UFC 5 Apr 25 patch notes: Roster additions, grappling tweaks, more

The April 25 patch for UFC 5 will add new fighters to the game, as well as bring new gameplay tweaks for the second time in April.

Just three weeks after EA Sports introduced a fresh patch for UFC 5, the development team is set to make additional tweaks on April 25.

Among the changes include several new fighters who will join the roster, as well as striking and grappling modifications.

Fighters launching alongside the April 25 patch include #5 flyweight Matheus Nicolau, Michael “Venom” Page, and Drew Dober.

Additionally, the new patch comes with striking and grappling changes. Among the striking changes include slowed recovery of short-term stamina, which will affect the high end rather than at low stamina.

As for the grappling changes, one of the tweaks includes shifting stamina changes from short to long-term, with the latter going up 8% from before.

Here’s a look at the full UFC 5 April 25 patch notes:

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)
• Michael “Venom” Page (#13 WW)
• 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

The patch will go live on April 25 at 10 AM PT.