Welcome!
As I said in the description, there's no mods involved in this guide, so you won't be downloading anything from the workshop.
All of the "Rules" here are SELF-IMPOSED (meaning you have to make sure you don't break them!)
That being said, if there's a rule or two you think is totally unfair and want to disobey, feel free! It's not like it'll hurt my feelings or anything!

Also: You don't have to play this on hard difficulty, meaning it's okay if you give these rules to yourself while you're on easy.
In fact I might actually try these rules on easy before doing it on normal/hard so you can get used to them.

With that being said, enjoy!

This difficulty adds some new rules to make the game challenging, yet still (at least sort of) fair.
I wouldn't really reccomend it to first time players though...

First, no sneaking with weapons equipped.
ESPECIALLY CRAWLING!
Weapons are big, loud, and clunky, so how would you be able to sneak past zombies with one out?
If this seems too unfair, you can make it easier by having it be no sneaking with big weapons like rakes/hockey sticks but sneaking with smaller arms like knifes is okay.
Or you can make it so only no crawling with weapons out but sneaking is okay, up to you!
However I would reccomend at least trying the rules out vanilla first to see if they're really as bad as you think.

Next, you cannot bind items to 3, 4, 5, etc.
If you didn't know about it already, if you put an item that isn't a weapon (blowtorches count as a weapon since you have to put them in a weapon slot to use them) in your "hands" slot, right click it, hover the mouse over the "equip" button and then hit any number 3-9, it makes it so when you hit that number, you take out that item.
It's a key reason why people get as far as they do, since they don't have to sift through their inventory and equip it manually in the middle of a fight, or even after it while bleeding out.
When you aren't allowed to aren't allowed to use this, fights get MUCH more strategic, frantic, and deadly.
It's a very simple tweak, but damn does it have serious consequences.
It does technically make sense as well, you wouldn't keep items on a utility belt easy to use, no you'd put them in your backpack to keep them safe!
So now, you have to sift through your backpack and desperatly pull out your bandage only to franticly apply it to yourself.
If you think this is unfair, you can equip only 1 item to the 3 slot.
Also: If there's some sort of item that won't save your life but you still want to equip freely (like an umbrella or handcuffs) feel free to equip those. I use an umbrella while travelling a lot and it would be really annoying to have to manually equip it every time.

Finally, you cannot use any shirts, sweatervests, or ponchos for storage.
To clarify: you CAN use military/police/spec ops vests to store items. They have pockets all over them.
I've always thought that it's strange you can shove an entire AK-47 and nearly 7 cans of food into your shirt pocket...
Less storage space means you'll have to take only what you need, no more will you just freely grab everything you see and drop it later for something better!
Also - you can still WEAR shirts. It's just you aren't allowed to use them for storage (aka if you want a shirt on Yukon or a snowy map feel free)
There isn't really any way to make this easier other than just flat out ignoring it, so feel free to do so if you really want to!

This difficulty is only for the best of the best, the toughest of the tough!
You've been warned...

Quick recap of everything in BRUTAL (yes, you have to follow all of the rules in brutal as well as the new ones)

No sneaking with weapons out
No equipping items using the 3-9 number keys (especially dressing/bandages)
And no using shirts/sweatervests/ponchos or other clothing items with no pockets for storage.

Now, to get into the new rules!

You can only use ONE WEAPON SLOT
Gone are the days of your trusty gun at your side and you knife in your hand! Now you can only use one or the other!
This seems like it won't do too much, but ESPECIALLY in pvp servers it means a lot.
Usually when I play melee is reserved for zombies unless I'm in a deadzone or a mega appears. Now if you so much as suspect a mega it might be safe to just pull out your gun.
What's more is this combined with the no sneaking with weapons out makes mega zombies some of the most dangerous things out there.

(servers only)
No teaming with randoms!
If someone comes up to you can asks if you want to team, tell them you don't want to and run away... Or shoot them!
To clarify: If you want to play with friends you know feel free to. Randoms is short for "Random people you don't know" and your friends are NOT randoms!

No using charts!
When playing unturned, I always somehow find fun in the idea that i've got no idea where I'm going, but I'd rather die than not get there.
Well, why not just have that period of uncertainty last longer!
BONUS: Play on a workshop map so you actually have no idea where you are - I've got Russia, Washington, PEI, even Yukon's map remembered so when I spawn in it only takes a couple of minutes to find my bearings.

You can only kill specials (fire, cloaker, spitter) zombies with GUNS!
To clarify: you can kill crawlers and fast zombies with melee. (I guess if you wanted to make it harder you could give yourself the rule of having to kill them with guns as well, but that's up to you.)
Remember when specials first came out and whenever you'd see one you'd get a little anxious? Because nobody knew how to deal with them!
Well, for like a day at least.
Then they became just like normal zombies. You just get up to them, smack them, congrats! You killed the spitter/cloaker!
Now fire zombies are still semi-dangerous. Why? Because unless you've got a firefighter outfit they can do serious damage if you aren't willing to fire a few bullets!
Plus, if your gun isn't silenced you risk drawing the attention of all surrounding zombies!
Speaking of which...

No running out of the city to get rid of large crowds of zombies UNLESS you are actually leaving the city!
You probably know the "run out of town and the zombies will stop chasing you" trick, but I say no more!
When playing on mega brutal, if you leave a town to escape a horde, you aren't welcome back!
So if you start getting chased by a large group of zombies - speed loot the town and then high tail it out of there!

(OPTIONAL) - No silencers
This rule I was kind of undecided on whether or not I should add it, since it DOES make the game harder, but it feels a little... Dumb.
I mean, without silencers it'd be harder to loot towns without getting the attention of more zombies, but on the other hand silencers are hard to get and can be really useful in pvp. I could say "no using silencers unless you're in a pvp fight" or something like that, but I think I'll just put this one out there.
If it sounds like a fun challenge, by all means use it!
If it sounds kinda dumb or unfair, maybe don't.
Up to you!

In this section, I will be putting up challenges from the community/comment section of this guide!
Feel free to comment something you think would be FUN and FAIR!
If the rule is any good, I'll put it in this section!
If I LOVE your rule I might even put it in Brutal/Mega Brutal!

Naturist challenge by Methamphetimine (Meth)
This challenge is all about living on the land, away from civilization with barely any contact to cities!
Here are the rules:
Tou CANNOT loot from civilization (buildings, stores, etc) Except for Seeds (corn seed, wheat seed, etc) (or you can go hardcore and take 5 years to find berries while you starve), Tools like a blowtorch, Saw, And metal/cloth scraps. You can only take clothing for scrapping unless its something like nightvision or a gas mask. Oh and only allowed to take a chainsaw or camp axe as melee weapons from civilization. Really makes the game hard in the beginning, You can still take guns and attachments, However you cannot take civ guns. (you can turn this off or just get no guns from the remains of civilization)


Looking for more challenges? Check out this guide!
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=760709564&searchtext=challenges
It's a list of "goals." Like build a mini-base at every city, build a mansion, etc.
It works best in single player, but if you mainly play multiplayer it's still worth checking out.

Have fun!