George In The Meta
Is Rust fun if you don't like PvP?
By George In The Meta ·
Short answer: yes, if you pick the right server. I've put 450 hours into Rust on Steam, had great fun solo, and I don't think I've ever played proper PvP. The servers I play on are PvE, with PvP only in set zones.
Is Rust fun solo if you avoid PvP?
Yes. Facepunch's own pitch is that everything wants you dead, "the island's wildlife, other inhabitants, the environment, and other survivors", and on a normal server those other survivors are the problem. But base game Rust doesn't force PvP on you. You just have to pick the right server.
The ones I play on are PvE with PvP zones. Out at sea on the Cargo Ship, at the Underwater Labs or on the Oil Rigs, other players can kill you. Anywhere else, you're not killing players. That can be expanded with mods, but that's the basic shape.
Does vanilla Rust have good PvE?
It's got some decent stuff, until you get really deep into the game. You can go down into the train tunnels and fight the NPCs there, fight them on the Cargo Ship, take on the Oil Rig, and so on.
The NPCs are mostly Scientists, with heavier versions on the rigs and the ship. They can be quite overpowered in how much damage they do to you, but as far as their intelligence goes, they're pretty stupid. Once you learn how they behave, you can use that against them.
What do Rust's server modes mean?
Rust's server browser sorts community servers by mode, and none of the modes are PvE in themselves. Per Facepunch's server gamemodes page, Vanilla is "default Rust gameplay". Softcore makes it easier: teams of up to four, you keep half your inventory when you die outside your base, PvP damage is cut by 25%, and there's a 48-hour raiding grace period. Hardcore takes things away: no map, local chat only, no compass and five sleeping bags at most. Primitive is a newer spin-off built around early-era gear.
PvE is something a server adds on top, with its own rules. When I checked on the morning of 10 October, the browser showed about 36,100 players on modded servers, against 18,500 on official servers and 7,600 on community ones. In the community tab, Vanilla had 6,872 players and Softcore 319.
What do Rust PvE servers change, and are they worth it?
They're worth it. Lots of them have their own rules. One I played had PvP time: base raids and PvP were only allowed in set windows, a Wednesday evening and a Friday evening as I remember it.
That gives you structure and control. It isn't "I've just finished work, I want to go grab some trees" and then some random dude blasts you in the back of the head. Servers do this with plugins like TruePVE, which can switch PvP on to a schedule and turn chosen areas into PvP zones.
To get the screenshots for this page, I picked a random PvE server in Europe. Its rules are typical of what you'll see: PvE only with no purge days, a 25% base upkeep, monthly map wipes that keep your blueprints, and anti-griefing rules. It was running Softcore, with 46 of 100 slots filled, eight days after its last wipe.
What are Rust zombie servers like?
Fun, and the zombies actually put a lot of pressure on you. The one I played had a lot of extra variety on top of the zombies, though I honestly can't remember what it was called.
The first couple of times I went out, I was shooting guns, forgetting the main rule of any zombie apocalypse: loud noise is bad, because the zombies go to the loud noise. Rust was no different.
Can you run your own Rust PvE server?
Yes, and I did. I can't remember everything I had on it, because I've got so many hours across so many crafting games that they blend together. As I remember it, I expanded what you could build, and added more NPCs, including roaming patrols.
Both kinds of plugin exist. Better NPC, for example, lets a server add roaming NPC squads and patrols, and there are plugins that change how much each player can build.
How do you build a solo base in Rust?
I've built loads of solo bases. Some were small, petite and very armoured, ready for the hours when PvP happened. Others were just grandiose, built because they were cool to build: nice designs, over the water.
The most recent was three storeys with a helicopter park on the top, in the north-east of the map by the icy water, I believe, overlooking it.
How does the monthly wipe affect PvE players?
I like it. Facepunch wipes every server on the first Thursday of each month, when the monthly update lands, and plenty of community servers wipe weekly on top of that.
On PvE it doesn't worry me as much, but it does give you something to grind towards again. For PvP, I fully get it. Without wipes you get what's happening in WARDOGS right now: a brand new player starting before the Season 02 wipe gets crushed by people with tier three armour and everything else they've unlocked. There's always an end point to progression, and a wipe resets it for everyone.
Is Rust fun if you don't like PvP?
Yes. Pick a PvE server, ideally one with PvP zones or scheduled PvP times for more structure and control, and try a zombie server if you want more pressure. I've had great fun solo in Rust, and I've barely played against another player.
