If you're a fan of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Twitch Prime, or the word 'balaclava,' I've got some news for you. The Early Access battle royale shooter is making some new skins available only to Twitch Prime members on June 9.

The exclusive skins include a t-shirt (that says Twitch Prime on it), a pair of jeans (that also say Twitch Prime, across the butt), shoes (they don't say anything as far as I can tell), and a balaclava (with the Twitch logo on it). If you play Battlegrounds and have been looking for some subtle way to signal to other players that you like Twitch Prime, this looks like your ticket. You can get a better look at the skins below.

Let me start off with a disclaimer: I played Playerunknown's Battlegrounds for the very first time yesterday evening. I'm still at that 'terrified of everything stage', which Michael Johnson—the author of our best (and worst) guns guide—assures me is normal. To this end I've spent the first few hours of my time on the island confused, scared and getting my hat/level one motorcycle helmet handed to me at almost every turn.

And yet I've loved every minute of it. Despite the hype, I went into PUBG with a degree of trepidation. I'd seen facets of the interwebs compare it to DayZ and while I enjoyed both its Arma 2 mod and standalone variations once upon a time, I wasn't sure I wanted to return to a similarly lawless playground having left both scenes behind quite some time ago. 

Such a popular game is of course hard to ignore and, like Andy, I was pleasantly surprised to see my cynicism trumped by a suitably frantic and fun survival MMO. Unlike Andy, though, I'm at my best when in the thick of it. Well, best is probably a stretch—rather I enjoy the game most when I'm being stalked and/or carelessly unloading my gun's magazine into a brick wall because I'm shite-scared of my own shadow. 

To be fair, my fear isn't rooted in my stark inadequacies as a hunter/survivor. Nor it is it based on how good the opposition invariably is. My terror is based in something far less organic: doors. Let me explain. 

Okay, for those unfamiliar with the setup: each round of PUBG kicks off with up to 100 players being deployed from above. After parachuting into various corners of the map unarmed, you then race to loot whichever buildings are closest, picking up whichever weapons/armour/clothes are at hand before venturing off into the wilderness to lay waste to whoever crosses your path. Last man or woman standing wins. 

Due to the map's impressive sprawl, however, you'll spend stretches of time on your lonesome before happening upon a single hostile neighbour. Was that someone up ahead? No just a tuft of grass. Is that a… no, a burnout car. Wow, that hedge looks like a… BANG. Dead. It was. Shit. 

From what I've played so far, PUBG does a fine job of balancing these spells of isolation with flashes of confrontation—an ever-enclosing playing area helps maintain this as combatants steadily die off, for example—which is in turn underscored by an ever-present, and ever-burgeoning, sense of anxiety. 

Enter the game's seemingly innocuous doors. When each game kicks off, all functioning doors are closed. If you discover an open door on your travels, this can only mean one thing: that someone's been here before you. 

Now, you could obviously avoid these dwellings entirely. But what if there's some decent loot that whoever was last here has overlooked? You step inside. Panic sets in—what if they're in the house right now? You hear footsteps. Your panic escalates. You run upstairs, no one there. You check each room, empty. It's quiet now. You double back, head for the stairs, and despite the fact the mohawk-sporting topless man stood before you has his mouth covered by a gas mask, you know very well he's smiling. 

The shotgun pointed at your head almost feels like a formality—especially when you've accidentally equipped yourself with a smoke bomb instead of the UMP9 you'd kept fully loaded till now. I clearly don't work well under stress. 

I've faced several permutations of the above scenario now, to the point where I'm starting to get fly for it. I chatted with a few players on the PC Gamer Discord after a few games last night who informed me they make a point of closing every door behind them so as to throw other players off their scent during each game. As such, I've now taken to leaving certain doors open and closing others so as to confuse my foes. 

With this in mind, a very similar situation to the above played out where I was instead the hunter. I shut the front door as my counterpart nipped upstairs, whereby, upon returning to the ground floor, she momentarily paused as if to acknowledge something was off. I came at her with a sickle and finished off the job there and then. It was glorious. 

Another occasion saw me camped out in an elongated cabin-like shack with just one door of entry/exit. I shut myself in and positioned myself so that when someone entered, I'd be hidden behind the door. One player did enter. Sucker, I thought to myself, only to realise I was pressed tight against the wall and couldn't move. In a typically frenzied panic, I started firing shotgun rounds at the ceiling, walls and floor. My house guest shot me in the head without breaking stride. It was a disaster. 

And so I guess much of my passion for doors in PUBG is tied to tricking players and successfully setting traps. I'm not yet skilled enough to take on others in head-on gun fights and while that'll inevitably come, I've thoroughly enjoyed surviving in a world where all and nothing is fair. 

Perhaps that closed door up ahead is simply somewhere no one's been to yet, but then again, maybe people like me await your arrival on the other side. Maybe the door lying wide open means the house's been ransacked already, but what if there's a gun or vest or health pack that's been missed? There are few games that have the power to instil anxiety in players and it not come across cheap. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, even in its earliest of states, is one of them—and it's all the better for it.

While it's apparently entirely possible to win a game of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds without firing a shot, for those of us less committed to pacifism, finding and firing guns is the key to victory. This guide will take you through the most potent firearms on offer, discussing the key points you need to know about each weapon and offering tips on how best to modify them.

Updated August 2017 with new weapons and some adjustments to the previous rankings.

Assault rifles

🌟 SCAR-L: What sets the SCAR above all other assault rifles is the ability to control the recoil when firing, particularly when you have an array of modifications attached. It’s the only AR that can comfortably use automatic fire at medium range.

Groza: A new care package-only assault rifle, the Groza is similar to the AKM, but with a higher rate of fire and slightly different recoil. It's clearly a beast: a tough gun to control from the hip, but aiming down the sights makes a nice straight vertical line and the recoil can be managed. It's worth picking up if you find one, or are brave enough to hit up a supply crate. Have some 7.62 ammo ready.

M16: A great ‘off the shelf’ option that requires fewer modifications than the SCAR to reach its full potential. The M16 is fast and accurate in single shot mode compared to other ARs, while burst fire is best limited to close range. It has just has three attachment slots: magazine, barrel, and optics.

AKM: Does the most damage per bullet, meaning it’s an exceptional tool if you’re able to land multiple headshots, but heavy recoil and a slightly slower rate of fire mean it’s probably the weakest Assault Rifle overall (unmodified), with a poor automatic fire mode—though the best players can take advantage of it's power. For best results stick to single-shot above 20m and always try to land those headshots (it should only take 2 headshots to down an enemy—if you can land them). Only has three modification slots: magazine, barrel, and optics.  

M416: Offers similar levels of modification to the SCAR, with the option to add a tactical stock that is required if you plan on using automatic fire anything above 20 meters. Not quite as stable as the SCAR, but with a faster rate of fire it’s still very viable. A good all-round weapon that doesn’t truly excel at anything.

Recommended assault rifle mods:

Vertical grip/angled grip – The angled grip improves stability to a lesser degree and offers faster aiming down the sight, but you should prioritize the stability boost of a vertical grip to get the most out of your AR.

Compensator, suppressor, flash hider – one of the key choices you need to make. Suppressors are deadly on all assault rifles, severely limiting your opponent’s ability to locate you through directional audio. A compensator steadies recoil which can be vital if you’re planning to fire in full-auto at anything above close range. If you find a suppressor, prioritize it over a compensator unless you have another suppressed weapon. Recent community testing has shown that the flash hider reduces recoil to the same degree as the compensator, while giving the added utility of hiding gun-fire, making it a great pickup.

Extended mag – Simply more useful than a Quickdraw mag. Having those extra bullets at the ready fundamentally means that they're ready to fire, rather than reloading more quickly.

2x 4x or 8x scopes – Assault rifles truly shine with decent optics, the superior magnification of an 8x allows you to focus on headshots.

SMGs

🌟 Vector: A tiny package of doom that incapacitates quickly and is limited only by its short range. There's no weapon I'd rather have in the last moments of most matches, where I'm enclosed in a small area. Nearly always best used in full-auto, firing in bursts to retain accuracy beyond 15m.

UMP: The bridge between SMGs and assault rifles, with the slower rate of fire offset by limited recoil and a better effective range (30-40m) than the Vector. The UMP requires a lot of modifications to reach its full potential. Fire it in full-auto to take people down quickly. Its 9mm ammo should be plentiful.

Uzi: Fast, but wildly inaccurate. With a stock the Uzi becomes far more stable, but it’s still terrible at anything above 15-20 meters.

Recommended SMG mods:

Extended magazine – Absolutely vital to make the Vector and Uzi in particular shine, as the base, magazines are so shallow.

Suppressor – High rate of fire plus near-silence is an insane combo.

Vertical foregrip – Gives a vital boost to both the Vector and the UMP’s effectiveness at range by steadying the recoil.

Uzi stock – If you have your heart set on using an Uzi, be sure to pick this up to improve stability and lessen recoil.

Sniper rifles

🌟 AWM: Immensely powerful. The AWM is the only gun in the game that will one-hit KO against a level 3 helmet. With exceptional range, in the right hands it’s an invaluable tool for taking down well-geared foes. You'll only find it in care packages, along with its .300 Magnum (7.62×67mm) ammo type.

SKS: The second-weakest long gun, fulfilling its role as a marksman rifle rather than a fully-fledged sniper weapon. I tend to prioritize it below assault rifles unless there’s a handy sniper rifle silencer to attach to it, due to the rarity of sniper mods and the selection of solid single-fire assault rifles.

Kar-98k: A fantastic rifle, with decent iron-sights and deadly accuracy. Try to take the extra moment to line up headshots while operating the Kar-98—the slow rate of fire often means you’ll get limited opportunities to shoot and it can be difficult to hit targets that are moving defensively. A single headshot will KO enemies wearing anything below a level 3 helmet. Body shots will require at least two shots, or three against a level 3 vest.

M24: Kind of like the AWM’s little brother—not quite as powerful but still highly effective at distance. If you want to hide in the hills and take potshots, this will be your weapon of choice thanks to its relatively abundant 7.62mm ammunition.

Mk14 EBR: We haven't hit a supply drop with one of these yet, so we can't speak from experience, but here are the details: The Mk14 is a new mid-power marksman rifle with a tripod that increases stability while prone, and a higher bullet velocity than the SKS, Kar98, and M24. The Mk14 EBR and the VSS below are the only marksman rifles with automatic firing modes. We wouldn't say no to one if we came across it.

VSS: The VSS is an unusual weapon. It comes with a permanent scope, and though its subsonic 9mm ammo is weak and tough to put on mark at long distances, the suppression makes it hard for targets to gauge your location. If you’re struggling to find optics and assault rifles, it can give you medium range capability in a pinch, and could come in handy in the late game. 

Recommended sniper mods: 

8x scope, 15x scope – An AWM or M24 with no scope is a curse in disguise—they have no iron-sights. 

Suppressor – Nothing in Battlegrounds is more terrifying than realising a sniper is shooting at you, without being able to tell which direction they’re firing from.

Hit the next page for Pistols, Shotguns, and special weapons.

Pistols

Pistols are not in an especially good place at the moment. They're weak, inaccurate, and have bad iron-sights. If you’re using a pistol during any stage other than the first five minutes of a game, the better option is probably hiding and avoiding combat altogether.

Choose whichever pistol matches ammo types with your other weapons to save inventory space and then hope you never have to shoot it. Beware the awful reload time on the R1895.

Shotguns

🌟 S686: The classic double-barrelled shotgun is probably the most effective tool for extreme close quarters. If you miss both shots you’re probably dead, but the two rounds are enough to finish off even the most heavily armored enemy and can be fired almost simultaneously. With the longest effective range of any shotgun (around 12m) and the fastest time to kill a fully armored enemy, the more modern shotguns pale in comparison.

S12K: The S12K is great if you’re worried about accuracy, with five rounds in a mag and a speedy rate of fire you can comfortably spam it at close ranges. You can't attach a choke, which means it’s less effective than other shotguns at anything beyond close range, while it does slightly less damage per shot. Uses assault rifle modifications (don’t even think about sticking a scope on it though).

S1897: The pump-action shotgun is, like all weapons of this class, incredibly powerful at close range (up-to around seven meters). However, the slow rate of fire can spell your doom if you miss even once, making it unforgiving.

Recommended shotgun mods:

Shotgun choke – gives the S686 or S1897 a much-needed boost to range, making them effective at picking off wounded enemies at distance, or throwing buckshot into cars full of enemies.

Extended mag – Makes room for a couple more cartridges in the S12K.

Melee

The frying pan the only melee option worth taking right now, primarily because it can save your ass.

Special weapons

M249: Another care package only weapon, the huge 100 round clip, strong damage and speedy rate of fire make this a potent tool for car destruction, while at mid-range it can tear exposed targets to pieces. The M249 is even surprisingly effective at long ranges, particularly if you go prone and deploy the tripod (this happens automatically). Try to fire it in bursts or you’ll quickly lose accuracy.

Crossbow: A weapon for people who want to share clips of themselves pulling off clutch shots. With damage second only to the AWM, the crossbow combines with poor range and a slow projectile travel time to give you a weapon that is extremely limited in usefulness, but extremely satisfying to kill with. The bolts fall to the ground quickly after a few dozen meters. 

It is wonderfully stealthy, though. A quiver attachment slightly improves the dreadful reload time. 

Tommy Gun: Something of a novelty weapon right now. The Tommy-gun is hard to control and doesn’t do much damage, but the fast-rate of fire and 100-round drum mag means it’s exceptional for shooting vehicles. The fact that it’s limited to care package drops means you’ll probably be quite angry if you risked everything for this underwhelming antique. If you have a Vector or UMP with all the mods they’re simply more reliable weapons for killing people quickly.

Inspired by Brendan Greene's recent Mod Hall of Fame inductee Battle Royale, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds has impressed since arriving in Early Access two months ago. Besides doubling its playerbase and hitting two million sales inside its first four weeks, it also raised over $220,000 for charity shortly thereafter. 

The MMO-meet-survival game has now revealed the patch notes for its second monthly update—which will hit stable servers on Thursday, May 25 at 1am PST/9am BST and everything else in between.  

Similar to previous updates, the latest list of tweaks and adjustments is fairly extensive. It can be viewed in its entirety over here, however highlights include the addition of the VSS suppressed sniper rifle with a built-in 4X scope. Found only in care packages, it takes 9mm ammo. 

In addition to a new, sidecar-less motorcycle, the update also introduces air control of motorbikes, which prompted PlayerUnknown himself to post this earlier today:

God willing, Battlegrounds will become a 100-person extreme sports survival game. We look forward to your forward and backflips.

Balance-wise, the update reduces the Vector and Winchester's power, while slightly increasing the AKM's bullet damage. As for stock attachments, a cheek pad can now be added to the SKS sniper rifle, a tactical stock can now be implemented to the M416 Vector, and modified recoils can now be applied to the AKM, SCAR, M16 and HK416. A new scope rendering method has also been introduced, allowing for greater aiming precision and showcased here. 

Again, a number UI and rendering issues, as well as a host of bug fixes have been ironed out in PUBG's second Early Access update. Speaking directly to lag issues and the quality of its servers, however, the game's creators note the following: 

"I have seen a lot of speculation about the cause of the lag some of you experience. One of the more popular theories is that we run our games on potato quality servers. I would like to put this theory to bed by telling you our servers run on the highest possible spec machines that AWS [Amazon Web Services] offer. 

"We are currently in the middle of profiling the servers to attempt to track down the cause of the lag, but as I have said before, this will take us time to complete, so I ask for your patience while we work to improve server performance for all players. 

"While [the] next monthly update will be focused on improving server performance, the optimisation process won't stop there, and we will continue to improve performance of the servers all the way through Early Access."

Playerunknown Battlegrounds' second update goes live on Thursday, May 25.