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Gear Maintenance

How to patch holes and clean rust.

Not only is it important to find appropriate gear, it is important to keep it ready for use at all times. Equipment that is not maintained may lose a lot of its normal benefits and become worthless.

Item Condition

All items have a base stat and that is durability. Durability is shown as a green bar on each item and it ranges from 0% to 100%. Repairing an item means raising its durability. IMPORTANT - Items below 20% durability can be repaired only to 50% instead of the usual 100%.

All items can also get wet. That happens when they're exposed to rain or submerged in a lake or sea. Wetness can be checked in the bottom left part of an equipped item in the Inventory Tab. When you hover over this, the exact wetness percentage is shown.

Wet items gain a certain amount of weight, depending on how much they can absorb. That can turn into a lot of issues if not properly dealt with.

To dry an item, it is best to do the following:

Clothes

A lot of different clothing pieces can be found around The Island. While there are some cosmetic items, most of them provide a certain amount of inventory space when equipped. When such an item is damaged or worn out, it will lose available inventory space. The unavailable squares are shown in red. Items that are not removed from the red squares will start to lose durability, and no new items can be placed inside.

IMPORTANT - if the equipped footwear or gloves lose durability, there is an increased chance of getting Foot or Hand Abrasions.

Clothing also has a warmth factor which is very important, especially in the more extreme regions of The Island. It can be seen in the top left part of an equipped item in the Inventory Tab and details are shown when the item is hovered upon.

When in a hot coastal area, it's not a good idea to pack a lot of clothing. The same applies to cold mountain areas where it is not a good idea to run around without being heavily dressed.

Most regular pieces of clothing can be repaired with either a Sewing Kit or an Improvised Sewing kit that can be crafted. There are exceptions to this, but any additional repair methods are always mentioned in the item's description.

Clothes can also get dirty. Dirtiness can be seen visually when it is worn, but the details can be seen on the equipped item in the Inventory Tab. Dirty clothing can cause severe medical issues if worn directly on an open wound so it's important to keep it clean. To clean a piece of clothing, stand in a body of water (a river for example), and use a Soap item.

Melee Weapons

Melee weapons can be split into two categories:

Repairing-wise, the difference is pretty simple. Blunt weapons can be repaired with a toolbox. There is an improvised version that is craftable. Sharp weapons can be repaired with a grinding stone. A lot of weapons can be used as tools for crafting, and having a sharp weapon can come in handy in combat.

Ranged Weapons

Bows require only a Toolbox to be repaired. Weapon attachments use the same method, so any type of Toolbox will do the trick. Firearms are a bit different in that regard, and there are two main ways to patch them up:

The first method is straightforward as Weapon Cleaning Kits are used in the same way as a Toolbox.

The second option is to dissassemble another weapon of the same type by using the Toolbox. With that, the appropriate Weapon Parts item is acquired and can be used for repairing.

Using firearms, magazines, and ammunition of bad quality (lower durability) can cause a WEAPON MALFUNCTION, making the weapon jam. If for some reason your weapon does not fire, press [R] to open the malfunction menu, from which you will have several options to fix the weapon malfunction. There are multiple types of malfunctions that can occur. The most common ones are: 1. Stove Pipe - chance to trigger is influenced by the durability of the weapon 2. Bad Round – chance to trigger is influenced by the durability of the bullet 3. Double Feed - chance to trigger is influenced by the durability of the weapon 4. Round Not Loaded – chance to trigger is influenced by the durability of the magazine For some weapons, there are also some weapon-specific malfunctions, such as: clip partially ejected (chance to trigger is influenced by the durability of the weapon) for the M1 Garand and stuck bullet (chance to trigger is influenced by the durability of the bullet) for all pistols.. Many weapon malfunctions can be easily identified, and all malfunctions can be cleared with the "Bad Round" option if available. There is a small chance that clearing the original malfunction will introduce a different malfunction.

Official SCUM in-game content (the game’s own text, translated by the studio).