PUBG patch 13.1 will go live on August 4 and it’s adding some more new features to Taego, doing some landscaping on Sanhok, rebalancing some weapons, and a whole lot more. Since the release of Taego, Krafton has been making a lot of the right moves with its battle royale. And the patch notes for update 13.1 look like another good one for PUBG.
In an earlier trailer for Taego, we were shown a collection of Care Packages dropping during a match. With the next patch, this unique feature will be added to PUBG’s latest map. The 13.1 patch notes say that the mass Care Package drop will happen when the situation is right. That’s vague, but at least we know it won’t happen every drop.
We do know that the mass drop will include one standard Care Package and five to 10 smaller Care Packages. The smaller Care Packages are guaranteed to contain ammo, healing items, and throwables. There is also a low chance that they will contain items from standard Care Packages.
Another new feature coming to Taego is a Secret Room. This works the same way the Secret Rooms on Paramo do. You need to find a key to unlock the room. Then find the room to loot all the goodies. I imagine the Secret Room on Taego will always be in the same spot, unlike on Paramo.
Inside the Secret Room, you can find the Self AED, scopes, a large number of healing items, and throwables. Plus, there is a small chance you will find Care Package gear.
A new way to drop
My favorite new feature is the Emergency Landing. I like it because it shows Krafton is trying to come up with new ways to mix up battle royale matches. When flying into Taego, the plane will sometimes experience engine failure and be forced to make an emergency landing. When this happens, the plane will move faster and begin to drop in altitude.
This presents players with some interesting tactical decisions to make. If you’d like to drop far from the flight path, you need to bail out soon after the plane starts descending. However, if you want to get to the ground faster, you can wait till the last moment before jumping out of the plane. Just don’t be inside the plane when it lands because you’ll lose 50% of your health.
The 13.1 patch notes also indicate that some item spawn changes are being made to Taego based on PUBG player feedback. The most significant change is that Self AED drops will increase by 37%. That’s a lot. If you down a player in a match, you now need to assume they have Self AED. And that means you’re going to finish them off. I don’t think that makes for an enjoyable game experience.
Taego will also receive Emergency Pickups with the next patch. So, there will be a lot more planes in the air – for better or worse.
Changes to Sanhok
Krafton has continued to monitor and work on Sanhok since it was remastered last year. With update 13.1, the developer is improving one of the worst areas of the map, the northwest island.
After patch 13.1, you will be able to approach this area of the map with more obstacles available to use as cover. Previously, if you didn’t make it across the bridge, you were a sitting duck trying to cross the river and approach the hills.
The biggest change to the map is around the temple at the summit of the hill on the northwest island. The temple has been repositioned and the complex has been remodeled to contain only buildings with loot in. Plus, the approach to the temple from Camp Alpha will now offer players a lot more cover.
As you can see from the image below, the summit of the hill isn’t quite as high as it was before either. Sanhok suffers from too much cover in many areas of the map. However, in this case, the increased cover is a good change.
There are a few general things to know for patch 13.1. Bolt-action sniper rifles will be better across the board after the update, while DMRs will be slightly worse. Paramo is being removed from the map rotation and Karakin is back in. Taego still isn’t in the main map rotation, unfortunately.
You can check out the complete patch notes for 13.1 if you’d like to see all the changes coming to PUBG with the next update.
