Private and PvE Rust servers: how to set them up.

Yes, but not the way most games do it. Rust Dedicated Server has no server password and no option to hide a server from the browser. Every server that is online and reachable is listed, and anyone can try to join. A private server is one that rejects everyone who is not on a whitelist, which needs a plugin, which in turn needs Oxide or Carbon installed.

That has one side effect worth knowing before you start: a whitelisted server sits in the Modded tab, because the framework is installed, even if the whitelist is the only plugin on it.

Two other partial options exist. Running on your own PC and only telling friends the IP keeps strangers away until someone finds it in the browser, which usually takes a day. Setting server.maxplayers to exactly the size of your group and filling it stops anyone else getting in, but also stops any of you rejoining after a crash until the slots free. Neither is a substitute for a whitelist.

1. Install Oxide or Carbon. On RSH panel hosting it is one click; the manual route is in the plugins guide.
2. Install the Whitelist plugin from uMod (drop it in oxide/plugins or install it from the panel's plugin browser).
3. Grant the whitelist permission to each friend by SteamID64:

oxide.grant user 76561198000000000 whitelist.allow
oxide.grant user 76561198000000001 whitelist.allow

Everyone without the permission is kicked on connect with a message you can edit in the plugin's config. For a bigger group, put the players in a group and grant the group:

oxide.group add friends
oxide.usergroup add 76561198000000000 friends
oxide.grant group friends whitelist.allow

Admins and moderators set with ownerid and moderatorid are not exempt automatically on every version of the plugin, so grant yourself the permission too. The admin commands guide covers the ownerid side.

The simplest PvE server is one convar. In the server console:

server.pve true
server.writecfg

With server.pve on, players cannot damage other players. That is all it does. NPCs, animals, radiation and fall damage still hurt, and players can still raid each other's bases, because explosives damaging a wall is not player-versus-player damage. Many owners are surprised by this on their first PvE wipe.

For a casual friends server, vanilla server.pve is often enough. For a public PvE server where "no raiding" has to actually mean no raiding, you need TruePVE.

TruePVE is the standard PvE rule plugin on uMod. Instead of one on/off switch it lets you decide, per entity type, who can damage what. The default rule set when you install it already does what most PvE servers want:

• Players cannot damage players.
• Players cannot damage buildings or deployables they are not authorised on, so raiding is off.
• Players can still fight NPCs, animals, heli and Bradley, and loot everything.
• Decay, fire and radiation behave normally.

Leave server.pve set to false when you run TruePVE; the plugin handles damage itself, and the vanilla flag can interfere with its rules and with Bradley and heli damage. If you want PvP in specific areas, pair it with Zone Manager and give those zones a PvP rule set, which is how "PvE with PvP monuments" servers are built.

Population on PvE servers is usually driven by content rather than conflict, which is why Raidable Bases (paid, Codefling) is so common alongside TruePVE: it spawns AI-defended bases that players can raid without raiding each other.

None of these are required, but they are the ones private and PvE owners change most. All are vanilla convars, so they do not add a plugin.

Set a monthly wipe that follows the force wipe and nothing more frequent; private and PvE groups keep bases for the whole cycle and rarely want a weekly reset.

A private server for a handful of friends is the one case where hosting on your own PC can work, as long as one of you is happy to leave a machine on. The moment you want it available when that person is not, or want the base to survive a power cut, a small rented server is the answer. A 50-player panel plan at £7.50 a month is more than a private group needs and comes with the one-click Oxide install the whitelist depends on, wipe scheduling for the monthly reset, and DDoS protection so a disgruntled ex-friend cannot take it offline.

PvE public servers with Raidable Bases, Zone Manager and a full plugin stack are heavier; size them like a modded PvP server of the same population, which is covered in how to host a Rust server.