Rust is a 2018 multiplayer survival video game developed by Facepunch Studios. It was first released in early access in December 2013 and received its full release in February 2018. Rust is available on Windows and macOS. Console versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One developed in conjunction with Double Eleven were released in May 2021. Native versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were released in June 2025. Rust was initially created as a clone of DayZ, a popular mod for ARMA 2, with crafting elements akin to those in Minecraft.
The objective of Rust is to survive in the wilderness using gathered or stolen materials. Players must successfully manage their hunger, thirst, and health, or risk dying. Despite the presence of hostile animals such as bears, wolves and big cats such as panthers, the primary threat to the player is other players due to the game being solely multiplayer. Combat is accomplished through firearms and various weapons, such as bows. In addition, vehicles controlled by non-player characters will occasionally roam, attacking armed players. Rust features crafting, though initially limited until the discovery of specific items in the game's open world. To stay protected, players must build bases or join clans to improve their chance of survival. Raiding is a major aspect of Rust. Rust supports modded servers which can add additional content.
The game functions on a system of 'Wipes' in which servers reset player progress weekly, biweekly or monthly following a set monthly schedule enforced by Facepunch known as 'Force Wipe'. Force Wipes reset not only player structures but also resets player crafting blueprints effectively fully restarting player progress on the first Thursday of each month for the release of a new update.
Rust was first released in December 2013 to the Steam Early Access program. During this period of development, the gameplay was changed significantly. Dangerous wildlife replaced zombies as the primary environmental threat and several fundamental revisions to the crafting system were released, along with general improvements and feature additions. While in Early Access, Rust was ported to the Unity 5 game engine, providing substantial graphical changes. The game also introduced immutable, predetermined skin colour tied to players' Steam account details. Despite being fully released, the game continues to receive updates.
Throughout Rusts alpha release, critical reviews were mixed, with many comparisons made to other survival games. Rust was commonly explained as being a mixture of DayZ and Minecraft. During this period, reviewers frequently noted the game's unfinished nature. During its pre-release phase, critics praised the concept and gameplay and by March 2017, Rust had sold over five million copies. After leaving Early Access, it received mixed reviews from critics. The player vs player combat and survival aspects were highlighted by those who enjoyed the game, though reviewers were critical of the harsh beginner experience and the constant need to grind for materials. The game has continued to be successful post-release and has been listed as one of the best survival games.
Gameplay
As a multiplayer-only video game, 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.
Joining a game
Players can choose from thousands of official, community, or private game servers. Each servers have different settings for game types ("Vanilla" or "Modded"), difficulties, player count, and various rules (day-night cycle, loot generation speed, etc.). 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 or pre-built. 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. 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.
Options to traverse water include swimming, bodyboarding, boats with outboard motors, submarines and tugboats. 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.
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.
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. 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.
Besides scavenging, player can acquire clothings, weapons, tools, and other items using the crafting system.
To craft items, the player must have a sufficient amount of all required materials, with more advanced items requiring access to an appropriate workbench as well as a researched blueprint.
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. 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.
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. Bullets and other projectiles travel in a ballistic trajectory, rather than being hitscan. There are a number of different types of bullet for each gun, including high velocity and explosive, thus allowing for more diverse strategy. Hit tracking calculates damage; shots to the head are more damaging than shots to other parts of the body. The use of weapon attachments, such as holographic sights, provide an advantage over opponents.
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.
Airdrops are an important element in Rust. 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. There are also other entities that drop advanced loot, including an attack helicopter 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 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.
Development
Rusts development began as a clone of DayZ, a popular survival mod for ARMA 2, featuring elements derived from Minecraft. Garry Newman, the CEO of Facepunch Studios, said "Rust started off as a DayZ clone. But then we decided that we are sick of fighting zombies. And can't compete with the Arma island in terms of landmarks and towns." Consequently, Newman described the game as being more along the lines of entries in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series. Facepunch released the game onto the Steam Early Access program on 11 December 2013. Following its alpha launch, Facepunch actively released updates for Rust adding mechanics like animals, hunting, armour and weapons. In February 2014, the developers removed zombies, a temporary enemy, from Rust, replacing them with red mutant bears and wolves. Early on developers made the choice not to try to populate the world with interesting locations to explore, but rather provide the ability to create them. Newman described it as "we give them the tools, they make the world". One of the developers' aims was to create a world which does not encourage any particular kind of behaviour from players. They considered implementing a system like DayZs where those who kill other players get unique outfits which identify them as 'bandits', or possibly a rating or colour-coded system. However, the developers ultimately rejected these ideas, believing they would detract from player freedom. Instead, they found to their surprise that the implementation of voice chat had a noticeable effect on player behaviour. With the ability to communicate, many players would no longer kill each other on sight out of fear.
In late 2014, developers released an experimental mode of Rust and ported it to a then-unreleased game engine, Unity 5, enhancing the graphics, and in turn, improving the shader mechanics and texture realism, as well as allowed for larger procedurally generated worlds. The experimental mode featured a new anti-cheat system called CheatPunch, which banned thousands of players within a few days. In October 2014, the experimental mode became the default launch option. Shortly after, in December, EasyAntiCheat, a third-party anti-cheat system, replaced CheatPunch. In early 2015, Rust added a feature that decided each player's skin colour based on their Steam ID.