Rust modded server: gather rates and kits

Vanilla Rust has no convar for gather rates, stack sizes or kits. A "2x" or "5x" server gets them from plugins: a gather manager multiplies what players harvest, a stack-size controller raises how much fits in a slot so the extra resources are usable, and a kits plugin hands out starter or rank-based loadouts with cooldowns. Install Oxide or Carbon, add those three, tune smelting and loot to match, and list the server under Modded - a server that changes gameplay belongs there. The plugins are the easy part. The hard part is keeping the numbers consistent with each other, because a server where resources are 5x but upkeep, raid costs and building limits are vanilla turns into a field of oversized bases by day three.

What "modded" means for listing and rules#

Rust's browser separates Official servers (Facepunch), Community servers (gameplay like vanilla) and Modded servers (anything that changes gameplay). Boosted gather rates, bigger stacks, kits, teleports, instant crafting - all of it is modded. Admin tools that do not change how the game plays are generally fine on a Community server.

Oxide reports a server as modded by default, and the setting lives in oxide/oxide.config.json; Carbon has an equivalent. Leave it on for a server with rates or kits. Players filter by tab and by tags, and a boosted server hiding among vanilla ones gets reported rather than discovered. Facepunch publishes rules for server owners on listing and conduct, and those rules have changed over the years - read the current version before you decide what to sell or how to tag.

Tag the server too. server.tags takes values including the wipe cadence and a style, so a 3x server with biweekly wipes says so in the filters, and the hostname should say it in words: Longship 3x | Biweekly | Kits | EU. server.cfg and convars lists the listing convars.

What a gather multiplier actually multiplies#

"3x" in a hostname is a promise about gathering, but it is the server owner who decides what it covers. Resources come from several kinds of source, and a gather plugin can set each one separately:

A server that multiplies dispensers and pickups but leaves quarries at 1x has made quarries pointless; a server that multiplies loot along with gathering floods the map with weapons. Write down what your "3x" covers and put it in server.description. Players who chose a 3x server have expectations from the last 3x server they played.

Gather rates with a gather manager#

On Oxide, GatherManager is the long-standing plugin for this, and Carbon ships a gather-rate module that does the same job. GatherManager can be configured through its JSON file or through console commands that write to it:

gather.rate dispenser * 3gather.rate pickup * 3gather.rate quarry * 3gather.rate survey * 2gather.rate dispenser "Metal Ore" 2.5dispenser.scale tree 3

* means every resource; a named resource overrides the wildcard for that one item, which is how servers boost wood and stone fully but keep sulfur or high-quality metal lower to control raiding. The exact command forms and the resource names the plugin expects can change between versions - the plugin page documents the current ones. Run the commands in the server console or by RCON and reload if the plugin requires it.

Common tiers and what usually goes with them:

Stack sizes#

Raise gather rates without raising stacks and players spend the wipe juggling inventory. A tree that gives three times the wood fills a vanilla 1,000-wood stack three times as fast; at 5x, a single trip to a node overflows the backpack.

StackSizeController on Oxide, or Carbon's stack module, sets the stack limit per item and usually supports a multiplier by category. Guidelines that keep a server playable:

• Scale raw resources with the gather rate. At 3x, three times the vanilla stack for wood, stone, metal fragments and sulfur is the natural choice.
• Keep weapons, armour and explosives near vanilla. Stacking C4 in hundreds, or weapons beyond a single item per slot, invites exploits and makes raids bizarre.
• Watch ammunition and medical items. Large stacks of syringes and ammo change fights more than any gather rate does.
• Check containers. Furnaces, boxes and vending machines respect stack sizes; a large-stack server can carry enormous amounts in a few boxes, which matters for raid loot.

After changing stacks, test with an alt character: fill a slot, split a stack, put it in a furnace and a box. Stack plugins have historically had edge cases with specific containers after game updates.

Choosing a tier

The tier is a decision about how long you want a player's evening to take, and it should match your wipe cadence and your population.

A 2x server with monthly wipes feels close to vanilla: the grind is shorter, but progress still takes days, and players who log in twice a week can keep up. A 3x biweekly server is where most modded communities settle, because a group can reach high-tier gear in an evening or two and still have a reason to come back. At 5x and above, most players have what they need on the first day, so the server lives on fighting rather than progression, and weekly wipes stop it going stale.

Population matters as much. High rates on a low-population server produce a map of large empty bases built in one evening by people who then had nothing to do. If you expect twenty players, a modest tier with a slower cycle usually holds them longer than a 10x that is "finished" by Saturday. You can always raise rates at the next wipe; lowering them feels like a punishment.

Smelting, crafting and recycling#

Three more dials usually move with the gather rate.

• Smelting: QuickSmelt-style plugins speed up furnaces, and Furnace Splitter spreads ore evenly across slots, which players on any boosted server expect. Without faster smelting, 5x resources simply queue in furnaces.
• Crafting: crafting controller plugins shorten craft times or make them instant. Instant crafting is normal on 10x and above and changes fights, because players can re-arm mid-raid.
• Recycling: recycler speed plugins shorten the wait at monuments. Optional, but useful when scrap matters more.

Change these with the population in mind. The goal of a boosted server is to skip the grind, not to make every evening a race to finish the tech tree before your opponents log on.

Kits#

Kits give a player a predefined set of items on demand, with rules. The Kits plugin is the standard on Oxide and works on Carbon; admins usually build a kit from their own inventory in its in-game interface and set the rules on it.

What you can typically control per kit:

• Cooldown: how long before the same player can claim it again.
• Maximum uses: per wipe, often reset on wipe day.
• Permission: a kit can require a permission string, so only a group gets it.
• Auto kit: given on spawn or respawn instead of a basic rock and torch.

oxide.grant group default kits.starteroxide.group add vip "VIP" 10oxide.group parent vip defaultoxide.grant group vip kits.vip

The permission names depend on how you set up each kit; the plugin's documentation explains the form your version uses. Oxide (uMod) plugins covers groups and parenting in full.

Designing kits that do not wreck the server

• A starter kit replaces the first ten minutes, not the first day. Tools, some food, a sleeping bag, basic clothing. Not guns.
• Cooldowns longer than a fight. A kit with a weapon and a two-minute cooldown is unlimited weapons.
• Uses limited per wipe for anything valuable.
• Gear kits weaker than what players can craft by the end of day one. If the best kit beats crafted gear, nobody crafts.

Selling kits is a separate question. What you may charge for and how is governed by Facepunch's rules for server owners and by the payment platform you use, and the line between "convenience" and "pay to win" is exactly where communities fall apart. Monetising a game server within the rules covers the general principles; read Facepunch's current guidance before you open a store.

Other quality-of-life plugins boosted servers run

Rates, stacks and kits are the core, but players on a modded server usually expect a few conveniences that vanilla does not have. Teleport and home plugins such as NTeleportation cut the walking that larger maps impose. Backpack plugins add an extra inventory. Remover tools let players undo their own building mistakes. Each of these is reasonable on its own, and each removes a little of the risk that makes Rust tense. Add them because your community wants them, not because a rival server has them, and give them cooldowns and costs that keep some of the risk - a home teleport that works mid-fight is an escape button.

Keeping the economy and performance in check#

Boosted rates multiply everything downstream. The usual problems, and the fixes:

• Upkeep becomes trivial. At 5x, a cupboard full of resources pays for a fortress for weeks. That means bases never decay and entity counts climb. Some servers raise upkeep cost with a plugin; most simply rely on building limits and a short wipe cycle.
• Bases get huge. 5x resources produce 5x bases. Building-limit plugins that cap blocks or deployables per player or per cupboard are close to mandatory above 3x.
• Raids get cheap. Sulfur at 5x means rockets everywhere. Some servers boost sulfur less than other resources; others accept it and wipe weekly.
• Loot floods. If loot is boosted too, high-tier weapons are common by evening. Many servers leave loot at 1x or near it even on 5x gathering.

All of that lands on the server as entities. Server performance and entity count explains why a boosted server should wipe more often than a vanilla one, and the monthly force wipe schedule shows how to fit weekly or biweekly cycles around the forced update.

A worked example: a 3x biweekly server#

A European community server for 60-80 players.

1. Framework: Oxide or Carbon; listed as modded.
2. Gathering: 3x on dispensers, pickups and quarries; sulfur ore at 2x to keep raids from being trivial; survey charges 2x.
3. Stacks: 3x for raw resources and components; vanilla for weapons, explosives and medical.
4. Smelting: quick smelt at roughly 3x with furnace splitting.
5. Kits: starter kit with tools, food, clothing and a bag, available on respawn with a cooldown; one VIP kit with building materials, not weapons.
6. Limits: a building limit per cupboard; vanilla decay.
7. Map: 3500, biweekly wipes, blueprints wiped on force day.
8. Description: lists every rate in one line, the kit rules and the wipe schedule.

Each item is a plugin config or a convar, and each is something you can change at the next wipe after watching how the last one played. Test changes on a copy, not on the live server mid-wipe. On RE:NODE's panel, a backup before every config change and restoring with a button makes that safe, and the file manager edits plugin JSON in the browser with syntax highlighting. Rust is not in RE:NODE's catalogue, so these are the panel's general features; what to do when a mod update breaks is the recovery routine on any host.

Troubleshooting#

Gather rates do not apply. The plugin did not load after an update, or another plugin also modifies gathering. Check the console on startup and remove duplicates.

Players cannot pick up stacks above vanilla size. The stack plugin failed to load, or a container type is not covered. Test each container.

Kits are visible but cannot be claimed. Permissions. Check that the group a player is in has the kit's permission.

Everyone has rockets on day one. Sulfur and loot rates are too high for the wipe length. Lower sulfur gather or wipe more often.

Performance collapses mid-wipe. Boosted bases. Add building limits and consider a shorter cadence.

The server disappeared from the Community tab. It is modded and now correctly listed under Modded. That is where boosted players look.

FAQ#

Can I change gather rates in Rust without plugins?

No. Vanilla Rust has no convar for gather rates or stack sizes. You need a framework such as Oxide or Carbon and a gather plugin or module.

What does 2x mean on a Rust server?

Usually that gathering from trees, ore nodes, corpses and pickups gives twice the vanilla amount. Whether quarries, loot and smelting are also doubled is up to each server, so a good server states it in its description.

Do I have to list a boosted server as Modded?

A server that changes gameplay with rates, stacks or kits belongs in the Modded tab, and Oxide sets that by default. Check Facepunch's current rules for server owners for the details.

What stack sizes should a 3x server use?

Three times vanilla for raw resources is the common baseline. Keep weapons, explosives and medical items near vanilla to avoid exploits and odd fights.

Should kits include weapons?

Rarely, and never with short cooldowns. A starter kit that saves the first ten minutes improves a server; a weapon kit on a short timer replaces crafting entirely.