Loot Box

Scavenge the battlefield to survive, where every crate holds a chance at victory or death.

via Wikipedia: Loot box · see source

In PUBG: Battlegrounds, the crates players buy hold only cosmetic items and nothing that alters gameplay; the gear used in a match is found by looting the map. Players search buildings, ghost towns, and other sites to find weapons, vehicles, armor, and other equipment. Killed players can be looted to acquire their gear. At the completion of each round, players gain in-game currency based on their performance, which is used to purchase crates containing cosmetic items for character or weapon customization.

Quick Facts

Game franchise: PUBG: Battlegrounds

Lore & Background

While cosmetic crates exist in the store for real money to purchase skins and outfits, they are strictly separated from gameplay mechanics.

Reader's Guide

Items are procedurally distributed across the map at the start of a match, with certain high-risk zones typically holding better equipment. Strategic depth lies in the risk assessment of high-value areas. Players must decide quickly whether to engage a potential threat for superior gear or retreat with what they have found.

Did You Know?

The first known loot-box system was a 'gachapon ticket' introduced in June 2004 in the Japanese version of MapleStory.
The Chinese free-to-play game ZT Online, released in 2007, is considered one of the early examples of video games containing loot boxes as part of its game system.
FIFA 09, released in March 2009 by Electronic Arts, was one of the first games to introduce loot box-like mechanics, allowing players to create a team from in-game card packs.
Team Fortress 2 added random 'crates' in September 2010 that could be opened with purchased keys, leading to a free-to-play transition that increased the player count by over 12 times.
The 'complete gacha' practice, where players combine common items to form a rarer item, was banned in Japan by the Consumer Affairs Agency in 2012.