1. TRUST NO ONE.

probably in every single guide out there, and true in every single guide. tust is brutal. the people are brutal. sure you will definitely meet lots of cool people, but even they can and will shoot you sometime. expect it.

Practically what it means is you always should keep your weapon ready and keep a distance from people even if theyre wanting to talk to you. theres NO REASON for a random to come within striking distance just to talk to you. Let them know you're friendly as long as they keep a distance.

If you have loot, its just better to avoid people altogether till you stash it.

2. EXPECT TO DIE. A LOT

pretty much that. whether it be from getting too many rads from a rad town or bullet hell from a zerg or just that one naked who got one too many stones on you. Expect to die, expect to lose a lot of progress, do not get salty over it. Remember rust wipes often and you will lose all your ♥♥♥♥ sooner or later any ways. instead learn from every death, remember every foe.

3. SURVEY AND GATHER BEFORE BUILD

I personally think looking around, roaming and getting the lay of the land is a bigger priority than making a house. The neighborhood has to be good too you know.
Secondly, Rust's character progression is in the form of blue prints, you need to collect, craft and learn blue prints so you can craft easier in the next wipe cycle, so you should keep that in mind as well.

a. Look for areas away from people.

b. look for areas not TOO far away from rad towns. Rad towns i find good as a beginner are, Sewer, supermarket, Oxion gas stations and lighthouse.

c. GREAT way to get a decent amount of cloth and metal fragments is to recycle things you find in barel. Rope, tarp and sewing kits will give you mega cloth and most mettalic things give you scrap and fragments. Quite literally in the early game i craft a satchel and put it on a side of a rad town and just raid and recycle till i have 500 metal fragments 200-500 cloth, then transport all that to my actual build site.

4. DONT BUILD LIKE AN RPer
No bashing on RPers, Rust RPers build like 18th century stone masons building castles for their lords. there is NO reason for you to build a house like the cartoon house icons, unless you are making a trap. That design literally screams Day 1 rust nub pls raid meh.

expanding on building, as a day 1 player you should prioritise a few things and steps as you build

a. find a location as secluded as you can manage without being too far away from resources. Try not to be near ANY base, sometimes its just not possible, but atleast try.

b. make a satchel, screenshot the location in game and the map location and save it. you will put building resources in this bag.

c. Gather around 3k wood and 3k stone, put it in the satchel every 1000-1500. the satchel is there to 'save your progress' in case you get ganked. Remember, sound of tools travels farther than footsteps approaching you.

d. build a Tool cupboard, store it. QUICKLY build a 1x2 base of 1 square and one trangle foundation, wall it, place a door and lock it on the outside.

e. twig bases dont lasT, use a hammer to upgrade to STONE immidiately, hence the earlier preparing mats in the satchel

f. use a code lock, takes 100 metal fragments. the regular key lock has too many disadvantages including the ability for people to just spam keys intill they craft the identical lock as yours. since the game only has a finite amount of key locks you can craft through RNG.

5. BE SMART WITH GUNS

a. try not to shoot guns near your house, or in your house. its literally telling people that you have loot and are a good place to raid.

b. Silencers, exciting, powerful but not so much. silenced guns still produce a lot of sound as in real life. dont chill thinking you are solid snake with a silenced gun. if you shoot in a rad town, you will still get a lot of attention.

c. i usually prioritise learning revolvers and pipes initially. double barrel if youre lucky enough to find one early.

6. PRACTICE PVP.

theres no point in hogging a revolver in your base if youre not going to use it. Use it. if you lose it you lose it, thats that.

one thing you can do to practice is loging into a server tagged combat tag or Battleground. Should be in the modded server menu.


7. WIPE DAY SAYING, EVERYONE WANTS SOMETHING, NOTHINGS TO BE FOUND.

Pretty accurate, everyones in a rush on wipe day, you'll specially have a hard time finding stone. My best advice is to roam around with a bow and arrow, listen to people gathering and kill them for mats, you will actually have a better chance of getting building mats safer that way than trying to gather for yourself on wipe day.

8. ENJOY THE GAME

rust is a game, depending on server you will lose everything weekly or monthly any ways. Dont get salty, dont be salty in chat/voice, youre only giving them what they want. and enjoy the game.