time, so treat them as a snapshot and check the tables before a big run.

The Crate Ladder at a Glance

Normal Crate: Components and Not Much Else

The Normal Crate is the plain brown crate. It always holds 5 Scrap, and each of seven components has a 14.3% chance to appear: Electric Fuse, Gears, Metal Pipe, Metal Spring, Road Signs, Semi Automatic Body and Sheet Metal. A Hazmat Suit shows up 4% of the time and a Heavy Fuse 3%. Weapons are rare: the Revolver, Waterpipe Shotgun and Double Barrel Shotgun each sit below half a percent.

Normal Crates, including the Underwater Lab version, are also the only source of four of the ten workbench upgrades: Range, Comfort, Defensive and Recycle Bin, each at 0.625%.

Military Crate: The Component Crate

The Military Crate is a step up in components rather than guns. It always gives 8 Scrap, and the main draws are an SMG Body (20%), High Quality Metal, Metal Pipe and Tech Trash (16.7% each) and a Rifle Body (13.3%). It is also where Basic Blueprint Fragments first appear, at 10%. That matters because a Workbench Level 2 needs five of them, alongside 500 Metal Fragments and 20 High Quality Metal.

Other notable drops: Heavy Fuse 6%, Large Backpack and Metal Armor Insert 5% each, and a Supply Signal 1% of the time. Guns are thin. The Thompson, Custom SMG, Python Revolver, Semi-Automatic Rifle and Rocket Launcher each sit around 0.42%.

Elite Crate: Where the Guns Start

The Elite Crate always gives 25 Scrap and drops components at the highest rate of the regular crates: SMG Body 32.6%, High Quality Metal, Metal Pipe and Tech Trash 27.7% each, Rifle Body 22.7%. Advanced Blueprint Fragments appear 10% of the time. Workbench Level 3 needs five of those, plus 1,000 Metal Fragments and 100 High Quality Metal.

The gun and gear odds are where it pulls ahead of the Military Crate:

• Assault Rifle, Bolt Action Rifle and MP5A4: 3.9% each
• Thompson and Custom SMG: 2.8% each
• LR-300 Assault Rifle and M39 Rifle: 1.2% each
• L96 Rifle: 0.8%
• Timed Explosive Charge, Metal Facemask and Metal Chest Plate: 1.9% each

Elite Crates also carry the Accelerated and Salvage workbench upgrades (3.75%) and a Supply Signal (3.7%). In our monument data the most Elite Crate spots are at Military Tunnel (9), Missile Silo (8), the Underwater Lab (7), Launch Site (6) and the Large Oil Rig (4). The small Oil Rig and each Ghostship have two, and Power Plant has one.

Locked Crate: The Best Box in the Game

The Locked Crate is the hackable crate the Chinook drops at monuments with a drop zone. In our monument data those are Airfield, Power Plant, The Dome, Train Yard and Water Treatment Plant. The Oil Rigs and Ghostships have their own Locked Crates, and they use the same table.

That table is the best in the game. Two Advanced Blueprint Fragments and a Metal Armor Insert are guaranteed. After that:

• Targeting Computer 55.3%, Metal Facemask and Metal Chest Plate 52.8% each
• Assault Rifle 28.5%, LR-300 Assault Rifle 24.2%, Bolt Action Rifle 22.7%
• 8x Zoom Scope and Weapon Lasersight 29.2% each, Extended Magazine 26.0%
• Timed Explosive Charge 9.6%, Rocket Launcher 7.3%, L96 Rifle 6.1%
• Accelerated and Salvage workbench upgrades 6.25% each

The catch is location. These crates sit at some of the most contested spots on the map, so go in ready for a fight.

Supply Drops, Tools Crates and Barrels

A Supply Drop always contains two Basic Blueprint Fragments. It also has a 55.6% chance of 32–39 High Quality Metal, 49% chances at a pair of Satchel Charges and at 6–9 F1 Grenades, and a 26.5% chance at a Timed Explosive Charge. Our guide to airdrops and the Cargo Ship covers how to contest one.

A Tools Crate gives 5 Scrap and mostly tools: Hatchet, Pickaxe and Binoculars at 7.8% each, a Salvaged Icepick at 2%, and a Chainsaw or Jackhammer at about 1%.

Loot barrels (yellow and blue) give 2 Scrap, with Metal Blade and Rope at 15.4% each and Sewing Kit, Tarp and Empty Propane Tank at 8%. An Oil Barrel always gives 15–19 Crude Oil and 5–9 Low Grade Fuel.

Which Crates Are Worth the Trip

• Components and scrap: Military Crates, then barrels and Normal Crates on the way.
• Basic Blueprint Fragments: Military Crates at 10% each, or a guaranteed pair from a Supply Drop.
• Advanced Blueprint Fragments: a Locked Crate gives two for certain. Elite Crates are a 10% roll each.
• Guns: Locked Crates by a wide margin, then Elite Crates. Military and Normal Crates are a poor bet for weapons.

Most of the good crates sit behind keycard puzzles or radiation. Our keycard guide explains the card tiers, and the wiki's monuments list shows radiation and recyclers for every monument.