The research table cost 200 metal fragments and 20 scrap to craft. It does not need to be researched, but does require the player to be standing next to a level 1 workbench to craft it. Research tables can be found at some monuments.

The research table is used to create a blueprint of specific items, by pressing E on the research table, and placing the item to be researched on the UI, along with a certain amount of scrap. The table states: "the item might get destroyed during the research process." As the item to research would disappear during this process, it's practically a way to "reverse engineer" the item. The blueprint that's produced could be used to then "learn" the item, unlocking the ability to craft and repair the item it represented.

Many players don't use a research table, because to craft one, they would already need a workbench, which features the workbench tech tree, allowing the player to spend scrap to unlock chains of blueprints.

The research cost for some items is 10% cheaper on a research table compared to the more expensive costs on some workbenches. I think the main attraction of the research table is that if you only want to research a specific item, then you can skip the tech tree, which could save a lot of scrap, but as mentioned earlier you'd need to already have one of the items.

Unlike the research table, the workbench tech tree doesn't require a copy of items to unlock them, but doesn't produce a blueprint. The research table blueprints are handy, because you can give them to a teammate, or potentially sell them.

A player might get their hands on a rifle on wipe day, and if that's all they wanted to research, then they might research it on the research table. They would still need access to an appropriate level of workbench to craft the rifle, and would likely take the ammunition from the newly crafted rifle so that they could also research the bullets for the gun.

I think the meta to researching a gun is to take any bullets out of it before spending it on the research table, and if you have multiple guns then you'd spend the one with the lowest durability, though it won't work if the item is broken.

As the research table is fairly large, players that want to craft one might deploy it outside their base, or on their roof.

It's fairly common for players to sell individual bullets in a vending machine (priced at around 20 scrap each), which a player would buy so that they could research it. The seller can gain a lot of scrap this way, although their opponents would obviously advance in the workbench arms race as a result.

https://web.archive.org/web/20231227013930/https://rust.fandom.com/wiki/Research_Table

Blueprint research

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