MANUAL

Exhibition (the Game menu) sets up any two of Spira's six teams for a one-off match. You pick both sides and a random seed, then watch the AI play it out (no career, no EXP, just a match). It's the fastest way to see the simulation in action.

Season is the career mode: you manage one team through a league and a knockout tournament (see the Season Mode page). Most fixtures can be simulated instantly, but for your own team's matchday you can hit ▶ Play Live to control the players yourself instead of letting the AI play it for you.

• Scoreboard & clock — top of the screen; each match is two 3‑minute halves.
• HP bars — one per player, either side of the pitch. HP is stamina: it drains as a player acts and recovers slowly off the ball. Run a player low and their Pass and Shoot power is halved, so watch the bars, not just the score.
• Commentary log — a scrolling play-by-play of every pass, tackle, and shot, useful for following what just happened between the lines.
• Encounter cinematic — whenever a tackle contest (a "breakthrough", see Rules & Stats) happens, a short side-on cut-scene plays it out. It can be switched off from the Exhibition controls (Encounters: On/Off) to speed through a match.

Exhibition is watch-only — there's no player character to move, just playback controls:

• Pause / Resume — freeze or continue the match.
• 1× / 2× / 4× — playback speed.
• Restart — replay the same fixture from kickoff with the same seed (so it plays out identically).
• New Match — reroll to a fresh random seed.
• Encounters: On/Off — toggle the tackle cinematics described above.

Team pickers below the controls choose which two teams play.

Picking ▶ Play Live on your team's fixture puts you in direct control of whichever of your six players has the ball (or is closest to it). Everyone else — teammates and the whole opposing side — is played by the AI.

Moving

Steer with W A S Dor the arrow keys on desktop, or the on-screen joystick (bottom-left) on touch. There are no separate action buttons while you're moving in open play — every action (Shoot, Pass, Dribble) lives in the pause menu.

Pause menu

Press Space or Esc (or the on-screen Pause button) to open it. This is also how you act: with the ball, choose Shoot, Pass (opens a target picker), or Dribble to resume running. A Technique button appears here too when you have one equipped and affordable — arm it before you Shoot or Pass to use it on that action.

AI Control hands your whole team to the AI and back at any time — handy if you just want to watch a stretch of play. Skip to Result (two-tap confirm) lets the AI finish the rest of the match for you.

Tackle encounters

When an opponent carrying the ball is closed down by your defenders, the clock freezes and a TACKLE prompt asks you to choose the tackle — a specific technique (if any are equipped and affordable) or a Plain Tackle. When you're the one carrying the ball and get closed down, an ENCOUNTER prompt faces you with each defender in turn: Break to fight through that defender (costs Endurance and HP), or No Break to stop there and release the ball immediately. Once you've decided how many to fight, choose Shoot, Pass, or (only if you broke through everyone) Dribble to keep running. See Rules & Stats for how the contest itself is decided.