How to Find and Customize Tugboats in Rust | Attack of the Fanboy

Rust’s Deep Sea update introduced to the game a few welcome additions, with the biggest ones being without a doubt the debut of both the new water system and the operational tugboats, the latter of which can work as your team’s fully customizable naval base. But where can you find a tugboat in the game? And after getting one, how can you customize it? Now, here’s where to find and how to customize tugboats in Rust.

Where to Find Tugboats in Rust

You can find tugboats in Rust by heading to any of the Harbors featured throughout the map, as they will be docked there. In total, around two tugboats will spawn per harbor. The harbors can be found on shores around your map of choice (at least two harbors are guaranteed to spawn in the base map).

After finding a tugboat, you will be able to drive it by simply boarding it and then heading to the control room before selecting Start Engine. If in any case your tugboat is destroyed, another one is set to spawn in the harbor after a set amount of time is past.

Related: 10 Best Rust Servers to Play On

How to Customize Your Tugboat in Rust

After finding a tugboat, you will be able to unlock the ability to customize it to your liking by holding your USE key (by default E) while at the helm, which will open the Options Weel. Once the weel appears, you will be able to claim the tugboat by heading to Authorize.

What Can You Add to the Tugboat?

As a fully functional mobile base, your tugboat can be customized in order to house a wide array of items and contraptions, although nothing electrical can be housed in it for safety reasons, like beds, sleeping bags, furnaces, drop boxes, storage boxes, repair benches, vending machines, workbenches, and more.

Just remember, like most things in Rust, the tugboat will not last forever. The boat can also be attacked by opposing players, so if you plan on making the vessel your own naval fortress, don’t go easy when building up its defenses.

– This article was updated on July 7th, 2023

About The Author

Franklin is a writer and journalist. A video game fanatic with more than 3 years of experience, his work can also be seen on sites such as The Click, Games Atlas, and Try Hard Guides. When not writing, he is most likely making his wallet cry while playing Gacha Games or ending the reign of the Crystals in Final Fantasy XVI.