Calories and skills first
SCUM characters starve, over-encumber, and fail skills they never trained. Eat for the action you want. A fat pack mule still dies if stealth is 0 and the bunker is loud.
Open this resource when a wipe resets the skill grind.
Bases versus bunkers
A hidden chest can beat a huge flag base. Bunkers are PvP. Bring a kit you can lose. Extract knowledge matters more than a gold gun you cannot replace.
Lock doors. Do not advertise a farm with lights on every wall.