Only a few days are left till the sixth map of PUBG Mobile drops into the game. The anticipated Karakin is a two kilometers by two kilometers map which will have 64 players competing for the chicken dinner.
With the arrival of Karakin on April 7, however, the snowy Vikendi map will be temporarily leaving the game. While the exact reason for this hasn’t been revealed, it is likely being done to keep queue times low in the game.
Vikendi’s removal doesn’t come as a surprise. The map has already been dropped from all official PUBG Mobile esports tournaments in the first half of 2021. This includes the spring split of the PUBG Mobile Club Open (PMCO) and the ongoing Pro Leagues (PMPL) around the world. In these competitions, teams are playing across three maps only, namely Erangel, Miramar, and Sanhok.
While a lot of players will miss Vikendi, the new Karakin map brings a lot of other interesting mechanics to make up for it. In a recent beta version of PUBG Mobile, there were two new mechanics present–the Demolition Zone and bullet wall penetration.
The Demolition Zone is a small circle that may randomly appear on Karakin. It is indicated by a purple area on the mini-map. The zone causes a lot of destruction, even leveling entire buildings to the ground. The bullet wall penetration allows players to fire through certain thin walls.
Karakin was first introduced into the PC version of PUBG on Jan. 22, 2020. Over a year later, it is finally arriving on mobile devices.