ROB RUN beginner’s guide: your first gun, first heist and first plot

BeginnersNovember 9, 2026By robrungame.com

What should you do first in ROB RUN?

Find Lenny. The game’s opening sends you to Lenny’s Motel, a safe zone where nobody’s allowed a weapon, and Lenny shows you the ropes. He also lends you his laptop until you have a plot of your own. That laptop is the Black Market: it’s where you unlock shipments, the game’s word for research, and where you buy what you’ve unlocked.

Looty Bay is where the money is. Kefir’s Gameplay Overview says you only become a Criminal when you put on a mask, so you can walk the city first, look over a target and plan your way out. Each time you enter the city you can also choose to play a cop, and our cop guide covers how that pays.

Which server should you join?

A young one. Every server runs for 7 days (168 hours) from the moment it opens, then the Federal Raid confiscates everything and the server closes. Kefir plans to open at least one fresh server a day in each region, and the game’s schedule puts those openings at 17:00 UTC for EU and 01:00 UTC for East US. More open when the existing ones fill up, and each holds up to 7,000 players.

A new server is also the easiest place to start robbing. Kefir’s November 4 update says patrol cops on a fresh server only get pistols, and better police gear unlocks as the server gets older. Our wipe guide explains what the raid takes and what you keep.

How do you get your first gun?

Unlock the DP-9 Mk1. It’s free to research and costs 300 cash on the laptop, or 900 from a city trader in Looty Bay. Kefir’s November 4 update says the team chose not to hand out a pistol after every death and made weapons easier to find around the city instead, so you might pick one up for nothing.

The DP-9 Mk1 does 18 damage per bullet with a 14-round magazine. The two other guns that need no tier cost 15,000 cash to research. Time to down is up close against a player with no vest, every bullet hitting the body. The Harris 500 Mk1 is a shotgun, so its damage is per pellet and the last column counts pellet hits, since not every pellet in a shot lands.

Every other gun in the vendor tree needs a tier or jail time. The weapon stats sort all 46 variants by damage and price, and the fastest weapons breakdown ranks them by time to down.

Should you research gear or buy it from a city trader?

Research, for most gear. City traders in Looty Bay sell without any research, but every price is three times what the laptop charges. The laptop only sells what you’ve unlocked, and each unlock is a one-time cash cost. The table lists every unlock that needs no tier and that both of them sell, with the number of purchases it takes for the research to pay for itself. Seven of the ten pay off within three buys.

Three of them pay for themselves the first time you buy one, including the Light Body Armor. Cheap items are the exception. A Lockpick needs 26 buys, so if you only want a couple for your first job, the city trader is the cheaper way in. The shipment planner adds up any chain of unlocks for you.

Which heists can you pull without a key or drill?

Four of them. Most shops in Looty Bay keep their cash in a drillable safe, and the Mini Drill that opens those needs Tier 2: 100,000 cash of research after the Lockpick, then 18,000 on the laptop, and no city trader sells it. These jobs need neither:

Each one has two locked doors wired to the alarm. Breaking a door open takes 3 s and sets the alarm off, while a Lockpick opens it in the same 3 s without tripping it. The game only checks that you’re carrying a lockpick, and whether it gets used up isn’t in the data, so bring one per door to be safe. Searching each container takes 1.5 s. The Elite Cottage also has a small wall safe that opens by force or with a lockpick.

The loot column shows the most valuable item the game highlights at each place. Those lists don’t say how often anything shows up, and container contents are random. If you’re going in alone or as a pair, Kefir’s Help Center says solo players and duos start with a higher Notoriety level to help against police squads and full crews. Each job’s starter kit loads into the loadout builder, and the safes breakdown covers the jobs that open up once you have a drill.

How do you keep the money you make?

Launder it. Cash you carry can be lost to a robbery or an arrest, and an arrest takes your bag too. Open an account at the Looty Bay Bank, then load dirty cash onto a Laundering Desk. Laundered money sits in your account as credits nobody can steal until the next wipe. Lenny will launder for you at the motel, but the game says he takes a cut, and laundering at your own base skips it.

To sell what you steal, the game points you to the laptop at your base, and Fences buy valuables too. Our loot calculator totals a haul before you sell, and the bank account guide walks through laundering step by step.

When should you get a plot?

Once you have 160,000 cash. That covers the level 1 Land Plot Title, 50,000 to research and 100,000 on the laptop, and a Trailer to live in, free to research and 10,000 to buy. Kefir’s November 4 update says Tier 1 settlements and land rentals now cost documents instead of cash.

A plot gives you a laptop of your own and a place to launder without Lenny’s cut. Lenny says the Black Market catalog gets better once you have a plot, and a higher-level district unlocks the best of it. Only 12 of the 172 unlocks ask for no tier at all, and your tier follows the district your plot is in. The Tier 1 to Tier 3 breakdown covers that climb, and the base guide explains renting.

What carries over when your server wipes?

Your jail time. When the Federal Raid hits, the feds confiscate your plots, bases, weapons and cash and turn them into jail time and authority, and the more you held, the longer the sentence. Jail time follows you to your next server along with your cosmetics and player name, and it opens unlocks: 20 of the 172 in our data need it, starting with the AFAK at 5 years.

Surrendering to the feds at the Prison makes the same trade on the spot, and it’s how you move to another server. The server switching guide covers it.