Some of the most useful items in Rust never come out of a crafting menu. Pure Scrap Tea, cheap gun powder and Workbench 3 ammo all come from one scruffy deployable: the Mixing Table. It is a metal sink with a copper still and a brick burner, and it is one of the best-value things you can place in your base.
It costs almost nothing. You need a Workbench Level 1, 200 Metal Fragments and 100 Stones, and it pays you back on the first batch of gun powder. From then on it brews every tea in the game, mixes gun powder with 33% less charcoal, and makes explosives and HV ammo without a Workbench 3.
This mixing table Rust guide covers how to get one, how to use it, every tea recipe and berry order, how tea tiers work, the gun powder, ammo and explosive recipes, how it compares with the Cooking Workbench, and the tips that get the most out of it. Every number is checked against RustHelp, RustClash and the Facepunch wiki.
- What Is It
- Stats
- How to Get It
- How to Use It
- Tea Recipes
- Tea Tiers
- Berries
- Gunpowder & Ammo
- vs Cooking Workbench
- Pro Tips
- FAQ
What Is the Mixing Table in Rust?
The Mixing Table (short name mixingtable) is a deployable that combines ingredients into new items. Facepunch added it in the August 2020 Mixing Table Update alongside the berry bushes it uses, and has added gun powder, explosives and ammo recipes since.
It works differently from a workbench. Instead of clicking a recipe and waiting, you drop ingredients into five slots in a set pattern, then press Start Mixing. Get the pattern right and it mixes in 1 to 5 seconds.
It does two jobs:
- Teas. Ten tea types in three tiers, 30 recipes in total. They boost ore, wood, scrap, healing, max health and more. Our Ore Tea guide goes deep on the most popular one.
- Raiding and PvP materials. Gun powder for less charcoal, explosives and HV ammo without a Workbench 3, and low grade fuel.
Mixing Table Rust Stats
Here are the verified stats for the Mixing Table. These are vanilla values. Modded servers can change costs and recipes.
| Stat | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Crafting | Workbench Level 1 | 200 Metal Fragments, 100 Stones |
| Research | 30 scrap | At a Research Table |
| Tech tree | 30 scrap node | 90 scrap total on the Workbench 1 farming branch |
| Buy | ~175 scrap | Bandit Camp Food Market (dynamic pricing) |
| Recipes | 39 | 30 teas, gun powder, explosives, low grade fuel, 6 ammo types |
| Input slots | 5 | Ingredients must go in the recipe’s pattern |
| Health | 500 HP | Drops its contents when destroyed |
| Power / fuel | None | Works anywhere you place it |
| Recycle | 100 frags + 50 stones | Normal recycler |
| Item ID / short name | 1259919256 / mixingtable | Stack size 1 |
How to Get a Mixing Table in Rust
This is one of the cheapest blueprints in Rust, so most groups have a table down on day one. You have five routes.
| Method | Cost / chance | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Craft Main way | 200 frags, 100 stones | Workbench Level 1, once you know the blueprint |
| Research | 30 scrap | Put a mixing table in a Research Table |
| Tech tree | 30 scrap node, 90 total | Workbench 1 tree, on the farming branch |
| Buy | ~175 scrap | Food Market at Bandit Camp |
| Loot | ~0.4-1% | Brown crates, wagon crates, sunken chests and scientists |
How to Use the Mixing Table
If you have never opened one, the UI looks confusing at first. It is simple once you know that slot order matters.
- Place the table anywhere in your base. It needs no power or fuel.
- Open it with E and scroll the recipe list. Blueprint recipes like ammo and explosives only show once you have learned them.
- Drag the ingredients into the five slots in the exact pattern the recipe shows. For gun powder, that is sulfur, charcoal, sulfur, charcoal, 10 of each.
- Press Start Mixing. Teas take 5 seconds, gun powder and 5.56 take 1 second, and explosives take 4 seconds.
- Take the result and load the next batch.
Mixing Table Tea Recipes
Every tea starts as a Basic tea made from four berries. There are five berry colours (red, blue, green, yellow and white), and each tea uses a different mix. Here is every Basic recipe, with the bonus at Basic and at Pure.
| Tea | Basic recipe (4 berries) | Basic | Advanced | Pure | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ore Tea | 2 Yellow, 2 Blue | +20% ore | +35% | +50% | 30 min |
| Wood Tea | 2 Red, 2 Blue | +50% wood | +100% | +200% | 30 min |
| Scrap Tea Best | 2 Yellow, 2 White | +100% scrap | +225% | +350% | 30 / 45 / 60 min |
| Harvesting Tea | 1 Yellow, 3 Green | +35% | +50% | +65% | 20 min |
| Crafting Quality Tea | 3 Green, 1 White | +50% | +75% | +85% | 3 min 20 s to 6 min 40 s |
| Anti-Rad Tea | 2 Red, 2 Green | +15% rad resist | +30% | +45% | 30 min |
| Healing Tea | 4 Red | +30 HP over time | +50 HP | +75 HP | Heals over time |
| Max Health Tea | 3 Red, 1 Yellow | +5% max HP | +12.5% | +20% | 20 min |
| Warming Tea | 2 White, 2 Yellow | Warmer | Warmer | Warmest | 20 / 45 / 60 min |
| Cooling Tea | 2 White, 2 Blue | Cooler | Cooler | Coolest | 20 / 45 / 60 min |
Every tea also gives +30 hydration. The ones worth brewing all wipe are:
- Scrap Tea for barrel runs. Pure Scrap Tea multiplies barrel scrap by 4.5x for a full hour.
- Ore Tea for farming. Pair it with a jackhammer for the fastest nodes in the game.
- Wood Tea for building days. Pure Wood Tea triples your wood from every tree.
- Crafting Quality Tea before crafting armour. It improves your odds of rolling armor insert slots.
- Anti-Rad Tea for radiation monuments. Our Rust monuments guide lists which ones need it.
How Tea Tiers Work: Basic, Advanced and Pure
Every tea comes in three tiers, and every upgrade is a 4-into-1 mix at the same table.
- Basic: 4 berries.
- Advanced: 4 Basic teas of the same type (16 berries).
- Pure: 4 Advanced teas of the same type (64 berries).
The jump in power is big. Pure Scrap Tea is +350% against +100% for Basic, and it lasts twice as long. But 64 berries is a lot to forage, so any group that wants Pure teas needs a berry farm.
Where to Get Berries for Teas
You can pick berry bushes you find in the wild, where they grow in clusters of one colour. That is fine for a few Basic teas. For Pure teas, plant the seeds:
- Pick wild berries to get seeds, or collect seeds while you harvest them.
- Plant them in large planter boxes inside your base. Planters keep them safe and let you control water and light.
- Water them with a water barrel or a sprinkler setup, and harvest when the bushes are ripe.
For Scrap Tea, you want yellow and white. For Ore Tea, yellow and blue. Yellow shows up in four of the ten recipes, so it is the colour to grow first.
Mixing Table Gunpowder, Ammo and Explosives
This is the part many players miss. The mixing table is not just for teas. It also makes the materials you need for raiding and PvP, and some of them are cheaper or easier than at a workbench.
| Item | Mixing table recipe | Time | vs workbench |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gun Powder x10 Best | 20 Sulfur + 20 Charcoal | 1 s | Workbench needs 30 charcoal, so you save 33% |
| Explosives x1 | 50 Gun Powder, 3 Low Grade, 10 Sulfur, 10 Frags | 4 s | Same cost, but no Workbench 3 needed |
| Low Grade Fuel x4 | 1 Cloth + 3 Animal Fat | 1 s | Same cost |
| 5.56 Rifle Ammo x3 | 5 Gun Powder + 10 Frags | 1 s | Same cost, no Workbench 2 needed |
| HV 5.56 Rifle Ammo x3 | 10 Gun Powder + 10 Frags | 3 s | Same cost, no Workbench 3 needed |
| Incendiary 5.56 Ammo x2 | 10 Gun Powder, 10 Frags, 5 Sulfur | 3 s | Same cost, no Workbench 3 needed |
| Pistol Bullet x4 | 5 Gun Powder + 10 Frags | 1 s | Same cost |
| HV Pistol Ammo x4 | 10 Gun Powder + 10 Frags | 3 s | Same cost, no Workbench 2 needed |
| Incendiary Pistol Bullet x3 | 10 Gun Powder, 10 Frags, 5 Sulfur | 3 s | Same cost |
Gun powder is the big one. A C4 needs 1,000 gun powder in its explosives. At a workbench that is 3,000 charcoal. At a mixing table it is 2,000. Across a full raid, that is thousands of charcoal you do not need to burn in your furnace. Our Rust raid calculator shows how fast that adds up.
For explosives and ammo, the cost is the same as crafting. The win is that you do not need the workbench tier. If you research the Explosives blueprint from a looted stack, your team can mix them before anyone owns a Workbench 3. You still need to know the blueprint, and the recipe stays hidden until you do.
Mixing Table vs Cooking Workbench
The Cooking Workbench can do everything the mixing table does. So do you need both?
| Mixing Table | Cooking Workbench | |
|---|---|---|
| Workbench | Level 1 | Level 2 |
| Craft cost | 200 Metal Fragments, 100 Stones | 200 Metal Fragments, 200 Stones, 100 Wood |
| Research / tech tree | 30 scrap / 90 total | 30 scrap / 420 total |
| Teas, gun powder, ammo | Yes | Yes |
| Pies and bread | No | Yes |
Early wipe, build the mixing table. It is cheaper and needs only a Workbench 1. Once you have a Workbench 2 and a farm with wheat and eggs, a Cooking Workbench can replace it, because it also makes pies like the Bear Pie. If you already own a Cooking Workbench, a separate mixing table is only useful as a second station to mix gun powder while the other one is busy.
Mixing Table Rust Pro Tips
- Build one on day one. 200 metal fragments and 100 stones is nothing, and it pays for itself on your first gun powder batch.
- Mix gun powder, never craft it. 20 charcoal per 10 gun powder instead of 30 saves a third of your charcoal on every raid.
- Grow berries in large planters. A Pure tea needs 64 berries. A planter farm keeps the table fed.
- Drink Scrap Tea before barrel runs. Pure Scrap Tea is +350% scrap from barrels for a full hour. Run roads and recycle the components too.
- Pair Ore Tea with a jackhammer. Pure Ore Tea adds +50% ore from every node for 30 minutes.
- Mix explosives before you own a WB3. Research the Explosives blueprint from loot, and the table mixes them with no Workbench 3.
Planning a tea-fuelled wipe? Know exactly when the next one hits. The monthly force wipe resets every map, base and blueprint on official servers, mixing tables included. Check the live countdown so you can plan your first-day scrap run.
See the Force Wipe CountdownMixing Table Rust FAQ
How do you craft a Mixing Table in Rust?
Once you know the blueprint, you craft a Mixing Table at a Workbench Level 1 for 200 Metal Fragments and 100 Stones.
How much scrap is the Mixing Table blueprint?
Researching a Mixing Table at a Research Table costs 30 scrap. In the Workbench 1 tech tree, the node costs 30 scrap, or 90 scrap in total along the farming branch.
Where can you buy a Mixing Table in Rust?
You can buy a Mixing Table from the Food Market vending machine at Bandit Camp for about 175 scrap. The price can move because Bandit Camp uses dynamic pricing.
How do you use the Mixing Table in Rust?
Open the table, pick a recipe, and drag the ingredients into the five slots in the exact pattern the recipe shows. Then press Start Mixing. Teas take 5 seconds and gun powder takes 1 second.
What can you make in a Mixing Table?
The Mixing Table has 39 recipes: 30 teas across ten types and three tiers, plus gun powder, explosives, low grade fuel, 5.56 rifle ammo, HV and incendiary 5.56 ammo, and pistol, HV pistol and incendiary pistol ammo.
Is gunpowder cheaper at the Mixing Table?
Yes. The Mixing Table makes 10 gun powder from 20 sulfur and 20 charcoal in one second. A workbench needs 30 charcoal and 20 sulfur, so the Mixing Table saves a third of the charcoal.
Can you make explosives in a Mixing Table without a Workbench 3?
Yes. If you know the Explosives blueprint, the Mixing Table mixes them from 50 gun powder, 3 low grade fuel, 10 sulfur and 10 metal fragments without a Workbench 3. The recipe does not appear until you learn the blueprint.
How do you make Pure tea in Rust?
Mix 4 berries into a Basic tea, 4 Basic teas into an Advanced tea, and 4 Advanced teas into a Pure tea, all at a Mixing Table or Cooking Workbench. A single Pure tea takes 64 berries.
Is the Cooking Workbench better than the Mixing Table?
The Cooking Workbench can make every Mixing Table recipe plus pies and bread, but it needs a Workbench 2 and costs more. Early in the wipe, the Mixing Table is the better choice because it only needs a Workbench 1.
Can you automate a Mixing Table in Rust?
No. The Mixing Table does not support Storage Adaptors, so industrial conveyors cannot load it. You have to add ingredients and start each mix by hand.
Sources and Further Reading
- Craft cost, recipes, research, tech tree, Bandit Camp price and storage data: RustHelp, Mixing Table
- Recipes, mix times, loot chances and recycler yields: RustClash Wiki, Mixing Table
- Official item data and process list: Facepunch Wiki, Mixing Table
- Explosives without a Workbench 3 and blueprint rules: Corrosion Hour, Rust Mixing Table and Tea Guide
- Cooking Workbench recipes and cost: RustHelp, Cooking Workbench
- Original announcement and in-game screenshots: Facepunch, Mixing Table Update
- The full gun powder breakdown: whenisforcewiperust.com, Gunpowder Rust Guide
- The best farming tea in depth: whenisforcewiperust.com, Ore Tea Rust Guide