It’s set to be another big week in PUBG Mobile land as Tencent finally offers some concrete details on patch 0.16.5. As per the monthly update cycle, the January 2020 patch isn’t the biggest the game has ever seen, but it stuffs another new game mode in just to spice up the ever-changing PUBG Mobile arcade playlists. The patch is set to go live on January 9, but the included Season 11 Royale Pass won’t kick off until the day after.
How to Download PUBG Mobile 0.16.5
Simply firing up the game on January 9 won’t be enough to hop into what PUBG Mobile patch 0.16.5 has to offer. You’ll be able to duke it out on your usual favorites with those still on the older patch, but getting access to patch 0.16.5 content means heading on over to your phone’s usual app store. The update is too big to download in the game itself, so prepare your storage space if you have to. You’ll save yourself some time.
PUBG Mobile 0.16.5 Features
PUBG Mobile patch 0.16.5 may just be a glorified Season 11 download for you purists out there, but for those who enjoy a break from the standard Battle Royale fare (or just suck at it), there’s something far more exciting in the pipeline: Domination mode.
Domination mode, like Deathmatch, pits two teams of four players against each other. Rather than fight to hit the max kill score, your mission is to capture and hold two of the three total bases. The new mode takes place on the “Town” map, with each base unlocking as the previous one is captured.
Whether it’s taking too much out of the CoD Mobile textbook or not, the idea behind Domination mode is so far from the usual PUBG Mobile formula that everyone should at least give it a shot. But if all that still sounds a little too vanilla for you, Tencent has spiced it up already by tossing Super Weapons into the mix. Remember those grenade launchers and RPGs introduced with Payload mode? They’re in there. So even though you won’t be flying a chopper around a 10×10 km map, you better believe those rapid-fire pineapples will still be eagre to blow your legs off.
The Town map itself is billed as a “backstreet firefight”, so anyone showing up in anything but their best Backstreet Boys outfit automatically forfeit the first point. Hey, I don’t make the rules.
Other PUBG Mobile 0.16.5 Changes
This latest patch isn’t just new outfits and game modes; there’s a new vehicle in Vikendi (take a guess), and… yeah, that’s about it. Here’s a very short list of changes for those grasping at straws:
- Light Snowmobile – Did you get it right? This is the new Vikendi-only vehicle. It’s perfect for two-person rides around these snow-clad hills. It replaces the Snowmobile in one way, but can survive the same number of bullets as the outgoing king of the snow roads.
- Groza rebalancing – This odd-looking monster of an assault rifle has been knocked down a notch. It’s still an incredible find in most cases, but its single-shot damage has been reduced from 48 to 45 for Team Arena matches.
- Season Recaps – As you’re right to expect from any competitive game, season recaps will soon appear for participating players as the new season starts. That way you’ll be able to look back on your achievements, view highlights, and strive to be a better PUBGer.
- Royale Pass Improvements – Tencent has added multi-option missions to modes like Payload and Team Arena. These will apparently offer “new rewards,” but we don’t have many more details than that.
And that’s about your lot for this month’s PUBG Mobile patch. Next month should be the bigger 0.17.0 patch, and it’s probably what beta participants are getting a look at right now. Where’s Erangel 2.0, you ask? Your guess is as good as ours.
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