PUBG’s Ally Duo Beta Pairs You with an NVIDIA ACE AI Teammate

KRAFTON is testing a voice-driven AI squadmate inside PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS. The Ally Duo beta launched on June 17, putting an NVIDIA ACE-powered character named Ella on the Sanhok map as a two-player partner for solo drops. The mode is built on PUBG Ally, a Co-Playable Character KRAFTON developed with NVIDIA.

The mode runs through PUBG Arcade on Steam and stays open until July 1 at 07:00 UTC. It runs entirely on RTX hardware, and it works through voice commands a player can speak into a headset. Players queue into Ally Duo from the Arcade menu after accepting the mode’s Terms of Service. KRAFTON has not yet announced a permanent launch date.

Meet Ella, PUBG’s New AI Duo Partner

Ally Duo is a new Arcade mode in PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS built around PUBG Ally, a Co-Playable Character KRAFTON developed on top of NVIDIA’s ACE technology. Players enter matchmaking as solo entrants and land on Sanhok as a duo with Ella. She drops with the player, fights, loots, and follows wherever the match goes. The mode caps each match at 64 participants, counting Ella and bots alongside human players.

Voice input is push-to-talk, and the chat channel is locked to “Team Only” while the mode is active. Players cannot voice-chat with other humans during an Ally Duo match; the microphone pipes only to Ella. If the player disconnects, the match ends and Ella leaves too, because the mode does not support reconnecting.

Spectating, death cam, and replay features are disabled inside Ally Duo. Some features and items on the Sanhok map are turned off for this mode.

How Three On-Device Models Make Her Tick

NVIDIA ACE drives the cognitive side of Ella, while a traditional behavior tree handles the reflex layer of aiming, movement, and instant combat. The boundary between the two systems took extensive iteration to set. The Ally Duo Mode beta writeup notes that the team had to balance split-second reflexes with intelligent decisions so Ella stays responsive in a firefight without losing the natural feel of a teammate.

The cognitive stack runs three local models on the GPU. First, a lightweight NVIDIA Parakeet speech-to-text model precisely interprets English voice commands in real time. Second, Mistral-Nemo-Minitron, a 2-billion-parameter small language model, reads the situation and generates a context-aware English response. Third, a custom KRAFTON text-to-speech model synthesizes Ella’s voice. KRAFTON bakes the inference pipeline into the game’s graphics engine so all three models share the GPU memory budget with the frame buffer, minimizing latency.

The RTX Hardware Gate

Ally Duo only loads on a PC with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU. The PUBG Update 42.1 patch notes warn that the Play button is disabled if no RTX card is detected. The mode is gated by GPU model, driver version, an operating system setting, and a Terms-of-Service prompt at first launch.

On the minimum end, the mode runs on a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or a GeForce RTX 3060 with at least 8GB of VRAM and 16GB of system RAM. The recommended setup jumps to a GeForce RTX 4070 with 12GB of VRAM and 24GB of RAM. NVIDIA driver 555.85 or later is required. Windows Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling must be on, and the PC must be restarted after enabling the feature.

KRAFTON’s hardware floor lines up with NVIDIA’s broader on-device ACE pitch. Local inference is the hardest part of running AI characters on a game GPU, because the speech model, the language model, and the TTS pipeline all share memory with the frame budget. NVIDIA’s ACE small language models are built to plan at sub-second frequencies. The fact that Ella boots on a 2018-era RTX 2080 Ti shows how compact the model stack has become. Players will not need to upgrade their card to try the beta.

The mode requires accepting the Terms of Service when players first click Play. KRAFTON lets players reopen the prompt and select Agree later if they decline first. Voice input volume and microphone proximity both matter for the system to catch commands cleanly.

Two Weeks, Three Languages, One Knowledge Cutoff

The Ally Duo beta launched on June 17 and is structured to run for a defined window before KRAFTON commits to a permanent feature. The mode lives inside PUBG Arcade, and matchmaking begins as solo before players are paired with Ella inside the match. KRAFTON plans to continue refining the technology based on diverse player experiences and feedback gathered during the beta. If Ella’s responses feel delayed, players can lower their graphics settings or resolution. Voice input volume and microphone proximity both matter for the system to catch commands cleanly.

Ella speaks three languages, and the language she uses follows the player’s client language automatically. Korean clients hear Korean speech, Simplified Chinese clients hear Chinese speech, and every other client language defaults to English. Voice chat with other human players is disabled in Ally Duo matches.

• Beta end: July 1, 07:00 UTC
• Platform: PC only, via PUBG Arcade on Steam
• Knowledge cutoff: PUBG Update 41.1
• Voice chat: team channel only, push-to-talk
• Reconnect: not supported

KRAFTON and NVIDIA on the Ally Duo Beta

KRAFTON framed Ally Duo as an early public test of an AI companion inside a battle royale. Kangwook Lee, KRAFTON’s Chief AI Officer, called the mode a step toward AI companions that create new ways to play. Lee added that the team is excited to hear from players during the beta and continue improving based on feedback. SangKyun Kim, Head of PUBG Development, said PUBG Ally can open new opportunities for creators through different gameplay, interactions, and storytelling moments.

Ally Duo is an early step toward exploring how AI companions can create new ways to play. We’re excited to hear from players during the beta and continue improving the experience based on their feedback.

Lee made the remarks in the Ally Duo beta press release announcing the beta. NVIDIA framed the bet as a vote of confidence in on-device ACE. NVIDIA positions ACE as a suite of RTX-accelerated digital human technologies that has expanded from conversational NPCs to autonomous game characters since 2023.

KRAFTON’s AI work extends beyond PUBG. The company unveiled four multimodal AI models under its Raon brand family in April. The Raon models will be fine-tuned for individual KRAFTON games going forward, per the press release. NVIDIA says the beta will enable KRAFTON to “collect invaluable real-world player feedback” and help guide the future of AI agents in games. PUBG Ally rides on top of the Raon family.

KRAFTON’s positioning pairs the in-house Raon family with NVIDIA’s on-device ACE stack. Both companies describe the beta as a feedback-gathering exercise.

What the Beta Can’t Reach

KRAFTON unveiled four multimodal AI models under its Raon brand family in April. The press release says KRAFTON plans to fine-tune Raon for individual games going forward. PUBG Ally is the company’s AI technology, with the on-device model built on NVIDIA ACE. The Ally Duo beta puts that combined stack in front of live players.

The hardware floor carries weight. KRAFTON and NVIDIA picked the RTX 2080 Ti as the minimum, which means any player who bought a capable card since late 2018 can run the beta. The card list also caps ambition, because Ella is a small, locally executed model, not a cloud-backed brain.

The mode’s knowledge cutoff is visible to players in-game. Ella’s training data stops at PUBG Update 41.1, so she is unaware of the Tilted Grip attachment, the Hybrid Scope, and any other gameplay change introduced after May. KRAFTON flagged this in the patch notes, with a link to a separate Ally AI Safety and Responsibility document in Korean, English, and Chinese. KRAFTON has not yet said how often it will refresh the model. The press release says KRAFTON plans to fine-tune its Raon models for individual games beyond PUBG.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the PUBG Ally Duo beta end?

The Ally Duo beta ends July 1 at 07:00 UTC. It opened June 17 after live server maintenance, and KRAFTON has not yet announced a permanent launch date.

What hardware do I need to run Ally Duo?

The mode requires an NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU, with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or RTX 3060 as the floor (8GB VRAM, 16GB RAM) and an RTX 4070 as the recommendation (12GB VRAM, 24GB RAM). Players also need NVIDIA driver 555.85 or later and Windows Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling enabled.

Which languages does Ella speak?

Three: Korean, Simplified Chinese, and English. The player’s client language picks which one Ella speaks, and any other client language falls back to English.

Can Ella fight and loot on her own?

Yes, and on her own initiative. Ella loots, fights, and navigates without constant prompts, but she follows the player’s drop, leaves the match if the player dies or disconnects, and cannot reconnect after a drop.

Will Ally Duo come to console?

The beta is PC only. KRAFTON’s press release and the Update 42.1 patch notes both scope Ally Duo to PC, and Update 42.1’s console maintenance on June 25 covers other features, not this mode.