Should You Play Rust?

Rust beach
Is Rust a game worth your time and money? (Credit: facepunch Studios)

Rust is not a new game by any means but has recently climbed the rankings of Twitch viewership in recent weeks. Rust is experiencing a surge in popularity due to many streamers suddenly playing the game. But should you play Rust? We try to help you answer that question today.

Rust was developed by Facepunch Studios and released in 2013 and can easily be described as realistic Minecraft. It’s a survival game at its core with tons of PVP combat. However, Rust is a very competitive and brutal game for one reason alone: death looting. What do we mean by death looting? Well, if you die, the other player can take everything on you! This encourages PVP as you're basically a walking treasure chest. In short, Rust is not for every kind of everyone and is for the hardcore gamer.

Picking a Server

In Rust, your first task is to actually pick a server to play on and there are hundreds to choose from. For beginners, we suggest a solo/duo/trio server because it limits how big teams can be and this will reduce how often you run into groups of players. Dying is very easy in Rust and you pretty much lose any 2v1 let alone more. Also, make sure to pick one that has a low ping as getting disconnected in this game is the absolute worst.

Your Early Rust Experience

Rust tree chopping
You need to collect a lot of wood in this game, but don't die in the porcess! (Credit: Facepunch Studios

Once you begin your journey into the unforgiving world of Rust, you will literally spawn butt naked on the beach armed only with a rock and a torch. Now what? Well, it is time to gather enough resources by whacking trees and stone nodes to make a spear, a hatchet, and a pick. If you haven't died yet we suggest running far away from the beach avoiding all forms of combat as this will only slow your main goal. Your first goal is to build a house, no easy task because at any point someone can kill you sending you back to a random spawn location. To make a wood house you need a shortlist of items and resources:

  • Cira 6000 wood
  • 20 cloth
  • A Tool Cupboard
  • A Hammer
  • Building Plans
  • Two doors and Two Door Locks
  • A storage box

These are only the basic items you need for your starter home. The next step is to upgrade the structure to stone!

Rust stater home game
A very, very fine house! Your safe haven! (Credit: Facepunch Studios)

Once you have collected these basic resources you need to build a twig house and then upgrade the walls, floors, and roofs to wood thereby making your house 100x stronger than the twig version. Make sure to authorize the Tool Cupboard, put the lock on your door(s) and actually lock them. DO NOT make keys - They are not needed to enter your house. And don't forget to put down your sleeping bag this allows you to respawn safely in your new home. We highly suggest you watch a proper beginner build guide for Rust.

The Challenge of Rust

Merely chopping a tree or picking some herbs is dangerous in this game and you feel constantly paranoid, but once you return home from a successful resource run or loot run from the local gas station you feel a great sense of reward. Even better is when you successfully kill or defend yourself and loot your first player corpse. There's is a lot to be said about Rust, we haven't even touched on eating, drinking, and dealing with radiation! So needless to say there is a lot to learn but it only makes it that much more rewarding.

Rust is not for anyone, it is grindy, hard, and unfriendly to new players. It is very frustrating when you have a full inventory of loot and die a mere 200m away from your home. If you choose to play this game, you now know what to expect in your first dozen or so hours of playing it. Spoilers, you are going to die a lot - trust no one!

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Paul Hayes

I did my BA in English Lit. and Language Studies at Western University in Canada and I use to play MTG competitively, but sadly to no success so I write instead! If a game doesn't challenge me, it's not the...