A step-by-step guide to creating a monstrous MyCareer wrestler in WWE 2K18

A step-by-step guide to creating a monstrous MyCareer wrestler in WWE 2K18




Picking your moves

You can customize your entire move-set in MyCareer menu. A lot of it doesn’t matter too much and simply comes down to preferences, but take care when you’re picking your Signature and Finisher moves. You get access to your Signature move after you fill up your Momentum meter. It’s a strong attack, but hitting it also gives you the ability to hit a Finisher. These are the strongest moves, and you can often win a match by pinning your opponent right after you hit him with one.

Try to pick Signatures and Finishers that are relatively easy to perform. Sure, it might look cool to powerbomb your opponent off the turnbuckle, but that takes a lot more effort to set up then a simple DDT in the middle of the ring. Basically, pick moves that don’t require you to position your opponent. That often means that you have to Irish Whip them, which gives them another chance to counter you.

Try to pick a Signature move that’s also a running attack, like a clothesline. These are easy and quick to perform, and they leave your opponent on the ground. Then, pick a Finisher that you can do simply by standing in front of your opponent. You can also do these to a grounded opponent by pushing the Finisher button after you hit them with the Signature move. You then automatically hit them with the move once they stand up. It’s an easy, devastating combo that leads to a lot of victories.




Attributes to boost

After you make your character, you can increase their individual stats by spending SP (an in-game currency that stands for Skill Points). These impact your strength, speed, and proficiency with certain types of moves. You only have a certain amount of points to spend boosting these up at the beginning, so it’s important to prioritize.

These are the most important:

- Reversal: This is a new one in WWE 2K18. This year, you can only perform reversals when a special meter fills up in segments, with each one letting you perform a counter. Your character will only start with two bars, but increasing the Reversal attribute will increase the size of your meter. Landing reversals simultaneously blocks an attack and puts you back on the offensive, so they’re incredibly important.

- Momentum: This makes it easier to fill your Momentum meter, which leads to your Signature move. Hitting a Signature move then gives you a Finisher. Those are two strong attacks, and you’ll win most of your matches after hitting a Finisher. Try to bump this stat up early so that you’ll get your special moves faster.

- Strike and Grapple Counters: Counters can be pretty difficult, so boost these two stats to make it a bit easier. If you can’t counter, your opponent can just keep you grounded and hit you with move after move. It’s frustrating, but it also means you’ll never have a chance to fight back.

- Offensive attributes: Arm and Leg Offense increase the damage you do with strikes, so it helps with punches, kicks, leg drops, stomps, and other moves like those. Grapple Offense is also important, since those moves will make up at least half of your offense. Running Offense increases the strength of moves you perform while sprinting. These attacks are quick and powerful, and they leave your opponent on the ground. They’re a great way to turn a match around or to quickly give you some breathing time, so put some points in this one, too.

- Durability: This increases your defense to specific body parts. Focus first on Body and then Head. These two areas will take the most damage during a match.
Stamina: With less Stamina, you’ll move slower. If you’re really low, you won’t be able to perform certain moves or counter. Make sure that doesn’t happen by putting a few points into this attribute.
Pin escape: If you’re having trouble escaping from pins, increase this one. It’ll make it easier.




Attributes to worry about later

Of course, some attributes won’t help you much. They all have their purpose, but here are those you can ignore until you get more important stats boosted:

- Niche offensive attributes: Foreign Object Offense increases the damage you do with weapons. Since you can only use weapons in specific kinds of matches (which you’ll rarely play), don’t worry too much about this one. Same with Environmental Damage. Sure, you can legally throw your opponent into the turnbuckle during any match, but you’ll be better off spending those points on more common offensives moves like strikes and grapples.

- Leg and Arm Durability: Few moves focus on these body parts, so you’ll be alright if you ignore them for a while. You can boost them up a bit once you’re comfortable with your other stats.

- Chain Wrestling: This is a sort of rock-paper-scissors minigame that can happen in the beginning of a match if the wrestlers grapple each other. Still, it only happens once (maybe twice, rarely) in a match, and you can do well in them even without boosting the attribute.

Otherwise, boosting other attributes comes down to the way you want to play. If you have a fast character who uses a lot of top turnbuckle moves, increase your Aerial and Agility stats. You’ll earn more points to increase attributes as you play matches, so you’ll be able to increase a lot of them throughout your career.

You can also use SP to buy Abilities that do things like escape from the ring while you’re on the ground. Some of these are useful, but they’re expensive. Focus first on increasing your Attributes.



Skills

You can use VC (Virtual Currency, separate from SP) to buy Skills for your wrestler, which are special abilities. However, one clearly stands out: the Comeback.

The Comeback is a fail-safe. When you’re falling behind in a match, you can press a button, activate an easy quick-time event of button prompts, and then you’ll earn a Signature move. Hit your Signature move, and you get a Finisher. It’s super-easy, and it easily turns a defeat into a victory.

Unfortunately, it’s also the most expensive Skill by far. It costs 135,000 VC. It’ll take you a while to earn that much, but it is worth it to save. This is easily the most useful Skill.



When playing

You earn more points when you win and put on better matches. To put on a good match, use a large variety of moves. Don’t just use the same strikes and grapples over and over. Throw an opponent to the turnbuckle and perform some special moves to them over there. Try a top-rope move. Just try to use as many different attacks as you can in a match. Of course, using your Signatures and Finishers will also help. Doing all of that will earn you more SP, which will help you boost your Attributes faster. This year, the game will show you when you earn points and increase rating of your match while you’re playing, which makes it a lot easier to keep track of which moves you’re performing for the first time.

Also, don’t get frustrated when you lose. Starting out, your wrestler will be pretty weak. That’s why you need to finish matches and boost your Attributes. Even a loss will earn you points.

As for winning your matches, it’s usually about keeping momentum. If your opponent is on the offense, you need to counter him as soon as you can. Then, once you have the momentum, try to keep the other guy grounded and dazed so you can keep attacking.

Eventually, you’ll get your Signature move. Land that, and then use your Finisher. Sometimes, your opponent will counter those moves. Just try to fill your Momentum bar again. If you opponent is really hurt, try to just pin them after a normal grapple move. Also, if the other guy has the Comeback ability, run! Don’t let them use it. Stay away until it goes away.

That’s it. This should get you started, and you’ll get an idea of what other areas you need help with as you play. Then you just use Attributes, Skills, and Abilities to compensate.