The most famous “weapon” in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a frying pan. With it, you can smash your enemies and also protect yourself. It all stems from a misunderstanding and carelessness!
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has a symbol! It’s not an assault rifle, a bloody machete, or even the legendary Chicken Dinner! No, the symbol for PUBG is a cast-iron frying pan! The cooking utensil has become so famous that Korean politicians have had golden versions made to advocate for games in their country.
The story of the pan in PUBG is a tale full of misunderstandings and carelessness!
The pan wasn’t supposed to be in the game!
PUBG is a battle royale game, and this genre was inspired by the book (and later film) Battle Royale. In it, students slaughter each other on a deserted island as part of a cruel government program. PUBG creator Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene is a huge fan of this movie. That’s why he also created battle royale mods for ARMA as well as the game H1Z1: King of the Kill.
The influence of the battle royale film is therefore omnipresent in PUBG:
- The size of the island resembles that in the film
- There is a lighthouse
- There are weapons like the crossbow and the sickle
- Some costumes resemble the school uniforms of the students
But one of Greene’s favorite scenes from the film is the part where an unlucky student pulls a frying pan from his weapon crate while the rest of the class gets proper weapons like rifles and pistols. The only problem is that this scene doesn’t exist in the film at all! The poor student Shuya doesn’t even get a frying pan; he only gets a pot lid!
“Hey boss, the frying pan doesn’t appear in the movie at all!”
But before someone pointed out to Greene with the words “You do know the frying pan doesn’t appear in that damn movie?” he had already integrated the frying pan into the game! Not only that, Greene loved the frying pan so much that it was the absolute strongest weapon in the PUBG alpha.
The frying pan could even take down players wearing tier-3 armor with a single hit! Those times are now over, but the frying pan still outperforms every other melee weapon in damage potential!
Developers slacked off, which is why the frying pan is indestructible!
So, the frying pan was now in the game and popular in close combat. However, Greene wanted a feature that would allow you to knock grenades out of the air with the frying pan like tennis balls. For this, a separate collision system for the frying pan needed to be created.
So, one evening, Greene sat down with his programmer Marek Krasowski, and the two of them had a little fun with the game code and actually created a feature that allowed the frying pan to function as a grenade bat.
Although it was very difficult to pull off such a stunt, it worked. The two were satisfied and called it a day because the next morning a major update went live, and PUBG had only been in early release for a week.
“The super frying pan is now in the live version?”
The next morning, Greene woke up and saw an article stating that “frying pans in PUBG can save your ass.” Apparently, Greene and Krasowski had unknowingly messed with the code of the live update version of PUBG with their frying pan shenanigans. This version of the game was online, and the frying pan was now an indestructible, grenade-deflecting super weapon in the game.
They wanted to fix this “bug” soon, but it turned out that players were having so much fun with the frying pan. Therefore, they left it as it was and turned the bug into a feature.
Without the frying pan, PUBG wouldn’t be the game it is today!
And now, many months later, the frying pan is the ultimate PUBG symbol and hardly can be imagined to be removed from the game. What would have happened if Brendan Greene had paid more attention to the battle royale film, and if they hadn’t slacked off during that update? PUBG would not be as cool as it is today, that’s for sure!
PUBG is not the only battle royale game benefiting from the genre hype. Read here, why the battle royale genre is currently so successful!
