--- title: ROB RUN Beginner Guide: Your First Hour From Jail to Cash description: What to do first in ROB RUN: leave prison, find Lenny, make your first cash from dumpsters, get a pistol, rob a small store, sell to a fence and get out alive. url: https://robrunwiki.org/looty-bay/beginner-guide/ --- case #1: day one # ROB RUN beginner guide: your first hour **Short answer:** you start with no money, so stay a civilian, search dumpsters in Looty Bay for cash and small valuables, buy or find a pistol, then mask up and hit a small store. Sell to a fence as a criminal, drive out of the city, and stash the cash before you try anything bigger. This is the order that works for most new players in the first Early Access week, built from Kefir's own posts and launch-week videos. Prices change with patches; where a number comes from one player's video, it says so. ## Where do you start in ROB RUN? Every character starts at the bottom of what Kefir calls the power pyramid: "fresh out of prison with no cash and nowhere to live", sleeping at Lenny's motel. That tier is literally named **Hobo**. The tutorial walks you out of the prison; in the playtest you left through a hole behind a poster and came out at Lenny's place, the safe hub with the bar and the roulette table. From the hub you travel with the buttons at the bottom of the global map: **Home**, **Sales Center**, **Hub** and **Looty Bay**. Looty Bay is the coastal city where the robbing happens. _[Image: Players gathered around a roulette table in Lenny's bar, the neutral hub]_ _Lenny's bar: no shooting here, roulette with in-game chips. Official screenshot, Kefir (Steam store). _ ## How do you make your first money? - **Go in as a civilian.** You only become a criminal when you put on a mask. Until then you can walk around, scout stores and plan escape routes. Two players say that if someone kills you while you are unmasked, you keep your gear. - **Search dumpsters.** Bins give cash and small valuables (laptops, toasters, the odd necklace). Kefir raised the cash found in dumpsters on launch day, 4 November. - **Get a weapon.** On 4 November Kefir made the basic pistol cheaper and added more starter weapon spawns around the city. They tested handing out a pistol after every death and decided against it: you work your way up from nothing. - **Rob something small.** A gas station, pharmacy or corner store with a back door. See the [heists guide](https://robrunwiki.org/looty-bay/heists/) for alarms and hostages. - **Sell and leave.** Fences are the money symbols on the city map, and you must be masked to sell. Then drive out through a city exit. Details in [selling loot](https://robrunwiki.org/looty-bay/selling-loot/). Tip from launch week: leave the city between runs. Coming back in resets you to civilian. ## What should you buy first? The Black Market sells gear, vehicles and construction items. You reach it from the laptop in your base or at Lenny's bar. Items must be **unlocked** before you can buy them (the unlock tree is the Shipments window), so each item has an unlock cost and a price. - **A bigger bag.** In the playtest the sports bag added 12 inventory slots, cost 5,000 to unlock and 250 to buy. More slots means fewer trips to the fence. - **Lockpicks.** They open back doors and locked rooms without breaking anything loud. - **A light vest and meds** once the bag is sorted. There is no limb damage; you heal with med kits. Playtest prices are a guide only; Kefir changed several prices at launch. ## What is Lenny's debt? Lenny is the bartender and motel owner at the hub, and he keeps you on a debt. His in-game line warns that if the debt is not paid you are "getting shanked in the slammer", and one player on launch week was asked for a million. What paying it off unlocks is not documented anywhere official yet; we will add it when it is. Lenny's bar also has a cash stash where you can keep money between runs, with a limit on how much it holds. ## What comes after the first hour of ROB RUN? The next goal is land. Since 4 November, Tier 1 settlements and land rentals cost **documents** instead of cash, which makes the first plot easier to reach. A plot gives you a base to store loot, launder money and run businesses. Read [land and settlements](https://robrunwiki.org/global-map/land-and-settlements/) next, then [base building](https://robrunwiki.org/global-map/base-building/). Keep in mind that the server wipes every seven days ([what a wipe takes](https://robrunwiki.org/game/servers-and-wipes/#wipe)). ## Watch it in game - [How to get started in ROB RUN | The Criminal Life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOzE0cwOLw) Zombo Land · playtest build jump to [00:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOzE0cwOLw&t=22s), [02:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOzE0cwOLw&t=125s), [09:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOzE0cwOLw&t=566s) - [ROB RUN: Tips and tricks! How to progress and earn money faster](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW6P3U48PcU) Espanola7 · early access build jump to [06:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW6P3U48PcU&t=364s), [08:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW6P3U48PcU&t=507s) - [ROB RUN 1st heist tips & tricks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2pedaX_tYI) Christian Wise · early access build jump to [13:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2pedaX_tYI&t=836s), [25:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2pedaX_tYI&t=1502s) - [What you need to know about ROB RUN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_xmXZV_2yw) Callmetrouble87 · playtest build jump to [02:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_xmXZV_2yw&t=124s) Checked 2026-11-06 against the Early Access build (launched 4 November 2026). [How this wiki checks facts](https://robrunwiki.org/about/#how). ## More Looty Bay guides - [Heists How to rob stores and houses in ROB RUN without bringing the police: alarms, hostages, cameras and back doors, plus what keys, drills and glass cutters open. open the file →](https://robrunwiki.org/looty-bay/heists/) - [Selling loot Where to sell loot in ROB RUN, what goes to the fence and what to the smuggler, how cargo works, and how players avoid being killed at camped sell points. open the file →](https://robrunwiki.org/looty-bay/selling-loot/) - [Playing as a cop How cops work in ROB RUN: joining at the station, gear and Police Badges, how cops are paid, bribes, respawn rules after the launch patch and the cop limit per city. open the file →](https://robrunwiki.org/looty-bay/cops/) - [Notoriety, death & jail What you lose in ROB RUN when you die, surrender or get arrested, how the mask and Notoriety work, what being wanted means, and how prison sentences build authority. open the file →](https://robrunwiki.org/looty-bay/notoriety-and-jail/)