Rust can be overwhelming for new players who just downloaded the game and jumped into a server. But don’t worry—we’re here to help! In this video, I’ll explain how to get started in Rust in 5 minutes or less, so let’s dive in.
Step 1 - Gather Materials
After you have waited 3 hours for the server to finally load, you will spawn into the map at a random location and only have a rock and a torch. You will want to immediately look around and start mining trees and stone ore with the rock.
Some resources that you will want to collect right away is:
- Wood – which you get from trees
- Stone – which you get from the gray rocks
Other resources that aren't necessary but good to have for further use are:
- Sulfur – which you get from the yellowish gray rocks
- Metal – which you get from the bronze colored rocks
- Hemp – which you get from the little green plants
Here’s a pro tip: When you see a red ‘X’ on trees or a shiny spot on ores, hit those critical points. It’ll help you gather resources faster, though it won’t increase how much you get, only the higher-tier tools will increase the amount you get.
Once you’ve gathered enough wood and stone, craft a stone pickaxe and axe. As these tools will speed up your resource gathering significantly.
Step 2 - Build a Base
Now that you’ve got more wood and stone, it’s time to build your starter base. Craft yourself a hammer and building plans. With the building plans you can place down twig foundations, I usually just start with a simple 4x4 setup since you won't really have many resources to spare. Once you have put down 4 foundations, 7 walls, a door frame, and 4 roof panels, it's time to craft 1 door, 1 lock, and 1 tool cabinet or TC.
The TC prevents your building from decaying over time and does not allow other people to build in or around your base. In order to keep your base standing you need to keep replenishing the TC with the required materials. The more you add to your base the more the TC requires for the upkeep.
Once you have finished building your starter base, the next step you will want to do is start to upgrade the walls to wood and then stone once you have gathered enough.
Step 3 - Craft Essential Items
The next thing I craft is storage boxes, these are definitely required as it allows you to store your items so you don't have to keep them in your inventory all the time.
I then will make a campfire inside my base as this gives off light when it gets dark out and you can cook any meat you get from hunting in order to gain more health and not get sick from raw meat. Campfires do require wood to keep lit so I recommend keeping between 50-100 pieces of wood in there at all times. Definitely turn off the campfire during the day to save wood if you are not cooking anything.
I then will craft a spear to start with. However, when you get enough wood and hemp, you definitely want to craft a bow and some arrows which is better for hunting and fighting off other players.
Step 4 - Hunt and Gather Food/Resources
When you are walking on the roads you will notice barrels, I will always destroy these barrels and gather the resources, you can discard any of the car parts or decorations for now as you won't need them until later. What you really want is canned food, water bottles, scrap, metal fragments, and low-grade fuel. Scrap is Rust currency and can be used for a lot of things in the future of your Rust gaming experience. Metal fragments also play a crucial role, which I will talk about in a moment.
Step 5 - Defend and Upgrade
Once you have crafted a furnace you can then smelt your iron ore and sulfur ore. You can then use the metal fragments to upgrade your base walls and craft metal doors and keypads for easier access into your base and if you are playing with friends you can just give them the code to all of your doors. Later you can use the sulfur and charcoal that your furnace creates to craft ammo and explosives to attack other bases. I would highly recommend doing this with a couple friends and if you don't have any friends you can try and make some with the people you meet on your journeys if they don't kill you first.
You can then use the scrap that you have found to build workbenches in order to get more blueprints for other materials that will help you in your Rust gaming experience.
Go check out our Rust merch design.
