The Hammer is the second thing almost every Rust player crafts, right after the Building Plan, and it never leaves your hotbar for the rest of the wipe. It does no damage at all. Instead it turns twig into wood, stone, sheet metal and armored, repairs everything you own, rotates walls you placed the wrong way, removes your mistakes and picks up deployables so you can move them.
This Rust hammer guide covers the exact recipe, every upgrade cost by tier, how repairing works and what a full repair costs, the 10 minute rotate and demolish windows, how picking up deployables works, and how the Hammer compares with the Salvaged Hammer and the Garry’s Mod Tool Gun.
What Is the Hammer in Rust?
The in-game description reads: “A Hammer, used to upgrade building materials. Right-click for the options. You can also pick up deployed objects while the hammer is equipped.” In the game files it is hammer with item ID 200773292. You can look up any other ID in our Rust item IDs list.
It works hand in hand with the Building Plan. The plan places every piece as twig, and the Hammer does everything after that. It has a weapon slot like any other tool, but its damage is 0: swinging it at a player, an animal, a tree or an enemy wall does nothing. If you want a hammer that hurts, that is the Salvaged Hammer, a completely different item. For the full building system, from foundations to roofs, start with our Rust building guide.
How to Craft a Hammer in Rust
Open the crafting menu (Tab), find the Hammer under Tools and craft it. You never need to research it, because it is one of the default blueprints every player knows from spawn. Craft it together with a Building Plan (20 wood) and you can start a base with 120 wood.
| Stat | Hammer |
|---|---|
| Recipe | 100 Wood |
| Workbench | None |
| Craft time | 15 s, 7 s at a Workbench 1, 3 s at Workbench 2 or 3 |
| Blueprint | Default, known by everyone |
| Damage | 0 (attack rate 2, range 1.5 m) |
| Recycle | 60 wood (40 at a safe zone recycler) |
| Stack / despawn | 1 / 5 minutes on the ground |
| Short name / ID | hammer / 200773292 |
Because it costs so little, there is no reason to hoard one. Lost it on a death? Craft another from the next tree. Running a server? Admins can give one from the F1 console:
inventory.give hammer 1Our Rust admin commands list has every other give and spawn command.
How to Upgrade With the Hammer
- Get building privilege. Place a Tool Cupboard and authorize on it. You cannot upgrade inside someone else’s building privilege.
- Carry the materials. The cost is taken from your inventory, not from the cupboard.
- Equip the Hammer and look at the block. Walls, foundations, floors, doorways, stairs and roofs all work.
- Hold right click. The upgrade wheel opens. Pick a grade and let go. On console, hold the aim button.
You can jump straight from twig to any tier. There is no need to go through wood first, and you only pay for the tier you pick. These are the costs per piece from the current game files:
| Grade | Wall / foundation | Floor | HP (wall) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twig (placed with the plan) | 50 wood | 25 wood | 10 |
| Wood | 200 wood | 100 wood | 250 |
| Stone | 300 stone | 150 stone | 500 |
| Sheet metal | 200 metal fragments | 100 metal fragments | 1,000 |
| Armored | 25 HQM | 13 HQM | 2,000 |
Triangle foundations and floors cost half a square one. Want a whole base priced before you farm? Draw it in our Rust base builder, and check the daily cost with the upkeep calculator, because higher tiers also cost more to keep up.
How to Repair With the Hammer
Just hit a damaged block, door or deployable with the Hammer while you carry the right material. Every swing restores health and takes a little material from your inventory. If you are missing something, a small box tells you which material is short. Repairing works on almost anything with a health bar: walls, doors, the Tool Cupboard, boxes, turrets, boats and even the drone while it is deployed.
Two rules matter in a fight:
- Recently damaged. A block that just took damage cannot be repaired for about 30 seconds. That is why you cannot simply out-repair a raid on the wall that is being hit.
- Half price. A full repair from near zero costs about 50% of the build cost of that piece, and less if it is only scratched.
Here is what a full repair from almost zero health costs, worked out from the build recipes. Sites that list item repairs back these numbers up (a wooden door at 150 wood, a table at 50 wood):
| Piece | Build cost | Full repair with the Hammer |
|---|---|---|
| Wood wall | 200 wood | 100 wood |
| Stone wall | 300 stone | 150 stone |
| Sheet metal wall | 200 metal fragments | 100 metal fragments |
| Armored wall | 25 HQM | about 13 HQM |
| Wooden door | 300 wood | 150 wood |
| Sheet metal door | 150 metal fragments | 75 metal fragments |
| Tool Cupboard | 1,000 wood | 500 wood |
Items in your inventory, like guns and armor, are not fixed with the Hammer. Those go to a Repair Bench. The Hammer itself cannot be repaired at all, but at 100 wood that never matters.
How to Rotate and Demolish With the Hammer
With the Hammer out, look at your own block and hold E. A small wheel opens with Rotate and Demolish when they are allowed:
- Rotate flips walls, doorways, windows, wall frames, stairs and steps. It works for 10 minutes after you place the block, and again for 10 minutes after every upgrade. Rotating is how you put a wall’s soft side facing in.
- Demolish deletes the block. It works for 10 minutes after you place it, and you get nothing back.
- Both need you to be authorized on the Tool Cupboard. You can never rotate or demolish someone else’s base.
After the window closes the block is locked. The only way to remove it is to break it like a raider would, or to let it decay; our Rust decay guide covers both. Modded servers often change the timer, so a 30 or 60 minute window is normal there.
How to Pick Up Deployables With the Hammer
Most deployables can be picked back up into your inventory. Equip the Hammer, look at the item, hold E and choose Pick up. You need building privilege where the item sits, and storage must be empty first, so clear a large wood box or a furnace before you try.
That makes moving rooms cheap. Furnaces, boxes, sleeping bags, tables, barricades and planters all come back as items you can place again. A damaged item comes back with its damage, so repair it first. Some things cannot be picked up at all, mostly big crafted structures; in that case you have to destroy them.
Hammer vs Salvaged Hammer vs Tool Gun
| Tool | Cost | Damage | Upgrades / repairs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hammer | 100 wood, no bench | 0 | Yes | Building, repairing, moving items |
| Garry’s Mod Tool Gun | 100 wood + 20 metal fragments | 0 | Yes | The same job with a different look and sound (needs Garry’s Mod on Steam) |
| Salvaged Hammer | 50 metal fragments + 1 metal pipe, Workbench 1 | 40 | No | Melee raiding doors and deployables |
| Building Plan | 20 wood, no bench | 0 | No | Placing twig pieces |
The Tool Gun is the only real alternative. It does everything the Hammer does, and players who own Garry’s Mod on Steam can craft it. The Salvaged Hammer is a weapon and raid tool that cannot upgrade anything, and it costs a lot more.
Rust Hammer Tips
- Craft it with your first 120 wood. Building Plan plus Hammer is the start of every fresh force wipe. Our beginner’s guide walks through the first hour.
- Upgrade the core first. Twig to stone on the cupboard room before anything else, then expand. Twig is only 10 HP.
- Skip wood when you can. Going straight to stone saves you the 200 wood you would spend on a wood tier you replace later.
- Mind the 10 minutes. Rotate walls and fix misplaced pieces right after you build, not the next day.
- Repair between explosions. During an online raid, repair the walls next to the one being hit and the ones that stopped taking damage 30 seconds ago.
- Keep materials on you. Upgrades and repairs come out of your inventory, never out of the cupboard.
- Check the raid cost. Before deciding how high to upgrade, see what each tier costs to break in our raid calculator.
Rust Hammer FAQ
How do you craft a hammer in Rust?
Open the crafting menu and craft it from 100 wood. It needs no workbench and is a default blueprint, so every player knows it from spawn. It takes 15 seconds, or 7 seconds at a Workbench 1.
How do you upgrade with the hammer in Rust?
Authorize on your Tool Cupboard, carry the materials, equip the Hammer, look at the block and hold right click. Pick wood, stone, sheet metal or armored on the wheel. A wall costs 200 wood, 300 stone, 200 metal fragments or 25 HQM.
How do you rotate a wall in Rust?
Equip the Hammer, look at the wall, hold E and choose Rotate. It works for 10 minutes after you place the wall and for 10 minutes after each upgrade, and you must be authorized on the Tool Cupboard.
How long do you have to demolish in Rust?
10 minutes after you place the block on official servers. Hold E with the Hammer and choose Demolish. You get no materials back, and after 10 minutes the only way to remove it is to break it or let it decay.
Why can’t I repair my wall in Rust?
Either it was damaged in the last 30 seconds or you do not carry the material it needs. A stone wall needs stone, a sheet metal wall needs metal fragments and an armored wall needs high quality metal.
How much does it cost to repair with the hammer?
A full repair from near zero costs about half the build cost: 100 wood for a wood wall, 150 stone for a stone wall, 100 metal fragments for a sheet metal wall and about 13 HQM for an armored wall.
Can you raid with a hammer in Rust?
No. The normal Hammer deals 0 damage. For melee raiding you need the Salvaged Hammer, which deals 40 damage and is crafted from 50 metal fragments and a metal pipe at a Workbench 1.
What is the Tool Gun in Rust?
The Garry’s Mod Tool Gun is a Hammer alternative for players who own Garry’s Mod on Steam. It costs 100 wood and 20 metal fragments and upgrades, repairs, rotates and picks up exactly like the Hammer.
Sources
- Facepunch Rust Wiki: Hammer
- Facepunch Rust Wiki: Salvaged Hammer
- RustHelp: Stone Wall upgrade and repair
- Rust game files (items.craft.json), recipes and craft times, October 2026