Hover loot is on H, and almost nobody moves it
Rust has a built-in key that vacuums an inventory while you wave the mouse over it. It is bound to H by default.
H is about the worst possible key for it. It does not sit near your movement hand, and reaching for it while someone is pushing you is how people die on a corpse.
Move it to a side mouse button. Then you can clear a box while keeping your fingers on WASD, which is the entire point.
Options → Controls → scroll to the bottom of the Inventory category → Hover Loot → bind it to Mouse4 or Mouse5.
The four inputs that do 90% of the work
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| Right-click | Moves a single item — slow, only for precise picks |
| Shift + right-click | Moves the entire stack between inventory and container |
| Ctrl + right-click | Pulls one item out of a stack — for splitting ammo or meds |
| Shift + left-click | Splits the stack in half |
| Take All (top-right of the container UI) | Empties the whole container instantly |
Shift + right-click is the core input. If it is not your default, you are giving up fights you should be winning.
The numbers behind it: single-clicking takes roughly 0.5-1 second per item. Modifier keys clear a 24-slot box in 2-3 seconds.
Over a six-corpse raid clear, that is the difference between leaving with everything and leaving with half before reinforcements arrive.
The triage order
The mechanics are half of it. The other half is knowing what to skip.
guns → ammo → meds → tools → scrap → raw resourcesAnything below scrap in value, leave it. Re-pushing for it after you have extracted is faster than dying with it.
Picking up 200 wood before grabbing the AK is how you end up in a firefight holding a hatchet.
Three different scenarios
A corpse during a raid — under pressure
Hit Take All if their inventory is mostly weapons, ammo and meds. Skip the bag entirely if it is full of stone.
A cleared base after the fight — slow down
Now you want everything. Take All every box, then sweep furnaces and refineries last, because their UIs open slower.
And pick up the sleeping bags to deny respawns.
A body out in the field — triage harder
Grab the gun and the ammo, Shift + right-click the med stacks, and leave the rest. Solo, every second you spend on a body is a second their teammate is sprinting toward you.
Looting a player, fastest order
Go inventory → clothing → belt, so you are pulling from all three categories in a single pass.
Note that hover loot does not work on the quick slots — those have to be clicked.
You can still right-click individual items while the transfer is running, which lets you dump unwanted loot at the same time as you take the good stuff.
Before you go out
Quick looting is half mechanics, half preparation.
| Setup | Why |
|---|---|
| Clear the hotbar of resources and spare tools | Keep only weapon, ammo, meds and one tool |
| Consolidate stacks before you engage | Do not fight with three separate stone stacks |
| Leave 6+ open slots as a loot zone | So you can absorb a full corpse without inventory Tetris |
| Wear a backpack | Capacity without hotbar bloat |
Being able to swallow a full corpse without rearranging is what separates clearing fast from standing still sorting boxes while someone pushes you.
Five habits that cost you loot
- Single-clicking items one at a time. Inherited from inventory management; lethal in a raid.
- Reading tooltips while looting. Hovering to see what something is wastes 1-2 seconds per item. Take All first, sort later.
- Not using Take All when time is tight. Half the time you do not need to triage — empty it and sort in safety.
- Looting in the wrong order. Wood before the AK.
- Standing still while looting. Crouch-strafe through it.
Related guides
- Rust Best Keybinds — moving hover loot to a mouse button
- Rust Combat Guide — the fights you are looting between
- Rust Raiding Guide — what a cleared base looks like
- Rust Beginner Guide — if this is your first wipe
- Rust Best Weapons Tier List — what to grab first
- Rust Tips and Tricks — the small things
- Rust Best PvP Settings — the setup around it