January 14, 2021 This feature was originally published in August 2019.
The punishing world of Rust is a difficult place to survive. Morals are loose, and a well-armed clan eager to steal your hard-earned loot is never far away. Yet there is hope to be found in this lawless land; tales abound of individual players defying the odds, outmanoeuvring and out-thinking their opponents to amazing results.
Welyn, a popular Rust YouTuber, clearly fits this description. He's been making a name for himself within the community for his daring solo heists against much larger clans - typically, ones who have been throwing their weight around and harming the experience for other players.
Like any good heist movie, Welyn's videos always start with the setup. He names the target, which can be anything from an overzealous clan blocking off a plot of land to a group of malicious players ganging up on someone underpowered. He then outlines a plan, with an annotated map or a detailed base recreation setting out his intentions.
RELATED LINKS:
Rust base designs are about more than just size
Rust overtakes Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam top sellers list
New Rust update adds more servers, brings Twitch Drops, and wipes your blueprints
After a seven week run at number one, Cyberpunk 2077 has been dethroned as the Steam top-seller, overtaken this week by Rust. The survival game from developer Facepunch Studios is now the highest grossing game on Valve's store, some seven years after launch.
In the latest Steam top-sellers list, Cyberpunk 2077 drops two spaces, from one to three, and Rust, which has been on the rise lately, has jumped from four to the tippy-top. This isn't terribly surprising, a resurgence on Twitch led to Rust breaking its player count record during the week, a record that was broken again this weekend. A new update added more servers, to keep up with all the demands, and a data wipe was done to balance the playing field in lieu of the tech tree progression system that was introduced in December. A number of popular streamers, like jacksepticeye, pokimana, and xQc, have Twitch drops, too.
It looked like Sea of Thieves might have been the one to outdo CD Projekt Red's RPG game, the pirate game was at number two last week, setting a player count record all its own. Funnily enough, these individual records are being clocked after Steam crossed 25 million concurrent users to ring in the new year - people are playing a lot of games this January.
RELATED LINKS:
Rust base designs are about more than just size
New Rust update adds more servers, brings Twitch Drops, and wipes your blueprints
After a resurgence on Twitch, Rust hits a new all-time player count record
After a load of fresh interest from some of the biggest names on Twitch, Rust is poised for a massive 2021. (The Rust player count has already reached a new all-time peak and is continuing to grow.) The first update of the new year is a relatively small one, but it sets the stage for what to expect in the next handful of months.
First off, be aware - you're losing your blueprints. The devs are "force-wiping blueprints across all Rust servers" as a result of the recent tech tree system, to ensure everyone's once again playing on a level field. This is the first such wipe in years, and the devs say it'll be a "long, long while" before it happens again.
Rust is getting Twitch Drops now, too. Watching any Rust stream will get you three rewards: a sofa after two hours, an industrial door after four hours, and a hobo barrel after eight hours. Additionally, nine streamers now have personalised in-game items you can get by watching four hours of their respective streams: auronplay, jacksepticeye, lilypichu, ludwig, Myth, pokimane, shroud, Sykkuno, and xQc. You can see those details on the official site.
RELATED LINKS:
Rust overtakes Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam top sellers list
After a resurgence on Twitch, Rust hits a new all-time player count record
Rust's December update introduces tech trees for workbenches