PUBG Essentials: Preparing and playing with a Squad
This guide will go in-depth on how to set up a group and be as effective as possible when playing with a squad in PUBG.
In PUBG, the game mode Squads gives you the possibility to play with a group of friends and be more competitive in PUBG since it's the most played game mode in the professional scene. Squads is maybe the hardest game mode to win when you're playing against organized Squads that have a relatively high skill level because Squads also has the largest amount of strategies. This guide will be trying to help you organize your Squad and elevate your teamwork and results to a higher level.
Setting up your Squad and their roles.
In Squads, you always play with a team of four, so set up a group of friends or go to other online websites to become part of a squad. You'll not learn anything about communication in a group of four when you're playing with different people all the time, so try to get a group that has a stable schedule if you're trying to become better at different aspects of the game. The first thing you got to do when you have a stable Squad is setting up each role for every player in your Squad.
You can give these roles any name you like, but there should be a bottom line for what these roles do and don't.
We'll name the first communication role the "Shotcaller". The player(s) that have this role determine whether or not it's good to shoot at a certain target, but when he decides to shoot the targets that he's talking about he always has to communicate as clearly as possible with his team where the targets are. Use the Compass on the top of your screen to tell your teammates where the targets are, use the minimap to tell your team what the distance between you and the target is so that you can adjust zeroing distance, and use the markers on the map for pinpointing destinations. Describe where the enemy is standing to quicken the process of your teammates searching for the exact position where they need to shoot at.
This role is flexible and there can be multiple Shotcallers in one team or when the team splits up, but beware that when you choose to have multiple Shotcallers in your team it shouldn't hinder communication between the other teammates.
The second communication role that we'll discuss will be called the "Late-Game Navigator". This role is given to a player before the match starts but takes effect when you're in the top 25 or better. This role will take over the lead from the "Shotcaller" to let everybody remain on guard and have some fresh spirit. This role will be the decision-maker for where you'll go when the most recent zone has shown where it's landed and apply the strategies that are the best to use with the number of people left, where you think they are, and the environment that you'll have to walk over to reach your destination. This role must use the same tools as the "Shotcaller" but apply these in such a way that they're efficient for moving through small, very open areas with a smaller play zone to play in.
The third role we'll talk about will be called the "Organizer". This role is important for the farming phase since this role will communicate with the other teammates about how many medical items, the amount of ammunition and the current gear levels that your team has. This role has the responsibility that everyone has an even split on gear, two different weapons that are used for long- medium- and short range, ask teammates if they found an extra level 2 armor piece/backpack or higher, and give them to teammates that have level 1 gear.
The other roles have less to do with communication and more to do with actual gunplay. You've got to determine what the strong and weak points of your team's players are and how to benefit from these advantages.
The first gunplay role is the "Sniper". You can have multiple Snipers in your Squad but it's essential to always have one player on your team that's the best with Bolt-Action or Semi-Automatic sniper rifles and always give him the weapon and designated scopes that he can be the most effective with.
The second gunplay role is the "Flex". Most of the time your squad has two or three Flexes because it's the best to use all-round weapons that are good at Long-, Mid-, and short ranges.
The third and final gunplay role could be called the "Close-Quarter Specialist". This role uses short ranged weapons to breach houses and go in kind of like Rambo. This role is optional since many late-game play zones don't actually have a lot of buildings inside of them. Which makes this role kind of irrelevant except when you like to play with Shotguns around trees and fields.
Playing together.
In normal games like the ones I play, I see a lot of people who don't know where their teammates are. This is of utmost importance to have a successful squad and we'll be going through different strategies that require this kind of communication and teamwork.
This first strategy is simple but can be very effective. Shoes make a very different noise on all kinds of surfaces that you walk on, if your whole squad takes off their shoes you can distinguish the sound between the footsteps a lot quicker and know when there are enemies around.
Splitting up is a strategy that most squad players despise, but this strategy is actually one that could make you think about it very differently once you've used it and it has worked. You can apply this strategy to multiple parts of the game except for the phase when you're falling/parachuting since you need to at least be able to defend each other at the start, especially in the early game. Good examples include: when you're prone in a field splitting your teammates up to cover distant edges of the playing zone can be very beneficial for the whole squad's awareness since you can look behind trees from multiple perspectives, hear players moving in a much larger area and not get killed by one grenade.
This strategy is also used for cars. When you find a vehicle, try to find as many vehicles as possible in the vicinity so that you split up and risk fewer lives since it's very hard to shoot multiple vehicles at the same time.
Camping in buildings is a very good strategy and often used, but when you have a choice of multiple houses that consist of one story or higher, you need to split up into groups of two. Splitting up guarantees that your team isn't always trapped in like a rat when they've only seen two players of your whole four man squad while the other two players are still silent in their building. When you're in a group of two you can still help a teammate get up when he received normally fatal damage instead of leaving him to die when he's alone. When the other group in your team is being assaulted, you can either do one of two things. The first is to actually get out of your building and flank the enemies (This requires good communication and exact knowledge of where the enemies are to minimize the chance of dying) and the other option you have is assaulting them from your windows and possible balcony, which can provide a perfect opening kill before you execute the other option.
Communicating with each other shouldn't take long and be evident.
When playing PUBG in Squads, communicating is absolutely the most important part of it. Whether you're communicating with your team about potential targets, loot or the playing zone, it's important to keep it quick and not waste any time by using large sentences. Let's get into some communication synonyms, acronyms and tips that can help you be a lot better and faster at communicating.
• “Kar” (or Car) refers to the rifle Kar98k, use the term vehicle since it’s easier to understand
• “Farm” refers to getting gear from buildings, not players.
• “Loot” refers to getting gear from players, not buildings.
• "HVB" refers to Helmet, Vest (Body Armor), and Backpack, this should be answered in order for example 1-2-2. Ask teammates about their HVB when you found a gear piece that's higher than level 1 and you already have that piece of gear. (No Helmet, Body Armor or Backpack should be made clear by saying 0)
• When you see a car, make sure your squad knows if you're currently looking at an enemy vehicle or at a car that you and your squad can use.
• Killing enemies is very good to be doing, but make sure your team knows how many you've killed/knocked down.
• If you're communicating about weapons, never use the full name of the weapon, it's better to shorten it. For example, the M16A4 Assault Rifle should have its name shortened to M16.
On the image shown above, you can see that I have more than enough medication to share around and my "HVB" would be 2-3-2.
Conclusion
Setting up a squad is a progress that isn't easy at all and you should always try to succeed at setting up a squad but expect many failed attempts since it also depends on the players that you're in a squad with. Make sure they're active enough and motivated to actually win and play seriously. If you finally found/made a squad, make sure you also fit into the standards that they expect you to meet. Only communicate when it's actually needed and give your teammates space to actually listen to footsteps/gunshots when they're being assaulted instead of you or anyone else in your squad talking over the most important in-game audio.
All of the terms used in this guide can be adjusted to your own preference/language. Be creative and make sure that the whole squad understands what you mean.
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