Thirteen chapters covering every system you will meet on this island — what hunts you and why,
how to get paid, how to keep your car, and who to make friends with. Your progress is remembered on this device.
Nothing here needs an account.
Chapter 1
First, get registered
Nothing else on this island works until the server knows that your Discord account and your in-game
character are the same person. That link is what lets it whisper to you instead of shouting
at everybody, pay you for what you do, and remember your vehicles.
Do this now
In your server's Discord, type /register and follow it. It takes about thirty seconds.
Once you are registered, you also get a website of your own. Type /site-login and you will be
handed a one-click link — no password to invent, no email to confirm. The site has the live map, your
garage, the bestiary and the leaderboards.
Two places, one you
/commands starting with a slash are typed in Discord.
!commands starting with a bang are typed in in-game chat, and the answer is
whispered back so nobody else sees it.
Why the whispers? Anything about you personally — your balance, your cover,
something hunting you — is sent to you alone. Only genuinely server-wide news gets announced.
Where do you type !points?
Chapter 2
Knowing where you are
The island is cut into lettered and numbered sectors — A1 through to the far corner. Almost everything
that happens is described by sector, so learning to read them is the first survival skill.
!where whispers your exact position and the nearest landmark.
!grid tells you which sector you are standing in and who currently holds it.
/map shows the whole territory picture in Discord.
Sectors are not decoration. A held sector pays its holder an income, and the people who hold it will be told
when you walk into it.
Do this now
Type !where in game and note your sector. Then !grid to see whose ground you are on.
The map is live. Your server's website has the same map, updated as things move,
including any large horde currently wandering loose.
Chapter 3
What hunts you, and why
The world does not send everyone the same thing. It watches what you actually do and answers in kind. That
measure is your threat tier, from 1 to 10, and it is worked out from your Fame — the
game's own record of what you have achieved.
A new survivor is Unremarkable and gets left largely alone. A veteran is an Island Myth,
and at that height the world stops sending people after you and starts sending monsters.
Look up any Fame
Check your own with !threat in game or /threat in Discord. It
tells you your tier, your fame, and exactly how far to the next rung.
Two things, not one
Your tier decides how dangerous what arrives is. Your squad size decides
how many arrive. Being in a group of six does not mean six times the enemy — it is
damped, roughly four times, because you share cover and revives. Grouping up is still the right answer.
Owning things does not make you a target. Bases and vehicles can lift a squad the
server has never seen fight, but only to the fourth rung and no further. Beyond that, only your record counts.
Your fame doubles. What changes?
Setting your own difficulty
This is the one chapter worth reading twice. You choose how hard this server is for you,
and the choice applies to every event and every world spawn — not just some of them.
Do this now
Type !difficulty in game to see where you currently stand.
The three settings
!difficulty beginner — puppets only. No armed NPCs at all: not holding
locations, not on patrol, not in events. Smaller groups and lower-level hordes too.
!difficulty intermediate — the normal world, armed NPCs and ordinary numbers. This is
what you are on unless you change it.
!difficulty veteran — you want more. Bigger groups than standard, nothing held back.
It is not permanent shelter
Your record eventually speaks louder than your setting. Past roughly 1,800 Fame a beginner
starts meeting armed NPCs again, though the smaller group sizes stay. Past roughly 5,000 the
setting stops applying at all — you cannot sit at the top of the ladder calling yourself a beginner.
Veteran is never overridden, because opting into difficulty needs no veto.
Your server owner sets those two thresholds. The numbers above are the defaults;
!difficulty always tells you the truth for the server you are actually on.
Whether anything is allowed to hunt you
A nemesis is a named hunter that picks one player, remembers them, and comes back harder
each time. That is opt-in. Nothing named will come for you until you say so.
!nemesis on — allow it. Most people who try it keep it.
!nemesis off — stop it, at any time, no cooldown.
And if you are new
A genuinely new player is left alone by the bot entirely for their first few hours — no sieges, no
garrisons, no patrols, no hunters. Finishing this handbook's in-game twin extends that window.
!difficulty shows how much you have left.
You set yourself to Beginner. What do you meet at a defended location?
Chapter 4
The factions
The island is not empty of politics. Several factions hold ground, run patrols and keep a running opinion of
you. Where you stand with each one changes how their people behave when they find you.
/join-faction pledges you to one. You do not have to.
/reputation shows your standing with every faction at once.
/tribute pays your way back into favour with one you have upset.
Good standing pays a dividend and buys you passage. Bad standing means their patrols come looking rather
than passing by. Killing a faction's people in their own territory is noticed, and it is not forgotten
immediately — suspicion builds before an alarm goes off, which gives you a window to leave.
You cannot please everyone. Standing well with one faction generally costs you with
its rivals. That is the point — pick a side, or stay genuinely neutral and take the middle of every road.
Do this now
Run /reputation before you pledge to anything. You may already be someone's friend.
Money and kits
Every server is different here. The shop and the starter kit are each something your
owner switches on or off. If a command below does nothing, that system is simply not running on your server
— and the in-game tutorial hides the lessons for whatever is switched off.
There is one currency, and it is the game's own: the cash in your in-game bank. Kits,
vehicle cover and everything in the shop are priced in it. There is no separate bot currency to keep track
of — that was retired.
You earn it by doing things. Surviving a siege, fighting in a war, kills, wave
events, races and faction work all pay real cash straight into your bank. Time online on its own pays
nothing — the money follows the risk.
Daily objectives pay on top — turning up to a wave event or surviving a
siege is worth real money, not a token.
Check it with !points in game, or /points in Discord. The command
kept its old name; the number it shows you is real in-game cash.
Where a shop is running, browse it with /shop, claim with /redeem, and see what is
actually available to you right now in game with !kits. New arrivals can try
/starterkit once — free, one time only, and its contents are the owner's choice.
Do this now
!kits in game. Whatever comes back is what this particular server actually offers you.
Whatever you buy is cosmetic or convenience. Supporter tiers never sell power —
nobody out-spends you into being harder to kill.
Chapter 6
Daily objectives
Every day gives you a short list of things worth doing anyway, and pays you for them. They reset at midnight
UTC, and they stack — hitting the two-hour goal does not cancel the thirty-minute one.
Play thirty minutes.
Play two hours.
Take three kills.
Take ten kills.
Earn standing with a faction — which faction changes day to day.
Check progress at any time with /quests. You do not have to accept anything or hand anything in;
it is counted as you go.
These are separate from the quests you find at traders and notice boards in the
game itself. Those are SCUM's own, and they run on their own schedule.
When do the daily objectives reset?
Chapter 7
Your vehicles
A vehicle nobody has claimed belongs to nobody. Register it and it is on record as yours — which is
what makes it trackable, insurable, and sellable.
!register-here — stand next to it in game and claim it. Easiest way.
/register-vehicle — the same from Discord.
/track-vehicle — where is it now?
/garage — everything you own, on one screen, with its cover status.
/trade-vehicle — sell or hand it to another player.
Your garage also lives on the website, with pictures, so you can look at the fleet properly rather than
scrolling a chat window.
Do this now
Walk up to whatever you drive and type !register-here. Do it before you need it.
Selling passes the cover with it. If a vehicle is insured and you sell it, the new
owner inherits the policy and the premium.
Chapter 8
Insurance, and what it costs
Vehicles get destroyed. Cover means you get another one instead of starting over. You pay a small premium
every week from your in-game bank, and the tier you choose decides both that premium and how much a
replacement costs when you claim.
0
every week, taken automatically
0
you pay this to replace it
What to actually do
/insurance in Discord to buy cover, cancel it, or claim.
!insurance in game to check what you are covered for without alt-tabbing.
Claim from /garage or the website when something of yours is destroyed.
Miss three weeks and the policy lapses. Premiums are taken automatically, so keep
something in the bank. You are warned before it lapses, never after.
Which tier means a free replacement?
Chapter 9
Squads and territory
A squad is the unit the world reacts to. Difficulty, sieges and territory are all worked out for the squad,
not the individual — and a base belongs to everyone in it, not just whoever placed the flag.
/squad — your roster and your standing.
/dominance or !dominance — the territory table.
/ally and /diplomacy — pacts, wars, and who is neutral.
/squadwars — declare on another squad, and track it.
Holding a sector pays an income into your in-game bank. Holding several pays more, and holding adjacent
sectors pays a bonus on top — a solid block is worth more than the same number scattered.
Territory is a magnet. Income is nice; being the obvious target is the price.
Squads that hold a lot get visited a lot.
Chapter 10
Hunters and the bestiary
Some of what comes after you is not a spawn. It is a nemesis — a named hunter that
picks one player, remembers what happened last time, and comes back harder. Kill one and it stays dead. Fail
to, and it will find you again.
This only happens if you allow it. Being personally hunted is opt-in
— !nemesis on. If you never turn it on, nothing named will ever come looking for you
specifically. See the difficulty chapter.
Every creature and hunter on the island is written up in the bestiary on your server's
website: what it is, where it turns up, and what it took last time. It fills in as things are actually
encountered on your server rather than being a fixed list.
You can go the other way and hunt for a living. /hunter applies for a licence and shows the
rankings; !hunter checks your rank in game. And /bounty lets players put a price on each
other — check it before you assume nobody is looking for you.
If something named is after you, you will be told privately. Nemesis warnings are
whispered to the person being hunted, not announced to the server. Whether you tell your squad is up to you.
Chapter 11
Events worth showing up to
Things happen on their own, whether or not an admin is awake. Most are worth travelling for.
Patrols and garrisons — armed groups on the roads and holding named places. Constant, low ceremony.
Cargo drops — announced to everyone, usually contested, often with a welcome party.
Wave events — a location gets defended through escalating waves with a boss at the end. Everyone who turns up is paid.
Sieges — a force arrives at a base and works through it in waves.
Races — scheduled, with real prizes. /race to enter.
Walking Death — a very large horde surfaces somewhere remote and wanders the map until it disperses. Watch the map.
The Siege
The big one. Every fortnight, one base is named publicly, seven days in advance, and its
owner is sent a direct message. Then twenty escalating waves arrive at it, led by a commander. The rest of the
map is cleared first so everything lands in one place.
You do not have to own the base to benefit. Everyone standing in the ring when it kicks off is paid,
win or lose. Surviving all twenty pays considerably more. That week of notice is the point — it
gives the whole server time to fortify, form up, and decide whether to defend a rival or watch them burn.
You are not the target of The Siege. Should you go?
Chapter 12
Getting help
You have got this far, so the rest is easy.
/rules — the actual rules of your server. Read them once.
/support — opens a ticket with your server's own staff.
/connect — the connect details, for when a friend asks.
/site-login — back to your website: map, garage, bestiary, leaderboards.
/leaderboard — where you sit on kills, fame, points and territory.
The short version
Register first. Nothing works before that.
Anything personal is whispered to you alone.
Difficulty follows your record, not your possessions.
Claim your vehicle before you need to.
Turn up to events even when they are not about you.
That is the whole handbook. Everything else you will pick up by being shot at.
Good luck out there.
VARDYN