Large raids are the most resource-intensive events in Rust. When 20 rockets hit a compound simultaneously, the server calculations spike dramatically. Here's why, and what both admins and players can do about it.
What Happens During a Raid
Each explosion triggers a cascade of server-side calculations:
- Damage calculation: Each explosive damages multiple entities in its radius
- Structural stability recalculation: When a foundation or wall is destroyed, every connected piece rechecks its stability
- Entity destruction: Destroyed items become debris entities briefly before despawning
- Loot spawning: Destroyed storage containers drop their contents as individual item entities
- Physics simulation: Falling objects and debris use physics calculations
A single C4 on a metal wall involves maybe 50-100 calculations. A coordinated raid with 100+ explosives involves tens of thousands.
Server Impact
| Raid Scale | Concurrent Explosions | TPS Impact | Duration | |------------|----------------------|------------|----------| | Small (2v1) | 2-5 per minute | Minimal | 5-15 min | | Medium (group v group) | 5-15 per minute | Noticeable | 15-30 min | | Large (clan war) | 15-50+ per minute | Severe (10-15 TPS) | 30+ min | | Online raid (both sides) | 30-100+ per minute | Critical | Hours |
Large online raids where both sides are using explosives, turrets are firing, and players are respawning can drop server TPS to single digits.
Admin Mitigation
Limit Simultaneous Explosions
Some plugins let you limit how many explosives can detonate per tick:
{
"Max Explosions Per Tick": 3,
"Queue Excess Explosions": true
}
This spreads the calculation load across multiple ticks. Raids take slightly longer but the server stays stable for non-raiders.
Optimize Stability Calculation
In Oxide configuration:
server.stability true
server.stabilitydemo false
Keep stability enabled but disable the demo mode that logs every calculation.
Entity Cleanup During Raids
Speed up entity despawn for raid-related objects:
- C4 beeping sounds: despawn after detonation
- Rocket debris: despawn in 30 seconds instead of 300
- Dropped items from destroyed boxes: 3-minute despawn
Base Design for Performance
Builders who care about server health (and admin goodwill) should avoid:
Honeycomb beyond reason: A 4-layer honeycomb is reasonable. An 8-layer honeycomb on every wall creates thousands of extra entities that all need stability recalculation during a raid.
Thousands of small boxes: Using 200 small boxes instead of 30 large boxes means 170 more entities to process during raids and more loot drops to calculate.
Window-stacked walls: While effective defensively, stacked walls multiply the entity and calculation count per wall segment.
Hardware Matters Most During Raids
Raids stress the CPU harder than any other Rust activity. The server needs to process damage, stability, entities, AI (turrets), networking (multiple players), and physics simultaneously.
This is where the Ryzen 9 7950X3D earns its keep. The 128MB L3 cache keeps the entity database in fast memory during raids, and the 5.7GHz boost clock processes stability calculations before the next tick.
Budget CPUs cause "raid lag" where the server freezes for 1-2 seconds after each rocket impact. On high-end hardware, players experience smooth gameplay even in the middle of a 50-rocket raid.
Plan for the worst case. Your server will be judged by its performance during the biggest raid of the wipe, not during quiet farming hours.
