Food is a valuable resource in Rust, keeping your hunger level topped up prevents exhaustion (unable to sprint) while out. It’s also just nice to not have to die and regenerate health. Some players might find it a bit tedious but with how easily accessible food is, it’s always worth eating regularly.
Also providing health, either instantly or over time, and sometimes thirst. There’s no reason not to loot those food crates or pick up any wild vegetables you find.
Over time, you can find your supplies getting pretty full. Or you can be spending too much time obtaining the wrong food items. It’s important to know which ones to keep an eye for and which to discard or ignore.
Here’s the 10 best food items in Rust. Not only will rankings depend on the stats provided, it’ll also consider how easy they are to find!
Blueberries for example, are an excellent food item but are way too rare to even think about.
10. Mushrooms
Health: 3
Thirst: 5
Hunger: 15
Commonly littered across forest floors, mushrooms are an easily obtainable, quick snack when you’re on the go. Usually spawning in clumps of up to 5 pieces, you can get a few stacks of them in mere minutes.
Of course, the stats provided aren’t too amazing. Each one will only boost your health, hunger and thirst by a small amount. Definitely worth picking them up when you see them, though. The health is instantly provided so you can munch them during fights for a quick boost.
9. Corn
Health: 6
Thirst: 5
Hunger: 40
Growing near rivers, you’ll be able to find plenty of corn by visiting moving water. Not great during combat though, the health regenerates instead of being instantly applied.
Eating corn will produce a corn seed for your inventory, so you can plant it and grow more!
Takes a few hours to grow though, try to use planters to prevent other players from stealing it.
8. Can of Tuna
Health: 2
Thirst: 15
Hunger: 50
Food crates have a 21% chance to contain 1-3 cans of tuna. As well as providing a ton of hunger, tuna cans regenerate 2 health and provide a good amount of thirst.
Also being able to smelt the empty can is a nice bonus of 15 metal fragments. Not exactly game changing but it’s little things like that, that can make your survival experience a lot easier!
7. Granola Bar
Health: 5
Thirst: 0
Hunger: 60
Same chance of finding is as the previous entry, at 21% in food crates. While the granola bar provides less thirst than the cans of tuna, the 10 extra hunger and slightly higher health regeneration make it a bit better.
6. Cooked Wolf Meat
Health: 5
Thirst: 1
Hunger: 60
Harvesting a wolf corpse with a hatchet or bone knife will yield up to 5 raw wolf meat. Hardly easy to obtain a ton of this food item but when you get the opportunity, always take it.
Finding wolves can be tricky, a lot of players tend to kill them on sight. Best to look in wooded, snowy or grassland biomes.
5. Cooked Pork
Health: 5
Thirst: 1
Hunger: 60
Boars are far, far more populous than wolves and the meat provides the same stats. However, harvesting a boar corpse will grant 8 pork, instead of the 5 you get from a wolf.
Bone knives are very cheap to craft, repaying themselves in bone fragments after a single hunt. It’s always good to carry one with you, to help maximise your butchery.
4. Chocolate Bar
Health: 2
Thirst: 1
Hunger: 100
Low health and thirst provided but insane hunger, one of the few easily obtainable food crate items left on the list.
Chocolate bars are commonly found in food crates, picking them up should be a priority. Just supplement them with thirst from other sources!
3. Cooked Bear Meat
Health: 5
Thirst: 1
Hunger: 100
Bears are currently the most formidable animal in the game, capable of killing lesser geared players with ease. A huge health pool of 400 makes it tough to take down but if you do, the rewards are immense.
19 bear meat can be obtained, enough to comfortably feed 4 or 5 people for a while. Bear meat is pretty much the premium, end-game meat though, not readily available to fresh spawns.
2. Can of Beans
Health: 4
Thirst: 25
Hunger: 100
Found in food crates, cans of beans are always easy to find and it’s worth stocking up on them. Hunger is huge, thirst provided is also pretty nice.
Also get the added bonus of 15 metal fragments for smelting it!
1. Pumpkins
Health: 10
Thirst: 30
Hunger: 100
Like corn, pumpkins are found next to rivers. Eating one will grant 1-2 pumpkin seeds, which leads to 2 or even 3 more pumpkins.
Put simply, no other food item is as easy to obtain. No other food item gives so much thirst, hunger and health regeneration too.
Once you’ve got a base going, you should definitely go visit some rivers and start a pumpkin farm. Even if it’s just a planter or two, you’ll never worry about thirst/hunger again!