Max Health Tea is Rust's combat buff. A single Pure Max Health Tea takes you from 100 HP to 120 HP for five minutes — enough extra survivability to win nearly every gunfight at the same skill level. It's the most-brewed tea by serious PvP players for one reason: it makes you objectively harder to kill.
Recipe & tiers
Tier
Effect
Duration
Berries
Basic
+5% max HP (105 HP)
5 min
1× red + 1× yellow
Advanced
+12.5% max HP (~112)
5 min
2× red + 1× yellow
Pure
+20% max HP (120 HP)
5 min
3× red + 1× yellow
Brew at a Mixing Table or Cooking Workbench. The order of berries in the slots matters — check the Berry & Tea Reference if unsure. The Tea Brewery Calculator tells you how many of each tier you can brew from your current berry stockpile.
When to use it
Drink right before any fight: raid defence, roam, online raid attack, or contested monument run. Five minutes is enough for one engagement; rebrew between fights.
What it stacks with
Ore Tea — Stays active while grinding for materials
Wood Tea — Same: doesn't conflict, different buff slot
Healing Tea — Top up HP first, then drink Max Health Tea — the +20% applies to your current HP cap
What it doesn't stack with
Another Max Health Tea (Basic doesn't stack with Pure — the new one replaces).
Bandage / med syringe healing past your max — these still cap at the buffed max.
Tips from the wipe meta
Drink BEFORE you take damage — the +20% is a max-HP increase, not a heal. If you're already at 100/100 HP, it makes you 120/120 instantly.
Five minutes is short. Don't waste it travelling.
Always rebrew Max Health Tea before a planned base defence. The cost is ~3 red + 1 yellow — trivial vs the win condition.
Common mistakes
Drinking when full HP and not expecting combat — the buff expires before you fight.
Brewing only Basic tier to save berries — Pure is 4× more effective for ~3× more cost.
Want exact yields combined with Bear Pie or other buffs? Run the numbers in the Yield Calculator.