Rust Mortar: Everything You Need to Know

A new mortar has been introduced to Rust as the main feature alongside Rust’s Raid Hard Upgrade Harder update. The mortar is capable of both raiding bases and defending against players, with two types of ammunition available. It serves as the most recent raiding tool added since the Primitive Update back in February of 2025.

For more coverage of everything in this Rust update, check out our blog

Rust Guides

How to Craft The New Mortar in Rust

The mortar is a mid-tier item able to be crafted at a Workbench Level 2. The deployable is quite cheap to craft, requiring 20 High Quality metal and 3 Metal Pipes. The mortar cannot currently be found in loot pools, making crafting the only way to obtain it.

How to Use Rust’s Mortar

The mortar is easy to learn and hard to master. It can be deployed on any terrain and picked up using a hammer. The power and angle can be chosen by moving the mouse, with a small angle indicator showing both the minimum and maximum distance. To fire the mortar, first hold R to select your mortar ammunition type (this does not apply if you’re only carrying 1 type of shell). Then, line up with your target by aiming with the mouse. Finally, hold left click to power up the mortar, releasing a shot once fully charged.

Rust Mortar Shell Overview

The first of the two mortar ammunition types is the mortar shell. The mortar shell serves as an effective raiding tool, dealing a significant amount of structure damage on impact. The shells splash over a 4.5m radius, allowing slight room for error when firing. The shells craft in groups of two, requiring 1 metal pipe and 300 gunpowder.

Rust Fragmentation Shell Overview

Rust’s fragmentation shell is the second of the two types of mortar ammunition. The defensive shell is great for crowd control, dealing large amounts of AoE damage. The mortar shells splash over a 6-meter radius, dealing up to 125 explosive damage. Fragmentation mortars craft in batches of 3, requiring 1 metal pipe and 150 gunpowder.

That covers everything you need to know about Rust’s mortar. Whether you’re blowing into a base or defending against large groups of enemies, the mortar can assist in several ways. If you enjoyed this article, feel free to check out our article covering the water wheel added last month. See you next time!