PUBG: A Beginner’s Guide to the Tips and Tricks You Need to Know

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG as it’s often known, is the hottest ticket in gaming right now. It sold more than 33 million copies on PC last year, and it’s already blazed a trail to over 70 million sales across all platforms. So it’s no wonder everybody’s trying to copy PUBG’s Battle Royale-style gameplay. But just what is a “Battle Royale” and why should you care?

Essentially, it’s a riff on the 2000’s Japanese film Battle Royale or, for a more recent example, The Hunger Games. A hundred players drop into the world with nothing but the clothes on their back and a parachute, and once they’ve successfully landed, they scavenge for weapons and gear and fight to be the last one standing.

It may sound intimidating, but don’t fear. Here are our tips on how to survive in this kill-or-be-killed game.

PUBG Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Here’s a simple list of things you really need to know before you play.

1. Understand the Point

So any shooter game has the same goal, right? Well, not necessarily. The idea behind PUBG is survival. Whether that means camping or fighting, that’s your ultimate objective. Outlive everyone else using any means necessary (so to speak, we mean in the game). PUBG does have a ranking system for each season and those who successfully complete kills, assists, and personal placement objectives to remain alive.

If you’re planning on camping the entire time, you’ll be dismayed that the game doesn’t exactly support that. Another feature of PUBG is that it forces players to come together. We’ll review more about this below, but essentially, it’s best to get to the weapons and medical supplies early on without being killed.

2. Know When to Drop

Each PUBG game starts with all 100 players piled into a transport plane flying a random path across the map. Deciding when and where to drop is your first big decision and can easily determine whether you’ll last 30 seconds or 30 minutes.

Once you jump, you have two choices: dive as fast as you can for towns, cities, and military bases, where the best guns and gear can be found; or try to get as far away from the plane’s flight path as possible and scavenge remote buildings in peace and quiet. Either way, try to be aware of other people parachuting in around you and be prepared for a fight if they’re nearby.

3. Always Search for the Essentials

As soon as you land, you need to hunt for guns and gear to help you survive. Everything can be found on the floor in buildings, so don’t waste your time looking elsewhere. You’ll want to grab essentials as quickly as possible, but luck always plays a part in what you’ll find. Sometimes you’ll find a building filled with a high-end kit, other times you’ll be lucky to find a pistol.

PUBG also features a decent selection of weapons, from sniper and assault rifles to submachine guns, shotguns and pistols. You can carry two main guns and a pistol, so you’re best off picking up two contrasting guns like a sniper rifle and a submachine gun. You’ll also need ammo for each, but this is generally found next to the gun. You can also improve most guns with attachments such as red-dot sights, foregrips, and expanded magazines.

Aside from guns, you’ll want a backpack so you can carry more gear, and a helmet and protective vest to help absorb damage. Health kits are also vital for healing up after a fight, and there’s a variety of grenades to look out for.

4. Pick Your Fights

The biggest part of surviving in PUBG is knowing when to fight – that, and being aware of your surroundings. If someone is firing at you from a distance, you’re better off running to cover instead of trying to fight. On the flip side, there’s absolutely no point in sniping someone using a gun without enough range. An SMG is useless at 200m.

It’s also worth remembering that every shot fired can be heard from quite a long way away, revealing your position. If you have surround-sound headphones or use Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos for spatial audio, you’ll make the most of them in PUBG as this will help you pinpoint distant gunfire. Of course, the choice of running towards the action or just letting it resolve itself lies ultimately with you.

5. Stay in the Safe Zone (and Out of the Red Zone!)

Like other Battle Royale games out there, PUBG sections up the map into a Safe Zone, a Red Zone, and a life-zapping danger zone. The Safe Zone is marked by a blue line on the map that slowly constricts, bringing people into a smaller playing area over time. If you’re caught on the wrong side of this blue barrier, your health will gradually drain, and you don’t want it to drop to zero.

You’ll also want to keep an eye out for the Red Zones that appear on the map. Here artillery fire will bombard the ground, making survival reasonably unlikely. If caught in a Red Zone, sprint or drive your way out as quickly as possible. If that seems impossible, seek shelter in nearby buildings so you can wait until the bombardment passes.

For those fleeing the encroaching Safe Zone border, or Red Zone bombardments, keep in mind that vehicles make a lot of noise – so pick your escape route wisely!

6. Learn PUBG’s Weird Control System

Regardless of whether you’re playing on Xbox One or PC, PUBG has some slightly odd controls that you need to get used to if you want to succeed. Here are a few of the important ones to remember:

• On PC, clicking the right mouse button aims down the sights. On Xbox One, you quickly pull the left trigger to activate it.
• Holding the right mouse button down on PC activates an over-the-shoulder view. On Xbox One, holding the left trigger activates this view.
• Hold Alt on your keyboard to activate a free-look camera that won’t hamper your movement. On Xbox One, this can be activated by holding the right shoulder button.
• You can change the rate of fire of your gun by pressing the B key on your keyboard, or the left button on your Xbox One D-pad.

Thankfully, PUBG lets you remap controls on PC, and there’s now a “Type B” control system on Xbox One that lets you hold the left trigger to activate iron sights, instead of shifting your view over the shoulder. It’s also worth memorizing your inventory, and the inventory navigation controls so you can dive in and reorganize while on the move.

7. Team Up with Friends

Being a PUBG lone wolf is great, but you can also play as a duo or in a squad of up to four. Partnering up doesn’t water down your experience – far from it. In fact, it changes how PUBG feels significantly as you’ll be trying to jump from a plane together, share resources, and call out other groups you’ve spotted on your journey. You can also revive each other after being down, so you have a higher chance of survival too.

There’s strength in numbers, but the flip side is that your enemies will probably be a bit more organized as well…

8. Always Watch Your Replays

Ever since PUBG hit version 1.0 on PC, a great replay and the Killcam feature has been included. From seeing how you were taken out to learning how other players handle certain situations, you’ll gain a lot of insight from watching these replays. Heck, you could use it just to relive the glorious moment you got your first Chicken Dinner!

Upping Your PUBG Game

There’s a lot to keep in mind when playing any game and PUBG is no exception. Keep these tips and tricks in mind while playing and you’ll be climbing the leaderboards in no time.

Do you have any tips to share? Comment below!