So Rust is a joyful survival game on Steam that some would describe as DayZ and Minecraft's love child. With its crafting mechanics that nod to Minecraft, but it's large map and survival game play that also nod to DayZ. However, I find describing Rust to these games a bit weird. Since it definitely does not share the same complexity that the other two games have. It's an easy game to get into with no need of looking up crafting guides and the option to use an online map made by fans to find landmarks and look for your friends in game. While the game most certainly has a long ways to go in terms of the occasional bugs, server issues, hacker infestation, graphic and game play improvements, the game is still fairly playable and fun. In fact, despite these bugs, I would say this is much more stable than DayZ.

It's probably too early to make assumptions of this games community, but in the past three days now of owning Rust and playing the game, I've found maybe only a handful of friendly people. The people I've found in this game truly frighten me. I've had a group of Chinese kids giggling and laughing into their mics as they chased me around and tried to bash my head in with a rock. Typically when I hear someone shout "IM FRIENDLY IM FRIENDLY PLEASE DONT KILL ME!" in a game is enough for me to let down my guard and offer peace in return, this has only gotten me killed in Rust though. I "knocked" on a metal door with my flimsy stone axe and peeped through a sliver of an opening only to find two guys inside staring at the door. I knocked again and this time the door opened and I was greeted with a shotgun blast to the face. These events are only a fraction of the many that I've seen on Rust. Most of the players on here are complete bonkers and trusting any of them is pretty much a death wish.

All in all Rust has taught me it's harsh lessons.

1. Stay away from other players, despite what they offer or say.

2. Find food and materials as fast as possible

3. Make shelter, storage, and a sleeping bag before even having the thought of adventuring.

4. Make sure you have a "big stick". (some sort of high damage weapon)

5. When killed by another player, make sure to type in the chat furiously how much of a homo and hacker they are.

These rules have pretty much kept me alive, but I have made some exceptions to them.

My current adventures have led me to a particular community server. It's an ideal server with many different commands that players can use and even has a teleport system (can only be used once per wipe) to group up with friends instantly. With the current rules I made for myself, I set out looking for resources and a spot away from any other players on the map. I had managed to make a stone hatchet and a bow for myself. The players that were on at the moment were extremely aggressive and armed to the teeth. They hunted in packs and very thoroughly swept through killing anyone, even if they were newly spawned.

After watching a pair gruesomely execute a new spawned babe with an M4, I ran towards my right and ascended up into a rocky mountain. While platforming is not very difficult, it's still very easy to lose your footing and fall to your death in this game, so I took it slow. I found a boulder that jutted out over the mountain side that looked over the entire valley below, but there was a house on it and through the openings of the shack I could make out a fire. I made my way towards the shack and peeked through. A person stood there naked, but thankfully had pants on. For whatever reason I had completely ignored one of my rules and even went so far as to "knock" on his door with my hatchet. I had only knocked twice, but there was no response. I peeked through and saw that the player was indeed moving around so I simply held down the mouse button and hacked away at his front door. He opened it and stood at the door way, which led me to immediately back off. The fact that he also had a hatchet in his hand probably convinced me to back off as well. Instead of threatening and blowing my head off with some fire arm, we actually greeted each other and when I saw his in game name, I immediately knew he was friendly since I had met him before on an earlier day. We agreed to build a "community" together. He had wanted me to build a house next to his on the rock formation, but I had convinced him that there was too much going on in the surrounding area. Not to mention that his shack was right in the open for everyone to see. So we set off and almost immediately a pair with leather clothing and guns popped up out of no where on the descent from the mountain. Immediately they gave their excuse of "no no, don't run! we're friendly!" It seemed my new friend was as experienced as I was and immediately ran in the opposite direction with me in tow.

We ran across the valley of death where the pair that I had saw earlier was engaged in a fire fight with another group now. Their gunshots echoing throughout and giving me and my friend more reason to not stop for anything. We made it across to another mountain where we then saw a player fortress that had radioactive zombies wandering about. The only person being armed was me, and all I had was a bow, so constantly taking out these zombies would be a pain and seeing that the land was obviously claimed by others led us to find a way up the mountain and to the other side that was hopefully not as populated. While trying to climb through some of the player made buildings, one of the owners had followed us and held us up with his shotgun. We had solid rock against our backs, but luckily for us the player simply told us to "Get out".

I led us to the other side and found a nice little open area. There were some boulders on one side that made a decently sized open area to build and on the other side had the mountains with our grouchy neighbors over protecting their area. We set down our shacks and decided to split up, before we did though my new friend had invited someone else he knows to come join us. So there's no confusion now, I'll refer to the one I met on the boulder as B and the one he invited as J. J had also another friend to join us, his name will be F.

We now had a 4 man strong community and while the other three sat mostly chatting, I decided to make myself useful and scavenge for the whole game day and find out about our new neighborhood. Thankfully, there were mostly abandoned shacks and buildings around us. The coast line was also pretty close to us, but there was also a thick forest nearby. It was inhabited with players and through the edge of it, I could see groups running about. After I saw them run off deeper into the forest, I carefully ventured in with my trusty bow. I managed to bag several animals and find wood, but there weren't many boulders and we needed the ore. I walked around and found two. I made my way to the closest one and right when I was approaching I saw a pair of naked fellows go to the other closest one and they started to mine it. I thought they had seen me and they seem to not want to hurt me so I simply started mining. Once the boulder disappeared after gathering everything from it, they saw me. Now, I might be paraphrasing a bit here... but I'm pretty sure one of the guys started to approach and yell at me saying something like "Yo bitch that's my fucking stone, you better give me that fucking stone." My instincts took over from there and I made out before he could get any closer. He chased me and started saying "I'll chase you til you fucking starve." All I saw ahead of me was a mountain and my first thought was that I was going to lead this crazy guy back to the community where everyone was probably sitting around a camp fire singing. I made a left up the mountain hoping he couldn't hear a group of innocent jolly guys singing and went up the mountain. He chased me to the tip top, but I managed to drop down a rock formation and duck underneath the over hang of it. I heard his footsteps as he looked around and heard him say "yeah you better hide you asshole." I waited a bit and then slowly crept out. He was gone and I figured it was time to go home. I thought I knew my way around but I couldn't find my group. I skirted the whole base of the mountain and couldn't find it. I was lost and so confused. I couldn't imagine that the whole community was destroyed in the span of 20 minutes so I went back up to get a better view. From my surroundings, I figured out that I was on a different mountain because I saw the hanger and fuel tank depot that I was very familiar with from the day before playing. I mentally jotted that down and knew that zombies were around that area and a lot of opportunity for loot. I went to the other side of the mountain and saw from afar the familiar rock formation where the community was located. I typed in chat to my group that I had gotten lost and that I would be late.

It took me a bit of time to get back, but the run was worth it because I had gathered enough materials to make an additional building. I got a forge running and smelted all the metal and sulfur ore I had on me and started up the foundation to a new building. B however, informed us that he would be gone for 4 days. He had given useful supplies to J and logged off. I was a bit bummed out since I felt like I connected with B more than the rest of the group. He didn't mind that I didn't have a mic and the others seem to not trust me as much. With the ore cooking and the new sad news I decided to log off for a while. I logged off and on periodically. Making runs out into the nearby forest. I had a new building with a metal door and a bunch of boxes, one filled with a pipe shotgun that I could use if anyone tried to bother us. I had a surplus of supplies now and the others in my group seemed to be offline so I decided it was probably time to go out and find some blueprints. Packed with nothing but chicken, bandages, a hatchet, and a bow. I ventured forth towards the hanger.

Along my way there, my geiger counter started to tick. With radiation typically came zombies, so I went closer into the hot spot. I saw ahead of me an open area and the clicks got more and more intense. I remembered this area well and knew that there were a ton of cases stretched out along an open space containing all sorts of loot. The only negative about it being that it was an open space and that the area was highly irradiated. I didn't really mine the rads since I could run and out of the hot spot before I got to dangerous levels , but I didn't want to be killed so quickly on my adventure so I went to the closest loot crate. I opened it and inside was a P250 pistol with 15 9mm bullets. The gods must have been watching me and I immediately snatched it all up. My rads were only getting higher and higher and then I heard foot steps behind me. I spun around only to be greeted by an ugly dark radiated zombie and I booked it out of the hot spot, thankful that it wasn't a player sneaking up behind me.

Once I was somewhat safe, I equipped my new gun into a quick slot and reloaded a fresh clip into it. While most people on the game prefer the 9mm due to its bigger clip size, the P250 in my opinion is definitely a step up, even with its 8 bullet clip. It had more range and stopping power and could easily put down a naked player in two shots. I made my way to the hanger and saw a couple of players running around. One held a torch and the other a rock, looked like fairly new players,but they were coming towards me. The one with the torch immediately drew out a bow. I had already had my bow equipped, but his other friend was coming to bash my brains with the rock. I took out the P250 and dodged to my left as an arrow flew past me. I drew the gun on the guy with the bow and fired one shot. It went wild and missed him. I aimed more carefully and took another shot and hit him. As soon as I saw the hit marker I fired again and downed him. I had my gun on his friend with the rock, but he immediately ran off and I went to go scavenge my fresh kill. I took any useful materials I could from him. The area was mostly clear now and so I went into the hanger to find where the loot crate had spawned. The crate spawned really fast for some reason and there was an abandoned player settlement inside that I was familiar with. He I had camped here for a few days trying to claim the hanger as my own spot. I found the crate and inside were some radiation pills. I took them and went inside one of the shacks to see if anyone had stored anything in the various boxes. I heard foot steps and wasn't sure whether to have my bow or gun drawn. Some players reacted differently, but if it was an armed group with guns they were probably more likely to shoot me if I had a gun. I figured if they were looting the hanger they were probably newbs so I drew out my gun and got comfortable in the shack waiting for the guy. I saw his bald head for a second and he must have saw my gun, cause he ran faster than I've seen anybody run.

I decided that the hanger was probably not the best area to be and even though I was planning to find blue prints for a P250, I had gotten the best outcome and actually had one in my hands now. I returned home only to be chased by some idiot with a hatchet along the way. I had had my bow drawn out so he must have figured me for an easy kill. I took out my gun and popped two shots into him. Dead. This gun was op as shit. He had nothing useful and the rest of my trip was uneventful. Upon getting back into my base and reigniting the bellows of my furnace to make more bullets for my new gun, I thought about how pitiful some of these players were. Why would some of these players just mindlessly kill each other? I know it's just a game and no hard feelings if I die out there with my P250. If you kill me fair and square with it on my person, I see it that I messed up and you deserve to loot my body, but why even try it in the first place? Morally I feel that my decision to gun down those two players were just, but still I had the feeling that there could have been another way to prevent that from happening. Maybe the world of Rust is a place where it's better to shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe that's just the Rust way of life. Put yourself before others to survive. With that thought in my head I put the P250 in a box and manufactured a 9mm pistol with some of the metal ore I had just found on my trip.While not as good, the gun would serve me well while going out into the local forest. With the sun starting to set, I made sure everything was locked down tight and logged off.