If you are fond of relaxing games then there’s no game better than Rusty’s Retirement. You can sit back, relax, and watch Rusty and his robots manage your virtual farm.
Multitaskers, this game is for you as this idle game sits right at the bottom or right side of your computer screen while you focus on other tasks. Follow our guide and a few tips if you have just started playing!
Choosing Terrain and Layout
Begin the game by selecting a farm (terrain) and layout. You can only select the “Open Range” terrain in the beginning. Other terrains will be locked. You can unlock them as you progress. There are five farms or terrains in Rusty’s Retirement:
1. Open Range: Clear wasteland to reveal open grass plains.
2. Flower Swamp: Build in between flowing ponds and rivers.
3. Sandy Desert: Crops dry out if left unattended.
4. Blossom Forest: Build your farm in between blossoming cherry trees
5. Desert Oasis: A dry landscape with pools of water.
After selecting the farm, you can choose a horizontal or vertical layout. If you choose horizontal, the game will be tucked neatly at the bottom of your PC screen. Choosing “Vertical” will make the game sit at the side of the screen.
You can choose any layout of your liking, I prefer the vertical layout. I can focus on my work, and write/edit documents as the docs sit on one side of the screen and the game sits on the other side of the screen.
Click on “Create” after selecting the layout.
Getting Started with Farming
In this basic guide, we will learn more about growing and harvesting crops:
After selecting the layout, the screen displays Rusty’s cute little home on your new farm, a “Crop Patch” for growing crops, a water well, and a biofuel converter. More about the converter later.
To grow veggies and cereals on the patch of land, click on a crop under the “Crops Storage” tab. An info screen will be displayed on the right side of the crop icon.
In the below screenshot, info about Carrot shows how much water it needs and how much spare parts and biofuel it produces:
The tiny info screen shows important stats, such as the amount of spare parts a crop produces after harvesting, the amount of water it needs to grow, and the time it takes to grow. Crops also produce biofuel. As you progress, you will unlock more of them.
Below the crop icon, you will see how many spare parts you need to plant it. For Radish, it’s 1 spare part. You will spend 1 spare part each time you sow Radish seeds on the crop patch. Note that the info screen shows the amount of spare parts you will earn after harvesting, but the spare parts shown below the crop icon are the ones you will need to plant a crop.
When you click on a crop, white gridlines appear on the patch of land. All you need to do is click on the small boxes to plant your crops. You will use spare parts each time you plant a crop.
Once you have finished planting a crop, right-click anywhere on the game screen before selecting another crop.
After planting crops, Rusty will start watering and harvesting them. When he harvests, you earn spare parts. Some crops also produce biofuel along with spares, but you will need a converter for that.
As you progress, you will unlock new crops. Hovering your mouse cursor over a locked crop reveals unlocking requirements. Take the example of Leek – It can be unlocked once you have harvested 4 wheat and 4 radishes. A new crop’s name is revealed only when you have unlocked it.
You can purchase a new crop patch. Click on the “Buildings” tab next to the “Crops Storage” tab at the bottom of the game screen. As of writing this guide, the largest patch is the 4×4 plot whereas the smallest one is a tiny plant plot. Spend spare parts to purchase crop patches. Click on a patch to purchase it and then click on the empty farmland to place it.
Biofuel and Spare Parts
There are two important resources in Rusty’s Retirement: Spare Parts and Biofuel. The amount of resources you currently have is displayed in the lower-left corner of the game screen. Hover your mouse cursor over each resource to know their names.
Spare parts are used to purchase crops, crop patches, watering/harvesting bots, storage units, water wells, benches, etc. They are also used to purchase special houses and exp[and your farm.
You earn spare parts:
– After harvesting crops.
– Click the golden gear on Rusty’s home roof to earn spare parts manually.
– Trade biofuel with spare parts.
Biofuel is used to purchase harvesters/watering bots, biofuel converters, special houses, and water wells.
How to Produce Biofuel
Of the two in-game resources in Rusty’s Retirement, biofuel is harder to produce. You will need a biofuel converter and three different types of crop.
You will find a biofuel converter on the right side of Rusty’s house. You can purchase another but spending 45 biofuel and 700 spare parts to buy one won’t be easy in the beginning. Start with the first converter and accumulate enough biofuel to purchase the second one. To begin the production, follow these steps:
1. Grow three different types of crops – start with wheat, radish, and cabbage.
2. Whenever Rusty harvests a new crop, it places the first crop in the empty slot of the converter. Each time, a new crop is grown, Rusty will place it on the converter.
3. Once all three different crops are placed on the three slots of the converter, it starts producing biofuel. All three crops will be used to produce biofuel. The converter starts rotating. You get biofuel when the green gauge in the middle of the converter is full.
4. Biofuel production continues as Rusty brings the same three crops from the storage house and places the same on the converter. He will also place a new variety of crops on the converter when he harvests a new crop for the first time.
Increase Biofuel Production
To increase biofuel production, you can:
– Grow different varieties of crops.
– Invest in another converter
– Purchase a biofuel bot
Except for wheat, other crops help produce some biofuel. Click on a crop under the Crops Storage tab to open the tiny info window to determine how much biofuel it produces when processed in the converter.
When a new crop is harvested for the first time, Rusty will pick it up and place it on the converter, so you should always grow different varieties of crops on crop patches.
To acquire plenty of biofuel at once, invest your hard-earned biofuel and spare parts in another converter. You can purchase one from the buildings tab. Two converters will keep Rusty busy as he will keep placing 6 varieties of crops on empty slots to produce biofuel regularly.
You will need 45 biofuels and 700 spare parts to purchase a converter.
Having a biofuel bot is the best way to speed up production. Rusty can slowly pick up crops and carry them to a converter. While Rusty is busy with other work, this bot will always make sure the converters are filled with crops for an uninterrupted supply of biofuel. Purchase it when you have more than one converter.
Since Rusty’s Retirement is an idle game, there are some nifty ways to automate tasks, such as watering plants and harvesting them. We will discuss that in the next sections.
Build Robots ASAP
Robots automate tasks, such as watering and harvesting crops. Once you have more than one crop patch and plenty of crop varieties, they will be a necessity as Rusty is not that fast in managing his farm.
You can find robots in the buildings tab. There are three types of robots:
1. Water Robot ( needs 8 biofuel and 140 spare parts): Collects water from nearby wells and water crops. The water bot needs to be filled with water from time to time, so make sure you have more than one well to speed up the automated watering of crops.
2. Harvest Robot (3 biofuel and 160 spares ): Harvests crops and carries them to storage units
3. Biofuel Robot (Needs 5 biofuel and 310 spare parts): Carries crops to biofuel converters. The best time to have this is when you have more than one converter.
Drop your robots keeping their range in mind. The white circle that appears before placing a bot shows its range. Make sure you have more than one crop patch within the white circle so that the bot automates tasks for both of them.
Note: All robots will need biofuel to refill their batteries.
Have an Extra Storage Unit
It’s always good to have another storage unit for easy storage and access to crops. While Rusty always stores crops in his small home, you can build a separate unit to store them. Click on the buildings tab at the bottom of the screen and buy the storage unit. You will need 15 biofuel and 330 spare parts to build it.
Build a Second Water Well
As soon as you build more crop patches, you will need a second water well to speed up watering. The water bot needs to fill up water at regular intervals, which is why having more than one well serves the purpose.
– build two water bots and have two wells to speed up watering the crops.
How to Move Buildings
To manage space, you can move buildings from one place to another:
1. Click on the buildings tab. It’s the second tab next to the crops storage tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. Click on this icon as shown in the screenshot below:
3. Now click on the building you want to move. Next, click on the empty area where you want to move that building. You can also move crop patches in this way. You can also watch our video walkthrough above to know how to move buildings from one place to another.
