After being announced at the game awards last month, PUBG: Battlegrounds is now free to play as of today on all platforms. The transition comes with a new optional premium account upgrade called Battlegrounds Plus.
For those who already paid for the game, they will automatically get a special pack which includes the Plus upgrade, a costume skin set, and more. For everybody else, Battlegrounds Plus costs $12.99 and gives you 1300 G-coin, a Survival Mastery XP plus 100% boost, a career metal tab, access to ranked mode, custom match functionality, and special in-game items.
The game's latest update also added other features and items. Tactical Gear are in-ame items players can use to offer two levels of support to their teams. Tactical Gear occupies the player's primary weapon slot but adds other strategic options that are new to PUBG. Examples of the new Tactical Gear include the Drone that lets you Scout and even pick up items from a distance and EMT gear, which gives you increased healing potential, letting you take more of a support role. You'll be able to spend healing items on your teammates and you'll be able to toggle items in use where you’d normally find your weapon’s fire mode.
Because of free-to-play transition is likely to lure some new players, there's now an improved onboarding experience for those new players along with a series of new tutorials. Basic training mode includes five stages to introduce all the key mechanics, and an AI training match lets you apply that training on a map with 99 AI-controlled Survivors meant to let you get a feel for what a real match is like. After completing both of these, there are lobby tutorial missions for additional training.
For more on the new update, including the full notes, head over to PUBG: Battlegrounds.
