Shorts
Trusty pair of shorts, may provide a breeze in undesired places. Worse than their full length counterparts with only basic protection from damage and the elements.
Wearing the Shorts in Rust protects your legs and feet. Hits on the parts it covers take 10% less bullet, arrow and melee damage. It also gives 2 radiation protection and 40% cold protection. You can craft it without a workbench, and its blueprint costs 20 scrap to research.
About the Shorts
On the tech tree it sits behind 3 other unlocks: Shirt, T-Shirt and Tank Top. In all, 13 loot sources drop it; the full list of where it drops gives the chance for each.
Shorts protection and stats
Against animal bites it gives 20% protection, and its full protection table covers every other damage type. Among the 16 protective pieces for the legs, it ranks joint 6th for bullet protection. For warmth it ranks joint 3rd among them.
How to craft the Shorts
Crafting one takes 15 seconds without a workbench and costs 30 × Cloth.
30 
How to get the Shorts blueprint
Research it for 20 scrap, or unlock it on the Level 1 tech tree for 4 Blueprint Fragments in total.
1 Item 
20 Scrap Blueprint 20 
Node 
1 Blueprint Fragment Unlocked 4 Reduction is how much of that damage type never lands. Damage taken is the rest: at 50% reduction a hit for 100 does 50. A negative reduction means the hit lands harder than it would bare.
What the Shorts recycles into
A green recycler always gives back 15 × Cloth for one.
×15 ×18 
×22 50% 
×12 Where to find the Shorts
Primitive Crate has the best chance at 4.8%, followed by Gingerbread Man at 3.4% and Scarecrow at 3.4%.
Stats checked against the Rust game files on 13 November 2026.
