UFC 5 Update Patch Notes, All Gameplay Changes (February 8)

UFC 5 Update Patch Notes (January 11)

The third UFC 5 update has now been announced, and full patch notes from EA outline a handful of striking and grappling adjustments and gameplay continues to get changed. They're also adding five new fighters, and ratings have now been confirmed for each of them.

Here are the new fighters coming in this update:

• Mayra Bueno Silva - 4.5 Stars (Women's Bantamweight)
• Jailton Almeida - 4.5 Stars (Heavyweight)
• Mike Malott - 4 Stars (Welterweight)
• Ian Machado Garry - 4 Stars (Welterweight)
• Charles Jourdain - 4 Stars (Featherweight)

There are also new UFC 297 Fight Week challenges and Alter Egos on the way, but those won't be available until January 16, 2024. Next up, here are all the gameplay changes in this UFC 5 update:

STRIKING

• Reduced stamina recovery between rounds and made it taper off each round.
  • Even at the first interval, the recovery has been reduced. As rounds go on, fighters will recover less and less, whereas before, the recovery stayed flat. In total, this amounts to a reduction of nearly 20%.
• Tuned body strikes, generally shifting them from damage to stamina drain utility.
  • We’ve heard feedback that body strikes now inflict heavy damage and allow for TKOs too easily. Meanwhile, the stamina drain from body strikes felt a bit too low, which hampers the tactical use of body strikes to slow the pace of the fight down and helps discourage relentless attempts at breaking the (high) block. We also considered that the body punches are a bit too risky to throw, the body lead hook is a little overused, and the body jab is a bit underused. The following tuning changes aim to address all these issues:
  • Damage Decreases:
    • Body Straight: -10%
    • Body Lead Hook: -15%
    • Body Rear Hook: -10%
    • Body Lead Upper: -10%
    • Body Rear Upper: -10%
  • Long-Term Stamina Drain Increases:
    • All Body Punches: +22.5%
      • This value is meant to net +10% drain past the damage decrease to most of the body punches, and the intention is that it will be a big net increase in damage for the body jab (Which isn’t getting a damage decrease).
    • All Body Kicks: +10%
  • Vulnerability Decreases:
    • Chin (Upper) Vulnerability of all Body Punches: -15%
    • General Vulnerability (anywhere but Chin) of Body Jab: -33%
• Improved the speed and evasive properties of ducking.
  • This will reduce the occurrences of strikes unnaturally tracking opponents as they’re ducking.
• Assigned proper stances (orthodox/southpaw) to Sergei Pavlovich, Magomed Ankalaev, and Colby Covington.
• Fixed a rare foot planting issue with the Leon Edwards Alter Ego.
  • He could sometimes drag his feet when walking around.
• Fixed a rare unplayable state from cage knockdowns.

GRAPPLING

• Removed the effect of Negative Grapple Advantage in the ground game.
  • Previously, Negative Grapple Advantage would both speed up your opponent's transitions and slow yours down. Now, it will no longer slow you down. This should encourage more activity in the ground game and make it harder for a fighter to hold a position for too long.
• Increased the influence of the Ground Striking attribute on postured Ground and Pound damage, especially for elbows.
  • This constitutes an increase in damage for postured ground and pound and rewards fighters who specialize in it. At a max attribute, the change should lead to a buff of 10% for punches and about 23% for elbows, which are riskier. Time to “Smesh!"
• Decreased the damage of elbows in the tight ground game.
  • The base damage of the tight ground elbows (when not postured up) was reduced to a value only slightly higher than the punches. The influence of the Ground Striking attribute on the damage itself was increased, although the net result is still a decrease in damage. This means the damage from the elbows was decreased in general, especially for fighters with a low attribute.
  • Elbows will retain their bonus to cause and aggravate cuts and swelling, this still makes them more potent than punches, but not by such a wide margin as before. Our intention is for players to use punches more in situations where they want to chase a facial injury to the eye, with hooks; or the nose, with hammer fists. The ground elbows target the forehead (as do the postured-up elbows).
• Fixed a Heads-Up Display (HUD) issue in submissions where the damage icon of the first desperate escape would apply to following desperate escapes and the finish, even if they were of different types and required different icons.
  • For instance, an armbar desperate escape would correctly show an arm icon, but a subsequent heel hook desperate escape would show the same arm icon, instead of properly showing a leg icon. This issue was affecting only the icons on the HUD, not the gameplay functionality.
• Fixed an issue where knees could be caught in the clinch and result in the fighters getting stuck.
• Fixed a rare unplayable state during a clinch grappling exchange.

MISC. ADDITIONS AND UPDATES

• Added Kamaru Usman to Middleweight
• Added Deiveson Figueiredo to Bantamweight
• Added short color selection to Fighter Select for all rostered fighters (excludes Alter Egos)
• Added new Vanity Rewards

UFC 5 Update Patch Notes (December 7)

The second major UFC 5 update has now arrived, and the detailed patch notes by EA reveal both new fighters and tons of gameplay tweaks. Amir Albazi and Yan Xiaonan officially join the UFC 5 roster with this update, and we've got more details here on who else could be coming later.

Here are all of the changes in the latest UFC 5 patch notes:

Striking

• Slowed down walking recovery after striking. Fighters now have to complete their full recovery before they can walk after throwing strikes. The slower walking recovery implemented in this update is intended to reward more thoughtful distance management and counter-striking tactics.
• Fighters now need to wait a bit longer to lunge in (aka quickstep) and close the distance after throwing a strike.
• Replaced the animation of minor lunges. The new minor lunges have a more free-flowing look to them.
• Added a specific blocking attempt animation when holding a high block to defend against leg kicks. Now, instead of holding the standard ready-to-block stance, fighters will guard the side of their head when the opponent throws leg kicks.
• Fixed an issue that caused various strikes that are performed by pressing and holding the button(s) to be sped up during combinations. 
• Fixed an issue that gave some extra range to advancing strikes performed by holding the button(s).
• Fixed an issue that allowed fighters to change their movement direction when transitioning from a strike initiated by pressing a button(s) to a strike performed by holding the button(s). 
• Added new eye and forehead swelling visuals.
• Fixed rare cases of exaggerated sudden pushback reactions when fighters are struck.
• Fixed very rare instances of a knockout and doctor’s stoppage check overlapping.
• Fixed several incorrect interactions when exchanging kicks while attempting to clinch. It is now harder to clinch an opponent while they’re throwing a kick.
• Fixed a subtle animation issue with lead body crane kick animation.
• Fixed an issue in practice mode where gameplay would start a little before the fighters would appear on screen.
• Fixed an issue where the fighters would appear on the wrong sides in practice mode. The “red corner” fighter would be on the right-hand side of the screen instead of the left.
• Fixed wrong input displays for some spinning kicks.

Grappling

• Increased how much the takedown denial window can vary, especially due to Grapple Advantage (GA). Takedowns that are set up well, which are common at a higher level of play, will now be harder to deny, whereas poorly set-up ones, common at a beginner level, will be easier. Since the GA is now taken much more into account, we have decreased how much of it is conceded by holding high block.
• The Muscle Modifier can now be used for several additional transitions. There are instances where the opponent could deny transitions too easily. Using the Muscle Modifier (performing the transition while holding R1/RB) will make the transition much faster but at a higher stamina cost. This will assist against stalling tactics. The additional transitions that allow the use of the Muscle Modifier are:
  • Basic transitions from bottom side control
  • Basic transitions from bottom crucifix
  • Basic transitions from top sprawl (to backside)
• The stamina cost for using the Muscle Modifier has been halved.
• Decreased the damage dealt by ground strikes from side control and the crucifix position by 25%.
• Fixed an issue where the top fighter’s Grapple HUD could indirectly reveal the actions of the fighter on the bottom while in full mount. This issue previously made denials easier than they should be.
• Fixed a temporary unplayable state that occurs if an upkick is thrown after a flying armbar denial.
• Fixed a camera issue that occurred during the ground game after the bodylock trip from a double-leg drive.
• Fixed a camera issue that occurred during the ground game after a guillotine reversal against a driving takedown. 
• Fixed a camera issue that occurred during the ground game after performing a denial from a sprawl.
• Fixed a camera issue that occurred during the ground game after a pull-guard sweep.
• Fixed a camera issue when starting in Practice Mode.
• Fixed an issue preventing time spent in submissions from counting for dominance in judges' scoring. Submission entries and forcing desperate escapes were already working properly. Only spending time in a submission, which is a smaller factor in scoring, wasn’t being counted.
• Fixed a brief animation issue during a rear naked choke reversal against a low single leg.
• Fixed an issue that allowed fighters to force a stalemate if they tried to perform a rear naked choke reversal against a low single leg without having access to the move.
• Fixed an animation issue when fighters would initiate a bicep control block from a single underhook while standing against the cage. 
• Fixed a minor animation issue that occurred during a double leg denial that transitions into the single underhook position.
• Added a control visual for the Imanari Roll in the moves preview.
• Fixed some very rare occurrences of delayed referee interactions.
• Fixed issues that affect the moves preview for the kimura.
• Fixed an issue that affected the moves preview for the armbar.

AI

• Fixed an issue that prevented the AI from performing an arm triangle from full mount.
• Increased the frequency of turning takedown attempts from the AI.
• Granted the AI the ability to fake during submission battles. The AI will now have a chance to turn things around when the opponent has the stamina lead and is combining the Struggle mechanic with good denials.
• On the higher AI difficulty settings, the AI’s skill and timing used to defend leg kicks has been improved.
• On the higher AI difficulty settings, the AI will tend to throw more punches during the ground and pound combos, before finishing with elbows and it will also now choose not to use an elbow as frequently when throwing a combo. The frequent and fairly early use of elbows was being reported as too easy to counter before this adjustment.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the AI for Mike Tyson to perform takedowns.
• Fixed an issue with the judges scoring in extremely inactive fights. For example, the type of fight that would probably only occur when “labbing”.

Online Adjustments

• Online Career Mode:
  • Reduced the cost of unlocking moves.
  • Increased maximum prestige to 20.
  • The opponent's HUD will no longer be hidden in higher-division matches
  • Fixed an issue where the single and double leg takedowns were not gaining EXP if they were performed during an Online Career match.
  • Fixed an issue that occasionally caused significant input delay after a Health Event occurred. 

• Ranked Online Mode:
  • The opponent's HUD will no longer be hidden in any division matches.
  • Improvements to the matchmaking will make it easier to find matches in the higher divisions
  • Fixed an exploit where players could cause an automatic loss for their opponent.
  • Fixed an issue that occasionally caused significant input delay after a Health Event occurred.

Menu Adjustments

• A “More Offers” tab has been added to the Store menu to showcase certain offers permanently.
• The Store main menu now displays a dot badge when the store receives any major updates.
• The Punch Card can now be accessed directly from the main menu

Misc. Fixes

• Fixed an issue where when a button is held to skip to the end of the fight replay, the replay would be seen from a distorted camera angle.
• Fixed an issue where VRR was causing input lag.
• Fixed several rare occurring crashes.
• Fixed the issues that would occasionally cause the game to hang while switching between the different menus.
• Several small updates to some of the UFC fighter appearances/likenesses.
• Various minor bug fixes and improvements.

UFC 5 Patch Notes (November 7 Update)

The first major UFC 5 update of the year is bringing tons of gameplay changes to the title. Key aspects like strike distance and stamina drain have been nerfed, and each tweak could be felt the second you load up the game.

Here are the official UFC 5 patch notes for the November 9 update:

• Increased the long term stamina cost of strikes in the stand-up.
• Fixed an issue that applied too much vulnerability on the return from side sways. 
  • There will now be a lot less vulnerability, even significantly less than in UFC 4, which was our intent along with the sway buffs at launch.
• Fixed an inconsistency between the different types of jabs and straights. 
  • The regular version/skin had received some nerfs at launch, but these hadn’t been applied to the alternate versions. All versions now have the proper nerfs.
• Removed the stamina drain applied to the submissive fighter in the headlock (standing guillotine) clinch position. 
  • The dominant fighter still has their stamina drained. This is likely to encourage the strategy of starting the guillotine submission right away, unless you’re close enough to the cage to quickly walk up to it, as starting the submission by reaching the cage results in a slightly stronger entry.
• Decreased how frequently the AI spins and uses spinning strikes.
• Fixed an issue that caused the lead hook to rear leg kick combo to be too slow. The combo should now have a reasonable speed.
• Reduced the range of Major Lunging Punches.
  • All four of these major lunging punches now have less range: jab, straight, lead hook, and rear hook. These used to have the same range as when you perform them sprinting. But from a major lunge, such range looked exaggerated and made the moves look way too fast. They should now behave in a much more authentic manner. The sprinting version of these strikes was not nerfed.
• Prevented the flying knee from the submissive fighter in kick catches to be used when the attacker is throwing certain strikes. 
  • It was possible to throw the flying knee in situations that didn’t make sense, which led to some janky and unfair interactions. The submissive fighter can no longer throw a flying knee when it doesn’t make sense, most notably when the dominant fighter is kicking and already letting go of the submissive’s leg.

UFC 5 Hotfix Patch Notes - November 6, 2023