GUIDE FOR PUBG : TRICKS FOR PC AND XBOX ONE

Battlegrounds Ready

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds can be an intense multiplayer experience, but the only way to really learn how to play it is to actually jump in. The battle royale-style game pits up to 100 players against each other, with the single goal of being the last player standing. Now that it's on Xbox One in addition to PC, it's a good time to jump in (literally) and try to get the coveted chicken dinner.

With no tutorial, single-player mode, or other traditional ways to pick up how the game works, most players just have to spend lots of time getting killed in PUBG in order to learn the ropes. But with a little information about the essentials, you can cut the learning curve significantly. Here are 12 essential tips to get you started in PUBG that'll help you hit the island running.

Speed And Smarts

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds starts with up to 100 players parachuting onto a giant island. The goal is to fight and survive to be the only person left, and in practice, that means you'll need to mix stealth, combat, and situational awareness to take out other players and avoid getting dropped yourself. Right from the beginning of the match, you'll have control in the air as you descend onto the game world. During this time, you can see other players and move your character to avoid them.

Part of what makes Battlegrounds so interesting is its scope. The island is huge, allowing you to explore a big chunk of it for weapons, and features varied environments from power plants to houses to forests make for a lot of surprising encounters. But to win, you'll need to be both quick and intelligent. When moving around, sometimes it's best to holster your weapon to pick up speed. Though you will be more vulnerable, sometimes it's more important to move quickly. Pay attention to your surroundings, both indoors and out, and try to anticipate where other players might be waiting for you, especially when you check buildings--even the bathtubs, as they're a common hiding spot. Stay out of the open as much as possible and outsmart players by being patient and, to some degree, cautious. Your only goal is to stay alive, so sometimes, avoiding a fight is better than picking one. You can often get further in a match by letting other players do your dirty work for you and then picking them off when they're vulnerable. Just know that players who do more killing often end up with better gear, which can stack the deck against you as you get into Battlegrounds' later moments.

Learn (And Adjust) The Controls

The first thing you should do out of the gate is spend some time familiarizing yourself with the game's controls, and making any adjustments you desire. There are a lot of inputs to remember, and you'll need all your skills to play effectively. Among the most important is the ability to turn your head by holding down the Alt key (on PC) or the left stick (Xbox One). In third-person view mode, holding Alt or RB allows you to swivel the camera so you can see all the way around you without moving. This is essential, since the island is a huge place, and you constantly need to be on the lookout for other players. Everyone is gunning for you, and only by being more aware of your surroundings than your opponents will you emerge victorious.

You'll also want to familiarize yourself with crouching and going prone, which minimize how visible you are and dictate how much sound your character makes while moving. Also, holding the Alt key can reduce the speed of your character, making them more quiet. Other handy controls include the B key or left on the D-pad, which lets you switch your weapons' firing modes, and Tab or Option, which opens your inventory screen and lets you quickly loot nearby bodies within a short distance. Managing your inventory quickly and efficiently is a key part of PUBG, so more on that later.

For Xbox users, keep in mind that tapping, not holding, the left trigger will aim down sights. The back button opens the map, and LB boosts when you’re driving. To switch from third- to first-person perspective, hit RB

Be Aware Of The Circle

In PUBG, you can't just wander the island for as long as you want, wherever you want. Eventually, the play area constricts; if you check the in-game map with the M key, you'll see a white circle designating the new play field, with a timer in the bottom-right corner of your display. When the timer runs out, a larger blue circle will begin to close in around the white one. If you're caught outside the white circle when the blue one arrives, you'll start to take damage--and the longer the game goes on, the more quickly the blue forcefield will kill you. So in addition to hunting down and fighting other players (or avoiding them), you need to continually make your way into the white circle to avoid dying. And each smaller circle means there's a better and better chance you'll run into other players.

In fact, a big part of every PUBG match is knowing where the circle is and how it'll affect you. Smart players use the circle as part of their strategy, using it to predict other players' movements and to ambush them as they flee its deadly contractions. You'll often see people waiting on bridges and at other choke points where they know other players are forced to pass to keep inside the circle. Thinking about where the circle will force players to go, and anticipating bad situations when you're forced to move, will help you survive.

What To Know About Your Gear

When you first drop onto the island in PUBG, you'll have only the clothes on your back. If you happen to encounter a player immediately, you can punch them, but every drop is a race for the nearest buildings, and with them, guns. You'll find guns and other equipment almost exclusively inside buildings, so most of the time, you'll want to move from structure to structure.

Your primary concern at the outset of the game is to get armed, but you also will need more than guns. Gear in PUBG includes body armor, backpacks to lug your stuff, and health items. In every game, you immediately want to seek out a vest and helmet for protection. However, higher tiered gear can protect against the more vulnerable areas of your body, such as tier 3 helmet offering a facemask to protect against head damage. These won't make you invincible, but they allow you to take a lot more damage and use up fewer healing items before dying.

Armor items and backpacks come in three tiers, with the third being the rarest and most effective. Most of the game is about checking buildings for better stuff, and you can expect other players to be doing the same. By the later stages of any match, expect your opponents to be pretty well decked out. Always keep an eye out for better gear, whether it's in the buildings you stop by or on the players you kill.