PUBG is entering the next season of battle royale with Season 15 for all platforms in the near future. With this new season here, that means new content, changes for existing content, and a brand new limited-time event with the PUBG Kakao Friends limited-time crossover event. 

At the time of writing this and by the time you are reading this, you can jump into the battle royale game and start enjoying the new season that has arrived. Season 15 of PUBG is, unfortunately, only out for some players on certain platforms, with other ones coming later down the road. 

Like with past seasons, including Season 14, if you want to check out Season 15 and the PUBG Kakao Friends event, you will have to play it on the test servers for PC. The update for the new season is not yet live on the public servers on PC nor are the console players able to enjoy it right now. 

The live servers for Season 15 will drop on PC on December 1, which is just about a week after the test servers get it while the console players will receive the new season over a week after that on Thursday, December 9. Unfortunately for many, it will be a bit of a wait to find out what’s new in this season. 

Fortunately, in the meantime, you can find out more about what is happening in the Season 15 update, including the new PUBG Kakao Friends limited-time crossover event, the new map changes that are here, a bit of new content, and other details. Let’s get started. 

The new season of PUBG begins with a brand new way of handling the long-term map service plan. This was a plan that was announced recently but community feedback was not generally happy with the idea that Krafton had for moving forward with handling the map rotation in each season. 

Because of that, there are some changes to how the map rotation will be in the new season of PUBG. From now on this season, the normal matches will contain Erangel, Miramar, Sanhok, Taego, and Vikendi. Players will have a decent mix of the three large maps, a small one, and a medium one. 

But that is only for the unranked side of battle royale. When it comes to the ranked matches, there are only three maps that will be available this season to choose from and they are all the three largest maps in the battle royale title: Erangel, Miramar, and Taego; not leaving room for the smaller ranked matches. 

The main change that players will find with this newly announced map rotation for Season 15 is the fact that Taego is remaining in the rotation after all. This is due to the player feedback about the possible removal of one of the most popular and best maps in the game that was released a few seasons ago, and the data supporting this by showing that it is one of the most played maps currently. 

While the return of Haven was something that was originally going to happen, unfortunately, that is going to have to wait since there were concerns about replacing Taego with Haven. That said, Season 16 map rotations are still being discussed so we could see Haven then, but an announcement will come at a later time. 

In terms of new content that you will be able to find on the maps that are in the Season 15 rotation, there is the new vehicle known as the mountain bike. Unlike other vehicles, this is a lootable vehicle that you can find in its folded state when you pick it up. 

One of the most fascinating parts of the new mountain bike is that it does not have an engine, obviously, which means that it makes almost no sound and can be a stealthy way of quickly getting around the map. It also allows the rider to shoot while riding around for some quick defensive maneuvers. 

The new mountain bike will spawn on all maps in normal matches and is capable of being stored in your inventory as the folded version. It does not have a speedometer unlike other vehicles, which does, unfortunately, mean that you will not be able to see your current speed. 

It will not spawn in the esports mode for the game and it only is able to carry one person, so no illegal bike-sharing here. Interestingly enough, the bike is invulnerable and cannot be destroyed, including the tires. It has no fuel needed either and has a weight of 70. 

To keep the mountain bike realistic, you can “sprint” on the bike while you are riding it by mashing the “move forward” key over and over to cycle faster in the game as if you were in real life. The faster that you tap the button, the more you will increase the sprint speed until you reach the max. 

Moreover, the mountain bike is capable of jumping as well with the jump button, holding down the button and going fast allowing you to go higher and show off your tricks. Speaking of tricks, the mountain bike can also pop a wheelie by sprinting and tapping the jump in a nice rhythm with one another. 

There is some weapon balancing changes in this update, too, starting with the P90. When it comes to crate weapons, there is none that gets more kills than the P90, making it even more useful and popular than some of the crate assault rifles, so it has some nerfs coming its way. 

There is an increase to the horizontal and vertical recoil, increased aiming down the sights deviation during the full-auto burst mode, and it has fewer bullets now with only 200 when you get it out of the care package, instead of the 250 bullets that it had before. 

Moving into the shotgun side, they are all rather weak and not used much in matches at this point. To help with this, all shotguns are getting boosts, including increasing the overall range of them by several meters per shotgun and increasing the hit probability when it comes to short-range fights.

The sawed-off shotgun, in particular, has one more point of damage than it did before while it also has decreased pellet spread. Light machine guns are in a weird position like the shotguns where there are not enough players using them and they are not that helpful when they are used. 

To, hopefully, change this situation, there is reduced recoil while crouching or standing and slightly increased body damage. The M249, in particular, has one more point of damage while the MG3 has two more points, and the MG3 also has decreased horizontal recoil to make it better. 

When it comes to SMGs, they are immensely popular at times, but the data shows that they are still not quite that powerful in fights. There are some boosts and nerfs alike that are coming to SMGs in this season. For starters, all guns in the category have increased head damage. 

For the PP-19 Bizon, specifically, the weapon accuracy while aiming is increased while the UMP45 has decreased damage at longer ranges. The UMP45 also has decreased accuracy while aiming at full auto. 

For the AUG, it is getting some boosts this update with one more point of damage overall and an increased range to make it more effective at longer ranges. This should also help to counteract the P90 that has been too popular and powerful these days. There are also some changes to how magazine attachments work for weapons, including the Quickdraw now being available for the Skorpion. 

The PUBG Kakao Friends limited-time event is here as one of the main map changes in Season 15. Kakao Friends are some cute characters that spawned off of the KakaoTalk emoticons and have become their own massive trend, created by the brilliant artist Hozo. 

With the immense popularity of Kakao Friends in Korea, this PUBG Kakao Friends is an unsurprising one. However, what is intriguing about the new event is that it is only happening on Vikendi and definitely gives off that holiday amusement park/winter wonderland sort of vibe. 

The Dinoland named location on Vikendi has been changed into the PUBG Kakao Friends Land area. You will be able to find statues here and there of the various characters at this park. There are also billboards with the PUBG Kakao Friends on them and decorated buildings to explore. 

Along with this PUBG Kakao Friends event, there is a Christmas theme that has been added on Vikendi to Dinoland, Castle, and Winery. The weather is a snowy winter wonderland, too, and you can now use that weather setting in the custom matches. 

If that is not enough, Sanhok is getting its own set of changes to the smaller map with this new season. Bootcamp is the main focus of the changes in this update as it is one of the hottest landing zones on the map. Since players were not appreciating the recent changes for it, it has undergone another major shift. 

The central tower is now on the right side, rather than right in the middle, while adjusting some of the angles and distances to provide an open area for shooting down opponents. There are now stones that are on the rooftops and smaller windows. 

More training areas are now in the center and scattered around the camp, allowing for more cover and looting opportunities. The watchtowers now have one in the north and the other in the south to allow for more varied looting chances, rather than one squad stealing everything. 

Also in Bootcamp, there are three warehouses to the north of the camp that replace the four that were previously in the named location, to give later players a place to look for loot as well. Lastly, the shoreline now has more rocks and trees to give better cover to this vulnerable location. 

With the arrival of a new season in PUBG, this also means that there is a new ranked Season 15 as well. At the same time, this also means that we are now done with ranked Season 14, which means that players now have the chance to unlock the rewards from the past season.

Based on your final rank at the end of ranked Season 14, players who were Bronze will get the Bronze PUBG ID emblem, while Silver players will get the Silver PUBG ID emblem, and Gold players will similarly get that. However, they will also get a ranked parachute skin to go along with it. 

Platinum will get a parachute skin plus an animated Platinum ID emblem to show off to everyone. Then those who were able to get to Diamond will get an animated Diamond one. For Master ranks, this means an animated Master ID, plus the parachute, and also an animated Master nameplate.

Last but not least, the top 500 players on the server will get these bonus rewards: an animated top 500 PUBG ID and an animated top 500 nameplate to go along with it. The parachute skin is a permanent reward for all players who unlock it, but the other items are only available for this season. 

When it comes to the training mode in PUBG Season 15, there are apparently some serious issues in terms of audio and crashes that are happening there. To help, all vehicles but the scooter have been removed for the time being. Once changes have been implemented for this problem, the developer will discuss allowing players to choose a vehicle in this mode. 

That is the bulk of the major content and changes that have arrived in PUBG Season 15, including the PUBG Kakao Friends event and more. If you want to find out more about the PUBG bug fixes and other minor changes that have arrived in this latest update to the battle royale title, be sure to check out the full blog post announcement here.