Playing for the first time and want to have the best start? Here’s a complete starter guide to Rust for beginners.
So you decided to pick up this cruel survival game? Now you’re on an unknown island naked as the day you were born with nothing but a stone and a torch. Everything is out to kill you. From the wildlife, the inhabitants, and other players.
The only goal in this game is to survive. But how do you do it?
Playing this game for the first time can be very overwhelming. That’s why we created this guide to help you survive your first few hours in Rust and give you a decent foundation to start your most addicting survival adventure yet.
Rust for Beginners: Your First Game
Starting from scratch can be challenging, especially in a game like Rust where there is no definitive way of playing. If you want to skip the learning curve and master the basics as fast as possible, then here are the main things you should be focusing on in your first day.
Servers and Wipes
So how do you even start a game in Rust? It all starts with choosing a server. There are various servers but for this guide, we will be focusing on Vanilla servers.
Start by choosing a server that has fewer players and has recently been wiped. This gives you some space to learn the basics a bit more peacefully and players won’t be too ahead of you. Choose the server that is closest to your location for the lowest ping.
Each server regularly gets wiped. A wipe rids all players of all their resources and weapons so that everyone has to start from scratch again, leveling the playing field for both new and veteran players. Everyone starts from scratch again bringing home nothing but their experience and game knowledge with them.
Some servers wipe weekly and some wipe monthly.
What to do After Spawning?
You wake up on the beach with pixels over your private parts and almost nothing in your hands. Here are your top three priorities when starting.
- Find a safe place to build your first base
- Place sleeping bags
- Craft Basic Tools and Weapons
Find a Safe Place to Build Your First Base
While using your rock to gather resources can be the default response for beginners, it will be wasted if you get killed. Crafting weapons is vital but it would take too long and other players would more likely find you and kill you first. The worst thing that could happen to a Rust noob is to get caught with all your resources with nothing to defend yourself with.
To avoid that, as soon as you wake up, open the map and look for monuments. Monuments are like hotspots for players. The areas surrounding these monuments are the most dangerous for an unarmed and naked noob like us.
So look for a place far from the monuments but not too distant from your first spawn point. You need scrap later, so areas near roads that are not too open are good. An ideal place for your first base is a forest with lots of trees and stone nodes nearby.
Mark it on your map and head there avoiding any conflict along the way.
Now that you have a destination, pick up crucial resources on the way. This includes wood, cloth(Hemp plants), stone, food (mushrooms and Berries), and anything you can find on the ground.
Also Read: How to Get Scraps Fast in Rust
Place Sleeping Bags
Sleeping bags are essential and most noobs don’t know how important it is. Placing a sleeping bag will allow you to respawn in that location every time you die. So the more sleeping bags you place, the easier you can pick yourself back up when you die. Otherwise, you’ll end up spawning on the beach, back where you started.
You need 30 cloth to craft a sleeping bag. You can collect this resource from hemp plants or cactuses. You might as well plant hemp seeds as soon as you collect them because you’ll need lots of cloth.
To make a sleeping bag, press q to open the crafting menu. Then, search for sleeping bag and start crafting.
Place your sleeping bag somewhere hidden like a bush where someone won’t easily find it. This will serve as a save state where you can respawn conveniently.
Craft Basic Tools and Weapon
Now that you have a save point. Your next priority is to build a starter base. Rust’s unforgiving world is filled with dangers in every nook and cranny. From players to wild animals. Shelter will protect you from these threats and give you a safe place to store your items. So let’s gather resources for your first base.
Your rock won’t do much against Rust’s unforgiving world, so craft tools to expedite the gathering and building process and find a way to protect yourself. Remember, you’re not just against the environment but other players as well.
Collect wood and use your rock to break a stone node until you have enough to craft a stone pickaxe. This is an indispensable tool that will let you mine nodes more quickly.
Then, the next important tool you need is a stone hatchet. It’s basically an axe that lets you gather wood more efficiently from trees.
After that, you need to make a Hunting Bow for defense and hunting. It requires 200 wood and 50 cloth. This weapon offers decent damage early on and better range than a regular spear and will serve you well in your first few hours.
Now you can protect yourself from wild animals and you can start gathering resources to build your base. But you are literally an ant compared to players with guns. So at this stage, you still need to avoid fighting at all costs.
Essential Items in Rust for Beginners
Besides your basic resource-gathering tools. Here are crucial items you need to learn about. Knowing how to utilize them will give you an enormous jump start in your survival. These items are also needed in building an effective first base.
Stash
A stash can be crafted using cloth and it can be used to store and hide items. When you don’t have a base yet, you are basically defenseless. And when you die, your items will be looted by other players. To prevent that, craft a stash first.
It can be crafted using 10 cloth only. After placing it, a stash can be hidden underground so other players won’t be able to see it. But make sure you place it near your sleeping bag and a non-destructible marker like a boulder so you can find it later.
To hide a stash, look at it, long-press E, and click on Hide. To make it appear, simply stand or crouch where you hid it or look at the same spot.
Hide your items here while you don’t have a base yet.
Building Plans
Building plans can be crafted using wood. This item will allow you to build structures. To build a structure, you need to have enough wood. Use the Building plan and hold your right mouse button. This will bring up a menu of different structures. Always start with a foundation, then add floors, walls, doorways, and roofing.
Hammer
The hammer is another vital construction tool as it lets you upgrade, rotate, and demolish the structures you place. To use it, simply hold your right mouse button and select the action you want to perform.
But before you can demolish anything, you need to have a Tool Cupboard placed first. Items can only be demolished within 10 minutes after placing them.
Tool Cupboard
The Tool Cupboard is the heart of any Rust base. A tool cupboard gives you authorization and ownership to your base. A tool cupboard marks an area as yours as it disables other players from building anything in a radius around your base.
Without it, your building would decay and lose hit points over time. A Tool Cupboard will keep your base intact and stable in exchange for materials as upkeep. You can also store your building tools here.
Door and Lock
A door will let you go in and out of your base while keeping other players from entering. You can craft a wooden door at the start by pressing Q and bringing up the crafting menu. To place a door, you need to attach it to a doorway.
After placing a door, you need to secure it with a lock to keep others from entering without permission. Craft a lock and place it on a door. This way only you can open it at will or those who you make a key for.
Camp Fire
The campfire provides food and comfort. You can’t eat raw meat or you’ll be poisoned, so cook it in a campfire first. It uses wood as fuel to burn. It also provides comfort which heals your HP, making it an essential item in your base.
Another nifty use for this item that not everyone knows about is it can detect enemies. When you are alone in a campfire, the comfort level will only go as high as 50%. When it goes over 50, it means that someone is outside your base waiting for you to come out.
Wooden Box
A box that lets you store more items than a stash but cannot be hidden. That’s why it must only be placed inside your base where it can’t be opened by others.
Also Read: All Keycard Locations in Rust
A 1×1 – The Most Basic Base
For your first base, you don’t need anything fancy yet. Remember, safety is our first priority here. You can always start with a 1×1 and upgrade later.
So get your building plan and start by placing one square foundation. Place three walls and place a doorway. Then craft a door and lock and place them both. Use a floor to make your roof.
After that take your hammer and upgrade everything to wood. Place a tool cupboard, wooden box, and a campfire inside. Now you have a basic 1×1 survival box where you can place your basic tools and resources. You now have a safe place to stack your resources and get started on your adventure.
From here you can start progressing however you want.
Conclusion to Rust for Beginners
And that concludes our guide to Rust for beginners. Starting a new adventure has never been more daunting and exhilarating at the same time. But now you know what to do when you hop into your first Rust server. So, what’s next?
Now it’s time to learn more about the game. In Rust, there’s no fixed way of progressing, so it’s up to you to decide what you want to spend your time on. As a beginner, it would be reading our beginner blogs and guides.
Here at StealthCore, we have everything you need to get started with Rust and improve your gameplay. So whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced player, our guides will take your survival skills to the next level.
Of course, you can’t miss our Rust cheats. It comes with an aimbot, ESP, and wall hacks to give you an edge in this ruthless world. So go check it out!