Dear Community,

On March 23rd, PUBG is officially 3 years old! We want to start off by thanking you for all your support over the last 3 years. 2019 was in a lot of ways a year of taking risks for us. Reworking a beloved map like Erangel required a lot of love and care to get right, but we’re pleased that many of you are happy with the result. We also introduced our smallest map to date, Karakin, which brought a new intensity to PUBG’s brand of Battle Royale.

To help navigate these new and reworked maps, we improved our movements systems to allow for climbing and ledge grabs, greatly increasing the tactical options available to players. And speaking of tactical, 2019’s Weapon Mastery system allowed you to track your progress with the extensive PUBG arsenal for Weapon Charms and bragging points.

While there was plenty new, we saw 2019 as a year of building a foundation for PUBG. Going forward, we want to continue to improve upon what’s made PUBG so popular these last 3 years. This will include map reworks, new maps, new weapons & mechanics, additional game options such as Arcade’s Team Deathmatch, and of course quality of life improvements & bug fixes for some of your most pressing issues.

The first of those reworks has already been talked about! Thanks to the help of our PUBG Partners, you all got a first look at the updated Vikendi. We’re pouring over your data and feedback from the test to get it polished up before the train leaves the station. We want each new and reworked map to bring an entirely new experience to you all with fun and exciting new mechanics, so a big thank you to everyone in our community who tested it out and sent in your feedback.

Community is the backbone of any online game and as such celebrating our 3rd year also means celebrating you. This is why we recently ran our first ever Community Skin Design Contest in which members of the PUBG Community from all around the world submitted their own skin designs to be voted on by you.

The winners of this contest had their designs created and they will be available to all PC and Console players for free during this celebration. Details on the winners can be found below!

PUBG has come a long way since March of 2017 and we fully understand that there is still much to do, but it is because of all of you that we’ve been able to take our little game and grow it into one of the biggest games of all time. We know an achievement like this comes with a big responsibility to you all and we’re working hard this year to do better.

We hope to share these efforts and our plans for 2020 soon but for now let us thank you once again for being a part of this incredible journey. From all of us here at PUBG to all of you around the world, happy 3rd anniversary!

-The PUBG Team

• Winners of Global Skin Contest are included in the 3rd Anniversary Item Box!
  
  • Hoodie skin by @KARAAGEKUN_KEI from JP
    
  • M416 Skin by @DY_BUDDY from CN
    
  • Parachute skin by @SEB34627111 from EMEA]/list]
  PC Distribution Period
  
  • Mar 23rd (Mon) 0900 KST ~ April 23rd 0900 KST
    
  • 3rd Anniversary Skin Set can be purchased in the in-game store for FREE
    
  • (Don't forget to collect your items before the gift period ends!)

Pick up the all new Panzerfaust and bring an explosive new party to Karakin or grab one of the newly rebalanced guns to try out. The UMP45, Tommy Gun, and M249 have all received some changes. The M249 and DBS have been taken out of Care Packages and can now be found among normal loot on all Battlegrounds.

There are also several quality of life improvements, including much requested changes to remove invincibility in Team Deathmatch once you fire a weapon. We've also taken a step to mitigate the hitching issues some players were experiencing.

There's plenty more to go over, so check out the full patch notes here for more details.

Hello Players,

Last weekend, we conducted the LABS: Ranked Ruleset test. However, due to the Vikendi test running at the same time, many of you asked us for additional time to test. Because of this, we are bringing the Ranked Ruleset back for a round two of testing to give more players a chance to provide their feedback without feeling like they're missing out on other tests.

Before we get to the details of the second test, we want to talk more on why we're making a separate ruleset for ranked in the first place.

Why come up with a different Ranked Ruleset when the Esports Ruleset (S.U.P.E.R.) already exists? If we're trying to have a Competitive Mode, what's more competitive than esports? The PUBG Esports Ruleset is designed to be exciting to watch, while providing as competitive of an environment as possible to our pros. This is why, for example, the entire looting phase is minimized though increased loot and faster early zones. It's getting players into the action faster to keep the audience engaged. This puts the focus on the competition between the professionals who play PUBG for a living, with as few external elements impacting their tactics and movements as possible, such as the Red Zone. We looked at a lot of data after releasing the PGC 2019 mode last year and came to the conclusion that the Esports Ruleset was too big of a change from the normal Public Match for most players. After looking at all the numbers, the Ranked Ruleset is an attempt to appeal to a wider spectrum of PUBG players who want to be challenged by a competitive environment but still want to play a game they know and understand.

The second Ranked Ruleset test will take place in LABS from March 13th to 16th and settings will be identical to the previous test. We've dropped them below again for a refresher.

The goal is to provide an environment where players can show off their skills, while maintaining the fun and unique experience of PUBG Battle Royale. Getting this right incorporates various systems, such as rank algorithm, rewards, leaderboards, and much more, which is why it's crucial for us to analyze gameplay data and get your feedback.

As before, feedback from this test will help us determine whether we need to make some adjustments before we go live with Competitive Mode, so be sure to share your thoughts on the current settings. We'll take a look at your feedback alongside the data we receive once the test is over and decide the next moves from there. Our goal is a fun and competitive environment that allows players the chance to prove their skills while still feeling like PUBG Battle Royale.

Thank you and enjoy the Ranked Ruleset test!



Rules

• Number of players: 64 players
  
• Perspective: FPP / TPP
  
• Squad only
  
• Random map (Erangel / Miramar / Sanhok)

Test Period

• Mar 13 16:00 KST ~ Mar 16 16:00 KST

Red Zone
In public matches, Red Zones spawn randomly across the map, but generally appear more centrally on the map. However, in Ranked Ruleset, the Red Zone is placed towards the edges of the safe area. This encourages players to keep moving and get to the safe zones sooner, meaning players will have to make quicker decisions when it comes to looting, fighting, or moving.

• Smaller Red Zone than public matches
  
• Fewer shells (explosions within the Red Zone)
  
• Red Zone size and frequency decrease as the match progresses
  
• Red Zone bombing duration is less than public matches 

Item Spawns
We have adjusted the item spawns in the Ranked Ruleset to provide a competitive gameplay environment while maintaining the original familiar Battle Royale experience you know from public matches.

However, players will still have to loot several areas in order to be fully equipped and we expect combat during these phases to contribute to your loot as well.

• The total amount of item spawns on all maps are greater than that of in public match
  
• Increased item spawn rate of primary weapons, armor, and healing items

Blue Zone
We have adjusted the zone settings to ensure the maximized use of all areas on the Battlegrounds. In early stages of Blue Zone, players will have to move a little bit more swiftly compared to public matches.

After the early phases, zones are set to have players more likely to be engaged with other teams and players. With these new settings, players will be able to prove their skills in much more tense environment than public matches.

• Early phase: Similar to existing public matches, but with a shorter prep time
  
• Middle phase: Blue Zone speed is much quicker, similar to Esports Ruleset settings
  
• Late phase: Blue Zone has higher damage but moves slower. Players in this phase will be under pressure to pick their fights and keep moving.

Other

• The starting plane's flight path is more likely to fly closer to the first safe area.
  
• Vehicle spawns are same as the normal games, however, motor glider is disabled until we have further analysis and feeback. 
  
• Flare guns will be spawned as they provide a strategic choice between care package and BRDM-2 while taking a risk.
  
• Unlike the previous test where players were not able to collect any rewards, in this test players will be able to gain BP.

Thank you in advance for your feedback and we'll see you on the Battlegrounds!

- PUBG

Update April 9: An additional update has been deployed:

• Greatly reduced instances of hitching during gameplay. We will continue to make further optimizations where possible
  
• Fixed an issue where players could clip through walls/ceilings of buildings by using vaulting and ledge-grab
  
  • Most instances of this exploit have been resolved, although in some uncommon situations the exploit can still be performed. We'll keep an eye out and work on additional fixes
• Reverted blood effect changes implemented in Update 5.3
  
• Full details here: https://www.pubg.com/april-9th-maintenance-hotfix/

Update April 1: An additional update has been deployed to fix the following issues:

• Fixed an issue with Win94 kills being recorded as DBS in Mastery
  
• Improved backend network data logging to help improve connection quality
  
• Changes to decrease instances of game crashes

Update March 25: An additional update has been deployed to fix the following issues:

• ADS view obscured with certain weapons
  
• Unable to open mission list in some cases
  
• Visual issue with "Victory Dance 14" emote
  
• Panzerfaust warhead wouldn't explode when shot mid air
  
• DBS and M249 spawned without ammunition on Karakin
  
• Unable to complete Panzerfaust missions which finishing DBNO enemies or kill backblasted enemies
  
• Unable to complete Sticky Bomb missions if the enemy was DBNO
  
• Weapon would remain in the character's hand when bandaging
  
• 'Equip C4' displayed under key bindings

Update 6.3 is live and some big updates have arrived. We're dropping the much teased Panzerfaust onto Karakin, rebalancing some weapons including one formerly only found in Care Packages, and summing it all up with some bug fixes and quality of life improvements including the much requested change to invincibility in Team Deathmatch. All this and more in Update 6.3! Read on for all the details.

Update March 13: Due to community feedback, we're changing some of our initial plans. The M249 will be available on ALL maps as uncommon ground loot, as will the DBS which has also been removed from Care Packages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4sr0-tItnY


We've been sneaking the Panzerfaust into our Season 6 videos since the start, but we're finally putting the boom tube into your hands! While a powerful AoE damage tool on the Battlegrounds, there are some drawbacks to picking the Panzerfaust up. First of all, it takes up a primary weapon slot, limiting your options on the diverse terrain of Karakin. The projectile travels pretty quickly, but can be dodged by the attentive player. There's also a backblast area behind the Panzerfaust, so watch out for those squadmates before you go firing it off.

Panzerfaust

• Karakin exclusive
  
• Uncommon world spawn found across the map
  
• Guaranteed to be in every airdrop
  
• The Panzerfaust warhead explodes upon impact, but can also be blown up mid air
  
  • The damage radius is 6m from the point of impact
    
  • The explosion can deal splash damage through thin walls and objects, up to a short distance
    
  • Can be used to breach specific walls on Karakin, much like the Sticky Bomb
    
  • The warhead will explode mid air, before impact if damaged by explosions or shot by a bullet
• One time use
  
  • Once the warhead is fired, the Panzerfaust tube will be discarded and cannot be picked back up
• Firing the warhead produces a backblast, so be careful!
  
  • The backblast damages those within a 3m zone behind the weapon
    Be careful you don't have any teammates, or a wall too close behind you. You've been warned
• Zeroing options at 60, 100 (default) and 150 meters

As we near the end of the season, we're also doing a little balance shuffle on a few weapons. The Tommy Gun has been weak for a while, so we're adding a sight slot for red dots and holos and upping damage, the M249 is moving from Care Packages to normal loot but is also losing a little damage and getting a bit more recoil, and the UMP-45 was nerfed a little too hard with the switch from 9mm, so we're giving it some love across the board. Take a look below for all the changes.

Update March 13: Due to community feedback, we're changing some of our initial plans. The M249 will be available on ALL maps as uncommon ground loot, as will the DBS which has also been removed from Care Packages.

Tommy Gun
Stronger and more versatile. You can now also attach Red Dots and Holos to your Tommy.

• Added upper rail to attach Red Dot and Holo Sights
  
• Increased rate of fire from 700 to 750
  
• Increased firing accuracy
  
  • We've reduced the bullet deviation penalty when firing for an extended duration
• Increased moving accuracy
  
• Decreased recoil when firing for an extended duration
  
  • This is due to the increased rate of fire

M249​
Removed from Care Packages and added to normal loot on ALL maps. Can now take more attachments but is tougher to control and does less damage.

• Added Stock attachment slot
  
  • A Tactical Stock can be equipped to improve weapon stability
• Added Magazine attachment​ slot
  
  • Reduced standard ammo capacity to 75
    
  • Now holds 150 with an extended mag
• Decreased base bullet damage from 45 to 40
  
• Increased recoil
  
• Found on ALL maps
  
• Semi-rare spawn

UMP-45​
An increase in power across the board, making the UMP a more viable choice for your arsenal.

• Increased base bullet damage​ from 39 to 41
  
• Increased rate of fire from 650 to 670
  
• Increased muzzle velocity from 300 to 360
  
  • This means an increase to the speed at which bullets leave the barrel, making it a bit easier to track moving targets

Alongside these balance changes, the M249 and Tommy Gun models and firing sounds have been updated.

DBS

• Removed from Care Packages
  
• Now found on ALL maps as rare ground loot

• Improved visibility of nearby items on the ground by enhancing the glowing effect and adding a new pulse effect
  
  • The new pulse effect can be disabled and is listed as "Item Flashing Effect" under Gameplay settings
• Added an electric static sound to the Blue Zone wall providing players with an audible queue when the Blue Zone is near
  
• Players can now use 'Push to Talk' in the main menu lobby
  
• [Team Deathmatch] Added Rich Presence to let your Discord and Steam friends know when you're fragging in TDM
  
• [Team Deathmatch] Invincibility will now be removed instantly when engaging in combat (firing a weapon, throwing grenade etc.)
  
• [Team Deathmatch] Hotkey for player reports is disabled for 1 second after death to prevent accidental activation

• Optimization improvements have been applied to reduce instances of FPS stuttering (hitching) on certain hardware configurations
  
  • We'll monitor the effectiveness of this change and continue to work on additional performance optimization

Fixed the following issues:

• Location of teammate's character not synchronized with observer's display in certain situations
  
• Map texture displayed in poor quality
  
• 'Round 3' message constantly displayed and round not starting in Team Deathmatch
  
• Name of Victory dance 12 emote not displayed properly
  
• Visual misalignment on the Blue Zone UI
  
• Visual issue with the background of the vehicle durability UI
  
• PLAYERUNKNOWN'S Trench Coat clipping through the character
  
• All glasses & mask items not being displayed when equipping Golden Dragon Traditional Cap
  
• Titles of all Keys not being displayed correctly in store and inventory
  
• Unable to accomplish the mission 'Reach top 10 after earning a kill with QBZ/AKM' in certain situations
  
• Wrong 4x reticle displayed when using the DP-28
  
• Abnormal Blue Zone sound played in spectator mode
  
• Reload interaction sounds heard differently in FPP and TPP views
  
• Invite friends option unable to turned on in custom matches
  
• Freelook could be used to gain an advantageous view after dying
  
• Sticky Bomb blinking red prior to being thrown
  
• Fixed an awkward crossbow animations in certain situations

• Sticky Bombs can now be found in Training Mode
  
• Added additional ringtone for the Sticky Bomb
  
• DBS spawns can be adjusted in custom matches

• The 3rd track of Survivor Pass missions has been unlocked! The new missions follow an explosive theme
  
• The current season of both the Survivor Pass and Survival Title System will end on April 14 PDT
  
  • Starting April 1st (KST) / March 31st (PDT), there will be a countdown on the Survivor Pass lobby banner notifying players of the pass end date
    
  • A pop-up message will be displayed to users purchasing Premium Pass, alerting them of the time left until pass end
• Premium Pass and Level-up items can be purchased until the Pass period ends

• 4 new Badlands skin sets have been added, available until 4/15

• Karakin is now available in Custom Matches
  
• Updated Esports Mode preset
  
  • The previous 2019 preset has been replaced by the 2020 Global Esports Ruleset
    
  • Blue Zone settings are identical to 2019. However, item spawn rates have been changed in accordance to each map's ruleset.
    
  • This preset uses the S.U.P.E.R ruleset (Official Esports Ruleset)
• Inner Blue Zone option has been added
  
  • This allows you to create new custom game experiences similar to the Bluehole mode we recently tested in LABS
• Organized custom match presets and added some new ones.
  
  • 'The First Weapon for Your Chicken Dinner' preset has been added
    
  • Drop in with a random weapon set and fight your way to victory, no weapons spawn in the world, although you can pick up the weapons from player death boxes
• [PUBG Partners] Motor Glider and Sticky Bomb have been added to Sandbox mode
  
• Known Issue: Snowmobiles and Snowbikes don't spawn on Vikendi
  
  • This issue will be resolved in next patch

Note: Replays from previous updates are no-longer playable, as the replay system has been updated.

Hello players!

One of the most important elements of Battle Royale is survival, and being the last survivor standing means growing through experience. However, many of you have stated that PUBG also needs to promote the fierce competition between players as they play and win games, and a ruleset to amplify that competitive spirit. For those players, we're happy to introduce the Ranked Ruleset.

A ruleset like this needs feedback though, so like our previous skill-based rating test, we're looking to PUBG LABS to gather your feedback as quickly and efficiently as possible.

During this LABS test, we'll be analyzing the data and your feedback to better understand what our players are enjoying and will adjust the ruleset accordingly before we take it live.

Now, let's take a look at the details of the Ranked Ruleset and when you can get in and try it out!



Test Goals & Expectations

The Ranked Ruleset test aims to merge the strengths of both public and esport ruleset settings to build a new ruleset specifically made for competitive play. We hope this adds some additional tools for players to be competitive without it being too jarring for players coming from normals.

The Ranked Ruleset test will be available in both FPP and TPP mode and maps will be chosen randomly from Erangel, Miramar and Sanhok. The number of players will be reduced to 64 as well.

Other changes of the ruleset are as below.

Loot Spawn Adjustment

For an environment like this to thrive, players need access to the right tools to be competitive. Therefore, the item spawn rate on all 3 maps has been set higher than that of normal Battle Royale games. In addition, the spawn rate of preferred items such as primary weapons, Level 2 equipment, 4x scopes, and First Aid Kits have been increased to make for a more competitive environment. Players will still have to loot several areas in order to be fully equipped, but should be going into firefights with at least a start on their final loadout.

Blue Zone Balance Adjustment

To help keep the fight moving with fewer players, the Blue Zone will also have a few changes from normal games. The first safe zones will be similar to that of public matches, but the tempo will grow faster as the game continues to force more confrontations as the player count drops. The goal of these settings is to allow players to test their skills in a more tense environment than in traditional public matches.

Other Adjustments

The starting plane's flight path is more likely to fly closer to the first safe area.

Vehicle spawns are same as the normal games, but the Motor Glider is temporarily disabled until we can put more thought into if it is right for competitive game play. Your feedback here would be welcomed as well!

Red Zones have been adjusted to act as an additional threat for out of position players and are much more likely to occur at the edge of the safe zone.

We've decided to keep Flare Guns in for now as they provide a strategic choice between Care Packages and the BRDM-2. If this item sways competitive games too heavily, we'll look to adjust or remove the Flare Guns.

For this test, players will unfortunately not gain BP or Survivor Pass XP for Ranked Ruleset matches due to them being in LABS.
Test Schedule

The Ranked Ruleset will be available in the LABS section of the menu during the dates listed below. For easy access, we've added a LABS banner above the start button!

Start: March 6th - 16:00 KST / March 6th - 0700 UTC
End: March 9th - 16:00 KST / March 9th - 0700 UTC



Feedback

Feedback from this test will help us determine if it is right for our upcoming Competitive Mode or whether we need to make some adjustments, so be sure to share your thoughts on what you do and do not like. While we’re not quite ready to dive into the specifics of the upcoming Competitive Mode, keep an eye out for another announcement with more details in the coming months.

Thanks for playing!

- PUBG

Hello Players!

At the beginning of Season 6, we announced that Vikendi was going on a little vacation while we debuted Karakin. Since then, we've given some of Vikendi's landmarks a revamp, modifying terrain, towns, weather, updating Dinopark, and adding new trains that travel around the map! We want to hear what you think about the changes and also collect your feedback early while we apply the final coats of paint to our icy Battleground, so we're giving you the opportunity to playtest the new map early with help from our official PUBG Partners!

• New railroads and trains have been added across Vikendi
  
• A large portion of Vikendi's snow has been removed or reduced
  
• Dinopark has been expanded to Dinoland
  
• Modified towns and terrain.
  
  • Dinoland
    
  • Abbey relocated to Mount Kreznic
    
  • Removed: Tovar, Movatra

We're giving PUBG Partners the first chance to test out the updated map with their community. Our partners will have exclusive access to the updated Vikendi in custom matches on the PUBG Test Server and will be hosting games for you all to jump into and try. Best of all, player and partner feedback collected during the test period will be delivered directly to the devs, so make your voice heard and let us know what you think!
Mar 6th (Fri) 1600 KST / 0800 CET/ Mar 5th (Thu) 2300 PST ~ Mar 9th (Mon) 1600 KST / 0800 CET / Mar 8th (Sun) 2300 PST

1. Log in to the PUBG Test Server
   
2. Join your favorite PUBG Partner's custom match
   
3. Play the updated map and send in your feedback

This is your chance to help shape the map, so please do not hesitate to let us know what works, what doesn't, any bugs you find, and whatever else you'd like to see! We're looking forward to hearing your impressions.

See you on new Vikendi!

--The PUBG Team

Hello players,

We know the last few months have had some ongoing issues impacting gameplay and wanted to take a moment to address everything. We know the below issues have been extremely frustrating to deal with and we're sorry they've persisted for so long.

First of all, we want to give a brief statement on cheating. Combating cheaters is one of our highest priorities and we're utilizing multiple internal teams and external resources to find new solutions for this problem. We’ll be sharing more information regarding these efforts in our upcoming Community Letter and 2020 Roadmap post in early March.

Now let's talk about some of the issues, why they've remained such a problem, and what we're doing about it.

Poor Performance (FPS), FPS Stuttering/Freezing & Crashing Issues

We've received lots of feedback regarding performance issues, including FPS drops, stuttering, and crashing and despite these efforts, we've found that performance issues and crashes have been increasing since the January update.

Our development team is conducting ongoing multi-faceted tests and analysis in an attempt to identify and resolve the issues causing this performance loss and causing game crashes. The difficult part is that some of these issues are impacting specific hardware, or happen in unique situations which are difficult to reproduce. To improve performance issues, which have to track down the specific cause, which often means needing to reproduce the specific steps leading to the issue. We want to thank all of you who have sent in your replay files and system data to help us as we try to identify the cause.

If you are experiencing performance drops, FPS stutter, or game crashes, please contact our support team at http://PUBG.com/support and share whatever information you can regarding your PC hardware and any other information you believe is relevant.

This is a top priority for us right now and we thank those of you who are affected for your patience.

DDoS Attacks Against our Game Servers

As many online games are forced to deal with from time to time, our servers have been the target of intermittent DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks. When a game server is under attack by DDoS attacks, all players who are in the server almost certainly face connection issues such as network delays, a significant ping increase, and severe packet loss. Unfortunately, our servers have been increasingly targeted for these attacks. Last November, the intensity of the attacks increased to a level we hadn’t experienced before, which increased again in February.

Our dev team has been increasing our DDoS defense solutions, working with various server infrastructure providers and analyzing their effectiveness in order to protect our game servers and provide a more stable service. At the same time, we're working on our own defense system specifically designed to protect PUBG's game servers.

While testing various DDoS defense solutions from external infrastructure providers, server locations were often located far away from standard locations, which resulted in increased ping and other network issues for some players. Additionally, many players have suffered constant packet loss issues due to the experimental DDoS defense solutions deployed by these providers. We know that we could have been much more open in communicating these reasons with you, but did not want to contaminate tests and results by letting the attackers know we were doing this testing. Regardless, our sincere apologies to players who experienced ongoing connectivity issues during this time.

The good news is, our recently developed internal solution has reduced the impact of DDoS attacks by nearly 85%. This is and will remain an ongoing issue, but our dev team will also continue to work on and implement additional measures to mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks when they occur.

DDoS server attacks are a serious crime and we've been gathering all information we can to take legal action against the perpetrators.

Arcade - Team Deathmatch Matchmaking Issues [Mostly Resolved]

Team Deathmatch is PUBG’s first "Arcade" game mode and we've been thrilled to see such a great response so far. Unfortunately, we found some issues with TDM matchmaking that caused players to have extended matchmaking times or sometimes not be matched at all. Additionally, another issue was identified that sometimes caused teams to have more than 8 players, with less than 8 on the other team.

The team in charge of this mode analyzed the cause of these issues after they were reported and worked to deploy a hotfix to the issue affecting team size, which is now resolved. The issues related to matchmaking times currently remain and while we've improved the situation with some back-end improvements, we're actively working on a permanent solution.

While we continue work on this, if you experience any of the above problems, please let us know through our community channels or http://PUBG.com/support

Disabled Custom Match Presets

We've received reports that custom match presets are not functioning properly since the last patch.
This issue was an unfortunate side effect of improvements being made to back-end custom match code. We've taken action to resolve existing saved presets, but it will take time to fix this issue entirely. The good news is that saving and loading new presets now works correctly. Our apologies for those affected by this issue.

Unrelated to custom matches, we've resolved other recent issues such as player stats not being applied properly, inability to create FACEIT matches, and players falling through the ground at a specific location on Karakin.

In Closing

We understand there are many other high-priority issues impacting gameplay. One of our primary goals this year is to be more transparent with what we're working on, so we wanted to get this letter out to you to address some of the more notable issues we've faced recently.

Rest assured, we’ll continue to work on the unresolved issues and will do our best to be more open with details on these subjects moving forward.

Thank you

As many of you know, Australia has been devastated by bushfires that began all the way back in September. While the New South Wales Fire Agency has now declared the fires contained, the impact they have had on the people and wildlife of Australia has been immense. An estimated 33 people and 1 billion animals were killed by the fires, with many more affected.

While we’re happy to see the fires contained, there’s an incredible amount of damage left in their wake. To help Australia through this difficult time, PUBG Corporation is raising funds through the limited time sale of the Australia Fire Relief - Pan skin. The skin, which features original art by community artist @swatercolour, will be sold for $2.99 with 100% of the profits from each sale going to help Australia.

The Australia Fire Relief - Pan will be available on PC and Console.

• PC: 19th February - 18th March - $2.99
  
• Console: TBA
  
  • The sale of this item on console has been postponed, as Update 6.2 has been delayed. The new sales schedule will be announced in the near future via a separate announcement.

After the sale ends, we will send all funds raised via a lump sum donation to a chosen charity.

For those who purchase the pan, we thank you for your contribution to this effort. If the pan is not for you, we encourage you to research the disaster relief efforts and donate directly to a charity of your choosing. It will take some time for Australia and its environment to recover from a disaster of this scale, but we are thankful to be in a position where we can help in some way and are grateful to have fans like you willing to contribute to such a worthy cause.

Thank you,

- The PUBG Team

Dive into the mayhem of the all new Team Deathmatch game mode, the first in a series of alternative ways to play PUBG that are coming to our new Arcade section of the menu. We’ll add and rotate new game modes as time goes on, but for now you can enjoy the FPS classic 8v8 frag fest.



Battle Royale is getting a bit of a change up as well with some much requested alterations to how frag grenades and other throwables work. There’s a lot here but the main changes are that frag grenades weigh more and their damage is now reduced by your vest. To see all the changes, be sure to check out the Update 6.2 Patch Notes.

We’ve also got loot changes, including the fan favorite G36C and MP5K guns, coming to Karakin, a visual update to the Blue Zone to help you see better, some improvements to blood effects at a distance, and the new parachute follow mode that ensures you always land near your chosen squad mate.

All this and more in Update 6.2, now live! For full details, you can check out patch notes here.

Season 6 is in full-swing! Best hope the intensity and explosive gameplay of Karakin has you ready for our newest heart-pumping, non-stop action game mode- Team Deathmatch. PUBG LABS is also returning with the next iteration of our Skill-Based Rating test, with changes based on feedback received from the first test.

We're making some much needed and often requested changes to throwables. Extra-attention has been paid to Frag Grenades, which will be seeing change reducing their overall strength.

Read on for more details!



The long-requested Team Deathmatch mode has now arrived! Intense 8v8 FPP fights on 7 different battlefields pulled from your favorite maps. TDM features classic PUBG gunplay and mechanics with all the fun and action of respawning back into the fight. The boost gauge functions differently in TDM and fills by scoring kills and assists, restoring your health after you haven't received damage for 5 seconds.

The team with the most kills in 10 minutes, or the first to reach 50 kills wins the round, with 2 round wins securing the match victory.



Game mode overview:

• 8 vs 8
  
• FPP only
  
• Weapon Spawn Kits
  
• Respawns
  
• No knockdowns
  
• No friendly fire

Read more details on the introduction of Team Deathmatch here.

Jump into TDM through the new Arcade section of the menu.

Gameplay

Grenade Changes



Frag Grenades

• Vests now mitigate damage received from Frag Grenades, but vest durability isn't reduced when taking damage from Frags.
  
  • Damage mitigation amount is dependent on the level of vest worn by the player, with the same % reduction as for bullet damage.
• Frags will deal 20% less damage to prone players.
  
• Item weight increased by 50%.
  
  • Each Frag Grenade now takes 27 inventory capacity, up from 18.
• Pulling the pin of a Frag is now louder and audible from further away.

Smoke Grenades

• Decreased fuse time from 3 seconds to 1 second.

Stun Grenades

• Increased indirect hit effect radius
  
  • Up to 6.5m, from 5.5m.
• Ringing sound now impacts players through walls
  
  • This matches the Frag Grenade mechanic, although the impact effects a smaller radius.
• Added slight camera shake to players near the explosion.
  
• Default fuse time mechanic:
  
  • Stuns now explode 0.7 sec after first impact, or after fuse timer runs out, whichever comes first.
    
  • Fuse time without cooking has been increased to 5 sec.
    
    • 2.5 second fuse timer when cooking the stun remains unchanged.

Molotov Cocktail

• Increased the speed at which fire spreads by 50%.
  
• Fire can now spread slightly further, with an increased damage radius.
  
• Changed the way fire spreads around objects. Fire will now more consistently reach the back side of objects (especially thin objects like trees).
  
• Re-introduced direct damage while standing in fire, in additional to existing damage over time.
  
  • Players in fire will now take an additional 10 damage per second
• Fire now reaches higher and should be obstructed less by small objects.

Frag and Stun Grade visual effects have also been updated, alongside a more realistic Frag Grenade sound.

Right Peeking/Leaning
Historically, when moving to the right around objects in PUBG (without peeking/leaning), much less of your character was shown than if you moved out to the left. This recently received increased visibility in the community, leading to players using this mechanic to their advantage more often, which has led to some frustration.

This mechanic is closely tied to the fundamental design of the PUBG gunplay system, making it difficult to resolve the issue completely without potential adverse changes to the feel of PUBG gunplay.

With that said, as we announced earlier this month in response to community concern, we’ll be making a change in this patch to reduce the advantage gained when peering at your opponent from the right side of objects, by exposing more of the player model.

• Players viewing their opponent from the right side of objects will now have more of their body exposed
  
  • Player’s head will lean slightly more towards the scope when ADS, so that character’s head is more exposed
    
  • Made adjustments to some weapons to have characters body be more exposed when peering to the right of objects

We will continue to monitor community feedback regarding this change.

Karakin Changes
A few weeks ago, we implemented a loot adjustment for Karakin based on player feedback. Since then we've been monitoring games to determine if any further adjustment needs to be made and a couple things have stood out to us. First, healing items are still a bit too hard to find for how frequently people are fighting. Second, Snipers and DMRs are really strong on Karakin.

We're going to try an updated loot setting that will increase meds, while reducing bandages, SRs, DMRs, and the Win94. We know many of you prefer these guns on Karakin, but we feel that Karakin needs a little more risk for the reward of these weapons. To help mitigate this adjustment a bit, we're adding the G36C and MP5K to Karakin as requested by many of you when Vikendi started its vacation. Also, we have adjusted the care package airplane speed to move faster across the island.

Of course, your feedback is essential here. Try out the new settings and let us know how everything feels. Is it worth it for you to spend more time searching to get that SLR? Do matches feel more competitive without as many long range weapons? Let us know so we can continue to adjust!

• G36C and MP5K have been added to Karakin
  
• Spawn rate of First Aid Kits and boost items have been increased
  
• Spawn rate of bandages has been decreased
  
• Spawn rate of DMR, SR and Win94 on Karakin has been decreased
  
• Increased care package airplane speed to move faster across the island
  
• Updated Blue Zone Effects

Updated Blue Zone Effects


Adjusted Blue Zone effects

• Distortion effect has been removed
  
• Altered effect where the Blue Zone meets the ground, to more clearly identify the Blue Zone edge
  
• Lowered the top wall of the Blue Zone
  
• Updated visual shaders
  
• Effects will become more intense as phases progress
  
• Changed sounds for entering and exiting the Blue Zone

Blood Effects Visibility Improvement

• Increased blood color saturation over distance for better visibility
  
• Added distance scaling to blood effects

Parachute ‘Follow’ Feature


Added parachute follow feature to help teammates land together

• During the pre-match countdown, follow UI will be shown at the bottom left of the screen.
  
• Open the map to select a teammate to follow.
  
• You can still select a teammate to follow up until exiting the plane.
  
• After selecting a teammate to follow, you can cancel on the map screen, or also by holding F while in the plane, or while actively following a player in your parachute.
  
• If you’re obstructed by terrain or an object, your follow will be cancelled.

LABS: Skill Based Rating – Second Test

A big thank you to all the players who checked out PUBG Labs and took part in the first test earlier this year! We’ve poured through all your feedback and other data from the test and have made the following changes:

• Players will need to complete 5 placement matches to earn a rank in the new test.
  
  • The highest initial placement rank is Platinum 4 (2600 RP).
• The overall algorithm used has been tuned based on data and feedback from the first test.
  
• Assists now influence your rating.
  
  • Assists are considered to be the same value as Kills for the purpose of RP gains and losses.
• Any kills resulting from friendly fire will count as negative kills
  
• The maximum amount of RP that can be gained or lost after a match is now dynamic per tier, with lower tiers having a larger cap than higher tiers.
  
• The expected performance of players in the Master tier will now increase at every 100 RP above 3500, making it much more difficult to climb in Master tier the higher a player rises
  
• The highest RP a player can reach is now 5000.

Test Duration (live server):

• Start: February 19th, 2020 @ 9:30 AM KST / February 18th, 2020 @ 7:30 PM EST (after maintenance)
  
• End: March 4th, 2020 @ 5:00 AM KST / 3:00 PM EST

Survey Duration:

• The feedback survey will be live for 1 week after the test is over for players to leave feedback on their experience.
  
• Start: March 4th, 2020 @ 3:00 PM EST / 5:00 AM KST March 5th, 2020
  
• End: March 11th, 2020 @ 3:00 PM EST / 5:00 AM KST March 12th, 2020

Friends List UI improvement

• Visual improvement on friends list has been made
  
  • A new icon to distinguish on/offline state has been added
    
  • Improved ID search button UI
    
  • Leave team button has been relocated to the team tab
• Button features which were provided in icons are now available in the context menu on the left
  
  • Hover the mouse cursor on the ID to bring the context menu
    
  • INVITE, FOLLOW/UNFOLLOW, PROFILE, KICK functions can be used on the context menu
• Online users are listed on the top and offline users are listed separately on the foldable list
  
• Slots in the Team tab are separated into 4 slots. Slots are activated accordingly to selected game mode (Solo/Duo/Squad)
  
• Host player will be displayed with a star on the top left of the ID
  
• Invite button has been added on the Career page
  
• Key guide text displayed on the starting island has been modified
  
  • It will be displayed in nouns just like other options which have no direct effect on the game play (Map, Mission List, Inventory etc.)
    
  • Alt+K: Toggle Key Hint → Alt+K: On-Screen Key Guide
• Added brightness adjustment for Karakin

• Performance has been improved with additional WorldOriginShift optimizations

• Custom match
  
  • Erangel classic has been removed
• Observing UI polishing
  
  • Adjusted the sidearm weapon slot in the name layout UI to have weapon icon centered
    
  • Made fine grid adjustments on the all areas of name layout UI
    
    • Default pattern of team number (logo) area has been modified
      
    • This pattern is displayed when not using the logo. Fixed the pattern area so that stripe pattern is displayed properly on trapezoidal shape.
      
    • Relevant UIs are player list, name layout and team list

• PGC 2019 champions and new contents have been added to the hall of fame, Erangel.
  
  • Picture of PGC 2019 champions, Gen.G and 2019 PGC panorama has been added
    
  • PGI key art insignia/banner has been deleted. Gen.G insignia/banner has been added on different location
    
  • Added posters of global events (PAI, PNC, PGC) run by PUBG in 2019
    
  • PGI 2018 FPP champion, OMG’s graffiti has been removed and replaced with 2019 champ, Gen.G
    
  • PGI 2018(OMG, Gen.G gold), PGC 2019 Champion’s (Gen.G) uniform has been added
    
  • The names of champions on the molding has been deleted
    
  • PGC 2019 trophy has been added

• Store sales (Sales period 2/19~3/19)
  
  • CHEERLEADER SET, 5 items
• Improved parachute backpack model design
  
  • Improved backpack design will be applied to all parachute skins

The 2nd track of Survivor Pass missions has been unlocked, along with 4 new Karakin exclusive missions!

• Detailed list of missions
  
  • Survive for more than 3 minutes in Karakin
    
  • Destroy 2 destructible walls with sticky bombs
    
  • Survive 2 times in the Black Zone
    
  • Drop into a named location on Karakin

Mastery

• Weapon Mastery Balancing
  
• Early levels of Weapon Mastery now require less XP to earn. As a result of this change, players may find that some of their Weapon Mastery levels are slightly higher than before.
  
• Due to a technical issue, the PUBG ID feature has been temporarily disabled.

• Replays from previous updates are no-longer playable, as the replay system has been updated

Gameplay

• Resolved issue which allowed a players breath gauge to instantly recover in certain situations when coming out of the water
  
• Resolved issue that prevented players from being moved to their correct spawn location when vaulting at match start in War Mode using ground respawn
  
• Resolved issue with player death boxes blocking grenade damage
  
• Resolved issue with care packages not blocking grenade damage
  
• Resolved issue with the headshot blood effects blocking vision in FPP
  
• Resolved issue which preventing healing/boost item animations from playing when spamming the use hotkey

World

• Resolved issue of some object edges becoming transparent when close to the blue zone
  
• Minor map bug fixes on Erangel and Karakin

Skins & Items

• When a female character wearing Rapture Squad Gloves with tattoo sleeve, wrist looks transparent
  
• Visual issue with character model’s arm when wearing the Tenebres Combat Vest
  
• Visual issue with PGI Title Leggings when equipped with certain multi-slot shoes

UI//UX

• Fixed issue in replays which could prevent certain players from being displayed on the minimap
  
• Fixed issue in replays which would display incorrect grid sizes on some maps

Sound

• Reduced volume of Sticky Bomb sound effects, as they were louder than intended