On Wednesday 28 October 2026 the SCUM team retires every official Hardcore server, Third Person variants included. Characters on those servers move to regular official servers and take on their rules. If Hardcore was the reason you played, the official option is gone.
The team did publish the exact settings their Hardcore servers run, and pointed community server owners at them. This guide compares that file with a stock server, line by line, and shows how to put it on your own server.
Where the settings come from
The Halloween Update preview (22 October) links two Google Sheets: "SCUM Official Hardcore Server Settings" and a Third Person version. Each is a complete ServerSettings.ini, version 7. The two files differ in exactly two lines:
- scum.AllowThirdPerson: False in the first-person file, True in the Third Person one.
- scum.MessageOfTheDayCooldown: 60 minutes vs 10.
Everything else is identical, so pick the camera you want and the rest of this guide applies to both. The team's own caveat: the files may need adjusting as new features arrive.
What makes it hardcore
We compared the official file with a ServerSettings.ini freshly generated by build 1.3.4.2. It changes 153 of the stock file's 437 settings. Most of that is tuning. These are the changes your players will notice first.
Less help on screen
| Setting | Stock | Hardcore |
|---|---|---|
| scum.AllowCrosshair | True | False |
| scum.AllowMapScreen | True | False |
| scum.AllowThirdPerson | True | False (first-person file) |
| scum.HideQuickAccessBar | False | True |
| scum.HideLifeIndicators | False | True |
| scum.AllowGlobalChat | True | False |
| scum.AllowAutomaticParachuteOpening | True | False |
| scum.EnableNewPlayerProtection | True | False |
Fresh spawns get no protection window, and parachutes have to be opened by hand.
Long, dark nights
| Setting | Stock | Hardcore |
|---|---|---|
| scum.TimeOfDaySpeed | 3.84 | 1.24 |
| scum.NighttimeDarkness | 0 | 1 |
| scum.SunriseTime | 06:00 | 04:00 |
| scum.SunsetTime | 21:00 | 22:00 |
The clock runs about three times slower than stock. NighttimeDarkness goes from the brightest setting to the darkest.
More enemies, and they hit harder
| Setting | Stock | Hardcore |
|---|---|---|
| scum.EncounterBaseCharacterAmountMultiplier | 1 | 2 |
| scum.EncounterExtraCharacterPerPlayerMultiplier | 1 | 2 |
| scum.EncounterCharacterAINoiseResponseRadiusMultiplier | 1 | 1.5 |
| scum.PuppetHealthMultiplier | 1 | 2 |
| scum.ZombieDamageMultiplier | 1 | 2.5 |
| scum.ArmedNPCDifficultyLevel | 2 | 3 |
| Animal max health (all nine BearMaxHealthMultiplier-style keys) | 1 | 2 |
Horde sizes go up by 1.5x to 2x as well. Dropships stop turning up as random world encounters (spawn weight 0). Instead they go after bases: dropship base-building encounters, off on a stock server, are switched on for bases of 220 elements or more.
Less of everything
| Setting | Stock | Hardcore |
|---|---|---|
| scum.SpawnerProbabilityMultiplier | 1 | 0.8 |
| scum.FoodDecayDamageMultiplier | 1 | 1.5 |
| scum.FuelDrainFromEngineMultiplier | 1 | 3 |
| Water, gasoline and propane supply multipliers | 1 | 0.5 |
| scum.LaikaMaxAmount, scum.WolfswagenMaxAmount, scum.RagerMaxAmount | 50 | 8 |
| scum.MaximumTimeOfVehicleInactivity | 240:00:00 | 96:00:00 |
Battery drain is 3x too, and most vehicle types get a lower cap. An unused vehicle is cleaned up after four days instead of ten.
Slower characters, smaller squads
| Setting | Stock | Hardcore |
|---|---|---|
| All 21 skill multipliers (scum.ArcherySkillMultiplier and the rest) | 1 | 0.5 |
| scum.SquadMemberCountAtIntLevel5 | 10 | 6 |
| scum.MaximumAmountOfElementsPerFlag | 100 | 75 |
| scum.FlagOvertakeDuration | 24:00:00 | 12:00:00 |
| scum.LockProtectionDamageMultiplier | 1 | 10 |
Squad size still grows with Intelligence, just more slowly: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 instead of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.
Death costs more
| Setting | Stock | Hardcore |
|---|---|---|
| scum.AllowSectorRespawn | True | False |
| scum.AllowSquadmateRespawn | True | False |
| scum.PermadeathThreshold | -2500 | -1500 |
| scum.CommitSuicideInitialTime | 0 | 60 |
| scum.ShelterPricePerSquadmateModifier | 0 | 0.5 |
Random and shelter respawns stay. Shelter respawn comes back faster than stock (45 seconds instead of 60, with a 45 second cooldown instead of 240), but it costs more for every squad member online. PermadeathThreshold is a money threshold: permadeath now hits at -1,500 instead of -2,500.
Lines to change before you copy the file
The sheets are the official servers' own file, so a few lines describe their setup, not the ruleset:
- scum.MaxPlayers=80. Set it to your own slot count.
- scum.ServerPlaystyle=PVE. This is the label players see in the server browser. Set it to match how you run.
- scum.MaxPingCheckEnabled=False. Stock is True. With it off, players connect at any ping. Leave it on if your players are all in one region.
- scum.ServerDescription, scum.WelcomeMessage, scum.ServerPassword. Placeholders or blank. Fill in your own.
- scum.MaxAllowedCharacters=286, MaxAllowedPuppets=128, MaxAllowedNPCs=84. Stock is -1 for all three, which leaves it to the game. The official numbers were set for an 80-player server. On a smaller server, keep -1 unless you have a reason to cap.
The official file also carries 23 keys that a fresh 1.3.4.2 file does not write, among them MaxAllowedAnimals, MaxAllowedHunts and the HuntTriggerChanceOverride group. We have not confirmed whether the current build still reads them, so treat those lines as optional.
Putting it on your GG Host server
- Stop the server.
- In the game panel open Configuration Files, then the Config Editor for ServerSettings.ini.
- Change the values you want. You do not have to take the whole file: every setting stands on its own.
- Save, then start the server.
Every key is explained in our ServerSettings.ini complete guide.
On an established server, think about timing. Slower skills and tougher enemies are a big change for characters who levelled under stock rules, and the per-flag cap drops from 100 elements to 75. A ruleset change this size is a natural point for a wipe. Our wipe guide covers partial and gold wipes.
Good to know
- The partial wipe on 28 October applies to official servers only. Community and private servers, including yours, are not touched by it.
- The SCUM team is working on a separate official ruleset called "Survivalist", built around scarcity. It is not out yet and will be tested on the public test servers first.
- Admin basics are in SCUM Admin Commands.
