The last couple PUBG season updates have hinged upon fixing what was broken. In Season 7, PUBG Corp took a hard objective look at what was wrong with the snow-covered Vikendi map. It was the map players would insta-leave the lobby whenever they were randomly placed into it. After the Season 7 update, Vikendi is a much better experience, joining the ranks of Erangel and Karakin as maps most people actually want to play.
It’s the same idea for Season 8, just more tropical than tundra. Sanhok is the obvious odd man out at this point and PUBG Corp is giving it a facelift. Update 8.1 represents a near-complete reworking of Sanhok, as most locations have been revamped with “extensive design and art upgrades.” There are new locations too, like a tourism town labeled “Getaway” and a bootcamp called “Airfield.”
The Sanhok Remaster brings some new and fun ideas into the fold too. The major addition is self-driving loot trucks that carry cargo around the roads of Sanhok. Putting damage into the trucks causes them to drop loot (it doesn’t need to make sense), so players have to gauge the risk/reward of firing on a truck and giving away their location. Fully destroying a truck results in the best loot being dropped, including “confiscated weapons” which are the first PUBG firearms ever to come with attachments pre-installed.
It seems as though PUBG Corp is finally making good on the idea of fire traps too. Originally planned for an earlier update (and never really fully realized), players will be able to pour gas on the ground to ambush their enemies with a sudden inferno. Gas cans will be throwable items too, like giant molotov cocktails that need a single bullet to spark.
Lastly, the ranked playlist is getting a significant rework too. Right now, there’s a lot of controversy around the scoring system, as many people think it puts too much emphasis on kills and dealing damage. As a part of this update, ranked scoring will now factor team placement into MMR/Elo. That’s crucial considering the point of a battle royale is to survive as long as possible, not necessarily to just eliminate a bunch of other people.
PUBG‘s Update 8.1 officially arrives on July 22 on PC. The patch drops on July 30 on PS4, Xbox One, and Stadia. However, anyone who wants a glimpse at the new-and-improved Sanhok a little early can check it out when the update hits the test server on July 15.
Source: Destructoid PUBG’s next major update brings armored loot trucks to a reworked Sanhok