We are sure that you have heard about the craze going around these days, about a game called PUBG. If you want to jump in on the craze but are unsure about the rules and basics of the game, don’t worry. In this guide, we’ll explain you the basics of the game. This will help you start the game with a basic idea of what it is, so you won’t die as soon as you land every game.

What is PUBG?

PUBG, the short form of Playerunknown’s Battleground is a multiplayer battle arena game available on Windows, Xbox One, iOS, and Android. The game starts with a maximum of 100 players joining the game in a random place on the map.

After all the players have joined, they are dropped in a huge map from an airplane.  You’ll have to collect weapons, ammo, weapon extensions, healing kits and then fight or hide depending on your style. The last player standing wins the game. The game can be played in Solo mode, Duo with another player, random or your friend or Squad with three more players, random or your friends.

Getting started with PUBG for Android

1) Firstly, you have to create your game avatar which involves customizing the hair, face, skin color and more. There are three maps to play on mobile version Erangel, Miramar and newly added Sanhok, all are very different from one another.

2) Once you start a game, the first thing to decide is where you want to land. You’ll see people immediately jumping as soon as the jump button pops up on screen, don’t do that. Open the map and look at possible places to jump in the airplane’s route. We recommend newbies to jump in small towns where you’ll hardly find anyone else. The big towns do have good loots but the risk of dying early is also high, as most experienced players jump there.

3) Once you are on the ground, go through houses and industrial shades to look for weapons, ammo, armor, helmet and medical kits for healing. You can loot items from dead players as well. Move around multiple locations to loot items. You can use vehicles, motorbikes, buggy and motor boats to move around, they can be found near highways and big towns.

4) Once you are done accumulating essentials, look at the map. You’ll see a white circle; this is the safe zone. You have to stay inside this white zone or else you’ll lose health and eventually die. The outermost blue circle is the burn zone, if you stay beyond the blue circle for too long, you’ll gradually lose health and die. The damage per second increases as the circle shrinks. The goal is to stay inside the white circle to avoid damage and ultimately win the game.

5) There are different kinds of weapons in the game; pistol, shotgun, SMG, assault rifle, DMR, and sniper rifles. Try to use SMG and assault weapons like UMP, Uzi, M416, AKM, SCAR for close to mid-distance fights. These weapons have an auto mode; in which they will pump out bullets as long as you press the fire button.

6) For long distance fights, use DMR and sniper rifles. DMR like SKS and sniper like Kar98 and more, but you’ll need long range scopes to snipe enemies. So, look for Red dot sight and holographic sights for your assault rifles and SMG and 4x, 6x, or 8x scopes for your sniper rifles. You can attach or detach attachments by pressing the bag pack icon on the bottom left of the screen.

7) Extensions are compatible with specific weapons only. For example, an SMG extension magazine will work with SMG weapons only. Compatible extension of weapons is highlighted on the weapon and auto fits itself.

Now let’s talk about healing. If someone has shot you, you’ll lose some health but beware headshots can kill you instantly most of the time. In solo mode, a headshot is an instant kill from sniper rifles. In duo and squad mode you’ll be knocked out, your teammates can revive you when that happens. Having helmets — especially level 2 and 3 — helps to mitigate the damage.

You want to regain your lost health ASAP using items like bandages to heal yourself by a small amount in one use. A First Aid Kit will revive your health to 75 percent, while a Med Kit heals your health to 100 percent. Med Kits are hard to find and are rare. For healing past 75 percent, you’ll need boosts like energy drinks, painkiller and adrenalin syringe. You will also gain a higher running speed when the boost gauge is above 60%. The boost bar is the yellow line above your health.

In a huge map, you have to move around as the circle shrinks so running will not help most of the times. You’ll need to find a car, buggy (a four-wheeler 2 seater) or motorbike to move faster. These are located in most places with building along the highway. Be careful while riding bikes, falling at high speed from a bike will kill you. With this basic knowledge, you can start playing PUBG with confidence.

Controls

The control is basic; the left joystick is to control your movement while using your right hand to control the direction which you face. You can drag the joystick on the left of the sprint button for autorun. The fist or bullet symbol on the left is used to fire guns or throw punches.  The reason for this fire button on the left is you’ll aim at moving enemies with your right hand and use your left to fire. The bag pack button is for your inventory.

The four buttons on the right are same–  fire button starting from top left, jump on the top right, crouch on the bottom left and prone on the bottom right.

Cosmetics in game

The game gives you the option to dress up your character using clothes, shoes, hats and more. You can purchase basic crates for free with BP you earn while playing. If you want the eye-catching cosmetics you have to spend dollars. These cosmetics are just for show and don’t give any advantage in gameplay what so ever.

Ranking

There is also a ranking system in place to determine the capabilities of the players. The lowest rank where you start from is Bronze and it progresses to Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Crown, Ace and the highest, Conqueror. Each rank has five tiers. The three game modes, Solo, Duo and Squad have their individual rank. You improve your rank by winning games.

So start playing the game and fail quite a bit to eventually master the game and have some chicken for dinner.