Rust Mobile skills guide - Which Skills should you prioritise when starting out?

If you've been playing Rust Mobile, then chances are you've racked up quite a few Skill Points by completing various missions, knowingly or otherwise. These can, unsurprisingly, be spent to purchase new Skills that apply whenever you head into a match. The question is, which ones do you want to prioritise?

With so many choices, it can be tricky to know where to start. Likewise, there are multiple schools of thought, each with its own value depending on your familiarity with the game. In this Rust Mobile skills guide, I've covered which Skills you should buy first based on what I believe newer players should do. 

Rust Mobile skills guide

The logic of my Skills prioritisation is pretty straightforward: pick the Skills that have an immediate effect first. Some only apply in niche cases, while others increase your chance of, say, earning more bullets when crafting them. That's not to say these skills aren't useful, but I'd much rather feel the benefits more often than not. Then, once you have those, it makes sense to put a little faith in RNG. 

Skills are grouped in three main categories: Scavenging, Combat, and Building. Within those three categories are a further three levels: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Below I've listed each Skill I would get from each, bearing in mind they all provide a permanent, passive effect. I've also explained how many levels of the Skill you can unlock:

Scavenging

Pretty much everything listed here is helpful, as it can all contribute to a quicker, more successful start. 

Name	Levels	Description	Why it's useful
Starting Bonus	5	Upon spawning for the first time, provides a boost to your Health, Calories, and Hydration.	The start of a match on Rust is crucial, and anything that improves your survivability is invaluable, as it gives you less to worry about for a while.
Cold Resistance	3	Reduces the damage taken from Cold.	Ideally, you'd have clothing to protect yourself from a chill, but this isn't always possible, particularly if you've had an unfortunate death, so a little extra protection is nice.
Energy Efficient	3	Reduces Calories and Hydration consumption	The slower your Calories and Hydration bars deplete, the less you have to worry about them moment to moment.
Stealth Training	3	Increases Wilderness Tent duration	The Wilderness Tent protects you from attacks when you place it down before logging off, so some extra minutes of protection is good.
Thick-Skinned	1	Increases Cold Resist by 5%	Alongside Cold Resistance, this makes you much hardier in frigid conditions.
Beast Bane	3	Reduces damage from beasts	Chances are, animals won't give you too much bother after a while. However, they can always sneak up on you when you least expect it, so mitigating that damage could prove important.
Expert Handling	2	Increases a horse's max speed	Getting around on horseback is a lot better than the attention-grabbing car. And if it's a little quicker, that's even better.
Resource Craftsman	2	Crafts Resource Items quicker	Any time saved is time you can spend doing something else.
Master Butcher	3	Increases items harvested from an animal corpse	Extra items for the same amount of work is always good.

Combat

Quick Comeback and Rejuvenation are the most useful options here, though everything else is good to have.

Name	Levels	Description	Why it's useful
Quick Comeback	3	Reduces the cooldown of Respawn Near Death Location	Sometimes you want to quickly get back into the fight, whether that's to stop your body from getting looted or just to get revenge on someone. This makes that easier.
Rejuvenation	3	Restores Calories upon respawning	Having your hunger bar higher when you respawn means you don't have to spend as long topping it back up, saving you time and resources.
Firearms Craftsman	3	Reduces crafting time for Firearms	As I mentioned earlier, less time waiting means you can do something else sooner.
Throwing Weapons Craftsman	3	Reduces crafting time for Throwing Weapons	As above.
Weapons Attachments Craftsman	3	Reduces crafting time for Weapon Attachments	As above.
Ammo Craftsman	3	Reduces crafting time for Ammo	As above.
Heavy-Duty Bandage	1	Instantly restores 1 additional Health	It might not sound like much, but Rust is a game of fine margins, so this could be the difference between survival and looking for a place to respawn.
Potent Syringe	1	Instantly restores 2 additional health	As above.

Building

Of the three categories, I'd say building has the lowest priority aside from Came Prepared. Everything else is useful only when you're familiar with Rust Mobile and find yourself crafting a lot more.

Name	Levels	Description	Why it's useful
Came Prepared	2	Gives you a Stone Hatchet and Pickaxe when spawning for the first time	These tools will let you gather stone and wood much quicker than bashing at trees and boulders with a rock until you can craft them anyway, leading to a faster start.
Stone Architect	2	Reduces the cost of upgrading to a Stone Structure	Saving resources is always handy.
Metal Architect	2	Reduces the cost of upgrading to a Metal Structure	As above.
Deployables Craftsman	2	Reduces crafting time of Deployables	As mentioned already, saving time is always useful in Rust Mobile.
Trap Craftsman	2	Reduces crafting time of Traps	As above.
Industrial Craftsman	2	Reduces crafting time of Industrial items	As above.
Tool Craftsman	2	Reduces crafting time of Industrial Tools	As above.
Repair Master	2	The max durability loss is reduced when repairing items.	Making your gear more hardy means you don't have to craft anything from scratch for longer.
Armor Craftsman	2	Reduces crafting time of Clothing Armor	Frees up your time to do other useful things.
Medicine Craftsman	2	Reduces crafting time of Medicine	As above

To somewhat defeat my own point, there are some permanent passive Skills that aren't hugely worth it. I've listed them below and explained why:

• Hunger Resistance (Scavenging) - There is plenty of food lying around, so you should never be starving.
• Thirst Resistance (Scavenging) - Likewise, it's unlikely that thirst damage will become an issue.
• Train Driver (Scavenging) - Early on, you won't be driving a train much, so this can wait for a while.
• Veteran Driver (Scavenging) - I wouldn't recommend using cars until you're more comfortable with the game, since they attract a lot of attention. 
• Trigger Rate (Combat) - Increasing the Auto Respawn rate is useful, but ultimately, it's still a chance, so that can wait until later.
• Healing Hands (Combat) - If you're playing with other people, this makes a lot more sense. However, if you're playing solo, ignore this as you won't be reviving survivors, most likely. 
• Battlefield Medic (Combat) - Unless you're playing with your friends, this isn't a must.
• Anything that mentions Purchase Permission (Combat) - In the early stages, you won't be visiting Vending Machines and the Bandit Camp much.
• Anything that mentions unlocking blueprints for bases (Building) - The starting blueprints are more than sufficient for learning the ropes, so this can come later.

And that's how I'd prioritise acquiring Skills in Rust Mobile. Once you've got those, feel free to move on to the other options, catering for your preferred playstyle. It's just super useful to focus on the Skills that provide immediate results.

How to use Skill points in Rust Mobile

Now that we've discussed which Skill points to invest in, let's cover where to find them, as the game doesn't shout about it much. It's pretty easy, though. Head to the main menu and look at the bottom left of the screen. On the bar there, you'll find the button second from the right, between Skins and Blueprints. Tap it, and it'll bring up the Skill menu. In the top right, you can see how many Skill Points you have. 

For additional tips if you're new, check out our Rust Mobile beginner's guide for solo players.