Rust’s main objective is to gather as much material and loot as possible and to build the biggest base in the available time between wipes and to ensure you do not get raided. You find a server and you just play, in the hope of learning along the way. With each wipe and each server you will most likely have different targets to reach. You might want to do a lot of raiding once you reach that stage or you might just want to get revenge on someone who gave you grief at the start of the wipe. Each wipe has a different story and will play out differently, but we will get on to that later. What we’re here for at the moment is where to begin and how to start.
So you’re naked on the beach and you need a place to live. You whack a few trees and break a few stone nodes to get some materials. You make some tools to get more resources and you begin to build away until you have a functional base to live and to store all your valuables. But what now? You haven’t got much in terms of loot and your only weapon is a bow so what do you do? You do something that Rust veterans refer to as “running the road”. You find the nearest road on the map and you begin to break barrels and open crates that you find as you run along the road. You gather items to grind down into scrap using the recycler that you can find at almost every monument as well as the abandoned supermarkets, Oxum’s gas station and mining outposts next to the roads. You’ll find that almost any item can be grinded down to get scrap, however some items might give you resources such as wood and cloth. But, you’ve now completed your first road run and you now have scrap to make a tier 1 workbench and a research table. It’s now time to get some better gear and start fighting your neighbours and those who dare to challenge you.
You do loot runs at different monuments. But first you’ll need to get those keycards in order to access the juicy loot that awaits you. You can find the green keycards at any abandoned supermarket, lighthouse and Oxum’s gas station as long as no one beats you to it. Once you have the green keycard you can move on to getting the blue keycard. You can acquire this by heading to harbour, satellite dish or sewer branch and outpost. Now that you have acquired the blue keycard, it is time to get your hands on the red keycard so that you can access the juicy loot waiting for you on both oil rigs and at the top of the launch site. You can access the red card at any major monument like airfield or train yard. It’s similar to getting the blue keycard where you do the puzzle that requires electric fuses and use the keycards you have acquired to get the next keycard.
Of course for the red keycard you will need both the green and blue keycard in most cases. However if you chose to do the train yard puzzle then you can skip the green room and go straight to blue. Now you have the red keycard you can finally get your hands on that loot you’ve only been dreaming of. But be warned, it’s protected by NPCs that will show no mercy. At the launch site there is the infamous Bradley APC that hunts down its targets and skulks around the streets of the launch site to stop anyone from accessing its precious valuables. Both the oil rigs are heavily defended by scientists trying to protect the locked crate that holds their valuable goodies. When you take out the scientists and start that locked crate timer they will send reinforcements and bring in the big guns to try and combat your offensive, so get to some place safe and take them down from afar.
Now that you have better gear and more valuables to protect from your foes, it’s time to upgrade the base and make it harder for people to access your valuable loot, so it’s time to get farming again and do some heavy upgrading. You are going to want to research stone walls to make a compound which will make it harder to get into your base. Now that you have the compound and heavy fortifications down it’s time to place those turrets across your home to protect your TC (tool cupboard) which maintains your base and also to protect your valuable loot. Remember, the more structures you’ve placed building your base, the more it will cost for upkeep, so make sure you have enough in the TC to last until your next farming session.
Once you have upgraded your base and the main loot is protected, it is time to start crafting some C4 and rockets to get rid of your enemies and take what should rightfully be yours to have and steal all the loot for yourself. Remember there may be counter attacks to your raids so make sure you are protected and have a raid base down so that it’s harder to kill you.
You will make friends and enemies within Rust in any server you play on, so remember who those enemies are and remember who those friends are.
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This concludes the Rust beginners guide remember to enjoy your time playing Rust and rise to the top!