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We hope you’re ready and as excited as we are for the next round of new fighters coming to UFC 5 on April 25. Let's take a closer look at some of the big names in this roster update:

Michael “Venom” Page -  A sensational striker of the highest order, Michael “Venom” Page burst into the UFC with a complete masterclass performance which saw him dominate at UFC 299 with pinpoint striking accuracy, unorthodox footwork, and lighting-fast head movement. We can’t wait for you to go hands-on with all of Michael “Venom” Page’s slick striking techniques and elusive defensive maneuvers.

Stephen “Astroboy” Erceg - Making his debut on short notice at UFC 289, the unassuming Stephen Erceg put on a showcase performance that many fans did not expect. Fast forward to the present and Stephen has 3 solid wins in the UFC. He is now scheduled to fight at UFC 301 for the flyweight title and it seems the sky's the limit for Astroboy. If you can’t wait for the UFC 301 main event, you can simulate it starting tomorrow in UFC 5.

Natalia Christina da Silva - Natalia has been a buzzsaw in the women’s flyweight division. With five straight wins in the UFC, she’s cutting down the competition and making it look easy by using quick and accurate punches that set up her powerful Taekwondo-style kicks. If you’re looking for a fast and fun striker to take your game to the next level, look no further when Natalia drops tomorrow in the new roster update.

We’ve also made quite a few gameplay adjustments in this patch. Most notably, we’ve slowed down the recovery of short-term stamina and sped up the recovery of the short-term block meter. We’ve also sped up the execution of several strikes for higher-weight classes, decreasing the speed difference between the heavier and lighter divisions. In the grappling situations, we’ve shifted some of the stamina cost during the ground game from short-term to long-term. For most players the short-term stamina felt too restricting on the ground, discouraging bursts of activity. Another issue was that rounds spent mostly on the ground game didn’t tax the long-term stamina enough, therefore we changed the costs. Below, you can read more about the stamina cost changes and the other gameplay adjustment details.

As always, please keep the feedback coming because we will continue to bring you more gameplay balance updates based on that feedback in the future.

Here are all the details and everything you can expect from Patch 1.08 on April 25:

Patch Launch Date/Time and Launch Downtime

• April 25, 2024, at 10 am PT / Launch Downtime: TBD

New Fighters

• Matheus Nicolau (#5 FLYWEIGHT)
• Virna Jandiroba (#5 WSW)
• Manel Kape (#6 FLYWEIGHT)
• Natalia Christina da Silva (#8 WFW)
• Nassourdine Imavov (#8 MW)
• Marcin Tybura (#8 HW)
• Stephen Erceg (#10 FLYWEIGHT)
• Alonzo Menifield (#12 LHW)
• Michael “Venom” Page (#13 WW)
• Casey O’Neill (#14 WFW)
• Drew Dober (#15 LW)

UFC 301 Fight Week Challenges and New Alter Egos 

• These will be added on April 30, 2024, at 10 am PT

Striking

• Slowed down the recovery of short-term stamina.
  • The speed changed mostly on the high end, from when the stamina was higher than half. When the stamina is low, the recovery is almost unchanged.
• Sped up the recovery of the short-term block meter.
  • This was a highly requested change, which aims to slow down the pace of the fights, by discouraging constant attempts at breaking the block and incentivizing attacking the body and legs more frequently.
• Fixed an issue that could allow head movement to evade body uppercuts.
• Sped up the execution of several strikes for higher weight classes, decreasing the speed difference between the heavier and lighter divisions.
  • In most cases, this means a 2-frame reduction for LW, WW, and MW; and a 4-frame reduction for LHW and HW.
  • For faster strikes, the difference between weight classes was already appropriately small. The affected strikes were the relatively slow ones, that had 30 frames or less in the faster weight classes:
    • Head:
      • 720 Spinning Kick
      • Axe Kick (Lead and Rear)
      • Cartwheel Kick 
      • Crane Kick (Lead and Rear)
      • Double Flying Knee
      • Ducking Roundhouse
      • Flying Knee (Lead and Rear)
      • Handplant Kick
      • Hook Kick (Rear)
      • Jumping Roundhouse (Lead and Rear)
      • Jumping Switch Kick (Lead and Rear)
      • Question Mark Kick (Lead and Rear)
      • Rolling Thunder
      • Spinning Backfist (Lead)
      • Spinning Elbow (Lead)
      • Spinning Heel Kick (Lead and Rear)
      • Sprinting Flying Knee
      • Superman Elbow
      • Superman Punch (Lead and Rear)
    • Body:
      • Body Handplant Kick
      • Body Jumping Spinning Side Kick
      • Body Roundhouse (Lead and Rear)
      • Body Spinning Side Kick (Lead)
      • Body Thompson Roundhouse 
      • Body Thompson Side Kick
    • Legs:
      • Thompson Leg Kick
• Significantly sped up the retreating roundhouse kicks to the head, body, and legs, as well as the retreating calf kicks.
  • Although it was viable to use retreating roundhouse kicks within combos, they were extremely slow when used as single strikes. This change should make it more viable to use these kicks more safely when it is hard to create space for kicking.
• Slowed down the retreating rear front kick to the head.
  • This technique was a little too fast for how safe and powerful it was.
• Improved the Superman punch:
  • Increased the base damage of the lead Superman punch from 15 to 25.
  • Decreased the vulnerability of the lead Superman punch by 20%.
  • Increased the base damage of the rear Superman punch from 25 to 27.5.
• Shifted some properties of the body switch kick.
  • Previously, the switch kick was too fast for its animation to play out properly. The beginning of the animation, the switch part, had to “be rushed”. We have significantly slowed it down, so the animation can look more realistic. As compensation, we have decreased its vulnerability and increased its damage. This makes it the most damaging body kick, along with the jumping spinning side kick to the body. It also targets the open and more vulnerable side of the torso, when fighters are in the same stance. Will you be able to time it well enough, however?
    • Increased the base damage from 20 to 22.5.
    • Decreased the vulnerability by 25%.
    • Significantly slowed down its execution (varying by weight class).

Grappling

• Shifted some of the stamina cost on the ground game from short-term to long-term.
  • On the one hand, the short-term stamina felt too restricting on the ground game, discouraging exciting bursts of activity. On the other hand, rounds spent most on the ground game didn’t tax the long-term stamina enough. We therefore changed the costs as follows:
    • Decreased the short-term stamina costs by 10%.
      • This includes the drain rate from the struggle in submissions.
    • Increased the long-term stamina costs by 20 % (net 8%).
      • This means that the actual long-term cost of an action will be 8% higher than before these changes.
• Fixed a rare unplayable state during an exchange from the over-under clinch.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the dominant fighter in the cage single under clinch to punch the submissive fighter while they defend a knee (“Whizzer escape”).
• Fixed an issue that prevented fighters from walking into the tower feet on hips position in practice mode.
• Fixed a rare animation issue when performing a collar tie clinch entry against a ducking opponent.
• Fixed a rare animation issue when performing a collar tie clinch entry from the side (after an evasion).

Misc. Additions and Updates

• Updated the arms on Jailton Malhadinho's character model
• UFC Fighter requested name changes - Jailton Almeida to Jailton Malhadinho. 
• Career Mode Rankings Updated

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