PUBG update 8.1 patch notes introduce the Loot Truck

PUBG Season 8 arrives July 22 for PC players, but the update is already live on the test server, and as such, PUBG Corp has released the update 8.1 patch notes for us to skim over. As expected for a new season, they’re pretty massive, but in this article we’ll summarise the core changes before letting you dive into the full patch notes for the finer details.

PUBG update 8.1 patch notes

The biggest changes including in the PUBG 8.1 patch notes all pertain to the island of Sanhok. The small map has been through a major rework, changing several key locations. One of this biggest alterations is the new Airfield. Replacing the Mongnai farm, this new area has a chance to spawn the Motor Glider, and will be the only place on the map you can grab it.

The other most exciting new addition is the Loot Truck. Several of these armored vehicles will spawn around the map, chugging their way along common pathways. Shooting at them will cause them to drop valuable loot, and destroying them grants even better rewards. The problem? They’ll take a lot of hits, and you’re going to make an awful lot of noise while you’re at it, drawing plenty of attention from other players.

Other than that, PUBG update 8.1 brings in a new Ranked season to earn rewards through, and a fresh set of skins which will arrive in August. There are several bug tweaks as well, but we’ll let you jump right into the patch notes below to discover the finer details for yourself.

Sanhok map changes

Bootcamp

Bootcamp has been completely reworked. We wanted to keep this a hot drop location, while improving the feel and competitive conflict in the area. There is plenty of line of sight for long range engagements but also lots of cover for players to advance on opponents. There are underground areas for aggressive close quarters combat as well. Overall, we feel the changes have amplified the risk vs reward gameplay players want from a hot drop, while giving everyone more options to best approach different situations.

Quarry

The old version of Quarry was a beloved, yet terribly imbalanced experience. We’ve done a lot of work here to make this unique location fun and fair for those who find themselves in it. The stone blocks are now larger to provide better cover from opponents with the high ground and we’ve added some perilous rope bridges to give players more options for crossing without having to go through or around. All in all, Quarry should now be a meaningful destination for players who want long firefights and non-conventional engagements.

Airfield (Previously Mongnai)

We’ve replaced the farm area in the Northeast with a new Airfield. The farm never quite got the attention we were hoping it would, so we’ve added some incentives for players to drop on this part of the island. The main incentive being that the Airfield, perhaps unsurprisingly, now has a chance to spawn the Motor Glider! This is the only place you can find it on Sanhok, so grab a gas can and take to the skies!

Getaway (Previously Docks)

The old docks were fun, but generally were low in the loot department, especially for a drop that far away. Our replacement is the Getaway, a loot packed resort town designed to separate tourists from their money. Featuring poolside bars, a boardwalk, Sanhok’s premiere dance club, there’s plenty of neon haze to go around. Just don’t let it distract you from why you’re there.

Ruins

While the structure of the Ruins itself was always hotly contested, the areas surrounding it posed a severe disadvantage for anyone walking out without the proper gear. We’ve reworked this area to make ruins the massive, labyrinthine, and deadly destination it should be, with plenty of loot for those willing to raid its treasures.

Mountain

The mountainous area in Sanhok certainly make for topographical diversity, but when it came to actual gameplay implications, there were a number of issues here. Players caught up here with the blue zone approaching were left with few options, one of which was jumping and hoping for the best- a few of you have probably been there. The other is the straight up high ground advantage with little to no counterplay for those caught below. With these thoughts in mind, we’ve added additional pathways to reach it, adding some flanking options for the team with the high ground to defend against.

Cave

We’ve redesigned the Cave to have the fiction we’d always wanted it to have. You can still get your thrills through the scariest vertical pool drop in PUBG, but now there’s a cool subterranean temple waiting for you to explore, should you survive the fall.

River

Our main goal with the River was to give players more options to traverse it. Original Sanhok had very few places to cross without diving straight into the water, so we’ve added more bridges for crossing, additional cover on some existing bridges, and more cover on river banks should firefights open up there.

Pai Nan / Khao / Sahmee / Kampong

These towns have all received some reworking, adding verticality, interesting things to explore, new ways to fight, and most importantly, great venues to battle over the new Loot Truck as it passes through each town. In some cases, the changes are minor, such as simply widening the road so the truck can pass through to bigger reworks to create more interesting ways to battle.

Bhan

While a cool locale, Bhan was underused and a pain to loot. We’ve removed Bhan and replaced it with a normal set of houses so that we can focus on using those resources for unique locations elsewhere. Due to the more simplified and familiar building layout, this area should now be a more defensible position to loot and control.

New Feature: Loot Truck

The Loot Truck is a brand new feature that gives players an additional, albeit risky, way to gear up. Trucks spawn in one of several garages around the island and drive along roads, enticing players to attack them. As these trucks take damage, they’ll drop some loot and continue on their way. Players persistent enough to destroy the truck will be rewarded with an even bigger cache of weapons and gear for you and your squad. Be careful when attacking these rolling behemoths, though- they can take a lot of damage and doing so will certainly draw some attention.

• Up to four Loot trucks are spawned at the start of the match.
• Each truck is spawned separately inside of one the special garages scattered around the map.
• When a truck is destroyed, a new truck will be spawned from the garage.
• A total of 8 Loot Trucks can spawn in a single match.

The Loot

• Loot Trucks can be damaged and destroyed with weapons/throwables.
• However, the loot truck takes reduced damage compared to other vehicles, due to its heavy armor.
• Small or large lootable containers fall from the Loot Truck as it’s damaged.
• Upon being destroyed, Loot Trucks explode and give access to a large amount of top tier loot, including possible exclusive weapon loot.
• Exclusive weapons are pre-skinned, specially named weapons decked out with attachments.

Loot Trucks do not currently spawn in Ranked Matches.

Sanhok Balance Update

The Remastered Sanhok will feature mostly similar item spawns compared to the previous version of Sanhok.

Although there are some changes:

• Panzerfaust added to world loot
• Vehicle spawns adjusted, with some removed to facilitate the new Loot Truck routes.

Weather

• Remastered Sanhok will feature clear day, sunrise, sunset, and overcast weather types.

Other Changes

• Due to the remake of ‘Getaway’ (previously Docks), Docks has been removed from TDM.
• Updated Sanhok will be available in both Normal/Ranked matches as well as in Custom matches.
• Old Sanhok will no longer be available in all game modes.
• New Sanhok themed lobby and BGM has been added.
• Adjusted the fade effect of the Blue Zone walls to look more natural.

Survivor Pass: Payback

With the new season comes a new Survivor Pass! Survivor Pass: Payback lets you earn nearly 100 new skins as you explore the remastered island of Sanhok. Complete special missions to unlock unique weapon skins and face paints. We’ve also increased the XP you can earn through playing and surviving, up to 7200 XP per day just by playing the game!

Mission Tab Adjustments

The following 3 mission tabs have been removed:

• Community Mission
• Progression Mission
• Beginner Mission

Changes in Season missions

• All mission sets are now available at season launch, rather than the previous system of unlocking new mission tracks on a monthly basis.
• Complete all 4 types of Sanhok related missions to earn 4 unique weapon skins

Challenge Mission

• These are challenging missions based on survival
• They are composed of total 16 missions, with the opportunity to earn you 4 face cover/camo items.

Survivor Pass XP

• Players will now be able to acquire more XP proportional to the time survived in normal/ranked matches.
• Players can earn approx. 600XP per 1 hour of normal gameplay and up to 7200 XP per day.

Gameplay

Gas Can Improvements

The Gas Can improvements, which were postponed from update 7.2, are now back with some changes!

• Changes from 7.2 patch
• Spilled fuel was too easy to be spotted making difficult for players to make ambushes.
• Fuel now blends much better into the environment making it more difficult to spot.
• Fuel now splatters in puddles so once its lit, the flaming area is similar to that of a molotov.
• In Training Mode, we have decreased the number of Gas Cans and reduced how often they spawn.
• You can now equip Gas Cans in the melee weapon slot.
• Press “attack” to pour gas on the ground. It takes around 7 seconds to empty the can.
• Spilled fuel can be set on fire with gunshots, molotovs, and grenade explosions.
• Fire deals the same damage as a molotov, but burns longer (~20 seconds).
• Spilled fuel evaporates in about 3.5 minutes.
• You can also throw the Gas Cans the same way as melee weapons (aim, then press attack), which causes it to release some fuel upon landing, making it easier to ignite and explode.
• Gas Cans cannot be picked up or reused after being thrown, but can still explode.
• Changes to Gas Can explosions:
• Deals less initial damage. Max 40 dmg, which scales down with distance from the explosion.
• Now sets the nearby area on fire like a molotov, dealing damage over time

Matchmaking Changes – NA, SA, OC Only

Featured Map & Random Map has been enabled.

• Featured Map: Sanhok
• Random Map: Erangel, Miramar, Vikendi and Karakin
  FPP/TPP
• The featured map option will be available in normal matches until 8.2 update, where it will revert to full random. This may occur earlier,  depending on matchmaking times.

Ranked Mode

New Season

A new Ranked Season has begun. Ranked Rewards for Season 7 will be distributed to players shortly after launching into the new season.

• Vikendi has been added to the Ranked map pool.
• Player ranks have been reset
• Players will be given their initial rank after 5 placement matches.
• RP has been soft-reset, so your initial Season 8 placement will be influenced by your Season 7 rank.
• Leaderboards have been reset

Game Mode Updates

• Team placements
• RP(Ranked Point) acquired based on players performance will have to account for Team placement rather than individual placement
• When a player leaves a match even though teammates are still alive, placement points will be calculated based on the team placement at the very moment when the player leaves the match. If the player decides to stay with the teammates and the team wins the chicken dinner, the player’s placement point will be considered as 1st place.
• Bonus kill points
• When killing an enemy player whose rank is higher than 5 divisions, (ex. Silver 5 killing Gold 5 player) player will be able to earn a bonus RP.
• The greater the difference in rank tiers, the more bonus RP granted to players.
• Killing a higher ranked player will grant bonus BP.
• RP Growth rate adjustment
• In order to have players reach the rank best matching their skills, we have adjusted the RP growth rate 50% greater.
• The minimum Survival Mastery level to participate in Ranked Mode has been increased to level 40 (previously level 20).

Ranked Mode Ruleset Update

With Vikendi being added to Ranked Mode, we’ve made some Ranked specific changes to the map and some additional changes across Ranked Mode as a whole.

• Vikendi is now playable in Ranked mode.
• Vikendi’s Blue Zone has been adjusted to more closely align with Ranked Mode circles.
• Red Zone is disabled in Ranked.

• Item Spawns
• M249 and DBS are now world spawns in small numbers.
• Mosin-Nagant is now spawned on Erangel and Vikendi.
• A small amount of Crossbows now spawn in the world.
• Vehicles
• Vehicles can now spawn in the Esports hard spawn locations.
• However, in Ranked Mode, there is not a 100% chance they spawn in those locations.
• Motor Gliders now spawn in Ranked.
• Motor Glider is only spawned on Erangel andMiramar.
• Motor Glider will have small amount of fuel ready in the tank upon spawning.
• Flare Gun
• You can no-longer call in the BRDM-2 with a Flare Gun.
• It was proving a bit more powerful than we expected.

Survival Mastery

• Maximum amount of Survival mastery XP available per match is now set to 1500XP.

Performance

• Optimized unnecessary processes during opening and closing UI such as inventory and maps to reduce hitching.
• Desynchronized how the game loads inventory icons to reduce hitching during the icon loading process.
• The game now pre-loads the Blue Zone prior to match start to prevent hitching when the first Blue Zone spawns.
• Optimized the physical actors (objects) to improve CPU performance.
• Implemented thread scheduling optimizations to improve CPU performance.

Sound

Footstep Sound Re-Design And Remaster

In order to provide better sounds, the following improvements has been made:

• Quality and details of the core sounds have been improved.
• Enhanced quality of footstep sounds over distance.
• Minimized the sound difference between bare feet and shoes.

For more details of the improvements, keep an eye out on the dev letter we’ll be releasing tomorrow when the test server is updated with Update 8.1

UI/UX

Emote Setting Screen UX Improvements

Improvements were made to ensure a more user friendly experience.

• Simply drag & drop to place emotes in the emote wheel.
• All changes are now saved automatically.
• Numbers are now added to the emote wheel
• Now you can click on the emote in the wheel to preview emotes.
• All of the emotes will be now reordered based on the date acquired.
• However, emotes acquired prior to Jan, 2020, won’t be listed accurately.

In-game HUD Improvement

• Improved the boost icon so that players can visually distinguish the 2 different stages of running boost.

Loading Splash Art Improvement

• Splash art has been modified to support to 4K resolution.

New Notification

• New visual notification has been added to the main menu Store tab to notify you when new items are added.

UI Design Improvements

• Unified the style of the drop-down menu and improved user experience.
• Unified the scroller status and enlarged the drag area to improve usability.
• Improved the style of tool tips to be more consistent.

Custom Match Observer UI Improvements

• TOP 4 UI
• New TOP 4 copy is displayed when only 4 team remains.
• Remaining team, number of players, match time on the top right will be changed to number of players remaining per each team / remaining time.
• This feature is activated only in Duo/Squad mode
• Damage Indicator
• Damage indicator has been improved to indicate all 360 degrees compared to previous 4 directions.
• The vertex of the damage indicator will indicate the direction of the shooter in real-time
• The length of the indicator depends on the amount of damage received.
• The amount of damage received is displayed with damage amount accumulated for a short period
• More damage indicator will be displayed according to the number of shooter dealing damage.
• Shooter information
• Shooter’s Team logo, Team name(abbreviation), Player name and damage is displayed next to the indicator.
• Improved Custom match interaction
• Added a new interaction when hovering a cursor over the custom match slots.

Social

Team Up System

Now you can easily ‘Team Up’ with other players who you’ve met in Normal and Ranked Matches!

• In the match result screen of both Normal and Ranked Matches, you can now use the Team Up button to form a team.
• If in a premade team already, only the team’s host can activate the Team Up button.
• Death Cam will be still available after pressing the Team Up button.
• When Team Up is successful, the new team will be redirected to the game lobby screen after 5 seconds
• If there are no other players left waiting on the match result screen, player won’t be able to activate Team Up.

Friend List Improvement

• Friend list is now updated in real-time

New Skins & Items

Available from August 5th:

• Starfairy Weapon Set
• Starfairy – Vector
• Starfairy – SCAR-L
• Starfairy – AWM
• Corgi Helmet Set
• Corgi Crew – Helmet (Level 1)
• Corgi Crew – Helmet (Level 2)
• Corgi Crew – Helmet (Level 3)
• Corgi Backpack Set
• Corgi Crew Backpack (Level 1)
• Corgi Crew Backpack (Level 2)
• Corgi Crew Backpack (Level 3)

Available from: July 29th:

• Victory Dance 22

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where footstep sounds were not played correctly.
• Fixed the abnormally quiet footstep sound on certain floor types in large apartment buildings on Erangel.
• Fixed the issue where melee weapons teleport when thrown inside a vehicle.
• Fixed the awkward movement the 2nd player would make in the lobby when readying up.

World

• Fixing the floating part of the race track in Training Mode.
• Fixed the issue with certain object becoming invisible when using scopes in Training Mode.
• Fixed the issue where players who land on certain locations in mid-air unintentionally.
• Fixed the issue where windows in Cement Factory building would not break after players vaulted through them.

UI/UX

• Fixed the excessively narrow scroll bar located in the store menu.
• Fixed the system message displayed in wrong language when playing War Mode: Conquest.
• Fixed the false preview screen displayed in customize tab when previewing item boxes which are still on sale.
• Fixed the unnecessary penalty pop-up message displayed in ranked mode after spectating the players killer player.
• Fixed the issue where players were directed to wrong menu screen.
• Fixed the wrong season title displayed in the Career menu.
• Fixed the issue where observing player’s weapon UI is not correctly displayed.

Skins & Items

• Fixed the issue where character’s neck could become invisible when equipping Biker Jacket and Ice Princess costume.
• Fixed the issue where part of Tenebres AKM weapon skin remained on the weapon even after changing to another weapon.
• Fixed the issue of PEL 2019 Phase 3 item displayed as other item.
• Fixed the clipping issue with Major Trouble costume with a character.
• Fixed the clipping issue with PLAYERUNKNOWN’S Trenchcoat and PGC 2019 Combat pants.

Replay System

• Fixed the abnormal camera view when exporting the replay in certain situations.
• Fixed the issue where other players are also getting kicked when kicking a player.

Those were the complete patch notes for PUBG update 8.1. Are you a fan of the new changes? For more details and images of the update map areas, click here to head to the PUBG website detailing the update.