Weekend Warriors MMA Tips, Cheats & Strategy Guide for a Fast-Track to MMA Stardom

Mobile developer MDickie (a.k.a. Mat Dickie) has finally released his mixed martial arts mobile game for iOS and Android – that’s Weekend Warriors MMA, a new game from the same guy who gave us Wrestling Revolution 3D, Hard Time, and others. This game includes five promotions, four weight classes per promotion (actually three weight classes for men and a women’s division), and 300 characters, mostly based on real-life MMA and professional wrestling stars. (e.g. “Jimi Sierra” as John Cena, “Emma Roused” as Ronda Rousey, etc.) And your goal, of course, is to fight for, and eventually win your division’s championship belt as you rise up the rankings and train your stats to make yourself a better fighter.

The road to MMA stardom is paved with challenges, but we can, of course, make this road smoother for you if you’re just starting out. So with that being said, let’s move on to our Weekend Warriors MMA strategy guide for beginners, a fast-track to success if you’re playing the game for the first time.

1. Know The Controls And Take The Tutorial

The controls in Weekend Warriors MMA are similar to those in the MDickie titles we mentioned above – hit the S button to throw a strike, the G button to grapple, B to block, T to taunt. The different buttons may serve different purposes depending on the situation. For example, G could be used to counter your opponent’s move, while B could be used to escape from a hold or to move your opponent while you’ve got him/her in a hold. But if you haven’t played a MDickie game before, or simply want to familiarize yourself with the different controls and options, you’ll want to enter Training mode, which is a tutorial on the basics of the game. Feel free to go nuts and experiment with controls here, as Training has no bearing on your record or your stats in Career mode.

2. Be Aware That This Isn’t Like Real MMA

While real-life MMA fights are straight-up athletic contests, you’ll notice that the MMA in this game has a lot of sports entertainment, or pro wrestling elements. For example, you can use foreign objects (and get disqualified for it) in a match, fly off the top of the cage, and, as we’ll explain a bit later, get into backstage brawls with other fighters. Chalk it up to MDickie being a huge wrestling fan, but it is what it is, and to be fair, it adds an interesting twist you wouldn’t get on titles like EA Sports UFC.

3. Employ An Attacking Fight Strategy

Like in many other fighting-based games, defense is much harder to play than offense, although you would want to block opponents’ punches every now and then. I’ve had more success, though, focusing on strikes rather than grappling moves and hardly using the Block button. This is especially effective if you’ve got a fighter with a high Striking rating, though if your chosen fighter specializes in Grappling, you can go for submission moves and takedowns instead.

4. Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

Occasionally, fighters will approach you in the locker room and ask if you’re willing to take them on in a pay-per-view match. If you win, that could mean more money due to the high-stakes nature of PPV matches, as well as a chance to rise up the rankings. Should you take these matches or not?

In most cases, you shouldn’t. Two consecutive matches is bad enough, but you could easily end up doing way too much in too little time (think three straight weeks with matches, or even four), and that could cause a ripple effect. You’ll be entering matches gassed-out against opponents who may be fresh as a daisy. And that could lead to a long losing streak, a big loss in popularity, and a drop down the rankings.

5. What To Do In Random Locker Room Brawls

This is a carryover from Wrestling Revolution 3D that’s made its way to Weekend Warriors MMA – fighters may try shaking you down for money or threatening you backstage, essentially challenging you to a fight. Think of these locker room brawls as mini-games that have no bearing on your win-loss record, but could boost or harm your popularity depending on the outcome. If you’ve got enough health and stamina, then we advise you to go for it; unlike standard MMA fights, anything goes in here, so you can jump off tables, use foreign objects, etc. to gain an advantage over your opponent.

6. Do Not Quit In The Middle Of A Fight

The going may be getting too tough for you, or you may simply be tired and wanting to take a breather. If you’re tired, it’s as simple as pausing the game and returning when you’ve rested a bit. But if you’re losing, it’s best to give it your all till the end and take the loss if worse comes to worst. Quitting in the middle of a match will end it right then and there, and could severely dent your popularity for “bailing out.”

7. Only Simulate Matches You Know You Can Win

Weekend Warriors MMA has an option for you to simulate matches, but you should only choose this option if your health bar (the green one on top) and your stamina bar (the yellow bar underneath health) are still filled up quite a bit, if you’ve finished more than half of the rounds and are confident you’ve won them all, or if your stats and ranking are considerably better than your opponent’s. Otherwise, you’re booking yourself to lose by letting the game’s AI simulate the match for you.

8. Employ A Conservative Approach When Winning

So you’ve dominated the first two rounds of three or the first three rounds of five (in a title match), by your estimation. If you choose not to simulate the rest of the match and decide to fight it out till the end, you’ll want to play it safe in the final rounds. With your health and stamina bars likely having taken a hit from the time you started the match, it’s best not to go for the knockout or submission win if your opponent’s still got some fight in him/her. Keep your strikes and grapples to a bare minimum and be as evasive as possible and you’ll still pick up the decision win – remember, you still get the same cut of the revenue whether you win by decision, knockout, stoppage, or submission.