If you are jumping into NAISU’s post-apocalyptic hovercraft roguelite and wondering how to enable windowed mode SCAD, the answer is finally here. To switch your display, you must first update your game to patch 0.8.2. Once updated, navigate to the Main Menu, click Options, select the newly added Display Settings tab, and change the Screen Mode to Windowed or Borderless.
SCAD, an acronym for Salvage, Craft and Destroy, drops players into a brutal, unforgiving post-apocalyptic wasteland. Unlike traditional twin-stick shooters, your primary weapon is a heavily customizable hovercraft. You start each run by selecting a chassis, bolting on automated turrets, and recruiting a ragtag crew to man the guns. As you navigate the map, you engage in a rogue-lite loop of destroying enemies, gathering scrap, and drafting random power cards upon leveling up. These cards range from practical upgrades like spinning front-mounted sawblades to absurd additions like a musical robot that lures zombies to their explosive demise.
However, surviving the apocalypse is hard enough without fighting your own monitor settings. Here is a deep dive into the new display features and the crucial balance changes introduced in the latest update.
Why Players Kept Asking How to Enable Windowed Mode SCAD
When SCAD first launched into Early Access, it brought a refreshing twist to the bullet heaven genre. Instead of a lone vampire survivor, you pilot a heavily armed hovercraft, customizing turrets and recruiting crew members to automate your defenses against relentless zombie hordes. However, the initial build lacked several basic PC quality-of-life features—most notably, an in-game display settings menu.
Players were locked into a default borderless fullscreen resolution. For a game that requires quick reflexes and intense grinding, the inability to resize the window or easily alt-tab to a second monitor was a glaring omission. Streamers and content creators, who make up a large portion of the roguelite community, found it particularly frustrating to manage OBS and chat without a native windowed option. The Steam forums were flooded with a singular question: how to enable windowed mode SCAD natively without relying on third-party software or risky launch parameters.
On May 31, 2026, developer NAISU responded by dropping patch 0.8.2 (Build 23497123), a major update that finally introduced a robust suite of display options, alongside critical balance tweaks and bug fixes.
Step-by-Step: How to Enable Windowed Mode SCAD
With the release of patch 0.8.2, the process of changing your resolution is now baked directly into the game’s UI. Here is exactly what you need to do to fix your display:
- Verify Your Game Version: Open Steam, navigate to your library, and ensure SCAD has downloaded the latest update. You need to be on Build 23497123 or later.
- Launch the Game: Boot up SCAD and wait for the title screen to load.
- Access Options: Click the gear icon located on the Main Menu to open the settings interface.
- Open Display Settings: You will now see a dedicated Display Settings tab that was completely absent in earlier builds.
- Change Screen Mode: Inside this menu, locate the Screen Mode dropdown. You can now freely select Windowed, Borderless, or Fullscreen.
- Adjust Resolution and V-Sync: While you are here, you can also select your preferred screen resolution and toggle V-Sync on or off to prevent screen tearing during intense bullet-hell moments.
Once you launch the updated game, navigating to this new menu is straightforward. From the Main Menu, click on the Options gear icon. You will now see a dedicated Display Settings tab that was previously absent. Inside, look for the Screen Mode dropdown menu. Here, you can select Windowed, Borderless, or Fullscreen.
Annotated Diagram: Step-by-step guide on how to enable windowed mode SCAD in the main menu.
Borderless vs. Windowed Mode SCAD: Optimizing Your Setup
Choosing the right setting depends entirely on your hardware setup and how you play. Fullscreen dedicates all your GPU resources to rendering the game, which is crucial when the screen is filled with up to 10,000 Zombie Hordes simultaneously. However, it makes Alt-Tabbing notoriously slow, often causing the game to stutter when you return.
Borderless mode allows seamless multitasking on a second monitor while keeping the game maximized. This is the ideal choice for streamers or players who like to keep a wiki open on their other screen. Windowed mode lets you resize the game freely, perfect for playing casually while watching a video or monitoring Discord in the background.
Infographic: Performance comparison of screen modes in SCAD.
If you are running SCAD on a lower-end machine or a Linux setup via Proton 11, running the game in native Fullscreen with V-Sync enabled will generally provide the most stable framerate when the screen fills with projectiles.
Beyond Display Settings: Crucial Patch 0.8.2 Additions
The update represents roughly a 40% focus on Display Settings and a 60% focus on Gameplay adjustments. NAISU added a Corpse Persistence slider to control how many bodies remain on the map, and a Damage Numbers toggle to clean up visual clutter. Balance-wise, the Repair Power was nerfed, the Air Strike Buff improved rocket distribution, and the Seeker Destroyers Trio boss fight was made significantly more challenging.
Analysis Report Poster: SCAD Patch 0.8.2 overview and balance changes.
One of the most requested features was the Corpse Persistence slider. In a game where you slaughter thousands of undead per run, the map quickly becomes littered with bodies. This new setting allows you to control exactly how many corpses remain on the map, significantly improving framerates on lower-end machines. Additionally, the Damage Numbers toggle lets you hide the constant stream of math popping out of enemies, cleaning up the visual chaos so you can actually see incoming boss attacks.
The UI also received some love, with the Experience Bar now featuring a more dynamic and satisfying animation when it fills up, and the tweaking panel for upgrades getting a much-needed UX overhaul.
Balance and Boss Tweaks: Surviving the Wasteland
Surviving the wasteland requires constant adaptation, and patch 0.8.2 shifts the meta. The developer nerfed the Repair Power, reducing its effectiveness. Previously, players could rely on out-healing damage rather than dodging, but this balance change forces a more tactical approach to hovercraft positioning and evasion.
Offensively, the Air Strike (Helicopter) Power received a buff, with its rockets now firing with vastly improved distribution, making it a more reliable tool for clearing dense crowds. The Zombie Toss power also received enhanced visuals, making the chaotic physics even more entertaining when you launch undead enemies into each other.
Boss fights were a major focus of this patch. The CATV Boss encounter had its door colliders fixed, preventing players from cheesing the fight by hiding in unintended geometry. The Wingtourage Boss had its projectiles reworked for better readability against the dark terrain. Most notably, the Seeker Destroyers Trio boss fight was made significantly more challenging, punishing players who enter the arena without a fully optimized, high-DPS loadout.
Finally, a critical crash issue in the Lab - Base Defense level was completely resolved, ensuring your deepest runs aren't ruined by a sudden desktop crash, and a lingering bug where bodies from a previous level were not deleted in the next level has been patched out.
FAQ: How to Enable Windowed Mode SCAD & Other Patch 0.8.2 Fixes
Does SCAD support ultrawide resolutions? With the introduction of the new display settings in patch 0.8.2, SCAD now supports a wider variety of screen resolutions. However, native 21:9 support may still require playing in Borderless mode depending on your specific monitor setup.
Why is my game crashing in the Lab - Base Defense level? If you are experiencing crashes during the Lab - Base Defense sequence, you are likely playing on an older version of the game. Patch 0.8.2 specifically addresses and resolves this crash issue. Force an update to your game via Steam to fix it.
Can I hide the damage numbers in SCAD? Yes. As of the latest update, you can navigate to the options menu and use the Damage Numbers toggle to hide them. This drastically reduces visual clutter during late-game waves when your turrets are firing hundreds of rounds per second.
Why did my Repair Power stop healing as much? The developers intentionally nerfed the Repair Power in patch 0.8.2 to balance the game. You will now need to rely more on dodging and crowd control rather than face-tanking zombie hordes.