SpawnPass · Rust
Your first wipe hour
What to do between spawning naked and holding a blue keycard, without dying to anything avoidable.
Last checked 2026-09-21
Overview
The first hour of a wipe decides most of your week. The goal is not kills — it is a shelter with a tool cupboard, a bag network, and a green-monument loop that turns into a blue keycard before your first night.
Know when the wipe lands
Official servers force wipe on the first Thursday of the month, around 19:00 UTC. Community servers set their own cadence, commonly weekly or biweekly. Blueprints wipe on official force wipes, so plan the tech tree around a fresh start.
The first twenty minutes
Gather to a stone hatchet, then a building plan and a tool cupboard. Place the cupboard before you place anything worth losing — an unclaimed base is not yours.
- Wood first, then stone. Sulfur can wait until you have somewhere to sleep.
- Put down a sleeping bag before you go anywhere. Then a second bag somewhere else.
- A 2x1 with an airlock beats a 1x1 you cannot expand.
The green monument loop
Green-card puzzles need one Electric Fuse and one green keycard, and each hands you a blue card. Ferry Terminal, Radtown, both Harbours, Sewer Branch and Satellite Dish all follow the same pattern. Keycards degrade on each swipe, so carry a spare.
- Harbor and Satellite Dish have the lowest radiation — run them first.
- Fuses come from barrels, crates and recyclers. Pick up every one you see.
- A blue card turns into a red card at Water Treatment, which is the easiest red on the map.
What kills new players
Not gunfights. Cold, hunger, bleeding and falls. Keep a campfire and cloth, eat before you travel, and do not path along cliff edges at night.
What not to do on day one
Do not fight Bradley naked at Launch Site. Do not start the Excavator unless you can hold it. Do not tunnel a zerg because they raided your neighbour.