How To Make Ore Tea In Rust

Ore tea is one of the most valuable consumables in Rust for farmers and base builders. It significantly increases the amount of ore you get from each node, making your mining trips far more efficient. Whether you need stone, sulfur, or metal ore, ore tea is the key to maximising your yield.

This guide covers everything about ore tea — from gathering ingredients to brewing and using it effectively.

What Is Ore Tea?

Ore tea is a brewed consumable that grants the "Ore Bonus" buff, increasing the amount of ore you harvest from nodes by up to 100% at maximum quality. There are three tiers of ore tea:

• Basic Ore Tea — Provides up to 20% bonus yield.
• Advanced Ore Tea — Provides up to 50% bonus yield.
• Pure Ore Tea — Provides up to 100% bonus yield.

Higher-tier teas require better ingredients and a higher-level workbench.

Required Ingredients

All ore teas are crafted at a tea brewing station (requires a level 2 workbench to build). The ingredients vary by tier:

Basic Ore Tea

• 1x Cloth (for the tea bag)
• Berries (Red, Blue, Yellow, or Green — 3 of any colour)
• Pumpkin — 1 piece (minimally processed)

Advanced Ore Tea

• 1x Cloth
• Mixed berries — Higher variety of berry colours improves the result.
• Pumpkin — 3 pieces
• Mushroom — 1 piece

Pure Ore Tea

• 1x Cloth
• Exotic berries (rare, found in forests)
• Pumpkin — 5 pieces
• Mushroom — 3 pieces
• Horse dung — 1 piece (used as fertiliser for min-maxing)

How to Brew Ore Tea

1. Build a tea brewing station — Craft it at a level 2 workbench with 50 metal fragments, 1 tarp, and 1 propane tank. Deploy it in your base.
2. Prepare ingredients — Gather the ingredients listed above for the tier you want to brew.
3. Place ingredients in the brewer — Open the tea brewing station and place cloth and ingredients in the input slots.
4. Add water — Fill the station with water from a water jug or water catcher (optional but improves quality).
5. Start brewing — Click "Brew". The process takes approximately 30 seconds.
6. Collect the tea — The finished tea appears in the output slot. It stacks up to 10 in your inventory.

How Tea Quality Works

Not every batch of ore tea is identical. The quality depends on:

• Ingredient freshness — Fresher ingredients (recently harvested) produce higher-quality tea.
• Ingredient variety — Using a wider variety of berry colours improves the result.
• Water quality — Clean water from a water catcher or purifier produces better tea than salt water.

Quality is displayed as a percentage when you hover over the tea. Higher percentage = higher ore yield bonus.

Using Ore Tea

1. Move the ore tea to your hotbar.
2. Select it and right-click to drink (or hold left-click).
3. The tea buff activates for 30 minutes of real time.
4. Go mining! Every node you hit during the buff period yields extra ore.

Tip: Wait until you're at your farming location before drinking the tea. The 30-minute timer doesn't pause.

Tips for Maximum Efficiency

• Combine with a pickaxe — Use the best pickaxe you have. A jackhammer works for stone but doesn't get the ore bonus for metal/sulfur nodes.
• Use Pure Ore Tea for sulfur — Sulfur nodes are the rarest. Maximising your sulfur yield has the highest impact on raiding capability.
• Brew in bulk — Make 5-10 teas at once so you always have one ready for farming trips.
• Farm during tea buff only — Never hit ore nodes without tea active. The difference between a normal swing and a 100%-buffed swing is massive over time.

Conclusion

Ore tea is a game-changer for resource gathering in Rust. The investment in ingredients and brewing time pays for itself many times over in the ore you'll save. Make ore tea a standard part of your farming routine and watch your base resources grow faster than ever before.