How to play UNBEATEN
Everything you need to know to build a fighter, climb the real rankings and chase GOAT status, from the first spin to the final bell.
The short version
UNBEATEN is a free MMA career game. You do not pick a fighter from a list. You build one by spinning: a random weight class, eight attribute cards that each borrow the best trait of a real fighter, a personality and a nationality. Then your creation fights its way through the current top 15 of that division, using the real names from the live rankings, with the goal of staying unbeaten, winning belts and finishing as the greatest of all time.
- Choose a difficulty and how many losses you can survive.
- Spin the draft. Every card is luck, so make the most of what you get.
- Fight real contenders up the division ladder, one live simulated fight at a time.
- Win the title, defend it, and chase belts in other divisions.
- Reach GOAT status and post your score to the monthly leaderboard.
1. Set up your run
Before the draft you choose how forgiving the career will be. Difficulty controls two things: how many re-spins you get during the draft, and how many losses your career can survive.
| Difficulty | Re-spins | Losses you can survive | Effective rating boost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 3 | Your choice, from 0 to 5 | Largest |
| Normal | 1 | 1 | Small |
| Hard | None | 0 (one loss ends the run) | None |
You can also switch on the three women's divisions (strawweight, flyweight and bantamweight). With the option off, your weight class is drawn from the eight men's divisions. An optional age mode lets you set a debut age between 18 and 37. With it on, a career clock runs: young fighters can develop, physical attributes start to fade in the thirties, injuries can cause long layoffs, and every career ends at a hard age wall.
Whatever you choose is remembered, so pressing "run it back" at the end of a career starts a new one with the same settings.
2. The draft: eleven spins
The draft is a slot-machine style reel that lands on one result at a time. There are eleven spins, always in the same order:
- Weight class. Every division has an equal chance of coming up.
- Eight attribute cards in turn: striking, grappling, cardio, chin, power, leg kicks, fight IQ and speed.
- A personality. One of 22 real fighter mentalities.
- A nationality. Over a hundred countries, each with small attribute nudges.
Each attribute card names a real fighter and the rating (out of 99) for that single trait, along with a one-line receipt explaining why. Landing Khabib Nurmagomedov on grappling gives you a 99 and the note that he was never outgrappled; landing Derrick Lewis on cardio gives you a 60 and a famous story about his shorts. Elite cards are deliberately rarer than average ones, so most fighters come out with strengths and flaws rather than being perfect. For a full breakdown of what each attribute does, read the attributes guide.
A re-spin replaces the card you just landed, but it can never land the exact same result twice, and a fighter who already gave you a card cannot appear again on a later attribute. Once the last spin is done, the game reveals your fighter with an overall rating and runs the card through 1,500 simulated careers to show how often it wins a belt and how often it reaches GOAT status. That number is your honest warning about how hard the run ahead really is.
Personalities change the rules
A personality is more than flavour. Each one carries real trade-offs. The Conor McGregor mentality earns bonus points from hype and thrives under title-fight lights, but risks superstar layoffs that cost you sharpness. The Khabib Nurmagomedov mentality boosts cardio and grappling, but forces retirement after a set number of title defenses. Others add finishing power while weakening your chin, or help you as an underdog while costing you as a favourite. Read the personality text on the reel before you decide whether to spend a re-spin.
3. Climbing the rankings
Your fighter is placed in the weight class you drew and starts at the bottom. The opponents are real fighters. The first fights come against unranked fighters taken from real recent cards, then you work through the ranked contenders from the lower end of the top 15 up to the number one spot, and finally the reigning champion. Rankings come from live public data, so the names change as the real rankings change.
Each fight is slotted into an event. Lower-ranked opponents usually appear on Fight Night prelims or main cards, higher-ranked opponents more often land on pay-per-view main cards, and top contenders can headline a five-round Fight Night. All title fights are five rounds. Before every fight you see a tale of the tape and your win probability, calculated from your card against that opponent's real record and rank. See how the simulation works for the maths.
Standout performances
Finishing a fight in spectacular fashion early in the climb can earn a standout bonus. A first-round stoppage over a ranked opponent may jump you one or even two places up the queue, so a devastating start can shorten the road to the belt considerably.
4. How a fight plays out
Fights are not a single dice roll shown as a result. They play out live, exchange by exchange, with a running commentary, round numbers, damage bars for both fighters and an event log. You will see strikes land, takedowns attempted and stuffed, submission attempts and escapes, knockdowns, the occasional foul and the final stoppage or scorecards. Every fight also generates a stats sheet with striking, takedown and control numbers, and you can reopen any past fight from your career log.
A fight can end five ways:
- KO or TKO: power and striking decide how often this happens for your fighter.
- Submission: grappling decides how often you finish this way.
- Unanimous decision: all three judges agree.
- Split decision: more common in evenly matched fights, and exactly as agonising as it sounds.
- Draw or no contest: both are rare, roughly one percent each, and neither costs you a life.
The outcome is decided by the same probability model that produced the win probability you saw before the fight. The live action is generated to match that outcome, so what you watch is a believable story of how it happened rather than a different result.
5. Losses, draws and rematches
On Hard, or on any run where you chose zero lives, the first loss ends the career. With lives, a loss costs you one and sends you into a redemption arc: you drop down the ladder to face fresh opponents on the way back up. If you lose the title you may be offered an immediate rematch, most often after a long reign or a razor-close decision. Draws and no contests do not cost a life; the fight is simply rebooked against the same opponent.
Remember: GOAT status always demands a spotless record. Surviving a loss with a spare life keeps your run alive and can still reach Legend, but it closes the door on GOAT.
6. Belts, defenses and new divisions
Beating the champion makes you champion. From then on every fight is a five-round title defense against the division's top contenders. You hold one divisional belt at a time. After enough successful defenses you can vacate and chase a belt in a neighbouring division. A truly dominant reign, with several defenses and finishes, can earn a direct title shot in the new division; otherwise you must beat contenders in eliminators first. A career can cover at most three divisions and three belts, which is the triple crown ceiling. You also get one free move per career from the climb phase if you want to change weight class early.
7. Reaching GOAT status
You reach GOAT status when you have zero losses and any one of the following:
- Three divisional belts, the triple crown.
- Two divisional belts plus three title defenses.
- Six title defenses.
Your status moves through five tiers as you succeed: Prospect, Contender, Champion, Legend and GOAT. When you reach GOAT you can retire at the top or keep fighting for the triple crown, with the risk that a late loss means you are remembered as a GOAT who fell.
Careers are capped at 47 fights, the all-time record for UFC appearances, so even the greatest run has a built-in end.
8. How points are scored
Every win earns points, and the monthly leaderboard ranks runs by total score. A win is worth a base of 10 points plus a rank bonus that grows with the quality of the opponent, with title fights worth the most. Finishing a fight adds a further bonus, and standout performances add more. Winning a belt is a large bonus, bigger for each belt you add to your collection, and every successful defense adds to your total. Some personalities multiply your points, for better or worse. Draws and no contests earn a small consolation score.
The leaderboard has separate boards for Easy, Normal, Hard, all difficulties together, and your own saved runs, and it resets at the start of every month so there is always a fresh race to the top.
Frequently asked questions
Is UNBEATEN free?
Yes. It is free to play and you do not need an account to play. Your current run and your saved runs are stored on your own device.
Is it an official UFC game?
No. UNBEATEN is an independent fan project with no connection to the UFC or its owners. It uses real fighter names and public records because that is what makes the game feel real.
Does it need an internet connection?
Live rankings and results make it better, but the game ships with a snapshot of the rankings so you can still play offline, and your run is saved locally.
Why did I lose when the odds said 85 percent?
Because 85 percent is not 100 percent. Over a long career the chance of winning every fight multiplies down quickly, which is exactly why going unbeaten and reaching GOAT is meant to be rare.
Can I change the difficulty mid-run?
No. Difficulty and lives are locked when the draft starts, which keeps leaderboard scores fair.