On a huge island left in ruin after a nuclear-related disaster, players either by themselves or in a group with friends build and defend a base, raid their neighbors, scavenge abandoned buildings wearing hazmat suits, shoot down a helicopter, plunder a cargo ship, and more.

This video game, developed by Facepunch (the same people who created Gmod), is called Rust. It was first released on PC in 2015, and it’s coming to consoles in the second-half of 2020. It’s a multiplayer post-apocalyptic world where the objective is to build a strong base, strengthen your arsenal, and survive for as long as possible.

It’s not yet confirmed if the game released on consoles will be a cross platform, but we do know that it will be released on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

What’s also known so far is the lore of the game. In it, something nuclear-related went wrong many decades ago on the island players spawn in. Whatever happened left a lot of buildings abandoned, and few of them like the power plant can only be visited when wearing radiation-protected gear.

Players wake up on the beach with nothing but a rock and a torch and have to build strong bases and scavenge in monuments (a special single or an area of buildings that are not made by players) for resources and weapons for the sake of survival. Most players will shoot anything that moves, so it’s best to think the same if one wishes to survive in the game. However, there are times when players are able to lay down their arms and talk/trade peacefully with one another like at a player-made store or the Outpost (a very small place on the island that’s heavily protected with turrets and armed non-player characters).

Players inevitably bump into other players and will fight each other for loot. One could have a poor weapon on them versus their opponent who has a better one or vice versa. It really depends on whom one might fight because their opponent could be significantly worse aim-wise and tactically.

Triton student Hunter Berlind, with 20 hours in the game, shares his experience of when it didn’t take better gear to take someone out: “This one time when I played Rust, I encountered a guy who had an AK. The AK is one of the best guns in the game. And even though he had high-tier armor, I took him out with a spear. I only took him out because he had forgotten the cardinal rule – always carry meds.”

One of the key features of Rust is raiding. Players can raid using all sorts of tools like rocket launchers, C4, gunpowder-filled bean cans, flamethrowers (only on wood), and explosive rounds using their guns. But it’s important to be cautious when raiding as the base one is raiding could still have people who are online and want to fight back. Raiding is loud too, so that often catches the attention of players who are close by and might make them want to fight back the raiders either because they are allied with the players getting raided or because they want to steal their raiding equipment and finish the job.

The enemy NPC’s (Non-player characters) are what makes the game even more challenging. Without enemy NPC’s, players would only have to worry about radiation, other players, and having a key card with them to get into special areas within certain monuments. The most common enemy NPC is the scientist, which is a person wearing a blue radiation suit carrying a gun. Scientists can be found in certain monuments, on the road, and even in the cargo ship that comes in every once in a while with high-tier loot. Another NPC is the patrol helicopter which goes around the map shooting bullets and even rockets any player in sight. If one wishes to take down the patrol helicopter, then they’ll have to have a good tower that’s designed for taking out the heli, a good gun with plenty of ammo, and medical supplies.

Tim Rasmussen, another student from Triton who has 28 hours in the game, said “The helicopter was cool because it was something for my friends and I to work towards. And the hours we spent grinding to the point where we could face it really made us bond as friends.”

Item blueprints are necessary for being able to craft better weapons, tools, armor, clothing, and equipment. There are many methods of obtaining blueprints, but the best is by researching them using a research table. A research table is used by inserting the item you want to learn (have to already have the item) and then spending scrap metal to learn it. Scrap can be earned from hitting barrels that are found on the road, floating in the ocean, or inside of buildings that weren’t made from players.

When a player logs out of the game, their body still remains and is left in a sleeping position. It’s important to build a base so that one’s valuables don’t get stolen, and to not also get back into the game either seeing all of the stuff in their inventory gone or themself dead. A base needs three things: A tool cupboard, a sleeping bag/bed, and an airlock. The tool cupboard is the heart of the base since it’s needed to prevent enemies from building whatever they want on your base, and to keep your base from decaying. A sleeping bag/bed is important because nobody wants to spawn on the beach and walk miles to get back to their base every time they die. An airlock in terms of Rust means a two or more door entry. The purpose of the airlock is so that when the first door is opened, an enemy doesn’t kill the base owner and get inside.

As of right now anybody can purchase and play Rust on PC on the steam website at store.steampowered.com. But for anyone who prefers console, they will have to wait until sometime around the second-half of 2020.