Rust Oil Rig Guide: Puzzle, Loot, Codes & Heavy Scientists

The Rust Oil Rig is the only monument on the map where the loot announces itself. You hack one crate, a siren starts screaming, a Chinook comes over the horizon, and every boat within render distance turns toward you. There is no sneaking out of that.

There are two of them on every map. The Small Oil Rig is a four level platform you can run with two friends and a bit of ammo. The Large Oil Rig is six levels plus a helipad, nearly twice the scientists, and a heavy scientist drop that will end a duo that has not planned a defensive spot. Both sit out past the cargo ship lane in deep water, which means the trip is a commitment before the fight even starts.

Most oil rig guides you will find get three things wrong. They tell you to bring an Electric Fuse, which the rigs have never needed. They tell you the locked crate needs a keycard, which it does not. And they list a recycler that is not on either rig, so people arrive with a plan to melt components on site and end up hauling raw junk home.

This guide covers the real numbers: what each rig holds, which cards actually open which doors, exactly what happens across the 15 minute hack, how many heavy scientists come and what they drop, the full locked crate loot table with drop chances, every CCTV camera code, the respawn timers, and the moonpool route that skips most of the fight.

• What it is
• Where it spawns
• Small vs Large
• What to bring
• Getting there
• Small Rig run
• Large Rig run
• The locked crate
• Heavy scientists
• Loot
• Camera codes
• Timers
• Myths
• Mistakes
• FAQ
• Worth it?

What is the Oil Rig in Rust?

The Rust Oil Rig is an offshore monument built around a single event rather than a loot route. Facepunch said as much when they shipped it in March 2019, describing the goal as a set piece “with gameplay that differs from the run of the mill loot-every-box-while-crouching” monument. That design intent explains everything about how the rig plays.

You can absolutely treat a rig like a normal monument. Land, kill the scientists, open the crates and barrels, leave. That is a fine scrap run and it makes no noise. But the reason people go is the locked crate on the top deck. Hacking it starts a 15 minute countdown, triggers alarms across the rig, and calls in a CH-47 Chinook that drops heavy scientists onto the helipad. Survive that and the crate opens.

The important structural facts, because guides muddle them constantly:

• Neither rig is a safe zone. Players can shoot you anywhere on them, including the dock.
• Neither rig has radiation. Zero. You do not need a hazmat suit and wearing one just costs you armour.
• Neither rig has a recycler. Plan to haul components home or stop at a safe zone on the way back.
• Neither rig needs an Electric Fuse. The rigs are already powered. Every locked door on them is a card reader.
• The locked crate needs no keycard. You walk up and hold E. The cards are for separate loot rooms.

That last pair is the biggest time saver in this whole guide. Plenty of players farm a fuse and a red card before their first rig trip and never needed either to start the event.

Where do the Oil Rigs spawn?

Both rigs spawn in deep water on the outer edge of the map, further out than the cargo ship patrol route. They are placed by the map seed, so their exact position changes every wipe, but a few things are consistent:

• Two per map. One Small Oil Rig, one Large Oil Rig. They are separate monuments, not two spawns of the same one.
• Always offshore. Nothing walks to a rig. You are swimming, boating or flying.
• Bigger maps place them further out. On a large procedural map the swim is genuinely dangerous.
• You can see them from a long way off. The gas flare and deck lights are visible at night from most of the coast, which is how most players find them without opening the map.

Both have a no-build zone around them, roughly 4,096 m² on the Small Rig and 4,416 m² on the Large Rig, so nobody is building a tower next to the helipad to camp you.

Small Oil Rig vs Large Oil Rig

Same event, very different fight. The Small Rig is a realistic duo target. The Large Rig wants three or four players who have agreed in advance where they are standing when the Chinook arrives.

What do you need for the Oil Rig?

Short version: three keycards, a gun you can hit heads with, and enough meds to lose a fight and come back. Long version below.

The keycards

Each rig has three separate card rooms, and they are optional. None of them gates the locked crate.

• Green keycard Level 3 Opens a small room holding roughly three containers. Green cards drop from regular scientists constantly and cost about 15 scrap from the Bandit Camp vendor, so this one is basically free.
• Blue keycard Level 4 Opens the yellow building room with military crates inside. This is the best value card on the rig.
• Red keycard Admin Opens the white admin building near the top. On the Large Rig that room holds around seven containers, which is the single densest patch of loot on the monument.

Cards are consumed on use, and a red card stacks to one, so you cannot carry spares for a second run without eating inventory slots. Bring one of each, and accept that if you die on the way up you have lost them.

Gear that actually matters

A bolt action or an AK covers everything on the rig. Heavies wear armour and have 300 HP, which is double a normal scientist, so body spraying them burns a magazine per kill. If you only have a semi rifle, fight them from a choke point where they arrive one at a time. See the Rust weapons guide if you are deciding what to farm for first.

How to get to the Oil Rig

Every route to a Rust Oil Rig is a real trip, because both rigs sit past the cargo ship lane. Five options, in rough order of how often you will use them.

1. RHIB. The default. Fast, takes a beating, carries a team and their loot. Park it under the rig out of sight from the deck, not at the dock where everyone looks first. Our boat guide covers fuel and storage.
2. Rowboat. Cheap and quiet enough, but slow, and slow means the person who heard your siren gets there before you leave.
3. Submarine. The interesting one. Both rigs have a moonpool underneath, added in the April 2024 update, exactly like the underwater labs. Dock in it, climb the saturation tube, and you come out inside the rig.
4. Minicopter or Attack Helicopter. Lands on the helipad, which is also where the heavies get dropped. Great for arriving, terrible for parking. Set down on a lower level if there is room.
5. Swimming with a diving tank and fins. Slowest and safest in one. You have no vehicle to lose, and nobody watching the water sees a swimmer at night.

Small Oil Rig walkthrough

Four levels, 15 scientists, and one locked crate on the top. A clean run takes about 10 minutes plus the 15 minute timer.

1. Level 0, the dock. Tie up out of sight. Two scientists usually cover the entry. Kill them from the water if you can, because shooting up a ladder is a bad opening.
2. Level 1. Roughly four containers. Light patrol. Clear it before you climb, or you will get shot in the back on Level 2.
3. Level 2. The densest normal loot on the rig, up to about ten containers. Take your time here, it is the last quiet moment you get.
4. Level 3. Around seven containers, three of them behind the green card door. This is also where the moonpool tube comes out.
5. Level 4. The top. Up to ten containers including the elite crate and the military crates behind the blue and red card readers in the white building. The locked crate sits in the open in the middle.
6. Clear first, hack second. Kill every scientist you can find and open everything before you touch the crate. Once the timer starts you want your hands free.

Large Oil Rig walkthrough

Six levels plus the helipad, 23 to 27 scientists, and two elite crates. Same idea, more of it, and the heavy drop is roughly double.

1. Level 0, the dock. Two scientists and a couple of containers. Also where the moonpool exit sits.
2. Level 1. Three scientists, no loot. Pure transit. Three ways up from here.
3. Level 2. The perimeter walkway. Up to thirteen containers, only two scientists. Best loot to risk ratio on the rig.
4. Level 3. Up to nine containers, three behind the green card door in the yellow building. There is a non functioning tier 2 workbench here that is pure decoration, so do not plan to craft.
5. Level 4. Four scientists, up to ten containers, four military crates behind the blue card door. Ventilation shafts give you four ways in and out, which matters later when heavies are hunting you.
6. Level 5. Up to sixteen containers including three in a hidden room, and seven vent entrances. The most containers of any single level.
7. Level 6. Seven scientists, the research table, the barbeque, the red card room with around seven containers, and the locked crate. The helipad is right there, which is exactly the problem.

The locked crate and the 15 minute timer

This is the whole monument. The Oil Rig Locked Crate sits in the open on the top level of both rigs. You hold E on it, and that is it. No keycard, no fuse, no puzzle. If a guide tells you to swipe a red card to start the hack, it has confused the crate with the red card room next to it.

What happens, in order:

• 0:00. The hack starts. Yellow sirens spin up and an alarm plays across the rig. This is not subtle. Anyone in a boat nearby now knows the rig is being run and roughly how long they have to get there.
• Around 0:30 to 1:00. A CH-47 Chinook comes in, circles, and briefly touches down on the helipad to unload heavy scientists.
• Immediately after. The heavies sweep the top deck looking for you. If they do not find anyone during that sweep they settle into normal patrol behaviour, which is much easier to pick apart.
• 15:00. The crate unlocks. Loot it and get off the rig.

The timer cannot be shortened. It also cannot be extended by other players interfering, which was a change made years ago and is why old forum threads about “timer griefing” no longer apply.

Heavy scientists

Heavy scientists exist to punish you for starting the timer. They are the toughest regular NPC in the game and they only appear in three places: the oil rigs, and more recently around the Bradley APC at Launch Site once it takes enough damage.

They carry a Minigun, an M249, a SPAS-12 or a Military Flamethrower. All four are brutal at close range and the flamethrower will kill you through a doorway you thought was cover. At distance they are much less accurate, which is the entire strategy.

How to fight them

1. Pick your spot before you hack. A stairwell, a vent shaft, or under the crane. Anywhere they arrive one or two at a time.
2. Fight vertically. Standing a level below them and shooting up through a gap means only the closest one can return fire.
3. Head only. Five headshots beats about thirty body shots. If you cannot hit heads reliably, do not start the timer on the Large Rig.
4. Let the sweep finish. If you hide during the initial sweep they drop into normal patrols and you can pick them off individually instead of fighting a group.
5. Loot as you go. Bodies despawn. A dropped minigun is worth more than the crate on a bad roll.

Their loot table is the reason some players trigger the crate and never bother waiting for it. Per the Rust wiki, each heavy has roughly a 20% chance to drop a Minigun and a 20% chance to drop a Military Flamethrower, plus large ammo stacks, medical syringes and 40mm grenade rounds. Six heavies is a real chance at a minigun.

Oil Rig loot

Rig loot splits into three buckets: the ordinary crates and barrels scattered across the levels, the card rooms, and the locked crate. The first two are a solid scrap and component run on their own with no siren involved.

A full clear of scientists and barrels on the Small Rig, recycled, comes out around 1,000 scrap, 200+ high quality metal and 1,000+ metal fragments, plus fuel, cloth and leather. That is a strong run even if you never touch the crate. Since neither rig has a recycler, you are carrying it all home first.

Why the blueprint fragments matter more than the guns

Since the Meta Shift update in October 2025, Workbench 3 costs 5 Advanced Blueprint Fragments on top of scrap. Hackable crates are the reliable source, and they always give them in pairs. That makes the oil rig locked crate one of the fastest routes to a tier 3 bench on a fresh wipe, and it is the reason rigs get run at hour four now instead of day two.

Three rig runs is your workbench. That is a much better reason to go than a 24% chance at an LR-300.

Oil Rig CCTV camera codes

Every rig camera is a fixed identifier that works on every server, so you can put a Computer Station in your base and watch both rigs before you commit to the trip. Type the code exactly, all caps, no spaces.

Small Oil Rig camera codes

• OILRIG1DOCK
• OILRIG1HELI
• OILRIG1L1
• OILRIG1L2
• OILRIG1L3
• OILRIG1L4

Large Oil Rig camera codes

• OILRIG2DOCK
• OILRIG2EXHAUST
• OILRIG2HELI
• OILRIG2L1
• OILRIG2L2
• OILRIG2L3A
• OILRIG2L3B
• OILRIG2L4
• OILRIG2L5
• OILRIG2L6A
• OILRIG2L6B
• OILRIG2L6C
• OILRIG2L6D

Unlike the Abandoned Military Base and the underwater labs, whose codes are generated fresh per server, the oil rig codes never change. Write them down once.

Respawn and reset timers

The 24 minute scientist respawn is the one that catches people. If you hack the crate and then spend fifteen minutes hiding, the scientists you cleared on the way up are back before the crate opens. Your clean escape route down the stairs is not clean any more.

Oil Rig myths that guides keep repeating

The rigs have been in the game since 2019 and a lot of guide content has been copied forward without checking. These are the ones worth correcting.

Common mistakes

• Hacking the crate the moment you arrive. Clear the rig, loot the card rooms, then start the timer. Otherwise you are fighting heavies and scientists at once with a full inventory you cannot afford to lose.
• Parking at the dock. It is the first place anyone checks. Tuck the boat under the structure.
• Fighting heavies in the open on the top deck. All of them shoot you at once. Take a stairwell.
• Bringing every card but no meds. Cards are worthless if you die on Level 2.
• Assuming the rig is empty because it is quiet. A team that already hacked the crate is deliberately silent, waiting out the same fifteen minutes you would.
• Standing under the Chinook. It touches down on the helipad. Be somewhere else.
• Forgetting the 24 minute scientist respawn. Your exit is not the same as your entrance.
• Planning to recycle on site. There is no recycler. Bring bag space, not optimism.

Oil Rig FAQ

Is the Oil Rig worth running?

It depends entirely on where you are in the wipe, and the answer has changed since 2025.

Early wipe, yes, without hesitation. The guaranteed pair of Advanced Blueprint Fragments in every locked crate makes the Rust Oil Rig one of the cleanest routes to Workbench 3 that exists. Three runs and you have the bench. Compare that to grinding hackable crates on cargo or hoping for a lucky elite crate roll and the rig wins on consistency alone, because the fragments are not a drop chance, they are a certainty.

Mid wipe, only if you have the numbers. By day three the servers know the rigs are worth camping. The siren that tells you the crate is open tells four other people the same thing, and a geared team that lets you clear the heavies before they push you is getting the whole run for free. If you cannot spare a player to watch the water for fifteen minutes, do not start the hack.

Late wipe, treat it as a gun run. The blueprint fragments are worthless once you have the bench. What is left is the components, the guns and the chance at a minigun or military flamethrower off the heavies, which is a fine reason to go but not one worth losing a RHIB over.

The rig also rewards patience in a way most monuments do not. You can run both rigs for scrap and components without ever touching the locked crate, and nobody will know you were there. That quiet run is genuinely one of the better scrap sources in the game, and it is the version most players skip because they went straight for the crate on their first trip, died to heavies and never came back.

References

• Facepunch, The Oil Rig Update for the monument’s release and design intent
• Rust Wiki, heavy scientist for the heavy scientist loot table and drop chances
• Rust Wiki, Oil Rig Locked Crate for the crate loot table and heavy scientist counts
• Corrosion Hour, Small Oil Rig guide for the level by level walkthrough and timers
• Corrosion Hour, Large Oil Rig guide for scientist distribution and container counts
• RustHelp, Large Oil Rig for crate counts, no-build area and reset times
• RustHelp, CCTV codes for the full camera code list
• Rustafied, Oil Rig Ho for the launch walkthrough and recycled loot yields