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FIFA’s Ultimate Team continues to be the most popular mode in FIFA 15, and with it players seem to be getting stronger than ever and putting together some frightening line-ups. With the introduction of loan players, teams can include the likes of Messi and Ibrahimovic alongside some of League One’s finest.
We’ve spent quite a bit of time in FUT, and have put together some hints and tips to help you form a great team without digging into the change jar and buying those ever-enticing FIFA Points. These tricks will help you assemble a squad filled with bargain players that’ll be more than capable of taking on the world’s best.
Use the Concept Squad Creator
The Concept Squad Creator is a great tool for putting together a team fit for purpose. You can spend as much time as you want tinkering with a lineup until it has full chemistry and swapping players who don’t fit the system.
You can view a player’s market value directly from the concept squad by going into ‘Actions’ and ‘Look up on the Transfer Market’. If the player is too expensive, search for other options.
Equally, change the formation when it suits. If CDMs are cheaper on the market than CMs, then go with a formation that uses them, like the 4-2-3-1.
Experiment with hybrid squads
It can be tricky to find good quality bargain players in every position from the same league. Achieving 100 chemistry is essential to crafting a cohesive team that doesn’t concede cheap goals thanks to wayward positioning (odd glitches and freak incidences aside), so sometimes the only alternative is to search other leagues.
You can still achieve full chemistry with hybrid squads, or by matching players by nationality. In a Premier League squad, VideoGamer played Darijo Srna at right back, alongside Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren, both Croatian, to solve the Premier League right back crisis.
Grab loan players, but don’t use them straight away
The new loan system is great for injecting some quality into your team. With the likes of Lewandowski, Bale and Vidal available via the EA Sports FC catalogue, all for a reasonable amount, it’s well worth making the investment early. However, due to their often very limited number of games available, it’s worth saving these players for only the toughest matches.
It’s worth taking a slight hit to chemistry in order to field some of the world’s best players for a few games.
Weak foot, skill moves, work rate
Many gamers neglect to look at a player’s entire card when making investments. It’s vital that you take a look at a player’s weak foot, skill moves and work rate, especially when they’re not world class players. For attacking players, weak foot and skill moves is important, with at least four star weak foot crucial for strikers.
Having strikers able to score goals from both sides is a great help, and removes a lot of frustration when seeing a great chance go begging because a forward skies it high and wide.
For defenders and defensive midfielders, you want a high defensive work rate but medium to low attacking work rate. A centre back who likes to rush forward will leave you exposed, especially in attacking formations, so make sure your side remains disciplined at the back.
You can view all this information for a player by clicking the right stick while on their card, then pressing left or right to view player details.
Chemistry Styles
Because you’re looking for bargains, you won’t be buying the best players in the game, but Chemistry Styles are a great way of compensating for this. Chemistry Styles are relatively cheap in FIFA Ultimate Team, and can be used to either alleviate deficiencies or further improve strengths of your stars.
Make sure you apply a Chemistry Style that improves the finishing, pace or physicality of your strikers, Hawk being a particular favourite. Maestro is a great one for creative midfielders, too.
Don’t apply Chemistry Styles unless it is a player who has cemented his place in your starting 11. You don’t want to waste a card on a player you will soon replace.
Buy Coin Boosters
Head into the EA Sports FC Catalogue and buy the Ultimate Team Coin Boosters. Though only available for a few games, these are a great way to get started and earn enough coins to build a squad.
The result is irrelevant, you’ll still receive the amount of coins unlocked via the booster from each match played.
Save your Bronze players for the easy tournaments
It can be tempting to jump straight into online and take on other gamers after collecting your first gold squad, but there’s easy coins to be earned through the offline tournaments and season.
Don’t waste contracts using your good squad in these amateur matches, but use the free bronze and silver players you get when you first start the mode here, and claim the free coins for the easy wins. The game punishes you with negative multipliers following the results, cutting the potential winnings, but you still win at least a few hundred coins per match.
Avoid packs
As nice as it is to engage in the excitement of opening packs, it’s extremely rare you’ll get anything great in them. There’s great value in the transfer market, especially when it proliferates following the launch of Team of the Week on Wednesdays or during special pack promos and players start buying packs and flogging cards by the bucketload.
Although it takes a little extra effort to keep fishing for those great players that are ever-so-slightly cheaper than the average price, it’s all worth it in the end.
