PUBG: Battlegrounds' new PvE mode is all about fighting off an alien invasion, and/or hiding in a big man-made dirt hole

The Plunkbatter's Guide to the Galaxy

PUBG: Battlegrounds, Krafton's shooter that wise people have previously pointed out should really go all in and call itself Playerunknown's Battlegrounds: Battlegrounds, has a new mode. It's all about teaming up to battle an army of invading alien robots whose talents seemingly don't lie in inventive naming - their mothership's called the Mothership and the architect of their invasion of Miramar is called the Architect.

As detailed on Steam, the mode's dubbed Xeno Point and sees you teamed up with a squad of up four other earth defenders. From there, you head to the HUB, a room full of doors which aliens lurk behind. You'll fight your way through different sectors, each of which ends in a boss, until you're ready to board the mothership and take out the Architect.

As you might expect, this loop's got some roguelikery to it, getting harder as you go and encouraging repeat runs. Normal, hard, and impossible difficulties are on offer, and your team members have got to buy a "difficulty amplifier skill" after beating the bosses to be able to go back and battle through on a higher difficulty. If one of you dies, all of your progress resets except for certain rewards you'll have racked up on the way - supers, blue chip skills, unspent fragments and skill points.

Those first two are new additions with Xeno Point, with supers being ultimate attacks like drone swarms, air strikes, and something called a "flame nexus". Blue chip skills, meanwhile, are refundable offensive, defensive and support, er, skills, which deliver stat boosts and combat bonuses. Also at your disposal is a special weapon dubbed the Xeno Cannon, which does a lot of damage, but has rare ammo netted by the likes of taking down each sector's boss.

That's it for Xeno Point, but I'm glad to report that the 41.1 update it's arrived as part of also offers activities for those who don't fancy being murderdeathed by an extraterrestrial. The destructible terrain Krafton have been gradually rolling out over the past couple of years has made its way to Erangel. So you've got even more places in which you can blow a big hole in the ground with a grenade and cower in it until everyone stops being so shooty. If you're lucky, a couple of Plunkbat crossovers mean that someone dressed as Stellar Blade protagonist EVE or a member of K-pop group Aespa might join you to provide a bit of moral support.

You've just got to hope there aren't any alien skins on offer as part of Xeno Point, or you might turn around only to fall victim to a rather nasty prank. Xeno Point's out now, by the way.