Community

Community rules and fair play on Haven Collective, explained

Every Haven Collective server shares one set of general rules, and each game adds a short list of its own. The full wording lives on the rules page. This article is the companion to it: it explains why each rule exists, what it looks like in practice, and what to do when you think someone has broken one.

The rules are short on purpose, and they apply the same way to everybody, including staff and people who have bought a rank. A rank gives you resources and convenience. It never gives you protection, staff favour or immunity from the rules.

The general rules, and why they matter

Play fair

No cheating. No hacks, scripts, macros or other third-party software that gives you an advantage.
No exploiting bugs. If you find one, report it in a ticket rather than using it.
No ban evasion, such as playing on another account while banned.

These matter because a game server is only fun when results are earned. One player with a wallhack or an item-duplication trick ruins a wipe for everyone else and drives people away. Reporting a bug instead of using it helps us fix it before someone less honest finds it.

Treat people properly

No harassment and no hate speech, in game or in our Discord.
No advertising other servers or communities.
No real-money trading. Selling or trading a rank, account or in-game items for money is not allowed.

Trash talk after a fight is part of competitive games. Following someone across servers, targeting them for who they are, or using slurs is not. If you would not say it to someone's face in a room full of people, do not type it.

Your account

You are responsible for everything done on your Steam account on our servers, including by friends or family you share it with.
Purchases are tied to the account that bought them and cannot be transferred.
A chargeback or payment dispute raised without contacting us first means a permanent ban. If something has gone wrong with an order, open a ticket and we will sort it.

Rust PvP and Console: quads maximum, no allies

On Rust PvP and Rust Console, groups are capped at four: solo, duo, trio or quad. This is the rule that defines those servers.

Why four?

On a server without a limit, the biggest group decides how the wipe goes. A clan of ten or fifteen takes the best spots, raids everybody, and by the second day the solos and duos have stopped logging in. Four is enough to split the work between farming, building, roaming and watching the base, and still small enough that a good duo can win a fight against a quad. Our news post Why Haven caps groups at four goes into more detail.

What counts as a group

The limit is about how you play, not about the team button. If you fight, farm or raid with another group, you count as one group, whether you are teamed in game or not. In practice that rules out:

Shared bases between groups.
"Neutral" groups that happen to help each other in every fight.
Calling targets for another group.

Being friendly is fine. Waving at the people next door and leaving each other alone is normal Rust. The line is crossed when two groups start working together.

PvE servers: sharing the world

On Rust PvE, Palworld and 7 Days to Die, there is no fighting between players, so the rules are about respecting other people's space and work.

Rust PvE

Do not damage, trap or kill other players, their bases or their deployables.
Raidable bases are first come, first served. If someone is already raiding one, find another.
Do not block monuments or roads.

Palworld

Co-op only: no griefing other players or their Pals.
Leave room around other bases, and keep boss arenas and fast travel points clear.
Other players' chests, Pals and crops are theirs.
No duplication or other exploits.

7 Days to Die

Co-op only: do not kill, trap or grief other players.
Do not build in, wall off or block traders or shared points of interest.
Other players' land claims, storage and vehicles are theirs.
Do not lead a blood moon horde to someone else's base.

A shared world only works if everyone can use the shared parts. A trader walled off by one player, or a fast travel point buried under someone's base, makes the game worse for everybody who comes after.

Seeing a rule broken: how to report it

If you think someone is breaking a rule, open a support ticket rather than arguing in chat or sending a staff member a direct message. Tickets keep a record, the whole team can see them, and you get a reference code to follow up.

What to include

Which server.
When it happened, as accurately as you can.
Who was involved: their in-game name or Steam ID.
Evidence: a clip or screenshot if you have one.

Evidence helps more than anything else. A ten-second clip settles questions that a long description cannot. Most games and platforms have a built-in way to save the last few minutes of gameplay, so it is worth switching that on.

What not to do

Do not take revenge by breaking the rules yourself.
Do not name and shame people in public channels. Let staff handle it.
Do not flood staff with repeated messages. One clear ticket is faster than ten DMs.

If you are banned

Our staff decide what counts as a breach, and their decision is final. If you believe a ban was a mistake, appeal through a support ticket, so there is a record. Explain calmly what happened and include anything that helps. Arguing in chat will not speed it up. A ban also means losing access to anything bought for that account, as set out in our Terms of Service.

When rules change

Rules sometimes need updating as games change or new situations come up. When they do, we announce it in our Discord and update the rules page. Questions about a rule are always welcome in Discord. It is far better to ask first than to guess wrong.

The short version

Play fair, treat people properly, respect the group limit on PvP, share the world on PvE, and report problems with evidence through a ticket. Do that and you will never have to think about the rules again.

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