SCUM | October Update Preview & What's Next

Prisoners,

The final Into the Wild update arrives October 5.

We had hoped to release it before the end of September, but testing uncovered issues with some of the new fishing changes. We’re taking a few more days to resolve them before release.

The final Into the Wild update expands fishing with updated fish behaviour, tiered quests and a leaderboard, and brings seagulls and crows back to the Island. It also adds new clothing crafted from materials recovered from mutant kills, while the TEC1 Research Facility becomes a Deathmatch arena. Further fixes, balance changes and quality-of-life improvements are also included.

After taking a closer look at the update, we’ll look ahead to tattoos, controller support, making Photo Mode free for every player, along with some of the wider work underway across SCUM.

FISHING EXPANDED

Hook a larger fish and you’ll feel the difference. It'll pull more strongly from side to side, while how quickly you reel can mean the difference between tiring it out and giving it time to recover. Your choice of bait and equipment will also matter more, and an updated HUD makes line tension and bait condition easier to follow during a catch.

The update also adds three tiers of Fishing Quests, with progress tracked through the Journal. Complete them to earn Fame and cash, with some quests also rewarding more fishing equipment. A new fishing leaderboard will let you compare your best catches with other prisoners and settle once and for all who the Island’s best angler is!

BIRDS RETURN TO THE ISLAND

After bringing free-roaming wildlife back to the Island, we’ve turned our attention to the skies. Seagulls and crows are back, flying over lakes and fields, perching on rooftops, and circling carcasses or prisoners below.

Get too close or make too much noise and they’ll take off, giving other prisoners a clue that someone is nearby. Bring one down and you can skin it for cookable meat and feathers.

MORE FROM MUTANT HUNTS

Mutant Animals are among the Island’s rarest targets. The team wanted hunting them to have value beyond the Master Hunter quests, and many of you have asked for the same.

With the final Into the Wild update, materials recovered from mutant kills can be used to craft new clothing.

APEX DEATHMATCH ARENA

The TEC1 Research Facility was built for the finale of the Apex Hunt, but it was too good a space to limit to one encounter. With this update, it joins the Event system as a new battleground for Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch.

FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS

The update will also include further bug fixes, balance changes and quality-of-life improvements.

One of those changes will address how quickly clothing becomes dirty and starts to look worn. Clothes will now retain their clean, undamaged appearance until dirtiness or damage reaches 30%, rather than showing dirt and tears from the first signs of wear.

Dirt will also build up more slowly during general use, although crawling along the ground like a grub will still make clothing dirty much faster.

We’ll publish the complete list in the patch notes.

SPECIALIST ANGLER PACK

The optional Specialist Angler DLC Pack will launch alongside the update on October 5. It's designed for players who want to head straight into fishing with a themed setup.

The pack unlocks a complete Specialist Angler set with a Rod, Reel, Waders, Boots and Backpack that can be crafted or purchased from the Fisher Trader, plus three new emotes. It also provides a starting selection of bait, hooks, floaters and fishing line, which each character can claim from the trader once per server at no in-game cost. These consumables are not exclusive to the pack and can also be found or crafted by every player.

Later in this post, we’ll also talk about the number and timing of paid packs, and what we’ve learned from Into the Wild.

CLOSING OUT INTO THE WILD

We want to thank everyone who’s played, reported issues and shared feedback throughout Into the Wild.

The season gave us a connected set of wilderness and survival systems to focus on across several updates.

With the final Into the Wild update, we’ll have brought free-roaming wildlife and birds back to the Island, expanded hunting, and reworked farming, fishing, cooking, nutrition and food effects. We also added the Hunter’s Grotto, its two traders, the Bait Feeder and Smoker, alongside tiered quests with progress tracked through the Journal and physical rewards to claim.

Mutant Animals led into the Apex Hunt and TEC1 Research Facilities, while a new tutorial and expanded Tutorial Library improved how new prisoners learn to survive.

The temporary Awareness and Archery progression boosts introduced during Into the Wild will remain active through the October 5 update. They will end with the update that follows it. Nothing you’ve already earned will be lost. You’ll simply earn further experience in those skills at the normal rate.

When we introduced seasons, we expected each to last around three months. Into the Wild has lasted longer, and it’s shown us that future seasons won’t always fit a fixed window or run back-to-back.

Work on the next season is already underway, but not every feature or improvement needs to wait for a seasonal theme. Updates will continue between seasons, and the update that follows Into the Wild will be a standalone release rather than the beginning of a new season.

THE NEXT UPDATE

Our current plan for the next update includes the return of tattoos through an expanded placement system, giving you greater control over your prisoner’s appearance.

A starter selection of more than 40 tattoos will be available to everyone. We’re also planning two optional cosmetic DLC packs built around different themes.

Photo Mode gives players more ways to capture and share what happens on the Island, and we want everyone to be able to use it. With the same update, we’re planning to make it free for every player. It’s currently included in Supporter Pack 2, where it will be replaced by a selection of tattoos. Existing owners will receive those tattoos at no additional cost, while everything else in the pack will remain unchanged.

We’re also working towards controller support on PC as part of the same update.

UPCOMING PARTIAL SERVER WIPE: We previously said we wanted official server wipes to take place at the beginning of each new season. Periodic wipes help keep official servers healthy after months of building and activity. Because the next update won’t begin a new season, waiting until the following season would leave the current server cycle running longer than intended.

That next standalone update will therefore include a partial wipe of official servers. We know this affects how players plan their time, so we’re giving you advance notice and will remind everyone in that update’s preview. Character stats and gold will be retained, while bases, gear and supplies will be cleared.

Partial wipes will not be enforced on private servers.

Before we wrap up, we want to talk directly about paid DLC, a more survival-focused way to play, and the work continuing across the game.

HOW OPTIONAL DLC FITS

We know some players felt there were too many paid DLC packs during Into the Wild.

Into the Wild gave us a chance to try packs of different sizes and types. We’ll use what we learned from the season as a whole when planning future DLC. That includes which packs players bought and what they told us about them, as well as how many we released and how closely together they arrived.

Most cosmetic items are created by artists and content developers, while bugs, performance, networking, enemy AI and other game systems rely on different specialists. That work largely happens in parallel, although every release still needs some shared implementation and testing.

Following the Specialist Angler Pack, the tattoo packs will be the final paid DLC released in 2026. When a future update includes paid DLC, we’ll share each pack’s theme and key contents in the update preview. We’ll also make clear what comes with the update and what belongs to a paid pack.

We’ll continue improving our pack descriptions based on player feedback, making clear what each pack contains, how its items are granted or claimed, where to find them in-game, and any character or server limits that apply.

A MORE SURVIVAL-FOCUSED WAY TO PLAY

We’ve seen the calls to bring back 0.6. We understand that for many players it represents a time when SCUM felt more focused on scarcity and uncertainty. You had to improvise, and surviving the Island felt less predictable.

Rather than running official servers on an older version of the game, we’re exploring an optional 'Survivalist' ruleset built on the current version of SCUM. Survivalist servers would still receive new features, items, fixes and system improvements, but would offer a much harsher and more self-sufficient way to play.

Survivalist isn’t a new name for the Hardcore ruleset. We want it to go further, with changes to how different systems work together. That includes removing or heavily restricting traders, making powerful loot harder to find, and retuning puppet and horde pressure, metabolism, sickness and wildlife to create a harsher survival experience. PvP would still matter, but the Island itself would become a much greater part of the fight.

Our aim is to offer this through dedicated official ‘Survivalist’ servers alongside the existing server selection, rather than replacing it. We also want to give private server owners a Survivalist preset that they can adjust further for their own communities.

It’s an exciting direction but we’re still working through exactly how it should play. It isn’t attached to an update yet, and we’ll share more when we have something ready to test with players.

CONTINUING THE WORK

Some issues players have raised for a long time are still in the game. Your reports are one of the things we use to decide where the team should focus next, especially when the same problem keeps coming up.

We know puppet spawning remains a frustration for many players, particularly when puppets appear nearby or spawn in areas that have already been cleared. We’re working on changes to that system using the free-roaming wildlife system as a foundation. It's taking time to develop and test, so we’re not attaching it to a particular update yet.

We won’t attach a fix or feature to an update until we’re confident it will be ready. That sometimes means having less to say in advance, but we’d rather wait than announce something too early and have to move it later.

That includes mod support. It remains part of our longer-term plans, but it won't arrive in 2026. We’ll share more once we’re ready to confirm its scope and timing.

The complete patch notes will arrive with the update on October 5. After that, we’ll be back when the timing and contents of the next update are ready to share.

Until then, see you on the Island.