The RUST Beginner’s Defense Guide
This RUST beginner’s defense guide video is brought to you by our partner Jfarr.
In this video, targeted at beginner RUST players, Jfarr walks us through how to acquire, craft, and use many of the basic and core RUST weapons used to defend yourself. For each tool and weapon covered, you will find unique insights, tips, and tricks that can help build up your understanding of these commonly used items.
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Video Transcript
Hey guys, Jfarr here.
We begin with the wooden spear. The wooden spear will be the easiest weapon in the first build to defend yourself. The wooden spear can be crafted with 300 wood and will take 30 seconds to craft. The wooden spear will deal 25 damage per hit, not including armor with a great range of 2.6 meters.
If you end up chasing down your enemy you can throw your spear by holding right-click, and then left-click to throw. Watch out though, since once you throw your spear the enemy can pick it up and use it against you. Throughout this video, all melee weapons which I mention will feature the same throwing mechanic like the spear. Once you have a wooden spear you can now use it to craft a stone spear.
The stone spear is an upgraded version of the wooden spear and provides a better range and damage. The stone spear will deal 35 damage with a range of 2.75 meters. The stone spear, like the wooden, can be thrown at your enemies. A tip for the spear is that you should craft multiple spears and have each one on your hotbar. This will allow you to rapidly throw spears at your enemies and quickly kill them with great range.
Next up, the hunting bow. The hunting bow is a crucial milestone in the early stage of Rust, allowing you to take on your enemies at range. The bow can be crafted from 200 wood and 50 cloth. Once you have crafted a bow, you will need some bows to go with it. The bow with the default wooden arrows will deal 50 damage with a rate of fire at 60 rounds per minute. Other arrows can later be crafted, but it is recommended to stick with the wooden arrows.
Once you have a bow, you should stay on the lookout for additional melee weapons which can be found in barrels, toolboxes, regular boxes, and high tier crates. These weapons include the machete, mace, longsword, salvage cleaver, and salvage sword. These are some of the most damaging and practical melee weapons you can find. Even though you now have a bow, and fighting up close is the last thing you want to do, it’s always good to have a backup melee weapon to defend yourself if times get tough.
The best melee tool out of all of these would be the longsword, which deals the most damage. Keep in mind though that each melee weapon will appeal to different people, so try out different ones and use what’s best for you. In addition, these melee weapons can be crafted at home using a high tier workbench, but since you are just starting out this won’t be an option.
The bone club and bone knife are both very useful and easy to make weapons. If you have the chance, you’ll want to make the bone club right after you have spawned up on the beach. But you’ll have to be lucky though and be next to a dead body to harvest the bones. The bone club will provide an upgraded tool compared to the rock. It will allow you to kill other players faster with 12 damage per hit, and a faster hit rate which will allow you to harvest resources quicker than a rock.
After the bone club is the bone knife. This is a very useful tool to have for a reason other than PvP. You’ll want to get the knife for its ability to harvest animals or humans incredibly fast, and yield much more resources per harvest. The bone knife also deals 16 damage per hit, which is a bit more than the bone club.
Along your journey, you might also find the salvage hammer hiding in crates. This tool isn’t useful if you already have a stone axe and pickaxe, but if you still have your rock, this tool will be great to help you start out. The salvaged hammer is a much better tool than the rock since it deals 30 damage per hit and can be used as a multi-purpose tool to harvest rocks and trees at a faster rate. The salvaged hammer is also a good tool to use for smashing barrels. So instead of using your main tools durability, you can use the hammer to quickly break open a barrel and move on.
Once you have a simple house set up with a furnace and a workbench, you can now move onto making better tools and weapons to defend yourself. One of these weapons you’ll want to craft is an Eoka Pistol. This pistol is a very simple single-shot pistol which is very inaccurate and slow to shoot. But it is still a good weapon to have as a beginner since when loaded with a handmade shell, it will deal 180 damage per hit.
The Eoka Pistol has a random rate of fire which can sometimes be instant, but can other times take what feels like forever to get the gun to shoot. The pistol can take many other types of shotgun ammunition such as 12-gauge slug at 75 damage, 12-gauge incendiary shell at 150 damage the 12-gauge buckshot at 110 damage. For the beginner stages though, you’ll want to craft and use the handmade shell.
Overall, the Eoka Pistol is a very good weapon to run around with as a beginner, and it is recommended to craft multiple pistols so you can quickly shoot them off at enemy targets. You can even kill quite geared guys with an Eoka Pistol if you come up behind them and get them off guard.
The crossbow will be an ultimate weapon choice to make since you’re upgrading your already useful weapon, which is the bow. The crossbow has a slower rate of fire than the bow but deals more damage in a faster shot. The crossbow can be crafted on a level on the workbench for 200 wood, 75 metal frags, and 2 rope. The crossbow can also take multiple types of ammunition such as the bow high-velocity fire and wooden arrow.
But it is still recommended like the bow to keep using the wooden arrows. With the wooden arrow, the crossbow will deal 60 damage, with a rate of fire of 17 rounds per minute. Another advantage the crossbow has over the bow is the reload. When and if you miss one of your shots with the crossbow, you can click R to reload a new bolt and while doing so, keep running around so the enemy misses their shot.
On the bow, on the other hand, you hold right-click to load a new bolt in, and while doing so, it will slow your character down so you can’t keep running around while you’re reloading your bow. Even though the bow reloads the bolt much quicker, it will still slow you down, leaving you vulnerable for about a second. With the crossbow, this doesn’t happen since when you hit R, you can keep running around at full speed while it reloads.
The crossbow can also be equipped with many different attachments such as scopes, a laser sight, and a flashlight. For a beginner though, you won’t have to worry about attachments since they’re mostly mid-late game.
Finally, we get to the compound bow. The compound bow is a cheaper weapon to craft compared to the crossbow at 100 wood, 25 metal frags, and 2 rope, while still requiring a level one workbench. At the time of recording, the compound bow will cost 75 metal frags to craft, but as of the next update, the cost will be reduced to 25. The compound bow is a very powerful weapon if used correctly. Unlike the crossbow, you cannot go around running and shooting everyone.
Instead, the compound bow will require you to stand still to utilize its full power. Standing still will charge the weapon, which will inflict more damage on your targets. If you move while the compound bow is charging, it will be canceled and reset. You can shoot the compound bow as if it was the hunting bow without charging it for a penalty of less damage and speed.
This weapon is great if you like to play a bit slower and more stealthy since if you manage to stay still and charge up, you inflict 100 damage to your enemies. If you don’t want to charge up, the compound bow will do 40 damage per shot. Like the hunting bow and crossbow, this weapon can also take other ammunition types, but it is still recommended to use the wooden arrow for good damage and velocity.
Now you should have a better understanding of what all the early weapons and tools are used for, and their strengths and weaknesses. Thank you so much for watching, and I hope to see you in the next video.
