Rust: Best Beginner Tips and Tricks

In this guide, we shall go over the best beginner tips and tricks for Rust, so your early hours in the game fly by smoothly.

Beginner Tips and Tricks for Rust (Source: Facepunch Studios)

Rust has always been a difficult game to get into as a beginner, but this is now truer than ever in 2025. Rust is well over a decade old, and there are a ton of mechanics you need to master. Factor in that the players you meet may have more experience, and you may find yourself at a frustrating disadvantage.

With all that said, Rust is still a fun time and worth getting into. With this guide, our goal is to make the onboarding process much simpler. We shall offer general tips and tricks that make your first few hours in the game easier, and set up a general foundation for the next hundred hours you’re likely to spend in this game.

Table of Contents

Best Beginner Tips for Rust

Best Beginner Tips for Rust

Be Wary of Force Wipes

You'll lose your loot (Source: Facepunch Studios) — You’ll lose your loot (Source: Facepunch Studios)

Rust has a Force Wipe mechanic where the devs clear out the entire server, including blueprints, your base, your loot, and everything else. This happens once a month, normally on the first Thursday of the month. The developers release a content update on this day, and the idea is to bring in players back for a fresh experience. Since you’ll end up losing all your loot, make sure you’re not hopping into the game right before the first Thursday of the month.

Tweak Your Settings a Bit

Tweaking the settings will make spotting loot easier (Source: Facepunch Studios)

As you’ll learn during your first few hours of Rust, a lot of the loot is just really well hidden in the world. Often, you’ll find loot hidden within strands of grass. This is almost impossible to see at times, but a slight tweak in the settings will make things easier. Head to the game settings, and turn Grass Displacement On, Grass Shadows Off, and Contact Shadows Off. This will allow the loot to be clearer within the grass, and you won’t miss out on any essentials early on.

Read: Rust Mobile: How To Pre-Register

Craft Sleeping Bags

Sleeping bags will act as spawn points for when you inevitably die (Source: Facepunch Studios)

Once you’ve tweaked the settings and are now in the game, you have to work on crafting sleeping bags. You may work with the “no rest for the wicked” philosophy, but it will only do you more harm than good when it comes to Rust. Craft sleeping bags and use them to get rest whenever possible. One sleeping bag costs about 30x Cloth, and you can craft a total of 20 at any given time.

Now, while these bags allow you to rest, they also serve as checkpoints. This is the real reason why you should craft as many as you can and spread them across the map. Each time you die, you’re then asked to pick a sleeping bag to spawn on, so make it a point to spread them evenly across the map. This will save you a lot of time, which would’ve otherwise been spent on backtracking.

Craft the Hatchet

You'll be gathering resources in the early hours (Source: Facepunch Studios) — You’ll be gathering resources in the early hours (Source: Facepunch Studios)

With the sleeping bags crafted, you now have dedicated spawn points spread out across the map. Now, you need the Hatchet. This tool is what you’ll be using to gather wood and other resources in the early game. Apart from resource gathering, the hatchet also doubles as a combat accessory. You can use the hatchet to fend off threats in the early game. Craft this tool using 100x Wood and 75x Metal Fragments.

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Rust: Best Beginner Tips and Tricks