PUBG unveils 'Fantasy Battle Royale' on April Fools Day 2020

PUBG is celebrating April Fools Day 2020 with a little magic this year thanks to its brand new limited-time experiment known as ‘Fantasy Battle Royale’.

The news understandably caught PUBG players by surprise, with many hesitant to believe if this was a new game mode coming to live servers, or entirely an April Fools Joke dropped one day early. Sure enough, PUBG followed up their social media posts with a dev letter detailing exactly how the one-week ‘Fantasy Battle Royale’ mode will work.

Fantasy Battle Royale is a class-based game mode! So, PUBG players will need to select which class they’d like to play prior to the start of the match. There are four classes for players to choose from; Wizards, Paladins, Rangers, and Barbarians. Each class has its own pros and cons, so be mindful when picking your role as a team.

Barbarians are an important piece of your team’s offense and defense, loaded with the most HP of any class and equipped with a longsword that deals wide-spread damage while increasing movement speed. If a Barbarian is within range and making contact, they’re only going to get tougher to take down!

Paladins are a team-healing, shield-wielding vital part of any team’s achievement in Fantasy BR. That’s due to their ability to heal teammates and damage enemies with their ‘Mendingstar’ throwable, while also regularly producing first-aid kits for the squad. Paladins can utilize their shield to knock away enemies at close range, but don’t expect much mobility in this class. The biggest drawback appears to be their lack of mobility, with a ledge-grab being out of the question for Paladins.

Wizards are likely to be the highest damage dealers for any team, primed with numerous attacks to take down enemy players. They’re able to fire back-to-back explosions from their wands, cast a ‘Fireball spell’, and make meteors rain down on opponents from above. To provide the necessary balance, it’s only fair that the Wizard class is also the squishiest character to choose from.

Rangers play fairly similar to the Wizards class, in that they’re excellent at dealing damage from a distance but are not too durable throughout combat. Fit with their ‘Dragonslayer’ Crossbow, the Ranger class is capable of firing multiple shots in quick succession. Rangers also possess an element of surprise with their capability of silent movement. Employ the Ranger’s high damage and stealthy movement to your advantage, but remember, you’re a delicate dragonslayer.

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The differences in Fantasy Battle Royale don’t stop there. Friendly fire has been disabled, care packages will be visible to all players and drop more frequently, and the blue zone will move quicker and deal more damage. Along with these changes, a new crafting system will play a major part in your game plan as you upgrade your equipment to Level 5. Items used in the crafting system can be found throughout the map as a world spawn just like the weapons and ammo players are used to looting. The care packages will also contain an item used in this new crafting system.

PUBG Corp. /

Thankfully, this new game mode is a fun one-off project for the developers who were quick to emphasize that Fantasy Battle Royale had not distracted them from the bigger tasks at hand.

"“We wanted to mention all this up front because it’s important for us that you know Fantasy BR wasn’t some giant use of our development resources.”“By utilizing existing PUBG mechanics in a fun and crazy new ways, we came up with (what we consider) a funny mode that didn’t have to waste important development resources for a week-long joke.”"

PUBG unveils ‘Fantasy Battle Royale’ for April Fools Day 2020

By Ty Brody | Apr 1, 2020

PUBG is celebrating April Fools Day 2020 with a little magic this year thanks to its brand new limited-time experiment known as ‘Fantasy Battle Royale’.