PUBG now lets you kick doors down, pull a pistol in the water and throw ammo to your squad

PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Update 43.1 went live on PC September 10 and is scheduled to reach consoles September 17.

KRAFTON describes this as another Action Update. Its biggest additions are not a new map or headline weapon but new responses to situations that previously offered very few useful choices.

Melee interactions, water movement and item handling all receive substantial changes.

Your boot is finally a proper gameplay system

Two kick actions have been added: a standing kick and a jump kick.

Kicks deal more damage and knockback than punches, allowing players to push opponents away and interrupt some actions at close range.

That makes the mechanic more than another melee animation. A successful kick can briefly change spacing during an otherwise awkward point-blank confrontation.

It also interacts with the environment.

Windows, wooden doors, certain wooden fences, jars and tires can be broken with kicks. Some non-destructible doors can instead be opened rapidly by kicking them.

Vending machines can even be kicked to obtain items faster than through the normal interaction.

Doing so damages the machine and makes it unavailable for a while, because PUBG has now created a legitimate tactical reason to kick a vending machine.

Entering water no longer means surrendering immediately

The second major overhaul concerns swimming.

Water has traditionally been one of PUBG's most restrictive positions. Once submerged, players sacrificed most of their ability to answer somebody shooting from shore.

Update 43.1 allows sidearms and throwables to be used from the water surface.

Pistols support both hip-fire and ADS, although spread remains worse than on land. Movement is deliberately restricted: swimming away or diving automatically stows the weapon.

Throwables can also be used at the surface, but only with an overhand throw.

KRAFTON is therefore not turning rivers into strong firing positions. The player in the water remains disadvantaged.

Swimming and diving are 25 percent faster

Swimming and diving movement speed has increased by 25 percent.

Directional movement values have been adjusted as well, alongside a new surface-swimming animation.

That percentage matters beyond direct combat. Faster crossings reduce exposure and make water a more plausible rotation route when terrain or the Blue Zone makes the obvious land route dangerous.

KRAFTON says that is precisely the intention: water should remain risky without functioning as an almost automatic last resort.

Boats are tougher and repairable on the water

Boat durability has been increased across the board.

Firearm damage behavior is now standardized, with every boat receiving 50 percent damage from gunfire regardless of model.

Players can also repair a boat while it remains on the water by using an All-in-One Repair Kit.

A damaged boat therefore does not necessarily become disposable halfway through a rotation.

Items can finally exist in your hands instead of immediately entering a backpack

Update 43.1 adds the ability to directly carry ground items.

Weapon attachments, healing items, boosts, helmets, vests, backpacks, throwables and ammunition can all be picked up without occupying inventory space.

Only one item type can be carried at a time. Players can still walk, run and jump while holding many of them.

Drawing a weapon, entering a vehicle, swimming, vaulting or climbing automatically drops the carried item.

The obvious use case is helping a teammate when your own inventory has no room for the thing they need.

Yes, you can simply throw the ammo to them

Carried items can be thrown directly.

Distance depends on the item's size, and thrown equipment physically collides with the environment.

It does not damage players.

That removes a familiar sequence of unnecessary inventory management. A player no longer has to make room, pick something up, walk to a teammate, open the inventory again and drop it.

Sometimes the correct procedure is now just throwing the box across the room.

Ground items can be used without entering the inventory at all

Instant ground-item use removes another layer of friction.

Healing and boost items can be consumed directly from the floor. Folded Shields, Emergency Pickups, Mortars and C4 can also be activated or deployed without first being stored.

Stacks of Bandages can be consumed consecutively while they remain on the ground.

Inventory capacity still matters. The difference is that being completely full no longer prevents an otherwise valid interaction simply because the item cannot fit inside a backpack first.

The first LMG Meta Rotation was apparently a little too successful

Update 43.1 also reins in the current light-machine-gun meta after KRAFTON reviewed roughly a month of live data and player feedback.

ADS transition time has increased from 0.30 seconds to 0.37 seconds.

The additional recoil-control benefits from crouching and going prone are reduced across the RPD, M249 and MG3, while their fundamental recoil values and patterns remain unchanged.

World spawn rates for the RPD and M249 are reduced by 30 percent.

Their extra anti-vehicle pressure is being cut as well. M249 and RPD return to a 1.0 vehicle damage multiplier, while MG3 drops from 1.25 to 1.1.

Large magazines and sustained fire remain the identity of the weapon class. The update simply asks those strengths to stand on their own without exceptional stability and vehicle damage stacked on top.

Jujutsu Kaisen has temporarily moved into the Battlegrounds

Update 43.1 also begins PUBG's Jujutsu Kaisen collaboration.

Themed elements appear in the world, including special warehouses and vending machines connected to the event.

Event missions ask players to enter a Jujutsu Kaisen Warehouse, use the themed vending machines and interact with special event boxes.

Character and weapon cosmetics based on figures including Satoru Gojo, Megumi Fushiguro, Suguru Geto and Ryomen Sukuna accompany the collaboration.

The themed world features are scheduled to remain until the next update.

The biggest changes happen in the seconds between gunfights

Update 43.1 contains plenty more, including the return of Solo Deathmatch, Ranked Season 43 and broader leaderboards for wins, weapon kills and clans.

Its most interesting work is smaller.

Kick a door. Cross a river. Toss somebody a heal. Deploy equipment without reorganizing a backpack.

PUBG is a game where a few seconds of friction can decide whether a rotation succeeds. Update 43.1 removes several of those unnecessary seconds without removing the constraints that make the decisions matter.