PUBG Patch 9.1: Full notes and updates

PUBG’s Patch 9.1 is bringing a slew of changes to the battle royale. It’s introducing a new seasonal map and Survivor Pass, changes to the ranked mode and regional matchmaking, weapon balance, quality of life changes, and more.

New map: Paramo

Cradled hidden among the clouds in the highlands of South America lies Paramo, an ancient land with ancient secrets. Paramo’s dangers are plentiful, but none so dangerous as the active volcano nearby whose molten lava streams flow across the land. Survivors dropping onto the Paramo Battlegrounds will only be able to reach the highlands via helicopter, which also have the task of distributing Care Packages around the field.

Paramo is a 3×3 map with a dynamic world new to PUBG. This dynamic world system alters locations between matches, making every trip to Paramo a unique experience

Season match

Due to the new dynamic map locations system, Paramo will be provided as a seasonal match separate from the current matchmaking pool.

Paramo is provided as a Seasonal Match exclusive for season nine only
Seasonal match will have bots disabled
Seasonal match will not count for your Career > Stats
Seasonal match will have the Battlestat feature disabled
Seasonal match will allow you to complete missions.

Paramo map rules

3×3 km playable area with dynamic map locations.
64 Players
TPP and FPP Squads Only
No Red Zones
The Blue Zone shrinks slowly but deals more damage compared to other maps, even in the early phases of the match
Motorcycles are the only vehicle available on Paramo and can usually be found near small villages

Paramo: New features

Dynamic map locations

Major landmarks and parts of the terrain are relocated in every new session
Players must adapt and use suitable strategies and tactics according to the changes

Several streams of lava flow from active volcanoes throughout Paramo, presenting a unique environment hazard as you traverse across the map.
Stepping foot in lava can lead to a quick death, dealing 10 damage per second to players, ticking every half second.
Riding a Motorcycle into lava will destroy your tires and quickly begin to destroy the vehicle, whilst also dealing damage to the player.
Unlike other maps, players can wander outside the bounds of the playable area and a warning will display on the screen. Failure to quickly return to the playable area will result in you being killed.

New item boxes can now spawn in certain houses
Destroy the boxes to find multiple pieces of loot, such as ammo, throwables, and healing items

Players will drop into the Battleground of Paramo from helicopters. During the match, these helicopters carry precious cargo across the map, with the plan of dropping it just outside the play area. Pay close attention and if you shoot enough rounds into a helicopter, you’ll force it to release the cargo early.

Paramo has a handful of Care Packages exclusive, highland themed items not found on other maps, including new full-body camo suits, ghillie suit and backpack

With a critical response kit in your inventory, you will be able to revive a downed squad member in just one second.

Ranked mode

Ranked mode just got a little more solo-friendly with the introduction of ranked solo queue. You’ll now be able to take on the Ranked Battlegrounds against other solo players as you climb the competitive ranks.

Season nine begins

A new ranked season has begun. Ranked rewards earned from season eight will be granted to your account upon login.

Player ranks have been reset
Players will be given their initial rank after five placement matches.
RP has been soft-reset, so your initial Season nine placement will be influenced by your Season eight rank.
Leaderboards have been reset
Final player ranks and the regional Top 500 leaderboards will be finalized once live server maintenance is complete, to ensure all matches are accounted for.
View your Season eight stats and the Top 500 leaderboards of each region under Career > Stats

Ranked game mode updates

Ranked solo

Solo matches have been introduced to Ranked Mode.
These matches will have the same competitive qualities as Ranked Squad matches
64 players
No Red Zones
More loot
Erangel, Miramar, Vikendi, and Sanhok only

Ranked leaderboard changes

For the following regional modes, we’re lowering the minimum rank required to display on the leaderboards from Diamond two to Gold five:

Europe
- TPP Solo and Squads
Russia
- TPP Solo and Squads
- FPP Solo and Squads
North America
- FPP Solo and Squads
South America
- FPP Solo and Squad
- TPP Squads

This change has been made to ensure each region has a sufficient percentage of their player base displayed on the leaderboards.

Ranked mode ruleset updates

Algorithm Update
- Points earned per kill and assist have been increased by 50 percent
Sanhok Blue Zone Adjustment
- Compared to other maps, the number of players who die in Phase two is very high
Sanhok matches
- Increased the size and waiting time of Phase two
- Removed the dynamic Blue Zone mechanic which scaled circle speeds based on the number of players alive
- Please note, these changes are only to Ranked Sanhok matches.
Item Spawns
- Increased AR/DMR Magazines spawns
  - Increased 4x, 6x, and 8x spawns
- Increased Canted Sight spawns
  - Slightly decreased the spawn rates of 2x and 3x scopes
- Decreased Handgun/SMG Magazines spawns
- Decreased Handgun spawns, along with 9mm and .45ACP ammo
Vehicle spawns
- Esports vehicle spawn locations will now always spawn a vehicle.
Care Packages
- MG3 has been added Care Packages on all Ranked maps

Regional matchmaking changes

This update to regional queues adds a Solo option to Ranked. In addition, we will now begin adjusting the available queues on a per region basis in an effort to deliver the best experience possible to each region.

When players go to select a game mode in either normal or ranked sections, they will see that the options that are available will be different. At a minimum, the changes will include the addition of a solo ranked option, but depending on region they may see different combinations of options available in terms of team size, perspective, and ranked/normal matches.

AS

TPP: Solo, Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank
FPP: Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

KR/JP

TPP: Solo, Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank
FPP: Solo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

KAKAO

TPP: Solo, Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

SEA

TPP: Solo, Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank
FPP: Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

EU

Random Map Selection
TPP: Solo, Squad, Squad Rank
FPP: Solo, Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

RU

Random Map Selection
TPP: Solo, Squad, Squad Rank
FPP: Solo, Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

NA

Random Map Selection
TPP: Solo, Squad
FPP: Solo, Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

SA

Random Map Selection
TPP: Solo, Squad, Squad Rank
FPP: Duo, Squad, Solo Rank, Squad Rank

OC

Random Map Selection
TPP: Solo, Squad, Squad Rank
FPP: Squad

Weapon balance update

After the weapon balance adjustment from patch 7.2, we have been receiving lots of feedback from players on how Beryl and SLR are too strong compared to other weapons, and our data has shown that Beryl and SLR were indeed dominant picks among our players. The PUBG team is working on plans to allow players to feel freer to choose their weapons based on their surroundings or strategic goals.

With this 9.1 update, the devs will be making some adjustments to Beryl and SLR.

Beryl M762

Base damage reduction: 46 to 44
Increased vertical recoil of early spray by 5 percent
Increased horizontal recoil of early spray by 5 percent
Slightly increased the minimum horizontal recoil

SLR

Based damage reduction: 58 to 56
Increased recoil during ADS by 5 percent
Increased loss of bullet velocity by distance by 15 percent

G-coin

G-Coin has been introduced to PUBG. G-Coin will function as the new currency for PUBG purchases.

Survivor pass: Highlands

Survivor Pass: Highlands loads you up with the looks you need to explore Paramo’s mysteries. Unlike previous passes, Highlands will run for a reduced duration of 2 months but is also easier to complete with only level 50 needed to receive all its rewards. Drop in early to hit the ground running and claim your great Paramo-themed rewards.

Survivor Pass: Highlands will be available for 990 G-Coin or $9.99 with Steam Wallet funds
You can earn 1,000 G-Coin through the collection of rewards in the Survivor Pass. Yes, that’s correct, collecting all the G-Coin rewards mean earning the pass for free
Unlike previous passes, Survivor Pass 9 has a reduced duration of 2 months with a total of 50 levels

QoL improvements

Missions

Missions XP is now automatically claimed upon completion.
Once a mission is complete, you’ll see a MISSION COMPLETED animation the first time you return to the pass.

Pass Reward and XP Visibility

Upon returning to the lobby after a match, you’ll immediately see an animation of XP earned filling the Survivor Pass bar
Claimable rewards are animated and highlighted to better display which rewards are ready to collect
Daily, Weekly, and Challenge missions can now be viewed in the lobby without having to dive into the pass page

Preview Improvements

You can now preview multiple items on your character at once, while on the Survivor Pass page
You can now preview emotes while also wearing skins you wish to preview at the same time

Weekly Missions

Now all players will be able to claim weekly missions
There are a total number of seven weekly missions
Weekly missions are now grouped by difficulty, giving XP based on how challenging they are

Performance

Character animation preloading has been added to improve performance
- This will result in shorter loading when entering matches and slightly reduced instances of hitching
- Although, as the game now loads character animations when first launching PUBG, there will be a slight increase in loading time upon launch
Selectable resolution in Fullscreen Borderless Mode
- You can now select your resolution while using Fullscreen Borderless mode and your render scale will adjust automatically to correlate with the selected resolution
- Changing the display mode to ‘Borderless’ mode from ‘Fullscreen’ or ‘Windowed’ will have the Render Scale automatically set to 70.
  - You can readjust the render scale above 70 if desired

UX/UI

New feature: News page

The PUBG team have added a new News page to the client, which will include helpful info on game contents, promotions, maintenance as well as community messages. All the PUBG info you need in one convenient spot
The News page replaces rolling banners previously located in the top left corner of the lobby
The Patch Note icon at the top right corner of the lobby now opens the News page, which also contains the patch notes

Lobby menu improvements

Enhanced the visuals and navigation of the menu
Added ESC shortcuts to the navigation menu
ESC will return you to the most recent PLAY menu
From the PLAY menu, ESC will open the System Menu

In-game store improvements

Along with general navigation bar upgrades, the devs have also revamped the in-game store for a better experience. Rather than simple crate images, now item sets are displayed with unique key art.

Customize menu improvement

The structure and layout of the customize menu has been revamped. Categories have been combined to provide quicker and easier navigation.

Overall menu structure and layout improvement
- Category home menu has been deleted for quicker access
- Streamlined the excess amount of categories (e.g. vehicles)
- Number of items displayed on the screen has been increased
Enhanced searching tools
- Items earned most recently will be now filtered to the top
- Search filters have been applied to more categories
- Added an on-off toggle to show or hide face accessories when accessing the appearance category.

Player status in party

New UI and text has been added to clearly state the player’s current status.

Other UI updates

New emote volume control slider has been added under Settings > Audio > Sound > Gameplay section
Now you are able to control the volume of emotes separately from gameplay volume
Karakin map image used in Match history section has been updated.
Optimized the UI in Observing Mode to provide more clear visibility.

Skins and items

Baseball themed items – nine set items, 16 individual items. (Release on Oct. 21
Doggy themed items – seven set items, 21 individual items. (Release on Nov. 4)
Streamer (Thomas) set – one set item, three individual items. (Release on Oct. 31)

Replay System

The replay system has been updated. Replay files from previous updates are now unable to be used.

Bug fixes

Gameplay

Fixed the issue where players could cancel the reload animation of M249 to reduce the reload time.

UI/UX

Fixed the issue where player’s damage in match history and match report page was shown differently
Fixed the issue where unrelated system messages displayed when players spent a certain amount of time at the out game screen such as the lobby, customize screen
Fixed a typo in the loading screen of the Training Map
Fixed the issue where changing the volume of Gameplay / UI / Music in Settings – Audio tab does not apply in real-time

Skins and items

Fixed the issue where characters appearance could distort when equipping the Madsy Utility Belt with some other clothing items
Fixed the issue where the wrong item was being displayed when previewing Jockey Boots with a male character

Spectating

Fixed the issue where a player’s number could be mismatched with the one displayed on the observer player list
Fixed the issue where M16’s iron sight could block players ADS view when attaching scopes
Fixed the issue where an observer’s right mouse button could be disabled when using hide UI function
Fixed the issue where players could receive the incorrect penalty pop-ups when trying to leave the match after spectating the killer