SAM Site (2024)

You can now easily obtain elite crates without a single card thanks to the Minicopter update, here's how:
Before you can do this you're going to need to obtain this list of things:

• 1 Minicopter;
• +/- 200 Low Grade Fuel (Enough fuel to go on the top of the Launch Site building and return to your base);
• 2 Salvaged Sword's (or other damaging tools/weapons, for more info. check this → https://rustlabs.com/item/sam-site#tab=destroyed-by;filter=0,0,1,0,0;sort=1,0,2)
• 1 Hazmat Suit;
• +/- 350 mL of water;
• +/- Enough meds to heal up about 50 HP;

So here's what you need to do step by step:

1. Land your Minicopter near the Launch Site on the side where the big Launch Site building connects to the perimeter walls (be careful to land it with enough distance [+/- 120 metters at least] to the Launch Site otherwise the SAM Sites will shoot you down);
2. Walk down to the back of the big Launch Site building while still outside the Launch Site perimeter wall you will see a SAM Site on the top of a wrecked truck on the grass;
3. Destroy the SAM Site using 1 Salvaged Sword (or use other tool/weapons shown on the link on the top list ↑);
4. Now if you face the Launch Site big building, to your right there is an entrance, go inside, now to your right again but now inside the Launch Site, you will see a warehouse with a watchtower next to it, go on the top of the watchtower and jump to the rooftop of the warehouse next to it, now you will see another SAM Site on that rooftop, destroy it by using the same method above;
5. Now this where it get's a bit tricky. Go back to your Minicopter and fly it at low altitude while aproaching from the outside of the Launch Site between the 1st destroyed SAM Site and the entrance that you used (WARNING: This needs to be done correctly otherwise you will get shot down by other SAM Sites on the Launch Site) when you slowly reach the top of the Launch Site there will be more SAM Sites that won't shoot you unless you fly higher than altitude that you just need to land;
6. Land the minicopter on the the rooftop of the Launch Site big building;
7. Grab the elite crates from the rooftop;
8. Fly back to your home using the exact same path that you used before (but obviosly reversed).

And that's it, no cards needed.

Targeting

SAM sites have no authorisation mechanism like other traps in its category - they will instead fire at any valid target in their range, authorised on the tool cupboard or not. Those valid targets are:

• Any player helicopter (regardless of engine state or players inside).
• Any fully inflated Hot Air Balloon (regardless of any players being in the basket)
• Any parachute deployed for over 1 second (specifically, they fire at the parachute "vehicle" that you're attached to when parachuting)
• Any MLRS rocket

Player-placed SAM sites ignore vehicle entities (helicopters, HABs and parachutes) if they're inside safezones - monument SAM sites will fire indiscriminately.
Monument SAM sites ignore MLRS rockets completely - so they will not intercept strikes if those rockets happen to pass over launch for example.

Range, missile speed & reload times

• MLRS rockets - 500 meters, 2.25x missile speed, 3.5s reload time
• Vehicles & other entities - 350 meters, 1x missile speed, 5s reload time

Extra information

SAM site rockets are interceptors - that is, they predict your future position using your current movement direction and speed, and try to fire at where you will be in the future - so the easiest way to avoid them is to change your movement direction (or speed) and attempt to get out of their range. Nosediving with helicopters or spinning (which linearly reduces your speed) are two commonly used strategies.
SAM sites seem to be intended to be slightly unreliable and thus their behaviour is slightly randomised (this is either a balancing or anti-lag measure).
They will scan the area for targets every 2-4 seconds, and upon acquiring a target fire one rocket immediately (next frame), then fire subsequent rockets every 0.3-0.7s - upon firing all 6 rockets, they will spend time reloading based on what they were firing at (3.5s for MLRS rockets, 5s for vehicles)