Buying packs is something that most of the community does at least once. But it is not as simple as it seems. You have to know which packs to buy and when it is the right time to do it. If you want to go deeper, you also should know what you can do to pay less for them. All these questions and much more are answered in our buying packs guide for FIFA 21 Ultimate Team.
Introduction to FIFA 21 Packs
What you need to know about FIFA 21 Packs
FUT 21 is a very popular FIFA game mode where we try to get the right cards to build the best team possible. Packs are one of the most important things in this game since they make it possible to introduce the cards into the game. Without them, there would be no cards and without cards, FUT 21 would not exist. It is as simple as that.
All items are introduced in FUT 21 through packs by one of the following ways:
when you create a new club, from the Starter Pack;
when you buy them on the store;
when you play FUT Draft, FUT Rivals, FUT Champions or Squad Battles;
when you submit squad building challenges that include packs as a reward;
when you buy pre-order the game;
when you reach specific levels on Seasons Objectives;
when you complete foundations, milestones, events, daily, weekly or dynamic objectives;
when you receive Daily Gifts, Welcome Back packs and other prizes.
More than 90% of the cards are introduced in the game by the store, when players buy packs. This is what makes this game mode so special for EA Sports. It is a gold mine. Only in FIFA digital sales, which includes Ultimate Team packs, EA has profits higher than $1 billion every year. FIFA digital net revenue is growing every year and microtransactions are now the core business of the game.
Follow us in this guide to get to know how, where and when to buy packs.
How to Buy Packs
The FUT store: how to use it
If you want to buy packs, you need to go to the FUT store. You can access to the store through the console or the FUT Web App / Companion App.
It is possible to browse them in the store until you find the right pack. Details of each pack are also provided, including the number of rare cards each pack has. The store has also a folder ‘My Packs’ where you can claim any packs that you have earned but not yet opened. Most of the packs don’t expire, which means that you can store them and open when you want. However, be aware that there are exceptions, like daily and pre-order packs.
There are two ways to pay: with coins or with FIFA Points. To buy a pack you just need to select it in the store and choose the payment method.
FUT Store’s Main MenuThe FIFA 21 Packs
List of FIFA 21 packs available
There are three types of FIFA 21 Packs for Ultimate Team:
R REGULAR PACK
Always available on the FUT store.
P PROMO PACKS
Available only on specific periods of time.
F FREE PACKS
Not available to purchase on the store. They are assigned to you at the beginning of the game, as daily gifts, event’s offers and as objectives, Draft, Squad Battles, SBC, FUT Champions and FUT Rivals.
If you want to know more about each pack, please click here.
The Best Packs to Buy
Make the right decision when buying packs
Another question that the community asks us very often is ‘which pack to buy’. Obviously, it depends on what you want. If you want to build a bronze squad, you should buy a bronze pack. If you want to get more contracts and other consumables, you should try the consumables packs. However, most of the players want to put their hands on the best and most expensive cards in the game. In that case, they will need to buy Gold packs. But which one?
Our advice is very simple: purchase the available gold pack with the lowest price per rare player card. These are the only cards that can make someone rich. The other items are almost worthless. To know which packs have the lowest price per rare gold card, we only need to divide the price by the number of rare cards. However, we should pay attention to the category of the pack and if there are other items besides players. The best packs are the ones with guaranteed rare gold players cards. Into this group, the Premium Gold Players Pack is two times more expensive than the Rare Players Pack or the Jumbo Rare Players Pack. This difference is not so high if we use FIFA Points to pay instead of coins. It may be weird but EA Sports doesn’t use a proportional relation between coins and FIFA Points. For example: Jumbo Premium Gold pack and Silver Upgrade pack cost both 15,000 coins but the first one may be purchased with 300 FIFA Points while for the second we only need 50 FIFA Points. Players should also pay attention to this aspect.
Forget the calculator. We did that job for you. We analysed how many gold rare players cards (GRP) each pack brings, on average, and we built tables showing the rating of the best packs to buy. As you probably expected 50k, 100k and 125k packs are the best ones, because you only have to spend around 4000 coins for each gold rare player. However, those of you who thought that 25k was good, well you are wrong. It is cheaper to buy multiple 15k and 7.5k packs.
We have published a full article about this subject on this page, where you can discover the best packs in four different categories.
Best Times to Buy Packs
Choose the right time
It is impossible to talk about the best times to buy packs without mention Promo Packs.
Promo Packs times are a period of time with promo packs available on the store. Usually it is a full day, but doesn’t need to be. They are usually more attractive than the regular packs because they have a lower cost per rare item. The chances of getting a good card during a promo pack time are exactly the same.
There is a very rare type of Promo Pack time in which the chances of getting a good item are higher. These special offers are announced as ‘2x Chances’, which means that the chances of getting an IF item during this period are two times higher than usual. However, they are extremely rare: only happen one or two times a year.
It is impossible to know when promotional packs will be made available on the store but they occur almost always at 6pm (UK time). They are released in every single FUT event and in most of Fridays and Wednesdays. You will find fewer promo packs on the store in the first month and in the last two months of the yearly cycle.
It is a good strategy to save your packs or buy new ones when you know that good cards are available in packs. That’s why you should pay attention to TOTWs and important events like TOTY and TOTS. On rare selected times, usually the last promos of the season, EA sells promo packs for half-price.
There are rumours that EA uses some extreme tactics to sell more packs, like the one that says you have better odds of packing a good player when you pay with FIFA Points. There is no way to prove if they are only rumours.
EA is not using the term ‘Happy Hour’ anymore. They replaced it with ‘Promo Packs available for a limited time’ and they are not announcing it in advance. You may know if there are promo packs on the store, going to the main page of the FUT Web App or the consoles while it is active, or checking our dedicated page.
How to Pay Less when Buying Packs
How to get a discount
Many players don’t know what to do: buying packs on the store, subscribing EA Play or buying the Champions or Ultimate Edition. We will try to help them.
Let’s start by the special editions. It is true that the packs purchased on the store are more expensive than the ones these Editions offer. However, we strongly recommend to not buy these special editions because of this since it only gives one/two packs per week. It means that players need to wait up to 12 weeks to get all the packs. No one deserves to wait so long.
With EA Play things are a bit different. Instead of free packs, you get a discount: you pay 10% less when buying packs on the store with real money (FIFA Points). For who buys many packs, this may be something very useful. The one-year subscription gets paid after buying packs that are worth 20k FIFA Points.
Buying Packs on FIFA 21
More questions and answers about buying packs
Q: Should I Invest in Packs?
A: In our opinion, no. Only if you don’t care about spending real money to get a good team.
Q: What is the Card weight?
A: Card weight is a metric used to estimate how often a particular card is traded on the FIFA 21 Ultimate Team transfer market.
Q: Which Packs Should I Buy?
A: Always look to the available gold packs with the lowest price per rare gold player card.
Q: Where do I need to go to buy packs?
A: To the store. You can do it through the console, the FUT Web App or the Companion App.
Q: What is a Happy Hour?
A: A happy hour is a period of time with promo packs available on the store.
Q: It is easier to get better cards on promo packs times?
A: No. Only when it is announced as ‘2x Chance’.
Q: When the next Promo Pack will be out?
A: No one knows. They are announced on the console when they start.
Q: Should I buy an EA Play subscription or should I use that money to buy packs?
A: If you buy packs too often, subscribe to EA Play. Otherwise, invest in packs and forget these services.