diff --git a/src/main/java/com/rarchives/ripme/ripper/rippers/Rule34Ripper.java b/src/main/java/com/rarchives/ripme/ripper/rippers/Rule34Ripper.java
index c7245739e..675e341a0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/rarchives/ripme/ripper/rippers/Rule34Ripper.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/rarchives/ripme/ripper/rippers/Rule34Ripper.java
@@ -10,20 +10,43 @@
 import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
+import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
+import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.jsoup.nodes.Document;
 import org.jsoup.nodes.Element;
 
 import com.rarchives.ripme.ripper.AbstractHTMLRipper;
+import com.rarchives.ripme.ui.RipStatusMessage.STATUS;
 import com.rarchives.ripme.utils.Http;
+import com.rarchives.ripme.utils.Utils;
 
 public class Rule34Ripper extends AbstractHTMLRipper {
 
+    private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(Rule34Ripper.class);
+    private static final String DOMAIN = "rule34.xxx";
+    private static final String API_BASE_URL = "https://" + DOMAIN + "/index.php";
+
     public Rule34Ripper(URL url) throws IOException {
         super(url);
     }
 
     private String apiUrl;
     private int pageNumber = 0;
+    private String apiKey;
+    private String userId;
+
+    private void loadConfig() {
+        apiKey = Utils.getConfigString("rule34.api_key", "");
+        userId = Utils.getConfigString("rule34.user_id", "");
+        if (apiKey.isEmpty() || userId.isEmpty()) {
+            sendUpdate(STATUS.DOWNLOAD_WARN,
+                DOMAIN + " requires API credentials. Set rule34.api_key and rule34.user_id in config. "
+                + "Get them from " + API_BASE_URL + "?page=account&s=options");
+            logger.warn("Missing rule34 API credentials. Requests may fail with 403.");
+        } else {
+            logger.info("Using rule34 API credentials for user_id: " + userId);
+        }
+    }
 
     @Override
     public String getHost() {
@@ -32,37 +55,43 @@ public String getHost() {
 
     @Override
     public String getDomain() {
-        return "rule34.xxx";
+        return DOMAIN;
     }
 
     @Override
     public boolean canRip(URL url){
-        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("https?://rule34.xxx/index.php\\?page=post&s=list&tags=([\\S]+)");
+        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("https?://" + DOMAIN + "/index.php\\?page=post&s=list&tags=([\\S]+)");
         Matcher m = p.matcher(url.toExternalForm());
         return m.matches();
     }
 
     @Override
     public String getGID(URL url) throws MalformedURLException {
-        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("https?://rule34.xxx/index.php\\?page=post&s=list&tags=([\\S]+)");
+        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("https?://" + DOMAIN + "/index.php\\?page=post&s=list&tags=([\\S]+)");
         Matcher m = p.matcher(url.toExternalForm());
         if (m.matches()) {
             return m.group(1);
         }
-        throw new MalformedURLException("Expected rule34.xxx URL format: " +
-                "rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=TAG - got " + url + " instead");
+        throw new MalformedURLException("Expected " + DOMAIN + " URL format: " +
+                DOMAIN + "/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=TAG - got " + url + " instead");
     }
 
     public URL getAPIUrl() throws MalformedURLException, URISyntaxException {
-        URL urlToReturn = new URI("https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=dapi&s=post&q=index&limit=100&tags=" + getGID(url)).toURL();
-        return urlToReturn;
+        if (apiKey == null || apiKey.isEmpty() || userId == null || userId.isEmpty()) {
+            throw new MalformedURLException(
+                DOMAIN + " requires API credentials. Set rule34.api_key and rule34.user_id in config. "
+                + "Get them from " + API_BASE_URL + "?page=account&s=options");
+        }
+        String baseUrl = API_BASE_URL + "?page=dapi&s=post&q=index&limit=100&tags=" + getGID(url)
+                + "&api_key=" + apiKey + "&user_id=" + userId;
+        return new URI(baseUrl).toURL();
     }
 
     @Override
     public Document getFirstPage() throws IOException, URISyntaxException {
+        loadConfig();
         apiUrl = getAPIUrl().toExternalForm();
-        // "url" is an instance field of the superclass
-        return Http.url(getAPIUrl()).get();
+        return Http.url(apiUrl).get();
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/src/main/resources/rip.properties b/src/main/resources/rip.properties
index 7b45974e4..4c5b1f319 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/rip.properties
+++ b/src/main/resources/rip.properties
@@ -28,6 +28,10 @@ twitter.auth = VW9Ybjdjb1pkd2J0U3kwTUh2VXVnOm9GTzVQVzNqM29LQU1xVGhnS3pFZzhKbGVqb
 tumblr.auth = JFNLu3CbINQjRdUvZibXW9VpSEVYYtiPJ86o8YmvgLZIoKyuNX
 gw.api = gonewild
 
+# Rule34 API credentials - get from https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=account&s=options
+# rule34.api_key =
+# rule34.user_id =
+
 twitter.max_requests = 10
 twitter.rip_retweets = false
 twitter.exclude_replies = true
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/rarchives/ripme/tst/ripper/rippers/Rule34RipperTest.java b/src/test/java/com/rarchives/ripme/tst/ripper/rippers/Rule34RipperTest.java
index 5f5b03622..c5da4e724 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/rarchives/ripme/tst/ripper/rippers/Rule34RipperTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/rarchives/ripme/tst/ripper/rippers/Rule34RipperTest.java
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package com.rarchives.ripme.tst.ripper.rippers;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.URL;
@@ -10,11 +11,12 @@
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
 import com.rarchives.ripme.ripper.rippers.Rule34Ripper;
+import com.rarchives.ripme.utils.Utils;
 
 public class Rule34RipperTest extends RippersTest {
     @Test
     @Tag("flaky")
-    public void testShesFreakyRip() throws IOException, URISyntaxException {
+    public void testRule34Rip() throws IOException, URISyntaxException {
         Rule34Ripper ripper = new Rule34Ripper(
                 new URI("https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=bimbo").toURL());
         testRipper(ripper);
@@ -27,4 +29,46 @@ public void testGetGID() throws IOException, URISyntaxException {
         Assertions.assertEquals("bimbo", ripper.getGID(url));
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testGetAPIUrlWithCredentials() throws IOException, URISyntaxException {
+        Utils.setConfigString("rule34.api_key", "testapikey123");
+        Utils.setConfigString("rule34.user_id", "12345");
+        try {
+            URL url = new URI("https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=bimbo").toURL();
+            Rule34Ripper ripper = new Rule34Ripper(url);
+
+            // Trigger loadConfig() via getFirstPage(); HTTP call will fail in test env
+            try {
+                ripper.getFirstPage();
+            } catch (IOException e) {
+                // Expected in test environment
+            }
+
+            String apiUrlString = ripper.getAPIUrl().toExternalForm();
+            Assertions.assertTrue(apiUrlString.contains("api_key=testapikey123"),
+                    "API URL should contain api_key parameter");
+            Assertions.assertTrue(apiUrlString.contains("user_id=12345"),
+                    "API URL should contain user_id parameter");
+        } finally {
+            Utils.setConfigString("rule34.api_key", "");
+            Utils.setConfigString("rule34.user_id", "");
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testGetAPIUrlThrowsWithoutCredentials() throws IOException, URISyntaxException {
+        Utils.setConfigString("rule34.api_key", "");
+        Utils.setConfigString("rule34.user_id", "");
+        try {
+            URL url = new URI("https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=bimbo").toURL();
+            Rule34Ripper ripper = new Rule34Ripper(url);
+
+            // Trigger loadConfig() via getFirstPage(); should throw due to missing credentials
+            Assertions.assertThrows(MalformedURLException.class, () -> ripper.getFirstPage(),
+                    "getFirstPage should throw when API credentials are missing");
+        } finally {
+            Utils.setConfigString("rule34.api_key", "");
+            Utils.setConfigString("rule34.user_id", "");
+        }
+    }
 }