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Get up to speed with the battle royale video game’s new desert-themed map in with our handy guide.
With all of the success that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has enjoyed over the last few months, it’s easy to forget that the game’s still in Early Access and a lot of content is still in the works. We’re of course expecting vaulting to come pretty soon, along with the possibility of more weapons and a load of new clothing options to make us look even cooler while tucking into that sweet, sweet chicken dinner.
But perhaps the biggest addition will be the new maps. We know that two are being worked on right now to join Erangel in the map pool. One of those is a map set near the Adriatic Sea that promises some snow-capped mountains, but we know very little else. However, we do know a whole lot more about what should be the second PUBG map – set in a desert location.
For the past few months PlayerUnknown and a few other parties have been teasing the second map for PUBG. And while only tiny pieces of information have been released at any one time, when pieced together, we get a good sense of the differences in the upcoming map. Add the information extracted from the last test server run that let us get hands-on with the vaulting ability and we can make quite a few assumptions about how the new PUBG map will look when it finally launches.
We expect the map to launch when PUBG comes out of Early Access, perhaps sometime next month, so chances are that any changes at this point will be fairly minimal. Here’s what to expect.
1. Multiple urban towns and cities
Data mining suggests that the new map will be called Valle Coronado – we don’t know that for sure, but we do know that it’s set in a desert area somewhere in Central or South America. After some initial confusion we also know that it will be the same size as Erangel, so 8x8km, and will feature multiple urban towns and cities along with large open areas and varied terrain.
As far as official details go, that’s about it, but from multiple sources – including screenshots – the data mined map and PC Gamer getting hands on the with map, we can figure out a lot more in terms of its design. While Erangel is very green, this map is very brown, meaning you might have to change some of your clothes to get the best camo options. That said, there’s also quite a lot of plant life in many of the screenshots, so we think the colour pallet in the south will be very different to the north.
2. The cities are massive
Thanks to Reddit user bizzfarts, we can also take a look at the map, in what looks to be a pretty final and hi-resolution version. This allows us to try and locate where the screenshots are from and give us a better idea of where everything is going to be.
The big talking points here are the massive cities, specifically the likes of Los Leonas and El Pozo. Los Leonas looks massive, with a lot of buildings packed into a fairly small area. Then of course there’s that massive feature in the middle, which could be anything. El Pozo looks a little smaller and less packed, but it still could rival Pochinki in terms of size.
We also have the screenshots to look at, and the ones that show the biggest urban areas, which we can only assume are from Los Leonas, show towering buildings, with more floors to clear than ever before. But there’s still the question of what that massive thing in the middle of town is.
With these massive buildings packed in and presumably full of loot, getting through a couple of these should be entirely feasible in the first circle and perhaps provide you with enough loot to go on and win. Hopefully this will also result in a lot more urban fighting, especially in the early game, which Erangle often lacks.
3. Check out those craters
One of the most interesting aspects of the map are the vast craters, which PC Gamer report house sizeable towns inside of them. Two are mentioned on the map and it seems that they’ll be very interesting areas to play. With towns housed inside of them, those in the bottom sections will have a lot of cover to play with, and could probably get some solid angles on those running around the top. But on the other hand, those looking down will surely have the advantage whenever they see people out in the open. A final circle around this area will be interesting.
4. There's plenty of water in this desert
Despite this being a desert map, we do still have a bit of water on the south side of the map, with two small islands sitting in it. One of these areas houses the prison, which if it’s anything like Erangle will be a very popular location. But the other island seems a little bare and with a very small bridge connecting the two, you can be sure that travel between them will be very dangerous as people love to camp out on bridges. This does mean that boats and the rumoured jet skis will feature and players will still be able to hide in the water.
5. The northern military base gets a new layout
There is of course a lot we don’t know about the map. It seems like the military base in the north has a very different layout to the current one, but no one has seen what it actually looks like in game. We also don’t have any idea about high loot areas or vehicle spawns – in fact, we don’t even know what vehicles will be available, although we can probably assume that the new camper van will be playable thanks to it being revealed in a desert location.
The new PUBG map is expected to launch before the end of the year, so it won't be long before we get our hands on it. Until then we just have to stare at the screenshots and dream about our new desert adventures.