PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds- New Update Live On Test Servers, Adds New Weapons, Balancing, And More

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds now has over 8 million players on the Xbox One and the developers have been hard at work tying to improve the game for those players. Now, a new update has been made available on the game’s test servers, and it brings a lot of changes, including performance improvements, balance changes, new weapons, new weapons attachments, and more.

On the game’s official forums, the developers explained that the purpose of making the Test Server is not for players to see new feature, but rather to identify problems and then fix them. The developers also stated that the test server will be up until July 16. As part of new content, there is the SLR weapon, as well as the Mirado, which is a muscle car limited to the Miramar map. Furthermore, quite a few new weapon attachments have been added, and these include the Duckbill, the Light Grip, the Half Grip and more. The update also adds an option for players to spectate the player who kills them by just clicking the ‘watch’ button at the end of a match.

You can read the entire patch notes for this update below.

WEAPON & ITEM BALANCE

Weapons

Pistols

Increased the damage of the P92, P1911, P18C, R1895, and R45

Shotguns

Increased overall damage and effective range
Shotgun chokes and duckbills are now less effective at decreasing spread (so the effective spread for a shotgun with a choke or duckbill will be similar to before)
Increased limb shots modifier (shooting limbs now does more damage)
Slightly decreased the damage of the S686 and S1897
Reduced pellet spread
Shotgun chokes can now be attached to the sawed-off

SMGs

Adjusted SMGs to be more effective in short range combat
Increased limb shots modifier
Slightly increased the damage of the Micro UZI, UMP9, and Vector
Decreased vertical recoil on all SMGs
Decreased recoil and scope sway when moving in ADS (aiming down sights)
Increased ADS transition speed
To make the Vector a little easier to find, we’ve increased its spawn rate at the expense of the spawn rate of the UMP-9 (overall SMG spawn rate remains the same).

ARs

Rebalanced ARs so none is the “objective” best—the power differential between each is now reduced, but each brings advantages to different situations.
Slightly decreased the damage of the M16A4, SCAR-L, AUG, and M416
Increased reload time by 30% for the SCAR-L, M16A4, and M416
Increased reload time by 10% for the AKM
Increased vertical and horizontal recoil for all ARs except the AKM
Decreased recoil recovery rate for all ARs
Restricted big scopes (8x and 15x) for use with all ARs
Modified recoil animations for all ARs
First shot (including first shot after recoil resets) from the M16A4 now has less recoil.

DMRs

Increased head, body, and limb shot modifier
Decreased the damage of the SKS
Slightly increased the damage of the VSS and Mini14
Increased vertical and horizontal recoil for all DMRs
Decreased the recoil recovery rate for all DMRs
Added new recoil animations for all DMRs
Increased world spawn rate of DMRs.
DMRs now use AR attachments (magazines, compensators, etc.) along with SR attachments

SRs

Decreased basic damage of the M24 from 88 to 79
M24 will no longer dropped in care package. It spawns in the world
Both SR quickdraw magazines and SR extended quickdraw magazines now spawn only in care packages

Other guns

Slightly increased the damage of the DP28 and M249
Restricted big scopes (8x and 15x) for use with LMGs (DP28, M249)
Reduced crossbow reloading time from 4 seconds to 3.5 seconds
Weapon sway has been adjusted for all weapons (slightly increased side-to-side movement). And sway is now more pronounced when holding your breath.
Weapon sway when moving is now also reduced by the cheek pad attachment
Cheek pads now help you recover from weapon sway more quickly after moving

Other Item Balance

Level three helmets now only spawn in care packages (and one is guaranteed to be in every care package)
We’ve reduced the spawn rate for AR extended quickdraw magazines
Adrenaline syringes now spawn (rarely) alongside normal loot in the game world
Adjusted the casting time of Adrenaline syringe from eight seconds to six seconds
The tactical stock and cheek pad are now less effective at improving recoil recovery rate. It now improves ADS speed.

GAMEPLAY

Along with all the balance changes, we’re introducing a new weapon, a new vehicle for Miramar, and a ton of new weapon attachments.

New Weapon

Added the SLR
The SLR spawns alongside normal world loot. It’s a DMR which uses 7.62mm ammo and contains 10 bullets per magazine (20 bullets when extended.)
The SLR is more powerful than the SKS but has more recoil. Recoil control is the key to using the SLR effectively.

New Vehicle

The Mirado is a classic muscle car: a fast, four-seat sedan that’s limited to Miramar. It can be found around downtown areas and main city streets
Think of the Mirado as a compliment to the other unique vehicles on Miramar: The van is extremely sturdy, but slow and ineffective when taken off-road; The pickup is great for off-road travel; And the Mirado is the fastest way to blaze down a highway.

New Attachments

Duckbill – A new attachment for shotguns (S1897, S12K). It decreases vertical pellet spread but increases horizontal bullet spread
Attachable to S1897, S12K
Light Grip – It decreases first shot/single shot recoil by about 15%. Animation kick reduction has been changed to 20% (from 30%).
Attachable to ARs, SMGs, DMRs (UMP9, AUG, M416, SCAR-L, SKS, Vector)
Thumb Grip – It reduces vertical recoil but increases horizontal recoil. It also increases the recoil recovery time
Attachable to – ARs, SMGs, DMRs (UMP9, AUG, M416, SCAR-L, SKS)
Half Grip – It reduces vertical and horizontal recoil and also reduces recoil recovery time
Attachable to – ARs, SMGs, DMRs (UMP9, Vector, AUG, M416, SCAR-L, SKS)
Scope 3x – This scope has fixed 3x magnification with an illuminated reticle. It’s discoverable as a common world-drop item
Scope 6x – This scope has variable 3x–6x magnification. It’s discoverable as a rare world-drop item.

Throwables

Improvements have been made to throwables (frag grenades, stun grenades, and molotovs).

Weight changes:

Frag grenade: Increased from 12 to 18
Molotov cocktail: Decreased from 18 to 16
Smoke grenade: Decreased from 16 to 14
Stun grenade: Decreased from 14 to 12

Increased frag grenade damage and effective range
Frags previously had to be within 2.6m of player models to deal lethal damage. They now deal lethal damage within 3.5m, moderate damage from 3.5m through 8.5m, and low damage from 8.5m through 10m.
Stun grenades’ blinding effects have been improved
First, let’s explain some terms. “Direct effect” is defined as stun grenade explosions occurring within a 100˚ angle of the player’s visual field. “Indirect effect” occurs when stun grenades explode outside of that “direct effect” range and players are within 5.5m of the explosion
The maximum effective range of stun grenade has been increased to 20m
Depending on distance from the explosion, the direct effect can blind the player for a maximum of 5.5 seconds, and a minimum of one second (when 20m away).
Depending on distance from the explosion, the indirect effect can blind the player for a maximum of three seconds.
Characters blinded by a stun grenade now cover their faces. This is a new animation.
Spectators are now also blinded when spectating someone hit with a stun grenade
Stun grenades will now briefly blind and deafen the thrower if they explode behind their back when cooked.
You’ll now be unable to ADS while blinded.
Molotov cocktails now have new effects and their damage has been increased.
Molotovs can now deal indirect damage and burn damage (as damage over time), depending on whether or not you’re standing directly in the flames. If you’re in the flames you’ll take both types of damage.
Indirect damage (taken when standing in the flames) has been increased from 10 to 12.5 damage per second.
After catching fire, players will take burn damage as damage over time (10 damage per second) for a total of four seconds.
You’ll now be unable to ADS while taking burn damage.
Flames now spread further along wooden surfaces in houses
Flames from Molotovs spread further if another Molotov is thrown on top of the flames.
A new animation has been added for character models who are suffering burn damage. They’ll attempt to pat out the flames using their hands.

Character Movement

We’ve slightly decreased the movement speed when holding SRs, LMGs (M249, DP28) and shotguns. Your equipped weapon affects both your sprinting speed and your running (normal movement) speed.
We’ve removed the first shot delay when your character is not sprinting
Chambering a new round in certain weapons (M24, Kar98k, S1897, etc.) no longer limits you to walking speed while aiming down sights
The amount your camera shakes after being shot (“aim punch”) now depends on the amount of damage received.

Boat and Swimming Adjustments

Boats now sink when destroyed
We’ve made some adjustments to the way swimming works to reduce the effectiveness of hiding underwater.
We’ve decreased the maximum submersible time from 35 to 15 seconds
Once you’ve run out of air, you’ll now take 10 damage per second (up from four damage per second)
We’ve increased the delay for breath recovery time from one to four seconds. (In other words, when you lift your head up out of the water, it’ll now take four seconds before you begin to recover your breath)

Others

On Erangel, all windows with bars have had the glass removed.
Added 26 graffiti images to buildings in Erangel and Miramar.

UI / UX

A marker has been added to the map that allows players to check the flight path of the plane.
The path is visible from when players are at the waiting lobby up until the point when they fall down to their final drop destination.
Added a UI message showing when healing items can’t be used.
You can now change the reticle style and color on the red-dot, holo-sight, and 2x scope using the scope zeroing keys (hold rb, then move L-stick while ADS: brightness, hold rb then press ↑/↓: reticle shape change, color change)

Performance

We’ve improved the character model rendering process to prevent some small frame drop issues.
We’ve optimized character movement and animation while skydiving to improve framerate when multiple players are nearby.
We’ve made some improvements to our network code to reduce network latency.
Character data calculated radius has been reduced to increase server and client performance.
Bike animations have been optimized.
Scoping has been optimized—framerate should no longer decrease when scoping at forests.
Asset/Building loading in Miramar has been optimized.
Smoke effects (Smoke grenade, care package, etc.) have been optimized.