Rust doesn’t have a story like Subnautica does, so it never explains why you’re on this abandoned island or why helicopters are unfriendly and airplanes aren’t.
Airplanes occasionally fly overhead as well, but they seem to be friendlier, occasionally dropping supply crates. I did my best to avoid helicopters after that. A few times, I encountered a mysterious grey helicopter which patrolled the island until it spotted another player and opened fire on them. There’s a kind of zen to wandering around the island, wondering what happened to make it so abandoned. Worse still, player reach isn’t very far, so you can end up whiffing plenty of strikes while chopping down a tree right in front of you. These points move as you strike, which can lead to some awkward shuffling around the resource as you try to maximize your resources. Minerals and metals you can mine shimmer at the right spot. Certain items, but not all of them, have markings for where to strike to get the best amount of resources. “Rust’s resource gathering system as a whole is odd and mismatched. That leads to a lot of frustrating grinding. All of this requires you to have hundreds of the appropriate materials on hand to craft, and there’s still a degree of chance involved with finding the items you need to deconstruct. That means finding a research table or building a level-one workbench, and then crafting a research table of your own. When that happens, you need to research blueprints for items you find in the world. duplicate blueprints for unneeded items are common, while essentials like a hatchet can be elusive.
That progression can feel stunted, because finding blueprints in Rust is unreliable at best. Over time, you’ll find blueprints that let you build better tools, which greatly improve your chances of survival. Using your rock, you chop down trees and gather rocks, which you use to build a rudimentary shelter while keeping an eye on hunger, thirst, and health gauges. In this respect, Rust doesn’t deviate much from the standard survival formula found in games like Minecraft, The Forest, Stranded Deep, or Subnautica. “You find yourself here armed with nothing but a rock and a torch.