Building
Airlock
Two doors, one triangle foundation, zero chance of getting door-camped straight into your loot room.
Two doors, one triangle foundation, zero chance of getting door-camped straight into your loot room.
An airlock is the simplest and most effective defense against door camping. Two doors in a confined space, each swinging toward the other, means that if one door is open it physically blocks the other. You close the first before the second will move. Without an airlock, a door camper walks straight into your base the moment your door opens. With one, they are trapped in a confined triangle with you, not past you into your base.
The concept is simple. The outer door has hinges on the left and swings right into a triangle. The inner door has hinges on the right and swings left into the same space. Both doors open toward each other, so when they are fully open they are pressed against each other and neither will move. You must close one before the other will open.
A door camper waiting outside sees you open the outer door and tries to rush in. But they are now in a tiny triangle room with you. They cannot access the inside of your base. They are not past your defense layer. The worst-case scenario is a 1v1 fight in a confined space where you have the interior advantage.
An airlock costs minimal materials. A triangle foundation, ceiling, two door frames, and one solid wall at stone comes to roughly 1,200 stone total. Two sheet metal doors cost 300 metal fragments. The explosive cost to breach an airlock is 4 satchels to destroy the outer door, then another 4 to destroy the inner door. The total protection from door camping and delay makes it the highest-impact defense investment you can make early in a wipe.
Before anything else. Before walls. Before a roof. An airlock built with wood doors is better defense than a full stone base with an open entrance. This is the single best bang-for-buck defense in Rust. Prioritize it above all other building.
An airlock is a buffer zone between outside and inside your base. It uses two doors so that only one is ever open at a time. You open the outer door, step into the small space, close the outer door behind you, then open the inner door. This prevents door campers from rushing straight through into your base. Triangle foundations are the most common and compact shape for airlocks, but square foundations work too.
The triangle keeps the airlock compact and cheap. Two door frames sit on adjacent faces of the triangle. The third face gets a solid wall. This creates a tight space that is difficult for attackers to navigate, buying you time if someone tries to rush through.
Square foundation airlocks work too but cost more materials. Triangle is the standard because it is cheaper and just as effective.
Build your square foundations as normal. Choose which wall will be your entrance. Face it toward open ground, not toward cliffs or rocks that would corner you on approach. You want a clear approach to your entrance.
Select the triangle from your building plan. Attach it to the outside edge of the wall you picked for your entrance. It should sit perfectly flush and point outward.
Remove the twig wall connecting your square base to the triangle. Replace it with a door frame. This is your inner door. The hinges will go on the right side. Keep it as twig for now.
Standing inside the triangle facing outward, the left face gets your outer door frame. The right face (not the left) gets a solid twig wall. If you are confused about left and right, test with a door open and see which way it swings before upgrading anything to stone.
Hang doors on both frames. The key principle is that only one door should be open at a time when you enter or exit. The small triangle space between the doors is the buffer zone. Test that both doors open and close properly while everything is twig.
Without a ceiling someone simply drops down from above and both doors are bypassed. Place a triangle ceiling on top. Upgrade it to stone with everything else. The ceiling is essential.
Once you have verified both doors open and close properly and the ceiling is in place, upgrade the entire structure. Triangle foundation, ceiling, both door frames, and the solid wall all go to stone. Leave the doors at wood for now if resources are tight, but plan to upgrade them to sheet metal as soon as metal frags are available.
Open and close both doors while everything is twig. Make sure they function properly and you can enter and exit smoothly. The airlock works by discipline: always close one door before opening the other. After upgrading to stone, fixing door placement requires destroying and replacing the door frames.
Wood doors are acceptable at the start of a wipe. They hold up against early-game raiders. As soon as you have 300 metal fragments, upgrade to sheet metal doors on both the airlock. These cost 150 metal frags per door.
The cost to raid: 2 satchels per wood door, or 4 satchels per sheet metal door. This is cheap relative to the delay and psychological advantage of the airlock. Sheet metal doors cost enough that raiders often skip airlocks entirely and try to find another entrance. Do not underestimate the defensive value of making entry expensive.
Armoured doors on an airlock are overkill in most situations. They cost 5 gears and 20 HQM per door. Unless you have enormous HQM reserves, save armoured doors for your TC room door.
The basic triangle airlock is standard and effective. Some variations exist. A double-width airlock uses two triangles side by side to create more space. This makes it less effective as a door cam trap because the attacker has more room to move. Stick with the simple single-triangle design.
Some builds use a square foundation airlock with three doors. This requires careful door placement and is more expensive. The triangle is simpler and equally effective.
Adding gunports or windows to shoot out while someone is in the airlock is possible but uncommon. Most players just fight inside the cramped space or let them waste time trapped.
Mistake one: Leaving both doors open at the same time. The airlock only works if you close one door before opening the other. If both doors are open, anyone can rush straight through.
Mistake two: Forgetting the ceiling. Someone drops down from above and your entire airlock is bypassed. The ceiling is not optional.
Mistake three: Placing the airlock in a corner where you cannot retreat. If you are cornered against a cliff or wall when entering, you are trapped in the airlock with a raider. Place it where you have escape options.
Mistake four: Leaving wood doors on too long. Wood doors are fine early, but upgrade to sheet metal by day 3 or 4 of the wipe when metal fragments start flowing.
Mistake five: Not testing the doors before upgrading. If hinge directions are wrong, fixing them after stone upgrade requires destroying and replacing everything. Test while it is twig.
Your airlock inner door opens into your main base. You can connect this directly to a hallway, into a room, or into your main storage area. The key is that the inner door leads into a space you control, not into a dead-end or a tight corner.
Many players put their storage room or crafting area just inside the airlock inner door. This creates a buffer layer and forces raiders to commit to entering before they know if they are in the right room. See the principles of building guide for general base layout strategy.
Link your airlock to your TC room through internal walls and doors. Your TC should be deep behind the airlock, not accessible immediately after breaking in.