If you want to start on the right foot, follow our tips and advices about how you should start off playing this game. Welcome to our FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Starting Guide.
If you are looking for the FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Starting Guide, please click here
UPDATE
September 13th 2014
Welcome Back Packs are now assigned based only upon your FUT 14 gaming activity and not in your FUT antiquity
– If you going to buy the game, make a pre-order in the official store to get 15 gold packs for free.
– If you have an active Season Ticket or EA Access subscription don’t forget that you will be able to play FIFA 15 earlier.
– Visit the Web App every day until the game release date to redeem your packs.
– Complete the 18 manager tasks as soon as possible.
– If you don’t mind spending real money, buy FIFA Points as soon as they are released.
– If you don’t have enough FIFA experience, watch the in-game tutorials and practice in arena.
– Use the 99 contracts item on a good player that you don’t plan to sell.
– Buy all the loan players items available in the EASFC catalogue.
– Buy all the coin boost items before you start playing matches.
– Ask to your friends to offer you the loan and coin boost items.
– Pay the lowest price possible for the 50% manager bonus.
– Use the Concept Squad to plan your team, instead of doing it on an external squad builder.
– Don’t focus on building a top team right now. Try to build a weaker team in which players could be used as substitutes or reserves in your final team.
– Choose players according to their stats (and not by their rating), their positions, the squad formation and the chemistry.
– Focus on building only one team. In the beginning you should only spend your resources on what is strictly necessary. Other teams, badges and kits can be bought later in the game.
– Buy contract cards on the day before the early access release.
– Sell everything you own and build a team from scratch.
– Use all the contracts of untradeable players.
– Keep trading simple: buy low, sell higher.
– Play with the fact that most of the prices reach their peak in mid-October.
– Pay attention to the market, especially in high traffic hours on the release date.
– Never invest everything you have. Always put a few coins aside.
– If you got a top player in a pack, wait a few days to monetize him.
– Play your first games on a low difficulty level and focus in adapting to the new game play.
– If you have started FUT 15 in the middle of the season, wait until TOTY or TOTS weeks. The prices will be much lower.
Read the full article for a more detailed explanation of what you need to do to have a good start on 15 FIFA Ultimate Team.
FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Starting Guide
For those who play or have played previous versions of FIFA Ultimate Team, there’s always that positive feeling that everything will start again. You’ll finally have the chance to start over from scratch, equally with others, knowing that you won’t make the same mistakes again. Everything now has to be perfect for you to be able to reach higher glory, sooner and long-lasting. Read on if you are prepared to rocket ahead of the pack or if you’re going to have another false start.
For those who are playing FUT for the first time, by reading this guide you are preparing yourself for the problems you may face. After all, Ultimate Team players are not so different to one another. Some are better traders; some control the players better on the field, but everyone has to be good club managers.
Every club who has wishes of being successful has to create a base of sustainability. You have to do things at the right time. The beginning of FIFA 15 Ultimate Team is the single most important moment of the game.
Here’s our check-list on the ten things to do at the start of FIFA 15 Ultimate Team – the perfect way:
- Prepare yourself
Start as soon as possible
Pick a name
Sell all your cards
Gather even more coins
Start Trading
Hire Managers
Buy Contracts
Form your Team
Play
Prepare Yourself
Before starting the season you have to prepare yourself. You have to plan it.
The first thing to do is try to get to know the game. Is there anyone who has ever won a chess match without knowing the rules? Probably not. FUT 15 is a game like any other and it has (many) rules. The truth is you don’t need to know all of them, but the more you know the better the chances are of you being even more successful.
If it’s the first time you’re playing FUT, try learning some of the basics on our website as it is the biggest information spot about the game. It will be easier to follow our tips if you already have some knowledge.
If you’ve played FUT 14 or a previous version, you will be looking forward to seeing what has changed and what is new. Not knowing how the concept squads work or what you have to do to get players on loan could cost you a less than perfect beginning. You wouldn’t want that… would you?
In the planning stage it is good to know your own expectations. It may seem unnecessary and even too theoretical but all of us should take a couple of minutes to idealize what we want for our club. Do we want one or more teams? Is our objective to have the best players or do we want to try unknown ones? Are we going to stick with regular players or are we going to enhance them to the IF versions? Are we going to play with bronze, silver, gold or all of them? How much time will we play? Will we buy packs? How many coins will we need?
The more questions you can answer equals the better your approach to the game. The fulfilment of the tasks listed above will give you an edge to your approach that will equal enhanced results.
If this is your first FIFA experience, you should watch the in-game tutorials
Start as Soon as Possible
The sooner you start playing FIFA 15 Ultimate Team, your chances are greater of being successful. This is due to the beginning of the game being the most important time.
The game starts with the Web App and you must access it there. It is too difficult to make good deals at that time, but it will give you time to study the market properly before the game release.
With the passage of time the market will tend to become more and more stable. Keep in mind in the beginning it’ll be very unstable, This is the best time to make great deals, If you know what you’re doing you’ll get a good head start, It’s just a question of knowing how to identify the opportunities and being able to predict how the market is going to develop.
Your profit won’t just reflect in coins. If you do everything earlier, you will have bigger chances of forming a superior team compared to the competition and with that potentially win more games, which means more coins. With more coins you’ll build a better team and so on.
Starting early is the first step towards success, so how do you do it? Simple, we’ll show you with the various alternatives at your disposal:
- FUT 15 Web App
If you are a returning player it’s impossible to miss an opportunity of starting your season earlier. The FUT 15 Web App will be available from 17th of September (1), exclusively to the FUT 14 players who have created a Security Question and Answer on FUT console before August 1, 2014. It’s this that defines the beginning of the game with the start of the market, for those who don’t want to lose terrain. YOU have to be there. You’ll receive a starter pack and some welcome packs based only upon your FUT 14 gaming activity. During the first days Daily Gifts will also be offered, so the sooner you start the more you could win. Don’t forget to access you Web App every day. Each day you miss, it is one pack less you get. In the beginning you’ll need all the cards you can get to start your first investments. If you haven’t bought the game, join the FUT 15 Web App. There are too many benefits at stake not to.
- Season Ticket and EA Access
If you’re willing to gain a head start on the competition at all costs you could invest in a Season Ticket or EA Access. You won’t take advantage of the market seeing as how FUT 15 Web App will already be up and running (unless you’re a first time player), but you’ll anticipate between three and five days worth of game won coins. If you’re a good player, you could achieve the most precious victories of the season. If you want to know more regarding the Season Ticket or EA Access, please click here.
- Pre-Order
If you pre-order the game, you will receive 15 gold packs, one per week. It is true that each pack only has one rare card but for free it is better than nothing.
- Buying Packs or Coins
If money isn’t a problem for you, there’s a much simpler way of obtaining coins for your first investment: buying them. If you chose this path, ask us for a trustworthy seller. Seeing as how most sellers are scam artists. There is even another way more pleasant to EA Sports and responsible for the unbalanced situation of the market on its first days of life: the buying of packs. After all you won’t be buying coins directly but paying for cards that will convert to coins in the transfer market. If there is any right moment to do this it’s in the beginning of the game.
- Game Release
If you didn’t follow any of the first three alternatives for a good start, at least try to be active when the game is released. Worse than not being able to anticipate the competition is to allow yourself to get overcome by the majority. This is the time that more than 60% of the gamers start playing. They are not just random players. Many of them are newcomers, eager to play but immature enough to drown the market with valuable cards at low-cost prices. You have to be there to seize this opportunities. And have to be active as long as possible while it’s easy to buy and sell at great profit margins. That’s why it’s also important to start before this date to have time to study the market and be ready to attack it.
If you didn’t start early enough or if you just discovered the wonders of Ultimate Team mid-season, don’t worry because you’ll have the chance to build a good club. Not as great, but still good.
It is possible to start playing earlier with Season Ticket and with EA Access
Pick a Name
When starting the game for the first time, you’ll be asked to maintain the name of your club (exclusive to returning players) or if you choose to pick another one. If you choose to abdicate your antiquity will be reset.
Insert the name you chose but have in mind you can’t change it without the right item from the EASFC catalogue. You only have one try and even so it requires that you have reached the level 22 of experience XP which you may not have. Pay special attention to this step. You want a perfect club and just remember, more haste less speed.
When you start FUT 15 by the first time, it will be asked to check the email address, club’s name and abbreviation
Sell all your cards
After inserting your club name you’ll be gifted with some packs. The first, a Starter Pack, consisted of 34 cards, mostly bronze (29 more 2 silver and 3 gold). This pack, besides enough players to start playing, where silver and gold are included with 45 contracts each one, possesses also everything your club needs to start. In other words, the club item cards which will be part of the pack will be: at least one stadium, one ball, one badge and two kits (home and away). All the cards of this first pack are untradeable, which means that you can not sell it.
Sell every card you have got and start your team from scratch without being limited by the cards you received
Your FUT 14 gaming activity is also worth cards. Most of the 12 cards in each pack will be gold, for which these offers assume particular importance in the start of your club. You’ll be rewarded too with two all players packs, each one with 4 bronze players cards, 4 silver players cards and 4 gold players cards (at least one rare).
As soon as you’ve opened all your packs, this is when the game really starts. Seeing as how this is when you’ll have to make your first decisions. You were given the minimal conditions to create your club and you’ll have to know how to manage it with what you have. This is where most players make their first mistakes, sometimes deadly. They start playing and after seven games they can’t progress because the game prizes are insufficient to buy contracts. They stay stuck since they started with zero coins they don’t have a way to pay for them. This is an obstacle almost every player can’t overcome.
To avoid this happening we advise the players to remain calm and to leave those first games for later. You can start playing after you’ve finished all the stages in the check-list. First you have to make your club self-sufficient, and that is done with coins. This is the first great step: transforming all you have at your disposal in coins. As little as it is we need something to later transform it into more. You can choose to take another path but we suggest this one: sell all the cards you received, except obviously the untradeable ones. But it doesn’t mean you have to do it at sale prices. Although time is money you don’t want to stay with your actives for stuck long, verify if there isn’t any valuable card you could sell for superior price than expected. This procedure will also allow you to make a team from scratch. Many gamers eventually build a team around one or two players that they get in a pack. Why should you do that if, by the same amount of coins, you can build a team without any limitations?!
TIP
If you are looking for a shorter and easier guide about how to start FUT 15, read what Silvio Teixeira has published about it.
The starter pack cards are untradeable to avoid gamers with multiple accounts that transfer their profit between them
Gather even more coins
The cards you’ve sold are already good enough for a good start but if you can gather some more your growth in the game will be even faster. That’s why it’s important for you to waste no possibilities.
Start by going to the EASFC catalogue and exchange your credits for coin boosts. As soon as you play your first matches you’ll receive a fundamental bonus to your clubs financial health. Even better, ask to your friends to offer you these items and do the same to them. In that case, everyone will win since the price of these items will be cut 50% off. Try to have the coin boost active in your first match. You can buy at once all the items your XP level allow you to buy. The system will make the management and will guarantee that you will receive the bonus in every match until the items expire.
If you have FUT 14 coins or another platform, try to find someone who’s interested in trading for FUT 15 coins. It won’t be easy and you’ll certainly be doing it for a disadvantageous ratio. But at least it’ll be worth some more coins for your first investment.
Especially at this stage, you should take advantage of everything that is free like Manager Tasks reward that can be accessed through ‘My Club’. A few minutes should be enough to perform the 18 easy tasks and to get your hands on a free gold pack. The cards of this pack cannot be sold, but they will help you to reduce costs.
The price of FIFA Points is always the same but they are much more valuable in the beginning of the game
If you don’t mind to spend real money, buying the Ultimate Team Edition and subscribing the Season Ticket program are also valid options. In both cases you will get a gold pack with 12 cards every week. The same is to say that you will start the game with one extra pack. It could be two packs because you can have both services at the same time. The first one gives you 24 gold packs with up three rare cards and the second one gives you 40 gold packs with only one rare card. It may be a way to have an advantage on the beginning of the game, but we don’t recommend these services. The advantage will be small, since the offer is spread over many weeks and also because the pre-order allows you to get almost the same thing for free.
You can also search for give aways but the most common solution would be to buy packs with FIFA Points or coins with money. Those of you who follow us know that we never recommend you to buy FIFA Points but if there is a good moment to do it, the best moment is at the beginning of the game. They are not available during early access or through the Web App, so if you want to do it, you should do as it soon as the game is released. The chances of getting a good card are the same, but their prices will go up one to two weeks later when there is more cash flow in the market. At this stage of the game you never should buy packs with coins.
TIP
To buy coins or FIFA Points is the fastest and easiest way to get rich. If you plan to buy more than 15,000 FIFA Points, subscribe to the Season Ticket program. You will need to buy more than 30,000 FIFA Points during the season to make EA Access a good choice.
Before you start playing matches, you need to buy this item
Start Trading
Now that you’ve already got some coins it’s time to start multiplying them. You should start with safe investments but always leaving some coins aside in case anything goes wrong. Don’t worry in starting slow. You have a whole season ahead of you. The first sales are always the harder to make but as you become richer you’ll have to reinvest most of what you earned but always leave some coins aside to buy your first cards. If you started playing in the beginning and its working great and after two days you’ve gathered enough to build your team. But never stop trading: it’s part of the game so you should do it from the first to the last day.
Buy low, sell higher. That’s the magic formula to become rich. You just need to study the prices carefully.
We know you want us to tell you which cards to bet on but that’s impossible. First, this article is going to be read about 400 thousand times which means any suggestion we make will become obsolete. Second, there isn’t a magic formula. Almost every card is capable of generating profit as long as you know trading, and for that nothing works better than following the several suggestions we have published on our website.
On the other hand there are variations in the market in the early days of the game. If this is the time you join the game it’s convenient that you know them.
First, it’s important to understand that in the first days of the market, which coincides with the first days of the Web App, the market is really scarce. In this time, it is really difficult to find good deals because all the gamers have experience from the previous years and because the cash flow in the market is too low. They are all waiting for the FIFA Points release and the first matches. It’s normal to see big players like Messi and Ronaldo being sold for 200k coins. Their price isn’t superior because there is no one with enough money to buy them. If you’re one of the lucky few to receive one of these players in a pack, which is highly unlikely do not sell them. In a few weeks they’ll be worth several times as much and you can capitalize on your asset.
This effect includes all other cards although the variation will be a lot inferior. All of them start at a much lower price and in just a few days the prices spike. This is more visible with cards that start costing more than 10 thousand coins. In a general way after one month they hit what will be its maximum price. Until the end of the game the price gradually lows, with some fluctuation due to special TOTW, TOTY, TOTS, transfer market, game updates, popular tournaments, etc…
It’s because of this initial effect of money shortage that it’s important to attack the market as soon as possible. If you get rich fast enough to still catch the season of low prices you’ll have your future in the game guaranteed.
For your first investments we recommend your first cards to cost between 150 and 300 coins that you can sell with a profit of about 50%. The consumables are normally excellent targets for this end and since FUT 14 they’ve become more appealing since the consumables pile has been removed. You can know buy all you can in the beginning of the game at sale prices and if you don’t sell all of them you can keep storing them in your consumables pile that way you don’t disturb the trading you do with the other cards. Remember that it’s very important never to have coins or cards on hold. This can hamper your success.
Start by studying the market. Tread carefully, especially in the first days of the market, you shouldn’t restrict to selling and buying the cards in a certain schedule. The trading should be continuous.
As soon as your staff and consumable cards have given you a profit bigger than 30k coins, you can then try widening your trading to players and spend some of those coins on the remaining things on our check-list.
If money it is not a problem to you, buy FIFA Points as soon as possible
Hire Managers
Now that you have some coins it’s time to make the first investment for the exclusive satisfaction of your club. The managers and contracts should be the first, because they normally represent small investments.
The managers may guarantee the sustainability of your team
Managers are the most important staff in FIFA 15 Ultimate Team and it’s easy to understand why. They can be the solution to a problem you should manage with extreme caution: contracts. These are the only consumables you are forced to buy to be able to play. Due to its strategic position in the game they tend to be extremely expensive. These are so expensive that a lot of people can’t gather enough coins to support them. More importantly than getting cheap contracts is guaranteeing it affects capacity to the max. This is thanks to managers in your club.
Every manager contributes with a raised percentage on all contracts: the gold with 3%, the silver with 2% and the bronze with 1%. You can hire managers so that the sum of your percentages equals 50%. This means that when applying a contract card to a player the number of games on the card will be added 50%. In a long-term step this will be extremely beneficial and in the short-term it will guarantee your match prizes to be superior than your spent contracts. The sustainability of your team will be guaranteed.
Despite that, all of your first actions in the game must be thought out and with caution. Buying managers must be done the cleverest possible way. Always choose the cheapest and for example check to see if there aren’t three bronze managers cheaper than a golden one. The only thing that is important is hitting that 50% bonus at the cheapest possible price. So later, when building your team to beneficiate the chemistry that you’ll have to concern over buying a manager that has a nationality or a league best fitted amongst the players you want. Most of these cards are more expensive in the beginning and you should weight if you should wait a few more until their prices drop or not. As reference, the 50% of bonus can be reached with an investment of 12,000 coins, which will save you 40 coins per game.
In the first stage, you should focus only in getting the 50% contracts boost
Buy Contract Cards
As we’ve told you, the contract cards have an important strategic role in the game. If a player is injured or physically tired, you can put him in the bench or in the reserves until he recovers instead on applying an injury card or a fitness card. That however is not valid when a player is without contracts. The only way of making him play again is by applying a contract card. This has to be done.
That’s why it makes perfect sense to buy contracts as soon as possible. Preferably before most players make 7 games, because since the player cards are put with 7 contracts (except starter pack), they’ll be coveted as soon as they expire, that’s why it’s a good idea to buy contracts in the exclusive period of the FUT 15 Web App before the launch of the game.
With the 50% bonus the managers offer you and with cheap contracts, you won’t ever need to think if the game prize is enough to cover your costs.
TIP
If you own a good player that you plan to use many times, go to the EASFC catalogue, redeem the 99 contracts item and apply it on him. You will need level XP 15.
Analyze if the player in who you will apply this item will use all these contracts
Form Your Team
Now that the house is clean you can finally begin building your dream team. That is why it is good to plan what you’re doing. After all, this is the task that is going to cut a bigger slice out of your budget.
Use the concept squads to schedule your buys and do it in order to make your first players become substitutes or reserves in your final team
You probably already have an idea of the players you want to play with it’s convenient at least, unless you’re a squad building expert, between this there’s a common element. In FUT 15 it’s not enough to gather a good group of players. You need to have a good mesh between them. In other words, good chemistry. Preferably players with the same nationality or at least that play in the same league. If they play in the same club you may not even need to put them next to their other team mates.
But chemistry is not the only thing you have to have in mind when selecting players. You should also have in mind their characteristics. For every position verifies the attributes that you value more in your style of play and certify that the players have those attributes. Having a team with a good rating will be useless if you won’t be able to take advantage of your players and if they don’t fit you style of play. Each player is unique, so you will need to find the right players for your team. Don’t look for players like you were used to do and don’t ignore the importance of the new base stat physical. More than ever, pace and physical are the two most important player’s attributes.
In case you already chose the formation you’ll be playing with, be careful when picking players whose positions won’t be adaptable. For example: if it’s in a 4-1-2-1-2 (2) you’ll be playing, avoid buying players that are RM/LM/RW/LW/RF/LF.
If you want to have a good team in the shortest time possible you’ll have to buy with intelligence. Most importantly in the beginning, if you make the wrong decision, you may be mortgaging your future. Now that you’ve saved up some coins, try starting to fill places in your squad with medium players that will serve as substitutes or reserves in the future. Every time your balance allows, buy a first team player. One by one you’ll form your team. This way, you’ll have time to analyse the behaviour in the market of your next purchase and you’ll be able to buy good players at lower prices. The best way to do this is using the new feature ‘Concept Squads‘. Idealize the team you want to build and set the order of your purchases according to how well the players link with team mates in each stage of your team building.
If you started playing at the start of the FUT 15 Web App, than you’ll have 15 days to form your first team. If you have started later on in the year, analyze if you can wait until January, when TOTY is released. In that case, you will save lots of coins.
Concept Squads is a very powerful tool to plan your squad that you should use all the time
Play
The moment for searching for glory in the field is finally here. If you’ve followed all the tips we left here, you can relax because your club has everything it needs to succeed. Just to be sure, it’s convenient to rehearse before challenging powerful adversaries. This is because winning games is an excellent way of winning coins but losing doesn’t work as well.
Start by the easy games, play with your untradeable players and get players on loan. It will give you the time and the coins you need to start building your team.
Even if you’ve played other modes in FIFA 15, you should test out Ultimate Team on single player mode. The game is slightly different and you’ll want to be prepared to not waste game prize coins. You’ll have the chance to test the players and your mesh with the formation and the team, but most importantly you’ll have the opportunity to adapt to a new FIFA, but don’t play that many matches. It’s just that the match prizes are superior on online mode and in the beginning every coin counts.
You should start by playing the easiest tournaments before going to the TOTW challenges and one or two single players seasons with low difficult level. At this time, try to avoid friendly matches or friendly seasons because they are not rewarded. It’s a good time to use your first players, the ones you got in the starter pack and that cannot be sold. Since they are mostly bronze players, these easy games are perfect to them. Use them until their contracts expire. It is a smart way to get familiar with the game play without pressure, to avoid expenses and also to save a few coins from match rewards. As soon as their contracts end, you will need to buy another players. Use them until they keep with only one contract, go to the transfer market and try to trade them by the same player with more contracts at the same price. Another good strategy is to use players on loan, specially in your first on line matches. You don’t have to spend on contracts and you will give more quality to your team. What’s the point of saving them for later if it is now that you need to save every coin you can ? With their quality, they will help you to win more matches which means earn more coins.
When we start playing all we want is to keep a nice history. We try to stay invincible for as long as possible but we forget that sooner or later the bad results will appear and the wins-draws-losses registry will become less and less important. This desire to want everything to be perfect in the beginning does not fit with what we want for the team in the long term. Leave these worries aside and focus on the game play. Details like chemistry and styles might be left for later.
To raise your chances of success we leave you two tips.
First, occupy your substitutes who you are not thinking about using with the players with the lowest ranking in your club. This way it’ll allow you to artificially lower your teams rating and this will benefit you with a nicer matchmaking through matching you with adversaries with weaker teams.
Whatever you do never forfeit. Even if you’re being humiliated. Keep playing because if you quit your %DNF will lower from your 1.00 initial to values that will penalize the amount of coins you receive as a prize in the end of each game. And in that case you will be ruining the sustainability that you have conquered.
TIP
You must buy the loan players items from EASFC catalogue right now. You need them now. Later they may damage the chemistry, something that is not really important at this stage. If you are planning your final squad, you should test these players as soon as possible. At least, they may be useful to fill the empty bench until you buy your first 18 players. Go to the EASFC catalogue and buy all the loan’s players items your level allow you. The players available are Killain Brennan (24 matches), Sam Winnall (24), Luca Toni (15), Jonathan Soriano (14), Raheem Sterling (11), Aaron Ramsey (9), Blaise Matuidi (8), Wesley Sneijder (7), James Rodríguez (5), Arturo Vidal (5), Gareth Bale (4) and Robert Lewandowski (4). There will be more players added on loan during the season. If you haven’t reached the XP level you need to buy one of these items, ask to a friend to offer you. He will pay only half price for each one.
Neymar is not available in the EAS FC catalogue
Follow our tips closely to start FIFA 15 Ultimate Team the best way possible.
(1) Date subject to change. EA announced the Web App release for September 17th, but probably in order to avoid overloaded servers. It may be before that.