On a good day, RUST presents one of the most challenging survival environments of any online game today. With winter zones that will freeze you, desert landscapes that will dehydrate you, and lush green forests that are full of wolves that travel in packs that see you from miles away, few could argue that it wasn’t hard enough already. Enter the Jungle Biome.
The name of the game here is underbrush. The Jungle Biome is characterized by its dense vegetation, including trees, foliage, ground cover, and thickets. While it may not remain as it was on the Staging servers for players to initially test, all the obstructions it introduces serve a purpose, and they achieve it with remarkable efficiency. RUST’s Jungle also comes with its ambient noise profile, making it, at least through audio, a brand-new experience for both new and veteran players. The animals here are also considerably more vocal.
For every negative presented by the surroundings, a positive emerges. As with all things, every dark side has its lighter component, and RUST biomes are the same if you know how to navigate the terrain’s challenges best. Consider this your roadmap to surviving the RUST Jungle Biome.
Preemptive considerations
Before setting up a shop and choosing a base location in the Jungle Biome, proper preparation requires several factors to be considered that will impact your ability to thrive or flourish.
Food & water in the Jungle Biome
The Jungle Biome in RUST is many things, but never a place lacking food. From its (potentially) lush rivers, lined to the brim with large quantities of Pumpkins, Wheat, and Corn, to the prospect of hunting and killing one of the many animal types that exist within its darkest depths, there is always something to eat in the jungle. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s you on the menu.
Forethought recommendation
Be sure to check out the map beforehand. Not all procedurally generated maps have rivers; the last thing you want to do is get stuck in the middle of nowhere with no clear path to food. Especially on higher-populated servers, even the ample offering of the Jungle Biome can be exhausted. Unlike the easier to kill creatures in other biomes, such as Boars and Deer, the animals found within the jungle are difficult to kill even for those properly geared. They’re nearly impossible for the average naked with a bow.
Resource challenges
Most other biomes have specific areas that spawn resources such as metal and sulfur nodes. Regular players of the game know these landmarks and follow them while farming. They present as larger rock formations, crevices, and the like. The jungle is relatively sparse in comparison, with most of the nodes available spawning around hilltops. It is second to none when it comes to tree cover. At the time of writing, berries and hemp spawn but seem infrequent in quantity compared to the temperate zone.
Ground pickups, such as wood, stone, metal, and sulfur, litter the ground, allowing players to acquire early-game tools and primitive weapons on par with other warm biomes.
Forethought recommendation
As mentioned before, the wildlife we’re about to cover is the game changer in this biome, so much so that we recommend getting squared away with resources and weapons before entering the jungle. This isn’t an overstatement; everything here is out to kill you.
Wildlife challenges
The jungle is a wildlife challenge. We make mention of this in our bestiary, but it can’t be overstated. The creatures native to the jungle make Polar Bears look like cuddly puppies by comparison. For clarification purposes, we’ll go item by item.
Panthers
The jungle is big cat country, and comes in two distinct varieties. They are essentially the same AI model, but differ in appearance, making one a more efficient night stalker, while the other is pretty much camouflaged at all hours of the day. The Panther, like the Tiger, is a stalking creature that attacks quickly and runs away before players can respond. While they can be knocked down by damage like the Wolf, it is harder to do so, and once they leap to attack, it is nearly impossible to avoid the damage and knockback effect.
Tigers
Just as with the panther, the Tiger crouches and approaches quietly. Both cats can be heard lightly growling from a distance, but it’s quite often too late for you at this point. Their leap is devastating, and unlike the panther that sticks out a bit more during the day, the tiger blends in reasonably well with the underbrush.
Snakes
If everything else in the jungle is there to kill you directly, Snakes are there to make their job easier. Snakes don’t deal much damage outright, but instead appear quickly, strike at you with their slowing venom, and scoot. You can see how this might impair your ability to get away from a tiger that is giving chase.
Crocodiles
Rounding out our list of things in the jungle that are panic-inducing, we’ll keep this one short and sweet. Stay out of the water. There isn’t a vehicle mode on the RUST map that can outmaneuver these monsters in a river. They are fast, ruthless, and brutal, but also delicious.
A key way to determine if crocodiles may be present is by examining the water they inhabit. The water in the Jungle Biome is typically darker and muddier in color, whereas freshwater in other biomes is a brighter shade of blue. Should a large lake spawn near the Jungle Biome, Crocodiles can also spawn here.
Outbreak Scientists
It is necessary to mention that all blue road scientists and underground tunnel-dwelling scientists, while in the Jungle Biome, are immediately reskinned to a new Outbreak variety. Everything else about them, from their loot tables to weapon choices and health, remains the same, but they look entirely different.
Forethought recommendation
The jungle introduces brand new animals, and with them, a superior AI than those you’d have previously encountered. First of all, animals in this biome do not flee if you build a single foundation and jump on top of it. Most of them jump pretty high and can knock you off, potentially destroying any thatched platforms.
The big cat animals are known for being stalkers and bolters. They will creep up on you and match your speed. They’re deadly quiet and without a doubt lethal. Crocodiles are a bit easier to evade or avoid altogether, but players are fair game for everything else.
Jackhammers are a premier line of defense for jungle animals, as they are for the original animal types. With them becoming considerably more challenging to acquire early game, we are left with a few viable alternatives that perform well.
Knives, whether they be combat, bone, or obsidian, are excellent for quick striking at animals and getting them to either flee or stagger. Ranged weapons like Hunting Bows are nice to have, but not as efficient at killing the big cats due to their hit-and-run strategy.
Stone Spears and Paddles are perfect against crocodiles if you must fight them, but even then, you must strike quickly and decisively if you want to stand a chance. Crafting and equipping high melee-resistant armor early will even the playing field a bit, but don’t lose sight that the most dangerous enemy is still your fellow player.
Other players
Nothing here is sacred, and there are no rules or courtesies to observe. The Jungle Biome is the premier grub environment on the map, with more ground cover and obstructions than any other zone. Everything here is trying to kill you, so you must think kindly. If you’re passing through on your way to a better build spot or monument, it might be best to do so quickly and quietly. If you want to bring out your inner Tarzan, read on.
Forethought recommendation
Pay attention to the map. Whether solo or part of a small group, avoid high-traffic areas such as starter structures like Gas Stations and Mining Outposts, and medium-sized monuments until you are prepared to lose your kits. These will be camped due to their easy accessibility and 360-degree wooded modes of escape. The sound of a recycler is to a grub as the flame is to the moth, as is any early game gunfire.
Utilize the treeline when available, and keep a reasonable distance from obstructing bushes, as this is the grubs’ favorite place to play. Pay close attention to large Strangler-Fig trees with blue and purple flower embellishments. These are climbable trees with standing platforms at the top from which players may swing on vines from tree to tree, descend back to the ground quickly, or use the tree platform as a place from which to stage ambushes.
Vines
Using Vines is rather intuitive, very similar to ziplines except with a few additional options. If you approach a vine and quickly press the E key, you will swing to the next platform destination. If you swing and then hold the E key, you will continue swinging onto the next available vine, where applicable, when reaching the next platform, and so on until you run out of viable vines to swing.
Holding the E key while stationary on a platform will open an option wheel, offering to swing to the next platform, toss the vine back to its connected location, or descend to the ground.
If choosing to live here, be sure to deposit goods you gather into your base frequently and be slow to discard bows and primitive kits. Door camping is a favorite pastime in the woods, so expect to be targeted occasionally.
Anonymity is key. Try to be as covert in your dealings as possible, and double-check your surroundings before heading to your base. In RUST, the fewer people who know your location, the better.
To blend seamlessly into your surroundings, check out our guide for the Best RUST Skin Sets for the Forest Biome.
Nature
Rain and fog during the day aren’t necessarily dangerous in the Jungle Biome. They limit visibility beyond what it already is and add a degree of ambient noise that hinders clear hearing and sometimes thinking. If the rain is light enough, it’s almost peaceful.
Wet conditions at night can present a complication, reducing the effectiveness of your light source and distorting your field of view. While not directly comparable to the Arctic or Desert Biomes, being wet in the dark can gradually deplete your health bar over time and render passive healing impossible.
Forethought recommendation
For RUST players just starting, your most direct concern needs to be mitigating primitive weapon damage, both melee and ranged, and chiefly concerning yourself with animal attacks. The secondary priority should be acquiring 11 radiation protection, as this is the minimum for getting into most mid-difficulty monuments that may spawn in this biome.
Exclusive monuments
The Jungle Biome is home exclusively to one labeled map monument, the Jungle Ziggurat. While the details for this biome are still being worked on actively by the developer, it has been stated that there are plans to incorporate or make available the capacity for all non-biome exclusive monuments to spawn in the jungle, meaning things like Launch Site or Power Plant are fair game and able to generate here procedurally.
There are also currently five iterations of what we’re calling Dry Wells. These are jungle equivalent versions of Water Wells, marked on the map in much the same way, but offering an assortment of lootable crates and barrels in lieu of food and the water well merchant. They’re all roughly the same size, have no radiation requirement, and are not considered safe zones. The loot at this point is lower-end brown crates, and these will more than likely make excellent locations for ambushes.
All about building
Now is as good a time as any to carve out your portion of the green dream. Further considerations on this topic are as follows:
Terrain
The Jungle Biome is very reminiscent of the temperate biome, with a considerable amount of re-skins and redactions. It features all-new fauna, trees, and undergrowth, and is visually intimidating until you become accustomed to it. Everything blends, unlike other biomes, making it difficult to distinguish visually. There are several places to hide or lie in wait for the uninitiated to pass by.
The sheer amount of trees present makes it a top contender for a lumberyard, so much so that it’s often difficult to determine what can be used for firewood and what is just decoration. Some of the ground clutter remains, such as felled logs and ground pickups. Remember that bushes here might contain more than just a chicken or grub with a shotgun, as they are a favorite napping spot of Snakes.
Small Lakes
Appearing on the map as small greyish circles, the Jungle Biome comes with its series of small water supplies, unlike any other. There isn’t much to say about these lakes, except that they’re sort of a neat point of interest. They can spawn the occasional barrel nearby, but are mostly just reliable sources of fresh water and may be built on, in, and near for those looking to set up a farm.
Caves
Caves are always a solid choice to build in, but always a reliable raid target for others. RUST cave systems vary from large to small, but all have a few things in common. Chiefly, they’re all fairly visible to the trained eye on a map.
This knowledge is especially true for certain jungle caves, as both very low and very high landscape elevations often make cave entrances stand out like a sore thumb.
While not as evident as the colossal superstructure next door, the cave has several strengths and weaknesses that are inherent only to itself. Caves offer a natural shelter from the wet status-causing elements. However, these underground havens do not warm you up at night—you will still very much take passive damage if you venture away from your keyboard while wet and underclothed with night falling.
Caves in RUST are also natural attractions for new players looking for resources and tools. Expect a significant amount of foot traffic if you elect to build in or near one of these areas.
Swamps
While less practical for most people, swamps are an excellent source of passive sulfur pickups and cast quite an interesting fog, especially at night.
While it is certainly not the experience everyone is looking for, we encourage all types of building exploration within the game. Building a swamp tree-house could be just the ticket to break up the ‘what design are we going to use this time’ grind that happens from wipe to wipe.
As with caves, there is no hiding a swamp on the map, so be ready for quite a few visitors coming your way.
Rock Formation Bases
Finally, as with all other biomes, the jungle has the full range of rock formations available for procedural generation, custom-colored to fit within the biome and offering ample and sometimes overpowered protections to any potential design.
Depending on the height and circumstance behind where and how the formations spawn, a rock formation location might be just what the casual or clan base builder is looking for. Having built-in fortifications that can’t be damaged by anything a player can craft, players can build much more secure bases at a fraction of the cost.
Raiders are coming
As different as each biome is from one another, so is the process for waging war within them. From the perspective of a potential raider, the Jungle Biome often provides a much more dangerous raiding experience, with grubs and counter-raiders coming (quite literally) out of the shrubs.
While the elements aren’t nearly as much of an obstacle for raiding teams, the terrain can be downright perilous. Counter raiders very much like to utilize the ever-present tree cover, bushes, and cliff sides of RUST’s Jungle Biome to their advantage. Be sure to have a backup plan A, B, and C if you are raiding during prime time hours in this biome.
For the defender, the environment can be just as hazardous. Just because the original raiding party was countered and robbed doesn’t mean that the zerg that countered them doesn’t wish to finish the job.
Be sure to have plenty of external spawn points with kits to make defending more plausible. Consider working external TCs into your base design to prevent griefing and loss of workbenches.
If you build close enough to the rivers, you might just get an added assist from a crocodile or two in your raid defense. Weirder things have happened.
