Well, now you need to create your first boxer. Go ahead and click the Create Fighter button in your gym. Now you get to play with a bunch of numbers to make them add up to 53. The possibilities are near endless and there is no “perfect” combination. There are some that are going to easier than others and much of how you build and manage fighters is completely up to you. There is a legacy option to add levels to your fighter up to 10, it was a past system in the game and no longer functions. Ignore this, all you get is 53 ability points…so what to do with them….
- Name
- The name you want to give to your fighter
- Division (limit)
Division is the weight division you would like to place your fighter in. Limit is the maximum weight your fighter will fight at in this division. Although your fighter can lose 5% of his body weight before a fight to reach the division weight limit before suffering endurance penalties.
Example – Joe Bloggs is in Lightweight and weighs 141lbs. He can diet down to 133.95lbs before a fight.
If Joe Bloggs has to lose more than 5% of his body weight to reach the division weight limit he will be weakened by excessive dieting. This will result in loss of endurance for him in his fight
- Build
Build helps to determine a fighter's weight and has no other effect.
- Strength
Strength Is used as an offensive weapon and factors heavily in the amount of damage you do to your opponent. It can also be used as a defensive weapon when using the "clinch" fighting style. Increases in strength make your weight go up and decreases in strength make your weight go down.
- Speed
Speed equals more punches landed. Speed also adds to the power of a punch. Comparing two equally strong fighters, the speedier fighter's punches will do more damage.
- Agility
The defensive factor. The greater the Agility the less damage you will take and the fewer punches your opponent will land.
- Toughness
Toughness is the ability of a fighter to take a punch, and is used to determine his stamina. Tougher fighters will be able to throw more punches for more rounds, and will be able to sustain more damage before being knocked down.
- Height
Taller fighters will gain additional agility and speed during a match to simulate the effect of reach. Taller fighters will also weigh more than similarly built, but shorter fighters.
EVERYONE LOVES A KO
Admit it, if you are a fan of boxing or mixed martial arts you love seeing your favorite fighter shut out the other guy’s lights. In BDB game slang you will hear other managers refer to fighters that win the majority of their fights by KO as “Sluggers”. There are many variations of this type such as balanced, fast and agile you can play with as you get more comfortable with managing. But at the end of the day, they all have one thing in common: Their strength is always going to be higher than their agility.
Here is a sample slugger in the Strawweight division:
Strength: 35
Speed: 8
Agility: 8
Toughness: 11
Height: -9 (4’5”)
One telling feature of a slugger is they are usually noticeably short for their division. Some people, especially in the heavier weights will make taller sluggers but if you are scouting an opponent and see a very short fighter with mostly KO’s… you probably facing a slugger.
EVERYONE LIKES TO WIN
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not known for his devastating punching power but he is still undefeated. He has some knockouts but his hand speed and quantity of punches landed are what get him to a W. In BDB slang we call him a “Dancer”. He uses footwork and agility to avoid his opponent’s punches while using superior hand speed to out-point them. Decisions are a dancer’s main method of victory but they carry just enough Oomph in the strength department to keep sluggers from charging in with reckless abandonment. I have had a few dancers that have attained almost slugger-like KO percentages from catching sluggers in late rounds going for a desperation KO.
Here is a sample dancer in the Strawweight division:
Strength: 6
Speed: 9
Agility: 20
Toughness: 13
Height: 5 (5’7”)
Generally, Dancers are as tall as you can get them while still fitting on some strength. If you are facing a tall fighter with some KOs in his history, you are probably facing a dancer.
IM NOT EVERYONE. SCREW KOs.
The next kind of fighter we will look at is referred to as the “Slapper”. The slapper only has one option to win: decision. They are usually taller than dancers, and in a way are kind of a sub-set of dancers but usually are seen as their own distinct build in the community. They have no strength or so little it is not a viable stat to rely on.
Here is a sample slapper in the Strawweight division:
Strength: 1
Speed: 9
Agility: 20
Toughness: 15
Height: 8 (5’11”)
You can see that it is remarkably close to the dancer above, but taller and with less strength. Height advantage is translated into a speed bonus which we will get into in other areas in the Help files. A fighter who is unusually tall for the division, with no knockouts to their name but a few KO losses is probably a slapper.
IM A MASOCHIST.
Do not worry friend, there is a style for you too. It is called the “Balanced” fighter. This lovely fighter is the swiss army knife of fighters, able to alternately speed up to take rounds, go strong to go for knockouts, whatever you want he has it. The problem with swiss army knives is while they do lots of things, they do none of them well. Think you want your appendix out by a surgeon with a swiss army knife? No well then look away now. If you are a new manager I would highly suggest trying the first three fighters, master scouting and fight plan writing then come back. While it is mostly true that every fight you go into with a balanced fighter there is usually some path to victory it takes 10x the work as any other fighter style. You have to accurately guess what your opponent is going to do in any given round and you better have the correct counter to that strategy. I have literally gone through hundreds of past fights trying to gauge what another manager has done against fighters like mine, written fight plans over 200 lines long trying to cover every possibility and still lose. Compare that to my average dancer or slugger with a 20 line plan and about 10-15 minutes or scouting and sparring per fight (not counting title fights) you can see why this style is a bugger.
Here is a sample balanced in the Strawweight division:
Strength: 13
Speed: 13
Agility: 13
Toughness: 13
Height: 1 (5’3”)
HEY! I WANT A SUPER HEAVY!!
Why is a weight class getting a build? Well because Super Heavy is unlike any other weight class you will build a fighter for. Even in Toughman where the fighters tend to have less toughness due to only being four-round fights, you will find the above fighter types represented. Super Heavy has a weight bonus applied to your strength stat up to 1000 lbs. This means that your primary starting stat is going to be height with the build always being Barrel Chested.
Here is a sample fighter in the Super Heavy division:
Strength: 1
Speed: 1
Agility: 1
Toughness: 1
Height: 49 (9’3”)
The above gives a fighter with 786lbs with Barrel Chested. Super Heavy, more than any other division almost makes fighting BOTs mandatory to about rating 10. Your primary focus is on adding strength, toughness and speed with only occasional trickles of agility: remember agility lowers your weight and weight is the lifeblood of SH. Your primary goal is to find BOTS based on early Super Heavy fighters that didn’t maximize their weight. You can usually find some 5’10” heavy sluggers that would eat you alive in heavyweight where strength advantage is capped at 250lbs but your massive weight advantage means your strength 1 fighter is going to put the hurt on that little guy. The reason I suggest fighting BOTs to at least 10 is the division is also populated with some 5 rating 20 status old guys with more ability points than your new guy and he is going to get wrecked. Take my word for it.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS:
1) The rule of thumb is slappers beat dancers, dancers beat sluggers, sluggers beat slappers. We already covered the difficulties of balanced, they are weak to everything, especially slappers, but also with strong points at the same time. This is not set in stone and you can beat any style with another providing you put in the work scouting
2) There are variations to everything. The above builds are to my taste. Every manager in this game will have their interpretation of what a dancer, slugger, slapper, balanced looks like. Your goal is to find what works for you.
3) BOTs are game-generated fighters that are based on real manager’s fighters and load the fight plan of that fighter had at the time of the BOT’s generation. This means you can find some with some seriously complex fight plans, especially as your fighter goes up in level. Don’t always take winning against the BOTs for granted. In your first 3 BOT fights, you can see the fight plan that the BOT has. Take advantage of this to make a sure-to-win plan. My favorite part of the BOT system (which didn’t exist when many of us started) is the ability to make eccentric fighters that wouldn’t be viable to just let run on auto, fix their stats with a few BOT gimme fights and go on to have a unique fighter to throw at real-life managers.