Gaming
The highest-ranked players at FC 24 will often spend real money to get ahead in the game, but that is not a viable option for a lot of people.
There are a number of different things you can do to help improve your chances of success that do not require entering any credit card details.
So, here are The Athletic’s five key tips for growing your Ultimate Team in FC 24.
Some rewards in the Ultimate Team mode on FC 24 do not offer much value, while others are worth the hassle.
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To get the high-value packs that could result in you acquiring good players, you need to play the Squad Battles game mode on beginner difficulty and rack up ridiculous scorelines in order to hit different milestones.
The gist is to play against the computer (the easiest opponent, rather than facing other players online) on the easiest possible game difficulty (beginner) and slowly but surely rack up a king’s ransom. A lot of those games will end up with rugby scorelines.
You will win games 33-0 and have to repeat that process until you have cleared all the relevant milestones. For example, you get a valuable pack as a reward for scoring 100 goals in any game mode in FUT, but it may take you three or four games to reach that benchmark.
I used this same ‘hack’ and, in six games on FUT, Rachel Daly’s stat line read as follows: six appearances, 37 goals, 23 assists. In the packs I was rewarded as a result of this nonsense, I got Joshua Kimmich (88 overall), Christianne Endler (88 overall), Manuel Neuer (87 overall) and Becky Sauerbrunn (85 overall), as well as a number of other players rated 80 or higher.
It is boring and you will question your existence, but in the end, if you achieve certain milestones, you will have a better squad to work with in FUT.
The players you get in the packs are untradeable, which means they cannot be sold, but when you are starting out, that doesn’t matter too much. Acquiring as many highly rated players as you can, even if they cannot be sold to generate more FUT coins, is valuable as they can help you win games or can be used in various Squad Building Challenges (SBCs).
Not every milestone will give you a useful reward. For example, after scoring 500 goals, you only get a pitch trophy, but after scoring 100 goals, you get an FUT pack. With that in mind, here is a list of the useful milestones to hit and the rewards each milestone brings.
When you are starting out on FUT, it is better to play against the computer while you build your squad. Feel free to play against other players online if you wish, but the reality is, unless you are an excellent player, your opponents will win more times than not simply because their squad is far superior to yours.
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To get your team up and running, utilise the Squad Battles feature, a game mode where you only play against the computer, to achieve weekly rewards.
In Squad Battles, you get rewards based on how many points you have earned after playing a maximum of 32 games within a seven-day period. If you play 32 games on professional or world-class difficulty and win the majority of those, you should get decent rewards.
The rewards usually involve a combination of FUT packs, coins and XP points. For example, if you achieve the ‘Elite 1’ rank, you will get 22,000 coins, 700 XP and two Rare Players Packs.
If you really dislike playing against the computer and want to play against other people online, do not quit when in a Squad Battle. Even if you are losing 3-0 at half time, it’s better to hold firm or you’ll get nothing for your troubles. If you are losing heavily and feel like ‘rage-quitting’, just leave the controller pad where it is and go do something else for five minutes while the second half plays out.
It is now possible to improve a player’s overall rating in FUT, but unlike Career Mode, those improvements are often incremental and you cannot always choose which players you want to improve.
It is still worth using the Evolutions feature to help players level up where possible. For example, in my FUT team, my version of Leon Bailey went from 79 overall to 81 overall after using the Founders Evolution.
To fulfil the criteria you need to improve a player’s overall rating, you usually just need to win a few games on Squad Battles.
There are also some players who can stand to benefit massively from Evolutions. Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo is one of the most popular cards in EAFC 24 despite only having an overall rating of 62.
The reason Mainoo is so popular is because he can benefit from the Golden Glow Up Evolution. In short, if you win a certain number of games with him in your team in Squad Battles, his overall rating can jump from 62 to 82.
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Mainoo is a rarity, however. Most players will not be able to experience that kind of jump, but it is still worth using the Evolutions feature where possible.
If you have the Ultimate Edition of FC 24, you will be able to begin your FUT journey with an advantage, as you will get 4600 FC points, which can be used to buy packs. After you buy those packs, you can then sell a majority of the items you receive to generate coins to buy better players.
If you are starting from scratch, you will likely have to use the team you start with and grind out a few games to get coins. You often get at least 400 coins for winning a match on FUT, which is why I would suggest playing Squad Battles before tackling other game modes in FUT like Rivals or Champions.
Here is one of my earliest squads on FUT in FC 24, which can serve as a template to help get your team going. All of the players listed were fairly cheap to sign.
Goalkeeper = Bernd Leno (81 overall, 750 coins)
Defenders = Alex Moreno (80 overall, 850 coins), Nathan Ake (81 overall, 950 coins), Marc Guehi (78 overall, 450 coins), Pedro Porro (81 overall, 850 coins)
Midfielders = Tyler Adams (78 overall, 700 coins), Joe Willock (78 overall, 700 coins), Jeffrey Schlupp (76 overall, 700 coins)
Forwards = Luis Sinisterra (78 overall, 650 coins), Noni Madueke (77 overall, 450 coins), Callum Wilson (82 overall, 700 coins)
We’ve also given a full breakdown of the best cheap players to sign for your Ultimate Team in FC 24.
When you open FUT packs, most of the time, the players you get are of no use to your actual team, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value.
Use SBCs to trade in deadwood you have in your club for rare players or FUT packs. It can sometimes be worth buying specific players to complete an SBC if you do not already own a player to match the criteria for a given challenge.
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The SBCs that provide you a rare player in return are harder to complete at the start. For example, to get the Player of the Month version of James Maddison (86 overall), you have to exchange two squads: one featuring players based in England with a minimum overall team rating of 83, and exchange a squad featuring players from the Premier League with a minimum overall team rating of 85.
Below is a list of the SBCs that are relatively easy to complete at the start of your FUT journey in FC 24 and yield good results.
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Ajay Rose specialises in gaming content with his main focus surrounding Football Manager. He also contributes to general reads on the Premier League, Champions League and more. You can find him on Instagram at @ajay_rose. Follow Ajay on Twitter @Ajay_Rose