A Caveman's Guide to Rust Play Styles

Hello Fellow Caveman!
You enter in this world with your rock and a torch, what you choose to do from there is entirely up to you. Who will be the person you will become, how will other people see you? There is a wide variety of play styles that people will choose in rust and the ones that you choose are going to be deciding factor in simply who is your friend and who is your foe. Choosing your play style is ever evolving and many people fall into a role and stick with it. This guide will help you decide who you want to be and who you choose to be.

The first play style you are in rust, you don't have a choice, everyone begins as a Caveman! You'll see them running around with their rock happily hitting a tree and collecting resources or simply wandering around looking for a place to live. The journey from Caveman to any other play style can be a difficult one for new players to rust. Some neked lads sadly never progress from Caveman and never find themselves with the basic needs of life food, clothing, and shelter. But that won't be you since you are reading this guide! The Caveman is common to find at any location, most are not a threat and fear everything they see. To exit Caveman status build a house as soon as possible, keep it simple and easy to upgrade, 1 or 2 small rooms max. That is your starter base, small enough to be off the radar and enough time to collect enough to build the start of your main base. Leave your Caveman life behind, you now have a home!

The Nomad is a play style for those who don't want to stay in one place for too long. Many Nomads travel all throughout the map and it is very difficult to tell exactly where they are from. They may have many small homes in which they store their resources or they may not have a home at all. The Nomad can strategicly place their small houses in dangerous or remote locations. If one of their homes get raided they have many others so it's not that detrimental. A problem that may arise is that their homes are often small and can be easily raided. It can be random if a Nomad is friendly or hostile, I have met many that travel the land with full gear and a gun hunting down players for more gear to take. Many other Nomads were friendly and gave me free stuff that they found. The Nomad could be well geared in one location and not in another, its difficult to tell how set they are. A good choice for people who want to freely roam the map.

The Scavenger is a very known to be either afraid of everything or everything afraid of it. They often have one base and will collect everything they can find to bring back to their base. This includes items, resources, and animals. They tend to always be constantly looking over their shoulder for players (as we all should) and first sign of one, they will either run away or go ninja mode and prepare to attack. The Scavenger often has alot of loot with them as they will not go back to their base until they feel that they have gathered enough. They often travel cautiously and will try to get everything back to the base upon the first sign of trouble. Many Scavengers can live on a server fairly undetected for a while, enough time to create a stable home.

The Bambian Ranger can be a force of nature, this simple creature usually has stone tools and their primary weapon is a bow. The skill level of a Bambian Ranger is determined by how long they have been one. Some of them have the skill to best other players that have guns. When a Bambian Ranger is asked what the best gun is in rust, they will answer with the bow. They have been able to hone their skills with the bow from many times dying to more geared players. This does not crush their spirits since they are able to make another bow almost instantly. They have practically nothing to lose and everything to gain. A group of Bambian Rangers can be deadly since many of them are accurate with the bow.

The Bandit is usually a player that would rather take resources from other players rather than find their own. They search for other players to either down and take their stuff or kill them and take it. The Bandit would rather take the resources from other players since they may have a weapon or weapons on them as well. They usually obtain resources and guns from other players rather than just the resources that the Bandit would have collected from rocks and trees. The Bandit risks their lives on a regular basis to kill other players, they attempt to go for players that they think have less gear or are not as skilled as them. This works out for them often unless they run into a large group Bandits or players more skilled than them. The Bandit would lose more from dieing (often 1 or more guns) unlike the Bambian Ranger that would only lose their bow. I have seen Bandits alone or with small and sometimes large groups of people. A more experienced Bandit encounter is often fatal, however, against a new Bandit it is easier to survive.

The Murderer is an interesting creature, they don't care about loot. They are often found either alone or with friends. This is the player that camps in a tower for hours on end, waiting to snipe any player that comes near their land. Will they collect the loot from killing them? No. This is the player that goes out to kill people, maybe take their guns / ammo, but more there just to kill people. I have seen murderers kill people and leave their loot, or kill them and despawn their loot. This play style is possibly the most psychopathic as in they would rather kill people over obtaining a large amount of loot.

The Thief is a play style much like a scavenger but instead of searching for resources they are searching for houses and corpses. They look for houses that would be simple to raid or break into without attracting alot of attention. They aim for smaller houses with an open roof / windows / wall or have a wooden door. They will try to break in when the owner is either away or offline. The thief does not use any explosives and will try everything to obtain the best way to enter. Once inside the thief will take as much as they can possibly carry and run back to store it in their base. Then they run back to the house they broke into and try to take everything that they can. The thief often looks for corpses that other players left behind to see if they can obtain some free loot. They are more interested in obtaining loot rather than killing people.

The Merchant is a play style for those who want to obtain resources by trading rather than collecting. They either sell or trade resources in their home or a shop they have made. In order to survive, the Merchant will befriend everyone in their location of residence and attempt to remain neutral. This enables the Merchant to trade with a wide range of people within a safe distance from their home. The other nearby residents that have accepted to the neutrality have no reason to attack the Merchant, as this will stop the trading. The Merchant can gain a fair amount of resources depending on what will be traded between the merchant and a buyer. A few problems may arise when living life as a Merchant. One is not everyone will accept the neutrality agreement and will kill the Merchant on sight. Two is the neutral parties will be neutral to the Merchant but not to each other, if two parties are in a fight the Merchant will not choose a side as that would break the neutrality with one of them. Three is if the Merchant is gaining a large amount of profit from the trading, a buyer may feel threatened and will take them out before the Merchant can rise to power. The Merchant life can be a profitable one but it may become tricky with neutrality later on.

The Betrayer is someone who obtains friends on the server for as long as they want to be, then they kill them and take all they have. They may become friends at the beginning and while putting the finishing touches on the house kill them and use it on their own. The Betrayer may even be friends with another player or group of players for weeks before they decide to take everything they worked on together. It is unknown when the Betrayer will reveal themself, it will be when the group is either offline or when they are most vulnerable. In the Betrayer's mind they would rather have your loot than your friendship. The Betrayer is one of the reasons people are anti-trusting in rust.

The builder is found in every successful group in rust. They design the most effective base they can imagine, and calculate how much it will cost to build it and how long it will take. The builder usually has a group that collects resources while they build the base. The builder must create a design that is achieveable and will take the most amount of explosives as possible to raid the base. The builder must also provide a plan for defensive strategies for their base. Enough space for defense and safe areas to protect the group. The builder never rests as the base can always get better.

The Raider is probably the most devastating to the people of rust. Not only are the other players killed, if not built up enough they will lose their entire base and everything in it. The Raider will use all the C4 they have or as much it will take to obtain the base. They are mostly found in groups and are trying to attack a base from all different angles. The best raiders use as little C4 as possible and will break through with tools such as the hatchet or pickaxe as much as they can. These raiders will often break through the ceiling to get through to higher levels of a base which often has more loot. The Raider must be careful with how much C4 they use as they do not want to use more than the base will aquire them. The Raider must always be watching for counter-raiders or other bases that will help defend their friend's base. The counter-raiders will try to attack the raiders and get the loot they are stealing without having to use any C4. A smart raider can be the most powerful foe on the server while regular raiders are always broke.

Everyone wants a friend in life and that is no different in rust. The Friendly wants to be your friend, they will do everything they can to help you even if you killed them at one point. They forgive you, because they are your friend. They may give you free stuff, a place to live, help you fight, what ever you need your local Friendly is there to help you. They don't want to kill people in rust, this is not to say they won't, if being attacked they will fight back. They are never to shoot first, this can be a problem as they may die to someone getting to close and killing them when they could have attacked them from afar. The Friendly often dies since they expect the best from people who often just want to kill them. Sometimes other players will say the phrase "I am friendly" as an excuse to get close enough to kill the player. They pretend to be friendly and are secretly a bandit. Though friendly players are difficult to find in rust they do exist on every server.

Sometimes where you build in rust you will encounter some locals who live around there too. One of them is the ally, this is a treaty formed with a local player or group that may not necessarily be friendly but they will be friendly to you. They may help you when being raided, trade with you, go out on runs with you, or they may just run past when going to their base. The Ally is used to prevent a hassle every time you want to put stuff collected in your base. You won't need to worry as much of near by players killing you when you are outside the door of your base. Be cautious though as an Ally may be using you to keep themselves safe until they are powerful enough to evict you.

The opposite of the Ally, the Greedy Neighbor would rather see you dead than have an Ally. They will camp your base until you are about to be home, jump you and take your stuff. Then the Greedy Neighbor will run a short distance to their base and keep all the stuff you just collected. They have windows angled at your base and will shoot you when ever you are near by entering or leaving your base. Instead of attacking raiders, they may even help the raiders, or take any left over items after the raid. The person that wants to raid you most is the Greedy Neighbor.

The play style of the Landlord is for the people who have already built up their house enough and want to acquire new residents in their area. There are a few ways to play as the Landlord and the first one is friendly. You could build an apartment complex, each room the size of a starter base, and rent or give to other players for free. The rent could be any resource you are trying to find, make them play once or daily, the choice is yours. This helps get some friendly neighbors nearby since you helped them get started.

The next Landlord is not so friendly, the slavemaster. The Slavemaster usually builds a slave barrack that will keep a large amount of slaves in one place. The Slavemaster wants the slave to collect resources and give it all back to them. Sometimes the slave will be traded blueprints for the resources. The Slavemaster usually doesn't care what happens to the slave as long as they get the resources.

Another Landlord is the Evictor. The Evictor finds any local bases near by their home and Evicts them (force them to leave, raids their base). The Evictor typically evicts small bases that they find nearby, not to raid the base for the loot, but to stop them from living nearby. The Evictor does not want to have nearby friends, they would rather have all people far away from their base and where nearby resources spawn.

One step up from Caveman (or down depending on how you look at it) is the Slave. The Slave is a useful play style to learn how to play rust. The Slavemaster usually teaches the Slave how to gather resources if they do not know. They do not learn how to build so that will be a downside. The Slave can be a good choice when first starting on a new server to meet people and obtain blueprints to study from the Slavemaster. Most slaves are treated poorly so I would recommend leaving the slave life once you have obtained the resources you need.

This is where the guide ends and your journey begins!
I hope you enjoyed learning about the people I have been / met, and the people you could be! In rust the way you play determines who wants to be your friend or foe. This is why I wanted to make this guide to show people all sorts of different play styles they can be in rust. In the end, you don't need to be just one of these play styles, you are able to wear many hats in rust. You can take from each play style what you want. It's not about fitting in the box, it's about being the best you that you can be. I hope you enjoy all of your adventures, your triumphs, and your failures. We must fail to learn how to succeed. I will be updating this guide as I find more play styles over time. If you feel like I missed any feel free to comment it below. If you enjoyed my guide please rate it up and favorite it! Thanks!