PlayRust - Banditry

Back to the Guide Menu.

Banditry: How to Be the Survivor and Not the Victim

In Rust, one of the biggest threats you can ever come across are other players - they are unpredictable, dangerous, and hard to trust. One player has the potential to ruin everything you’ve been working on in the game, and in the world of Rust, it really is survival of the fittest.

There are certain strategies and tips to take into consideration to ensure that you’re not left standing outside of your own house naked, whilst threatening players blow down your precious house.

Making Friends

Playing safe in Rust requires a few things; firstly, you’re going to need to understand how good base building works, and also how to hide a decent base from plain sight. Secondly, you need to get to grips with the guns in the game, and learn how to keep calm in combat, and thirdly, you need to become a politician.

I’m really not kidding when I say this - in my hours of playing, I’ve learned one very important thing. If you learn to make friends on a server, you can build alliances, track down bandits together, and threaten any hooligans that plan to smash your house down.

Making friends in Rust can be a tricky thing to do, because you can never truly know if other players want to befriend you too, or if they just want to get on your good side to get a good look at your base and home location. The best thing to take into consideration when interacting with other players is that you can never trust anybody. Never let players near your base, no matter how friendly they are, and you should be good.

From here, you can start building relationships with players that could potentially lead to lots of benefits. These benefits include trading opportunities, information related to a bandit’s whereabouts, and even protection and help in PVP situations. You’ll need to think tactically, and learn how much each player will expect from you before you can start seeing benefits in return - if you have to give up 1,000 wood to a player that could potentially be your biggest weapon against other players in the future, it may be worth giving it up.

Keeping Quiet
If you’re not the socialite then you could always keep your head low and not cause any commotion. It’s likely that the bandits on the server you’re playing on already have targets firmly on the heads of any loudmouths on the server, and you could potentially avoid all confrontations just by not mentioning that much to them. If you are hidden well, the only ways you could make your base a target for a raid is either by having a big base worth raiding, or by having enough to say in the chat that could cause people to want to attack you.

And if you are ever worried that someone may be planning to raid your base, you could always try and create a distraction.

Because of the vast open world of Rust, it’s quite easy to place bases in some really interesting places, so if someone is starting to snoop around your base, simply build a new decoy base nearby, and whenever any players are in the area, just drop by your decoy base until they move on. This way, if they do decide to raid you, they’ll most likely find your empty decoy base and will head off home without having any clue where your real base is.

Good Base Protection

If bandits do come across your base, then there is only one thing left between them and all of your loot, and that is good base protection. This is a whole subject on it’s own, and if you want to learn more about base building techniques in Rust, then check out our house design section for this guide.

Good base protection is largely about putting as many doors between raiders and your most valuable loot. A good design would make sure that there aren’t any cheap ways into your base, for example, through a wall on the side of a house, or through an open window. Once this is sorted, you simply need to make as many metal doors as possible, and put your most valuable loot in the hardest spot to get to. You can always risk spreading out your loot - that way raiders will only get a chunk of your loot after each door break, instead of all of it if they manage to slip into your loot room.

Understanding PVP Combat

Bandits won’t just be looking to raid bases, they’ll also be out in the field, ready to shoot down any full looted players that may be unaware of their presence. In Rust, there’s always a chance that you’ll get attacked whilst looting, so let’s first talk about the kind of gear that should be used whilst you are collecting resources.

You want to make sure that you aren’t taking anything you aren’t comfortable to lose, because even if you are wearing full kevlar, it’s very possible that a bandit could sneak up behind you with a shotgun whilst you’re focusing on getting wood or other resources. For this reason, it’s best to only take cloth or leather armor, and a few small medkits or bandages.

If you plan on taking a weapon to kill animals, I’d advise learning how to use a bow - they are cheap to make, the ammo is easy to create, and they can kill animals in fewer shots than an M4.

If you plan to go out and actively fight against another player, the tables will turn. You’ll be more on guard, and you’ll need to rely on better gear to stand a good chance at beating other players in PVP combat. This is where full kevlar could be useful, and an M4 or shotgun can be your best friend. Let’s take a look at the kind of gear that will be best for PVP situations.

The hotbar

Just like Minecraft, Rust has a hotbar system that allows players to quickly access a limited amount of items via the hotbar. If you’re in the middle of a fight, you will not have a chance to fumble around in your inventory for gear, so it’s important to get the right items ready in your hotbar.

Firstly, you’ll want the first slot to be a weapon of some kind - this should be your main weapon, so most likely an M4 or a shotgun. Make sure to store your ammo in your inventory to save hotbar space.

The second hotbar slot should be saved for a secondary weapon - if you run out of ammo, or don’t have the time to reload, you’ll need to rely on this weapon. A shotgun can work quite well, as well as a 9MM pistol or a P250.

This will leave four slots left, and it’s completely up to you how you use these. However, there are a few things that are very important to use. This includes either a small or large medkit, so that you can heal in the middle of combat, and a couple of other things.

Below, you can see the loadout I typically use when going out for PVP reasons-

• Slot 1 - M4, or Shotgun (If I’m going to be in confined spaces, ie. another player’s base, I typically choose the shotgun for a primary.)
• Slot 2 - P250 - the P250 has pretty high damage, so it works great as a backup weapon.
• Slot 3 - Wood barricade - This item is a gift from god. If you’re getting attacked, simply press the hotbar slot, turn to the direction you’re taking damage from, and plonk it down. This provides instant cover. From here, you can heal, reload your weapons, and figure out where you just got shot from.
• Slot 4 - Small Medkit - I always have 5 small medkits lined up in slot 4 - they will get used pretty quickly, and they are mainly there to quickly use when you get shot at.
• Slot 5 - Large Medkit - Large medkits can fill a lot of health, so these are best used sparingly. I have these in the fifth slot so that i’m not tempted to use them sooner.
• Slot 6 - Wood Shelter - PVP can get pretty intense, and wood shelters are great ways to take a breather. I usually place these down, along with a wood door so that I can re-organise my inventory and create more wood barricades or med supplies.

Hopefully these tips will help you to avoid getting caught up with bandits, the best thing I’ve learned is, if you can’t beat them, join them. Check out the rest of our guide here.

Back to the Guide Menu.

Play Rust Guide: House design

Back to the Guide Menu.


PlayRust House Design - What You Should be Aware of When Building your Home

One of the greatest joys of Rust is creating houses and buildings. It’s incredibly satisfying to be able to build an impenetrable fortress that serves as a home, a base, and a place to store all of your important loot. No base is truly impenetrable, though, but there are ways to make attacking your base difficult enough to keep bandits off of your front lawn.

It’s not all about bandit protection, though. Sometimes it’s nice to have fields of resources and opportunity on your front door step, and being able to access your base easily is stress free.

You’ll have to carefully think about balancing between good location and ease of access over protection against bandits, and this guide will give tips on how to do it.


Location

In Rust, the location of your base is incredibly important. Ideally, you’ll want a place that has resources nearby, but far enough away that your base isn’t in plain sight of common looting areas. If you are too far away from a decent supply of resources, your time gathering supplies may lead into the night.

Getting back to your base safely in the dark can become confusing and stressful. Even with a torch it can be easy to get lost on your way back, and shining a torch or flashlight is only going to attract unwanted attention.

However, on the other end of the scale, if you’re too close to good resource and looting spots, you may end up with more unwelcomed visitors than you planned for. This kind of location set up will lead you to having players snooping around your home on a daily basis, and if you do get raided, it will be impossible to figure out who did it.

The best locations are far enough away from resources that it should keep away the majority of curious players, whilst being close enough to allow you to get in and out of a looting area before night time hits.

Finally, it’s important to know who your neighbours are. The world in Rust is fairly large, and you may encounter a whole new set of people if you were to live on a different side of the map. For this reason, it’s best to build a small house first, and learn just how friendly the locals seem before moving into a more permanent location.


Protection Against Bandits

The scary thing about Rust is that bandits can ruin dozens of hours of your work whilst your sleeping, and you’ll have no way to stop it. Eventually, a bandit will come across your home, and they will try to raid it, no matter how well hidden it is. However, the harder you make your base to raid, the less likely bandits will be to actually raid your place.

Protection against bandits in Rust is more about mathematics than most may care to admit - attackers have a limited amount of C4 or grenades to throw at your house, and your goal, to protect yourself against bandits, is to create as many doors and walls as possible between any forced entrances and your main loot room. Let’s take a look at a few various building techniques to prevent bandit attacks.


The Cheapest Bandit Repellant on the Market

The cheapest and most resource efficient way to avoid bandits getting all of your loot is to build a two foundation wide tower. The goal is to make the tower as tall as possible, with as many metal doors in the building. The two foundations will give you just enough room to place an ongoing set of stairs that could potentially be as large as you wanted it to be. At the top of each stair piece, a door frame can be placed down. This means that you could have a metal door at each and every stair piece.

The benefits to this design is that it’s cheap on resources because you’re using the smallest amount of resources per door. If built correctly, bandits will have to start from the first floor, and make their way up. This, along with the techniques shown below, will ensure that bandits will have a tough time breaking their way into your house.

This design doesn’t exactly look very appealing though. If you plan to make something else, and you’re happy to put extra time gathering resources, the best rule of thumb is to simply put metal doors at the boundaries of every foundation or ceiling piece that isn’t already covered up by a wall.
Protecting Your Walls

Unfortunately, there are ways to get around some building designs, and one of these methods includes building a staircase on the outside of your home to allow bandits to climb up the side of your house. Once at the top, bandits will find the best place, possibly at the top of your home, and they’ll blow the wall down.

To prevent this from happening, surround your house with foundations, and place pillars on the centers of the foundations. Keep placing pillars on top of each other until they are as high as your building. This will stop bandits from placing stairs on the side of your walls.


Breaking their Spirits

One thing that will make bandits think twice about wasting their C4 on you is to make it look like you have very little loot worth taking. To do this, all you need to do is put a wooden box behind each door, and spread your loot out as far as possible.

With the assumption that bandits will break through the front door first, you should consider leaving your first few boxes with gear you don’t mind losing - a couple pieces of leather or animal fat for example. Each time a bandit breaks down a wall, they are wasting 1-2 C4, and in return they will be getting bits of leather and other unwanted items. After about three or four doors of terrible loot, they will probably reconsider.


How To Keep Hidden

One time, I managed to build a base that no one even knew the whereabouts of. The server had a community of around 20 active players, as well as a few non-regulars. I placed my house on top of a mountain, right by the coast.

From a distance, the house could not be seen because it was covered by rocks, and up close, it was hard to climb up, so most players didn’t even venture up the mountain at all.

One of the best ways I’ve learnt to keep hidden is to build a small house on the top of a mountain. Don’t make it too tall because otherwise it will stick out like a sore thumb. To make sure you don’t get found, turn off your lights when climbing back up the mountain, and make sure no one is following you.

Finally, if a group of players seem to be interested in your activities, build a decoy house, and let them follow you towards it. The longer you can trick other players into believing you don’t live elsewhere, the better chance you have of staying hidden.

Base Builder

iGeordie on the PlayRust Forum also posted a web program where you can build and check your own design.  The link is http://jvickers.co.uk/basebuilder/ and the post he made is http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1376012.

Hopefully these tips have helped - feel free to read the rest of our guide on Rust here.


Back to the Guide Menu.

Playrust - Items: A simple explanation to the items in the game Rust.

Back to the Guide Menu.

Items in the Game

Whilst building your base requires you to gather wood and metal, there are many other items to collect in Rust, and there are various methods available for you to collect them. Nearly everything you can use in Rust is craft-able, but a lot of good gear must be found before you can learn how to craft it, and this includes better armor, improved weapons, and various types of ammo and explosives. Below we’ve listed the most important methods items can be found in-game.

Main Resources

In Rust, the main items you’ll be out farming for are metal and wood. We’ll be looking at the various ways both of these materials can be collected.

Wood

Wood can be collected by hitting trees with a rock, a stone hatchet, a regular hatchet and a pickaxe. The quality of these tools, as well as the quantity of resources they can collect from each hit is shown in order below.

●     Rock

●     Stone Hatchet

●     Hatchet

●     Pickaxe

Whilst wood can be collected from trees, there is a much more effective way to collect wood. Log piles are scattered around the world of Rust, and these allow you to collect wood much faster than you can from trees. For example, each time you hit a log pile with a pickaxe, you’ll gain 20 wood, as opposed to 1-2 wood.

Wood is needed for every wood building material, and this is what you’ll be building most of your base on, so you are going to be needing a lot of wood.

Rocks

Just like with wood, there are various nodes spread around the world that players can collect stone-based resources from. There are two types of rock nodes in Rust; the large mineral rock, and the small mineral rock. Both rocks give players the same resources, however their quantity given before being depleted is slightly different.

Mineral rocks will give players stones, sulfur ore and metal ore - these materials are needed for making metal building materials, some equipment, weapons, ammo and explosives.

Loot Crates

Simply hunting down log piles and mineral rocks would make Rust get boring quick. Luckily, there are other items out there that can be collected, and some of these can be found in loot crates. Loot crates spawn in various pre-generated structures around the world, and have a random chance to spawn certain gear.

You’ll need to collect the loot crates to stand a chance of finding various types of clothing, weapons, food, and ammunition. Loot crates also have a chance of containing research kits and blueprints - these can be used to teach your player how to craft new items.

Each spawn location for a loot crate will have a chance to spawn a different type of crate. Each crate has various qualities, and different gear inside. Below the loot crates are listed with the loot that can be found inside of them.

The following information may be outdated by the time you read this, as the loot tables are always changing, but it’s likely the majority of items inside loot crates will always be similar to what is shown below.

Wood Box

The least useful and most common loot crate is a wood box. Wood boxes have a chance to spawn with these items:

●     5.56 Ammo

●     9MM Ammo

●     Anti-Radiation Pills

●     Cloth

●     Metal Fragments

●     Shotgun Shells

Green Crate

Green crates are a step up from wood boxes, and they can contain a variety of different gear. Green crates have a chance to contain the following items.

●     Ammunition

●     Research Kits

●     Weapon Attachments

●     Weapons

Yellow Crate

Yellow crates share the same value and rarity of a green crate. The gear found inside yellow crates can be seen below.

●     Ammunition

●     Blueprints

●     Weapon Attachments

●     Weapons

Red Crate

Finally, the rarest and most valuable crates are red crates. They can contain the following items.

●     Ammunition

●     Anti-Radiation Pills

●     Flares

●     Loot Stashes

●     Medkits and other Medical Equipment

●     Research Kits

The details on drop rates for all of these items have not yet been worked out, but it seems as if all types of crates have a shared pool of items. These items usually include random gear like animal fat, cloth, leather, metal fragments, gunpowder, storage boxes and loot stashes. Unless you’re particularly looking for one of these items, it’s best to not take these items with you, because your inventory will end up filling up very quickly, and you may have to head back to base earlier than expected.

Loot from Mutated Animals

Mutated animals are red variants of standard animals that can usually be found in packs alongside roads and pre-generated structures. They are aggressive and will attack players if a player steps too close. Despite being a pain in the ass to deal with at times, killing mutated animals is a great way to get gear and supplies.

Every time a mutated animal is killed, it drops a loot sack that looks like a briefcase. Inside the loot sack will be a randomly selected item, or group of items. Both mutated bears and mutated wolves drop loot crates, and they have a chance to drop very rare items, such as kevlar armor and metal building items.

Mutated animals can also drop food, medical supplies, research kits, blueprints, attachments and other types of armor.

Airdrops

The final, and probably most exciting part of this section is about airdrops. Airdrops occur randomly on most servers, and players will be able to see and hear a plane flying by if an airdrop happens within the area. Planes will drop a group of crates which can be opened and will contain various types of gear inside.

The gear inside the airdrops will depend on the server settings, however it is common to find weapons, ammo, and most importantly, explosives, grenades and C4 - these last three items are needed to raid enemy bases as they are the only items in the game that can break through wood walls and metal doors.

When an airdrop happens, expect a lot of other players to be at the drop location. Players will fight it out for the loot inside, and those you thought you could trust before, may shoot you in the back for the chance to get their hands on C4 and other equipment.

You can learn more about Rust, and how to use all of these items in the rest of our guide.

 Back to the Guide Menu.

Rust, Survival game - Survival guide. Play Rust, Stay alive!

Rust, also known as PlayRust, is a 3D Survival open world game by Facepunch Studios, the creator of Garry's Mod on Steam.  It is described as an MMO, adventure, simulation by Steam. The game is currently Alpha, but open for early access purchase on Steam.

The game is a lot of fun, once you get the hang of it and your own style of gameplay.  But for the beginner, newbie, naked flopper, starting out with a couple bandaids, a torch and a rock - running your junk all over a server full of players who want nothing more than to kill you and take your rock - this game sports a steep learning curve.  The game mechanics are simple, but learning how the game is played by others and what to expect is widely variable. 

Here, I present to you the Basics of Rust gameplay. The idiot's guide to keeping your rock. How to play Rust for the newbie Naked.  Your most valuable questions about the Rust game will be answered here!  So, gather your rocks and wood, it's time to man up and survive!

This guide is just starting, but will include all the basics of playing, getting started, bugfixes, and tips, plus a video guide and tips in the future.  Book Mark us and add your input into the comments to help this guide grow.

1. Extreme Basics:

Servers: What you need to know to find a good server, connect, and tips to make your choice the best choice for you.

Keys and settings: All the key binds and settings you should know about, use, change, or avoid.


2. Basics:

The Map of Rust Island: The map and what you should know about each area. 

Getting Started: Your first actions, what to look for, what to build, and how to survive your first night.

Items in the game: All the items and things you can find in the game, plus tips on how to collect, drop rates, and what to keep and what to throw away.


3. Advanced Survival:

House design: What you should be aware of when building your home.

Banditry: How to be the survivor and not the victim.

Raiding: What you should know about raiding player homes.


4. bugs, fixes, workarounds and more:

known bugs: Bugs that are known and being fixed or in the works.

NEW! 03/27/2014 Exploits: how to patch or avoid being the victim of exploits.

NEW! 03/29/2014 Game crashes and fixes: If your game is crashing check here for possible fixes or workarounds for your crash.

5. The Rusted Development Comic:

04/01/2014 - New episode.

PlayRust - Rust Extreme Basics: Servers, which ones are best for you.

Back to the Guide Menu.


Connecting to servers.

There are a few options for servers to play on.  Official servers, Community servers, and Modded servers. Your play style may differ, so read here for help on choosing the server that is right for you.

Official Servers:

Official Rust Servers are hosted by Facepunch studios specifically for Facepunch.  They often use these servers for testing loads, server configurations and updates. 

Official servers are often full or at high capacity.  Most people just starting out try to play on official servers and this may lead to frustration. There are so many people playing on these servers, including hard core gamers and hackers, your survival chance as a newbie naked is ridiculously small. You will be killed on sight, the map is too small to hide, there is nowhere you can safely go from other players.

Official servers present the unique difficulty that is best mitigated by playing with friends in groups.  If you are a solo player, I suggest avoiding Official servers or any server with more than 20 people playing.  On the other hand, if you are a hard core gamer that revels in the unique masochistic challenge and onslaught of endless perilous dangers from other players, official servers are for you my Steely Balled friend. May your bloody path to success be carved out of the dead you leave naked behind you. 

Community Servers:

Community Rust Servers are hosted by Facepunch Studios' approved game server rental companies and run by the person who pays for the service.  These kinds of servers form the bulk of available servers in your list. They range from highly moderated multi-admin servers to empty and waiting for any kind of connection.  They can be small 50 connection servers or huge 300 connection servers.  The rules and game mechanics are the same as the official servers. 

On the Community Servers, you can find a decent place to play, with few players, that you can use to learn the mechanics of the game and ease yourself into the full onslaught of larger traffic servers. This is a good place to start if you are new to the game as there is a much greater chance that other players of the server will assist you in your learning curve. 

Modded Servers:

Modded Rust Servers are Community Servers with modified game rules.  Most commonly, the absence of sleepers, higher rates of supply drops, faster resource respawning, and faster crafting.

These servers are the best for people wanting to practice their building and strategies, as they provide the ability to progress faster than regular servers.  If you want to practice that perfect house/fortress build, find a server with high resources, low users, and instant crafting. You will have the materials needed to start practicing your builds in no time.

Tips for finding and connecting to servers:

1. Many community servers and descriptions of the servers can be found on the Steam Play Rust forum, and the Facepunch Studios Play Rust forum.

2. After starting the game, press F1 to bring up the console, then type "net.connect [00.00.00.00:0000]" where the zeros represent the server's address and port, then hit enter.  Then hit F1 again to remove the console.

3. If you find a server you want to play on in the game's server list, double click it to connect.  Sometimes this doesn't work as intended.  Just keep clicking quickly on the desired server's name and it will eventually connect.

4. Servers you have visited will be in your history.  Use the history to go back to servers you don't remember the connection details of. 

5. If you find a server you enjoy playing on, hit F1 after connecting and copy the address and port somewhere you won't lose it.  This way, if the server is removed from your history after a patch, you can just net.connect to it directly.

 Back to the Guide Menu.

PlayRust - Rust Extreme Basics: Key bindings and settings - Frame Rate tips

If you are asking, "How do I..." then hopefully your answers are below.  This is a compilation of all the keybinds and settings I could find for Rust through the official forum, pages, steam forum and anywhere else. This should be a complete list, but feel free to let me know if I missed anything.

Back to the Guide Menu.


Rust Gameplay Keybinds:

F1	Open Console
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Use items in inventory #
W	Move Forward
A	Strafe Left
S	Move Backward
D	Strafe Right
Left Click	Hatchet/Fire/Light Flare
Right Click	Aim on guns/Throw Flare
Left Shift	Sprint/Run
Space Bar	Jump
CRTL/C	Crouch
F	Flashlight
R	Reload
E	Action/Use
Tab/I	Open Inventory
G	Toggle Laser Sight on/off
V	Voice - Turn Microphone On
Enter/T	Open Chat / Send Chat Message
numpad /	Decrease Graphics (quality)
numpad *	Increase Graphics (quality)
PageUp	Mute Ambient Music/Sound (Not Sound Effects)
Scroll Wheel/Right Click	Rotate Building Part (ie. walls)

Rust Gameplay Settings:

Important Settings.

Resolution: When starting Rust from steam, consider using windowed mode and a resolution just smaller than your screen when you are new to the game.  You won't get as much immersion out of it, but it will make referencing the internet or this guide for help much easier.

Frame Rate Tips: To improve framerate, here are a few things you can try.

1. press F1 to open your console when connected to a server.  Type "grass.on false" without the quotation marks.

2. Change the video quality settings.  This must be done before you connect to a server.  Start the game, click Options, change the Graphics "Render Quality" to something lower, then click apply changes.  Then log into your favorite server.

3. Lower your Startup Resolution: If the first two options don't make the game playable, you probably need to play the game at a lower resolution.  Do this when you first start the game from steam, by changing the resolution in the resolution drop down menu before you press play.

4. Lower Anti-Aliasing: Turn down the Anti-Aliasing of your video card in the video card settings or game profile in your video card software to 2x.

Important Console Commands:

F1 console command	result
gui.hide_branding	removes the top right banner branding.
gui.show_branding	Shows the top right banner branding.
gui.hide	hide the graphical user interface.
gui.show	Show the graphical user interface.
net.connect 0.0.0.0:0	Connect to server address.
net.disconnect	disconnect from current server.
net.reconnect	reconnect to current server.
suicide	kills your character and respawns in random location
censor.nudity false	let's you see everyone else's package.

Back to the Guide Menu.

The Map of Rust Island - Play Rust Map and analysis

The map of Rust Island from the game Rust and information about each area.

This map can be found at the playrustwiki, and I use it because it is the easiest for my explanation of the areas.  I did not make this map, I only use it in my commentary.  All credits are given to the creators and the wiki it is located on.
Play Rust Wiki Page: http://playrustwiki.com/wiki/File:LemusHD_Remade_Rust_Map.jpeg

Another map that should be noted, though I don't agree with the naming convention, is Rustmap.net.

Back to the Guide Menu.

 

Analysis:

When first logging into a server or when respawning without a sleeping bag or base, you will be placed at a random location on the map.  The spawn locations are restrained to areas where resources can be found.  For a first time player, you may be lost quickly.  Your best option is to log into an empty community server, get some food, and roam the land during the day using the map as a guide.  Find the road and coordinate the landmarks then explore. 

Most players take a few options as to where to plant their base, or initial base.  Here are some things to consider.

1. Box loot: Loot from boxes inside buildings.
The hanger area in the bottom left portion of the map is great for box loot.  Starting out, you can suicide until you respawn near this area and loot the boxes for possible food and weapons to get you started.  Also the Rad-Town is a slight risk but still pretty good.  Zombies don't spawn in the town, but can wander in from the two zombie fields along the road at either sides of the town.

2. Resources: Wood, Animals and rocks/metals.
Any of the marked areas can have resource spawns in or nearby, but the safest areas depend on your server.  Resource Valley North and South, tend to have low population on low to medium user servers, but they are a good hike from the nearest town for loots. Lesser Plains South is a great place to start out in a newly wiped server, but your home better be formidable if you are planning on staying there.

3. Mountain Ridges: Safety in the hills?
Mountain ridges prevent people from spotting your home from across the map, but can also be a place to hide your home.  At the top of West Coast Ridge South is a fairly flat area surrounded by mountain rock where you can build a starter home, close to box loot spawns, zombie fields and resources. It is possible to build a 3 x 3 possibly 4 x 4 building in this spot.  Not many people hike up that mountain because of the steepness of the climb.  Relative safety can be found with a good home build and lots of walls and doors.

4. Air Drops: The only way to get explosives.
Air Drops can land anywhere west of the two Resource Valleys, South of Northern Plains, and East of West Coast Plains.  But visibility will be a large point when hunting them down as they fall.  It is very difficult to judge distance for newer players, without a good view.  The best view is on a mountain and the best mountain to see the most is Middle Mountain Range East. Building a Base near this area, such as Lesser Plains North, will allow you to run up the mountain for a good view of the most drops. The larger percentage of drop locations appear to be in the Great Plains and Lesser Plains.

5. Badlands: Living the life of a hermit and staying as safe as possible.
The badlands are all the areas not labelled on this map, Including East Naked Man's Retreat.  In these areas, the only thing you will see is grass and trees.  No loot, resources or animals spawn in these areas, and very few people venture out that far besides naked newbies.  They can be perfect for making a main base in relative safety.  The distance from any loot really means that this should be a final base location.  Go get all your research, blueprints and uncraftable items first, then build a base out here.   

Back to the Guide Menu.