Best Rust Servers

Rust is a brutal survival game unlike no other. Certainly, there are plenty of great games in this genre, but this one has a unique characteristic: it can be played exclusively in multiplayer. This means you constantly compete against other players for resources and survival. Here we are going to talk about the best Rust servers.

Even when you’re sleeping, others might be playing. And that puts you at a disadvantage. Just like in StarCraft, APM matters a lot here. But it’s not just APM. It’s how much time you spend to gather materials and become stronger each day. 

One Rust wipe lasts for an entire week. Then your progress gets reset but not entirely. Once a month, though, you lose all your progress, and the cycle begins anew. But while you’re in the middle of it, you need to grind non-stop. It’s no wonder that Rust players spend between 20 and 80 hours per week inside the game.

Anything less will not work well because you’ll fall behind the other players and become prey for them.

How to Choose Your Rust Server

When you pick a Rust server, the goal is to increase your chances of survival during the first few days of the wipe. Rule number one here is to pick a server that has just gone through a reset. Or to wait for it to reset before starting to play. Otherwise, you will be from the start at a massive disadvantage.

The second rule when choosing a game server for Rust is picking one with fewer players. If the server is full of players, you will feel like you’re on a CS:GO server with 50 other people, playing the game in Deathmatch mode with Free-for-All.

If you’re a new Rust player, always opt for the easiest servers and learn as much as possible about the game by gathering uninterrupted resources. The last thing you want in the early game is to fight. The risks are much bigger than the rewards. If you win, you get little. But if you lose, you can lose hours of progress.

Ideally, you should pick a server from a region with a similar timezone. Otherwise, you will be afk when a lot of people are roaming around. And that won’t end up well for you. The situation will be the same for the other players, but you’re just one individual, and they are many.

Best Rust Servers

Rust Server Hosting

Some players like to create their own Rust dedicated server out of fear of getting their goods stolen. But to do that, you will need a Rust server hosting provider.

Server hosting is not that complicated, but it will cost money. Depending on the specifics, a dedicated server provider will charge anywhere between $10 and $40.

Arguably, Rust server hosting providers that give you the opportunity to create a Rust private server experience are removing much of the difficulty associated with this game. But for a lot of people, that’s a good thing. Because they don’t have the time to keep up with all the Rust full-timers.

Best Rust Servers

Ultimately, the best Rust server is the one that gives you the best experience. But that’s for you to decide. What works for one person may not work for others. Right now, the best Rust servers seem to be the following:

  • Rustoria.co
  • Rusticated.com
  • Rust Empires
  • RustAcademy.net
  • UKN.GG (Training Grounds)

Keep in mind that all private Rust servers are modded. This means that the farming speed may be 10x and the overall rules differ from those of the standard Rust experience. Some servers are designed to encourage PvP, while others do the opposite, preventing players from killing others and stealing their loot shamelessly.

Best Rust Servers

One positive aspect of choosing a modded Rust server is that you can simply join and have fun without worrying about the technical aspects of maintaining such servers. 

But if you want to create your game servers and become one of the active admins, you’ll need to learn as much as you can about concepts such as server console, server ip, server status, server locations, server backups, server crashes, and so on.

Rust Servers for Beginners

When you are a beginner in Rust, a few servers are best avoided. And there are also servers that will provide an excellent experience just because of the way in which they’re designed. Their rules are built to help new players, leading to a slower-paced game style.

A vanilla rust server is characterized by simplicity and beginner-friendly features. If you want to train as a new player and have a positive Rust gaming experience, some of the best servers that you can play on are these:

  • |US|Paradise Island|PvE|Vanilla|2x|NoRaid|MinDecay|
  • |US|Paradise Island|PvE|Zombies|No Raid|No Kill|
  • NA SNE X100 smeltX20 RB k (Noob Friendly)
  • [EU/US] RustyWasteland PVE | Raidable Bases | Zombies
  • RustPlay PVE With Custom Zombies|LVLs|Kits|Cars|Quests|Clans|

All of them will make playing Rust feel much easier than it normally is. You encounter big clans very rarely and the odds of getting killed in totally random ways are much smaller.

Other considerations

When you don’t know much about the game, you may want a combat training server, but the reality is that you’ll need a resource-gathering server whose advanced features allow you to experiment relatively safely.

Good server admins will use the game control panel to calibrate the experience of the players, incorporating the feedback of their communities. If people want crazy combat or a population limit, or some other feature, they will provide it for them, as long as there is enough support for it.

In some cases, the host will choose his or her own rules, completely ignoring what the players may want. In some cases, it’s good to know in advance that you will be required to adapt to the rules without the possibility of asking for things to be changed. Most servers are like that. Your official server or the one on which you play the most is up to you.

Advanced servers tend to be great for training your PvP skills, while beginner ones are excellent for training your resource management skills. There are plenty of public servers to choose from and it all depends on what level of risk you’re willing to take.

Some players hate losing their progress because of silly mistakes, while others don’t mind learning from such experiences and being brutalized by top-tier competitors who know exactly how to hunt you down.

A public server will be full of experienced players, so you should consider all the key factors before choosing where you will learn the game. Map size is important, as well as the rules that govern your interaction with all the other players.

If you want to host your own server, consider Host Havoc or some other service. Take ddos protection into account, as well as the budget, and read the support documentation.

Posted by
William Westerlund

William is an author, editor, and an avid gamer with over 10.000 hours in CS:GO (Counter-Strike 2). He also enjoys playing Rust, Dota 2, and TF2 but never became a top 1% player in any of those games.