How to Check a Rust Account Before Buying

1. The ban record

A Steam profile shows two kinds of bans. VAC bans come from Valve Anti-Cheat: Steam says they are permanent, cannot be removed by Steam Support and stay on the account no matter who was using it. Game bans are issued by a game's developer through Steam and are displayed publicly on the profile.

Rust uses Easy Anti-Cheat. Facepunch, Rust's developer, says an EAC ban stops the account from playing Rust on EAC-secured servers, shows on the Steam profile as a game ban and is permanent unless it is overturned on review. An account with a Rust game ban on record is not an account you can play Rust on. A VAC ban from another game applies to the games it was issued for, but it still shows on the profile, and some community servers turn away accounts with recent bans.

2. Limited or not

Steam limits accounts that have not spent at least $5 USD in the Steam store. A limited account cannot send friend invites (it can still create quick invite codes), cannot use the Community Market or trade items, and its Steam level is locked at 0. Receiving a gift from someone else doesn't lift the limit, and neither does activating a retail key.

Rust is a team game, so a limited account is a real handicap. A quick check: a Steam level above 0 means the account is not limited, because limited accounts can't gain levels.

3. Rust hours, and what backs them

Hours are the first number Rust buyers look at, partly because community servers can check them. Server owners can install plugins that read a player's Steam profile and turn away accounts with too few Rust hours, VAC or game bans, a private profile or a limited account. Requirements differ from server to server, and many servers don't check at all.

Hours alone don't show how the account was played. Compare them with the kill and death stats Steam keeps for Rust: an account with 2,000 hours and a few thousand kills and deaths was played. An account with 9,000 hours and no kills or deaths at all either hides its stats or built its hours up with the game left running.

4. Skins and items

Rust skins live in the account's Steam inventory, and most of them have a price on the Steam Community Market. Prices move, so treat any total as a snapshot from the day it was read. Items without a Market price are ones that can't be sold there, which is common for Twitch drop rewards (the streamer-named skins); they stay on the account, but you can't sell them.

5. Steam Guard, the email and trade holds

Ask what you get for Steam Guard. Many Rust accounts come with a .maFile, the data file of a mobile authenticator used by apps such as Steam Desktop Authenticator. Whoever has that file can generate Steam Guard codes and confirm trades, so plan to move Steam Guard to your own phone after delivery.

Then the email. Steam sends password resets and codes to it, so the account is only yours once the contact email is yours. With Steam Guard you can change it yourself; see how to change your Steam email.

Expect a trading pause after the handover. Moving Steam Guard to your own phone (Move Authenticator in the Steam Mobile app) restricts trading and the Community Market for 2 days. Removing the authenticator instead blocks them for 15 days, and trades or Market listings created in the first 7 days after a new authenticator is added are held for 15 days. None of this affects playing Rust.

The checklist at a glance

Check	Where to see it	Red flag
VAC and game bans	The Steam profile ("ban on record")	Any game ban; a recent VAC ban
Limited account	Steam level, friend invites	Level 0, no friend invites
Rust hours	The profile's game list, when it is public	Very high hours with no kills or deaths
Kills and deaths	Steam's stats for Rust	Stats that don't fit the hours
Skins	The Steam inventory and Market prices	A big total with no item list
Steam Guard and email	What the seller hands over	No way to change the email or the authenticator
Origin	The seller's description	Cheap high-hour accounts from unknown sources

What a Rust listing on BuyAccount shows

Each Rust listing shows the Rust hours, kills and deaths when Steam reports them, the Rust skins with their Steam Community Market prices (read when the listing was published), the Steam level, the registration date, the other games played on the account with their hours, the account country, Community Market access and any temporary trade hold.

Listed accounts have no VAC ban and no game ban on record, are not limited and have no community or trade ban. We don't list accounts taken through brute force, phishing or malware, or accounts recovered through support. Each one comes with its Steam login and password plus the Steam Guard .maFile, payment is held until you confirm the account works, and every order has 14-day buyer protection. See our buyer protection page and how it works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do the hours stay with the account?

Yes. Steam keeps playtime and game stats on the account itself, so the hours, kills and deaths come with it.

Is a CS2 VAC ban a problem for Rust?

It doesn't stop the account from playing Rust, because VAC bans apply to the games they were issued for. It does stay visible on the profile, and servers that check ban records may refuse the account.

Can a game ban be removed later?

Facepunch says EAC bans are permanent unless they are overturned on review, and a change of owner doesn't change that. Don't buy a Rust account with a game ban on record.

Compare accounts by hours, kills and skins on our Rust accounts page. If something goes wrong after you buy, our guide to Steam account recovery explains how Steam's recovery works.