PUBG Battlegrounds update 15.1: What's in the update?

Christmas is just around the corner in PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS! Celebrating the arrival of the fifteenth season of their wildly successful battle royale, which will launch on December 1st for PC and December 9th for consoles, KRAFTON Inc will grace the game's map, bringing Christmas spirit to the title.

Vikendi will be all decorated to get in the Christmas mood, with several areas of the map including Dinoland, Castle and Winery getting special modifications so players can celebrate the holidays in-game. Additionally, if you choose to enable the feature in your Custom Match settings, you will also be able to see effects themed climatic.

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What's New in Update 15.1

Among the new features of Update 15.1 are world updates, a nine vehicle, weapon balance update and others that you can see below in the official notes.

Map service update

• Normal
  • Erangel / Miramar / Sanhok / Taego / Vikendi
• Ranked
  • Erangel / Miramar / Taego

"Taego will remain in the map rotation for Season 15 for two reasons: first, our player feedback, and second, our data shows us that Taego retains his very popular map status. That being the case, including Haven in the rotation would eventually cause stability issues as we would have to adapt the map select UI for regions with map select without full testing. As for regions without map select, players may feel frustrated that they have to play multiple matches before reaching the map they want"

Nine vehicle: Mountain Bike

A MTB arrives in PUBG as a dropable item (collapsible vehicle), with the periphery of the map being the easiest region to find it. By pressing the speed button more and more, the player moves faster and faster, also being able to jump and cram the vehicle. In addition, the bike does little work and thus becomes a good option for those who want to move stealthily.

Specifications:

• Maps: all maps in normal matches
• It appears like a bent bicycle
• Unfold it to turn it into a usable vehicle or store it in your inventory
• It turns into an item when placed back in the inventory.
• Due to lack of speedometer, updated travel speed is not reported
• Does not appear in Esports Mode
• Maximum passengers: one
• Maximum speed:
  • Maximum speed without running (85% power): 50 km/h
  • Pedaling with 40% or more thrust (90% power): 54 km/h
  • Pedaling with racing touch (100% power): 62 km/h
• PV: cannot be destroyed, including wheels
• Item weight: 70
• Fuel consumption: none

Weapon balance update

The new PUBG update also offers weapon changes. Check out the notes below.

P90

• The P90 has taken more kills than any other weapon purchasable in crates and does better in situations where we want crate assault rifles to dominate. So we decided to increase the recoil difficulty and provide less ammo.
  • Increased horizontal and vertical recoil
  • Increased ADS crosshairs during autobursts
  • Reduced the amount of support pack ammo from 250 -> 200 projectiles

SHOTGUNS

• Our data indicates that Shotguns in Battlegrounds continue to have a very limited role, so to broaden their use, we've increased their effective range.
  • Increased the damage reduction distance to improve the effective range of each shotgun by a few meters
  • Increased the probability of hitting at close ranges
  • Increased Sawn Barrel damage by 1
  • Reduced the spread of Sawn Barrel projectiles

MACHINE GUNS SURVEYS

• Our data shows that light machine guns are generally not seen as very useful, so we've slightly increased their damage potential to make them more presence. For the MG3, we saw very little use in our data compared to other weapons purchasable in cases, so we beefed it up.
  • Reduced recoil when shooting in crouch and standing
  • Increased melee damage multiplier from 1,0 to 1,05
  • Increased M249 damage by 1
  • Increased MG3 damage by 2
  • Reduced the MG3's horizontal recoil

SUB MACHINE GUN

• While some players feel that submachine guns have a strong presence thanks to their relatively low recoil, the data still reveals that their activity between weapons is very limited. To encourage more accurate shots, we've increased the head damage multiplier.
  • Increased head damage multiplier from 1,8 to 2,1
  • Increased the accuracy of the PP-19 Bizon when autofiring with ADS sights
  • Reduced UMP45 damage at longer ranges
  • Decreased the accuracy of the UMP45 when autofiring with ADS sights

AUG

• The AUG seems to have been trumped by the P90 and even the user's ability to control Beryl, so we've made it slightly more powerful to improve its status as a crate-acquirable weapon.
  • Increased damage by 1
  • Increased damage reduction distance to improve effective range

world updates

Update 15.1 also brings modifications to the world, including training ground, Costa, and Vikendi. Check the notes.

• TRAINING CAMP

• As one of the most popular landing sites in Sanhok, the Training Grounds need to provide dynamic gameplay experiences, but we heard that our players were not enjoying the revamped Training Grounds as the structure felt too crowded and complex for tactical play. So we decided to make one more big change to the Training Grounds, and the best option was to transform the entire structure. Here are some of the main changes:
  
  • To reduce the complexity and crowded feel of the Training Grounds, the central tower has been shifted from the middle to the right. We then considered different angles and distances and adjusted the layout of the other buildings around the central area to provide an open space for better shooting.
  • It seemed that the players' advantage was too great behind the parapets on the third floor of the central tower, so we got rid of those walls and exchanged them for stone boxes on the terraces.
    • We've also shortened the distance between the second and third floors to reduce the players' advantage on the higher floor.
  • We noticed that the large windows on the second floor of the central tower provided a wide view of the surroundings of the players, which resulted in frequent ambushes. Therefore, we reduced the size of the windows.
  • We've also added training areas around the center to provide more coverage and loot locations.
  • We moved the watchtowers, placing one in the north and one in the south to prevent players from crowding them.
  • It seemed like players didn't get much of an opportunity when they arrived a little late at the Training Grounds. So we removed the 4 warehouses from the location and added 3 to the north (outside the Training Grounds) so even late players can have a better chance to arm and hide.
• COSTA

• It felt like players were feeling vulnerable in coastal areas, so we added more rocks and trees.
• CLIMATE
  • It looked like the light and weather effects in Sanhok were hurting players' vision in matches, so:
    
    • Brightness increased by 25% in "Clouds" and "Sunset" weather.
    • Decreased darkness from 66% to 33% when Fog/Rain spawns during Cloudy weather.

VIKENDI UPDATE

• COCOA FRIENDS

• PUBG's new collaboration is with KAKAO FRIENDS! More information about this collaboration will come in a separate announcement on the game's server update day.
• Dinoland has become the LAND OF THE KAKAO FRIENDS.
  • Statues of the KAKAO FRIENDS were scattered throughout the LAND OF THE KAKAO FRIENDS.
• Added KAKAO FRIENDS billboards.
• Buildings were decorated with ornaments by KAKAO FRIENDS.
• Christmas

• We applied a Christmas theme to Dinoland, Castle and Winery.
• We added the Christmas mood.
  • Players can use this weather setting in Custom Matches on Vikendi.

performance update

The update also brings new performance improvements to the Hideout tab, including improvements and a new feature.

• There have been performance updates on the Hideout tab.
  • We have improved the loading speed when accessing the page for the first time.
  • Added a feature that can help prevent accidental weapon upgrades.
    • Added a message with the current level on the Upgrade button.
    • When the player clicks on the Upgrade button, an additional confirmation message will appear.
• We have removed unused and duplicate data files from the game to improve memory usage.

More update news

To check all the update notes, visit this link.