Beginner guide

1x-10x PVE++ is a PvE server in Tokyo with no PvP. Here are the 20 things that help most in your first two hours. When in doubt, open Server Menu › Help › Start here; when something goes wrong, Help › Trouble?.

1. Controls

Move with WASD, sprint with Shift and crouch with Ctrl. Tab opens your inventory, Q crafting and G the map; E uses, opens and picks up (hold it for more options). Hold right-click to pick a building part or to upgrade with the Hammer. If you are new to Rust, the first time you hold a tool a hint shows its keys, once.

2. The Server Menu and the starter kit

Open the menu with “Tab → Menu” (press Tab, then the Menu button right of your hotbar) or type /menu. Nobody gets a kit at the first spawn here: choose how you play on the first screen and press Start; the Present box opens. Claim your starter kit in the Present box. The starter kit has tools, a bow, a fishing rod, clothes, food, medicine and the building basics (Tool Cupboard, sleeping bag and more), and it is free every 12 hours. The language switch at the top right of the menu ("your language | EN") shows everything in English and back.

3. The Starter path (what to do next)

The quest row at the top right always shows your next step. The Starter path has 15 steps that teach the kit, wood, a sleeping bag, a base, cooking, fishing, the Outpost and more, and each step pays PB and XP. Finishing it adds +150 PB and the title Settler. Then come the Journey, Daily quests (3 every morning at 05:00 JST) and Weekly quests.

4. Play style: difficulty and gather pace

After the first window, a "Choose how you play" card opens. Fights have 5 difficulties; Relaxed is the pick for new players. Gather pace: Classic (1x to 10x through your skill levels, full XP), Steady (+2x) or Instant 10x (10x from the start, −25 % activity XP). You can change both later in Settings (raising the pace again waits 24 hours).

5. First tools and resources

Hit trees with the stone hatchet from your kit and grey rocks with the stone pickaxe. Aim at the X mark on a trunk for extra wood. You can also craft tools with Q: if you only have a rock, gather some wood and stone, then make a stone hatchet and a stone pickaxe.

6. Your first base and the Tool Cupboard (TC)

Hold the Building Plan from your kit, hold right-click, pick Foundation and left-click to place it. Add walls and a door, then put your Tool Cupboard inside: around it, only you and the players you authorise can build. Bases never decay here and need no upkeep, but buildings reset at a map wipe (3 a month).

7. Food and the Bento Box

Hungry? /kit bento gives you a free bento every 4 hours: 2 onigiri, miso soup, a baked sweet potato and pickles. Cook raw meat or fish on a Camp Fire: put wood and the food in, press Turn On, take it out when it is cooked, then hold it in your hotbar and left-click to eat.

8. Light death: nothing is lost

When you die, your main inventory stays where you fell for 30 minutes (then 30 more as a bag), with a marker on the map. The respawn card says where (grid, direction, distance, minutes left); /body shows it again and sets a waypoint. Things that run out of time, or fall under the ground or off the map, wait 7 days in the Lost & Found (claim them from the Present box). Your backpack, PB and skills stay with you. Newcomer protection: your first 5 deaths keep everything (not on Hardcore), and NPCs and animals hit 25 % softer for your first 2 hours. After a rough run of deaths, a free "Back on your feet" set (tools, bandages, food) arrives. Place a sleeping bag before you fight, and you wake up there.

9. What PvE protection means

There is no PvP. Other players can never damage you, your base, your deployables or your vehicles, and only you, your team and friends you share with can open your doors, boxes and cupboard. NPCs attack your base only when you start Defend Your Home yourself (what can break depends on your difficulty; on Peaceful nothing does).

10. Pets and helpers

Call a pet (an animal) or a helper (an NPC) in Server Menu › Companions. The first chicken is free; more animals and helpers unlock as Skill Tree nodes. Log out with them out and they work while you're away and leave something for you.

11. Skills

There are 24 skills (Mining, Woodcutting, Fishing, Cooking, Construction, Marksmanship and more), and each one levels up as you do it. There is no level cap and no wipe ever takes them. As Mining, Woodcutting, Hunting and Foraging rise, so do your gather rates, up to 10x (level 500 on the Classic pace). All your skill levels added up make your Total Level, and a higher Total Level gives skill points: spend them on any node of the Skill Tree (Gathering, Survival, Crafting, Combat, Adventure, Travel), and respec for free. Lantern XP from quests and gifts goes to the skill you pick (your focus) or the one you trained last. Your Adventurer Level grows with all the XP you ever earn.

12. The Outpost, the safe town

The Outpost is the island's one safe town, with shops, recyclers, a casino and a foot bath (soak 20 seconds once a day for rested XP). /outpost takes you there for free. Our maps have no Bandit Camp.

13. The map (G) and travel

Press G to see yourself, your team, friends (green), other players, events, traders, train stations and more; the buttons on the left switch layers. For long trips, use Waystones (craft and place them, then travel between them), portals and the free metro (16). For 20 seconds after a fight with NPCs you can't teleport ("In combat" is shown).

14. Tonight: an event every evening at 21:00 JST

Every evening at 21:00 JST there is a fixed event: Mon Eclipse, Tue Invasion, Wed Fishing Derby (Spring Tide Night at 22:00), Thu Volcano eruption, Fri Guarded drop, Sat Iron Warden, Sun Night of disasters (once per map). Newcomers are welcome, and taking part earns a Lucky Draw ticket for the day. Times in game show in your own time zone.

15. When something goes wrong

Open Help › Trouble? first: stuck, lost your things, died, found a bug, each with the button that fixes it. Stuck in a rock or a building? /unstuck moves you to a safe spot within 30 m (once every 5 minutes). Ask in chat (Enter), or join the Discord: /discord (discord.gg/akHKEA87Sn). Bugs and ideas sent with /feedback (Help › Feedback) get a ticket number and reach the owner; the team's replies arrive in game (chat, Present box, My tickets), at your next login if you are offline. A confirmed bug report earns a thank-you (PB and Lucky Draw tickets) and the title Bug Hunter. Join the Steam group (steamcommunity.com/groups/jp-rust), check with /social, and you get 150 PB once.

16. The metro (free, 24/7)

A free loop line runs under the island day and night. Map › Trains lists the stations and, for each one, the minutes until the next train. "Guide to the nearest station" marks the Train Tunnel entrance: take the stairs down, wait on the platform and step on when the train stops (25 seconds). Riders get "Next: …" and "Arriving at …" notices. Inside the train NPCs leave you alone; the platforms can still have NPC guards.

17. Storage: every box in your base, one page

The boxes in your base link up by themselves. Open any box and press Storage below it: everything in every box of that base shows on one page. Click an item to take it, click your own item to store it; choose how much one click takes (×1, half, 1 stack, all) and the sort order (category, name, amount, recent). Quick stack puts things into the boxes that already hold the same item. At home you can also craft and build straight from your boxes.

18. The Akari menu: six shortcuts

/akari opens six shortcuts at the bottom of the screen: Waystones, Shop, Present box, Quests, Map and Trouble?. Press F1 and type bind z akari.quick to open it with Z any time (any key works).

19. The beginner mark

For your first 10 hours (until Adventurer Level 30) a beginner mark (🔰, 若葉マーク) shows in front of your name in chat, so other players know to lend a hand. Ask anything; and if you see the mark on someone else, say hello.

20. The weekly screenshot contest

A new theme starts every Monday at 05:00 JST. Take a screenshot in game (Steam: F12) and post it in #screenshots on our Discord. Winners get +500 PB and great shots +200 PB in the Present box. After a boss kill or a rare fish, a "Great moment!" note reminds you.

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