Starter Guide - Rust Guide - IGN (2025)

Jumping headlong into Rust can be a daunting task at first. Along with the wolves, bears and your fight to survive against the elements, you'll more than likely have to endure being murdered a few times by other players.

Once you've gotten over getting beaten to death with a rock by that jerk DMoney69, you'll want to have an idea of what to do and where to go in order to survive for more than a few hours. There are two key things to keep in mind when attempting to survive in the wilderness: sustenance and self-defense.

See also: Survival

Ditch the Rock

The default rock item is used to gather supplies out in the world, and it'll be your only weapon when first starting off. It is a terrible weapon against wild animals and an even worse weapon against intelligent players that may have guns by now.

You'll want to get rid of your ever-spawning rock as soon as possible, to upgrade it in favor of either the Stone Hatchet or the fancier (and deadlier) Hatchet weapon. To do that, you'll need to Craft two other items together.

Wood can be obtained by bashing trees with your rock. There are a lot of trees out in the world, which means there is a lot of wood. Stone can be obtained by bashing boulders that are standing out in the middle of a field. You can also obtain Metal Ore by bashing lone boulders with your rock, but you'll need to use a furnace to turn the ore into Metal Fragments. You may be able to find a furnace in your server, or you may need to craft your own. Read more about this on the Crafting page.

If you come across a furnace after harvesting 3 or 4 Metal Ore, take the time to craft the weaponized hatchet. It'll net you more wood from wood piles, as well as deal more damage to animals / people (though it isn't advised to attack someone head-on with a hatchet).

Food, Glorious Food

The next order of business after getting yourself a hatchet (or maybe it was the first, if you found a slow enough animal to kill with your rock) is to find yourself a meal. Rust Island is full of wildlife, both dangerous and docile, that you can hunt and use for food.

If you're still using a hatchet or a rock, your best bet is to go after the smaller game on the island - e.g. rabbits, chicken or boar (pigs). Rabbits and chickens only give you one or two meat items (they're currently referred to in-game as "Raw Chicken Breasts," even if you killed a boar) at a time, as well as some cloth, maybe. The best hand-to-hand hunt is the boar, which will net anywhere from 5 to 10 meats and several cloth.

Now that you have some meat, you'll need to cook your (hopefully) bountiful meal over a campfire and either eat it all immediately or save it to replenish those precious calories with later on. In order to cook your meal over a campfire, only five pieces of wood are necessary to get you started.

Home Sweet Home

Once you've got a sturdy tool and a full stomach, it's time to head out into the world and build a life for yourself. Before you starting building yourself a rustic mansion, consider building yourself a basic Wood Shelter. Wood shelters are cheap for new players as they only cost fifty wood, plus thirty wood for a wood door. The wood shelter is great for temporarily storing your items as you explore the world and gather supplies. Once your wood shelter is standing, hatchet down trees and log piles to gain a large amount of wood, smash open metal and stone deposits to smelt into usable items, such as metal doors, and hunt animals to keep yourselves fed and clothed.

You'll want to build yourself a base of operations, and the only limit on that is the scope of your imagination. Your first shelter will probably just be four walls and a roof, but you can always build and expand later.

Your first room / house will cost 380 wood, plus an additional 30 for a door if you opt to make a wooden door. Craft a Wood Foundation and place it in the center of the area you want to build in - leave space around you so you can expand later if you so choose. At each corner of the foundation place a wood pillar, then place walls and a doorframe between them. Be careful not to place your pillar in the center of where you want your wall to go, or else you will have to use a barricade (which is far less durable) instead.

If you have enough metal fragments, craft a metal door instead of a wooden one (200 metal fragments plus access to a workbench). The metal door is far more durable - only an explosive charge or series of grenades can destroy it, as opposed to the wooden door, which can be smashed in with a pickaxe, hatchet or even a rock.