There are different stages of the game, which should be treated differently. The following is my personal opinion on what these different stages look like and examples of how to treat them.

This guide aims to collect information from loads of different sources to create the best full picture of the game, how it works and how it should be played in order to win.

One of the reasons PUBG is such a great game is because it provides you with the initial size of Battlefield, the loot aspect of an MMO with RNG based factors, while ending in a Call of Duty / Counter-Strike action filled adrenaline rush.

Generally you can enter the game with one of two methods: One is parachute for a deserted place and get through the early-game without too much effort. While another way is to parachute straight into the action from the beginning providing a more action filled experience.

- If you are in a house with a balcony which has an open-able door, you can jump on-top of the railing, then on-top of the door, and then get on-top of the roof!

- In TPP use 3'rd person to your advantage, peek around corners, and look over grass.

- You can use Boosters and bandages while sitting in moving cars, try pressing hotkey 9.

- While the red-zone is a little dangerous to run through, since you can get down'ed by a single hit, it should be noted that if you move around a lot, there is actually not a very high risk of the bombs hitting you.

- Remember the plane path, and consider the circle according to the plane.

- Looting too long into the late-game instead of considering the zone
- Suicide by going for crates
- Poor time management

So when should you jump? This choice determines whether you have a game filled with action from you hit the ground, or if you will be running in fields for 20 minutes while looting low-loot areas.

Choosing where to jump, and what to go for is a crucial part of the game, as soon the plane enters the island and you are able to jump, you should have a plan on where to jump out, what your going for, and what kind of type of game-play to use for the initial ground entry.

When picking your first loot-place you should note that PUBG is a High risk = High reward game; if you go for big cities close to the drop-off plane, a lot of enemies will be nearby from the start; meaning the risk for you dying is greater, but as you might already know, the best way to loot is having someone else do it for you. This idea however can only be applied if you and or your team has high-end aim's, meaning you hit very well.

So to brush up, do you want kills from 3 seconds after ground hit, or do you want to play for the end game before you even start the game? You need a plan.

Flying ~ 1 km forward until force-release
Travel forward while looking up at the horizon and try to get as far as you can before force-release of your parachute will kick-in roughly 900 - 1200 meters above ground. The distance you will travel after fore-release depends on your speed downwards.

When using this technique, most times you want to dive straight down at the end (I prefer to aim for a minimum of 217 m/s in dive-speed thus terminal velocity at 234 m/s will get you down the fastest) in order to get a sling-shot effect when force-releasing, this will allow you to get up to ~ 200 meters lower than others and thus hit the ground faster, and have more time to loot before players which does not use this method.

Early parachute release
If you want to travel further than roughly 1.3 km, for example about 2.5 km. then you want to release your parachute early; when to release comes with practice, but here is a few rules of thumb

1. If you want to travel 3 km then you should release almost immediately after jump.
2. If you want to only travel 2 km then you can release roughly halfway down.
3. If you want to only travel less than 1.5 km then you might not want use the first method instead and only release a few centimeters above the force-release.

The red area on the following picture should give you a rough idea as to how far you can travel with the 1 km release method which is shown in red, while the green shows how far you can go if you use the early release method, note that this is assuming the ground is flat, which it is not meaning you will have to consider hills, on this particular picture you are not able to reach Stalber since this is on-top of a very high hill.

When you and everyone else nearby has their parachute released, you should look around you are check where nearby enemies land, this is very crucial in order to either go kill them early, or to hide away from them.

Once you hit the ground this stage is simple, don't pickup anything but guns, and once you find a gun(preferably anything other than a pistol), go kill nearby enemies immediately. In other words if enemies are very close this is the all in aggressive phase if you get your hands on a gun quickly. However if you do not find a weapon and someone else nearby already has one, then you might consider running, drivning away or hiding somewhere unexpected.

So in a very few situations you might end up forced into a fist fight. If this happens, it would be a good idea to try and jump-punch the enemy, since this takes away more than half of the enemys hp, assuming they dont have a helmet, which they usually dont have in a 10 seconds into the game fist fight.

Once all nearby enemies has been neutralised, you can actually start looting for the more nice to have things, such as a backpack, better weapons etc.

So you might have already noticed that open doors means that someone has already looted the place, and you can use this to "double-cross" enemies that runs by and think the place is already looted.

Everyone likes safety, and houses is a place where players often feel safe, because they can close the outside door and have a little warrning before the enemy is in their face, but one thing you do not want to do is loot everything and leave the doors open on buildings nearby and close doors on the one that you camp in since this will leave some obvious trails for the enemy to sniff.

If you want to sit around and camp somewhere, lets say in Gatka, this is where you most likely do not want to loot all the buildings before camping, even if you close every single door, if anyone loots a few house, they are likely to realise that there is no loot, meaning that someone has looted and closed all the doors, which will make them suspicious whether the city is a trap or not, you need some bait.

Before reading this section it should be noted that the choice of guns is highly subjective since everyone shoots differently and has different preference in guns!

This section only covers the regularly spawning weapons on the map, which does not include caperackage drops. The following conclusions has been derived from Stats and Experience.

Pistols are nearly useless and the according ammo such as .45 will more often than not fill up the limited space in your backpack which is much better used for 5.56 or 7.62. Meaning that once you find any AR and have a decent amount of ammunition for it you should dump any extra ammo which is only intended for your pistol. There is however one exception which is the P18C, which is a full-auto pistol which can even store up to 25 extra 9mm with an extended mag, while also have a very high firerate.

M16A4 this weapon has great raw stats, it does not allow for any stability attachments which makes it the number 3 or 4 out of 4 assuming all weapons is fully attached, but number 1 or 2 assuming all weapons has no attachments.

AKM has great raw stats like the M16A4, with more damage and less bullet travel time making it a little harder to hit targets at long distances.

SCAR-L this weapon has worse raw stats than AKM and M16A4, but is better than those when fully equipped.

M416 this weapon is similar in base stats to SCAR-L, thus it thrives when filly attached where it is the number 1 or 2 out of the 4 assault rifles.

Micro UZI is by far the worst of all the SMG's since it has very high recoil, still no doubt better than a pistol.

UMP9 is by far the most all around SMG, it has better range than UZI and Vector, and allows for some medium range fighting, while still being very useful on short ranges.

Vector has the highest damage output per second at close range with its unbelievably high number of fired bullets per second, while still having decent recoil(especially with Stock) remember this is short range you dont need very high precision.

Tommy Gun is a sub-machine gun with a drum magazine, it stores 30 rounds as is, and is possibly the least preferred SMG in the game.


5.56mm - M16A4, M249, M416, SCAR-L.
7.62mm - AKM, Kar98k, Groza, M24, R1895, SKS.
Gauge 12 - S1897, S686, S12K.
9mm - VSS, Micro UZI, P18C, P92, UMP9.
.300 Magnum - AWM.
.45 ACP - P1911, Tommy Gun, Vector.

Vertical Foregrip gives you 15-20% less vertical recoil and 15-20% less horizontal recoil meaning its better for single-shot firing. Also allows for faster aim-down-sight for Scar, UMP and Vector.

Angeld Forgrip only gives you roughly 5-15% less horizontal recoil meaning its better for Spraying on an SMG used for short range, this is definitely the choice. Also allows for faster aim-down-sight for M416, Scar and UMP.

Read more in-depth about those weapons here[pubg.gamepedia.com]

If you want to read all weapon statistics, they can be found at https://pubg.me/weapons, maybe checkout Related Content [1], [3] and [4]

When looting supply crates you can actually prepare a little while going towards it, by making sure you do not have anything in your backpack which you dont need, and maybe consider what items and weapons you might throw away before going to the crate, since looting the crate will leave you very exposed while looting some giant red smoke which can be seen from multiple km away.



While it is certainly an extra risk to take, getting the loot from an airdrop will often help you win the end game due to better loot. The following items can only be found in airdrops.

Groza assault rifle still does not have any stats associated with it, however it sounds like it hits very hard.

AWM Sniper Rifle has a Hit Damage of 132, an Initial Bullet Speed of 910, a Body Hit Impact Power of 40,000 and is the powerful sniper in the game in terms of Hit Damage.

M24 Sniper Rifle is probably the most neutral of all sniper rifles in comparison of Hit Damage(84), Body Hit Impact Power of 20,000, and also Initial Bullet Speed of 790.

M249 SAW is a light machine gun which stores 100 bullets in one mag, and is therefore fantastic to make vehicles explode, since it takes about 40 AR bullets to destroy a car.

Adrenaline Syringe is a boost which puts you at 100% boost.

15x PM II Scope magnifies the vision of the player 15 times from the normal vision.

Ghillie Suit is the best way to become one with grass and bushes, it will allow you to be super hard to spot while crawling around in the grass, especially if you drop your secondary weapon which will otherwise sit very exposed on your back.

More drops exist here[pubg.gamepedia.com]

When moving around, you should normally do your best to run through tree-passings instead of open fields, though sometimes you will have no choice if you want to live.

When you go from Mid to setting up late-game depends on your loot. You want to make sure you have enough ammo to kill all remaining players when endgame sets in, enough ammo can be anywhere from 100 to 200 rounds, depending on your skill, assuming Rifles. Also you should have at least 2 med or firstaid kits, and preferably 2 or more boosts.

Once you have acquired enough decent loot you can either start searching for enemies to get kills and potentially better loot(to increase late-game winning opportunities), or you can grab a vehicle and hide yourself away until late-game begins. If you choose to hide, the 2-man motorbike is preferred, since you can lay it down and be very hard to spot, while also being the fastest and least fuel consuming vehicle in the game, allowing you to drive across the map to find the best stationary position for hiding within the given circle.

PUBG is a risk-mannagement game, generally your thinking should always be "If I do this, what is the the chances of I getting into a better position?" whereas sometimes a better position also means better loot, since you want to be geared up for the end game where looting gets insanely dangerous compared to rest of the game.

Also it is of extreme importance to stay updated with the circle, since at this point; the circle will start dealing a lot of damage, forcing everyone inside the circle faster than previously, the tiny guy on your right, above the mini-map will provide you with info as to how close you are to the circle.

Generally there are two 'ends' of which you can play the circle, one is playing the white-circle middle, while the other is playing the blue border.

White-Center vs. Blue Border
Staying as close to the middle of the white circle as possible will most often result in avoiding nearly all contact. The other is running close to the blue circle. Everyone will be at either of these two stages or somewhere in between, it is however important to understand cause and effect of both sides in order to maximise your victory percentage, you need to understand what other players will do according to their skills compared to your skills such as aiming and enemy movement prediction.

As displayed in the table above, the circle is not really a problem during roughly the first half of the game it simply does not do enough damage for the first 4-5 circles to be relevant.

More updated times can be found here[pubg.gamepedia.com]

End game starts when around 10 people are alive at which point looting becomes incredibly dangerous.

Positioning in the late game is of incredible importance, however this does not mean moving somewhere that is high-ground and camping there, instead it means that should be very aware of your surroundings and be decisive in your actions. Think about where you are now, what spots might enemies be at? And where you are going next? Where might you be going after that? Listen for steps or prone-movement, while constantly checking around if anyone is coming to flank you, keep track of how many people there are left, as you might be able to tell, every single variable must be accounted for, because there are no useless information going through your screen and headset at this point.

- Smokes can help you out of certain situations, remember to consider the possibilities.

- Stay hidden and dont engage unless you have a clean shot (Don’t start a fight you can’t finish)

- Once you fire, everyone knows exactly where you are and will quickly locate and eliminate you.

- It is better to have two players engaging on each other and you being the clean-up crew, instead of you killing someone while allowing a another enemy to move around and shoot you in the back.

Imagine a game where you are the third player left, you see both enemies; now what do you do? If you have great aiming skill and is an offensive player in general, you might be able to simply shoot both of them, however for the sake of logic lets say you are all equally skilled, what happens when you shoot one enemy if you dont have a silencer? Yeah that's right, the other player locates you and starts shooting at you, and thus you die, if you are unlucky you might even miss the first player, and suddenly there will be two enemies looking towards you and you will be stuck in crossfire.

A common mistake that many people make, especially in the late game is lack of action and decisiveness due to fear, this is something that everyone must overcome in order to win. There are many ways to deal with fear, focus on breathing and is what i've found to be most effective.

If you want to be a ghost then you should know that there is a lot of ways to broadcast your position to the enemy, I've attempted to make a list of such actions.

You Broadcast your position when you..

• Stand up in grass
  
• Shoot (even with silencer in end-game since the circle is very small and the sound can be located when within certain range)
  
• Use grenades (when you pull the pin and also sort of when it explodes)
  
• Loot recently killed enemy
  
• Drive a vehicle
  
• Move in general

- When you hit a helmet etc. which is metal you will see a quick ignition which indicates that your bullet has hit, and bounced off.

Here is a list which describes (according to my opinion and tests) how far away you can hear different movements, the max-range.

So there is the obvious defaults of W, A, S, D, Space, C and Z. However something loads of players dont know is that while swimming you can actually dive by holding C, and swim up by holding Space, instead of using the mouse which is both annoying and terrible to use, since you cant look at enemies when you have to move the entire screen. Also you can hold down Shift while scoped to hold your breath and decrease the sway in your weapon.

There are a number of settings you can change within the game. Generally speaking you want to change everything to Very Low.

If your specs are great enough you might want to turn up some of the graphics, such as texture which helps you spot enemies since different edgers are optimised to be more consistent and stand out more, note however that you still need to be able to play the game; meaning most people will lose too much fps from turning up anything rendering you unable to play simply due to low fps.

When considering your options beforehand, you might want to turn down the volume on the in-game voice chat(maybe even disable it completely) while keeping up the other sounds from the game.

If you find yourself having consistently dropping framerate in one or two games, I've managed to fix that by changing to Full Screen and back to Windows Borderless which I normally prefer, since this also gives me more fps.

- Go into nVidia Control Panel
- Select 'Manage 3D settings'
- Add PUBG to the drop-down menu by clicking on Add and selecting the TslSame.exe within your PUBG Steam folder. The path will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\PUBG\TslGame\Binaries\Win64
- Pick PUBG in the drop-down menu
- Turn Threaded Optimisation on (not auto!)
- Set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance

A map showing loot zones and vehicle spawns is available here[i.imgur.com], and you can find the full detailed information on all map changes here.

To track your stats while playing, https://pubg.me/tracker might be usefull to you.

Bugs described in this section may be updated and no longer be relevant.

As of the date 4/7-2017
If you did not already know, anyone can actually go to the Spawn Island and loot the place after the game starts, all though the tables will be empty. An interesting and in rare cases usefull bug is that, any doors on the Spawn Island(and presumably rest of the map) will not be closed when the game starts, meaning that if you open doors when you are in the Lobby you can actually save time if you chose to go there when the game starts.

At this point you might be wondering, who the guy writing this article is, and I would like to point out a few things on this matter.

This is a screenshot from my fifth game ever played(second solo game), and yes I am a ghost without aim.
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=902570128
Again, I am a ghost:
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952150022
Another time I sucked it up and got some kills:
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=951410870
I am by no means a perfect player, I make mistakes in every single game, and my aim isn't even that good, but I believe my game knowledge is some of the best you can find, partially due to previously playing DayZ, and countless hours in Counter-Strike, and most important of all; I've done alot of research.

Related articles I've found useful are:

[1] wtfMoses - Optimization Guide

[2] PrimaGames.com - How to Increase FOV[www.primagames.com]

[3] Spreadsheet for weapon stats[docs.google.com]

[4] Gamepedia - Weapons[battlegrounds.gamepedia.com]

[5] Gamepedia - Loadouts[battlegrounds.gamepedia.com]

[6] Parachuting Guide Describes detailed stats on parachuting.