SCUM — SCUM: INTO THE WILD - June Update | 1.3.1.0.125621

Hey Prisoners,

Free-roaming land animals are back!

June’s Into the Wild update returns wildlife to the Island, along with a limited-time SCUM 1.0 Anniversary quest, trophy fish wall mounts, improvised cooking recipes, customizable tombstones, new custom server settings, fixes, and more improvements based on player feedback.

Watch the Free-roaming Animals Dev Diary

For a deeper look at the work behind free-roaming land animals, watch the Free-Roaming Animals Dev Diary, going live alongside this update:

As shared in the June Update Preview, this update includes a partial official server wipe.

Character progress, gold, and basic starting gear remain, while vehicles, bases, and all other items on official servers have been reset.

We know a mid-season wipe is disruptive, and we’re sorry for the impact on affected players. Going forward, our intention is to align planned wipes with the start of a season wherever possible, so players have clearer expectations around major resets.

With free-roaming animals back on the Island, wildlife is once again part of the world around you, rather than something you only encounter through a separate hunting flow.

This isn’t the old animal system being switched back on. Animals were previously removed for performance reasons, so bringing them back properly meant rebuilding the wildlife system around SCUM as it exists today.

Animals can now roam through the world instead of only appearing as part of a separate hunting flow. The hunting minigame has also been removed, so you now find, follow, and hunt animals directly in the world.

Under the new system, wildlife is shaped by where you are, what you can see, and what the world is doing around you. Biome populations, time of day, player distance, visibility, and Level of Detail \ animal AI all play a role.

Not every animal needs to run in a fully active state all the time. Animals can move between lighter and fully active simulation states depending on distance, visibility, and nearby player activity. That means a hunt can begin with movement on a distant ridge, continue as you close the distance, and develop naturally instead of only starting when an animal is already nearby.

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WILDLIFE ACROSS THE ISLAND

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Animal spawning is biome-based**

Now that free-roaming land animals are back in the world, wildlife spawns through biome-based populations. Mountains, forests, fields, and other areas can support different animals, giving each part of the Island its own wildlife profile.

Wildlife changes over time

Wildlife population updates happen throughout the in-game day, with time of day also influencing spawning. This helps the world respond more naturally as animals are hunted, replaced, or shifted across their biome population. An area that felt quiet earlier may not stay that way forever.

Animals persist beyond your immediate range

The new Level of Detail \ system keeps wildlife present across the Island without every animal running at full server cost all the time. Animals can remain part of the world while far away or out of view, then move into a fully active state as you spot them, approach them, or move through the area.

HUNTING IN THE OPEN WORLD

**Scouting is part of the hunt **

Animals become part of the hunt when spotted at range through clear line of sight, with scope magnification letting this happen from farther away. Binoculars and scoped weapons now have a clearer role, giving you another reason to scan ridgelines, treelines, and open ground before moving in. Use foliage and line of sight to plan your approach before you close the distance.

Predators share the hunting ground

Because wildlife now exists through biome-based populations, prey and predators can move through the same areas. Scout before you move in, and stay aware of what else may be nearby. A bear beyond the treeline can end a hunt fast.

Carcasses can attract predators

Leaving a dead animal behind may draw nearby predators to the carcass. Every kill can create an opportunity, or a problem if you stay too long.

BUILDING ON FREE-ROAMING ANIMALS

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Bait feeders now work with wildlife populations**

Bait Feeders have been updated to fit the reworked wildlife population system. They can attract existing animals nearby, or spawn a suitable animal if there are none around, so using one should still feel rewarding.

Animal AI has moved to Behavior Trees

Animal AI now uses Unreal’s Behavior Tree framework, giving us a stronger base for improving behaviors, tuning animal-specific encounters, and supporting more varied wildlife threats in future updates.

Land animals are the focus for now

This update focuses on free-roaming land animals first, rebuilding tracking, hunting, predator behavior, and carcasses around animals that exist directly in the world. Puppets, NPCs, birds, and other world spawns are separate systems, but this work gives us a stronger foundation for future improvements across the Island.

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Thank you, Public Alpha players**

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Free-Roaming Animals Public Alpha. Your feedback helped us test the system under real server conditions, identify edge cases, and continue tuning how animals spawn, move, flee, die, and interact with the world.

This is a major foundation for wildlife in SCUM. As more players spend time with the new system, we’ll keep watching how it performs in live conditions and continue improving animal behaviors.

A hunter’s left a trail across the Island. Follow it, survive it, and you can earn the Carbon Hunter Ironpaw, an exclusive SCUM 1.0 Anniversary weapon skin recipe.

This limited-time quest runs until July 31 and can be started at the Hunter trader. No previous quest progress is required, so all prisoners can begin straight away.

With free-roaming land animals back on the Island, this quest gives you another reason to head into the wild, follow the diary pages, and prove yourself against the new hunt.

Once unlocked, the Carbon Hunter Ironpaw can be crafted using a Carbon Hunter and a toolbox, matching the crafting flow for other weapon skin variants.

TROPHY FISH WALL MOUNTS

Rare trophy fish can now be caught at select fishing spots. Carp, Tuna, Catfish, Pike, and Dentex can all be turned into decorative trophies for your base.

Trophy fish are separate from regular fish. Once caught, they can be chopped to collect the head, which can then be crafted into a decorative wall mount using a wooden plank and a sharp tool.

Put them on display and give your squad a reason to believe your fishing stories.

IMPROVISED COOKING RECIPES

We’ve added the first improvised cooking recipes, giving players a more flexible way to turn basic ingredients into a cooked meal.

You can now prepare:

• Improvised Pasta Dish

• Improvised Rice Dish

• Improvised Soup

• Improvised Stew

Unlike many existing recipes, improvised recipes are available by default and don’t require a cooking book to unlock. They also use simpler core requirements, then let you add a wider range of optional ingredients to improve the dish when you have more supplies.

Better ingredients still help, but you should now be able to cook something useful without needing a long list of exact items first.

TOMBSTONES

Players have asked for more ways to mark meaningful places on the Island, including memorials for members of their communities. This update adds a new craftable tombstone that can be placed in the world and customized with player-written text.

Use them for memories, warnings, threats, or whatever your squadmate did to deserve it. Try to keep the spelling mistakes to a minimum.

Tombstones are built from a blueprint recipe using stones and any hammer. Once placed and finished, hold F to add your chosen text, which will appear on the tombstone.

They can be placed anywhere that supports the blueprint, but they still need to be maintained. By default, tombstones decay after 30 days if left unattended, so prisoners will need to return from time to time to pay their respects.

Server owners can control how many tombstones each squad can build, from 0 to 100 per squad. Official servers use the default limit of 3 per squad.

Alongside the June Update, two new optional DLC packs are now available, continuing the Into the Wild theme. These packs are separate from the June Update content covered in these patch notes.

Specialist Archer Pack

Unlock snakeskin-themed specialist gear, charms, emotes, and camouflage patterns.

Specialist Scout Pack

Unlock scout-inspired specialist gear, charms, emotes, and camouflage patterns.

This update adds new custom server controls for free-roaming animals, fishing spots, radiation, flag ownership, and tombstones, while removing older hunting settings that are no longer used by the new free-roaming wildlife system. Some vehicle settings have also been consolidated, with control moving into the relevant maximum vehicle settings.

FREE-ROAMING ANIMALS

• Animals Allowed in World \ -> HUNTING scum.AreAnimalsAllowedInWorld=True

Enables or disables free-roaming animals in the world.

• **Animal Global Density Multiplier **\ -> HUNTING scum.AnimalGlobalDensityMultiplier=1.000000

Controls the global animal density cap, increasing this value increases the total number of animals that can exist in the world.

Default: 1 Minimum: 0 Maximum: 25

• Maximum Non-Virtual Animals in World \ -> HUNTING scum.MaxNonVirtualAnimalsInWorld=800

Controls the maximum number of non-virtual animal actors that can be present in the world at once. Virtual animal population entries can exist beyond this number.

Default: 800 Minimum: 0 Maximum: 2500

• Animal Population Representation Multipliers \ -> HUNTING

These settings control how strongly each animal type is represented within biomes where that animal is allowed to spawn. Values can be increased or reduced, and work in relation to the other valid animals in that biome.

Default for all populations: 1 Minimum: 0 Maximum: 100

For example, in a biome that can spawn bears and goats, increasing the bear multiplier or reducing the goat multiplier can both make bears more likely to appear compared to goats.

scum.BearPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: BEAR POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.BoarPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: BOAR POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.ChickenPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: CHICKEN POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.DeerPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: DEER POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.DonkeyPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: DONKEY POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.GoatPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: GOAT POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.HorsePrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: HORSE POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.RabbitPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: RABBIT POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

scum.WolfPrevalenceMultiplier=1.000000 In-game name: WOLF POPULATION REPRESENTATION MULTIPLIER

FISHING

• High-Activity Fishing Spots \ -> HUNTING scum.FishingHighActivityZoneAmount=-1.000000

Adds a server setting for controlling the number of high-activity fishing spots. By default, 10% of fishing spots are always active.

Default: 10%

Minimum: 0%

Maximum: 100%

RADIATION

• Radiation Enabled \ -> MAP scum.RadiationEnabled=True

Enables or disables radiation in the world.

FLAG OWNERSHIP

• Maximum Flags Per Prisoner \ -> BASE BUILDING scum.NumberOfAllowedFlagsPerPlayer=10

Adds a server setting allowing admins to define how many flags each prisoner can own at a time. NOTE: scum.AllowMultipleFlagsPerPlayer needs to be enabled for this setting to work.

Default: 10

Minimum: 1

Maximum: 30

TOMBSTONES

• Maximum Tombstones Per Squad \ -> BASE BUILDING scum.TombstoneMaxAmountPerSquad

Adds a server setting for controlling how many tombstones each squad can build.

Default: 3

Minimum: 0

Maximum: 100

**CONSOLIDATED VEHICLE SETTINGS **

The following vehicle-specific MaxFunctionalAmount settings are no longer available as separate settings. They have been consolidated into the relevant maximum vehicle settings for vehicles where MaxFunctionalAmount did not have a separate effect.

Server owners can still control the overall maximums for these vehicles through the max vehicle settings.

scum.KingletDusterMaxFunctionalAmount scum.MotorboatMaxFunctionalAmount scum.WheelbarrowMaxFunctionalAmount scum.BicycleMaxFunctionalAmount scum.SUPMaxFunctionalAmount scum.KingletMarinerMaxFunctionalAmount scum.DinghyMaxFunctionalAmount

SETTINGS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

The following settings are no longer available in-game, many were tied to the previous hunting encounter setup and are not used by the new free-roaming wildlife system:

**scum.PuppetLimpingEnabled - Replaced by setting ''Puppet limping health threshold'' to 0 scum.ArmedNPCLimpingEnabled - Replaced by setting ''Armed NPC limping health threshold'' to 0 scum.MaxAllowedAnimals scum.MaxAllowedHunts scum.AnimalWorldEncounterSpawnWeightMultiplier scum.HuntTriggerChanceOverride_ContinentalForest scum.HuntTriggerChanceOverride_ContinentalMeadow scum.HuntTriggerChanceOverride_Mediterranean scum.HuntTriggerChanceOverride_Mountain scum.HuntTriggerChanceOverride_Urban scum.HuntTriggerChanceOverride_Village scum.HuntFailureTime scum.HuntFailureDistance scum.NPCWorldEncounterSpawnWeightMultiplier scum.MasterServerEndpoints **

CRASHES

• Fixed a crash that could occur when opening the radial menu immediately after relogging.

• Fixed a client crash that could sometimes occur when reskinning or destroying Woodland base building elements.

• Fixed a client crash caused by opening the console or chat while in Drone mode.

EXPLOITS

• Fixed and adjusted several sentry-related exploits that allowed unintended farming or looting.

• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to farm animals, specifically bears, using the Animal Bait Feeder.

• Fixed an infinite ammo box exploit where players could sell a 1/30 ammo box to a trader who did not already have that ammo box in stock, then buy back a 30/30 ammo box.

• Fixed an issue where vehicles could be destroyed inside trader zones and other protected areas where explosive damage to vehicles is disabled. This could happen when a frag grenade was placed on the ground with the pin pulled, allowing nearby vehicles to be damaged despite protected zone settings.

PRIVATE SERVERS

• Fixed an issue affecting private servers where players were unable to connect. This problem was linked to ICMP-related checks and has been resolved. Private servers should now function correctly out of the box with only standard port forwarding, without requiring additional firewall adjustments or workarounds.

HUNTING & COOKING

• Added a fuel bar / gauge mechanic to meat smokers and other fire-based objects, similar to existing liquid, petrol, and propane indicators. The gauge now visually displays remaining fuel and updates as fuel is consumed.

• Fixed an issue where placing fruit or seeds into a Bait Feeder could make them non-expirable and cause the Bait Feeder to produce smoke endlessly.

• Fixed an issue where goats did not leave footprint trails.

• Fixed an issue where does [female deer] could provide antlers. Only bucks [male deer] now provide antlers.

• Fixed an issue where direct hits from RPGs and grenade launchers did not properly affect animal kill quality [these kills were functioning like a rifle shot]. Explosive impacts now correctly damage harvested resources.

• Removed the redundant Search interaction from animals killed by a flamethrower, as flamethrowers do not fire recoverable projectiles.

• Fixed an issue where flamethrower kills did not affect meat and skin condition correctly.

• Fixed an issue where animals killed by vehicles or turrets retained 100% skin and meat quality.

• Fixed an issue in Sandbox mode where smoked meat could disappear from the smoker after logging out to the main menu.

• Fixed the incorrect ingredients in the Hot Chocolate recipe.

• Fixed issues where Bait Feeders were not spawning animals as intended.

• Fixed an issue where baits intended to spawn deer did not trigger any reaction when placed into the Bait Feeder in bl