By GameSpot Staff on Oct 04, 2017 11:05 pm
Upping Your Chances of Survival
Divinity: Original Sin II is one of the best RPGs of all time. It's also one of the most challenging, with a deep and intricate storyline, tons of quests, and tactical combat that demands the most out of players. Click ahead for some expert tips on how to tackle the game's various challenges, as well as details on what you need to do to become a god in the fantasy land of Rivellon. Be aware that there are some spoilers in the following slides, so be careful reading on if you don't want some specific situations revealed to you. And if you're not the most experienced player, you can check out our beginner's guide and tips on picking the right class. For more about the acclaimed RPG, be sure to read our Divinity: Original Sin II review. The game is out now for PC, but it's been in Steam Early Access for almost a year. It's the sequel to our 2014 PC Game of the Year, Divinity: Original Sin, and it netted over $2 million from 40,000 fans on Kickstarter. It features over 1,200 characters, all of them fully voice-acted. For more on how to better play Divinity: Original Sin II, check out our roundup of glass guides, tips, and walkthroughs.
Man's Best Friend
The Pet Pal talent may seem like a waste of time early in the game when you have more important skills to focus on. But don't skip it forever, as it allows you to converse with every animal in the Rivellon. Your interactions with animals provide some of the most memorable moments in the game. Most offer comic relief or provide a little pathos (some of the dogs can break your heart), but some open up quests and even warn you of dangers up ahead.
Rune It Up
One of the more interesting aspects of combat in the game is the use of magical runes to power up weapons, armor, and items. Make the most of these nifty gadgets and be sure that all of your gear with available rune slots are loaded up, as they provide sizable bonuses to damage and defense. Runes are attuned to the various elements in the game as well, so you can use them to specialize in different forms of attacks and better tackle enemies with immunities. Being able to swap out a two-handed sword with air-bonus runes for an axe with water-bonus runes, for instance, comes in handy if you happen to run into goons with heavy air immunities.
Bigger and Better Boost
Bigger and Better is another Talent you should select with all characters as soon as possible. It instantly provides two extra attribute points, which of course can offer a leg up in the early stages of the game and let you buff key stats the like Strength and Constitution. These added points can make all the difference in the opening battles, where success or failure rides on these extra points and how they buff your character's combat effectiveness.
Take Notes and Mark the Map
One of the few flaws in Divinity: Original Sin II is how poorly it tracks quests in the in-game journal. Take a page from old-school roleplayers and keep a notepad alongside the computer to track important points on paper. Also, be sure and regularly check the map when you visit key locations and see if they have been marked. If not, be sure and put down a blue flag and text to clue you in to what can be found there. All this might seem like added fuss and bother, but keeping careful records is critical in a game this long and convoluted. You will thank yourself for those notes and map markers many hours down the road, when you realize that the journal doesn't include enough information about what to do to finish a quest or you can't find something on the map Having to track things manually also adds to the game's charm and buffs its pen-and-paper street cred. And don't whine too much—at one time, RPGers also had to map their progress with hex paper.
If You Don't Succeed at First…
Success or failure often hinges on skill checks in conversations. Turning off an NPC by failing at a persuasion check can lock out quests and make it much more difficult to complete them. Just remember that you can generally try every conversation with all four members of your party. Blow it the first time? Keep going until you've run through the entire party. This little cheat can also let you explore other dialogue options so you can see everything that a character has to say.
Use the Examine Option During Every Combat
Take a moment to right-click on enemies and choose the Examine option at the start of every significant battle, especially in the final third or so of the game. Doing so opens a full description that reveals each foe's detailed statistics, including immunities to physical and magical attacks. One mistake during a single turn in combat can cost you a battle in the later stages of the game. So don't make it any easier for the bad guys by casting something like Fossil Strike on a foe that has full immunity to Earth magic.
Don't Forget About Sneaking
Even though Divinity: Original Sin II is largely about blade-on-blade, fireball-on-fireball battles, sneaking can be incredibly important. Remember to try it during difficult battles to try and gain an edge on the opposition. It can turn a tough fight into a cakewalk. Just ask Doctor Daeva. Sneak an assassin type like Sebille close to this demonic villain before triggering his dialogue and you may just get the initiative in the coming battle. Do it just right and you can actually kill Daeva before he has the chance to morph into his much more powerful demon form. This makes one of the most challenging battles in the entire game a breeze. Sneaking can also let you creep close enough to those creepy Shriekers to take them out with Source Vampirism.
When In Doubt, Cheat
You've gotta do what you've gotta do to escape the brutal fights in Divinity: Original Sin II. So remember to examine your surroundings closely whenever you fail a fight and rearrange or destroy potentially deadly items like oil barrels before engaging in a second go-round. Quite a few battles in the game demand this sort of semi-cheating approach, most notably the crazy fight with the fire Voidwoken during the Blackpit battle to save Gwydian. Careful rearrangement of oil barrels limits the amount of Necrofire that can easily consume your party. Fail to make these changes and you can expect the entire area to explode in this cursed fire. And some well-placed boxes can also fence in Gwydian, whose poor AI makes him stupid enough to kill himself.
Know Your Equipment
Take the time to regularly go through your gear and determine exactly what it does. There is so much cool loot to acquire here that you can easily get overwhelmed by bulging packs loaded with everything from wheels of cheese through magical elven staffs. Set a routine of reviewing your entire inventory after each significant quest so that you can mentally catalogue what you have just acquired and ensure that the party is best equipped for the battles to come. Doing this by a trader is a good idea, too, so that you can cull gear for sale immediately after making adjustments to character load-out and keep your packs (reasonably) lean and mean.
Look Closely at High-Level Gear
Higher level gear requires attention. Some items may have lower base numbers in physical and magical armor, but make up for it in a big way with serious attribute buffs and added magical skills. Watch those buffs, as well. Don't be too quick to sell something that you don't use very often, because the wide variety of enemies in the game mean that you need a wide variety of weapons and gear to best battle them. It's always better to have a useful weapon or piece of armor in your pack during a big battle than a bunch of cash. Gold won't save you, but that magical mace that you're keeping around for a rainy day just might. But if you want to cut to the chase and assess the true worth of an item quickly without a more detailed analysis, look at the sale value at the very bottom of the description box. Don't be fooled by item levels, or by fancy tags like "Unique" and "Legendary." Money talks. Listen to it.
Be Prepared for High Immunity Enemies
Combat later in the game almost always features foes with immunities to different forms of physical and magical attacks. Prepare for this by stocking a wide range of items on each character for various combat situations, such as weapons with attack bonuses linked to each of the game's elemental characteristics. Vary your magical skills as well. You don't want to be stuck with, say, a mage loaded with nothing but fire magic when you encounter creatures with 100% fire resistance. Of course, this is also true for defense. Keep multiple sets of key armor and other defensive items on hand so you can switch to them when necessary during battle, depending on how your opponents are attacking. This can make inventory management something of a chore, but you won't care about how crowded your backpack has become if you always have something in there to help out during battles.
Keep Potions of Strong Will on Every Character
The importance of quick access to healing and armor potions goes without saying, but another one that you will want to have in every character's pack is Strong Will. This handy red concoction prevents party members from being afflicted by most mental spell effects that cause them to be charmed, terrified, cursed, and so forth. Combat in the later parts of the game often features mages and monsters with these effects, so it's vital to be able to counteract them.
Resurrection and Haste
Load every character with as many Resurrection scrolls as you can afford. Being able to quickly bring fallen allies back to life and get them fighting again as soon as possible is a fundamental part of surviving late-game encounters. Many battles can't be won without reviving your dead. Haste is also necessary. Battles with numerous foes spread across the battlefield and on elevated platforms can be made much easier to handle when you can turn your heroes into sprinters and enable them to reach enemies in an expeditious manner. Haste also helps run down enemy spellcasters and those with ranged weapons, as these cowards always choose the better part of valor and flee close-quarters combat.
Be a Morning Person
One of the most valuable talents in the game is Morning Person, which ensures that a resurrected character comes back to life with full health. This ability becomes incredibly important later in the game when you regularly need to resurrect allies during combat, as the standard revival brings heroes back with very little health and sets them up to be killed again in short order. Consider taking Morning Person with every character as soon as possible (although it's particularly vital for your most crucial characters in combat, like your tank fighter and your most powerful mage) when leveling up. It will dramatically increase your options of beating the tougher late-game battles by getting your party members back in the game and ready to fight almost immediately after they're killed.
Keep the Gloves of Teleportation
Even though you acquire these gloves very early in the game and they seem low powered due to their underwhelming value and stats, never let them go. They are essential at many key moments in the campaign, right through to the conclusion. You can use them to take short cuts through quests, most notably the big god one on the Nameless Isle where you have to do things like ascend floating islands, and access areas that are otherwise inaccessible. Gloves of Teleportation are also quite handy during combat, as they allow you to quickly get to enemies in slightly distant or elevated locations. The gloves can also be huge parts of your strategy to take on a number of major battles. They come in particularly useful during the brutal final battle in the Red Prince storyline, for instance. Teleporting party members makes it much easier to destroy the sizable number of black mirrors spread all over the battle arena there to prevent enemies from endlessly respawning.
Use Spirit Vision--A Lot
Never forget about the Spirit Vision skill acquired about midway through the game. The ability to see and converse with otherwise hidden ghosts becomes more and more crucial in the later stages of the game, as these spectral goons often have key information for the successful resolution of quests. Spirit Vision also opens up parts of the game that otherwise go unseen. The dimensional doorway in the garden behind the Lizard Consulate in Arx is one good example here, as it cannot be accessed until you reveal it with Spirit Vision.
Remove What's Underfoot with Terrain Transmutation
Battling environmental issues can be as much of a problem as actual enemies. One good way to get rid of something pesky that's underfoot like some oil, ice, or Necrofire is to use the Terrain Transmutation Polymorph skill and swap the bad stuff with some basic rock or grass nearby. One particular area where it comes in very handy is the burning Lizard Consulate in Arx, as you need to get rid of the Necrofire to prevent the Cursed Revenant enemies from endlessly respawning. Moving it as far away as Terrain Transmutation can reach does the trick.
Boost Your Wits
A high score in the Wits character stat is vital to spotting secret doors, hidden archways, and even buried chests of loot. Make sure at least one party member is regularly adding to this score when leveling up, or you will miss out on quests or key information needed to readily solve the game's many mysteries. Also, remember that the Peace of Mind skill is a huge benefit here, as it dramatically ups the Wits score of the targeted character. Use it if you're stumped. It's most useful when trying to access the underground vaults where the possessed are imprisoned on Bloodmoon Island.
By Aaron Pruner on Oct 04, 2017 10:30 pm
Immeasurable influence
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner changed the world of cinema when it premiered in 1982. Not only did Scott's big-screen adaptation of Philip K Dick's novel cement Harrison Ford as a versatile action star, the movie created a new sci-fi subgenre known as "tech noir." As audiences prepare to re-enter the world that Ridley built with Blade Runner 2049 this Friday, it feels like the perfect time to take a look at the many works of entertainment the classic has inspired. From a time-traveling cyborg hell-bent on stopping the apocalypse to a futuristic old west theme park crumbling under the weight of its technological innovations, here are 10 of the best movies and TV shows inspired by the one and only Blade Runner.
The Terminator
The Terminator hit theaters just two years after Blade Runner. James Cameron's action thriller was not only inspired by Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic, it had a huge impact on the genre--and Arnold Schwarzenegger's career--as well. Cameron's film threw an innocent young woman by the name of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) into the midst of a pre-apocalyptic battle between human and robot. Exploring the potentially dangerous connection between society and technology--proposing the demise of civilization as we know it--the film defined itself as much more than just a futuristic looking action movie. The Terminator built on the cyberpunk aesthetic created by Blade Runner, bringing themes of a misunderstood AI threat to the rain-soaked, neon backdrop of 1980s Los Angeles.
Gattaca
Andrew Niccol's directorial debut put society into two main categories: the Valids and the In-Valids. Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) is an In-Valid striving for a better life, no matter the price. Taking on the identity of a Valid named Jerome (Jude Law)--practicing a daily routine of scrubbing and clipping away any sign of his real DNA--Vincent's struggle unfolds as a murder investigation puts intense scrutiny on his professional and personal life. Exploring the concept of genetic manipulation, class warfare and the dangers of humanity's loss amid booming technological advancements is ever present in Niccol's 1997 film. Mix in a bit of Blade Runner's film noir style, and a killer performance by Uma Thurman, and you've got yourself a sci-fi gem definitely worth a watch.
The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element put a different spin on the sci-fi/noir genre by adding some intergalactic Star Wars-style flash into the mix. The film stars Bruce Willis as New York cab driver Korben Dallas, who is unexpectedly thrown into a humanity saving mission when the enigmatic Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) falls into his life. Luc Besson's 1997 action flick took a fair share of style notes from Blade Runner. From the intricate world-building to the Asian culture that permeates these 23rd century New York streets, it's hard not to see Ridley Scott's influence here. And if you look closely, you'll find actor Brion James--better known as replicant Leon Kowalski--making a cameo as General Munro.
The Matrix
Playing on the notion that the reality people see isn't the truth, The Wachowskis took science fiction entertainment to another level when the first installment of the Matrix trilogy hit theaters. Sure, the story of "chosen one" Neo (Keanu Reeves) follows through on a very clear Jesus Christ metaphor, but without Blade Runner's influence, The Matrix would probably never have seen the light of day. Neo's battles against the ever-growing army of Mr. Smiths and his trip into the Underworld present dystopian themes of classism where artificial intelligence has gotten the upper hand against humanity. While The Matrix doesn't dwell in the familiar film noir stylings of its sci-fi predecessors, Blade Runner's stylistic and thematic DNA is very much present throughout the 1999 film and its sequels.
Dark City
Alex Proyas' Dark City took the world-building of Blade Runner to--for lack of better words--a darker level. The story follows John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), a man without memory trying to prove he's innocent of murder. As he furthers his investigation, Murdoch discovers an underworld where alien beings with mind-altering powers--known as "The Strangers"--control the world above. The noir stylings and German Expressionism that informed Blade Runner are on full display here. Dark City gives the vibe that citizens of this foreboding place live nowhere and everywhere at the exact same time. Steeped heavily in dystopian existentialism as it is, it's hard not to put this film in same category as Ridley Scott's classic.
Strange Days
Strange Days was a product of the '90s, achieving a sort of cult status over the years. The story follows ex-cop Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), who gets by hocking discs containing other people's memories for the sole purpose of living out fantasies of the virtual kind. Nero eventually receives a disc containing a murderer's gruesome memories and finds himself seeking out the killer, diving deep into the underworld of this near-future L.A. Written by James Cameron with Kathryn Bigelow in the director's chair, Strange Days provides a bleak outlook on a familiar society's not so distant future. With a recognizable noir detective story as its overarching concept--Nero kind of feels like a '90s Frank Deckard (Harrison Ford)--the film explores themes of virtual voyeurism and the negative effects technology has on society.
Total Recall
In Total Recall, construction worker Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is plagued with dreams of visiting a fully colonized Mars. To quell these desires, Quaid visits "Rekall," a company that sells false memories with the goal of fulfilling any and all fantasies. Instead of living out his Mars-inspired dreams, though, a mishap in the implanting procedure reveals that Quaid's entire life had been based on false memories. Themes of identity and humanity's dwindling relevance amid a dystopian tech-heavy environment are prevalent here. The most common connection between Blade Runner and both Total Recall films--1990's Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer and Len Wiseman's drab 2012 remake--is Philip K. Dick. The science fiction author penned the novels Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, which inspired these big-screen adaptations.
Ghost in the Shell
Mamoru Oshii's 1995 anime is a landmark achievement in the genre and one that owes its existence to Ridley Scott's film. The story, based on the manga written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow, follows a cyborg cop and her partner as they hunt an elusive cyber-criminal known as "The Puppet Master." The manga and movie--both the original and live action remake--tread similar ground, exploring the pros and cons of existing in a world where technology has rapidly advanced beyond humanity's evolution point. Not to mention, Ghost in the Shell's big bad does feel a bit reminiscent of Blade Runner's replicant bad boy Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer).
Ex Machina
Ex Machina tells the tale of Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a coder who wins a week away from his day job to hang out with billionaire programmer Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). It's only when he arrives at Bateman's underground bunker/estate that Caleb learns he's been brought there to test the consciousness of Ava (Alicia Vikander), an attractive artificial intelligence that Nathan created. Alex Garland's directorial debut is a layered tale that explores the progress of human/robot interaction--and the potentially life-threatening dangers that come with it. While Caleb never engages in sexual relations with Ava, it's hard not to think of Blade Runner's blurred lines between human and replicant. Deckard's romantic involvement with replicant Rachael (Sean Young) most definitely comes to mind.
Westworld
Instead of focusing on the outside industrialized world, HBO's TV remake of Michael Crichton's 1973 film turns its focus on the inner workings of Westworld, the technologically advanced Wild West-themed amusement park populated by robot cowboys, android prostitutes, and synthetic savages. The high concept series may have been inspired by its movie predecessor, but it's hard to deny Blade Runner's effect on the remake. The series delved deeper into the social and psychological ramifications of a park that gives high-paying clientele the opportunity to live out their darkest desires. From the awakening consciousness of hosts Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton) to the tortured existence of tried and true guest the Man in Black (Ed Harris), themes of classism, human rights and identity politics flourish amid the slow-building chaos.
By Jimmy Thang on Oct 04, 2017 08:30 pm
While the PC is a great gaming platform that can deliver beautifully rendered games with high-end hardware, its potential is sometimes held back by shoddy ports of console games. We're going to highlight the worst, most notable offenders. In the following gallery, you'll see ports that were locked at 30 FPS, feature low-resolution assets, game-breaking bugs, and more. While many of these issues have been ironed out over the years, either by subsequent patches or fan-made mods, let this be a reminder for you to do some research and check out PC-specific reviews before you dive into a multiplatform game.
Resident Evil 4
The original PC port of Resident Evil 4 (done by Ubisoft) was arguably scarier than the game itself. To start off, it was a port of the PlayStation 2 version of the game, which was inferior to its GameCube counterpart. In addition, there were missing lighting effects, but its biggest sin was that it didn't support mouse aiming. It also had really awkward keyboard mappings. For instance, left shift equipped your knife, right shift equipped your gun, and you had to use enter to attack. While you could remap your buttons, the QTE actions in the game did not take into account your newly remapped controls. This meant you had to engage in an unnecessary memorization meta game on top of dealing with the already mediocre controls. Fortunately, the subsequent Resident Evil 4 HD port from Capcom itself addressed these issues.
Saints Row 2
The PC version of Saints Row 2 was developed by CD Projekt's localization team and suffered from a row of problems. The original game was designed with the Xbox 360's specs in mind, and PCs that drastically deviated from Microsoft's hardware paid performance consequences. Yes, this meant even powerful rigs would suffer from poor framerate issues. Often, the game ran at 15 frames per second, no matter what settings you ran it at. The port also crashed a lot, had broken VSync issues, and exhibited spurts of speed changes. Fans did eventually create their own patches for the game, which fixed many of these issues.
GTA IV
While GTA V is a technically sound PC port, its predecessor didn't fare as well when it launched in 2008. Its biggest issue was that it was poorly optimized. Even the most powerful PCs at the time had trouble running it smoothly. This would be forgivable if it looked dramatically better than its console counterparts, but it didn't. Rockstar has since released a patch for the game, which has mitigated some of the performance issues.
Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition
When Dark Souls first came out on PC, it featured intrusive Windows Live DRM and controls that weren't tailormade for keyboard and mouse. It was so bad that you couldn't even move the mouse cursor away from the middle of the screen. Talk about annoying. To make things even worse, the game was locked at 720p. Fan-made tweaks have since solved many of the port's original issues, however.
Bully
The game featured long load times, missing textures, and controls that weren't optimized for keyboard and mouse at launch. In addition to being locked at 30 FPS, it wasn't optimized very well and ran poorly. Luckily, Rockstar has since patched the game so that it runs more stable now.
Need for Speed: The Run
In addition to speed, this port really needed more graphics options on PC. Not only was it locked to 30 FPS, but it lacked simple features like anti-aliasing. The game ended up looking quite jaggy as a result. On top of that, the controls were designed for console controllers and people had issues remapping the controls. This became a particular pain for those who wanted to use a PC racing wheel.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West suffers from some of the biggest and most common PC port sins: it's locked at 30FPS and runs at 720p. While the menu supposedly allows you to bump it up to 1080p, it actually doesn't do anything. You have to edit the game's .ini file to make any actual resolution changes. In addition, the game forces motion blur and had issues effectively using more than 2GB of RAM.
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
It suffers from mediocre keyboard and mouse support, crashes, game-breaking bugs, messed-up shadows, and audio bugs that would omit gun sound effects. (Not all guns have silencers, Double Agent!) The game would also only scale up to 900p, though you could tweak it by editing the game's .ini file.
Devil May Cry 3
Devil May Cry 3 on PC has some of the weirdest quirks on our list. When you open up the game, it defaults to windowed mode. To move around with an Xbox controller, you use the right stick. The PC version also suffered from performance issues, which you could mitigate by deleting some of the music and menu sounds within the game's directory.
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 2 was far from a solid port on PC. The game had flicking textures with missing shadows and effects. The PC version was also prone to crashes and featured glitchy audio. In addition, it wasn't optimized for keyboard and mouse very well, since the PlayStation 2 counterpart it was based on relied on pressure-sensitive controls, which keyboard and mouse controls lack.
Watch Dogs
The PC version suffered from framerate issues, bad physics, and broken save files that required players to restart the game. Luckily, the port did get better with patches after launch.
The Evil Within
The PC version of The Evil Within suffered from crashing and graphical glitches. The fact that the game was locked at 30 FPS at launch and featured an annoying letterbox view that you couldn't get rid of was also pretty annoying. Thankfully, the frame rate cap and letterbox issues were resolved with patches.
Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition
When Dead Rising 3 launched on PC, it had super long load times, poor performance that was locked at 30 FPS, crashed a lot, and featured shoddy online support.
Batman: Arkham Knight
While the previous Arkham ports didn't have any major issues, Batman: Arkham Knight was a mess on the PC when it first launched. It had trouble running on anything less than 12GB of RAM. Even moderately powerful systems encountered stuttering frame rates and crashes. To make things worse, the game featured a 30 FPS cap. While the port is in much better condition today, it was initially so bad that WB had to pull the game from Steam after droves of fans complained about the port.
By GameSpot Staff on Oct 04, 2017 08:30 pm
Taking It To The Next Level
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has become a major hit largely because it has such a high skill ceiling. It's a game you can spend a lot of time learning, and with plenty of mechanics and weapons master, it's possible to get very good at it. As you're advancing from beginner to experienced player in PUBG, there's much to keep in mind when trying to maximize your in-game potential. Here are 12 expert-level tips that aren't immediately obvious as you play, but can help you up your PUBG game even further. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds launched in Early Access this year and has been extraordinarily successful. Battlegrounds Creator Brendan Greene said there are no plans to raise the game's price when it leaves Early Access and officially launches. An Xbox One version, which is being published by Microsoft, is slated to arrive in the Game Preview program later this year, but it may not be exclusive to the console permanently. For more on how to better play PUBG, check out our in-depth guides below:
Your Jump Destination Is Incredibly Important
The first thing you do in every PUBG game is decide where you want to start, and you shouldn't sleep on this choice. The places you can reach out of the plane are determined by its trajectory as it crosses the island, but you can potentially reach destinations as far as two grid squares or more away from your starting point if you know what you're doing. Most players hop out of the plane and try to fall as fast as possible, which is useful when you know you're jumping into a spot with a lot of other people. But a better decision might be to identify a good spot away from the beaten path, where you can get solid weapons without fear of being attacked. Mark your intended location during the flight and make your way there — if you tap the W key as you fall from the plane, you can do a sort of "swim" motion that gives you a little more horizontal distance. The same is true when you release your chute — tapping forward rhythmically can give you more distance away from the plane, rather than sending you down quicker. Opening your chute higher can help you get more distance (at the expense of speed). Try to pick spots you know well, where the loot is abundant and, ideally, where you know vehicles spawn. Towns and big buildings are usually ideal, and if you can reach one where other players aren't likely to be, all the better to let you get set up before you go hunting for opponents, giving you the upper hand in gear. You'll also want to check around you for other players as you fall by holding the Alt key and panning the camera. Mentally log where nearby players land so you know where to go (or avoid).
Spend Time Learning How To Kill
Eventually if you intend to win at PUBG, you'll need to kill someone. It's easy to dedicate tons of your play time in the game to stealth and survival, which often can get you to the top 10 in a given match. But in those last few moments, combat experience becomes essential. You need some. It's a worthy investment to spend some PUBG matches just getting into fights, which is possible when you jump into dense areas where other players are likely to congregate. Getting a gun fast and getting used to player tactics in a fight will make you much more effective when the game is on the line. Some players try jumping, others will hit the dirt and go prone when threatened, and many get panicky. Experience will help you avoid flailing and missing shots, and will teach you what to expect from your guns. The best PUBG players don't run from fights, they seek them out.
Use Space Effectively To Outmaneuver Players
Your best weapon in PUBG is the ability to anticipate what other people will do in a given situation. If you're ambushing someone approaching your building, for instance, you don't want to set up directly in their line of sight as they open the door — you're risking your life if they get a lucky shot off, especially with a shotgun. When attacking players in the open, try to catch them in spots where they can't easily run for cover. And if you lose track of someone in the middle of a fight, don't stand still hoping they'll lose you because you're not generating sound; find a better vantage point or better cover to avoid them flanking your previous position. Buildings with multiple stories offer you some opportunities to literally get the drop on people when you're stuck fighting them, too. You can survive a pretty high fall at full health, even off four stories, and you'll take no damage from falling from a second-story balcony or rooftop. Use that verticality to your advantage by leaping down to ground-level, then catching your enemy as they go looking for you or when they come back down. You run a good chance of confusing an opponent by jumping to a lower level.
Never Assume You're Alone
In Battlegrounds, death can come from many angles, even from places you'd never think twice to look. The good news is, you can learn from these situations to keep yourself alive that much longer, as long as you pay attention. If you approach every situation, from running from the blue force field to approaching a new building, as if someone is waiting to kill you, you'll start to see how you can stay alive. Avoiding lines of sight from windows, looking for open doors, checking corners and staying close to cover will help you avoid getting picked off no matter what situation you're in. But just because a building or field looks empty doesn't mean that it is. Your best bet is to assume there's always someone potentially zeroing in on you, and to take only calculated risks, like running from cover to cover to minimize your exposure and identifying potential lines of sight where people might be hiding. It's also important to pick up on key signs of presence, such as open doors and missing loot.
Use All Your Tools
There are a huge amount of items and capabilities in PUBG that you might forget you have open to you. For instance, there are fragment grenades, but you also have flashbangs and smoke grenades. Flashbangs can potentially help you get the drop on a player, and smoke can hide your movements or distract opponents. In addition to throwing grenades overhand in the default style, you can also toss them underhand — perfect for slipping one into a room where a player is currently holed up. The Right Mouse Button lets you toggle between grenade throws. You've got a lot of potential tools at your disposal, from different grenade throws to your ability to lean around corners to take shots, as well as inventory items and weapons that are good in different scenarios. Remember to use everything at your disposal to be an effective player, from items to special controls.
Use Your Compass To Keep Track Of Enemies
The compass at the top of your screen tells you the cardinal directions you're facing, but also is covered with numbers. Use these to get a better idea of where enemies are, specifically at range, as you're engaging them. If you take shots at an enemy at a distance, who then pops behind cover, you'll probably want to move so that your opponent doesn't catch on to your location. It can be easy to lose track of where they were hiding once you start moving around, though, especially if they're taking cover behind one of several trees. The compass provides you with extra information to try to keep track of where people are in relationship to you. Learn to use it to give yourself maximum information about where enemies are.
Learn To Predict The Circle's Movements
The playfield-restricting white circle is a constant concern for players, but it has features that you can learn and predict, and use to your advantage. For instance, it's important to know that the circle doesn't continually shrink toward the center of the circle before it — meaning that just because you're in the center of the circle now doesn't mean you're going to be in its center on the next restriction. Because of that, you don't necessarily want to make a break for the middle of the circle every single time. You're more likely to run into other players there, for one thing, and you aren't guaranteeing your safety by doing so.
Use The Circle Against Other Players
Avoiding the circle is a huge part of PUBG, and you're going to want to know how to contend with it in a variety of situations. Even after you're experienced with the game, you're going to encounter the circle and potentially die to it if you're not careful. You can also use it to your advantage. The play field will constrict a number of times during a given match, and each time it does, the blue force field that moves across the island will do more damage to players caught inside it. That means that being outside the first circle isn't a death sentence — you can even counteract most of the damage you'll receive with a boost item or two — but later in the game, the blue field can be devastating. Also note that when the blue circle catches up to the white circle on your map, the field's damage is increased significantly. Use that information to gauge whether you can hold your ground or to inform you whether you should move, and whether you can use the circle to force other players to move so you can better take them out. While avoiding the blue field and staying inside the white circle are important parts of the game, high-level strategy often takes the circle into consideration for how it'll affect the movements of other players.
Smart Use Of Vehicles Can Be A Game-changer
Your first instinct might be to avoid cars because of how noisy they are, but a car early in the game can help you get into the best possible position for the entire match. Especially as the circle moves and changes, you can use a car to avoid having to spend much time in the open, and get to the best loot buildings early, ahead of other players. Knowing where cars spawn and landing near one is always a good idea just for safety's sake, and in the early game, players are often spread out so much that driving isn't especially dangerous. Grab a car and you can use it in several ways as well — it can get you quickly into the circle and to a good position to loot, for a start, and then you can either hide it or position it as a trap for other players, which can help you set up an ambush for anyone who follows you. If you can secure a car early, it's worth it to do so. By the same token, you'll likely want to abandon a car once you've gotten into a good position toward the middle to later parts of a match. The smaller the circle becomes, the more a car is a liability that gives away your position and makes you a major target. You can use a car effectively for the first few circle constrictions, but around the middle of the match, it's probably best to ditch it — and maybe don't leave it too close to the buildings you intend to loot around this time, so that you don't broadcast your arrival to other players.
Never Stand In Front Of Doors As You Open Them
Most of the time when you're killed in PUBG, it won't be in a straight fight — it'll be when you didn't realize someone was waiting for you and gets the drop on you. One easy way to give yourself at least a little reaction time is to be careful about how you open doors. Doors in PUBG can be triggered even if you're not dead on in front of them. You can open a door if you stand a little to its left or right, which means you can actually take a bit of cover while the door swings open. Walls can't be penetrated by bullets in PUBG, but doors can. So if you're approaching a door, stand to the side to open it. You might avoid getting a shotgun blast to the face as you walk into a building, you'll be able to see more of the interior than you could before you opened the door thanks to your third-person view, and you'll have at least a little bit of extra protection. There's no reason to make yourself vulnerable if you can avoid it.
Listen For What You're Up Against
Sound in PUBG is more important than sight in many cases. It'll give you lots of information, particularly when you're using headphones, since the game is really good about directional audio. Not only can you often hear footsteps and vehicles at a large distance, you'll also hear gunshots, both from people shooting at each other, and people shooting at you. Gun sounds in PUBG are pretty distinct from one another, and the information you can glean from listening can be very useful. Echoing single rifle shots, for example, can usually give you an idea of where snipers are located — and snipers are probably your biggest danger in the game for most of a given match. Knowing where sniper fire is coming from can help you avoid walking into a killzone. By the same token, identifying what another player might be trying to use against you can give you an idea of how to deal with it. If you're taking fire from a quick-firing Uzi but from a decently long range, you probably have time to figure where it's coming from and might even be able to return fire. As with everything in PUBG, knowledge is power and can keep you alive.
If You Can't Win, Run
Retreat is an important tool in PUBG, and one you shouldn't discount. If you're losing a fight or feel like you're on the back foot and having a hard time pinning down and finishing someone, sometimes cutting and running is the best option. You can often break line of sight, and the further away you get from someone, the tougher it is for them to see and hear you in order to pursue you — and PUBG is a game with a huge amount of space to cover and lots of potential places to run and hide, even if it's just getting a little way away from your opponent and ducking behind a tree. Your goal generally isn't to kill, but to survive, so make that your top priority. If you can get away when a fight isn't going your way, it can be worth it to do so. The same goes for places you think other players have been. You might pass a building that looks promising but has open doors. Your best-case scenario for those places are that they've been looted; worst-case, there's someone waiting for you inside. Better to keep moving in such cases. The best way to win PUBG is not to put yourself in bad or sticky situations, even when playing aggressively. You want to have the upper hand as often as possible. That means playing smart and living to fight on later.
By GameSpot Staff on Oct 04, 2017 05:01 am
Battlegrounds Ready
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds can be an intense multiplayer experience, but the only way to really learn how to play it is to actually jump in. The battle royale-style game pits up to 100 players against each other, with the single goal of being the last player standing. With no tutorial, single-player mode, or other traditional ways to pick up how the game works, most players just have to spend lots of time getting killed in Battlegrounds in order to learn the ropes. But with a little information about the essentials, you can cut the learning curve significantly. Here are 12 essential tips to get you started in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds that'll help you hit the island running.
Speed And Smarts
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds starts with up to 100 players parachuting onto a giant island. The goal is to fight and survive to be the only person left, and in practice, that means you'll need to mix stealth, combat, and situational awareness to take out other players and avoid getting dropped yourself. Right from the beginning of the match, you'll have control in the air as you descend onto the game world. During this time, you can see other players and move your character to avoid them. Part of what makes Battlegrounds so interesting is its scope. The island is huge, allowing you to explore a big chunk of it for weapons, and features varied environments from power plants to houses to forests make for a lot of surprising encounters. But to win, you'll need to be both quick and intelligent. When moving around, sometimes it's best to holster your weapon to pick up speed. Though you will be more vulnerable, sometimes it's more important to move quickly.
Pay attention to your surroundings, both indoors and out, and try to anticipate where other players might be waiting for you, especially when you check buildings--even the bathtubs, as they're a common hiding spot. Stay out of the open as much as possible and outsmart players by being patient and, to some degree, cautious. Your only goal is to stay alive, so sometimes, avoiding a fight is better than picking one. You can often get further in a match by letting other players do your dirty work for you and then picking them off when they're vulnerable. Just know that players who do more killing often end up with better gear, which can stack the deck against you as you get into Battlegrounds' later moments.
Learn (And Adjust) The Controls
The first thing you should do out of the gate is spend some time familiarizing yourself with the game's controls, and making any adjustments you desire. There are a lot of inputs to remember, and you'll need all your skills to play effectively. Among the most important is the ability to turn your head by holding down the Alt key (by default). In third-person view mode, holding Alt allows you to swivel the camera so you can see all the way around you without moving. This is essential, since the island is a huge place, and you constantly need to be on the lookout for other players. Everyone is gunning for you, and only by being more aware of your surroundings than your opponents will you emerge victorious. You'll also want to familiarize yourself with crouching and going prone, which minimize how visible you are and dictate how much sound your character makes while moving. Also, holding the ALT key can reduce the speed of your character, making them more quiet. Other handy controls include the B key, which lets you switch your weapons' firing modes, and Tab, which opens your inventory screen and quickly loot nearby bodies within a short distance. Managing your inventory quickly and efficiently is a key part of PUBG, so more on that later.
Be Aware Of The Circle
In PUBG, you can't just wander the island for as long as you want, wherever you want. Eventually, the play area constricts; if you check the in-game map with the M button, you'll see a white ring designating the new play field, with a timer in the bottom-right corner of your display. When the timer runs out, another blue ring begins to rush toward the white one. If you're caught outside the white ring when the blue one arrives, you'll start to take damage--and the longer the game goes on, the more quickly the blue forcefield will kill you. So in addition to hunting down and fighting other players (or avoiding them), you need to continually make your way into the white circle to avoid dying. And each smaller circle means there's a better and better chance you'll run into other players as the battlefield becomes ever smaller. In fact, a big part of every PUBG match is knowing where the circle is and how it'll affect you. Smart players use the circle as part of their strategy, using it to predict other players' movements and to ambush them as they flee its deadly contractions. You'll often see people waiting on bridges and at other choke points where they know other players are forced to pass to keep inside the circle. Thinking about where the circle will force players to go, and anticipating bad situations when you're forced to move, will help you survive.
What To Know About Your Gear
When you first drop onto the island in PUBG, you'll have only the clothes on your back. If you happen to encounter a player immediately, you can punch them, but every drop is a race for the nearest buildings, and with them, guns. You'll find guns and other equipment almost exclusively inside buildings, so most of the time, you'll want to move from structure to structure. Your primary concern at the outset of the game is to get armed, but you also will need more than guns. Gear in PUBG includes body armor, backpacks to lug your stuff, and health items. In every game, you immediately want to seek out a vest and helmet for protection. However, higher tiered gear can protect against the more vulnerable areas of your body, such as tier 3 helmet offering a facemask to protect against head damage. These won't make you invincible, but they allow you to take a lot more damage and use up less healing items before dying. Armor items and backpacks come in three tiers, with the third being the rarest and most effective. Most of the game is about checking buildings for better stuff, and you can expect other players to be doing the same. By the later stages of any match, expect your opponents to be pretty well decked out. Never stop looking for better gear, whether it's in the buildings you stop by or on the players you kill.
Manage Your Inventory
Even with the biggest backpacks and best gear in Battlegrounds, your ability to carry equipment is limited. You can only cram so many first aid kits, energy drinks, and ammo boxes into your pockets. A lot of PUBG is about knowing what to take and what to leave behind, and setting up your weapons with useful attachments as quickly as possible. You can open your character's Inventory screen with the Tab key, but know that you're vulnerable while you're messing with the menus. On the Inventory screen, you'll see three weapon slots for two rifles and a pistol, along with spaces for equitable armor. When you stand near gear you want to pick up, you'll see it arrayed in the top-left corner of the screen. Experienced players use the inventory screen to pick up almost all of their stuff, instead of the E key. You can drag items directly to where they go on your character, which cancels the "pick-up" animation that leaves your character vulnerable for a second or two. Once you get familiar with what gear goes where, this seemingly small consideration might save your life as you grab a gun or ammo in a clutch moment. Knowing how to prioritize stuff in your inventory is extremely important. For instance, you only want to carry ammo for the guns you've got with you. While it's tempting to pick up tons of bandages, they can only heal up to 75% health, and you may be better off keeping a few on-hand till you find a proper medkit. Grenades can be effective, but their uses are pretty limited. As for attachments for weapons you don't have, unless they're very rare and potentially useful if you find the right gun, they're just just dead weight and will clog up inventory space--especially for lower tiered backpacks that holds less space. While you want to find as much good gear as quickly as possible in PUBG, you also want to throw away anything you're not getting much use out of. Ammo for your assault rifle is much more important than ammo for your pistol, for instance. And even though your Tier 3 body armor might be damaged, it's still more effective at stopping bullets than a Tier 1 vest.
It's All About Sound
Situational awareness is essential in PUBG. The island is so big that it's possible to go for long periods without seeing any other players, but catching sight of people before they see you is essential to making it all the way to the end. Even more important than sight, though, is sound. Sound carries quite a way in PUBG. Fire a gun and you'll be heard for a huge distance around you, often drawing more players to your location. Driving the few vehicles in the game create even more sound, announcing your position to everyone in the area. But even at a local level, footsteps make a huge amount of noise. You'll often hear players before you see them, and being able to gauge the locations of noisy players and ambush them is an important skill--as is knowing where players might be waiting to do the same to you. It's highly recommended that you play Battlegrounds with a solid pair of headphones, preferably the wrap-around kind that support stereo sound. Your best assets in the game aren't your guns but your ears. Most of the times you'll encounter other players, you'll hear them long before you see them.
Loot And Scoot
In PUBG, it's important to keep moving and to constantly seek out better equipment. Hiding out in a good spot in the middle of the circle might seem like a great idea, but often you'll handicap yourself--you might make it to the Top 10 in a game where you hide out in an attic for 20 minutes, but you'll often be underpowered compared to the players who have been battling it out for the entire match. It's important to balance caution with taking risks, and to learn which situations call for which approach. In general, though, you'll want to check a building as quickly as you can, get everything you need from it, and move on. But be aware of your surroundings. For players just starting out, a good thing to watch for are open doors. All the doors in PUBG are closed by default, and doors standing open were definitely opened by players. But you can also close doors behind you, which is a great way to throw someone off your trail or set up an ambush by making a building look untouched when you're actually hiding inside. If you suspect an enemy might be nearby but the exterior doors on a building are closed, one good strategy is to check the windows. Interior doors are also closed by default, so if you can look into a building from the outside to see open doors on the inside, you might avoid walking into a trap. It's also worth noting that the biggest, most interesting buildings--apartments, the power plant, the military base, the school, and so on--often house the best gear. However, they also attract the most players who have the same idea to trek into large spaces for more valuable gear.
Learn The Good Weapons
There are a ton of guns in PUBG, and they're not all equal. Some are good for different situations--a shotgun can be devastating in close-quarters interior combat but next to useless out in the field. Most guns can also support a number of attachments, from suppressors to better stocks, that change how they handle and can make middling weapons into powerhouses. Your general approach should be to try to find assault rifles like the M16A and the AK-47. These guns are reliable in a variety of situations and are great up close or at range, especially when you find scopes for them. Sniper rifles are rare and also worth snagging when you can find them, especially if scopes are plentiful. As you get better at PUBG, you'll find getting the right guns and the optics to go with them is a big part of outfitting yourself to make it to the late stages of the game. But if you can spend time messing with each gun, preferably in combat, figuring out what weapons you personally like and do well with is better than any generalized advice. Learning the weapons of the game and getting comfortable with them will also make you more adaptive. Know where your strengths lie and play to them, while increasing your skills in areas they don't. A big part of the Battlegrounds experience is learning the ins and outs of the guns so that you can do well, whether you have your favorite weapons or something you found in an emergency.
Healing And Boosting Are Essential
Other key items you'll find in Battlegrounds are first-aid kits, medkits, bandages, painkillers, and energy drinks. These all constitute healing items, but they don't all work in the same way. Bandages, for instance, will restore 10 percent of your health, but only up to 75 percent of your maximum. First aid kits are the same way: They'll heal you any amount up to the 75 percent threshold. Only rarer Medkits and boosting items--painkillers and energy drinks--can fully restore you to 100 percent healthy. Boosters work differently from straight-up health items. Using an energy drink or a painkiller fills a small bar located above your health bar, which indicates your boost level. At the first level, your character will gradually heal, which means you can use boosters to restore yourself to 100 percent from 75 percent health, but gradually, over several seconds. Using more boosters will give you other benefits, like a slightly increased run speed and quicker gun handling, that can be essential in the late game. But it's important to note that all healing items don't work immediately. You'll have to stay still for several seconds as you deploy them. That means in order to use a first-aid kit or drink an energy drink, you'll be vulnerable. Plan accordingly.
Watch Out For The Red Circle
Occasionally, you'll see a bright red circle appear on your minimap. This is a warning to get to cover if you're in the affected area. After a few seconds, bombs will start to explode randomly across the area covered by the red circle for a short period, adding another way you can meet your death in PUBG. Red circles are by no means an instant death sentence, however. If you're running through a red circle and you've got no shelter, you should keep running and hope for the best. If you're in a car, you can often successfully drive through, However, houses can be difficult to survive in during a Red Circle, as the event can damage windows and doors, blowing them out and harming any players nearby. But of course, the red circles should be avoided, as they're potentially deadly at worst, and noisy and distracting at best.
Use Cover
When you do eventually get into a fight with another player, knowing where to stand and how to protect yourself is extremely helpful. Bullets never penetrate through trees, making them great cover, but bushes only make you hard to see, not hard to kill. Doors won't stop incoming fire, but walls will. You can also use the Q and E keys to lean left and right, allowing you to peek out from behind cover or around a corner to take shots without exposing your entire body. When you get killed in a fight, try to pay attention to where you were and what you did wrong. Were you standing right in front of a door when an enemy decided to blow it out with their shotgun? Did you strafe the wrong way around a tree? Learn where you're safe and where you aren't, and then use that knowledge to limit the situations in which you're less safe than the enemy.
Play Smarter Than The Competition
All the best guns and gear in PUBG don't hold a candle to your most important weapon: Your brain. Battlegrounds is a game about assessing situations quickly and dealing with them accordingly. That means that just because you hear gunfire in the distance doesn't mean you go charging toward it, and just because you see an enemy 100 yards off doesn't mean you start unloading in their direction in the meager hopes you might rack up a kill. Discretion is the name of the game in Battlegrounds. Knowing when you are an effective fighter and when you're not, and turning the situation to your advantage, is what the game is really about. In practice, that means you should almost never fire your gun. Unless you're confident you can take out the other player, opening fire is like unfurling a giant "Come kill me" sign above your head. Shooting at someone and failing to kill them risks providing them with the knowledge of your location, giving them a better chance to kill you. And that's to say nothing of the other curious players who might come to investigate the noise. Being smart doesn't necessarily mean being meek, though. For a lot of new players, it's easy to give into the tension of Battlegrounds and to find a place to hole up to wait for the end of the match. Not only is that boring, but it won't teach you anything. It can be useful to drop into some of the busiest locations in PUBG, like the centers of towns or the military bases, and get into some fights. The game currently doesn't include a killcam or any other way of seeing who kills you and from where--so if you hide in an attic all game before being forced to make a run for the circle as it contracts, only to get sniped by some player you never see, you won't learn anything. And learning is how you become better. So don't be afraid to try, and fail. The odds are 99 to one that you'll die in a PUBG match. Don't fear death or get frustrated by it; embrace it and let those experiences make you better. Battlegrounds is a game about outsmarting other players, and it takes a lot of losing to learn how best to do that.
By GameSpot Staff on Oct 04, 2017 03:19 am
Top Skills
It's easy to get by with your party's base skills and abilities in your early runnings with Divinity: Original Sin II. However, as you progress, the need to acquire more powerful skills becomes paramount to your survival. For better or worse, there are a multitude to choose from. From the fiery devastation of Dragon's Blaze to the rogue-buffing Assassinate, there's something for everybody. But with so many skills to experiment with, it's not always easy to tell which skills are the best for you. To help acquaint you with the most effective skills in the game, we've compiled 12 of what we believe to be the best. Are there any skills that you highly recommend that you don't see here? Let us know in the comments below. For more about the acclaimed RPG, be sure to read our Divinity: Original Sin II review. The game is out now for PC, but it's been in Steam Early Access for almost a year. It's the sequel to our 2014 PC Game of the Year, Divinity: Original Sin, and it netted over $2 million from 40,000 fans on Kickstarter. It features over 1,200 characters, all of them fully voice-acted. For more on how to better play Divinity: Original Sin II, check out our roundup of glass guides, tips, and walkthroughs.
Don't Be Afraid To Experiment
While we highlight some of the best skills in Divinity: Original Sin II, know that not all of what we mention here may be useful to you. We recommend creating a backup save to experiment with these skills, and then reload your game if they don't suit your fancy. The game is all about customization; after all, you're free to respec your character at any time in your ship. As for how to acquire these skills, check the various vendors in Driftwood every half hour to see what new skill books they have in stock. Otherwise, scour the environment for skill books as you explore.
Aerotheurge Skill: Superconductor
Powerhouse air damage, arcing between multiple enemies--there is a lot to like about the Aerotheurge Superconductor. This skill is a fantastic addition to any character set and a great first strike option when tackling massed foes. It also shocks baddies for a turn, so consider it when kicking off combat.
Geomancer Skill: Fossil Strike
Fossil Strike is another good skill that you acquire early and can use right through the end of the game. This mystical boulder affects a small group of baddies, so it's useful when your enemies are in close-quarters. Damage scales up to the point where Fossil Strike can be devastating in later battles. Just remember that the magic rock that it conjures is filled with explosive oil that also deals out fire damage, or else you might wind up accidentally setting the battlefield aflame, in turn hurting your party members.
Huntsman Skill: Assassinate
Assassinate can do tremendous damage when launched from a character lurking in the shadows. Fire an Assassinate attack while sneaking and to do another 50% damage to an enemy. Couple this with a good bow or crossbow and you can easily whittle away at spellcasters from a distance. It's a great physical alternative to using magic attacks at times, especially when enemies have strong magical armor scores.
Hydrosophist Skill: Rain
Yep, plain old boring Rain. Never forget how handy it can be. Soaking enemies can set them up for additional damage from electrical attacks. Rain is also necessary to put out fires damaging your party members. And don't forget that using Bless followed by Rain will douse cursed Necrofire.
Necromancer Skill: Mosquito Swarm
Mosquito Swarm is a convenient Necromancer option, especially while waiting for your more powerful first attacks to get through cooldown. The damage it does isn't overwhelming, but it does provide healing to the caster and inflicts bleeding on the enemy. Its extremely impressive range and the ability to use it without having a line of sight on the target makes Mosquito Swarm very useful when dealing with spread-out enemies or foes behind cover.
Polymorph Skill: Chameleon Cloak
While Chameleon Cloak isn't the sexiest of the Polymorph skills, using it to blend in with your surroundings has its merits. It's best utilized with spellcasters and scoundrels, as the skill removes mages from the firing line for two turns, giving sneaky party members extra time to move into position for devastating backstab attacks.
Pyrokinetic Skill: Laser Ray
Few skills serve a party as well or as long as Laser Ray. This nifty Pyrotechnic beam of destruction can be learned early on, as you find it at a vendor in Driftwood and the stat prerequisite is very low at just two. Consider giving it to at least two of your party members due to its long range and devastating power at higher levels. You can do thousands of points of damage in a single turn with Laser Ray, which can wreck groups of enemies. It's also a fantastic way to quickly chop back the armor of tough foes toward the end of the game.
Scoundrel Skill: Cloak and Dagger
Another form of teleportation, Cloak and Dagger lets Scoundrel types move all over the battlefield and readily get at bad guys situated a good distance from the party. It goes without saying how vital this is during later-game battles, when instantly crossing the gaps between your party and its enemies firing ranged weapons and spells is the difference between success and failure. Follow this skill with backstab attacks and you can deal out massive damage in a single turn.
Summoning Skill: Summon Inner Demon
Acquired from demon-hunting Jahan around the midway point of the game, Summon Inner Demon comes in handy when you need to buff a mage. Using it delivers a dramatic increase to magic armor, which can keep a magic-user in the fight when tackling enemies whipping out lots of spell damage. It also lets you terrify enemies, which probably shouldn't be much of a surprise given the presence of the big demon floating above your head while this spell is in effect.
Warfare Skill: Crippling Blow
A must-have for your tank fighter, Crippling Blow is always a great way to begin melee combat. The low-level Warfare skill scales up very well, can hit multiple foes, and also has a chance at crippling opponents.
Sorcery Skill: Source Vampirism
While it's easy to forget about the Source Vampirism skill that sucks Source out of enemies in the course of battle, try and remind yourself to use it whenever possible. It might not be at the top of your to-do list during life-or-death scraps, but adding it in at the end of a turn whenever you have action points to spare will keep your Source replenished as the fight goes on.
Special Skill: Dragon's Blaze
It's hard to pick just one Special skill, as each character comes with key abilities that are incredibly useful throughout the game. But one of the best is the Lizard-only Dragon's Blaze. It does a lot of damage and affects a huge section of the battlefield. You can use it to turn whole areas of the battlefield into raging infernos. But remember that you can hurt yourself with it as well, as reckless use can light up barrels and patches of oil.
By GameSpot Staff on Oct 04, 2017 01:55 am
Things To Look Out For
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is a game that throws you into the deep end with almost no explanation of its mechanics and other elements. While learning the ins and outs of the game can be part of the fun as you become better, there are a lot of ways you can improve your play to make your PUBG experience more enjoyable. We've got 15 tips detailing aspects of PUBG that aren't immediately apparent upon your first time playing. These are things that experienced players know that'll help you get that much closer to enjoying a delicious chicken dinner. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds launched in Early Access this year and has been extraordinarily successful. Battlegrounds Creator Brendan Greene said there are no plans to raise the game's price when it leaves Early Access and officially launches. An Xbox One version, which is being published by Microsoft, is slated to arrive in the Game Preview program later this year, but it may not be exclusive to the console permanently.
Use CTRL+T To Mute Voice Chat
The first thing you should do when you boot up PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is jam CTRL and T. That'll mute the in-game voice chat for the entire lobby; trust us when we say that that's an essential step. First, 100 people waiting for a game to start invites all manner of indiscernible nonsense that the game will pipe straight into your ears--just from an avoiding loud noises standpoint, this is a good idea. And that's to say nothing of the weird or hateful stuff that often comes across the game's voice channels. You're not missing anything by muting the random people you're playing with, so go ahead and save your ears and sanity.
Gun Attachments Matter
Finding an assault rifle or a sniper rifle will often make you feel like you're ready for anything in a match, but most guns are greatly improved by the attachments you add to them. For instance, the AK-47 or SCAR can present some tough-to-handle recoil in their initial state. But throw on some stocks and extended magazines, and suddenly they're much more manageable. Having the right attachments for your guns can make them more effective, and make you more likely to win a firefight. Pay attention to how some of the less obvious attachments--like foregrips and stocks--affect your guns when you use them, so you know what items you want. If you know you're hunting a particular gun, it can pay to grab the attachments before you actually find the weapon you want. Sometimes you'll find attachments that you can't use yet, and it can be useful to sacrifice a little backpack space for a cheek pad in hopes that you'll find the gun you want to slap it on. This is particularly true of scopes--2x, 4x and 8x scopes are tougher to come by than any other sights, but the range they offer you on rifles can be the difference between taking someone out from a hidden position, or having to risk fighting them up close.
Never Forget To Check Your Firing Mode
Just about every gun you pick up will have more than one firing mode--usually, single-shot and automatic. This is something you really want to keep an eye on, and it's easy to forget about. Even assault rifles default to single-shot when you pick them up, and if you forget to change it, you might be wondering why you can't seem to get bullets to come out of your rifle as someone charges you. Hit the B key to toggle firing modes on guns that have them, and pay attention to their settings. Some guns include single, "burst," and automatic modes, and some only have one. Guns that you might think should always be set to automatic can be very useful as single-firing weapons as well--for example, a scoped AK-47 can be used more or less like a sniper rifle if you set it to single-action, and that'll keep the recoil down and ensure you don't accidentally waste a bunch of extra shots. Make sure you know before you switch off a gun or stow your weapons what firing mode you left it on (and generally, switch everything to automatic before you put it away). When you pull out a gun in the heat of the moment, you want it to act exactly as you expect--there are plenty of times when players die thinking they were about to spray an enemy with lead but only wind up firing one shot, because they forgot to reset their firing mode.
Grenades Can Explode In Your Pocket
Like real life, grenades are pretty deadly and more than a little dangerous. But something that's not immediately apparent is that you can accidentally put away a live grenade and then blow yourself up with it. It's very easy to do, in fact. When you switch to a grenade, you "pull the pin" by pushing the Left Mouse Button, which brings up a trajectory marker that shows where you'll throw it. Once you do that, the grenade becomes live, meaning you have only seconds to get rid of it. Holding a grenade allows you to "cook" it so that it'll explode more immediately when it lands. But you can also accidentally stow it during this period, too. If you ready a grenade and then switch to another gun, you basically put the live grenade back in your bag (as opposed to other games like Call of Duty, where you can't switch off your grenade without throwing it). So the lesson: Never do this. Treat your grenades like the bombs that they are. If you intend to throw a grenade, make sure you get rid of it even if you change your mind, or else you'll end your chicken dinner aspirations sooner than expected.
Cars Spawn In Set Locations
Cars are a calculated risk in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. They make a ton of noise, which alerts anyone across a huge radius of your exact position. But they're often essential for survival, and even for winning. Jumping in a car is the most effective way of outrunning the killing blue forcefield that narrows the map down periodically, giving you a better chance to find gear without having to spend a big chunk of the match running for your life. Finding a car in a pinch can be really, really tough, however. They only spawn at certain points around the map, usually near towns, so you're unlikely to stumble across one most of the time. So take the time to mentally note where you see cars, or to keep a map on hand that'll show you where to expect cars to spawn. That can inform your decisions about where to land when you first start on the island and where you run when you're in trouble.
Cars Offer Little Protection From Gunfire
Driving might seem like a great way to get out of a tough situation, and there will be times when a car might get you out of a bad situation. But don't expect to be invincible when driving--in fact, you're anything but. Lots of players will spot your car driving by and take potshots at you, and you're actually pretty vulnerable in most vehicles. Cars are easily destroyed, and you can render them undrivable by taking out their tires. And behind the wheel, you can be a fairly easy target for high-level players. Some like to set up at choke points like bridges and wait for people to cross, and even in a car, you're often easy pickings for experienced opponents. Don't get in a car expecting to be safe. You also want to be careful when driving: If you try to hop out of a moving car, there's a very high chance you'll run yourself over. Beyond that, cars are extremely easy to flip, which leaves you vulnerable to other players.
You Can Switch Car Seats In A Pinch
When driving a vehicle, you're somewhat defenseless, insofar as you can't fire a gun to shoot at anyone who might be shooting at you. If you're good, though, you can circumvent this limitation by switching seats in your car on the fly. Any seat other than the driver seat lets you fire out the windows, so you can open fire on opponents so long as you don't mind careening out of control in the meantime. To switch seats, hit CTRL plus a number key for the seat you want: CTRL and 1 will put you in the driver's seat, CTRL 2 in the passenger seat, and so on. You might also try this to get yourself out of the line of fire as a player takes shots at you while you're behind the wheel. It'll take practice to be any use in a moving car that you just abandoned the wheel of, but PUBG is constantly full of crazy moments where players pull off unexpected maneuvers to save their own lives. Hey, it's worth a try.
Cars Have E-brakes And Boosters
Something else that's easy to miss about cars are their special features. Cars have e-brakes, tied to the Space bar by default, that you can use for tight maneuvers or to come to a stop quickly when you need to get out and start shooting. They also have boosters that might get you out of trouble quickly. The boost for a car is tied to the Shift key by default, and it increases a car's speed pretty significantly. Use the boost to get away from someone shooting at you when you can't see them, or when you really need to outrun the circle. Note that boosting eats up your vehicle's gas much more quickly than regular driving, though. You can find gas cans out in the world that you can use to refill a car if you need to, but this is something that almost never comes up for most players. Your life is more important than your car, so use that boost liberally.
Putting Your Guns Away Lets You Run Faster
It's easy to get used to playing PUBG as an extremely cautious player who sneaks around and closes all doors behind them, but sometimes, you just have to run to stay alive. When you need to cover a lot of ground fast, tap the X key to stow your weapons. Running without carrying anything moves you a little quicker than normal, and it can be the difference between outrunning the blue forcefield to survive and getting caught and killed. You can further boost your run speed with energy drinks and pain killers. By increasing your boost a couple levels, you can get as much as around six percent more speed out of your character. It doesn't sound like much, but in a tough spot, that little extra oomph can be the difference between life and death.
You Can't Really Hide In Tall Grass
The island in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is full of foliage, and especially as you get to the later parts of the game, you might find yourself hiding in the outdoors, hoping to take down players or avoid their gaze. You may often see foliage that looks like it'll provide cover from enemies. Be careful what you trust, though. There's actually a certain distance where grass doesn't appear from another player's perspective. What might look like a pretty dense spot to you could be pretty sparse for someone else. In general, don't expect to appear invisible when hiding prone among nature. Depending on the viewing distance, you might be tough to spot, but you're probably more visible than you think.
Clues Let You Spot Traps And Ambushes
Players in PUBG like to set up ambushes. Because so many players are often stuck running across open fields to get to better positions, there are lots of opportunities to hide out, wait for someone to happen along, and take them out. Open interior doors in buildings with closed outer ones are a good indication someone is hoping you'll wander inside, as are rooms that have clearly been looted of their best gear with the weaker stuff left behind. One particularly devious ambush involves abandoning cars where they'd be handy for a player to grab, and then waiting for someone to make a run for the vehicle. If you see a car in the open, you should immediately be cautious. There are a few hints that can give away a trap, though. First, newly spawned cars have their brake lights turned off — if you see a car with red lights on the back, it means someone drove and parked it. Of course, smart players can dupe you into thinking a parked car is fresh (and you can do the same to others). Tapping the forward key as you get out of a car turns off its lights, and it's easy to park a car so it looks fresh, so even safe-seeming vehicles might be ambush attempts. Smart players will also park the cars they've drive out of sight behind buildings so that approaching players don't realize they're waiting. So as always, it pays to be as careful as possible, but paying attention to clues from your surroundings can tell you whether you're more likely to be safe or not.
Hold Shift To Hold Your Breath
You have three different methods of aiming your guns in a fight in PUBG. The first is the unassisted "from the hip" style where you just unload without pushing any additional buttons. Holding the Right Mouse Button gives you a tighter over-the-shoulder aim that lets you be more accurate without sacrificing much situational awareness. And finally, clicking the RMB lets you aim down the sights or look through a scope, for the most accuracy but also the most vulnerability. When in ADS (aim down sights) view, you have a little bonus ability that can make you a touch more accurate: You can hold your breath. Holding the Shift key lets you suck in a breath, which makes your aim a bit more accurate and gives you a touch of additional zoom down your sights. Holding your breath is essential when sniping, but it's useful in any situation in which you've got a chance to line up a shot on a player who doesn't know you're there.
You Can Ignore Pistols Almost Entirely
For newer players, it can feel like you should always be armed to the teeth when playing PUBG. That means constantly looking for better guns to fill your two main rifle slots, plus attachments for both of them and ammo, and keeping a good pistol on-hand for that third sidearm slot. But the more you play PUBG, the more you'll realize that pistols are plentiful and not particularly useful, and you can basically ignore them. Unless you're just starting out in a match and you're desperate for a gun, you don't really need to bother with pistols. While the gun itself doesn't cost you anything to carry, there's a good chance the pistol you pick up will require ammo incompatible with your other guns. So if you grab up a pistol you want to keep loaded, you'll probably be carrying extra ammo. The same goes for weapon attachments — pistols and their attachments are plentiful, and honestly, kind of distracting. The thing is, you'll rarely, if ever, need to fire a pistol. Battles in PUBG don't usually last long enough for a lot of weapon-switching, and between two rifle slots, you're likely to have the ammo you need for at least one of your guns. The idea that in a tense moment, you'll switch to your pistol is pretty unlikely. Save the space in your backpack for gear you'll actually use.
Suppressors Are Amazing
It goes without saying that having your gun suppressed can give you a serious edge, but it's actually kind of hard to overestimate just how great it can be to have one. Gunshots ring out loud and clear for a vast distance when you fire a weapon unsuppressed — which is why you should only ever fire your gun when you're confident you can win a fight and get a kill, and when you're prepared for whoever might come looking to investigate after you're done. But with a suppressor, you reduce the noise of your gun significantly, making it much, much harder for other players to get a bead on your position. If you can get suppressors for your weapons, especially for your favorite assault rifles, you should do so. They're much harder to come by, so don't expect to find them often. But if you do, they're absolutely worth grabbing.
The Best Stuff Comes From Care Packages
Periodically in a PUBG game, you'll hear the roar of an overhead airplane engine. Every so often, the cargo plane that dropped you on the island will fly overhead before dropping a big red care package that slowly flutters to the ground. These crates are then marked with smoke when they hit the ground. Supply drops are randomized, but they're where you'll find some of the game's best guns, like sniper rifles, med kits, high-quality attachments, and ghillie suits that can make you much harder to spot among the brush. Trouble is, supply drops almost always attract a bunch of players. If you think you want to make a play for a crate, expect a big fight. If you can approach carefully and wait out other players, you might be able to pick off a few or let them take each other out before you go for the big guns.
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