Hatchet
A Hatchet, useful for chopping trees and dismembering corpses.
The Hatchet is a melee tool in Rust for chopping trees. It deals 25 damage per hit (15 slash and 10 blunt) and swings once every 0.9 seconds, 27.8 damage per second. You craft it at a Level 1 Workbench, and its blueprint costs 40 scrap to research.
About the Hatchet
It can be thrown as well as swung. Every hit on a tree costs it 0.33 condition, so from full condition it chops for 1,213 hits. On an animal corpse it takes 12 health per hit and loses 1 condition each time.
On the tech tree it sits behind one other unlock, the Salvaged Hammer. It is for sale at 2 vendors: Tools & Stuff for 40 scrap and Water Well Shop Keeper for 30 to 40 scrap. In all, 29 loot sources drop it; the full list of where it drops gives the chance for each.
Hatchet damage and stats
Its gather rate on trees is 30 health per hit, 33.3 per second of steady chopping. Of the 8 tools that chop trees, it ranks 4th for gather rate.
How to craft the Hatchet
Crafting one takes 15 seconds at a Level 1 Workbench and costs 100 × Wood and 75 × Metal Fragments.
100 
75 
How to get the Hatchet blueprint
Research it for 40 scrap, or unlock it on the Level 1 tech tree for 2 Blueprint Fragments in total.
1 Item 
40 Scrap Blueprint 40 
Node 
1 Blueprint Fragment Unlocked 2 How to repair the Hatchet
A full repair at a Repair Bench costs 21 × Wood and 16 × Metal Fragments, and you need its blueprint.
×21 ×16 Per hit is how much of the node one swing takes; wasted is the share destroyed rather than collected, which is why two tools at the same damage do not yield the same. Wear is the condition the tool loses per hit.
What the Hatchet recycles into
A green recycler always gives back 50 × Wood and 37 × Metal Fragments for one.
×50 ×37 50% ×60 ×45 
×75 ×56 25% 
×40 ×30 Where to find the Hatchet
Cannon Crate has the best chance at 11%, followed by Metal Detector at 9% and Tool Box at 7.8%.
Metal Detector — 9% ×1 
Shops that hand it out
Tools & StuffShop×1for40 (20–80)Scrap
Water Well Shop KeeperShop×1for30–40Scrap
Stats checked against the Rust game files on 12 November 2026.
