Let me share a few insights about DD (DeepDesert, Deep Desert). Not everything may be applicable to your server, but these are proven and effective tips.

Be prepared to lose all your inventory and ornithopter. Deposit all your weapons and gear.

Then put on the Radiation Suit MK5/Mk6 and take the following: Compactor, Cutteray, Decaliterjon with water, transport replicator with an ornithopter (2-wing scout), Full Suspensor Belt, Holtzman shield, 3–4 large vehicle fuel cell, 500 welding wire, Welding Torch, and 20 healkits.

The radiation suit provides some bullet resistance and offers slight protection against heat.

Also, assign Bindu Sprint to C/X/Q — whichever keybind is most convenient for you.

Learn to take off vertically in the Assault Ornithopter: activate the booster (Q), enter drift mode (Shift), then press S to raise the nose. It might seem obvious, but I didn't immediately realize that in glide mode, you can control the pitch using W and S.

Figure out the exact nose angle (pitch) relative to the ground at which the MK6 wings fly at 163–166 km/h, when they slow down to 140 km/h, and when they reach 175 km/h.

Learn to instantly adjust to the desired angle.

When farming titanium or stravidium in PVP, always position your Assault Orni so that the nose is clear of obstacles and can take off freely. Most of the time, you’ll be exiting from the rear of the ship, so land near the resource node with the node behind your tail and the nose pointing into open space.

Always activate your shield. Yes, it will drop when you turn on the Cutteray, but it should have time to recharge while you're running back to your ship.

Carry 4 large fuel canisters with you. Do not approach the island with engine temperatures close to overheating—if there’s an enemy clan already there, you won’t be able to escape quickly.

In this game, a huge advantage goes to the player who spots the enemy first. Therefore, always keep an eye on the sky. Don’t be greedy—never stray more than 20–30 meters from your ship.

If you’re lucky enough to spot an enemy ornithopter, drop everything and run straight to your aircraft. Take off vertically or along a steep trajectory up to 840 meters. Overheating begins at 760 meters; once overheated, you cannot fire rockets. This means you’re unable to launch missiles at that altitude.

Break away from the enemy toward a safe zone (feel free to take a detour), gliding down from 850 to 720 meters. As you approach 720 meters, your overheating will end — activate the booster and climb back up to 800+ meters.

Skilled opponents will attempt to glide while losing altitude, raise their nose, and fire a rocket salvo at you, usually aiming for the landing gear (which has the highest HP), not the wings. They might even try jumping out of their ship and firing at you using the "The ancient Way" — the MK6 homing rocket launcher (dealing 920 damage), leaving you with 30–35% health on the affected part. But this is a one-time move.

If the enemy isn’t a beginner in aerial combat, they’ll quickly realize you know the golden rule: "It's easy to trade altitude for speed, but not the other way around."

And they’ll most likely decide not to pursue you for long.

If the damage is severe and you realize you can’t gain altitude — accept it. You’ve lost your copter. Next time, keep looking around more often and don’t let your guard down.

As soon as your copter crashes — immediately exit it. If there are nearby rocks or cliffs, sprint toward them. If not — face your fate.

Respawn at base, press N — and if you weren’t killed by a rocket from an aircraft, the killer’s nickname will appear in the log.

Message them or type in general chat:
"Guys, you got me in G3 sector — gg. Second day in the desert, had no idea it’s this intense out here. Is my copter destroyed?"

If the players aren’t from an enemy faction, there’s a tiny chance they might compensate for your loss somehow. For example, once I gifted an Assault Orni to a poor guy who didn’t even know ornithopters could be painted in faction colors.

Most importantly — don’t whine or trash-talk in chat.
Everyone respects those who simply type "gg" after defeat. Everyone gets annoyed when someone starts yelling about "fair/unfair PVP", cursing, and acting toxic. (Trash talk means offensive, emotional spam with no constructive purpose.)

If You Survived After Crashing

Congratulations — you’re dealing with genuine griefers on your server. They enjoy your suffering. The worse you feel, the more they laugh. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about it.

In this case:

• Sprint away from your wrecked copter and from enemies.
  
• At the end of your sprint, jump and activate your power belt to fly upward — you can even reach 800 meters this way.
  
• The main goal is to create distance. 400 meters should be enough.
  
• Once you land, pull out your spare ornithopter from your pocket and take off using the booster — 180/212 km/h. Good luck to them trying to catch up.

But never try to deploy your copter near the destroyed one — you’ll lose both aircraft.

Of course, you could choose not to do any of this and just stay and see what happens — after all, all you’ve got now is a rad-suit, a Cutteray, and a Compactor.

Even if someone waves their wings at you and shouts, "Friend, all good!" — don’t let your guard down.

On our server, there were guys who used this exact trick:
A white attack aircraft approaches the island, waves its wings — "friend, all clear!"
It lands and farms 2–3 nodes.
Then, suddenly, "his friends" drop down on you from above and destroy your ornithopter.

Later, instead of friends, they started using a transport ship that would pick up your copter and carry it into a PVP hangar, where they’d use a laser cutter to dismantle the storage compartment and steal your resources.

The entire server hated them, but they’d just write: "Dudes, we’re rusters — you don’t understand fun. It’s just how things are done in Rust."

Eventually, the trick with the transport ship got patched, and I haven’t seen them around for a long time.

How else do these scumbags operate?
He waves at you with his wings, lands off to the side, pretends to farm, waits until your shields drop (you do remember to keep them active while mining titanium/stravide, right?), then pulls out a rifle and headshots you ), slices open your copter’s storage with a laser, and steals your resources.

A total bastard? Absolutely.
In this case, having placed a respawn beacon on the island might save you.
Find his nickname via N, send him "GG" in chat, and ask if you can retrieve your copter. Most likely, there won’t be any issues.

Or, if he’s a full-blown griefer, he’ll kill you again and try to push your ornithopter onto the sand, then destroy it with a worm using a decoy or an active pentashield.

(They get joy from your suffering — there’s nothing you can do about it.)

This one’s much riskier. Learn how to pile sand efficiently to maximize yield from a single spot: place piles about three meters apart, make 6–12 piles per cluster, and always loot thoroughly. The tricky part is your camera faces downward, so you’ll have to constantly reorient yourself. As always, the player who spots the enemy first gains the upper hand.

From a medium-sized spice field, you can typically get enough sand for two full Assault Orni loads. On a large field, if more than four aircraft are present, the chances of attracting Shai-Hulud increase dramatically. With seven aircraft farming, he’ll appear after just two takeoffs. When Shai-Hulud arrives, the ground starts shaking, and the worm indicator stays active even at 600 meters. Regular sandworms can sometimes emerge as high as 450 meters, so always stay above 500+.

Master the boosted vertical climb: use the booster (Q) while pressing S to raise the nose into a loop, climbing up to 600 meters. Once at altitude, scan the area, then dive down using CTRL+WASD — this gives you a descent speed of around 250 km/h.

Spice farming is always high-risk. You can keep your shield active, but that forces you to make many trips, constantly aggroing worms. That’s why most players farm spice with shields off, using only densifiers. Any "friendly" player nearby might still shoot you in the head with a rifle xD. But there’s no alternative — this is the way.

Land your ornithopter and build your piles along the left or right side of the craft. This keeps you within one step of the cockpit, giving you a chance to jump in if rockets start flying. After harvesting one side, move your aircraft and repeat the process. (I hope you’re using the same loadout I described earlier for titanium and stravidium)

If you approach a large spice field and see a crawler already active, turn around immediately. You’re not welcome — especially not with just a Compactor. They might let you get close and then simply kill you, or, if they’re decent, just fire a warning rocket salvo to make you come back later ). Think about it: "The longer the crawler digs without attracting a worm, the better." With your Compactor, you’ll summon a worm in about 20 piles, forcing them to lift the crawler. That’s why you’re not wanted.

If you fly toward a large field and hear or see worms constantly emerging at 500–900 meters, that means a skilled, well-organized clan is farming. Two of their members are actively distracting the worm while the crawler mines non-stop. Just turn around — on such a field, all you’ll get is trouble.

Right after server restart, all spice fields spawn at once, and there are far more than non-sleepers can handle at 6:10 AM. This is the best time to farm — no competition, plenty of fields. But be careful: once you’ve gathered tons of resources from DD, you might realize… there’s actually nothing meaningful to do with them in this game.

Once again, it all comes down to the golden rule: "The one who spots the enemy first — has the advantage."

Unfortunately, you need a friend. A friend hovers at 550 meters and looks in all directions while you farm. If he sees any threat, he immediately informs you, you get into your copter and take off.
When it was full of resources, you simply switch: he keeps watch, and you farm. It takes longer than if you both farmed together, but it minimizes risks.

We farmed spice like this in pairs, even when those Rust-players were "fishing" with a transport ship.

I didn't cover the "on guts" approaches because this guide is for beginners.

Naturally, if you've been playing DD for a long time and you enjoy PVP, then upon spotting an enemy scout copter, you'd immediately fire at it with the "The Ancient Way" (MK6 homing launcher), pull out your own armed copter from your pocket, and engage however you see fit. Who will shoot down whom, whose friends arrive first — all of that is exciting too.

But I tried to write only what helped me when we played in pairs.

After building your base over any titanium node, look for a large clan.

Settle near a big clan. If you’re lucky enough to claim a titanium node, great. When one of them is at their base, go up to their roof, get their attention, and drop a full decaliter flask of water. Type in local chat: "Hey bro, I'm your neighbor, cool base — this is a gift from me." If they’re Russian, just write in Russian: "Бро, крутая база, держи подарок от меня."

You might think this is silly, but here’s how it works: a clan of 8 people remembers the names of all nearby neighbors, because it’s important to know — is this some spy from a 12-man enemy guild, or just a regular solo player? By making this move with a gift, they’ll remember you as "that kind neighbor," and might even help you out with something later. Because in this game, you don’t actually need a lot of resources — there’s simply nothing to spend them on.