Updated for 2026

Search Bradley Rust and you will get a pile of numbers that were true in 2019. Here are the current ones.

The Bradley APC is the armoured personnel carrier that grinds around Launch Site on a fixed loop, and it is the single most misunderstood fight in the game. Not because it is hard. Because almost every guide you will find describes a version of it that stopped existing years ago.

Bradley does not have a weak spot. It does not care what you are wearing. It ignores bullets, arrows, melee, fire and fall damage completely. It has exactly 1,000 health and it only loses that health to explosives. That part has been stable for a long time.

What changed, and what most write ups still miss, is that Bradley now fights back on foot. Hit it hard enough and the hatch pops, smoke goes up, and scientists climb out to defend it. Later waves include heavies carrying miniguns and flamethrowers. If you planned a leisurely seven rocket kill from a rooftop, that is the thing that ends your run.

This guide covers the real numbers: exactly how many of each explosive it takes, what every option costs in sulfur, where to stand, how the scientist waves work, the full APC crate loot table, the burn and salvage timers, the respawn clock, and the road Bradleys that flood the map in the last day of every wipe.

TL;DR The Bradley APC has 1,000 HP and takes damage from explosives only. It patrols Launch Site and respawns roughly 1 hour after it dies. The cheapest kill is 7 High Velocity Rockets at about 1,400 sulfur. The fastest is 3 C4. It drops 3 APC crates that burn for around four minutes before you can open them. Damage it and scientists deploy in waves, heavies included, so kill it fast rather than chipping away. In the last 24 hours of a wipe cycle, extra Bradleys spawn on roads all over the map.
Bradley Rust guide: the Bradley APC patrolling Launch Site with headlights on, seen head on
Headlights on, autocannon up. If you can see this, it can see you.

What is the Bradley in Rust?

The Bradley APC is an NPC controlled armoured vehicle. It is not a boss you can sneak past and it is not a puzzle. It drives a fixed circuit of the paved roads at Launch Site, and it opens fire on any player it sees, regardless of gear, clothing or crouch state. Hiding in a bush does not work. Wearing a full hazmat suit does not make you invisible to it.

It carries two weapons and they do very different jobs:

  • The autocannon. The long barrel on the turret. It fires short bursts of armour piercing shells that land for roughly 25 to 30 damage each with a small explosion radius. A four shell burst kills an unarmoured player outright and badly hurts a geared one. This is the gun that reaches across the monument.
  • The machine gun. Mounted alongside, very high rate of fire, roughly 7 damage per hit. On its own it is survivable for a second or two. Combined with the cannon it is what finishes you while you are trying to retreat.

The important mechanical detail is what Bradley ignores. Every non explosive damage type is filtered out entirely. Your AK does nothing. A bolt action headshot does nothing. Incendiary rockets do nothing meaningful, because the fire component is not explosive damage. Only the explosive damage on an explosive item counts, which is why the answer to “what gun kills Bradley” is always “none of them, bring a launcher”.

Close up of the Rust Bradley APC turret, autocannon and sloped hull armour
The autocannon, the optics mast and the sloped hull. None of them is a weak point.
There is no weak spot Tracks, rear, turret ring, underside: they all take identical damage. Do not waste rockets trying to flank it for a better angle. Hit whatever part of it you can see, from wherever you are safe.

Where does Bradley spawn in Rust?

In normal play, one place: Launch Site. It is the only monument with a Bradley, and there is only ever one of them at a time. That is set by the server variable bradley.enabled, which is on by default on official servers.

It does not roam the whole monument freely. It follows the paved road network, which threads through the rocket pad half and the industrial half of Launch Site and loops back on itself. Learn that loop and you know where it will be in thirty seconds, which matters enormously when you are planning where to stand.

Overhead view of the Launch Site road loop that the Bradley APC patrols in Rust
Launch Site from above. Bradley sticks to the paved loop and never leaves it.

Launch Site itself is worth understanding before you go, because you are signing up for the whole monument, not just the tank:

11 / 52radiation median / max
8scientists on site
1recycler
3elite crates

It is a Tier 3 monument with a green card and a red card puzzle and two electric fuses, 77 crates, 64 barrels, a recycler on site, and a no build zone of roughly 92,205 square metres. It is not a safe zone. Containers reset on the usual ~30 minute cycle. The radiation is mild by red card standards, but you still want proper coverage. See the red keycard guide if you are also planning to run the puzzle while you are there.

The real danger is not Bradley Launch Site is the loudest place on any map. Explosions carry, the debris field is visible from a long way off, and every player who hears a Bradley fight knows there are three APC crates about to be unguarded. Counter squads kill far more Bradley runners than the Bradley does.

Bradley APC stats

StatValueNotes
Health1,000 HPUnchanged for years. It launched at 500 in 2017.
Damage takenExplosives onlyBullets, melee, fire and arrows are filtered out entirely.
Spawn locationLaunch SiteOne at a time, on the paved road loop.
Respawn~60 minutesbradley.respawndelayminutes defaults to 60.
Autocannon~25 to 30 per shellArmour piercing, small splash, fires in bursts.
Machine gun~7 per hitVery high rate of fire at close range.
Crates dropped3 APC cratesGuaranteed, every kill.
Self repairAfter ~5 minutes idleThen back to full in about a minute.
Added24 August 2017Devblog 174, alongside the Launch Site rework.

How many rockets for Bradley in Rust?

This is the question everyone actually arrives with, so here is the whole answer in one table. Every figure is per direct hit on the Bradley, against its 1,000 HP pool.

Chart showing how many rockets, C4, satchels and grenades it takes to kill the Bradley APC in Rust
Seven HV rockets is the cheapest kill in the game by a wide margin.
ExplosiveDamage per hitYou needSulfur cost
High Velocity Rocket Cheapest160.571,400
F1 Grenade25402,400
MLRS Rocket1607Not craftable
Timed Explosive Charge (C4)38536,600
Satchel Charge52.5209,600
40mm HE Grenade12.2582Not craftable
Explosive 5.56 Rifle Ammo1.7557114,275
Rocket96.251115,400
Beancan Grenade5.2519122,920

Three things jump out of that table.

HV rockets are absurdly efficient here. A standard rocket costs 1,400 sulfur on its own. Seven HV rockets cost 1,400 sulfur in total, because an HV rocket is just 1 Metal Pipe and 100 Gun Powder with no Explosives in the recipe. That is an eleven times saving over regular rockets for the same job. If you take one number away from this page, take that one.

F1 grenades are the no workbench option. Forty grenades for 2,400 sulfur is the second cheapest route, and you do not even have to craft them. F1s are stocked by the vendor at Bandit Camp for single digit scrap each, so a full Bradley kit is achievable on scrap alone in the first days of a wipe. Note that Facepunch runs dynamic vendor pricing now, so the exact scrap number moves with server supply and demand.

Regular rockets are the worst realistic option. Eleven rockets is 15,400 sulfur, more than double what three C4 costs, for a slower and less reliable kill. People still do it because rockets are what they happen to have. If you are farming specifically for Bradley, farm for HVs.

Bring spares, always Seven HVs is the number if all seven connect. They travel fast but they are still unguided, Bradley is moving, and the first one alerts it. Every experienced runner brings 8 to 10. The extra two rockets cost 400 sulfur and save the entire trip.

If you want to price this against your other raid plans for the wipe, the raid calculator has the per explosive sulfur numbers for every base target in the game.

How to kill the Bradley APC

There are three methods that actually work. Pick based on what you have, not on what is technically cheapest.

Method 1: seven HV rockets from a rooftop

The default. Cheapest, and safest if you pick your building well.

  1. Build a small respawn base outside the no build zone first. A 1×2 with a bed, a tool cupboard and a box is enough. You will probably die at least once, and the walk back from a beach spawn is what actually ends Bradley runs.
  2. Bring a rocket launcher, 8 to 10 HV rockets, radiation coverage, medical syringes and bandages, and nothing you are not willing to lose.
  3. Get on a roof with hard cover you can drop behind. The two buildings facing each other across the middle of the monument and the recycler building are the classics, because they have a lip you can crouch behind.
  4. Wait for Bradley to come to your side of the loop. Do not chase it. Its route brings it back.
  5. Fire, then break line of sight immediately. Peek, fire one, drop. Repeat. Do not stand and trade shots with an autocannon.
  6. Keep the pace up. If you slow to a rocket every few minutes it starts repairing and you will run out of ammunition before it runs out of health.
Player taking cover behind concrete barriers from the Bradley APC in Rust
Hard cover beats armour. Bradley cannot shoot what it cannot see.

Method 2: three C4, thrown

More sulfur, far less exposure, and the fastest kill in the game. It is also the only method that reliably beats the scientist waves, because the whole fight is over in seconds.

  1. Put each C4 in its own hotbar slot. Switching slots is quicker than waiting through the throw animation on a stack.
  2. Find a chokepoint on the road loop where you can get within throwing range without being seen. The gateway with the concrete barriers is the classic, and there are bridges and raised walkways the route passes underneath.
  3. Wait for it to pass, step out, and stick all three on the hull as fast as you can click.
  4. Expect to die to the blast or to Bradley. That is fine. It dies too, and you respawn at your bed nearby.
Space your charges if you throw them one at a time Two C4 detonating in the same instant can sometimes register as a single hit. If you are placing them across multiple passes rather than all at once, let each one blow before you commit the next.

Method 3: forty F1 grenades

The budget method, and genuinely viable in the first days of a wipe when nobody has 1,400 sulfur spare yet.

  1. Buy F1 grenades from the Bandit Camp vendor. Forty of them is a small pile of scrap.
  2. Get on a low roof or a raised platform that Bradley drives close to. Range matters here because you are throwing, not firing.
  3. Aggro it with anything, a bow works, then back up so it holds position below you.
  4. Rain grenades onto it. You will hear the hit marker on every connect. Keep going until it pops.

The catch is time. Forty throws is a long exposure window, which is exactly when the scientist waves become a real problem. Bring a partner to hold the ground floor.

The scientist waves nobody warns you about

This is the part that invalidates most older Bradley guides.

Since a 2024 update, damaging the Bradley makes it deploy infantry. There is a visible puff of smoke, and a first group of four scientists climbs out to defend it. Keep hitting it and further waves deploy as its health drops, and the later waves include heavy scientists.

Bradley APC scientist waves and heavy scientists with minigun, M249, SPAS-12 and flamethrower in Rust
Standard Bradley scientists have 150 HP. The heavies have 300 and carry the Oil Rig weapon pool.
NPCHealthCarriesThreat
Bradley scientist150 HPStandard rifles and pistolsManageable, but they flank while Bradley pins you.
Bradley heavy scientist300 HPMinigun, M249, SPAS-12, military flamethrowerSerious. A minigun heavy will delete you through a doorway.

They drop the same loot pool as the Oil Rig heavies, so they are not pure downside. Medical syringes, ammunition, and the occasional genuinely good weapon. But they change the shape of the fight completely: a slow chip damage strategy now means fighting an escalating infantry battle on the ground while an autocannon covers them.

The counter is speed, not firepower Waves deploy as Bradley loses health. Kill it fast enough and the later waves never spawn at all. This is the strongest argument for the three C4 method: the whole engagement is over before the first group has finished climbing out.

If you are fighting the waves, remember they are ordinary NPCs with ordinary hitboxes. Everything in the weapons guide applies to them even though none of it applies to the Bradley itself. Bring a rifle for the scientists and a launcher for the tank.

Bradley loot: what is in the APC crates

Every Bradley kill drops three APC crates, guaranteed. Each crate rolls the table independently, so three rolls per kill.

Bradley APC crate loot table and drop chances in Rust
Odds are per crate. Three crates means three independent rolls of this table.
ItemChance per crateWhy you want it
MLRS Rocket100%Guaranteed. Useless without an MLRS, valuable to anyone who has one.
Targeting Computer52%Auto turrets. The single best reason to run Bradley.
Weapon mod bundle50%Lasersight, 8x scope, burst module, extended mag.
CCTV Camera43%Pairs with the targeting computers for turret builds.
Timed Explosive Charge36%Free C4. Often pays for the next Bradley run.
Armored Door30%Straight upgrade over garage doors on a main.
Ladder Hatch30%Base design staple.
Tech Trash x10 to 1125%Bulk components for crafting.
5.56 ammo bundle19%Standard, incendiary, explosive and HV rounds together.
Rocket assortment19%Incendiary, HV, MLRS and homing rockets in one drop.
Armored Double Door15%Airlock upgrade.
L96 Rifle8.7%With a variable zoom scope and ammunition.
M2498.3%With 50 rounds of 5.56.
Auto Turret4.8%Fully assembled, no crafting needed.

The honest summary is that Bradley is an electrical and component run more than a gun run. The guns are a bonus at under 10 percent each. The targeting computers, CCTV cameras and tech trash are what make it repeatable and what make it worth doing every hour rather than once a wipe.

The wreck: burn timers and salvage

Killing it is not the end. Everything burns first, and the burn timers are where impatient players get shot.

~4 minuntil crates are lootable
~5 minuntil the hull stops burning
~8 minuntil the wreck is minable

Those figures come from community timing rather than published values, so treat them as close approximations rather than exact ticks. The practical point does not change: after the kill you have several minutes of standing around next to a burning wreck that is visible across the monument and marked by a smoke column.

Do not wait in the open This window is the single most dangerous part of a Bradley run. Everyone on the server heard it. Get to hard cover with sightlines onto the debris, let the fire die down, then loot fast. If you have a partner, one of you watches the approaches the entire time.

Once the wreck cools you can mine it, and it is worth the extra minute. A jackhammer strips it in about 35 seconds for:

ToolCharcoalMetal FragmentsHigh Quality MetalTime
Jackhammer8801,6507735 sec
Salvaged Icepick8801,650772 min 23 sec
Pickaxe8801,650774 min 42 sec
Salvaged Hammer6601,238583 min 42 sec
Rock4368253914 min 8 sec

Seventy seven high quality metal for half a minute of work is a real reward, not a consolation prize. Bring a jackhammer or a salvaged icepick. Mining with a rock takes fourteen minutes and you will not survive them.

Respawn time and self repair

How long does Bradley take to respawn?

About one hour. The server variable bradley.respawndelayminutes defaults to 60, and there is a second variable, bradley.respawndelayvariance, that adds a small random offset specifically so the spawn cannot be camped to the second.

That hour is the rhythm of a Bradley farm. Kill it, loot it, mine it, recycle at the on site recycler, and by the time you have run the monument’s crates and puzzle the next one is close to arriving.

Does Bradley heal in Rust?

Yes, and this catches people out constantly. If it goes roughly five minutes without taking damage it starts repairing, and it returns to full health in about a minute once it starts. There is no partial credit. A Bradley you took to 200 HP and then left alone is a Bradley at 1,000 HP when you come back.

Commit or do not start Do not open on Bradley to “soften it up” for later. Do not start a fight you might have to break off. Either you have the explosives to finish it in one engagement or you are wasting them entirely.

Road Bradleys and the end of wipe event

Here is the mechanic that turns Bradley from a monument boss into a map wide hazard, and the one almost nobody plans around.

In the final stretch of every wipe cycle, Rust runs an endgame event. Bradleys stop being a Launch Site exclusive and start spawning on roads across the entire map.

Bradley APC patrolling a road at sunset during the Rust end of wipe event
End of wipe. That silhouette on the road is not scenery.

The count is not random. It scales with map size on a fixed formula:

How many road Bradleys spawn during the Rust end of wipe event
Map size divided by 1000, times two. A standard 4000 map gets eight of them.

So on a typical 4000 size map you are looking at eight road Bradleys, each with the same 1,000 HP and the same autocannon as the Launch Site one. They lock to a single road and drive it back and forth rather than roaming freely. The same event also puts F-15E recon jets in the sky, which are pure atmosphere and cannot hurt you, and increases roaming NPC numbers across the island.

The event triggers on the last day of the wipe cycle, defaulting to the final hours before the reset. Server owners can shift or disable it with eventschedulewipeoffset.event_hours_before_wipe.

Two practical consequences:

  • Road travel gets dangerous overnight. If you run roads for scrap, on a horse, in a car or on a bike, the last day of wipe is when a corner you have taken a hundred times has a tank sitting on it. Fly over instead. A minicopter ignores the problem entirely.
  • It is the cheapest loot in the game if you are ready. Eight Bradleys is twenty four APC crates. If you have HV rockets banked and you know the wipe date, the last day of a wipe is the single best loot window of the whole cycle. Almost nobody prepares for it, because almost nobody knows the exact schedule.

Know exactly when road Bradleys turn on.
The event fires in the last 24 hours of the cycle, so the wipe clock is the Bradley clock.

Check the wipe countdown

Bradley console commands

Useful on your own server or in a local sandbox for practising rocket leads without burning real sulfur. These require admin or ownership, and none of them work on an official server.

CommandDefaultWhat it does
spawn bradleyapcn/aSpawns a Bradley where you are looking.
bradley.quickrespawnn/aForces an immediate respawn at Launch Site.
spawnroadbradleyn/aSpawns a road Bradley on the road you are looking at.
bradley.enabledtrueTurns the Launch Site Bradley on or off.
bradley.respawndelayminutes60Minutes between death and respawn.
bradley.respawndelayvariance1Randomises the respawn so it cannot be camped exactly.
eventschedulewipeoffset.event_hours_before_wipe1When the endgame event fires. Set to 0 to disable it.

There is a much longer list of useful admin and client commands in the Rust console commands guide.

Five mistakes that waste a Bradley run

  1. Shooting it with guns. Every wipe, someone empties an AK into it and concludes it is bugged. It is not. Non explosive damage is filtered out completely.
  2. Bringing exactly seven HV rockets. Seven is the theoretical minimum with zero misses against a moving target that is shooting back. Bring nine.
  3. Taking a break mid fight. Five minutes of no damage and it repairs to full. Partial progress does not bank.
  4. Looting immediately. The crates burn for around four minutes. Sprinting into the fire does nothing except make you a stationary target for whoever followed the noise.
  5. Ignoring the wreck. Seventy seven high quality metal is a large chunk of a workbench or an armoured door, and it takes 35 seconds with the right tool.

Bradley Rust FAQ

What is the Bradley in Rust?
The Bradley APC is an NPC controlled armoured vehicle that patrols the paved road loop at Launch Site. It has 1,000 health, takes damage from explosives only, and attacks any player it sees regardless of what they are wearing. It fires an armour piercing autocannon for roughly 25 to 30 damage per shell and a machine gun for around 7 damage per hit. When destroyed it drops three APC crates.
How many rockets do you need for Bradley in Rust?
Eleven standard rockets, or seven High Velocity rockets. HV rockets are the correct answer because they deal 160.5 damage each against Bradley compared to 96.25 for a standard rocket, and cost only 200 sulfur each. Seven HV rockets total about 1,400 sulfur, which is the same price as one single standard rocket. Bring eight to ten in practice, because Bradley is moving and you will miss.
How many HV rockets for Bradley?
Seven, if all seven hit. Each High Velocity Rocket deals 160.5 damage to the Bradley’s 1,000 health pool, so seven leaves a small margin. An HV rocket costs 1 Metal Pipe and 100 Gun Powder, works out to roughly 200 sulfur, and unlocks for 60 scrap at a research table at Workbench Level 2. Experienced players carry eight to ten to cover misses.
How many C4 for Bradley in Rust?
Three. A Timed Explosive Charge deals 385 damage to the Bradley, so three covers its 1,000 health with room to spare. It costs 6,600 sulfur, far more than the HV rocket route, but it is the fastest kill available and the most reliable way to destroy Bradley before its scientist waves finish deploying. Put each charge in its own hotbar slot so you can throw them back to back.
Where does Bradley spawn in Rust?
At Launch Site, and nowhere else during normal play. There is only ever one active at a time and it follows the paved road loop that threads through both halves of the monument. The exception is the end of wipe event, when Bradleys also spawn on roads across the whole map for the final stretch of the cycle.
How long does Bradley take to respawn in Rust?
About one hour. The server variable bradley.respawndelayminutes defaults to 60, and bradley.respawndelayvariance adds a small random offset so the spawn cannot be camped precisely. That gives you time to loot the crates, mine the wreck, run the monument’s other containers and recycle before the next one arrives.
Does Bradley heal in Rust?
Yes. If the Bradley goes roughly five minutes without taking damage it begins repairing itself, and it returns to its full 1,000 health in about a minute once repairs start. Damage does not bank between engagements, so never open on it unless you have enough explosives to finish the job in one continuous fight.
How much health does Bradley have in Rust?
1,000 health. It is immune to every damage type except explosives, so bullets, melee, arrows, fire and fall damage all register as zero. It launched in August 2017 with 500 health and was buffed to its current pool later. There is no weak spot: the tracks, rear and turret all take exactly the same damage as the front hull.
What loot does Bradley drop in Rust?
Three APC crates, every time. Each crate rolls independently and guarantees an MLRS Rocket, with a 52% chance of a Targeting Computer, 43% CCTV Camera, 36% Timed Explosive Charge, 30% Armored Door, 25% Tech Trash, and smaller chances at an L96 Rifle, an M249 or a fully built Auto Turret. It is primarily an electrical and component run rather than a weapon run.
How long do you wait to loot Bradley crates?
Around four minutes. The APC crates burn on landing and cannot be opened until the fire goes out. The hull itself burns for roughly five minutes and becomes minable at about eight. Spend that window in hard cover watching the approaches, because the smoke column advertises the kill to everyone on the server.
Can you kill Bradley with guns in Rust?
No. The Bradley only takes explosive damage, so no rifle, shotgun, bow or melee weapon will hurt it. The one gun based route is Explosive 5.56 Rifle Ammo, which works because the explosive component counts, but it takes 571 rounds and about 14,275 sulfur. That is ten times the cost of seven HV rockets and it is not worth doing.
Do scientists come out of the Bradley?
Yes. Since a 2024 update, damaging the Bradley makes it deploy scientists in waves. The first group is four standard scientists with 150 health each, and as its health drops further waves arrive including heavy scientists with 300 health carrying miniguns, M249s, SPAS-12s and military flamethrowers. Killing the Bradley quickly stops the later waves from ever spawning.
What is a road Bradley in Rust?
A Bradley APC that spawns outside Launch Site during the endgame event in the final stretch of a wipe cycle. The number that spawn is the map size divided by 1000 and multiplied by two, so a standard 4000 size map gets eight of them. Each has the same 1,000 health and weapons as the Launch Site Bradley, and each locks to a single road and patrols it back and forth.
Is Bradley worth doing in Rust?
Yes, if you have HV rockets. Roughly 1,400 sulfur buys three APC crates plus 77 high quality metal from the wreck, and it repeats every hour. The targeting computers and CCTV cameras alone justify the trip for any group building turret defences. It is a poor trade only if you are paying for it in standard rockets at 15,400 sulfur.

Final Thoughts

Bradley looks like a gear check and it is really a preparation check. The tank at the centre of every Bradley Rust guide has not changed much in years: 1,000 health, explosives only, seven HV rockets, three crates. What has changed is everything around it. The scientist waves punish slow fights. The self repair punishes hesitation. The burn timers punish greed. And the end of wipe event quietly turns the whole road network into Launch Site for a day.

Get the HV rocket blueprint early, keep nine of them in a box, build a bed near Launch Site, and treat every kill as a fifteen minute commitment rather than a five minute one. Done that way it is the most repeatable high tier loot in the game.

Then check the wipe clock. If the reset is close, do not spend your rockets on the one at Launch Site. Wait a day and there will be eight of them driving around on roads with nobody ready for them.

Sources