Starter Guide

So, you’ve just started playing UFL and feel a bit lost. What’s the current meta? How can you earn CP efficiently? Is it possible to level up any player, or are there restrictions? Understanding these mechanics is key to building a competitive team and climbing the ranks. That’s where the official UFL Scout Starter Guide comes in—it covers everything you need to know, from gameplay strategies to player development, ensuring you get the best possible start on your UFL journey.

First steps

When you start UFL for the first time, you’ll be given a choice to select a:

• Formation
  This is not a permanent choice but simply a selection to help you get started. You can change the formation once you’re done with the initial setup.
• Starter Captain
  UFL grants you a free player that has slightly above average stats than the rest of your team will have. The recommended player from UFL Scout’s team to take here that you’ll see later on in the higher divisions as well, would be Tsunemoto. Of course, you don’t always receive the same starting selection as other players, but if you have a chance to snag Tsunemoto, you’ll have a solid RB for the long run.

Squad Goals

It can be very tricky in the beginning to expand your squad – trying to find out which players to go for, which should stay and which to replace as soon as possible – and that’s what UFL Scout is for! Here, the community helps each other out by voting on players based on performance in game, creating squads with tactics, and commenting with their opinions. All of this to help you find exactly what you’re looking for to succeed in the game.

Here is a very good starter squad made for this guide that will help you get aligned with the current meta: https://uflscout.com/squad/28896/

Starter Squad Players

To begin to understand why this squad is a good choice, let’s go through all of our players and see what each of them contribute to the squad. Do note that while the squad looks as if it costs 43M CP, some of these players are already in your squad, and you can also gain additional CP and RP by selling your reserves.

*This squad has been made to work well in Season 1

Attackers
The attackers here have a main focus on pace and dribbling. This will get you very far when starting to play the game. If your players can get near enough the box, finishing will not have a too noticeable negative effect for you to score. We’ve also set up Noah Ohio on the right due to his left foot strength for finesses, and Sankara Karamoko on the left for his right foot strength.

Wingers
You’ll want your wingers to be fast as well, and be able to set your strikers up for the finishing shot. Julian Duranville is a popular cheap starter choice by the community, and his lightning pace will confuse your opponent’s defenders. Trae Coyle is in most starter squads and is well balanced on the left wing.

Midfielders
As we’re running a two-man midfield, we need these two players to be as well rounded as possible. We’ve focused on height, pace and fitness on both Gabriel Sigua and Anis Slimane.

Defenders
Malik Sawadogo is a free agent that you’ll see even appearing in the top ranks due to his very steady starting stats combined with his progress patterns. Jerome Opoku and Jeyland Mitchell make for a good fast, tall and strong centerback pairing, and finally Keigo Tsunemoto, who you might have picked as a captain, lets his stats speak for themselves.

Goalkeeper
Denys Tvardovskyi is a super popular starter goalkeeper due to his height of 206 cm (6’9″). He’ll be able to reach most balls heading towards your goal.

Tactics

Team Tactics
We maintain a very default setup when it comes to the team tactics, as it will keep your players fit and in shape.

Duties
Duties is what each player’s individual instructions are. For this setup, we recommend keeping both of your wingbacks on “Do not support the attack“, to maintain a good defensive balance, while your top four attackers all perform “Attacking Runs” to ensure they make those overlaps you’re looking for.

Stamina
Stamina is a very important factor to take note off, so ensure your players are not being instructed to be running around or being overly aggressive to avoid having your players be gassed out after the first half.

Modes

In UFL, there are currently four modes available to play.

Game Mechanics

In UFL, there are a few important factors to keep track off.

ECONOMICS

FITNESS & STAMINA

Stamina is a very important factor to take note off as it can have a big impact on your performance, so ensure your players are not being instructed to be running around or being overly pressuring to avoid having your players being worn out after the first half.

Fitness deductions happen automatically after each game as the standard setting, and that is the result of your player’s energy levels being drained after the game. You can disable this, but then you will have to re-fill the stamina yourself between games. This deduction is taken in CP.

SKILLS

Skills are used to enhance player cards to receive additional bonuses for different types of mechanisms. All players come with a set of skills already attached to them, that you can then level up if you wish. Top-rated players usually have “Ultra” versions of skills, that give the highest amount of bonus to that specific perk the skill grants.

As of now, the exact difference that skills add stat-wise is unknown, and will hopefully be explained soon by the UFL team. You can view all player skills here.

SKINS

Skins are cosmetic items for player cards with enhancements for both their team and the player itself. In your squad, you can apply a bonus effect to the entire team if you have the same skin series applied to multiple players. Skins will not have an effect on players if not enough players have the same series applied. You can view the requirements and tiers achieved in your squad settings.

DISCLAIMER

As of now, it is confirmed that skins do not work as expected. This is a fact that has been stated by the UFL team themselves. We’re awaiting more information about the details and perks of the skins detail-wise.

PERSONAL SKINS

Besides regular player skins, certain players also have personal skins which are exclusive to the player’s themselves. These skins grant unique looks, bonuses such as skill upgrades and more, and they are the rarest types of skins available in the game. You can receive personal skins for a player without having their card in your squad. You can view all personal skins submitted by our users here.

LEVELING

Leveling players is one of the core concepts of what makes UFL fun. You can work to make any of your favorite players turn into the max rating (91) which means a long (or short) road of upgrades to stats.

Players achieve new levels by earning more XP, and these are the ways you can earn XP:

• Playing games
• Having an XP booster enabled
• Personal skin modifiers

The more levels a player requires to reach 91, the longer the grind will be. Each new level requires additional XP, and every 5th level (70, 75, 80) will grant a skill point for you to allocate.

Once a player reaches their max level, each new level will grant skill points instead.

If you’re curious about how your favorite player looks at their max rating, you can select their level on the player card here at UFL Scout (if it has been submitted by another user). We’re hoping to have a formula in place for this soon.

See you on the pitch!

This guide was latest updated as of 09/02/2025.