Rust Wiki

Keybinds

This page is not complete and is still a work-in-progress!
Feel free to contribute but I must ask that you follow the styling format that has already been used :)

What are keybinds all about?

Keybinds allow you to add extra customisability to your controls whilst playing the game and allow you to:

  • Change aspects of your gameplay on the fly at the press of a button
  • Combine different actions into 1 or multiple buttons
  • Access different controls you usually are not able to unless you use the F1 console
  • Put your keyboard to full use and enhance your Rust experience

Creating your first keybind

So you've come to the conclusion that you hate having to kill your character to respawn by pressing F1 each time and typing 'kill' as you learnt on the commands page

Let's make that more convenient for you!

Now hit F1 whilst in-game (You don't even have to be in a server!) and type out:

bind k kill

Now anytime that you want to find yourself back on the respawn menu you can hit k and your character will drop dead like a minnow out of a survival fishing trap! (Permitted that you haven't been trying to kill yourself too quickly and are on cooldown)

Keybind general formula

The general formula to create a keybind is as follows:

bind key action

The multi-key keybind

So you've realised after a while of having your basic "tap k to kill yourself" keybind that you've off'ed yourself a good few times without even meaning to resulting in gamer-rage beyond belief.

Luckily you can set keybinds so multiple keys are required to perform the action, here's how we can improve the previous kill keybind:

bind [leftshift+k] kill

Now you'll have to hold leftshift (the shift key but the left one under capslock ) and then tap k to kill your character which will result in a much safer hazard-free method which you won't fat-finger by accident

It is worth noting that a multi-key bind is not a separate bind from the keys that it uses. You cannot bind one action to k and a completely separate action to leftshift+k. The k action would also still be activated when you press leftshift+k, as well as whatever you have assigned to leftshift+k. Multi-key binds are only useful to protecting against accidentally pressing a particular key, like the 'kill' example, rather than creating new key options for keybinds.

Keybind special symbols

The semicolon ;

Putting a semicolon between actions in your keybind declarations will allow you to perform multiple actions using 1 keybind setup. For example, you can have it so every time you press x you go forward but also sprint: (auto-run!)

bind x forward;sprint

or every time you open the F1 console you also open the combatlog:

bind f1 consoletoggle;combatlog

or every time you press j you sprint forward and jump:

bind j +forward;+sprint;+jump

The plus + (held actions)

When you add a plus symbol preceding the action in your keybind it will mean that the keybind will perform this action only whilst the buttons you've assigned are being pressed. Try the difference yourself with the two auto-run keybinds below:

bind x +forward;+sprint

and then:

bind x forward;sprint

The first keybind will only make you sprint forward whilst you are holding x however the second keybind will make you continuously sprint forward until it is overridden with your regular walk forward bind (Most likely set to w )

The tilde ~ (cycling between actions)

When you add a tilde symbol before an action and then include another action afterwards using the previously discussed semicolon the keybind will cycle through the actions given allowing you to have a keybind that can toggle between different actions.
This keybind will flip the view model of the item you're holding in your hand every time you hit it

bind rightarrow ~graphics.vm_horizontal_flip 0;graphics.vm_horizontal_flip 1

You could also use this to cycle through different FOVs for example:

bind [rightshift+rightcontrol] ~graphics.fov 70;graphics.fov 80;graphics.fov 90

Cycling between groups of actions

You can use the meta.exec command before actions in quotation marks to group them together when cycling through actions

An example of this is as follows:

bind x ~meta.exec "global.god 1" "admintime 12"; meta.exec "global.god 0" "admintime -1"

Now on the first use of the bind both god 1 and admintime 12 will activate but on the second use, god 0 and admintime -1 will activate. Every time you use godmode as an admin it will also be daylight for you.

Reseting the cycle state

You can reset what state you are on the bind's cycle by binding meta.reset_cycle to another key. This can be done as follows:

bind x meta.reset_cycle y

with x being the key you want to reset the cycle and y being the key that the cycle (~) bind is set to

+meta.if_true & +meta.if_false

Creating a bind combining these commands will allow you to have an action only active whilst the keybind is being pressed and have another action in place when the keybind is not being pressed. For example, you could have a side button on your mouse that when pressed will decrease your FOV to 'zoom in' but when it is not being pressed will keep your FOV at your normal level

bind mouse4 +meta.if_true "fov 70";+meta.if_false "fov 80"

The action following +meta.if_true will be what happens when the key is being pressed and the action following +meta.if_false will be what happens when the key is not being pressed

Unassigning keys

If you've made a mistake with a keybind or simply don't want it anymore you can easily get rid of it by typing out the bind once again but instead of including an action do an empty set of quote marks as shown:

bind x ""

or you can use the clear action

bind x clear

Chat feedback with keybinds

You can add the chat.add action in your keybind to get feedback in chat when you use them.

An example of doing this would be:

bind h craft.add -2072273936 1;chat.add 0 0 "You just crafted a bandage!"

This keybind crafts a bandage and displays a message to chat that only you will be able to see

image.png

The first 0 in the chat.add command can be changed to a 1 so "[team]" is displayed in the message and the second 0 can be changed to a Steam64ID to change the image sent next to your message - putting this to 0 just displays the Rust logo

Making sure your keybinds are saved

After setting up any keybinds in the F1 console that you are wanting to keep you should run the writecfg command to make sure your changes have been written to the config files.

Your keybinds will be saved to the keys.cfg file inside your Rust directory at \Steam\steamapps\common\Rust
If you're still unsure on where this folder is you can go to your Steam library >> Right-click Rust >> Manage >> Browse local files

image.png

Some useful keybinds

Here are some common useful keybinds alongside a description of what they do; the keys are given as examples, change to your preference.

Player binds:

Keybind Description
bind [leftshift+k] kill Commit suicide to respawn
bind f1 consoletoggle;combatlog Run combatlog on opening console
bind x forward;sprint Auto-run until you manually press forward again
bind z duck Toggle crouch until you manually press crouch again
bind [leftshift+f11] attack Auto-attack - constantly attack until you manually attack again (LMB)
bind [rightshift+f11] attack;duck Auto-attack and toggle crouch
bind mouse1 "+attack2;+input.sensitivity .45;input.sensitivity .2" Lower sensitivity when ADS
bind mouse1 +lighttoggle;+attack2 Turn on flashlight/laser when ADS
bind mousewheelup "craft.add -2072273936 2" Craft bandages when you scroll up
bind f10 client.disconnect Disconnects you from the server you're on
bind 7 chat.say "Hello everyone!" Sends a message to global chat
bind 8 chat.teamsay "Hey Team!!" Sends a message to team chat
bind h "craft.add -2072273936 1" Auto-crafts 1 bandage

Admin binds:

Keybind Description
bind [leftshift+h] debugcamera Enables debugcamera
bind [leftshift+t] teleport2marker Teleports you to your map marker
bind p "ent kill" Kills the entity you're looking at
bind u "ent unlock" Unlocks the entity you're looking at
bind l "ent lock" Locks the entity you're looking at
bind j noclip Toggles flight
bind delete "layer.toggle Construction" Hides all player buildings for a better view
bind [leftshift+rightcontrol] "weather.load clear" Makes the server's weather sunny and clear

Key dictionary

Here is a list of what each key is called when using Rust keyboard keybinds for a regular UK QWERTY keyboard:

key Also known as
mouse0 Left mouse button
mouse1 Right mouse button
mouse2 Scroll wheel click
mouse3 Side button (if applicable)
mouse4 Side button (if applicable)
mousewheeldown Scrolling the mouse wheel downwards
mousewheelup Scrolling the mouse wheel upwards
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
backquote back tick, tilde, open quote, left quote, key above tab
minus Subtract, dash, hyphen
plus Add, cross
insert
home
pageup
pagedown
delete
end
f1
f2
f3
f4
f5
f6
f7
f8
f9
f10
f11
f12
f13
f14
f15
sysreq Print Screen, PrtSc
scrolllock Scroll lock
numlock Top left key on the numpad
keypaddivide The " / " on the numpad
keypadmultiply The " * " on the numpad
keypadminus The " - " on the numpad
keypadplus The " + " on the numpad
keypadenter The " enter " on the numpad
keypadperiod The " . " on the numpad (when numlock is toggled)
keypad1
keypad2
keypad3
keypad4
keypad5
keypad6
keypad7
keypad8
keypad9
keypad0
uparrow The up arrow left of the numpad
downarrow The down arrow left of the numpad
leftarrow The left arrow left of the numpad
rightarrow The right arrow left of the numpad
rightcontrol "ctrl" on the right side of the keyboard
leftcontrol "ctrl" on the left side of the keyboard
rightshift "shift" on the right side of the keyboard
leftshift "shift" on the left side of the keyboard
slash " / "
period " ." fullstop
comma " , "
quote " # "
backquote " ' "
semicolon " ; "
leftbracket " [ "
rightbracket " ] "
return Enter
backslash " \ "
capslock
leftcommand Windows key (binding this will be problematic anyway)

Action dictionary

Here is a list of various actions you can assign to a keybind alongside a description:

Action Description
forward Move forwards relating to the direction your player is facing
backward Move backwards relating to the direction your player is facing
left Move left relating to the direction your player is facing
right Move right relating to the direction your player is facing
jump Jump / stay afloat in water
duck Crouch
sprint When combined with moving forward will make the player run
use Interacting with objects in the world: doors, boxes, locks
firemode Disables or enables burst mode when pressed
attack Primary attack: shooting, hitting
attack2 Secondary attack: throwing item, aiming down sights
attack3 Take half a stack of items
consoletoggle Brings up the in-game console
hoverloot Loot from an inventory by holding the assigned button and hovering over each slot (should be used with + preceding)
voice Proximity voice chat
craft.add Allows you to add items to your crafting queue with a bind. Use item ID afterwards followed by quantity. Find Item IDs here
combatlog Calls the most recent display of the combatlog showing what your player has damaged and been damaged by - does not open console
kill Kills your player taking you back to the respawn menu
disconnect Disconnects you from the server
quit Closes your game to desktop
layer.toggle Toggles different layers in the "tools" menu in F1 for admins to be able to see through different layers. AI/Construction/Transparent/Debris/Default/Deployed/Ragdoll/Terrain/Tree/World/Water/Clutter
gesture Performs the specified gesture (wave, victory, shrug, thumbsup, hurry, ok, thumbsdown, clap, point, friendly, cabbagepatch, twist, raisetheroof)
lighttoggle Toggles weapon flashlights/lasers/candle hats/miners helmets

You can find a list of useful commands that you can also assign to keys by checking out the commands wiki page