Your First Chicken Dinner: Surviving Your First PUBG Match

14 August 2026 · 3 min read

GameMapa editorial · how we check facts
Checked: Claude (AI) — fact-checked against the Ukrainian original; not proofread by a native speaker

Your first PUBG match is a straight-up 100-player Battle Royale — there’s no separate “easy mode” for newcomers. The official match structure and the tools for getting ready are described on the Game Info Overview page and in the patch notes for update 42.2.

Match format

• Up to 100 players on the map at once — that’s the official figure on the game overview page.
• Three participation formats: Solo (on your own), Duo (a pair), and Squad (a team of up to four).
• The Blue Zone gradually shrinks the playable area and damages anyone caught outside it — this is the core mechanic that forces players closer together as the match goes on.

The official page describes no additional “easy” modes for a first match: newcomers and veterans start in the same pool.

Camp Jackal: a place to prepare

Camp Jackal is the official training ground, separate from actual combat. Here you can test how weapons handle, practice parachute control and driving, without risking elimination from a real game. It isn’t a mode with a win or loss condition — it’s a sandbox for building muscle memory before you need it in a fight.

For an overview of the weapons worth trying out here before your first match, see our piece on PUBG’s weapon classes.

Basic Training: a structured course

Per the description of update 42.2, Basic Training consists of 17 sections and takes roughly 10 minutes. Each section ends with a grade from B to S+, showing how well you completed it. This is a formally built course, not a loose set of tips — the sections are sequenced to walk a player through the core mechanics step by step.

Beginner Training: missions for your first weeks

Separate from the one-time course is Beginner Training — a program of daily missions spanning 14 days. All rewards from it have to be claimed within 30 days of the program starting, or access to claiming them closes. That’s an official time limit stated in the patch notes, not an informal recommendation.

What isn’t officially said

• No guaranteed “easy” first match. Official sources don’t describe a reduced difficulty level for opponents facing newcomers in regular Battle Royale.
• No exact formula for the B–S+ grading. The patch notes confirm that grading happens, but don’t publish the criteria behind the scoring.
• No recommended landing strategy. PUBG doesn’t officially advise where exactly to land in your first matches — that choice is left to the player, depending on the map, which are covered in our piece on every PUBG map.

What to do before your first match

A sensible sequence, backed by the game’s own official tools: complete Basic Training at Camp Jackal, get familiar with the basic controls, and only then head into your first Battle Royale. That doesn’t guarantee a win — the official materials don’t promise a chicken dinner to anyone — but it cuts the risk of getting lost in the interface and controls right as your first opponent shows up.