Skip to content
Rust Codex
Electrical

XOR Switch

Live when exactly one input has power and dead when both do. That quirk turns two ordinary switches into a light you can flip from either end of a base.

Table of contents

Characteristics

Category
Electrical
Stack size
5
Workbench
Level 1
Craftable
Yes
Researchable
Yes · 15 Scrap
Health
200

Overview

In-game description
An exclusive-or logic gate that allows electrical passthrough if ONLY ONE input receives power, passthrough amount is whichever single input is active. If BOTH inputs receive power, passthrough will be zero.

Its trick is the case the other gates ignore. One input live, power goes through; both live, nothing does. That is exactly how a stairwell light works in a real house: two switches, and either of them changes the state.

  1. Split your power with a splitter so it feeds two switches, one at the bottom of the stairs and one on the top floor.
  2. Run each switch into its own input on the XOR with the wire tool.
  3. Wire the XOR output to a ceiling light over the stairs.

With both switches off, the light is dark. Flip either one and it comes on; flip the other and it goes dark again, because now both inputs are live. You come home at night, light the stairs from the airlock, climb up and kill the light from the top floor without walking back down.

Swap the light for anything else you want to reach from two places, a door controller included. The output is whatever the single live input carries, so feed both switches from the same source and the consumer always gets the same power.

Raid cost

Explosive Quantity Sulfur
Satchel Charge cheapest 1 480
Beancan Grenade 4 480
Explosive 5.56 Rifle Ammo 20–23 500–600
High Velocity Rocket 5 1,000
Rocket 1 1,400
Timed Explosive Charge 1 2,200
Other ways: siege weapons, vehicles and loot
Torpedo 10 120
Propane Explosive Bomb 1 900
Survey Charge 15 900
Mortar Shell 3 1,200
Homing Missile 17 1,800
MLRS Rocket 1 —
40mm HE Grenade 4 —
Hammerhead Bolt 8 —

Direct hit, hard side, no duds. Satchel Charge is a dud 20% of the time. Beancan Grenade is a dud 15% of the time. A range runs from point blank to the far end of the bullet's falloff, fired from an Assault Rifle.

Crafting

×100 Metal Fragments
×1 XOR Switch
Workbench level
Level 1
Crafting time
15 s
Research cost
15 Scrap

Recycling

Recycler

At power grid stage 2 a green recycler works at 60% instead of 50%. Yields depend on the recycler.

How to get

  • Craft

    at a Level 1 Workbench

  • Research

    15 Scrap at a Research Table

Related items