How silencers affect weapons in PUBG? PUBG Guide and Tips

Last update: 01 August 2019

In Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, it is possible to modify the majority of weapons. You have a selection of clips that affect the number of bullets or the reload speed, or several optical sights. Also, you can attach a silencer that muffles noise of your weapon, when fired. Players used to, e.g. silencers in Counter-Strike will be surprised, because silencers here do not muffle weapons to such an extent.

Silencers in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds have more in common with ones used in the real world. Of course, they muffle gunshot noises, but they are not as effective as in the abovementioned game, or action movies. The enemy within several, several tens, or even several hundred (in the case of assault and sniper rifles) meters away will still hear the noise and they will use that to assess your position. Situations, where you fire at an enemy a dozen-or-so meters away, who does not know where the shots come from, simply do not exist here.

Silencers can be attached to the majority of handguns, SMGs, assault and sniper rifles. What is more, there is one attached to VSS sniper rifle by default and it cannot be removed. The below table presents information on distances over which enemies will hear you, with and without silencer.

Weapon	No silencer	With silencer
Handguns	400 meters	100 meters
Submachine guns (SMG)	400 meters	100 meters
Assault Rifles	700 meters	350 meters
Sniper Rifles	1,000 meters	700 meters
VSS	None - the version without silencer does not exist in the game	125 meters

As you can see, with the exception of handguns, submachine guns and VSS, the enemy will be able to guess the direction you are shooting from over a considerable distance. This does not mean, however, that silencers are useless - quite to the contrary! Audibility in the battlefield is affected by many factors, such as other players, firing, or using vehicles, and even weather conditions (rain). Even if you are using a suppressed weapon over a distance shorter than specified in the table, you still make it more different for the opponent to find you, which may increase your chances of survival.