u/KipOnTheGround

Hello, my fellow legit Rust players who don't sympathize with cheaters and the servers who take money from them. Behold! A revolutionary new 3-step program on how to instantly avoid tons of cheaters in Rust:

1. Turn on Secure Boot and TPM in your BIOS. Facepunch made a guide.
2. Play only on a secure server like (ADVERTISEMENT WARNING) The Couch, the first and only weekly vanilla server with secure mode enabled. Map wipe is today.
3. Don't play on non-secure servers. They've decided since March to keep secure mode off, keep all the cheaters around to ruin your wipes, and keep getting VIP money from the cheaters.

Battlefield 6 added secure boot and cheaters in their lobbies dropped from 7% to 2%. Valorant's Vanguard anti-cheat relies on it, too. It's being used because it works.

Over 80% of Rust players already have the hardware for it. Unless your motherboard is over 10 years old, it almost certainly has Secure Boot and TPM. And if it is that old, sorry to break it to you, but you do need to upgrade hardware over time to keep playing games that get constant updates.

Since there were ZERO weekly vanilla servers with secure mode on, I made one and it's slowly growing:

• Server name: The Couch • Secure Server ✓
  • Join with F1 console command: connect thecouch.lol
  • Or use the join/connect buttons on TheCouch.LOL
  • Or just search for "The Couch" in the Community tab
• Weekly vanilla, US West
• Map wipe weekly at 11:00 AM Pacific, BP wipe monthly
• No group limit
• No VIP, no kits, no paid perks
• Dedicated host is prepaid for a year
• Player names hidden on our BattleMetrics page to stop meta-gaming

And here's an update on how the server has grown so far, wipe-by-wipe:

Wipe	Peak	Returning Players	Average	Player-hours	PVP kills
Jul 9	3	-	0.8	119	4
Jul 16	8	5 (22%)	1.8	311	9
Jul 23	14	10 (22%)	4.7	793	57
Jul 30	16	18 (27%)	4.7	784	63
Aug 6 (ends today)	17	32 (52%)	6.0	990	115

Cheaters and scripters hate it. People who play on teams with cheaters hate it. Server owners who take money from cheaters via VIP hate it. Legit players and people with integrity love it.

The optional server setting introduced in March makes it so all players must have Secure Boot and TPM enabled, which blocks a lot of cheats before they load, and helps enforce hardware ID bans.

When Battlefield 6 required the same thing, cheaters in their lobbies went from 7% to 2%. Facepunch's own April devblog reported a 33% reduction in cheaters just on the few servers they enabled it on.

Facepunch added this feature, turned it on for 6 their own servers, and left it up to the server owners to turn it on or not. 154 days later, there are no popular servers running it because the cheaters buy VIP.

All of these servers are making the choice to help cheaters continue to ruin Rust. If that pisses you off, you shouldn't be playing on any server that doesn't have secure mode on. It'll say "SECURE" in the server tags if it's enabled, under the server name.

Since nobody will turn it on, I started a server that does, and it's slowly growing week-by-week. The Couch is weekly, vanilla, with Secure Mode on and no paid perks. The dedicated hosting is prepaid for a year.

Server details:

• Server name: The Couch • Secure Server ✓ (find it in the Community tab)
• Connect command: connect thecouch.lol
• Weekly vanilla, US West
• Requires Secure Boot + TPM (how to enable)
• Map wipe weekly, BP wipe monthly
• No group limit
• Player names hidden on our BattleMetrics page to stop meta-gaming

Server wipes today at 11:00 AM Pacific Time for today's Power Trip update. There's a countdown timer on the site.

Here's how the server has grown so far:

Wipe	Peak Players	Average	Unique	Player-hours	PVP kills
Jul 9	3	0.8	13	119	4
Jul 16	8	1.8	23	311	9
Jul 23	14	4.7	45	793	57
Jul 30	16	4.7	66	781	63

The optional server setting introduced in March makes it so all players must have Secure Boot and TPM enabled, which blocks a lot of cheats before they load, and helps enforce hardware ID bans.

When Battlefield 6 required the same thing, cheaters in their lobbies went from 7% to 2%. Facepunch's own April devblog reported a 33% reduction in cheaters just on the few servers they enabled it on.

Facepunch added this feature, turned it on for 6 their own servers, and left it up to the server owners to turn it on or not. 154 days later, there are no popular servers running it because the cheaters buy VIP.

All of these servers are making the choice to help cheaters continue to ruin Rust. If that pisses you off, you shouldn't be playing on any server that doesn't have secure mode on. It'll say "SECURE" in the server tags if it's enabled, under the server name.

Since nobody will turn it on, I started a server that does, and it's slowly growing week-by-week. The Couch is weekly, vanilla, with Secure Mode on and no paid perks. The dedicated hosting is prepaid for a year.

Server details:

• Server name: The Couch • Secure Server ✓ (find it in the Community tab)
• Connect command: connect thecouch.lol
• Weekly vanilla, US West
• Requires Secure Boot + TPM (how to enable)
• Map wipe weekly, BP wipe monthly
• No group limit
• Player names hidden on our BattleMetrics page to stop meta-gaming

Server wipes today at 11:00 AM Pacific Time for today's Power Trip update. There's a countdown timer on the site.

Here's how the server has grown so far:

Wipe	Peak Players	Average	Unique	Player-hours	PVP kills
Jul 9	3	0.8	13	119	4
Jul 16	8	1.8	23	311	9
Jul 23	14	4.7	45	793	57
Jul 30	16	4.7	66	781	63

Secure Mode was added to Rust on March 5 as an optional server setting. It requires all players to have Secure Boot and TPM turned on, which blocks many cheats from loading. When BF6 required secure boot, cheaters in its lobbies dropped from 7% to 2%.

It's been an option for 147 days, and not one popular server is using it because cheaters buy VIP. They would rather have cheater money than integrity. At this point, they're just helping the cheaters ruin Rust.

Since none of them will do it, I started a new server called The Couch, which is the only weekly vanilla server with Secure Mode on. I prepaid for the dedicated host for an entire year, and there are no paid perks.

https://thecouch.lol/

Is it low pop? Yep. It's new, but slowly growing. Here are the stats from the last few wipes:

Wipe	Peak Players	Unique	Average	Player-hours	PVP kills
Jul 9	3	13	0.8	119	4
Jul 16	8	23	1.8	311	9
Jul 23	14	44	4.7	787	57

Server details:

• Server name: The Couch • Secure Server ✓ (find it in the Community tab)
• Connect command: connect thecouch.lol
• Weekly vanilla, US West
• Requires Secure Boot + TPM (how to enable)
• Map wipe every Thursday at 11:00 AM Pacific (1800 UTC)
• Blueprint wipe monthly on force wipe day
• No group limit
• Procedural map with separate Outpost and Bandit Camp
• Player names hidden on our BattleMetrics page to stop meta-gaming

Server wipes today at 11:00 AM Pacific Time. There's a countdown timer on the site.

The Couch is the only weekly vanilla server with secure mode enabled. It has zero paid perks and the dedicated hosting is prepaid for an entire year.

Popular servers are too scared to enable Secure Mode it because they will lose money that cheaters give them for VIP. They only care about money, not about protecting their players.

connect thecouch.lol

• Website: https://thecouch.lol/
• Server name: The Couch • No VIP • No Kits • Secure Server ✓
• Find it under the Community tab in the server browser
• Requires Secure Boot + TPM (how to enable)
• Weekly Vanilla, US West
• Map wipe every Thursday at 11:00 AM Pacific (1800 UTC)
• Blueprints wipe monthly on force-wipe day
• No group limit
• Player names hidden on our BattleMetrics page to prevent meta-gaming

Join the only weekly vanilla server with enough integrity to enable Secure Boot mode and take zero money from players.

Secure mode means fewer cheaters. Other servers are too scared to enable it because they will lose money that cheaters give them for VIP and paid kits.

The Couch has zero paid perks and the dedicated hosting is prepaid for an entire year.

connect thecouch.lol

• Server name: The Couch • No VIP • No Kits • Secure Boot ✓
• Find it under the Community tab in the server browser
• Requires Secure Boot + TPM (how to enable)
• Weekly Vanilla, US West
• Map wipe every Thursday at 11:00 AM Pacific (1800 UTC)
• Blueprints wipe monthly on force-wipe day
• No group limit, bring a friend or 10
• Player names hidden on our BattleMetrics page to prevent meta-gaming
• Discord

The most popular servers still refuse to reduce cheating by enabling Secure Mode.

They're afraid to lose the money they get from cheaters who buy paid perks like VIP, queue skip, and kits. Secure Mode has been available for 3 months, and none of them are using it. They'd rather take cheater money and let the cheaters continue to ruin Rust.

Stop supporting them and play your next wipe on a secure server instead.

The Couch is the only weekly, vanilla, Secure Mode server that takes no money from players. It's on a dedicated host and pre-paid for an entire year. There's no VIP, no kits, no queue skip, and no paid advantages.

• Server name: The Couch • No VIP • No Kits • Secure Boot ✓
• Requires Secure Boot and TPM - see the FP guide on how to enable it
• Type: Weekly Vanilla
• Region: US West, dedicated host
• Group limit: None
• Weekly map wipe today at 11:00 AM Pacific (1800 UTC)
• Blueprints wipe monthly at force-wipe
• Player names are hidden from our BattleMetrics page to prevent meta-gaming

F1 console command: client.connect thecouch.lol:28015

Or search for The Couch in the Community server browser.

Bring a friend to help it grow. Let's stop playing on servers where money is all that matters to the server owners.

This server did previously have PlaySafe ID enabled, but it's off now. I'm hoping enough people will first embrace playing on a Secure Mode server, then I'll start a second server with PSID enabled when the demand is there.

There are still ZERO official servers that have Secure Mode enabled, over 100 days after it became available (besides the FP-owned servers). It's clear that private server owners have no intention of limiting cheating on their servers, so I will.

The Couch is a dedicated, secure, weekly vanilla server with zero paid perks, prepaid for an entire year of hosting.

• TPM + Secure Boot required
• No VIP, No paid kits, no queue skip, no paid advantages of any kind
• Cheaters cannot send money via VIP

The server takes no money from players, which means there is no way to buy influence, favoritism, or special treatment. I pay for this dedicated server personally.

Server info:

• Server title (under Community servers list): The Couch • No VIP • No Kits • Secure Boot ✓
• Secure Mode ON — TPM + Secure Boot
• Region: US West, dedicated server
• Weekly Vanilla
• No group limit, vanilla group UI limit of 8
• Weekly map wipes Thursdays at 11:00 AM Pacific / 1800 UTC
• Blueprints wipe monthly on force-wipe day
• Player names are hidden from BattleMetrics to prevent metagaming
• BattleMetrics: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/39147477
• F1 console: connect thecouch.lol:28015

This server previously had PlaySafe ID enabled, but it's off now. I'm hoping enough people will first embrace playing on a Secure Mode server first, then I will either pay for a second server with PSID enabled, or re-enable PSID here if that is what the players want. The goal is to have cheater-free Rust on this server, and I'll continue to use all the options I have to make that happen.

Server will force-wipe immediately when the patch is available tomorrow around 11:00 AM Pacific / 1800 UTC.

We need to stop playing on servers where every wipe has cheaters who can just keep coming back with new accounts, while the server admins are selling VIP, paid kits, and pay-to-win perks. Admins still refuse to even enable Secure Mode to instantly cut down on cheating. Their priorities are obvious.

So I prepaid for an entire year of hosting on a new dedicated server.

"The Couch" is for us lifelong, legit gamers who want to finally avoid cheaters. No VIP. No paid kits. No donation links. No giveaways. No gimmicks.

The server requires Secure Boot, TPM, and PlaySafe ID so bans actually mean something. Don’t like it? That’s fine. Keep playing on servers that never truly ban cheaters and bots, and spam automated chat messages that ask you for money.

Server info:

• Server name: The Couch • No Cheaters, No Bots • PlaySafe ID
• PlaySafe info and signup: https://playsafeid.com/gamers (data FAQ here)
• Region: US West
• Type: Weekly Vanilla, No Group Limit (default Group UI limit of 8)
• Map wipe: Thursday at 11:00 AM Pacific / 1800 UTC
• BattleMetrics: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/39147477
• F1 console: connect 15.204.105.172:28015

Next map wipe is tomorrow, so you can make your PSID in advance, make sure you can connect to the server, and you're all ready for the wipe on this server, or any other PSID server in any game.

Hello. Another week, another meme I used AI to add a wolf-heady to, and another chance to stop playing wipes on servers where cheaters can keep bypassing bans by buying new Steam accounts over and over again.

I'm paying for this new dedicated server myself with PlaySafe ID enabled so legit gamers have somewhere they can play until the popular server owners finally do something about cheaters returning.

If you're a new player, this is a great place to learn the game while it's low-pop, and have confidence it won't be filled with cheaters. Bring a friend to help it grow even faster.

It's great that admins ban cheaters regularly, but when they can just keep returning with new accounts, it never actually stops. And with these servers accepting money for things like VIP, there is a non-zero chance that they are getting money from the cheaters.

Server Info:

• "The Couch • No Cheaters, No Bots • PlaySafe ID"
• Learn about PlaySafe here: https://playsafeid.com/gamers
  • Your ID is used for verification and then it's deleted (data FAQs here)
  • Works in tons of countries, not just in the US
• Weekly Vanilla, Dedicated server, US West
• No VIP and no paid kits, so cheaters can't send money
• Names are hidden on BattleMetrics (no meta-gaming)
• BM page: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/39147477
• Map wipes Thursday at 11 AM Pacific (1800 UTC)

connect 15.204.105.172:28015

No, I'm not affiliated with PlaySafe. I'm a fan of their mission and willing to spend my time and money supporting it. I pay for the server myself. There are no donation links, no kits, no VIP. I want people to finally be able to play the game we love without cheaters. I hope that eventually the larger server owners will make their own PSID servers.

How many more wipes are we gonna play where cheaters get banned and come right back over and over again, before we just stop playing on the servers that allow it?

Every ban just means they buy a new account. Until these popular servers turn on PlaySafe, it won't stop.

Not one official server is even willing to simply turn on secure mode to try to stop some of the cheats from being usable (only the Facepunch servers have it enabled). They are too scared of booting out all the cheaters, probably because cheaters will give them money for VIP and kits. It's sad and we deserve better.

I'm paying for a new dedicated server myself with PSID enabled so people have somewhere to play until the popular server owners finally do something about cheaters returning.

Server details:

• Server name: "The Couch • No Cheaters, No Bots • PlaySafe ID"
• PlaySafe ID required (learn about it: https://playsafeid.com/gamers)
  • Your ID is used for verification and then it's deleted, and no, it is not stored
  • Verification is done by a KYC company that's used by banks, not by PlaySafe
  • Works in tons of countries, not just the US
• Weekly Vanilla, no VIP, no paid kits
• Dedicated server, US West
• Names are hidden on BattleMetrics (no meta-gaming)
• BM page: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/39147477
• Map wipes Thursday at 11 AM Pacific (1800 UTC)

connect 15.204.105.172:28015

You can get verified today and join any PlaySafe ID server so you know that it works, and you're set for tomorrow's map wipe.

Yes, it's low pop for now. If you're new to Rust, you can learn monuments, practice building, fight scientists, etc. while knowing that cheaters and bots won't fill the server.

No, I'm not affiliated with PlaySafe, just a huge fan of their mission and willing to spend time supporting it. I pay for the server myself. There are no donation links, no P2W, no VIP. I'm sick of cheaters ruining my favorite games, and this is the first thing that might actually work.

Once there are enough PSID servers to accommodate all the legit players, all the cheaters can play against each other on the rest of the servers, or they can just quit gaming.

If you want to finally play a wipe where cheaters can't just keep coming back with new Steam accounts:

1. Learn about PlaySafe ID: https://playsafeid.com/gamers
   • Your documents get deleted after verification, and aren't even seen by PlaySafe
2. Join a PlaySafe server like mine
   • Weekly Vanilla, US west, no VIP, no kits, dedicated server
   • Player names are hidden from BattleMetrics (no meta-gaming)
   • Server name: "The Couch • No Cheaters, No Bots • PlaySafe ID"
   • BM page: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/39147477
   • F1 command: connect 15.204.105.172:28015

Yes, the server will be empty or very low pop and this will take a while to grow. But it's real solution that will actually keep cheaters banned, unlike 30 years of anti-cheat. We can finally have cheater-free competitive games for the first time ever.

Get a PSID today, join the server to make sure it's all set up and working, then hop back on tomorrow morning for force-wipe.

If you're a brand new Rust player, this is a great way to get started since the server pop will be low, and you will be one of the first people to play on servers that can finally ban cheaters for real.

And no, I am not affiliated with PlaySafe. I'm a fan of their mission. I'm using my own money to pay for this server to try to make cheater-free gaming a reality.