Update #28 - Patch Notes

Hi everyone,
Update #28 is now available on the PUBG: Test Server and is scheduled to hit live servers very soon. As always, we’ll keep you updated and announce when it goes to Live!
PUBG’s latest update introduces our brand new feature Weapon Mastery! Weapon Mastery is a progression system that allows players to earn free rewards as they level up their gunplay skills. As part of Weapon Mastery we are also debuting Medals for players who perform awesome feats during their matches.
In addition to our latest feature, we’ve taken your feedback from our first round of Erangel loot rebalances and made adjustments. Speaking of adjustments, based on player feedback we have reduced the difficulty on a number of missions for Survivor Pass 3: Wild Card, including the elimination of a few missions deemed too difficult to complete.
There are a number of updates to how you can interact with items in the store, interface improvements for squads and over two dozen bug fixes.
Read on for more details on all of the changes and improvements.

Weapon Mastery has been added, a new feature that allows players to check their gun stats and earn rewards based on their skills!

• New Progression System
  • Weapon Mastery is a new progression system where players can increase levels by gaining weapon XP based on players’ weapon use.
  • It operates all the time without being affected by seasons.
  • Weapon Mastery offers 100 levels for players to achieve per weapon.
  • In the lobby, players can check their weapon use information, last match results, and the rewards they acquired thus far through the newly created Mastery tab.
• Weapon Mastery Rewards
  • There are three types of Weapon Mastery rewards. These rewards can only be acquired through Mastery achievement.
    • Charms
    • Charms are accessories that can be equipped to weapons.
    • New charm can achieved at every five levels of progression per weapon.
    • Charms can be used with any weapon skins.
      • Acquired charms can be equipped/unlocked in the rewards page. Equipped charms can be seen in-game.
    • Charms cannot be traded, sold, or exchanged for BP.
  • Medals
    • Medals highlight awesome accomplishments players perform with their weapons.
    • Each medal can be earned multiple times. There is even a counter that tracks how many medals have been achieved.
  • Tier Emblems
    • Players can earn emblems equivalent to their level brackets achieved per each weapon.
    • Up to 10 tiers can be achieved.
• How to earn Weapon XP
  • Weapon XP for is earned when one or more of the following elements is satisfied during a match.
    • Damage
    • Headshots
    • Defeats
      • Defeats is a new term used for tracking actions that includes knockdowns, killing the last member of a team and killing solo players.
      • You can acquire extra weapon XP based on distance of defeats.
    • When earning Weapon XP, the amount received will increase based on how long you survived.
  • Defeats follow the existing judgment rules for DBNO/Kills currently used in the game.
    • Additional information:
    • Weapon Mastery does not count friendly fire/team damage.
    • Weapon Mastery does not count downs caused by road kills or environmental factors (blue zone, red zone, fall damage, or drowning).
    • Weapon Mastery does not count throwables or melee damage.
  • There is a maximum limit on each weapon that can be getting weapon XP.

For more information about Weapon Mastery, please read Introducing: Weapon Mastery.[www.pubg.com]

A second round of Erangel loot rebalances has been made, as well as improvements to some sounds and effects related to gameplay.
Erangel 2nd Loot Rebalance
As we have spoken previously in our Dev Letter: Erangel Loot Rebalance, we are constantly analyzing player feedback, play patterns and other data. With this update, we’re implementing a second round of changes to improve the player looting experience on Erangel.

• The total amount of items spawned in Erangel has been increased by approximately 28%.
• Increased the overall amount of items spawned, especially the spawn rates of those higher priority items.
  • Spawn rate of AR has been increased by approx 64%.
  • Spawn rate of DMR has been increased by approx 114%.
  • Spawn rate of SR has been increased by approx 177%.
  • Spawn rates of equipment and armor have been slightly increased, especially level 2.
  • Spawn rates of healing items have been slightly increased.

Erangel Blue Zone Rebalance Test (TEST SERVER ONLY)

• During this test server phase, we’ll be testing some changes to the blue zone on Erangel. At this stage, these changes are purely experimental and we’re looking for feedback to understand how players feel about the direction of the changes.
• There is no expected date or certainty that these changes will come to live servers, but we greatly appreciate and are looking forward to your feedback as we experiment with the blue zone changes specifically on the test server this week.

SR Damage Multiplier Changes

• Decreased the damage modifier of SR shots to the torso from 150% to 130%.
• Decreased the base damage of the AWM from 120 to 105.
  • The AWM will no-longer kill full health players wearing a level 2 vest in one shot with these changes.

Sound Improvements

• We’ve now added more sounds for item interactions.
  • Previously items were looted, dropped, equipped and unequipped, some items had the same sound effects regardless of the characteristics of each item. Sounds will now vary more between items.
• Added vehicle suspension sounds.
  • Sounds of moving vehicles’ suspension working can now be heard.
  • Different sounds will be played in different situations. Vehicles moving on rough terrain or when landing from a jump will make unique sounds.
  • Suspension sound volume is different between TPP and FPP.

Smoke Grenade Improvement

• Smoke grenades are now more accurately synchronized across all players and observers.
  • Previously, smoke grenade duration for the viewer would start when coming into viewable range (1 km) of the smoke grenade. Smoke grenade plumes will now end at the same time for all players/observers.

Vehicles Effects Improvement

• Added vehicle lighting effects.
  • Vehicle headlights, tail lights and dashboard are turned on when the vehicle’s engine starts.
  • The lights are only local visual effects and will not illuminate the surrounding areas.

Open/Close Doors Animation Improvement

• Improved the algorithm to determine when vehicles are blocking doors, preventing them from opening or closing.

After the launch of the Survivor Pass 3: Wild Card, we’ve been continuously collecting and analyzing mission result data. Additionally, we’ve been actively reviewing players feedback regarding specific mission difficulty. We have chosen to adjust and remove some missions which players found too difficult to complete.

• Daily Missions: Decreased the difficulty of 16 missions and deleted 4 missions which were too difficult.
• Weekly Missions: Decreased the difficulty of 16 missions and deleted 6 missions which were too difficult.
• Challenge Missions: Decreased the difficulty of 5 missions.

Store UI Overhaul

• Added Zoom in/out feature to item previews.
  • Use mouse scroll to zoom in/out of the part where the mouse cursor is pointing.
  • When zooming on the character, character UI is shown on the bottom right.
    • You can zoom in to 4 different parts (Head, Torso, Lower body, Feet).
    • Zoomed in parts are highlighted in the character UI.
    • Click on different parts of the character model to select a view of that part (Head, Torso, Lower body, Feet).
  • Horizontal rotations are now enabled in weapon and equipment previews.
  • Release the mouse button during weapon or equipment preview to reset the camera view.

Team UI Overhaul

• Teammates boost gauges are now in the team UI visible while playing to enhance team play.

Changes in Display Mode Settings

• When using full screen mode, the window mode will be changed to full screen (windowed) while in the lobby to prevent specific crashing caused by typing. In-game will remain full screen.
  • Full screen: In-game: Full screen / Lobby: Full screen(windowed).
  • Full screen (Windowed): In-game: full screen (windowed) / Lobby: Full screen (windowed).
  • Windowed: In-game: Windowed / Lobby: Windowed.

Survivor Title Season 3 Overview UI Improvements

• Season reward chart now shows 4 stages of rewards instead of 3.

• Additional UI has been added which shows points required for the next title.

• Optimized performance to decrease the time it takes to load into matches.

Observer Feature Improvements

• Kill message improvements
  • To prevent confusion and distinguish individual messages from team messages, the existing individual multi-kill messages (RAMPAGE / EXECUTIONER / MASTERFUL / CONQUERING) have been removed to focus on the number of kills.
  • Team Multi-kill messages will remain the same.
  • The images for team multi-kill messages are now each shown with a separate image.
  

Added timer UI for Smoke Grenades while Observing

• To show the remaining time for the smoke grenades, each smoke will now have a timer UI showing the remaining smoke plume duration.
• The smoke timer lasts for about 40 seconds starting from the moment the smoke grenade plumes.
• When the timer hits approx. 20% remaining, the UI turns red and the icon shakes.
  • When the timer hits 10% remaining, the icon shakes x2 as hard.
• The timer UI disappears when the spectator is farther than 100 m.
• The transparency of the UI changes depending on the distance.

Restored Kick Player Function

• Observers can find the KICK button by right-clicking a player’s name on the player list. Click the left mouse on kick button to remove the player from the game.
  • Players can be kicked in the middle of a game.

• In the replay feature, click right mouse button to toggle the REPORT button. Click the left mouse button again to report a player.
• The replay feature version has been updated. Existing replays recorded prior to this update are no longer playable.

• The PUBG 2nd Anniversary Cap will no longer be available after April 24th (KST) / April 23th(PDT).
  • This is a free 2nd anniversary item, so don’t forget to redeem it within the availability period!
• Item sales for FACEIT Global Summit Hoodies and Mask will end on April 24th( KST) / April 23th (PDT).
  • 25% of the item’s revenue goes to the teams participating in FACEIT Global Summit, support the teams by purchasing these items!

World

• Fixed an issue with some barbed wire fences blocking bullets.
• Fixed an issue where players are unable to pick up items that are placed under broken barbed wire fences.

General

• Fixed the issue with center screen DBNO and kill messages being delayed.
• Fixed the issue with interaction UI remaining in spectator screen when is killed during interaction UI activated.
• Fixed the issue with certain maneuver could prevent motorcycles from flipping.
• Fixed the issue which a vehicle could constantly move when system menu was opened.
• Fixed an issue with different UAZ model variants having different maximum speeds.
• Fixed the awkward character movement when using an emote and rotating the mouse in FPP view.
• Fixed the issue with a frag grenade ground burn mark textures overlapping the player character’s model
• Fixed an issue where only one side of footsteps is output in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue which would remove player’s hair completely when equipping caps.
• Fixed a visual issue when punk knuckle gloves were equipped.
• Fixed a visual issue preventing belts from being visible when wearing a fur coat.
• Fixed an issue where character’s hair and face overlap when a female character equips specific hair styles and caps.
• Fixed a visual issue with shadows displaying incorrectly when swimming in FPP.
• Fixed a replay issue causing explosion effects to continue when moving through the timeline.
• Fixed an issue where players are unable to revive their teammates if casting UI freezes at 0 while reviving.
• Fixed an issue when using a scope and the character moves backward, the scope shakes.
• Fixed certain limb animations not playing while vaulting.
• Fixed an issue preventing the correct crosshair from being displayed after holstering a sidearm.
• Fixed an issue with Shirt (Plaid) icon not matching the in-game asset.
• Fixed a bug which prevented footsteps from being heard while walking over mud or water while wearing Harley Quinn Daddy’s Lil’ Monster Outfit