How to Get Free Rust Skins

Toby Marshall
4 November 2022
How to Get Free Rust Skins

We all know what Rust skins are – they are cosmetic items that players can purchase to make their Rust items and weapons look even better. Although they don’t necessarily improve your skills as a player, they look great – and can be impressive. Moreover, some can be worth an absolute bomb. Although some can cost a fortune, there are some that you can get for next to nothing… and sometimes, you can actually get them for nothing!

Here we will look at the best ways to get your hands on Rust skins for free.

Finding Free Rust Skins: It’s Easy

Skins have been a popular feature in the RUST game for many years now – and nearly all players will be interested in getting their hands on them. Not only do they make the game more aesthetically pleasing for players, but they are also a way for the game developer, Facepunch, to get more funds to develop the game. This is a way for players to contribute financially to the game and get something in return. 

The easiest way to get skins is by purchasing them – at a market, the online store or trading with other players – and we have already looked at how to buy RUST skins, but you can also get some for free…

Most players already know the main ways to purchase skins – via the Rust in-game store, from the Steam Marketplace or from another third-party skin site. However, these will all require you to put your hand in your pocket. Here, we will look at how you can get hold of RUST skins without spending a penny.

Random Item Drop via Steam’s Playtime Item Grant System

One of the easiest ways to claim a free RUST skin ai simply by playing the game. The developers of RUST have enabled Steam’s ‘Playtime Item Grants’. This rewards their players with either free RUST skins or, if you’re very lucky, you might be awarded a skin crate. You don’t have to do anything at all – you can get it just for the game client being open. You don’t even need to be playing as it awards you whether you are idle or active.

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In terms of how exactly it works, there is little information about it available to the public – and there is no actual specificity on the drop rates. So, if you are looking for a quick fix for free skins then this won’t necessarily be your best option.

The way in which it works is essentially all down to the game developer. Any developer that is published on Steam can enable the Playtime Item Grants on their game and it awards items based on the time they spend playing the game. The developer has two ways in which they can modify the settings of this system:

  1. They will grant new items based on how much time is spent playing the game – and the developer can modify how many minutes of game time is required to be given an item.
  2. There is also a Maximum Grant Frequency, so they can change the minimum number of minutes between grants.

The RUST developers set the grants to 720 minutes (12 hours) with the maximum grant frequency set to 1440 minutes (24 hours) according to sources. Any item won from this system will be deposited directly into your Steam directory account. This is still an excellent way to encourage players to spend more time playing the game.

Look for A Rust Server Offering Free Skins for Play Time

A less common way of getting hold of free RUST skins is to play on a server which rewards players that play on their server by giving them the opportunity to win free RUST skins. This is another easy way to get them and works in a similar way to Steam Skin Drops. This will require a player to accrue playtime on these specific servers in order to qualify for a free skin drop.

This way of getting free skins isn’t automatic and will rely on the server’s own system. It will have its own frequency or playtime – but it is also a great advantage of playing on a specific game server.

There is also another form of server which will provide free skins – modded servers. These use plug-ins like Skinbox which will allow you to use practically all RUST skins. However, they are also bound to that specific server and won’t automatically be deposited in your Steam inventory.

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You need to make sure that you read the description and details for any server you use so that you don’t waste any time playing RUST on a server that doesn’t offer skin drops. If that’s the only reason you’re playing there, you will want to move on to another!

Twitch Drops: Twitch Steam Rewards

A completely passive way to earn a free RUST skin is simply by watching certain RUST streams. During such time-limited events, you can receive Twitch drops.

The streams that you will need to watch in order to claim these drops will vary depending on the Twitch drop event. And, a Twitch drop can only happen in a special Twitch drop event. The streamers will have a ‘drop enabled’ tag set on the stream which will indicate that by watching the stream, you will be eligible to earn a drop.

If you watch these streams or streamers outside of a Twitch drop event, then you won’t gain anything from it.

Before even considering this, you will need to head over to your RUST Steam account and enable Twitch drops. This can be done as follows:

  1. Open up Facepunch’s Twitch Drop page
  2. Then link your Twitch account and your Steam account ID
  3. Finally, activate Twitch Drops.

If you want to stay updated with which streamers are giving away Twitch drops and when the events happen, join the Rust Discord. You can then follow ‘twitch drops’ Channels in the ‘PC Text Channels’. You can then be updated as to when they will happen. 

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Design Your Own Skin

How artistic do you feel? If you consider yourself to be a bit of a creative genius then why not try designing your own RUST skin?

This way is certainly a lot more time-consuming and will require both skill and investment. You will need to be familiar with editing software such as Photoshop. You also need to be prepared to put in the time to design a skin of a good enough standard.

If you manage to create a skin that you believe is good enough, it will then need to go through the Steam Workshop to be approved. So, even if you do spend hours designing a skin, it will need to be vetted carefully and not necessarily automatically approved. However, if it is, you can then take the skin to the marketplace…

If this is the case and you can take it to market, you will then earn a percentage for every sale of your skin. So, if you are successful this way, you can even earn a bit of money from it (although usually not much… it won’t make you a millionaire!)

If you do want to try creating a RUST skin, then you should consider consulting RUST Wiki to read up on the process of creating a skin before you get started.

Crafting a Skin Crate In-Game

This is a pretty simple way – but also a riskier way of earning a free RUST skin. Crafting a skin crate is very straightforward. You can break down any existing RUST skin that you don’t want into different materials – Metal, Cloth and Wood. Using these materials, you can craft a new skin.

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There are four different Skin crates that you can create and all of these will cost you different amounts of your materials. All of them come with different chances of rewards…

  • Low-Quality Bags contain common skins and cost you 10 wood to craft.
  • High-quality Crates can contain deployable items such as barriers, doors and walls and cost 10 wood and 5 pieces of cloth
  • High-Quality Bags can contain expensive and unique RUST skins and cost 1 metal, 5 wood and 70 cloth
  • Weapon Barrels can contain skins for weapons and tools and cost 10 metal, 5 wood and 5 cloth.

Remember, this system comes with absolutely no guarantee for a player, so think carefully about whether you want to gamble with your skins and materials.

A RUST Discord Community Giveaway

Who doesn’t love a giveaway? Well, another excellent way to get free RUST skin is by joining different Discord communities that will offer giveaway channels including RUST skins. Some even consider this one of the best ways to get more expensive RUST skins for free – with many communities using this system to attract new RUST players. Here are some of the best Discord servers that offer good RUST skin giveaways:

  • Corrosion Hour
  • Paranoid
  • Rusticated
  • Rustoria

Along with other Discord servers, these offer all sorts of giveaways – free games, VIP slots, store credits and more. The eligibility for these giveaways will depend on the server, so make sure you read the terms and ensure you understand what is required first.

Generally, if there are stipulations for taking part in a giveaway, then these will normally be posted by the server bots that announce these giveaways. Normally, not much is required… it may be as simple as tagging the bot in a comment or just liking a post.

Instructions on how to claim the skin will be detailed by the admin team and mods when the winners and prizes are announced.

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Following RUST on Social Media Platforms

This isn’t a guaranteed way to get a free RUST skin, but it certainly offers opportunities, won’t cost anything and only takes up a small amount of time.

RUST social media accounts are normally pretty active – and many of their posts are cross promotions- which means that they repeat posts or their posts have much of the same content or convey the same message. They often advertise in-game events, updates and patch notes as well as external things such as game merchandise.

It may be that there aren’t posts about giveaways for quite some time. However, there is no harm that comes from following such accounts and, if they do choose to offer a giveaway, competition or sweepstake, you will be in the know. If RUST does interest you and you are actively playing the game, then you may as well follow social media pages linked to the game. Options include: following RUST on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Discord and following Facepunch on Instagram or their website.

Getting a Free Rust Skin Has Never Been Easier!

Skins are a huge part of the game now and anyone that takes RUST seriously will understand the importance of having a good RUST skins collection. Whether you have expensive skins or cheap skins, they come in all different shapes and sizes.

Now, hopefully, you can see that there are numerous ways for you to get your hands on free RUST skins – helping you to build up quite a good selection in the long term. Whether you decide to play on your favourite RUST server or participate in an out-of-game RUST community, the possibilities are endless. You can craft them, design them or even sell them… and not only get them for free but also make money from them.

Free rust skins faqs

Can I Get Rust Skins Completely Free?

Yes, you can! Simply look through the different ways to get free skins above. You can earn free skins in random drops on Rust servers, watch Twitch Streams and even design your own Rust Skins. You can also ask friends to get you Steam gift cards for your birthday!

100% up to €550

Use Promo Code WELCOME for a 100% deposit bonus.

100% first deposit bonus which means that we will add an extra 100% to the amount you deposit into your player account. The maximum amount for the bonus is €550 and the rollover requirement is x10 for betting and x30 for casino (qualified deposited amount + bonus).

Deposit
4.7/5
Play Now

Where Can I Buy Skins?

You can buy skins and sell skins at the Integrated item shop, the Steam Community Market or third-party sites.

What is the best way to get Free Rust skins and Free CSGO Skins?

This depends on what way you prefer. However, the easiest way is to wait for a random drop when you have the game open on the Steam server. That way, free items, skins and crates will be deposited directly into your Steam wallet.

Author Toby Marshall