How to Play 38-0

38-0 is quick to learn and hard to master. Here’s everything the game does, step by step.

The goal

Sign a full starting XI of legendary footballers, then simulate a 38-match league season. Win every one of those 38 matches and you achieve what no real club ever has: a perfect 38-0 season. Fall short and you’re graded on how close you came.

Step 1 — Choose your mode

On the welcome screen you can pick:

• Classic — full player ratings visible as you sign.
• Blind Draft — ratings are hidden, so you sign purely on the name, position, nationality and era. A real test of how well you know your football history.

Then choose Build your XI for a random run, Play Daily Challenge for the shared daily seed, or paste a seed to replay a specific draft.

Step 2 — Spin and sign, eleven times

You fill your 4-4-2 one slot at a time, in order: goalkeeper, then four defenders, then four midfielders, then two strikers. For each slot:

1. Spin — the game rolls an era (1960s–2020s) and a club style (Total Football, Catenaccio, Tiki-Taka, Gegenpress and more).
2. Choose — you’re shown up to three real legends who play that position, weighted toward the spun era.
3. Sign one of them, or spend one of your three rerolls to get a fresh spin and new candidates.

Every player you sign is gone from the pool for the rest of that run, so you can’t stack the same names.

Step 3 — Chemistry is calculated

Once your XI is complete, the game scores its chemistry — and this is where good drafts beat lucky ones. You earn bonuses for things like:

• A settled spine — a strong keeper behind an elite back line.
• A national-team core — several players who share a nationality and understand each other.
• A midfield engine, an impassable back line, or a deadly front two.
• Era specialists — an XI built for the decade you’re simulating.

And you’re penalised for real weaknesses: no holding midfielder, a lightweight defence, a toothless attack, or a stylistic clash of eras. Every effect is shown with a plain-English reason.

Step 4 — Play the 38-match season

Your XI plays out a full home-and-away league season, match by match. Each result is a win, draw or loss with a real scoreline. A single draw or defeat ends any hope of 38-0 — because in football a draw is not a win.

At the end you get your final table position, points total (out of 114), goals for and against, longest winning streak, a letter grade, and — if you fell short — the exact matches where you dropped points.

Step 5 — Share or climb the leaderboard

Every run has a seed you can share so a friend gets the identical draft. And if you played the Daily Challenge, you can submit your season to a public leaderboard ranked by perfect seasons first, then unbeaten, then points.

Ready to sign your XI? Start with the draft strategy guide to give yourself the best shot at 38-0.