Rust is a multiplayer survival video game developed by Facepunch Studios and released fully in February of 2018. It is available for Windows, macOS, PlayStation, and Xbox One. In Rust, players have to survive in the wilderness by gathering materials or obtaining materials from other players.

Players need to carefully manage their hunger, thirst, and health, or risk dying. And while doing that, players have to deal with the presence of hostile animals like bears, wolves, and also other players. Combat is accomplished through various weapons, such as bows, spears, and firearms. In addition, vehicles controlled by NPC will occasionally roam, attacking armed players. Rust features crafting, though initially limited to unlocking various other craftables by using scrapes (basically the money of the game found through decomposing metal materials or gambling).

In order to stay safe and store items, players must build bases or join clans. Raiding other players’ bases is a major and fun aspect of Rust. Rust supports modded servers that can add additional content, like a PVE server, where players cannot attack or raid each other. It is a good server for starters to get a gist of the game or non-pvp players.

Most maps in Rust are procedurally generated and some are pre-built maps. When players initially join a server, they would be spawned with a rock and torch. The stone could be used as a tool to gather wood, to begin with or act as a weapon (even though it barely does any damage). Players look to collect cloth and food, by killing animals and mining to obtain stone, metal ore, and sulfur ore. After collecting enough materials, players would have to craft tools, weapons, and other gear, but sometimes they need to find obscure components scattered around the map for advanced items. There are also limitations on the number of craftable items, but blueprints allow the creation of more advanced items.

Believe it or not, Rust is a really popular game and you should definitely give it a try when Steam has it on sale. Rust’s alpha release sold over 150,000 copies within the first two weeks. Then, it reached one million copies only two months after Early Access, making over US $30 million by February 2014. In December 2019, Facepunch announced that Rust had sold 9 million copies, making $142 million, overtaking Garry’s Mod in terms of gross, though still behind in total sales. Check it out!