PUBG's "cheater bots" have finally been told to calm down

PUBG's bots have never been particularly popular with the community ever since they were introduced to public matchmaking, but a recent update transformed the bumbling bots into something far worse: horrifyingly accurate aimbots.

Patch 12.1 brought with it some changes to bot AI, which were - in theory - supposed to improve their behaviour, but it seems PUBG Corp made them a little too good. Players took to Reddit to document these machines of terror, pointing out that they were behaving like cheaters. Those who spectated the bots or replayed death cams discovered they effectively had wall hacks and aimbot enabled, with the bots spinning around to obliterate players with unnerving speed and accuracy.

"They're 'aim bots' now and that's no joke," said appropriately-named Reddit user Morbidly Tortured. "I got taken out by a bot from 200 meters out. It auto locked on to me and hit every shot. I almost reported it until I spectated for about three minutes and noticed it was a bot with how it was running, stopping, going prone."

"Yo dog we heard you hate cheaters, so we put in bots with cheats enabled," said user Alucard1331.

Warzone got John Mcclane and Rambo as operators....#PUBG got Arnold as the Terminator as bots....😅 pic.twitter.com/Goah9VwtQK

PUBG Corp has now officially recognised the problem, and a fix has been rolled out to end the tyranny of the bots.

"In response to recent player feedback, we have deployed an update with additional changes to the bot balance adjustments applied in Update 12.1; reducing the overall strength and effectiveness of bots when engaged in combat against players," say the patch notes. "We are closely monitoring player sentiment related to bots and will make additional changes if needed, please continue sharing your feedback with us."

The notes detail that bots will now have reduced accuracy when shooting players, and will be less likely to use full-auto at distance - instead favouring single-fire mode until they get up real close and personal. Their reaction times have also been decreased, making them a little slower to engage after finding a target. With these changes, hopefully the bots will calm down a little - and players will at least be able to tell the bots from the cheaters.

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