ROB RUN hit Steam Early Access on November 4, and it’s free to play. You can rob Looty Bay as a criminal, hunt criminals as a cop, or build a base and play the long game. The cops and crooks are real players, and a lot of them want your loot. On top of that, your cash, weapons, and base get wiped every seven days. This ROB RUN guide covers what to do first and how to avoid losing it all.
The guide below is written based on the Early Access version and may change with full release. Check again later for updates.
What You’ll Read:
How the Weekly Wipe (Federal Raid) Works
Every seven days, the Federal Raid wipes your plots, bases, weapons, and cash. Sounds brutal, and it is. But the wipe also turns everything you owned into jail time and authority, which is your real progress. Richer players get more jail time. The goal is to restart the fight for power on a level field.
Here’s what goes and what stays:
| Wiped | Kept |
|---|---|
| Plots and bases | Cosmetics |
| Weapons | Player name |
| Cash | Tutorial progress |
| Settings | |
| Accumulated jail time |
Jail time is a progression stat, not a real-life timer, so check your server in-game.
What to Do After the Intro Quests
Once you finish the intro quests, nobody tells you where to go. You have five directions: heists, cargo transport, base production, police duty, and territory fighting. There’s no compulsory path. They just carry very different risks. Heists are the riskiest, since a Criminal who dies in Looty Bay loses their inventory. Cops only lose department-issued gear, and their personal stuff stays safe.
Before you pick, visit Lenny at his Motel. The developer recommends him as your contact for learning the core mechanics.
How to Get Weapons
You can find a gun or buy one. Weapons drop as loot around the city, and Kefir added more starter weapon spawns at launch. The other route is the Black Market. You can buy from Lenny directly or use the laptop at your base.
The November 4 changes made basic pistols cheaper, which helps if you keep dying. Don’t expect a free gun at every respawn, though.
What Happens When You Die
Your penalty depends on where you die and what role you’re playing. There’s no single rule. Here’s how it works:
| Situation | What you lose |
|---|---|
| Criminal in Looty Bay | Inventory |
| Civilian in the city | Nothing. You keep your bag contents and equipped gear |
| Police Officer in the city | Department-issued equipment only |
| Anyone in the desert | All loot |
The desert rule overrides role protection, so being a Civilian or a cop won’t save you out there.
Surrender vs. Bribe
If the cops catch you in Looty Bay, you can surrender. They confiscate your bag, but you keep your equipped gear. A bribe is the better deal. If the officer accepts, you keep everything in the bag and they get paid. You need money in the bank for it, though, and the officer can still say no.
How to Pull Off Heists in Looty Bay
Heists are the high-risk, high-reward route. Scout the target and your escape route before you do anything else. Unmasked players can look around freely, so use that.
Masks and Criminal Status
Putting on a mask lets you rob places in Looty Bay. It also makes you a target for cops and other Criminals. If you die, everything in your bag is gone. Taking the mask off doesn’t clear your status. You have to leave the city, then pick your role again next visit. Keep employees under gunpoint so they can’t trigger the alarm. In a team, split the jobs: one enters, one hauls loot, one covers.
Notoriety
Chain heists in one city visit, and your Notoriety goes up. Higher Notoriety means better fence deals and extra perks. Solo players and duos start with higher Notoriety, so they can compete with police squads.
How to Become a Police
Head to the Looty Bay Police Station and enlist. You can only join when there’s an open slot, so you may have to wait. Recruits get standard equipment and a patrol vehicle. A higher badge level unlocks better gear. Cops earn from police work and confiscated contraband, or answer a backup request when police numbers run low, for upgraded equipment and a temporary pay bonus. You can learn everything about this route in our ROB RUN cop guide.
How to Make Money and Launder Cash
You can earn from heists, cargo runs, base production, police work, and taxes. But carried cash can be stolen or confiscated, so you’ll want to launder it into a bank account. Banked money is safe from theft until the next wipe. We break down every income route and the full laundering process in our ROB RUN money guide.
How to Sell Loot
Look for the dollar-sign van marker in Looty Bay. That’s a fence, and it buys your valuables. You can also sell at the Sales Center.
Here’s the part that will probably annoy you: the sale doesn’t pay you automatically. You have to collect the cash from the counter. Walk away, and it sits there loose, where anyone can steal it, or the cops can confiscate it. Once you grab it, it goes in your bag and stays at risk until you bank it.
How to Get a Car (and a Helicopter)
If you don’t have an active vehicle, grab a free rental from the nearest Parking Terminal. It’s your safety net when you lose your ride.
To buy your own car, you need a plot with a house or garage. The key goes in your key locker. Vehicle modules boost performance, and depending on the part, you install them under the hood, in the trunk, or on the underbody. A helicopter needs a base in the central district. You can also get lucky and find one in loot.
You can steal from cars too. A lockpick from the Black Market opens another player’s trunk, police cars included. It only gets you the trunk contents, not the car.
How to Rent a Plot and Build a Base
You can only build a base in a settlement that has an owner. Find a vacant plot and interact with the rental sign next to it.
Since the November 4 patch, Tier 1 settlements and rentals cost documents instead of cash. Plots in level 2 and 3 districts need special Black Market documents.
Stolen goods belong in your base, since Lenny only stores cash. That also means other players can raid them. Your base is also where the Laundering Desk lives.
Want passive income? Buy a settlement with rentable plots, and you get a share of tenant spending and laundering. You have to collect it in person, and the cash you carry away isn’t safe.
Press H for the Shipments tab (desert, Lenny’s Motel, Looty Bay). Some unlocks need a base in a settlement of the required level. Others need jail time.
How to Protect and Raid Bases
You need to protect your base or raid other players’ bases. Here’s how:
Protecting Your Base
Install fuses in your Security System. They make an attacker spend more time and resources to break in. Defense modules can also alert your allies when someone is attacking. This slows raiders down but doesn’t make you immune.
Raiding Another Base
You need a decoder. Use it on another player’s Security System, and you get temporary access to the building. Pick your target first and loot fast, because the window is short. The owner can repair the system and lock you out again. Stronger fuses make the hack take longer.
Decoders are rare and not sold in regular shops. The launch patch let them stack higher, though.
How to Join or Create a Clan
Open the Clan tab in the side menu to join or start one. Creating a clan requires laundered money in your bank account, so you need to bank some cash first.
Clan members work together to capture desert districts and city businesses. A clan that controls a district gets a share of settlement owner taxes. The clan holding the central Highlands gets the best laundering terms, and only one exists per world.
The old 100-member cap isn’t confirmed either. Kefir also doesn’t say whether clan membership survives the wipe, so don’t count on it.
Cop or crook, which side are you picking? Tell me in the comments.
