SCUM - How to Start a Fire & Build Improvised Fireplace

Starting a fire in SCUM is paramount to your survival. Like in all other survival games, having a fire is necessary for a lot of things, including cooking food and the like. However, the game doesn’t make it immediately clear how to build a fire in SCUM. There are several little tricks that you can employ, and making a fire is going to become much easier, especially in the starting sections of the game, when you’re low on resources. So, here’s our guide on how to start a fire in SCUM, plus how to build an Improvised Fireplace.

SCUM – How to Light a Fire?

The first step to making fire in SCUM is to build an Improvised Fireplace (more on that in the section below). Once you have your Improvised Fireplace, building an actual fire isn’t that difficult. If you’ve spent some time searching around the houses, you might have run into matches or a lighter. In case you haven’t, what you’re gonna want to do is craft a Fire Drill. It’s in the Items section of the Crafting menu. All you need for it is Sticks and a Stone Knife, so it should be a cinch to craft.

Now, you should have both an Improvised Fireplace and a Fire Drill / matches / lighter. They can be either in your vicinity or on your person, doesn’t matter. The last step is to go into the Inventory menu and select BOTH the Improvised Fireplace and the thing you’re gonna use to light it. Selected items have a red background. Make sure nothing but the two items you need are selected. If anything else is selected, right-click on it and hit Unselect. When you have just the Improvised Fireplace and Fire Drill selected, right-click the Improvised Fireplace, and hit Light Fire. Hey presto, now you have a merry little fire going.

How to Build Improvised Fireplace in SCUM?

In order to build an Improvised Fireplace in SCUM, you’re going to need five Small Wooden Sticks and some sort of kindling (more on that later). Therefore, the best place to build an Improvised Fireplace, at least until you have a backpack, is near some bushes; the bigger, the better. That way, you won’t have to lug sticks around and make several round trips. In order to cut sticks, though, you need a Stone Knife. Just find two rocks and combine them in the Crafting menu to make a Stone Knife. Then, go ahead and cut yourself some Small Wooden Sticks.

The next step is the kindling. The game is going to suggest Gunpowder, which you might have if you’ve done some exploring. However, you’ll notice two tiny arrows beneath the gunpowder in the recipe. If you hit one of them, you’ll see that there are several other things you can use that are way more easy to come by than Gunpowder. Let’s go through your options.

The first option is Brake Oil, which you likely won’t have right now. The second is Paper, which you can obtain by crafting it, or by ripping it out of a book you might have come across. Then, we have Rags and Rag Stripes, which you get by cutting clothing. Even your own, if need be. However, we wouldn’t recommend that just yet.

Really, the easiest way to make an improvised fireplace and light a fire, especially in the early stages, is to simply craft some Tinder. All that requires is one Stick and a Stone Knife, both of which you have access to right now. So, make the Tinder and combine it with the aforementioned Small Wooden Sticks, and you have yourself an Improvised Fireplace.