Rust (video Game) - Wikipedia

As a multiplayer-only video game,[1] Rust pits players against each other in a harsh, open world environment with the sole goal of survival. Animals, such as wolves, bears and big cats, act as a looming threat, but the primary danger comes from other players.[1]

Joining a game

Players can choose from thousands of official, community, or private game servers.[2] Each servers have different settings for game types ("Vanilla" or "Modded"), difficulties, player count, and various rules (day-night cycle, loot generation speed, etc.).[3] Each server features only one massive map and accommodate up to a thousand players.

A core feature of the game is the Wipe, where everything on the map is reset to the original state, including the removal of players and player-built structures. Wipe frequencies can range from several weeks to several months. The only exceptions are blueprints (researched recipes for craftable items) which might be preserved between wipes depending on server settings. This forces new players and veterans alike to start from the same point and race to progress.

Exploration

Maps can be procedurally generated[4] or pre-built.[5][6] The map is often a big island (often referred to as "mainland") with several smaller islets around it. There are often three main biomes: arctic, temperate and arid. The temperate biome can be divided into 3 sub-types: plains, jungle and swamp. Besides some shared features, each biome has their own distinct resources and hazards.

Mainland has various geographical features such as rivers, lakes, caves, hills, mountains and valleys, each offering distinct characteristics, encouraging different play styles.[6] For example, rivers provide abundant access to fresh water, allowing easy farming, while caves can make formidable strongholds with limited entry points. Various monuments - man-made structures and infrastructures such as military base, light house, outpost, oil rig - dot the land and ocean, providing either safe zones for trading and socializing, or high-value targets with valuable loots to encourage PvP combat.

Horses, bicycles, motorcycles, cars and trains can be used to navigate the land. The cars are particularly customizable, with modular parts allowing them to be equipped with extra beds (spawn points), armor or storage.[7]

Options to traverse water include swimming, bodyboarding, boats with outboard motors, submarines and tugboats.[8] The tugboat, in particular, can be equipped with spawn points, storage containers and various facilities, effectively turning it into a full-fledged mobile base.

Airborne vehicles, such as hot air balloons, mini-copters and scrap-helicopters can also be used to explore the map quickly.[9][10]

Scavenging

Upon joining, all players start with a rock and a torch. The torch is for illumination, while the rock is both a resource-gathering tool and a weapon.[11]

The game features respawning resource nodes that provide various raw material such as stone, metal ore, sulfur ore, and woods. Cloth and food can be gathered from plants. Meat and bone can be harvested from animals.[12] Besides the starting rock, there are various tools that can speedup harvesting efficiency.

The other source for scavenging are various crates and barrels that spawn at designated points on the maps. Higher tiered resources spawn in monuments, especially military-owned structures, making these locations a hot spot for players and groups competing to progress.[13]

Besides scavenging, player can acquire clothings, weapons, tools, and other items using the crafting system.[14]

To craft items, the player must have a sufficient amount of all required materials,[15] with more advanced items requiring access to an appropriate workbench as well as a researched blueprint.[16][15]

Survival

The game features basic survival mechanics such as survival, thirst, and temperature meters which must be maintained. There are other challenges the player must overcome during gameplay, such as drowning, hypothermia, and wildlife attacks—primarily bears, wolves and big cats.[17] Specific locales around the map are radioactive, with four levels of radiation: minor, low, medium, and high. The correct armour or clothing must be worn to enter these areas; failure to do so can result in death.[18]

Dying leaves behind the body with the entire inventory and equipped items. Players can then respawn at a random location, or at their designated spawn points (a sleeping bag or bed they own). Respawned characters only have a rock and torch.

Combat

Player vs player (PvP) combat is accomplished with bows, melee weapons and craftable guns.[19] Bullets and other projectiles travel in a ballistic trajectory, rather than being hitscan.[5][20] There are a number of different types of bullet for each gun, including high velocity and explosive,[21] thus allowing for more diverse strategy.[22] Hit tracking calculates damage;[5] shots to the head are more damaging than shots to other parts of the body.[23][24] The use of weapon attachments, such as holographic sights, provide an advantage over opponents.[25]

Rust is sometimes played in a "clan". Clans usually create housing for their members, give items and supplies to each other and partake in organised raiding and looting.[26][27][28]

Airdrops are an important element in Rust.[28] These are parachute-equipped pallets of supplies delivered by a prop plane. They can be seen over extremely long distances, sometimes resulting in players running toward the airdrop.[24] There are also other entities that drop advanced loot, including an attack helicopter[22] and the CH-47 Chinook. Both of these travel randomly around the map and attempt to kill players. The Chinook additionally travels to a randomly picked monument[29] found in the game world and drops a locked supply crate that opens after a length of time, inviting PvP interactions. In the game, players can visit safezones such as the outpost, bandit camp and fishing village to purchase supplies and vehicles, and make trades with other players in an area where hostile players are immediately killed by turrets.[30]