New to Rust? This beginner’s guide covers everything you need to know to get started. Learn about wipes, finding guns and blueprints, building a base, raiding, PvP combat, playing solo or in a group, tips for survival, and more in this comprehensive Rust Beginners Guide.

What is rust?

Rust, the wildly popular multiplayer survival game from Facepunch Studios, first entered Steam’s early access program back in December 2013. Despite still technically being in active development, Rust has carved out a massive playerbase over the past decade.

The main goal in Rust is survival – players spawn naked on a hostile island with nothing but a rock and torch. To survive, you must gather resources, craft tools and weapons, build a shelter, and defend yourself not only from wildlife and environmental hazards, but from other players.

The core gameplay revolves around crafting, building, shooting, and raiding in this competitive open world. You can play solo or team up, but beware who you trust. With full PvP and permadeath enabled on most servers, Rust encourages cutthroat gameplay where you can lose everything at any moment. Every month the map wipes to create a fresh start for all players too.

Be careful picking up Rust, you’ll find yourself a beginner, but you’ll very soon become addicted to the game, like thousands of others who find themselves grinding to raid their next target, to score that sweet sweet loot.

What Platform Is Rust On?

Rust is available on the following platforms:

• PC – Rust is available on Windows and Mac through Steam. This is the original and main platform for Rust.
• Console – Rust launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in May 2021. An enhanced version of Rust was later released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2022, with various optimizations and improvements.
• Mobile – A mobile version of Rust is currently in development by Double Eleven studio, the team behind the console ports. This will bring Rust to iOS and Android devices, though no definitive release date has been set yet.

Rust is primarily a PC game available through Steam, but console versions have also launched on PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. A mobile version for iOS and Android is planned for the future as well. The core survival gameplay of Rust remains the same across all platforms.

What Are The Differences Between Console & PC Rust?

As you would expect, the core gameplay mechanics of Rust are identical across all platforms, however, rust on PC is much more advanced. The game is naturally much more mature, and thus is further ahead in terms of features. The PC version of the game includes things such as Tug Boats, horses, trains, and other vehicles to better get around the map.

The PC version also has a much larger stock of DLC – gun skins, door skins, and clothing skins among others. The Console store is very slim, updating once weekly to sell new skin packs using Rust Coins.

As a Rust beginner, choosing your platform most likely depends on which platform you own – but not to worry, both console and PC are fun.

Picking A Beginner Rust Server

As a beginner on Rust, you’ll be likely to jump onto the first server you see. Do not do that.

First things first, you need to understand that Rust servers are periodically wiped. Meaning that the map is completely cleared, all inventories are dumped, and sometimes blueprints are cleared.

On the Rust console, there are two wipe periods:

• Weekly
• Monthly

As a beginner, I’d suggest picking a weekly server, for two reasons:

1. A weekly server will give you a chance to get to grips with the game without a giant zurg for full metals chasing you down to steal your sweet sweet metal frags. Weekly servers don’t give players time to build giant bases, which means they’re typically much more laid back – and give you time to learn the basics without the pressure of large teams.
2. Practice. Get a few Weekly servers under your belt to understand the mechanics of the early game.

Finding Your First Tools on Rust

Rust beginners often neglect how powerful Hatchets and pickaxes are in the game.

They offer a better yield, and faster destruction on trees and nodes, meaning you can gather resources faster, and safer.

Run down the dirt paths on the map – that’s where you’ll find the most scrap nodes. A scrap node is often a mound containing barrels, boxes and vehicles which house loot such as pickaxes, hatchets, springs, clothing and other early-game bits that make it easier for you to get going.

These mounds also offer up scrap. Each White and Blue barrel will provide scrap, whereas red barrels will provide low-grade fuel and crude oil, used to power lights, boats, and flamethrowers.

Try and find yourself a few tools and gather some scrap.

Building Your First Base on Rust

You’ll spawn on the shore with nothing but a Rock and a torch. First things first, throw your torch away. If you light that bad boy in the middle of the night, anyone within your line of sight will see exactly where you are – making you a Very easy target.

You’ll want to use your stone or tools to smash down a few trees and break down a few stone nodes. Once you have around 3000 of stone and 6000 wood, you can get to work building your very first Rust beginner base.

What you’ll need:

1. A Tool Cupboard
2. A wooden Door
3. A lock for your door
4. A hammer
5. A building plan

Once you have the above, use your building plan to build a 2×1 building with the Building Plan. Remember to use the Single Doorway to accommodate your new door.

Remember, upgrade the foundations, walls and roof to stone. Stone is twice as hard to raid. If you have metal frags, building a metal door will make your base much harder to raid, but if not, a quick wood door will have to do.

You may have heard the term “Airlock”, which means that you use a triangle foundation to build two doors. Each door blocks the other, meaning that if you get killed with an open door, the attacker cannot enter your base quite as easily. As a rust beginner, building will be hard – but you’ll find it easier the more you do it.

Put your Tool Cupboard down, a couple of boxes, and a sleeping bag to make your house feel more like a home.

Creating Your Level 1 Table

The level 1 workbench is one of the most essential crafting stations in Rust. It allows you to craft tier 1 items and components that are necessary for progressing in the game. As a Rust beginner, you’ll want to begin progressing this table as soon as possible.

To craft a level 1 workbench, you will first need to gather:

• 500 wood
• 50 scrap
• 100 metal fragments

Wood can be easily obtained by hitting any tree with a rock or hatchet. Metal fragments can be gathered from metal ore nodes found around the island using a stone pickaxe or better.

Once you have the required materials, open your crafting menu and select the tab for crafting. Find the level 1 workbench in the list and click to craft it.

Place the workbench down in your base and access it. You’ll now see a whole new list of items that can be crafted including building components like code locks, weapons like revolvers, and helpful items like metal doors.

The workbench serves as a cornerstone for any base. Having tier 1 crafting capabilities allows you to start creating a secure home and equipping yourself with better technology to survive the harsh island. Use your new workbench wisely and you’ll be well on your way to thriving in Rust!

Researching Picackes & Hatchets

As we’ve mentioned, using tools is invaluable to progressing much faster. Keep ahold of your scrap and use it to progress the level 1 bench.

A few hundred scrap will get you to the hatchet and pickaxe, from there, you can progress any way you think is best for you.

What Weapon Is Best?

As a Rust beginner, you won’t be running LRs and M2s from early game.

Focus on getting spears, knives and bows made. They won’t put up a fight against those who are armed with weapons, but they’ll give you a chance. Using your tools you can begin to hunt animals to gather cloth and leather, and use this to create clothes and sleeping bags.

Your early game guns are:

• Double Barrel Shotty
• Semi-Automatic
• Thompson
• Custom SMG

Rust: Double Barrel

The Double Barrel is heavily slept on in Rust. The damage dished out by the DB is unrivalled. As a Rust Beginner, we suggest picking up one of these bad boys for close-quarters combat. It’s hard to miss, but if do, you’ll be in a world of pain.

Rust: Semi Auto

The Semi Auto is the ideal gun for medium-range, you’ll take 3-4 hits to drop someone wearing weak armour, and it’s easy to control.

Rust: Custom SMG

The custom SMG has the highest rate of fire (ROF) in the game. It’s very easy to dish out a 24-round mag, but the damage leaves something to be desired

Rust: Thompson

Easy to control, with some decent damage, the Tommy gun is the favourite of many.

Our Rust beginner guides

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