How does one get started?

[Cellcrash1991]

A friend and I downloaded Rust several weeks ago, but I was wondering how to get started in this game.
I'm looking for a server with low population but we're always getting attacked on sight. Sometimes with guns, other times with arrows. The only thing we have are a stone and maybe a spear. 
Then we tried to go to other houses and we use the local chat. ("don't shoot" and those texts"), but nope. Everyone kills us. 

When we (eventually) find a quiet spot to build a house, the next day (real time) it's gone, our resources are stolen and we have to do everything again from scratch. It's kinda frustrating to be honest. 
But the trophy list seems doable and I want that platinum. ? 

[OFFICER_OILDAB]

If you aren't committed, or cant put a lot of time in to secure your things, its almost not worth it. 

 

Currently, there are no "low" pop servers. Some servers will be lower pop than others at certain times, but at peak gaming hours, most are filled up.

 

I played this game solo, and never had any real issues. How I always played it out was to figure out the spawn areas of your server, and start on the opposite side of that. Collect resources as you run to the other side of the map, most important is hemp. Youll want to create a sleeping bag at a halfway point, and in the area of which you plan on building. I always put mine in bushes so they werent destroyed randomly. Once you have found a nice building location, start with a 2x2 or a 1x2. Id recommend 2x2 as it gives you a bit more to work with. The idea here is that this is a startup base, with its primary function being storage. Upgrade this shelter to metal asap, as it will deter cheap raiders. 

 

Once your "storage unit" it built, stockpile resources. Whatever you feel you need. Youll be working towards making a more formidable base. Gather plenty of wood and stone. Id recommend looking up some good building designs on youtube. While working towards making a more formidable base, you can craft your basic weapons being the bow and spear. 

 

Never trust anyone! Nobody can ever see your inventory, only what you have equipped, with that comes curiosity. Everyone wants what you have, even if you have barely anything (they dont know that). If you see someone, Id treat them the same way. Kill on sight, almost always. This is just a game and thus should never feel bad for robbing what someone else has, almost the entire point of playing. 

 

As a solo, I found the best time to start is at the beginning of a wipe. Beginning at the start of a wipe will give you more time to prepare, since everyone else is doing the same. I would run across to the other side of the map, throw a sleeping bag down, and go to work. Personally, I always built near launch site. This will make you a target, but if youre building near high tier monuments, youll be able to gather more items to defend yourself with, i.e. guns, armor, syringes, and scrap for BPs.

 

Everything else is just a learning curve. When I first started playing, I was raided everyday if not every other day. After learning and playing, I was easily able to do a lot more at the start of the wipe. No compounds, I played early morning when there was barely any activity, and worked on defenses and how to not get raided. Ended up with a compound with 20 auto turrets, and didn't get raided for 2 1/2 weeks.

[Johambubger]

I'm in a similar boat, I don't really have the time to commit that this game clearly requires. I'll hop on with a buddy (when the servers even allow us to) and play until it either crashes, or we get killed on sight by a group of people with much better gear than us. We've gotten far enough to build a decent little house somewhere secluded, but even then we'll find ourselves hunted down (there once was a guy who sat outside our door with a machine gun for like 30 minutes, saying horrible shit over voice chat). I understand that's kind of the nature of this game, but bugs, crashes, KOI and server wipes really sour the experience for me personally. At this point I'm just kind of waiting for some kind of custom server or rent-a-server option to be introduced, so I can play with a closed-off group of people and we can set some rules to make the game more fun and approachable. Hopefully something like that is introduced in the near future, and you can still unlock trophies using it.

[chilly_schrimp]

On 2021-09-03 at 8:44 AM, johamburgers said:

I'm in a similar boat, I don't really have the time to commit that this game clearly requires. I'll hop on with a buddy (when the servers even allow us to) and play until it either crashes, or we get killed on sight by a group of people with much better gear than us. We've gotten far enough to build a decent little house somewhere secluded, but even then we'll find ourselves hunted down (there once was a guy who sat outside our door with a machine gun for like 30 minutes, saying horrible shit over voice chat). I understand that's kind of the nature of this game, but bugs, crashes, KOI and server wipes really sour the experience for me personally. At this point I'm just kind of waiting for some kind of custom server or rent-a-server option to be introduced, so I can play with a closed-off group of people and we can set some rules to make the game more fun and approachable. Hopefully something like that is introduced in the near future, and you can still unlock trophies using it.

 

Best advice I can give as someone that doesn't like trying to "git gud" in this game is to play on low population servers and keep things small and simple.

Don't bother trying to get good guns and armor (except for the blueprints trophy) you will just loose them at some point anyway. Keep clothes and weapons to low tier, burlap everything, machete and a bow/spear is good enough for protection against radiation at low tier monuments and animal attacks and just try and just stay away from other players as best you can.

Build a small base close to bandit camp so you have easy access to recycler, workbench and research table.

Run lighthouse, dome, satellite dish and sewers as often as you can. Try to do airfield once in a while as well but be prepared to run into players there.

Recycle everything(!) and sell high quality metal and extra keycards you don't need at bandit camp for the scrap trophy.

Buy a jackhammer to speed up gathering stone, ore and sulfur.

The odd airdrop may contain a timed explosive to try and go for them when you are close and the player count is low.

 

Unless you like the PVP aspect of the game I believe that the "stealth" approach is more satisfying even if it's quite a boring grind for the trophies.

[Kennamer]

On 9/10/2021 at 8:33 AM, chilly_schrimp said:

 

Best advice I can give as someone that doesn't like trying to "git gud" in this game is to play on low population servers and keep things small and simple.

Don't bother trying to get good guns and armor (except for the blueprints trophy) you will just loose them at some point anyway. Keep clothes and weapons to low tier, burlap everything, machete and a bow/spear is good enough for protection against radiation at low tier monuments and animal attacks and just try and just stay away from other players as best you can.

Build a small base close to bandit camp so you have easy access to recycler, workbench and research table.

Run lighthouse, dome, satellite dish and sewers as often as you can. Try to do airfield once in a while as well but be prepared to run into players there.

Recycle everything(!) and sell high quality metal and extra keycards you don't need at bandit camp for the scrap trophy.

Buy a jackhammer to speed up gathering stone, ore and sulfur.

The odd airdrop may contain a timed explosive to try and go for them when you are close and the player count is low.

 

Unless you like the PVP aspect of the game I believe that the "stealth" approach is more satisfying even if it's quite a boring grind for the trophies.

 

This is great advice. Regarding timed explosives, I would also suggest checking the player-created shops for anyone selling them. If you find one, make gathering resources to buy it your top priority. Buy multiples if they are available and you can afford it. Because they are so hard to come by, I would be wary of buying (or even using) them in broad daylight.

 

If you're desperate, you could bring your research table and level 3 workbench with you so you can immediately learn it. Just be 100% sure no one is around, or you run the risk of losing more than just the C4. The only downside to learning C4, is that you'll have to gather the requirements to craft it if you don't already have them (which takes even more time).

 

If you don't plan on learning it first, I would at least carry a stash and a sleeping bag so you can dump it quickly if you run into any resistance.