Update 7.3 - Soon on the Test Server

pdate 7.3 is hitting the Test Servers on June 10.
Live servers on June 17.

For changes this update, we focused on some survivability improvements to vehicles, a new explosive tool on the Battlegrounds, some quality of life improvements when parachuting and more!

The full patch notes are below, so let’s get right into it.

Gameplay

Season 7 Vehicle Balance

Vehicles are crucial tools on the Battlegrounds, and for a while now there’s been some frustration around dying instantly when your vehicle explodes. This patch seeks to add some more realistic survivability to how vehicles take damage and gives players a small window to bail out before the final explosion takes place.

Explosion Mechanic Changes

• Vehicles no longer explode instantly upon reaching 0 HP. Instead, engines are now disabled and set on fire, causing the vehicle to explode after 5 seconds
• Vehicles can still explode instantly if taking large radial damage, like from Red Zones, C4 etc.
• Exploding vehicles now receive both linear and angular velocity, instead of only linear (vehicle movement after exploding should look a bit less static now)
• Additionally, vehicles will no longer receive increased collision damage when they’re rolled over

Vehicle Damage Changes

• Most vehicles now have multiple damage zones which apply different damage multipliers
  • Applies to the following vehicles: Buggy, Dacia, UAZ, Mirado, Pickup, Rony and Zima
    • All other vehicles receive damage as before, equally regardless of area hit
• Damage zones:
  • Engine – 100% Damage
    • Engine area, usually located at the front
  • Body – 75% Damage
    • Front and rear doors, rear and bottom sides of body
  • Roof – 50% Damage
    • Roof panel, roof pillars, seats, mirrors

• Boat Armor Upgrade
  • Boats are now granted 5 static damage reduction

New Throwable: C4

C4 is an interesting and powerful new tool that gives players new ways to strategically flush out timid opponents. With a massive 25 meter effective radius and damage that can penetrate cover, you’ll be wanting to run away when you hear this beeping brick of boom. A quick note about C4, we don’t intend this to be just another throwable. It has a pretty short range, but can be used to cut off enemy entry into a building or new zone, or as mentioned above can force enemies out of their safe positions.

• C4 will start beeping and automatically detonate 16 seconds after being thrown
  • Detonation cannot be stopped or activated early
  • There is a warning LED on the C4 and audible beeping with increasing intensity, clearly audible inside the damage radius which warns you of the upcoming explosion
• C4 sticks to most surfaces, including vehicles
  • It doesn’t stick to players
• Effective damage radius is 25 metres, with a lethal damage radius of 15 meters
  • Damage extends vertically, but with slightly less range (lethal radius of 12.5 meters vertically)
  • The shockwave emitted from the explosion is so powerful it damages all enemies within its radius, even if they’re behind cover
• Due to the weight of the C4 you can’t throw it far and you can’t carry many
• Found as world loot and in Care Packages on Erangel, Miramar, Vikendi and Sanhok
  • C4 will be added to Training Mode at a later date

Good luck and try not to blow yourself up!

Spike Trap
Spike traps aren’t quite as effective as we hoped, so we’re increasing their length by 50% to make those trapped choke points more difficult to get around.

• Spike Trap length increased by 50%

Vikendi Loot Balance

• Increased DMR spawns slightly

Parachute Follow Feature

Added parachute follow to help teammates land together.
This feature was temporarily removed after its addition in Update 6.2 due to some technical issues which have now been resolved.

• 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.
• A new icon has been added to better highlight the “Disable Follow” option

Esports Tab

The new menu will include an overview, standings, and the next Pick’Em Challenge. The menu will be available through July, so be sure to stop back often to check out what’s happening with PCS1 and PUBG Esports!

Menu Breakdown

• Overview: An Introduction to PCS1 and the Pick’Em challenge, along with match schedule for the event
• Teams: All participating teams and their players can be found here, including individual player stats updated daily. Click regions and teams for more info
• Standings: Up to date standings with a per region breakdown (APAC, Asia, North America, and Europe)
• Pick’Em Challenge: Event page for the PCS Pick’Em Challenge where you can vote on who you think will take home the event victory. All details can be found here on how to participate for a chance to unlock exclusive rewards. We’ll also be sharing a separate announcement with more details before this goes live

Want more info? Read the PCS event announcement here.
Stay tuned for another announcement on everything you need to know about the Pick’Em Challenge.

For everything PUBG Esports, head over to pubgesports.com, or hit the PCS1 logo in the esports tab for an easy shortcut when you’re in-game.

Vikendi

Train System Improvement
We’re glad so many of you are enjoying the updated Vikendi!

To help put more focus on the train system, we’ve added another line, additional stops, and some visual and audio improvements to let you know when your trains arrive and depart. We’ve added some more DMRs and some scenery changes to end out the season as well.

Train Line Adjustments

• Added new train line
  • Towards the center of the map, we’ve added another train line spanning vertically to help better connect the whole system and make it easier to move across the map.
• Improvements to existing lines
  • We’ve put a bigger focus on longer routes, lengthening existing train lines which should help players travel a substantial distance, without having to change trains multiple times

• Stations and signals
  • Trains will now move through two stations before changing direction, to give you some more time to catch up and jump on
  • New flashing traffic lights and unique arrival and departure sounds will now alert you to arriving and departing trains

Additional Cover

• Added more tree and rock cover in towns and regions where it was lacking

Dinoland

• Artificial geysers have been added to Dinoland

Loot Balance

• Increased DMR spawns slightly on Vikendi

UI/UX

• Network debug stats have been moved slightly
• System pop-up message has been improved to display much more smoothly
• Tommy Gun icon has been updated to more accurately represent the weapon
• Changed logos for the 6x Scope and Shotgun Chokes

Network Statistics Data

• • A new Network Statistics Data Collection option has been added to help troubleshoot certain network issues and send relevant data back to PUBG
    • This is DISABLED by default

Performance

• Reduced instances of FPS hitching/stuttering which could occur when first opening your inventory in-game

Survivor Pass: Cold Front

We’re nearing the end of Survivor Pass: Cold Front, so complete those missions, unlock rewards and spend your remaining your coupons.

• The third season mission track is now available.
• Survival Pass: Cold Front ends July 15th 0200 UTC
  • After this, Premium Pass purchases won’t be available and you won’t be able to activate level up coupons.
• Grace period
  • From July 15th 0200 ~ before the July 22nd maintenance, players will be able to claim unclaimed rewards in the results page
  • The Coupon Store is available until the grace period ends, with any remaining coupons
• Coupon store
  • Coupons can be spend in the coupon shop until July 22nd maintenance
  • Unused coupons will NOT be available after July 22nd maintenance

Ranked Mode

There are lot of questions when the Ranked season end and what rewards are available. We’ll be sharing more details on rewards closer towards the end of the season.

• The current Ranked season will end with maintenance on July 22nd, with a new season commencing immediately after completion of maintenance
  • A timer will appear on the Ranked lobby screen one week prior to season end, so you can quickly see how much time is left
• Ranked Rewards
  • Ranked Season 7 rewards will be given out the first time a player logs in to the game after Season 8 is live
  • Ranked Season 7 rewards are determined by the highest Rank Tier a player is holding at the end of Season 7 in either queue
  • Players who are on the Top 500 Leaderboards at the end of the season will receive bonus rewards
• To clarify some confusion due to some ruleset info not being included in Update 7.2 patch notes, we’d like to let you know that the M249, DBS and Spike Trap intentionally do not spawn in Ranked Mode.

Custom Match

Observing UI improvement

• Auto (combat) spectate system (Ctrl + Z)
  • Use the hotkey to spectate players combat scenes by priority. This cannot be used when in freecam or follow cam
• Switch to attacker’s perspective (Ctrl + X)
  • Can be used while using the auto spectate system
  • Switches to the most recent attacker who has attacked the player being observed
  • Cannot be activated while using Freecam or Follow Cam
• New item visual effects
  • Observing a player who uses a throwable or healing item now displays a new visual effect
• Increased team color visibility
  • Team color UI visibility improved
    • Team colors may seem slightly darker than before, with the added shadow

Custom Match List Overhaul

• The custom match list page now displays matches of all game modes on one page

Skins & Items

New items

• Swimsuits #1
  • CHECKERED SUMMER SET (Including Victory dance 20 emote)
  • RETRO FERN SET
  • Summer Bikini (Black)
• Swimsuits #2
  • POLKA DOT SUMMER SET
  • RETRO SUMMER SET
• PCS1 2020
  • PCS1 COMBAT SET
  • PCS1 CLOTHING SET
  • Weapon Skin – 3 Items
  • Emote – 1 Item
• Emotes
  • Use Your Brain
  • Rev It Up
  • Victory Dance 17
  • Victory Dance 18
• Sales period
  • Swimsuits #1 : 7/1 – 8/26
  • Swimsuits #2 : 7/15 – 8/26
  • Esports PCS#1 : 6/17 – 7/2
  • Emotes – 4 items : 20/6/24

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

• Fixing an issue where the mouse cursor would stay onscreen while playing War Mode
• Fixed an issue where sometimes weapons would clip through a player’s back while they were a passenger in a vehicle
• Fixed the issue with boat/aquarail heaving awkwardly when hit by a throwable.
• Fixed an issue which prevented leaning/peeking from working while crouched and using consumables
• Fixed an issue where the appearance of AR and DMR compensators were swapped when attached to the MK14/SKS

UI/UX

• Fixed an issue which displayed the wrong system message when declining a party invite
• Fixed an issue with the Parachute Follow feature and the interaction UI not displaying a player’s correct keybinds in certain situations
• Fixed a localization issue with the Mirado in the Last Match tab
• Fixed the abnormal system message in certain language option.

Skins & Items

• Fixed a visual issue with PGI Title Wraps
• Fixed the issue with character’s finger displayed abnormally when equipping ‘The Chain’ skin in character customization screen.
• Fixed an issue where the camera was not locked in place on the preview screen for weapon skins, or item crates
• Fixed a visual issue with High Waisted Shorts

Replay System

• Fixed an issue with incorrect team color/patterns displayed in replays
• Fixed the issue where buildings destroyed by the Black Zone on Karakin weren’t marked as destroyed when moving through replay timelines

The replay system has been updated. Replay files from previous updates are now unavailable for use.