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Nothing gets more relaxing thanRusty’s Retirement. This idle, cozy game allows you to not only tend to a cute little farm run by different robots, including Rusty, but runs at the bottom of your screen while you manage other tasks, watch videos, or, maybe even, read some articles.
There isn’t much of a tutorial to the game, leaving you to really poke around and find out what to do and how to do it. Especially with a large list of crops to unlock and a number of helpful NPCs to build homes for. And this guide is here to help you get started.
Familiarize Yourself With The Legend First
One of the first things you should do when you pick your farm layout (which, at the start, the game only has one unlocked to the player), is topress the small “?” button and scroll all the way to the bottomto see the legend.
The game uses icons for every resource. And it doesn’t take any time to explain to you what each symbol means, so you have to familiarize yourself with what each of the small icons represents.
There areeightin total:
This will greatly improve your understanding of the game soyou can make informed decisionsabout what you’d like to do, what you’d like to plant, and which buildings you’d like to build.
If you ever forget or are unsure what one of the icons means, the “?” button alwaysremains at the bottom of your screen, just under the settings tab, which looks like a cog wheel.
Use Rusty’s Home To Save Resources
Not only does Rusty reside in his home, but it alsodoubles as a Storage Unit.
So, instead of using up your Biofuel and spare parts so early in the game to build additional Storage Units, justusing Rusty’s home will save you a lot of time and resources.
His home never fills up, it’s right next to a Biofuel Converter, and you can plant crops nearby. Utilizing his home in this way isgoing to allow you to keep spare parts and Biofuel in your pocket, soyou can spend it on more important things that help you build up your farm.
Keep Spinning The Golden Cog
When you are just startingto expand your farm and add helpful robots, you may be itching to make some fast scrap.
The golden cog thatis just above Rusty’s front doors is clickable. One click will earn you an achievement, but not much more. But, when you click it continuously, not only will it spin, but it willgive you one spare part at a timefor every few clicks.
It will help when you are a few spare parts off frompurchasing a robot or filling your farm plots. Do this as often or as many times as you want,it never stops producing spare parts.
Plant Extra New Crops So You Can Unlock More Crops Quickly
Wheat, Radish, and Cabbage will be the first crops that you have access toin the game.
Each crop hascertain criteria you have to meetbefore you are able to unlock it, besides the first three, of course.
Plant a lot of the most recent crop you’ve unlocked. It won’t be an unlock requirement for the next crop,but it will be one or two further downthe line. So you can get a head start on collecting what you need before it’s needed.
There are42 crops to unlock. And each crop is progressively more difficult to unlock. But that is part ofthe idle nature of the game.
Hovering your mouse over a locked crop will show you how much of what other crops are needed to unlock it. However, it will only show you which kinds you need of those you have already unlocked.
Plant Starter Crops For Consistent Biofuel
Biofuel is thelifeblood of any botsyou add to your farm andis used to construct new bots and homes.
To create Biofuel,you will need three different types of cropsthat Rusty, or one of his helpers, place on the Biofuel Converter.
One way to ensure that you always have three crops is toalways plant some of the beginning crops, like Wheat. They grow quickly and, although they don’t bring you much profit,they will be turned into the important fuelthat keeps your bots running.
Set up a crop patch where yousolely plant the starter crops. This will keep you in the green when it comes to Biofuel.
Prioritize Water Bots
There arethreestarting bots:
you’re able to build as many of the three bots as you’d like. Butyou’ll want to be making enough Biofuel to keep them working.
When you’re thinking about starting to purchase and build bots,prioritize Water Bots. Rusty can harvest crops and add them to the Biofuel Converter. But while he’s doing that, if your crops aren’t getting watered, they won’t grow,meaning everything will slow down.
Having one or two Water Bots before any of the others willensure that you are growing crops quickly, thus making more profits.
Save Biofuel After Creating Many Bots
At the bottom right of your screen, you may notice the “CONVERT” button. This will take some of the Biofuel you’ve created and turn it into spare parts.
Why And When To Convert Biofuel
To purchase crops and to expand your farmland, youonly use spare parts. And, when you are first starting,spare parts are more useful to you.
Onceyou have many botsthat need Biofuel and are making enough spare parts to afford NPC homes and buildings, you’ll want to switch gears (ha) andsave your Biofuel.
Your Bots are powered by Biofuel and will be draining it slowly. On top of that, the NPC buildings and some of the additional mechanics they bring to the table are expensive.
Stock up on Biofuel, soyou aren’t sat waiting for more to generate.
Focus On Haiku And Echo
There areseven NPCsthat help Rusty either by providing a service or unlocking a new feature. In the early parts of the game, there are two NPCs you should prioritize and those areHaiku and Echo.
Haiku is the natural first as their homecosts the leastout of all of the NPC buildings. You will have to save50 Biofuel and 1,000 spare partsand then can start construction on Haiku’s Home.
Haiku is going to help Rusty with everything around the farm. Everything Rusty can do, Haiku can too. Andyou can set their priorities separatelyin the Priorities tab.
Echo requires you to skip ahead of the other NPCs that would be the natural next options. But they will be much more helpful ingenerating more Biofuel and spare parts faster. Echo’s Workshop costs300 Biofuel and 8,000 spare parts. Once built, Echo can enhance your helper bots tomake them faster or increase their capacity.
Of those two upgrades,speed is the most important. As your farmland expands, you’re going to want the bots to be able to quickly get from their station to the crops and then to the converters as fast as their little legs will carry them. Have Echofocus on upgrading each bot’s speed.
You don’t have to max it out before upgrading the capacity, butat least one speed upgrade firstfor everything.
Each upgradecosts Biofuel and spare parts, but the boosts are well worth it.
Wait For Slate
You may be tempted to get Slate’s Barn as quickly as possible. Who can resist a cute pixel cow or pig? But there’s more you have to spendbefore you’re able to even purchase some animals.
First, Slate’s Barn costs3,000 Biofuel and 10,000 spare parts. Quite the jump from Echo. Then, Slate will first needto collect fossils. And, before you may bring any animals to your field, they will need an animal feeder. An animal feeder is580 Biofuel and 11,000 spare parts.
Before you even purchase your first animal, you will needseven fossils, 3,580 Biofuel, and 21,000 spare parts. Andthat doesn’t include any land expansionto make room for them.
So,fight the temptation to have Slatebe one of the first NPCs you bring onto your land. You’ll want to be well-established before draining the coffers. Especially becauseanimals need to eat your crops, so they will be eating your profits for a while before helping add to them.
