In this series we will go through game basics of PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS. These tips might come handy, especially if you are a beginner or if you’ve been away from the game for a while.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Chapter 1 aka try not to die before hitting the ground and survive the first 2 minutes:

LANDING

After the lobby, the first thing you must do in PUBG is to land on the battleground. Wherever you want to land, if you want a little chance to survive, you will need to be the first there!

When it comes to land, there are two different schools:

1. DIVE IN! From the plane, choose a location not too far from the plane’s trajectory, press F to jump from the plane and dive straight forward by pressing shift when you get close to your target.
2. The long journey. From the plane, choose a location far from the plane’s trajectory, press F to jump from the plane and press F again as soon as possible to open the parachute, hold your CTRL (walk by default) + W (forward by default) to go far away. (You can deploy the parachute a bit later depending on how far the location is you want to reach.)

We recommend you use the second option to start since you will encounter less players and it will give you a better survivability

Now that you know how to land, let’s talk about the drop zones. In general, the farther from the plane’s path you land, the safer it will be, but you also have some more contested areas where players can find better loot and action! Pochinki in Erangel is one of those contested areas where you can find big loots as well as big fights. Don’t land there if you are not confident, especially if it’s on the plane’s path!

Try to avoid landing on top of roofs for the moment as it leaves you exposed, and vulnerable if others landed before you.

Ok, now that;s you have landed, let’s move on to the looting process.

LOOTING

There are 2 ways to loot but only one of them is effective. The fastest, the better. You need to consider that you might have other players next to you.

• You can be selective; this means opening the menu and dragging the items that you want (for that you need to be experienced and recognize them at first sight). You should always consider this option when you find a stack of loot.
• You can loot everything that you see without having to open the inventory. Just run while pressing the “F” button like crazy to take whatever item you see on the floor. You should consider this option only if you see a single item laying on the floor like a vest.

First of all, you need a weapon, no matter which one, even a pan will do the work! Make sure that you don’t have anyone next to you so you can start properly looting.

Now you need to grab a fire gun, you won’t get far with just a melee weapon, even if you can throw it at your enemies’ head (hold right click and throw with left click). Just grab any fire gun, there is no time to be picky.

Start searching for gear, vest, helmet and backpack. The higher level, the better but just equip the first one that you see, there will be enough time to search for a better one… or not.

What should you do if you find a pile of loot? Open your inventory with tab and select the items you want to pick by dragging them into your inventory or by pressing the right-click.

So now you have a helmet, a vest and a tiny backpack that cannot fit in too much. This gear won’t last forever, each impact that you get will consume the durability of the vest and the helmet so watch out to loot for another one as soon as it’s damaged. That being said, the vests and the helmets will not lose efficiency when damaged but when their durability reaches 0, you will be exposed, and the vest/helmet will no longer protect you at all.

There are 3 levels of these gear, the higher the level, the better.:

• Vests: they will provide you not only with protection but also with extra space in your inventory. 
• Helmets: They will not protect your hairstyle but will protect your brain! 
• Backpacks: you need to put all that junk that you are looting somewhere right?

Remember how tiny your backpack was? Yeah, it doesn’t really matter which level it is, it will never be big enough for you, so you better watch out for the amount of things that you put in! Make sure to include at least a couple of healing items, boost items and ammo, now don’t get greedy on that one, you are probably going to get killed before firing those 200 rounds.

If you are not sure which healing or boosting items you should pack, let us first explain the difference between them. Now this is not going to be a light reading but make sure you go over it and it will save your life more than once in the battlegrounds, trust us, we’ve been there,

Med Kit: This item is like a unicorn, rare to find and it restores all the health instantly after an 8s cast time, so once you have it make sure to make good use of it in a safe place!

First Aid Kit: The First Aid Kit is a less common, but more potent healing item than bandages. This should only be used if you are really hurt, otherwise try to patch yourself up with a bandage. This kit takes up to 6s to cast so you better get cover before using it. It restores your health up to 75% over 2 seconds.

Bandages: Now this is the most common healing item. It restores a tiny amount of health, but you can use several of them automatically in a row (if you have enough of them or until you restore your health up to 75% with 4s to cast.

In case you are wondering where did the extra 25% go, no sweat, let us introduce… the boosting items!

There are 3 of them and we are going to explain them in detail so you can get the most out of them:

• Energy Drink: It won’t give you wings but it will give you speed and health regeneration (recovering also that missing 25% that we talked about before) It increases the boost by 40.
• Painkiller: Let those pills work their magic. Instant increase boost by 60, health regeneration and speed. The effect lasts for 3 minutes.
• Adrenaline Syringe: This one will make you forget your fear of needles. It’s the best booster, it takes 6s to cast and will last for 5 minutes.

Too much information already? Man, we are just getting started. 

Let’s move on to the weapons:

Weapon + attachments

So, there you are, with the backpack full and a weapon on the floor. You need to start making decisions. Which weapons are you going to use? Let me tell you, there is A LOT of them. It might be overwhelming at first, but you will get used to it while playing. (or you can always go to the Training Mode to study and practice with them, your choice!)

Here are the basic types:

• Assault Rifles – They have a high firing rate and a medium range which make them good in many situations.
• DMRs – They are between assault rifles and snipers in term of range and fire rate which make them good in medium/long distance.
• SMG (Submachine Guns) – Great weapons at close range with a high fire rate but due the bullet velocity, it makes it harder to fire accurately over distance so don’t try to kill that guy at 500m away with that.
• SR (Sniper Rifles) – These weapons deal a lot of damage and are the kings at long range due to their bullet velocity. The rate of fire is very low, so only shoot to kill! Go up on a hill, set your tent and wait for your prey.
• LMG (Light Machine Guns): They have a better firing rate and better damage than assault rifles but due to the bullet drop, they are to be avoided for long-range fights. High firing rates also mean higher recoil but do not worry, all LMG in PUBG have a bipod attached which means a better recoil control when you are prone!
• Shotguns – Deadly weapons at very close range/melee useless in other situations. If you are a nag, you found your weapons! Rush in that house and shoot on everything that moves, but be careful, the rate of fire of these weapons is slow.
• Crossbow – One of a kind weapon, for short or medium range which will kill someone without armor with only one bolt and anyone with a headshot whatever the helmet. It’s also the quietest weapon in the game but be careful, this weapon is really hard to master, and it’s not recommended for the noob that you are.
• Pistols: Always good to have if you have nothing else or finish an enemy if you are out of bullets in your magazine (it will be faster to switch to your pistol than reloading your assault rifle).

A lot of options, right? Which one should you choose? Well, it really depends on your playing style. Here are the main loadouts:

• Assault Loadout: Get in there, kill, loot and get out. With this loadout you can strike hard and fast. Ammo plays a big role in this one.
• Defense Loadout: You are going to need weapons that will keep enemies away and also close-range weapons in case there is a security breach.
• Close Quarters Loadout: For this one, you are aiming to get weapons with close, localized and intensive damage.
• Ranged Loadout: The opposite of the previous loadout. Kill them from far away and, if possible, avoid being detected.

Some weapons will allow you to change the fire mode by pressing B (by default), so be careful not to use the single mode when you think you are on full-auto mode… Well, even if we tell you, it will still happen but don’t worry, it’s normal!

(in this animated picture, you can see the weapon mode switching from full-auto to single)

By now, you probably already have a lot of small parts in the inventory and it looks like you can almost build your own weapon. Those parts are weapon attachments and they are used to alter the performance of your weapons in numerous ways!

Muzzle 

• Compensator: Counter the recoil of a firearm and prevent the muzzle from climbing due to kickback from the rapid firing. It will help you to not aim the sky with your weapon
• Choke: The choke makes the shotgun’s bullets spread less.
• Suppressor: Reduces firing sound and bullet echo as well as the muzzle flash. If you feel like being James Bond.
• Flash hider: Reduces the muzzle flash and the recoil of the weapon but not as good as the compensator.

Lower Rail (Grips): Reduces recoil

Upper rail (scopes): Magnification and clarity, perfect tools to stalk your neighbors

Magazines: Some increase the magazine capacity; some reduce the reload duration and the others do both

Stocks: Improved accuracy and stability. Sounds like something you really need doesn’t it?

Depending on your style, some attachments might be better than others, for instance, a compensator will give you a better control of your weapon than a suppressor when you shoot but the suppressor will make you quieter. A half grip will be better if you use a weapon in a full-auto mode, but a light grip will be better if you use it in a single mode.

All of the attachments are different, and you don’t need to know them by heart, you can check all attachments in the game after finding them.

Melee weapon

You have different melee weapons that will enhance your melee attack, but you should only consider them as a last resort. Only the pan is interesting because it can protect your ass from bullets and cook the chicken dinner that you will win thanks to this guide (or not).

You can also throw your melee weapon at your enemies’ head but to be honest, there are better throwable options out there. Let’s get into them.

Throwable items

Alright, now you have your guns, your armor, your pan, your helmet but you still have that one free spot in your inventory.

Except for the spike traps and the jerrycan this slot is reserved for the throwable items. These are as follows:

Frag Grenade – That’s the one that makes BOOM and deals damage around the explosion as well as causing concussion effects to those hit by the grenade. Really useful to dig out this guy who doesn’t show up after hiding behind his rock.

Smoke Grenade – That’s the one that makes PSHHHHH and creates a smoke screen. This will be helpful when you are in a delicate situation and you need to run away uncovered or revive a teammate.

Molotov Cocktail – This one does AAAAAARRRGH if you hit someone with it. This will create an area of fire and will deny an area for your enemy.

Stun Grenade – That’s the one that doesn’t RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING. This grenade is used to cause disorientation to everyone within the blast radius and if detonated within a player’s cone of vision, the player will be completely blinded by white light for several seconds.

Sticky Bomb – This one will do a phone ring tone before to explode, it can be used on vehicles and can also destroy some walls in Karakin.

C4 – BIP BIP BOOOOOM! The C4 is the strongest explosive of PUBG, it has a radius of 25 meters (lethal damage radius of 15m) and deals damage through the walls. Perfect to dig up a whole team hidden in a building.

Decoy Grenade: This grenade will imitate (better than us) the sound of a gun fight and will be your best friend if you want to make a diversion or set a trap. 

Don’t forget that you can cook the Frag and the Stun grenades can be cooked by pressing the R key to surprise your enemy. Every kind of grenade has different fuse times and will not detonate after the same amount of time after pressing R. Now please, throw your grenade after cooking it if you don’t want to finish one-handed…

Ok, now that you are finally equipped, it’s time to get out of your compound/city/building or whatever you were looting but, you are scared of the outside world since you are hearing fights everywhere around you ! Don’t worry, we will keep holding your hand a little bit longer before we release you.

Compass and map

Before you go anywhere, it would be better to know where you want to go! You can open your map by pressing the M key on your keyboard or expand the minimap on the bottom right corner of your screen by pressing N. From the map you can see the blue zone, the safe zone, the next one and your location. 

From the map window, you can pin a location that all your squad mates will be able to see, which makes it easier to indicate a location than saying “Let’s go where there is this little yellow square next to a river”. You can use this feature to set you a point of destination without having to open your map and check where you are. This pin will be shown on the full map but also on the minimap when you arrive at range and on your compass… wait, you didn’t know you had a compass as well? Ok, look at the top of your screen, you see that numbers and cardinal points?

This is important, especially for communication if you are playing with some teammates. It only works if your teammates are next to you otherwise, they will not have the same indicators on the compass.

Vehicles

You are running for 1 minute and you didn’t get that far yet, your legs are tired and your feet painful… Don’t worry there are vehicles in all PUBG maps! But in order to get them, you will have to find them, they are most of the time next to the roads or can be hidden in garages in certain maps.

Here is a list of the vehicles you can find in PUBG but some of them are only available on certain maps:

Boats: Speedboat, Aquarail

Motorcycles: Motorcycle, Motorcycle with sidecar, Tukshai, Scooter

Off-road: Buggy, UAZ, Pickup, Rony, Zima

Sedans: Daci, Mirado

Armored vehicles: BRDM (which you can only find by calling it with a flare gun outside of the safe zone).

Vehicles are obviously a faster way to travel around the map and the covered ones can protect you from bullets but in counterparts, the noise they produce will transform you into an obvious target.

Care packages, also known as Air Drops

What is that thing dropped from the plane and falling from the sky you ask? This is a care package, a fabulous box containing some of the best gear of the game like the MG3 or the AWM. But wait! Don’t rush like that! Use your brain before you lose it.

The Air Drop can be a deadly trap if you are not careful. That package is VERY visible to a lot of players, therefore, a lot of them are going to rush to it. You don’t want to be the one that gets there first just to end up with your body full of holes. 

Take it easy, search for enemies, listen. LISTEN, this is the most important thing that you are going to learn from this game. Hearing is everything, it will allow you to know if there are enemies close, far and from which direction. After you made sure you are not at risk, you can loot that sweet drop! (only if it’s in a reachable location, please, keep in mind that is extra dangerous to get into the water or on the rooftop to grab it).

(Don’t go get this care package in the water, it’s a deadly trap!)

You can also summon a Special Air Drop with a Flare Gun, a rare weapon. You need to fire it into the air straight up and when it reaches 200 meters, a plane will drop a juicy present for you, depending if you shot it inside the safe zone or outside.

Don’t try to use this flare gun as a weapon because it won’t work.

To finish this first training, we want to also give you some hints about specific controls that will make your life easier in the battlegrounds.

• If you hold Alt key while running, you will be able to turn your head and have a better perspective of your surroundings.
• You can change your sit in the vehicles by pressing CTRL+1,2,3… depending on the seat you want to seat (1 being the driver seat)
• You can hold G to open the throwable menu and quickly select the item you want without having to open your inventory. It also works with ~ for healing items.
• Don’t hesitate to visit the game settings, from there you can configure your preferences like setting your weapons on single shot or full auto by default, enable auto equip attachments, changing the color of your crosshair, etc…

DON’T DIE.

Ok that is all for now! We’ve given you a lot of information, so you have homework to do! Once you master the basics you can move onto the next level, and if you would like us to be your guides please let us know!