There are many different types of obstacles in Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds(PUBG), such as boulders, hay stacks or fences etc. These obstacles may be used to protect yourself from open fire from enemies, but at the same time they may get in your way as well.

Some obstacles aren’t as high; you can climb those by crouch-jumping (a strategy where you press jump and crouch at the same time, a.k.a. duck-jump). However, if the obstacle is too high, making a detour is an inevitable choice.

Last Tuesday, PUBG updated vaulting and climbing into the test server. With this update, obstacles of reasonable heights can be overcome; no need for a detour. With this new feature, fences or windows become easier to jump over and even some obstacles taller than the character can be climbed upon.

After accessing the test server myself, I found that walls and fences were easily overcome. Also, unreachable rooftops have become climbable. There are some restrictions to vaulting that make it a bit less than perfect, such as needing to look at the obstacle directly beforehand, or not being able to climb some obstacles that are too high.

※ This article was written according to PUBG test server of Nov. 14, 2017.
※ Vaulting and climbing features can be changed after forthcoming updates.

■ Crouch jump can’t, vaulting can! – The effectiveness of vaulting

Crouch jump is a skill which allows the player to jump a bit higher than the normal jump by pressing the crouch and jump key at the same time. This skill made players able to jump over certain obstacles or windows.

In the test server, this skill was removed from the game. Even if you attempt crouch jumping, the character won’t jump at all or will jump just the normal height. Instead, all obstacles or windows passable by crouch jumping are accessible by vaulting. Furthermore, vaulting can help you get through small windows which crouch jumping didn’t have access to.

For example, by crouch jumping, small square windows or some narrow long windows weren’t passable, but vaulting goes through these windows with ease. This spawns new house-raiding strategies such as vaulting through small windows of bathrooms or closets. However, barred windows or partially blocked windows aren’t accessible.

■ Watch out for the rooftops! – Necessary conditions for vaulting

◆ Vaulting conditions

1. Obstacles about 1.3-1.4 times the height of the character can be vaulted.

2. Vehicles cannot be vaulted.

3. The area where the character grabs needs to be somewhat edged.

4. There needs to be enough space for the character to stand on top of the vaulting obstacle.

After trying to vault many different obstacles, I found out there are several conditions to vaulting.

First, obviously, if the obstacle’s height is too high, vaulting doesn’t work. Most obstacles that seem reachable by jumping can be vaulted. Generally, the maximum height is a bit higher than the character’s reach; it seems to be around 1.3-1.4 times the character’s height.

Second, vehicles can’t be vaulted. Some vehicles which are built into the map are just normal obstacles which you can just climb up on like any other obstacles, but functional vehicles(Dacia, UAZ, Motorcycle, Buggy) can’t be vaulted. I tried blowing up a vehicle and vaulting it, but it still wasn’t possible. Jumping on top of the vehicle is still possible just as before.

Third, the area where the character grabs needs to have a distinct edge. For example, the round part of the hay bales in the fields can’t be vaulted over, but the other part on the side of the cylinder can be vaulted. Stones or boulders that are too steep can’t be vaulted over either.

Fourth, there needs to be enough space for the character to stand on top of the obstacle. There are many boxes in the warehouses which you can climb on. However, I wasn’t successful when trying to get on top of some of the highest boxes. This was because the boxes were too close to the ceiling; even though the boxes were of reasonable heights, there wasn’t enough space for the character to stand on top of the box.

Most obstacles can now be climbed with the new feature following these conditions. Now, players will have to watch out for enemies on rooftops as well, since most rooftops can be reached by jumping on top of walls or barrels near the roof.

■ How to vault effectively – Tips and tricks

○ Separating jumping and vaulting

Generally, vaulting is done automatically when you’re in front of an obstacle. This is a problem when you just want to jump to check if there is anybody on the other side of the obstacle. This can be settled by simply changing the control settings.

You can set Jump/Jump Only/Vault Only keys in the control menu. The default setting is the combined ‘Jump’, which makes it possible for the player to jump and vault with the same key. Otherwise, you can bind individual keys to Jump Only and Vault Only to avoid unintended vaulting.

○ Canceling Vault

Certain obstacles need time for the character to reach and vault upon. While vaulting, attacking is unavailable, so it would be an easy kill if the enemy finds you mid-vault. If you find an enemy on the other side of the obstacle you attempt to vault, you can just quickly press the ‘S’(move back) key to return to where you were. Keep in mind that low obstacles have quicker vaulting motions and are trickier to cancel.

○ Climbing and climbing over

There are situations when you want to climb up an obstacle but the character climbs up and goes over it. This happens when the shift(sprint) key is pressed down on obstacles like narrow walls. If vault is accessed while sprinting, the character climbs and goes over the obstacle. In this case, if the wall is an obstacle that is wide enough to stand on, pressing the vault key without sprinting would be the solution. Just remember you can’t stand on top of narrow obstacles like fences; be careful not to vault the fences on top of high apartment buildings.