When PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds introduced the desert map Miramar last month, players were ecstatic. But not everyone who plays the hugely popular battle royale game is enthralled with the new location, which is why some players have come up with a clever way to avoid it altogether.

According to posts made by the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds community on Reddit, players have discovered that they can now avoid the Miramar desert map by moving or deleting the desert-related files in the game's "Paks" folder. Since players will be missing the assets required to load the desert map, when players are put into a match on Miramar, after a few seconds the game will kick them back to the starting screen. It means that players will never have to play a game on Miramar and will only get to play matches on (the game's only other available map) Erangel.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds players are so keen to avoid the map that one player has even come up with a piece of software that lets them avoid the map without deleting or moving any Miramar-related files. Several players on Reddit say that they have not been banned as a result of deleting/moving the Miramar files or using the fan-created app and that this does not seem to be covered by the PUBG developer's anti-cheat measures. Game Rant is unable to verify whether this is a bannable offense and so anyone who uses these methods does so at their own risk.

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Deleting files or using an entire piece of software seems like a rather significant step just to avoid one map. After all, this map introduces new vehicles, new weapons, and plenty of new ways to get some very impressive kills. But players say that these workarounds are worth it because they just don't enjoy playing on Miramar and going to these lengths is necessary until an official map selection feature is introduced.

Developer PUBG Corporation seems to have caught wind of fans' frustrations as it has now announced several changes for Miramar. These include the introduction of more buildings and cover across the map, more off-road routes for "easier vehicle navigation," and it has also upgraded the item spawn level for loot balancing meaning that some areas will spawn better loot.

This isn't quite the map selection feature that some Miramar opponents are asking for, but for many players, this will make the map worthwhile enough not to delete the related assets.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available now for PC and on Xbox One through the Game Preview program.

Source: Reddit, Steam