The latest UFC 5 Fighter Drop Update adds several new fighters, including Michael Page, Stephen Erceg, Natalia Christina da Silva, and more. Furthermore, the developers released new patch notes detailing some gameplay improvements. From Striking, to Grappling and more, this UFC 5 update seeks balance out the gameplay with several buffs and nerfs to multiple mechanics. Overall, this wave of new fighters is just one of many as EA Sports plans to release even more fighters soon.
EA Sports UFC 5 Adds Michael Page, Stephen Erceg & More
The latest EA Sports UFC 5 added several new fighters, including Michael “Venom” Page, Stephen “Astroboy” Erceg, and Natalia Christina da Silva. In addition to that, the following fighters also join the UFC 5 roster:
- 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)
- Michael “Venom” Page (#13 WW)
- Drew Dober (#15 LW)
Page, 37 years old, made his UFC debut just earlier this year, defeating Kevin Holland by Unanimous decision at UFC 299. Erceg, has yet to lose his first UFC Fight, recently defeating Matt Schnell at UFC Fight Night back in March. Lastly, Natalia Christina da Silva has also never lost a UFC fight. She last fought at Fight Night in February, defeating Vivianne Araujo by unanimous decision.
UFC 5 April 25th Patch Notes
Furthermore, EA Sports released a new patch to balance several gameplay elements.
UFC 301 Fight Week Challenges and New Alter Egos – coming April 30, 2024, at 10 am PT
Striking:
- Slowed down the recovery of short-term stamina.
- Generally, the speed changed mostly on the high end, from when the stamina was higher than half. However, when the stamina is low, the recovery is almost unchanged.
- Sped up the recovery of the short-term block meter.
- Overall, 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
- Head:
- 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. Therefore, 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.
- Overall, 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. Furthermore, the beginning of the animation, the switch part, had to “be rushed”. Therefore, we have significantly slowed it down, so the animation can look more realistic. Overall, as compensation, we have decreased its vulnerability and increased its damage. Therefore, this makes it the most damaging body kick, along with the jumping spinning side kick to the body. Furthermore, it also targets the open and more vulnerable side of the torso, when fighters are in the same stance.
- Increased the base damage from 20 to 22.5.
- Decreased the vulnerability by 25%.
- Significantly slowed down its execution (varying by weight class).
- Previously, the switch kick was too fast for its animation to play out properly. Furthermore, the beginning of the animation, the switch part, had to “be rushed”. Therefore, we have significantly slowed it down, so the animation can look more realistic. Overall, as compensation, we have decreased its vulnerability and increased its damage. Therefore, this makes it the most damaging body kick, along with the jumping spinning side kick to the body. Furthermore, it also targets the open and more vulnerable side of the torso, when fighters are in the same stance.
Grappling:
- Overall, 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. However, on the other hand, rounds spent most on the ground game didn’t tax the long-term stamina enough. Therefore, we 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.
- Decreased the short-term stamina costs by 10%.
- On the one hand, the short-term stamina felt too restricting on the ground game, discouraging exciting bursts of activity. However, on the other hand, rounds spent most on the ground game didn’t tax the long-term stamina enough. Therefore, we changed the costs as follows:
- 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
Overall, that wraps up everything you need to know about UFC 5's latest update, which adds several new fighters to the game. Feel free to check out who else is joining the game's roster between now and June!
Lastly, for more gaming and UFC news, visit ClutchPoints. Furthermore, subscribe to our gaming newsletter for more weekly info. Additionally.
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