With Rust coming to consoles later this month, there will be a ton of players joining the community. The majority of these players have never played Rust and may be new to the survival genre as well. Staying alive in Rust is hard enough with a squad, and it is even more difficult as a solo gamer.
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Before entering the first wipe, it will help beginners to understand basic early game strategies. Players that put their primary focus on surviving the first few days and nights as a solo player are certain to find success. To ensure survival, there are several steps every gamer must take.
At the beginning of the wipe, players will spawn into the beginner area near the ocean. First, survivors will want to take a look at their map and mark the nearest Fishing Village. The Fishing Villages are safe zones, so they are good locations to build a base at the beginning of a wipe. Usually, there will be one or two that are in a nearby area.
While proceeding to the Fishing Village, it is easy to collect all of the items needed to craft weapons, clothing, and a beginner base. The only items players need to loot are stone, wood, and hemp. Stone and wood can be harvested using a rock, which can be found near the spawn point. Hemp is used to craft clothing, which provides protection from radiation and the cold. Wood and stone are the only ingredients needed to craft basic stone weapons and a day one base.
Once people have gathered 30 cloth from the hemp plants, they should craft a sleeping bag immediately. In Rust, the sleeping bag acts as a save point of sorts. Instead of having to wait and respawn back at newbie beach, survivors will be able to pick up where they left off on their way to the village. Everyone should set the sleeping bag down before beginning to build a starter base.
Players have the choice of whether they want to start with an immaculate build or do enough to survive the first night. A simple 2x2 wood base is good enough on day one. Anything more complex will require a lot of materials to complete.
Since most people will be racing to get their base up for safety, the glamorous builds can be constructed later in the wipe. A lock for the base can be crafted with 100 wood. For building tips, as well as a quick guide for building airlocks, check out our Rust building guide.
Rust Island is not very safe at night. Animals and other players will attack survivors on site. Beginners and conservative players may want to wait until the morning to begin farming. Proactive survivors can set out and loot the metal barrels around the fishing camp for scrap.
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The scrap will be used to construct a workbench and gain access to the boat. While farming, it can be helpful to harvest some food or hunt a few animals to keep the health bar up. There is a recycler in the Fishing Camp to process all of the scrap players posess.
With all of the scrap processed, gamers will have the materials they need to upgrade their base before setting off to explore some of the smaller monuments. Survivors can use the boat down at the docks to visit the Bandit Camp and scavenge for scraps. Using the boat is a safer way to travel from monument to monument without having to worry about a clan flank. There will be a lot of floating metal barrels for scrap neat the island(s) and shoreline. In just under an hour, it is possible to collect nearly 1,000 scrap using this method.
Gamers that have around 1,000 scrap are ready to make the trek to the Bandit Camp. If the Camp is in the center of the island, it is usually safer to travel under the cover of darkness to avoid PVP scenarios while transporting the hard-earned scrap. Another option is to spawn near the Bandit Camp and set up a second base there to be safe. The main items survivors will want to craft are level one and level two workbenches, as well as the research bench.
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Most of the salvaged items can be recycled for even more scrap once at the Bandit camp. However, players will want to hold on to cloth, crude oil, and high-quality metal to barter for even more scrap. The Hemp trader is on the opposite end of the windmill building. Likewise, the shop that will purchase the rest of the items is on stilts at the center of the camp. At this point, gamers will have everything they need to craft workbenches or purchase weapons.