PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, otherwise known as PUBG, released in 2017 to a hardcore audience hungry to see what the evolution of battle royale would be. Thanks to Twitch streamers, a strong connection with the community, and a little bit of experience, Bluehole's PUBG quickly exploded into the latest gaming phenomenon. Since it's release PUBG has had numerous updates that have fixed many common errors with the game and have slowly tried to correct all of the issues the community has. On top of doing this Bluehole has also ported the game to both Xbox One and mobile devices. Microsoft was quick to lock up exclusive rights in the console space, and the mobile version has seen tremendous success. Bluehole has also managed to release a desert themed map on PC that's soon to release on Xbox One. In addition to the desert map, they've also released a smaller map in the Public Test Server in hopes of providing a quicker and more action-packed experience to their tremendous player base. Though there have been numerous competitors that have entered the battle royale market, PUBG is still chugging along providing a more serious and hardcore fan-base with the experience they want. Whether PUBG lasts for the next 5 years, or it loses steam in 2018, it will always be the catalyst for the battle royale genre moving forward. There are plenty of rewards players gain from simply putting in the time to learn about all of the systems and hidden mechanics PUBG has to offer. Let's take a look at 25 things only PUBG super fans would know they could do in the game.
25 The Storm Is Your Friend
When you first start playing PUBG there are a couple of stress-inducing mechanics that you must come to learn and feel super comfortable with. One of these mechanics happens to be the main creator of conflict and action. The outer blue circle that contains the pain-inducing storm is something rookie players avoid at all costs. Many of them feel that you should avoid having to run through it no matter the alternative. As you grow comfortable with your shooting and with the terrain of the map you should quickly come to learn that some risks are worth taking.
A great realization is that the first two time the circle closes in on the specific area the damage it outputs is negligible.
Trading a small bit of damage for some extra positioning or scavenging time could make all the difference. Throughout a PUBG match, you're going to need to make decisions that can make or break your chances of success. It's better to take these risks early on when the drawback is entirely negligible with a couple of bandages and an energy drink. A little bit of health is worth the trade-off of potentially finding a great assault rifle or sniper rifle.
24 Hold Your Fire?
When you finally build the confidence and courage to start landing in heavily populated areas at the beginning of a PUBG map you need to sharpen up your close combat skills. A shotgun is a player's best friend in the narrow corridors of the school or other buildings. Outside of being accurate with your shots, there's another mechanic you need to be aware of. If you're using a gun that reloads between every shot you need to realize what happens when you're in an intense gunfight. If you fire a shot and hold the fire button down your gun won't reload. Many players panic when faced with another player trying to take their life. One thing players tend to do in moments of stress is hold on tight and grip the controller. This means that you're actively preventing yourself from having a chance. So, in shotgun fights remember to simply take your hand off the trigger between shots. On the plus side knowing this trick as a sniper will allow you to view your target post-shot for an extended amount of time so you can confirm whether or not you hit your target from distance. A lot of times knowing a mechanic is only important if you also know how it relates to different types of combat scenarios.
23 Barricade The Bridges
Previously we discussed a mechanic for those comfortable with close range confrontation and also a mechanic that's super helpful for sniper rifle users at a distance. Now let's discuss using part of the landscape to your advantage. This really only works when the circle surrounds the military base on the Erangel map, but it's definitely worth adding to your PUBG strategy vault. Once you've gathered some decent inventory with your squad and are headed for the circle inside or surrounding the military base it's time to each grab a vehicle and block one of the bridges. At this point, you'll know that many other players will be filtering themselves towards the island to the south. Just like the storm circle does for the entire match, you're systematically forcing a fight with other players. Considering your gun skill is above average this is a great way to rack up points and nerf the competition. This also works in refers, especially when the dropship flies over the military base. If you ever encounter this situation from the other perspective always remember that you can vault the barriers on the bridge and swim to safety. Later we'll cover how you can use swimming to your advantage in many situations.
22 Mark That Down
Okay, now many of you reading this wondering how on Earth people don't know this. You have to realize that the average player is simply learning on the go and looking to have a good time. Do they want to learn new strategies and play better? Yes, no one actively enjoys losing. Does everyone do their own research or have informed friends they play with? No, unfortunately, everyone's circumstances are different. Let's first cover the fact that you can place markers on the map. This allows you to better communicate with your squad and also allows you to clarify things with them as well. The markers also show up on the compass in the user interface of the game.
This is great if you're playing alone in first-person or simply want to make navigation easier.
Being able to see where you need to go without checking the map every 5 seconds allows you to focus on your surroundings and everything happening in active time. Not only is this could in navigation, late in a game your squad members can more accurately show from what direction they hear gunfire or spot an encroaching team. The markers are just another tool at your disposal, that if used effectively, can make all the difference between finishing 5th and getting that sweet chicken dinner.
21 Pull The Pin!
Have you ever thrown a frag grenade in hopes of taking out another player only to see it pathetically roll on the floor as said player runs to safety? Many new players feel that the workaround to this is to simply bounce the grenade off of things to eat up time before the grenade lands next to their target and explodes. Did you know that you can pull the pin on the frag grenade you're holding? This allows you to time your throws perfectly and give your opponent literal milliseconds to respond to an incoming grenade. Be careful though because mistiming it in hopes of pulling off something spectacular could result in you ending up on a fail compilation on Youtube. It's embarrassing to get killed by a grenade you didn't even see coming. There's the next level of embarrassment that comes along with unintentionally dying to your own grenade in front of all your friends. Knowing that you can pull the pin also helps when you need to end the match or the rest of your squad is gone in the first 2 minutes of a match. It will look way less awkward than throwing the frag grenade the corner of a room and running over to stand on it.
20 Shotgun Or Sniper?
Many of the things I've already mentioned are completely beneficial with little to no drawbacks when they're put into practice. The thing I'm going to talk about now is pretty much an act of desperation or ingenuity one can use given a specific situation filled with a specific need or purpose. For some odd reason PUBG allows players too but an 8x scope on an S12K. For those unfamiliar, the S12K is a shotgun. The 8x scope is primarily used as an attachment for many of the sniper rifles so players can use their ranged gun skill to their advantage. Many players have petitioned for the ability to attach an 8x scope to the assault rifles in the game while at the same time questioning why they can attach it to a specific shotgun. Honestly, it doesn't seem like there's a legitimate reason why it should even be a thing. It's either the product of a simple and common oversight among the developers or maybe it's an inside joke among those same developers. Either way, you are now burdened with the knowledge that you can indeed possess a distance shotgun in PUBG. Will it be effective and useful? Some things are interesting because they exist, not necessarily why they exist.
19 Swim Underwater
Earlier we talked about barricading bridges and what that can do for you as an offensive-minded player. It was also mentioned that if you encounter this strategy being done by another team against you that vaulting over the bridge into the water could mean the difference between life and elimination. Once you hit the water and start swimming for sure it's now time to get extra careful Newer players may assume that once you're in the water there's nothing to worry about. On the contrary, the water is where you're most vulnerable and susceptible to gunshots. Players can and will see your head and arms traversing the water and will do everything in their power to make sure you never see the shoreline.
This is where underwater swimming comes in handy.
Players can dive underwater and swim without being seen by other players. Swimming underwater is faster than swimming on the surface, and due to its programming, bullets don't travel through the water. Just remember to keep an eye on your lung meter next to your health bar. Once your lungs turn red you better be near the surface because drowning will make you lose health at an astounding rate. Dying by drowning is more embarrassing than that grenade pin fiasco we talked about earlier.
18 Melee Tires
Some people simply want to watch the world burn. Others just want to make sure other players or teams don't have easy getaway plans. During a PUBG match, a vehicle can make a huge difference in staying ahead of the circle and also making sure you're not eliminated by pure chance after the circle shrinks in the least fortunate way. Players really like to take out the tires of vehicles their not using in hopes of sabotaging other players. It's really easy to do but comes at the cost of ammunition and/or the sound of your gun depending on if it's suppressed. The best way to avoid alerting other players and also not wasting that precious ammo is to simply destroy the tires with your fists. Yes, I did, in fact, say fists. You can use your bare hands or even one of the various melee weapons to pop the tires on random vehicles. It defies all logic but the moment you walk up to a buggy and punch out its tires with your own knuckles is extremely satisfying. It seems that this feature was probably implemented in the game to give some type of balance between a person with a car and someone without a gun. Though this means that the driver has to be oblivious and either parked or driving incredibly slow.
17 Directional Audio
If you're playing PUBG there's a high chance that you've at least dabbled with the Call of Duty franchise in some capacity. That also means that there's a very high likelihood that you played Call of Duty with that one friend with the super expensive headset. There's a reason players who take the game way too seriously splurge on these headsets; directional audio. PUBG also features this type of audio and it can be the difference in coming out on top. Not only can you hear other players near you in a match. If you listen close enough, or your headset is good enough, you can hear the specific direction in which they are moving. Many shooters offer radars that allow players to get a general sense of where their opponents are. PUBG trades in that user interface tool for the simple use of sound. Want to get a jump on someone trying to sneak up on you? Do you want to sneak up on an unsuspecting player or team? The sound is going to be your best friend. Some of the best PUBG players in the world use sound to their advantage and is a huge reason they can rack up so many defeats in a match.
16 Move It!
Have you ever been crouched, looting someone you just took out, only to be taken out by someone else? It's a terrible feeling because you were simply trying to claim your rewards for being victorious in combat. Funny enough, the act of looting goes against everything you know to be effective in PUBG. It forces you to stand still and enter a menu where you lose sight of your surroundings. Many times in PUBG it's just as important where you drop somebody as it is winning the fight in general. One of the best tricks to learn regarding looting is that you actually don't have to stand still while taking equipment from a fallen opponent. The best players in the world showcase it best, but you can move around and crouch while looting as long as you stay in the general area of the crate. This takes some practice and impressive hand dexterity to make it look effortless, but mastering this type of multitasking can take your game to the next level. If you're anything like me you're going to want to show your friends this trick so they're not standing straight up in the open trying to loot the one person on the planet more oblivious than themselves.
15 Vests Are Backpacks?
This next hidden mechanic is something you probably don't notice until you've spent a reasonable time with the game. Players entering the fray in PUBG quickly understand that backpacks are important because they allow you to carry more things. The level system quickly establishes that there are improved versions that will allow you to carry progressively more amounts of items as you obtain the higher level backpacks. This is sort of intuitive considering everyone's basic understanding of what a backpack is designed to do. Did you know that vests also increase the carrying capacity of the person wearing them? Unlike the backpacks, however, all 3 levels of vests give you the same +50 capacity to your overall capabilities.
This one isn't as intuitive considering a bullet-proof vest's main objective is to stop bullets.
It starts to make sense when you realize the vests have pockets which are perfectly suitable for ammunition, attachments, and the occasional painkiller. Next time you're desperately searching for a backpack to pick up that extra ammo remember that a vest could be just as beneficial. Also, the fact that it gives you additional armor is pretty great too.
14 Grenade Jumping
If you're someone who grew up playing first-person and/or third-person shooters then you know about grenade jumping. It's a hidden trick that allows you to jump farther distances with the help of a grenade explosion at the expense of a little health. It's been something that has been tested and found in numerous video game properties over the years. The franchise that really turned the quirky trick into a video game cultural mainstay happens to be the Halo series. Halo even managed to take it a step further and its physics allowed players to pull off insane rocket jumps that are critically more dangerous. In the sci-fi setting of Halo grenade jumping allowed players to access areas that were previously believed to be unreachable. In PUBG it seems that the only use one would have in trying to pull off the stunt is in hopes of reaching the roof of a strategically placed building to obtain the ultimate vantage point. There doesn't seem to be many gaps or breaks that require a PUBG to pull off a last-second grenade jump. Grenade jumping is a mechanic that seems to be something implemented by accident due to physics interactions instead of a mechanic purposely baked into gameplay. Hopefully, it's legacy remains and we see it withstand the test of time.
13 Zig & Zag
Two of the hardest things to get comfortable within PUBG both revolve around combat with another player or team. The first is getting used to starting an engagement. Many players like to play reactionary, but a lot of times you can accomplish a lot more by simply being a little more intellectually aggressive. The other major interaction newer players have trouble with is disengaging and escaping a losing battle. Contrary to popular belief sometimes it's best to know you're going to lose and instead focus your efforts on a strategic retreat. There are plenty of times in a PUBG match where running is legitimately the best option. Many newer players tend to run away in a straight line in hopes of reaching a building for cover. Your main objective should actually be to make yourself a harder to hit target while at the same time cutting off their line of sight. This means that zigzagging is imperative. In that same breath make sure that your zigzagging also isn't predictable. Be sporadic with your movements. Remember that hills, valleys, trees, and bushes can save your life. If someone can't see you, they can't hit you.
12 Hit The Boosters!
We've covered how a team can take a convoy of vehicles and turn them into a barricade on the bridge. There was also the explanation of how you can destroy tires on a vehicle with your fists as well as the various melee weapons. It seems that now is a good time to talk about speed. Driving in PUBG isn't easy due to the inconsistent terrain and performance of the game. It is, however, a skill that newer players should try and hone the best they can. Driving in first-person takes a lot of practice, and being the perfect getaway driver could save your team. Did you know the vehicles have built-in boosts?
Even the boats have this mechanic built-in.
There is a trade-off in which you gain additional speed at the expense of gasoline. This means that a seasoned driver will only use the boost when absolutely necessary. If you hold the boost down you'll quickly run out of gasoline and force yourself and possible teammates to find another ride. Using the boost could be the difference between beating a team to the bridge and running into an awful barricade. It could also turn a possible defeat into a brilliant escape.
11 Increase Your Speed
Remember at the beginning of this article when we discussed the unnecessary fear of the two initial blue circles? Yes, they're not that painful and you shouldn't be afraid of being in it at the beginning of the match for a prolonged amount of time. That being said, in the same breath, you should make sure to get inside the circle at a reasonable pace. Energy drinks and painkillers are worth their weight in gold to players considering they're the only way to reach max health without the use of a med kit. Not only do they heal you over the course of time, they give you a speed boost. The most substantial boost comes from an adrenaline shot, but those aren't as common as energy drinks and painkillers so they're not the focus of this tip. If you're chasing the blue circle remember that a painkiller could slow down the pain while at the same time speeding up your journey to get back into the safe zone. They can really make the difference and turn an absolute defeat into a close call. Knowing the ins and outs of all the items can make you super efficient. Efficiency can also help you gain ground on those who are simply better when it comes to shooting mechanics. If you can't be more accurate, the least you could do is be more intelligent.
10 Ride Jet Skis
Have you ever needed to traverse water in a PUBG match but felt the boats were too slow to get you across in a favorable amount of time? Many newer PUBG players would be shocked to realize there is more than one vehicle to use on the water. Jet skis are in PUBG and are very much usable. Though they don't spawn as often or sporadically as their boat counterparts they're still something to keep your eye out for. Jet skis are to water what the motorcycles are to land. You'll be sacrificing some stability and control in favor of pure speed and maneuverability. Many players aren't familiar with their existence because they're rarely shown in any major ads or marketing materials. Heck, you have a hard enough chance seeing a Twitch streamer driving one on their way to a chicken dinner. The fact that they exist is great because it showcases that Bluehole can and probably will introduce some types of vehicles in future maps you wouldn't see coming. With a game like PUBG you really want to give your players plenty of options to choose from so it lends well to the overall replayability of the maps.
9 Drop Into Dangerous Areas
We've briefly touched on the importance of building up the courage to land in heavily condensed areas at the beginning of the match. It's time to double down on this and express why this is so beneficial to make you a more successful and consistent PUBG player. Landing in heavily populated areas activates your fight or flight instincts and helps get you familiar with potentially threatening encounters. People new to the world of PUBG would think that it's best to lay low and build an inventory, avoiding confrontation at all costs. This is a great tactic for familiarizing yourself with the mechanics of the game and the map in general but won't help you in the endgame.
You want to be able to win firefights whenever they happen.
You won't get better if the only fights you're having come at the end of matches. Places like the school or major cities are avoided like the plague because new players feel they can't survive there. Sure, the first couple of time there you'll be defeated suddenly, but if you stick to it you'll be the one victorious. It may feel scary and time-wasting in the beginning but soon you'll feel that way when landing in emptier more scarce places.
8 Hold Your Breath
Remember when we talked about holding the fire button to get better information as a sniper? Well, landing your shots is all about aiming correctly and accounting for bullet drop. The farther you aim with a sniper rifle, the more apparent the rifle sway becomes. Both on PC and Xbox there's a button that you can press that will make your character hold their breath. This will allow you to have a precise shot and aim true for the next couple of seconds. Just like with swimming underwater you want to keep an eye on your lung capacity indicator that's located to the right of your health bar on the user interface. Once you start holding your breath to snipe you'll be astounded at your accuracy. Very rarely do players think about the natural sway of their gun. This is a normal occurrence due to the composition of humans and the inability to stay completely still. It's the same real-life tactic that hunters and soldiers use out in the field. Thankfully in PUBG, everyone has the same lung capacity so there's no advantage given to those you do it more often. Well, there is the advantage of being familiar with it, but that's to be expected.
7 Re-pin A Grenade
So you've successfully pulled the pin on a grenade and thrown it at the exact right time defeating an entire squad huddled in a single room. What happens if the situation dynamically changes and you need to put the pin back in the grenade? Realistically this wouldn't be possible but thanks to the wacky world of video games such a feat is possible in PUBG. It requires a bit of movement among your inventory but is pretty easy to pull off. There's currently no way for console players on Xbox One to do the same so you better be careful. It's unsure if console players will ever be given this ability considering the feat seems to be a product of the interactions of a user interface and menus on a PC setup. Then again we've seen stranger things that seem to only work in the PC realm float over to the world of home consoles. If you're upset that you can't yet put the pin back in a grenade on Xbox One maybe you should just be a little bit more careful. You also have the alternative of simply chucking the grenade away from you. No one's forcing you to hold onto it.
6 Movement & Zone Control
Players that aren't experienced in the realm of battle royale or tactical shooter type games don't exactly know about the advantages and disadvantages they could create for themselves simply based on movement. It's a natural response for someone to steer clear of an area where they know people are planted. Staying securely in an area means you show confidence in defending an area whether that holds true or not. Professional gamers have showcased that where you position yourself is often more important than the gun you're carrying.
Many times carrying a great gun with a ton of gear is seen as the optimum advantage, but that's not always the case.
Having the best gear definitely doesn't hurt, but learning that you and your squad's positioning and movement can dictate advantages is a real game changer. Despite popular belief having the high-ground isn't always best. It depends on the incline of the slope or hill and the surrounding foliage. Once you learn what spots work best for you and your team given certain types of terrain you can then mold your strategy to that. When you see the circle in a certain area you'll know what approaches you should take to specified safe areas that work best. It's all about creating the best situation for you to succeed.