The world has only had their hands on Miramar—the new PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds map—for about a week. That's an extremely limited amount of time in most other games, but given the PUBG community's thirst for new stuff, a faint vision of the meta is already falling into place. The map will leave the test servers on December 20 (with new weapons and vehicles to boot), alongside the official release of PUBG 1.0.
Pro teams are already slaving away to uncover the most efficient loot runs possible, and I imagine we probably won't have a crystalline image of all of Miramar's quirks til January, but in the meantime I've surveyed the scene and am reporting back with the hotspots people are talking about right now.
Pecado
Miramar is home to some of the most impressive cityscapes yet released in PUBG, but one of the best places to drop is a tiny little industrial hamlet right in the middle of the map. Pecado is located northwest of Los Leones (right along a crusty mountainous ridge), and if you land on top of the abandoned boxing arena, you can easily drop through the roof and pick up a boatload of level-three gear early. Better yet, the central location means you're pretty much guaranteed to be in the first circle. As the meta shakes out, perhaps Pecado will shape itself into an early-game bloodbath, but right now it feels distinctly overlooked compared to the other hotspots.
LOOTOMETER: 4 out of 5
Campo Militar
Remember the Military Island on Erangel? You know, that uber-congested fortress that rewards you with an incredible arsenal if you manage to survive the rabid scramble? Military Island is a great place to either set yourself up for the late-game, or watch your campaign come to an end in about 20 seconds. Miramar keeps that tradition alive with Campo Militar.
Located in the extreme northeast corner of the map, Campo Militar will douse you with oodles of weaponry (snipers, assault rifles, attachments) in both the massive concrete office building in the center of the base and the surrounding warehouses. The remote location means you won't have to worry about any crossfire or flanks, but you will inevitably have to fight off everyone else who had the same idea as you. As always, the military base pays dividends to anyone who manages to come out on top. Also, given that Campo Militar isn't on an island, you're not quite as sealed off from the rest of the playing field. It's a lot easier to get out of dodge compared to the two lonely bridges out of Sosnovka.
LOOTOMETER: 4 out of 5
Water treatment
One of the things Bluehole is introducing alongside Miramar is the ability for players to vault over stuff. You know, like guard rails or broken windows. It's a minor mechanic in the grand scheme of things, but there's a lot of strategic depth in any additional mobility in a game like PUBG. One location where it comes in handy is the water treatment plant, nestled in the mountains of San Martin. A lot of the loot here is stacked on top of the sizable steel water tanks. The lack of vehicles means your mobility might be hampered when it's time to leave, but if you're looking for a lot of resources without feeling exposed in one of the metropolises, this is the place for you.
LOOTOMETER: 3 out of 5
Hacienda Del Patron
The Hacienda is a picturesque desert mansion just east of the township of San Martin, and a stone's throw south of the water treatment plant, and it's the early frontrunner for being the best pure loot spot on the map. Run through the mansion's two floors and pavilion, you'll quickly find yourself strapped with grenades, guns, medpacks, and level three gear. Yes, you might be coming in hot, because San Martin is one of the higher trafficked areas in Miramar, but the Hacienda is removed enough from the pandemonium that it's not a flat-out suicide mission. YouTuber BigBossBilly shows off exactly how profitable the loot run can be in a video posted to his channel earlier today. In one scour, he picked up a level three helmet, a level three vest, a handful of scopes, and more guns than anyone could possibly need.
LOOTOMETER: 5 out of 5
The prison
The funny thing about the prison is that it's the same place you spawn into when you're waiting for the round to start. You know, the PUBG staging area, where everyone runs around naked, does crossfit, and screams into their microphone before being loaded into the plane. Yeah, you can go back there. It's resting on an island off the southwest corner of the map, and it actually makes for a pretty solid loot run. The prison complex itself is huge and full of odd little nooks and crannies that reward a good scouring, as well as a decent selection of vehicles when it's time to migrate to the circle. There are some other locations on the island—namely the port city of Los Hugos—so you do have other options if the prison is a little too hot.
LOOTOMETER: 3 out of 5
The rest
The website pubgmap.io is already hosting an extremely useful interactive map of Miramar showing off all the automobile spawns, boat spawns, and weapon concentrations on their site. If you're looking to plan out a specific root, (or if you just want to theorycraft without being shot at,) that'd be my first stop.
