Endless Mode (Rust Bucket)

Endless Mode is a game mode in Rust Bucket. It consists of a survival-based series of procedurally generated rooms that become harder as the player progresses.

Gamemode aesthetics

The rooms in Endless Mode appear very different from the rooms in the regular levels. The colour scheme is very reminiscent of the levels in Turnament with the use of mainly blue shades for the floor and the walls. Pits are also dark-blue coloured like in the original game. The scenery will also change as the player progresses.

Scenery	Score	Description
Architecture blocks	All	Consists of stone elements in the general color scheme and theme of the Endless Mode. These obstacles can be encountered at any score level, although less abundant than other scenery types.
Garden scenery	0-2	This scenery is encountered at the start of the game and consists of tree stumps, various bushes, flower beds and floor tiles that have branches and leaves on them.
Cave scenery	3-5	Consists mainly of brown rocks and rock piles, as well as minecarts filled with rocks. Some floor tiles may have rail tracks or flat rocks on them.
Factory scenery	6-8	One of the scenery types with the most sprites in Endless Mode. It is composed of various rusty factory elements, such as tan coloured gears, metal blocks and pipes. A few screws, crowbars and pipe wrenches can be seen on the ground.
Graveyard scenery	9-11	This scenery consists of mostly dark and grey-coloured elements, which include a variety of gravestones and tall dead leafless trees. Several bones and leaves can be seen on the floor tiles.
Castle scenery	12-14	This scenery is based on the castle levels, and has a general dark blue tone. It includes stone pedestals, some of them with golden candelabrum. Circular stone towers are also found, some with crenels and others with triangular roofs. Small slabs are also lying on the ground tiles.
Toxic scenery	15+	This is the last scenery type encountered thus far. It consists of brass-like elements similar to the factory scenery such as pipe pillars and barrels filled with bright green goo. It also includes some bright lime-coloured architecture blocks. Some goo can be seen on the ground with some manholes.

Level design

In Endless Mode, the player has to go from room to room to gain points. Rooms are procedurally generated, and each room contains some enemies, some pots as well as other interactive objects and hazards. All rooms always have a golden door and a wooden door, which both lead to another room. Golden doors will increase the player's score by one point, while wooden doors will not. New interactive objects, enemies, and hazards are introduced as the player's score increases. Although defeating all enemies in a room is not mandatory to complete it, it is recommended to do so, as the player can easily be overwhelmed by the incoming waves of enemies. Keeping some pots intact in a room can also be a good strategy, as the next room could start with an enemy like a skull.

A golden door

A wooden door

Each room usually contains between one and three coins found in the ground, hidden in a pots, or obtained by rescuing villagers, by opening treasure chests (which can sometimes be mimics) or by defeating specific enemies. There is no hard limit to the number of coins which can be found in a room, although high numbers of coins do not appear often. Most of the time, rooms that contains a statue enemy will contain at least one bomb to defeat it, although this can be untrue on rare occasions. Furthermore, interactive objects such as buttons and gates or keys and locks do not appear in Endless Mode.

Specific mechanics

Only two rooms can be loaded by the game at once. This means that if the player opens a door in a room, then opens the second door of the same room, the room that was generated after opening the first door will disappear.

An example of the first room in Endless Mode

An example of a room that disappeared by opening two doors in the same room

Movement area

• Enemies, villagers and green knights within a 4-tiles square radius around the player can move freely in any direction, but will not attempt to leave the area.
• Enemies and villagers in a 5-tiles square radius can only move if their next move allows them to enter the bright area. They cannot use this area for moving towards the player and enemies cannot be generated by brain monsters here. Green knights are unable to move in this zone.
• Enemies, villagers and green knights that are farther than 5 tiles away from the player are unable to move or attack each other, as if they were separated from the player and from one another.
• Hazards are unaffected by this mechanic and will always be active in a room.

Continue screen

Upon death, the player will be shown a Continue screen with multiple revival options. Reviving Rust Bucket will allow the player to continue from where they died. Upon revival, the bomb effect will be triggered around the player, hitting every enemy, villager, green knight and pot in a one-tile square radius. After reviving at least once or buying weapon, the score number will appear golden instead of red.
The player can either revive Rust Bucket by watching an advertisement or by paying with coins. The advert can only be watched once, after which the option will be locked if the player dies again. In the browser version, no advert is played, making this option a one-time free revival. This also applies to the mobile version if the player purchases the Remove Ads in-app purchase. The player can also pay 5 coins to be revived. If Rust Bucket dies again after that, the price will be increased to 10 coins, then increased and capped to 20 coins. The player can keep reviving as long as they have some coins left or buy more with coin in-app purchases.

The Continue screen on browser

The Continue screen on mobile

The Game Over screen on browser if the player does not have enough coins

The Game Over screen on mobile if the player does not have enough coins

Shops and weapons

Main article: Weapons (Rust Bucket)#Shops

In Endless Mode, shops can be encountered every four points the player collects. They will always contain three weapons the player can choose from, only one of which can be equipped at once (except for shields). Shops also serve as a safe spot the player can be in, thanks to the stealth ground preventing enemies from entering the shop. Opening the door to the next room will keep the current shop loaded, so the player can still use it. Weapons can also randomly be found for free inside chests. The player also keeps their weapon when reviving Rust Bucket after their death, although shields will drop on the ground and wooden shields will be destroyed when the player revives themselves.

Content introduced

Score	Scenery	Shops	Content introduced
0			Slimes • Pigs • Pots
1			Skulls • Crabs • Coins • Fire tiles
2			Armoured pig
3			Pig statues • Demons • Squids • Bombs • Villagers
4			Green knights • Treasure chests
5			Mimics • Slime towers • Rocks
6			Brain monsters • Fire cannons
7			Ghosts
8			Centipedes • Skull statues
9
10			Octopuses • Living stumps • Blobs • Mushrooms
11			Skull bombs
12			Enemies appear inside Pots
13			Double armoured pigs
14
15+

Some elements will appear less often than others. For instance fire cannons will appear at a lower rate than brain monsters after the player reaches 6 points, even though they are both introduced at this stage. On average, the easier the enemy is to deal with, the more likely it is to appear rather than other enemies. As a result, slimes, pigs, skulls or pig statues remain very common, even after the player is able to encounter more enemies such as ghosts or centipedes.

Golden variants of pig and skull statues' spawn rates are affected by the player's score. The higher the score is, the more likely it is for a statue to be a gold variant instead of its regular form. When pig statues are introduced at three points, golden variants are extremely rare, making it nearly impossible to encounter one at this score. However, as the player scores more points, they will have a higher chance of appearing. When skull statues are introduced at nine points, golden variants are much more likely to appear, making golden skull statues almost as common as regular ones.

Trivia

• The sound for reviving Rust Bucket is also the "New record" sound from Roller Polar.
• Even though mushrooms appear naturally behind blobs, they will also be generated on their own as obstacles once the player has reached 10 points.