Rust Workbench Levels 1, 2 and 3: Costs, Unlocks and Scrap

Each workbench opens a new tier of blueprints, the recipes you can craft. Level 1 gives you 248, Level 2 adds 181 and Level 3 the last 76. Researching the 64 items most players actually want, from the revolver to C4, costs 3,840 scrap at a research table.

The benches themselves cost no scrap. What locks Level 2 and Level 3 is blueprint fragments.

Every number here comes from the game's own files (the build of 2 October 2026) and holds on a vanilla server. Servers that change recipes or research prices won't match.

How much does each workbench cost to craft?

You climb the ladder in order, no skipping. Each level is a separate bench you place, not an upgrade of the old one. And you craft it at the bench one level below.

The whole ladder costs 500 wood, 1,600 metal fragments, 120 high quality metal (HQM), 5 basic and 5 advanced fragments.

The fragments are the real gate. You can't craft either kind, so you have to loot them. The game's own description of the basic fragment says you can piece 20 of them together into one advanced fragment. So a group that never finds an advanced fragment can still reach Level 3 on 105 basic ones.

You never research a bench, either. All three cost 10 scrap at the table. That's the price of a blueprint everyone knows from the start of a wipe. (A wipe is the server reset that puts everyone back to zero.)

What does each workbench level unlock?

Once a Level 3 bench stands, you need nothing else. A bench crafts everything at its own level and below. Here is what each level holds, counted from the blueprints:

Don't let the raw count fool you. Level 1 looks huge. But 51 of its blueprints are electrical parts, 18 are teas and food, and 68 are defaults you already know. Level 3 is the smallest tier, and it's the one that wins fights and opens bases.

Level 1: the first day's kit

Level 1 is where real guns start: the revolver, double barrel, waterpipe, handmade SMG and compound bow. You also get pistol bullets, the riot and bucket helmets, the metal hatchet and pickaxe, beancans and satchel charges. For the base, there's the high external wooden wall and the shotgun trap.

This bench also crafts the Research Table (200 metal fragments and 20 scrap). Everything in the research section below depends on it.

The Crossbow and the Nailgun are default blueprints at this level. You can craft them the moment the bench is down.

Level 2: the guns that win fights

Most wipes spend the longest time at Level 2. Here you get the Thompson, Custom SMG, Semi-Automatic Rifle, Python and pump shotgun, plus 5.56 ammo and the holosight. For armour, there's hazmat, road sign and heavy plate. For the base, the garage door and the high external stone wall. For healing, the large medkit and the syringe.

The Rocket Launcher is the odd one out. It's a Level 2 blueprint, and so are its high velocity and incendiary rockets. But the standard rocket that raids are built on needs Level 3.

Level 3: rifles, raids and armored doors

Level 3 adds the Assault Rifle, bolt action rifle, MP5A4, SKS and HMLMG. You also get the 8x scope, HV and explosive 5.56, rockets and C4, the metal facemask and chest plate, and armored doors.

It also turns scrap and high quality metal into gears, metal pipes and metal springs. Most guns need those parts.

Some of the best gear here can't be learned at the table at all. Thirty-six Level 3 blueprints cannot be researched. Among them are the L96 Rifle, LR-300 Assault Rifle, M249, M39 Rifle, Spas-12 Shotgun, M92 Pistol, the MLRS Rocket, 40mm HE Grenade, the ballistic armour and the Large Backpack. You have to loot those. No pile of scrap will teach them.

Filter the key items by level and by what they are for:

How much scrap does research cost?

Scrap runs out fast in a wipe, so know the prices before you farm. The research table turns an item you found into a blueprint you keep.

It charges by the item's rarity, not by its bench. A common item costs 15 Scrap, uncommon 30, rare 60 and very rare 120. A default blueprint costs 10, but you know those already. The higher the bench, the more of its items sit at the top prices:

The scrap isn't the whole price. Research uses up the item you put in, so you also pay with one copy you found. At the top end, the Assault Rifle, bolt action rifle, MP5A4, HMLMG, metal facemask, metal chest plate, C4 and the armored door cost 120 scrap each.

Each bench also has a tech tree, a chain of unlocks you buy one after another. It unlocks a blueprint without the item in hand, but only after the nodes in front of it. Its prices aren't in the item files this page is built from, so every total here is a research-table price.

What does a wipe cost in scrap, tier by tier?

Nobody researches everything. Every blueprint the three benches can teach, skins and electrical parts included, would cost 14,295 scrap.

Even the 64 key items in the table above come to 3,840 scrap. That's 630 for the 16 at Level 1, 1,470 for the 28 at Level 2 and 1,740 for the 20 at Level 3. So most groups research one kit per tier:

• Early wipe kit, 330 scrap at Level 1: Revolver, Double Barrel Shotgun, Pistol Bullet, Hatchet, Pickaxe, Riot Helmet, Pants, Beancan Grenade, Satchel Charge.
• Level 2 roam kit, 390 scrap at Level 2: Thompson, Python Revolver, 5.56 Rifle Ammo, Hoodie, Road Sign Jacket, Road Sign Kilt, Coffee Can Helmet, Large Medkit, Medical Syringe, Garage Door.
• Level 3 fight kit, 660 scrap at Level 3: Assault Rifle, 5.56 Rifle Ammo, Holosight, Metal Facemask, Metal Chest Plate, Road Sign Kilt, Medical Syringe, Armored Door.
• Raid kit, 540 scrap at Level 3: Rocket Launcher, Rocket, Timed Explosive Charge, Explosive 5.56 Rifle Ammo, Assault Rifle, 5.56 Rifle Ammo.

The four kits together, with shared items counted once, are 1,620 scrap for 28 items. Tick what you plan to research. The planner adds it up and tells you which bench you need:

A typical climb through the tiers looks like this:

Which workbench upgrades are worth crafting?

Upgrades make a bench craft faster, take more punishment or save you scrap. You craft them with scrap at a Level 1 or Level 2 bench. None can be researched at the table, and all ten together cost 2,100 scrap:

Climbing the tech tree? Then Salvage pays for itself: at 500 scrap, it breaks even after 2,500 scrap of unlocks at that bench.

Reinforced is cheap insurance for a Level 3 bench. That bench has 750 health and costs 5 advanced fragments to replace.

Prototype is for the one late item you need right now and can pay twice for.