Rust Ammo Chart: Every Ammo Type, Damage & Crafting Recipe (2026)

Rust has more ammo than most players ever look at. There are four kinds of 5.56, three kinds of pistol bullet, four shotgun shells, four arrows, six rockets, and a long tail of nails, darts, spears, mortar shells, torpedoes and siege ammo. Some of it is dirt cheap, some of it costs more sulfur than a wall, and picking the wrong round wastes a whole farm run.

This Rust ammo chart puts every ammo type in one place: damage per shot, velocity, the exact crafting recipe from the game files, the workbench it needs, how many you get per craft and what each round really costs in sulfur. If you are stocking up for a fresh start, our Rust force wipe countdown shows exactly when the next wipe lands.

• Full Ammo Chart
• 5.56 Rifle Ammo
• Pistol Ammo
• Shotgun Shells
• Arrows & Nails
• Rockets
• Sulfur per Round
• Mortar, 40mm & Torpedoes
• Darts, Spears & Siege
• Best Ammo
• Tips
• FAQ

Rust Ammo Chart: Every Gun Round at a Glance

This is the main chart. Damage is per shot on the gun named in the column header, from the Facepunch Rust wiki. Recipes, batch sizes, workbenches and research costs come straight from the game’s own item files (October 2026). Sulfur counts gun powder as 2 sulfur, because 10 gun powder takes 20 sulfur and 30 charcoal.

5.56 Rifle Ammo Chart

5.56 is the ammo you will burn the most. It feeds the Assault Rifle, LR-300, M249, L96, Bolt Action Rifle, M39, Semi-Automatic Rifle, SKS, HMLMG and the High Caliber Revolver. All four types share one magazine, so you can swap between them with the ammo wheel without changing guns.

• 5.56 Rifle Ammo is the default. Full damage, normal speed, and only about 3.3 sulfur a round. This is what you fight with.
• HV 5.56 does the same damage as normal 5.56 but leaves the barrel 20% faster, so it drops less and you lead moving targets less. The game describes it as giving slightly higher damage over long distances, because a faster bullet loses less of its damage on the way. It costs twice the gun powder.
• Incendiary 5.56 hits about 12% harder (56 instead of 50 on an AK) and can set fires, but flies at 60% speed and shows a bright tracer.
• Explosive 5.56 does normal bullet damage plus a small explosion. That explosion is what makes it a raiding round, not a PvP round.

5.56 damage on every rifle

Each gun multiplies the ammo by its own damage scale, so the same bullet hits harder from a sniper than from an LR. Headshots are x2 on all of these.

Explosive 5.56 raid counts

From the hard side with an AK, per our Rust raid chart. The SAR and LR-300 need one or two more rounds on the weaker targets.

Explosive ammo beats rockets and C4 on wooden and sheet metal doors. On walls it is a waste: a stone wall takes 182 rounds and 4,550 sulfur, while two C4 or four rockets do the same job faster.

Pistol Ammo Chart

Pistol ammo feeds the Semi-Automatic Pistol, Python, Revolver, M92, Prototype 17, MP5A4, Thompson, Custom SMG and Handmade SMG. Standard pistol bullets only need a Workbench 1 and give you 4 rounds for 10 frags and 5 gun powder, which is why early wipe fights are full of P2s and SMGs.

HV pistol ammo flies a third faster (400 instead of 300) for the same damage, so it is worth it on a Python or M92 at range. Incendiary pistol bullets hit 12% harder, fly 25% slower and have a small chance to start a fire.

Shotgun Ammo Chart

Shotguns fire a spread of pellets, so the damage below is per pellet on the Pump Shotgun, except the slug, which is one big projectile. Close up, most of the pellets land and a single buckshot shell kills a lightly armored player. Past about 10 metres the spread opens up and the slug takes over.

• 12 Gauge Buckshot: the close range standard, 15 damage a pellet, headshot x1.2.
• 12 Gauge Slug: 80 damage in one projectile with a x2 headshot, so a shotgun becomes a short range rifle. Stacks to 32 instead of 64.
• 12 Gauge Incendiary Shell: buckshot damage plus fire, but slow pellets and 20 sulfur a shell. Mostly for burning wooden doors and deployables.
• Handmade Shell: a default blueprint, crafted anywhere from 5 stones and 5 gun powder for 2. Weak, slow and spread wide, but it is the only shell the Shotgun Trap accepts and the cheap everyday shell for the Eoka and Waterpipe.

The same shell does different damage in each shotgun. The M4 and Spas-12 do a little less per pellet than the Pump, and the Double Barrel trades a slow reload for two fast shots.

Arrow and Nail Chart

Arrows and nails are the only gun ammo that cost zero sulfur, so they carry the first hours of every wipe. Wooden, HV and bone arrows are default blueprints, and nails need nothing but metal fragments.

• Wooden Arrow: the most damage of any arrow, 60 from a Crossbow.
• High Velocity Arrow: 20% less damage but by far the fastest arrow, 120 velocity from a Crossbow against 75 for wooden. Best for moving targets and longer shots.
• Bone Arrow: a big arrowhead that is easy to hit with, at a damage cost. Made from bone fragments, so it is the arrow you craft from animal kills. You get 3 per craft instead of 2.
• Fire Arrow: lights on fire when you aim, sets wooden things and grass alight. Good for burning a twig or wood door and for clearing sleeping bags.
• Nailgun Nails: 18 damage at 50 velocity with a x1.5 headshot, 5 nails from 8 frags. See our Nailgun guide for why it is the best day one gun.

Rocket Ammo Chart

The Rocket Launcher takes three rockets. The other three belong to the Homing Launcher, the SAM Site and the MLRS.

The standard rocket is expensive because each one needs 10 Explosives, and every Explosive is 50 gun powder plus 10 sulfur, 3 low grade fuel and 10 frags. That is why a rocket is 1,400 sulfur while an HV rocket, which skips Explosives completely, is only 200. Rockets also eat metal pipes at two a rocket.

Sulfur Cost of Every Round

Sulfur is what limits how much you can shoot. Every round below is worked out from the game recipe, counting each gun powder as 2 sulfur and leaving out the charcoal and frags.

Want the full farm list for a stack of ammo, including charcoal, frags and wood? Our Rust crafting calculator works it out for any amount.

Mortar, 40mm Grenade and Torpedo Ammo

The Mortar is a newer deployable (15 high quality metal and a metal pipe at a Workbench 2) that lobs shells in an arc. The game describes the standard shell as high explosive with only minor structural damage, so mortars are for hitting players and vehicles from cover, not for raiding walls. The fragmentation shell is cheaper and you get 3 per craft. The MGL and all three 40mm rounds can’t be crafted, so you only get them from crates.

Darts, Spears and Siege Ammo

Best Ammo in Rust for Each Job

• PvP with an automatic rifle: standard 5.56. HV does not add damage up close, and incendiary’s slow bullets and bright tracers are a bad trade in a spray fight.
• Sniping: HV 5.56 in an L96 or Bolt. The flatter arc matters far more than 6 extra damage.
• Raiding doors: explosive 5.56. A wooden door is 18 rounds and a sheet metal door 63, cheaper than any explosive.
• Raiding walls: rockets or C4, never explosive ammo. Check the Rust raid calculator for the cheapest mix.
• Bradley and turrets: HV rockets at 200 sulfur each.
• Early wipe: nails, wooden arrows and handmade shells, then pistol bullets as soon as your Workbench 1 is down.

Not sure which gun to load? Our Rust weapons tier list ranks every gun, and a silencer cuts 25 to 30% off whatever ammo you fire.

Rust Ammo Tips

Rust Ammo FAQ

Sources

• Facepunch Rust Wiki: 5.56 Rifle Ammo
• Facepunch Rust Wiki: Assault Rifle ammo table
• Facepunch Rust Wiki: Pistol Bullet
• Facepunch Rust Wiki: Pump Shotgun ammo table
• Facepunch Rust Wiki: Crossbow ammo table
• Facepunch: Rust changelog