Two different things are called “attack helicopter” in Rust
Before anything else:
- The Patrol Helicopter is the red AI machine that spawns as a server event and hunts players. It cannot be flown by anyone. This page is about that one.
- The Attack Helicopter is a player-flyable vehicle you buy for 2,250 scrap at Bandit Camp. It has 850 HP, two seats, burns 30 low grade fuel a minute (a full tank lasts about 17 minutes), decays outside in 8 hours, and shreds into 500 scrap at the Junkyard. It takes 1 C4 or 2 rockets to destroy, and the cheapest way through it is 3 HV rockets for 600 sulfur.
If you searched “how to take down the attack helicopter” and you meant the vehicle someone parked outside your base, that is 3 HV rockets. If you meant the thing shooting rockets at you near a monument, keep reading.
Shoot the rotors. Not the body.
Every guide agrees on the mechanism and the number is the least important part of it.
The Patrol Helicopter has two weak points: the tail rotor and the main rotor. Destroy both and it crashes regardless of how much body health it still has.
That single sentence is the whole technique. One source puts the body at 10,000 HP; you are not meant to chew through it, and you do not have to.
The order matters:
- Tail rotor first. Killing the tail makes the heli spin and lose accuracy immediately, which is the part that actually keeps you alive.
- Main rotor second. Once both are gone it comes down no matter what.
Aiming at the fuselage is the mistake. It is armoured, it is moving, and the rocket pods are pointed at you the entire time you do it.
What it has against you
| Weapon | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| 2× rocket pods | Strafing runs that leave burning ground |
| Nose minigun | Sustained fire while it closes |
It also fires napalm rockets that leave a burning patch on the ground where they land — that fire is a real hazard after the crash, not just during the fight.
Behaviourally, it:
- Hunts heat signatures, not players directly. Campfires, gunfire and oven smoke all pull it toward you. A fire lit in the open is a flare.
- Orbits and rocket-strafes if you stand still. Movement is not optional.
- Locks on once it sees you, then pursues.
- Detects at roughly 150 m with line of sight.
How to make it lose you
If you do not want the fight, the counter is geometry, not speed.
- Break line of sight fast. Trees, rocks, monuments, or inside a building.
- It loses interest after about 20 seconds without line of sight.
- Never run across open ground, and especially not open desert — the rocket pods cover it in seconds.
- Stone and sheet metal walls block its weapons entirely. Twig and wood do not; rocket splash goes through them.
- Do not light a fire in the open if you hear it.
One genuinely useful accident: the Patrol Helicopter sometimes engages the Bradley APC at Launch Site. If you hear them fighting, that is a free distraction — move while they are busy.
If you are taking it down
Rocket launcher. The intended answer. Aim at the tail rotor, then the main rotor. Fire from cover and break line of sight between shots — standing in the open gets you rocket-podded.
5.56 rifles (AK-47, LR-300, M249). Sustained fire from 100+ metres. Counts reported for a minicopter gunner seat run at 60-80 shots; a bolt action with HV ammo is quieter and more ammo-efficient but slow, at 100+ shots.
MLRS. Two or three hits will do it, and it lets you engage from genuinely long range. It is overkill on cost and it announces you to the whole map.
40mm HE / MGL. Works, but it needs the heli hovering close to you, which is the most dangerous way to do this.
The rhythm is the same regardless of weapon: step out, shoot the rotor, break line of sight, repeat. Do not empty a magazine from one position.
Useful positions: boulder formations, under bridges, inside monuments. The AI loses line of sight quickly when you break cover, and that is what resets the fight between volleys.
What you get
Four crates drop at the crash site:
| Crate | Count | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Heli Crate (elite tier) | 1 | Guaranteed top-tier weapon roll: AK-47, LR-300, M249, MP5, MGL, HMLMG, assault rifle components |
| Heli Weapon Crates | 3 | Military-grade weapons and components |
The total kit is roughly equivalent to clearing two or three Underwater Labs, and it takes 5-10 minutes if the takedown goes cleanly.
The crash site is on fire and you cannot loot immediately. Sources disagree sharply on how long: one says about 2 minutes and warns that the wreckage burns for roughly 10 minutes. Bring a hazmat suit, because a burning wreck is not somewhere you want to be standing in a cloth kit.
Loot one crate at a time, retreat, repeat. A crash site is the loudest beacon on the server — half the map saw it go down and they are all coming.
Every other thing in the sky
Cargo Ship, Chinook and the Patrol Helicopter are three separate events and players constantly mix them up:
- Cargo Ship does not spawn a helicopter. It is defended by scientists only. If you see a patrol heli over Cargo, those are two unrelated events that happened to overlap.
- The CH-47 Chinook spawns roughly every hour, flies straight to a major monument and drops a Hackable Locked Crate. It is unarmed and it is a loot delivery, not a threat.
- The Patrol Helicopter is the one that shoots at you.
The decision, in one line
If you hear the rotors and you are alone with a cloth kit, break line of sight and let it pass. If you have a rocket launcher and a ridge with cover, shoot the tail rotor, then the main rotor, then get off the crash site before someone else arrives.