RUST BUSTERS · Co-op Arcade Shooter

What is it?

Scrap a robot legion in a 3D arcade shooter. Tap to shoot, roll to dodge and topple watchtowers, bunkers and fuel drums across five stages and five bosses, from a jungle outpost to the legion's fortress. Send a friend a link and they drop in beside you, even mid-fight, for 2-player co-op.

RUST BUSTERS is a 3D arcade gallery shooter in five stages — Jungle Outpost, Downtown Avenue, Container Harbor, Red Canyon Base and Legion Fortress — each made of two battle areas and a boss area. Your commando stays on a cover line 8 m wide at the bottom of the screen and only moves left and right, while you aim anywhere on the field with the mouse, a finger or the right stick. The enemy is a runaway robot legion, not people, and nothing bleeds.

Two arcade habits shape every fight. As in CABAL, you roll along the line to dodge, scenery breaks apart, and an ENEMY gauge must be emptied before the next area opens. As in Virtua Cop, a ring closes over a robot about to fire, and civilians must not be shot. Here a closed ring launches a visible plasma bolt you can still step away from, and grenades, shells, missiles, shockwaves and beams each draw their own warning.

A friend joins with a link or a four-character room code, even in the middle of a fight, and more robots arrive the moment they do.

How to play

1. Shoot wherever you click or tap. Hold to keep firing; the pistol reloads every 12 rounds.
2. A ring over a robot means it is aiming. Drop it before the ring closes, or step aside as the shot flies in.
3. You can't be hit mid-roll. Get out of red circles on the ground (grenades, shells) and roll right as a shockwave or beam reaches you.
4. Crates, barrels and watchtowers break when shot, exposing hidden robots. Shoot dropped weapons, medkits and grenades to pick them up.
5. Don't shoot civilians — let them escape for points, and sometimes they drop a medkit or grenades as thanks. With a friend more robots appear, and a downed partner returns after 6 seconds.

Modes

Go solo

The five stages in order; clearing one unlocks the next and earns up to three stars. Solo can be paused, and if you go down you may continue on the spot with full health, which caps that stage at one star.

Co-op with a friend

Two commandos on one line, blue 1P and orange 2P. The host can deploy alone on any of the five stages; the friend opens the invite link or enters the room code and appears beside them, even mid-fight. Co-op never pauses.

Controls

Good to know

• Robots are weak in the head; on bosses the yellow diamonds mark the weak spots. Weak-spot hits do more damage (double on small robots).
• You can shoot incoming grenades and missiles out of the air (Nice shot +200).
• Earn ★★★ by clearing without continues and taking 3 hits or fewer.

Strategy tips

Beat the ring

The ring over an aiming robot turns green, yellow, then red, and is drawn thicker when you are its target. It lasts 1.6 s on stage 1 and 1.01 s on stage 5. Each hit on an aiming robot pushes its shot back 0.22 s, twice at most (not tanks), and a robot dropped before the ring closes never fires.

Step out of the bolt

A bolt only hurts within 0.46 m of the point it was aimed at when fired. Robots aim where you would be 0.2 to 0.55 s later if you kept moving, so stop or turn back as the ring goes red; from a standstill the commando covers 0.92 m in about 0.27 s. Holding fire slows walking to 72%.

Red circles are exact

The red circle under a grenade, shell or missile is exactly the area that hurts, and its inner disc fills as the hit approaches. A tank drops one shell on you after 1.45 s and a second 1.9 m to one side after 1.75 s, so move away from both. Grenades and missiles can be shot down for NICE SHOT! and 200 points.

Roll into shockwaves

A shockwave covers the whole line, so it can only be rolled through. A roll is invincible from 0.03 to 0.42 s after you press, carries you about 3.2 m and can't be repeated for 0.78 s; you can't shoot while rolling. Press when the band is a few metres away.

Break props for the gauge

Destroyed props fill the ENEMY gauge too: 3 for a watchtower or bunker, 2 for a fuel tank, container or radio tower, 1 for a tent, car, van or generator. A turret on a falling tower or bunker dies with it and adds 2 more. Explosive barrels blow up over 3.4 m and set off props nearby.

Heads, then explosives

A weak spot takes double damage on small robots, so two pistol shots to the head drop a basic robot instead of three. The heavy robot takes only ×1.6 there and the tank ×1.2, but explosions hit tanks ×1.5, so keep grenades and launcher rounds for tanks.

Where the points are

Finishing an area without being hit pays 5,000. Kills less than 1.3 s apart build a combo worth ×1.2 from the third, ×1.5 from the fifth and ×2 from the seventh, and weak-spot kills pay ×1.5. A hit resets the combo, and shooting a civilian costs 1,000 points and a heart.

At a glance

Genre

Action & multiplayer

Players

1–2

Price

Free

Available languages

Korean · English · Japanese · Chinese · Spanish

Platform

Web browser (no install)

Developer notes

A shot you can see

In Virtua Cop a closed marker means you are hit. I kept the shrinking ring but made it launch a bolt with its own flight time, 17.5 m/s on stage 1 rising to 25.1 m/s on stage 5, so the ring is a warning you can answer by shooting, stepping or rolling. The number of robots aiming at once is capped, two alone on stage 1 and four on stage 5, so warnings do not pile up.

Built for a portrait phone

The camera looks down from behind the commando, as in CABAL. In portrait it follows you sideways by 62% (28% in landscape) so the whole line fits, and the vertical field of view, between 44° and 74°, keeps 6.4 m either side of the field 20 m ahead in view. A tap that hits nothing is moved to the nearest robot, item, or incoming grenade or missile within 34 px.

One rule set in two places

The same rules run at 30 Hz with a seeded random generator, in the browser for solo and on the server for co-op; a test plays one seed twice and checks the result is identical. In co-op each player's own screen decides what a shot hit, and the server checks only ammo, fire rate and that the target is alive. For a co-op game I chose responsive shooting over cheat-proofing.

Update history

• 2026-10-22RUST BUSTERS opens with five stages of three areas, five bosses, four weapons and hand grenades, breakable cover, civilians to protect and two-player co-op by link, with drop-in joining.

Questions and answers

Further reading

• RUST BUSTERS: The Ring, the Red Circle and the Roll