Why the rating of my NIF card wasn’t improved? Which IF cards will be upgraded in February? What happens to the TOTGS and to the Scream cards during the FIFA 17 Winter upgrades season? We try to answer to all these questions (and much more!) explaining you, with the help of a few examples, the FIFA 17 players stats and ratings upgrades rules.
Short cut
Upgrades & Downgrades Official Rules
The Basic Rules
Rule 1
Upgrades AND downgrades apply to new non-inform players found in packs. Non-IF players in your Club will not receive an upgrade or a downgrade.
Rule 2
If an upgraded player’s new OVR rating equals or surpasses his existing first in-form’s rating, his IFs will get an upgrade.
2.1. An exception is made for lower rated players with significant upgrades.
2.2. Does not apply to Movember or Ultimate Scream items.
Rule 3
If an upgraded player’s new OVR rating does not equal or surpass his existing in-form’s rating, his IFs will not get an upgrade.
3.1. However, if an upgraded player with an existing IF gets upgraded across Quality tiers (eg. Silver to Gold), his lower-quality IF will not get an upgrade. This preserves the in-form’s high value.
3.2. There is also a extra rule that wasn’t officially announced but that EA is following about the IF upgrades:
If a NIF card is upgraded to 77, his IF card may be updated to 82
If a NIF card is upgraded to 78, his IF card may be updated to 82
If a NIF card is upgraded to 79, his IF card may be updated to 83
If a NIF card is upgraded to 80, his IF card may be updated to 83
If a NIF card is upgraded to 81, his IF card may be updated to 84
If a NIF card is upgraded to 82, his IF card may be updated to 84
If a NIF card is upgraded to 83, his IF card may be updated to 85
If a NIF card is upgraded to 84, his IF card may be updated to 86
If a NIF card is upgraded to 85, his IF card may be updated to 86
If a NIF card is upgraded to 86, his IF card may be updated to 87
Rule 4
Downgrades to non-IF players will not affect their In-Forms or special items, should they have any.
NIF Cards Stats and Ratings Upgrades Rules
How the FIFA 17 Winter Upgrades Work for NIF Cards?
It is not possible to improve the stats of any regular card. However, if a player stands out in the real world, in such a way that his card becomes strongly outdated, Electronic Arts comes to justice introducing a new type of card.
The February upgrades and downgrades affect around 400 ratings that cannot go down. The gold cards are usually improved in 1 or 2 points, which is explained by the fact that they are only assigned to players who had a marked development and not to minor adjustments. Silver and bronze players are usually upgraded by at least 4 points, while in exceptional cases this upgrade can sometimes reach 15 points. The higher is the original rating, the lower is the boost.
When a player is upgraded or downgraded, the cards that start coming in packs have got the new ratings and attributes according to his performance on the real life pitch. These new cards, which becomes available in packs until the end of the game, replace the correspondent day 1 regular card.
It is rare but the position of the players in these cards may change if, they played really well in a different position.
FIFA 17 Upgraded Players Cards are physically identical to the originals, except on rating and stats.
IF Cards Stats and Ratings Upgrades Rules
How the FIFA 17 Winter Ratings Upgrades Work for IF Cards?
The things get more complicated when we try to explain what happens to IF cards during the FIFA 17 Winter upgrades. Different to what happens with the NIF cards, the IF cards released before the upgrades will be upgraded in the same proportion as those (but automatically) if an upgraded player’s new OVR rating equals or surpasses his existing first in-form’s rating. When an upgraded player with an existing IF gets upgraded across Quality tiers (eg. Silver to Gold), his lower-quality IF will not get an upgrade. According to EA, this is so “the IF card’s value and bronze/silver squads are not negatively affected”. The goal is to preserve the in-form’s high value.
It is important to make clear that, contrary to what happened in previous years, when a player is upgraded, the stats of all his IF cards only get a boost if the rating is also upgraded.
To make the things more clear, we will take a look to a few examples.
Example 1
Player: Sergio Asenjo (Villarreal CF)
NIF Rating (day 1): 81
Boost: +3
UP Rating: 84
First IF Rating: 84
New First IF Ratings: 87
Let’s take Asenjo as example. He started the season with an 81 rated card but in the Winter Upgrades he got an 84 rated UP card. His 81 rated card stopped coming in packs as soon as the 84 rated one was released, but his owners were never rewarded with any upgrade at all because that’s only valid for IF cards. Since he already had an IF card, 84 rated, and since new OVR rating equals his existing first in-form’s rating, this was automatically upgraded to 87, which corresponded to the three points upgrade his regular card received. However, since there is no other card with a better rating than this one, EA may decide to upgrade it to 85. Any potential future IF card would be rated over the new IF rating.
Example 2
Player: Christian Eriksen (Spurs)
NIF Rating (day 1): 84
Boost: +1
UP Rating: 85
First IF Rating: 86
In this case, the new overall rating is lower than the one from the first IF card. The new 85 rated card replaces the 84 rated one in packs, but the overall ratings of his three IF cards don’t change. If the boost was two points, the three TOTW cards would be also improved. However, if you pay attention to the image, you will see that the stats of the IF cards have changed. For each attribute, the bonuses were the same of the difference between the regular and the UP card. This was how it was supposed to work on previous years but not in FIFA 17.
Example 3
Player: Loïs Diony (Dijon)
NIF Rating (day 1): 70
Boost: +2
UP Rating: 72
First IF Rating: 73
Let’s give another example with another player that will probably receive an upgrade. The rating of his new NIF card (72) will be lower than the rating of his first IF card (73). It may looks natural to you that his IF card doesn’t get an upgrade but it isn’t so obvious. In fact, that only happens because his UP card isn’t upgraded across quality tiers. If, for example, his TOTW card was 76 rated and his new card was 75 rated, all the IF cards would be upgraded accordingly except the lower-qualify IF card.
FIFA 17 Winter Upgrades New Rules
What is new this year?
Since there are new cards this year, there is also new rules too. Let’s look to a few examples.
Example 4
Player: Mohamed Salah (AS Roma)
NIF Rating (day 1): 81
Boost: +1
UP Rating: 82
First IF Rating: 82
Scream cards were released for the first time in FIFA 17. In our opinion, they are IF cards because they feature improved stats. However EA doesn’t agree with us, and this will not happen. For them, Scream cards have no influence in the Ratings Refresh.
Example 5
Player: Jordan Henderson (Liverpool)
NIF Rating (day 1): 80
Boost: +2
UP Rating: 82
First IF Rating: 81
We know that MOTM and iMOTM cards are upgraded respectively when the overall rating of the UP card is equal or higher than the lowest IF card. However, EA decided that it shouldn’t happen to Movember cards.
Example 6
Player: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund)
NIF Rating (day 1): 86
Boost: +1
UP Rating: 87
First IF Rating: 87
Another common question is what will happen to the SBC, POTM and FUT Champions items. The reason to IF cards get upgraded is because otherwise they would losing value in the market. Well, as you know, you can’t sell SBC, POTM or FUt Champions items because they are untradeable. However, EA decided to upgrade SBC and POTM items but not the FUT Champions cards.
Hello, I currently have OTW Mane 86. Is it sure that he will get a +3 or just a prediction? I’m wondering because it’s either I sell him now or when he get an upgrade
It’s just a prediction based on H2H Season. Until now the official upgrades matches with the Season ratings but there are no 100% sure if it will happen with all players.
Hi. Do motm cards and the African tott cards get upgraded as well as I have a tott mane and was considering selling him?
Last year MOTM cards were upgrade.
if a card has not got an inform, but his base card is getting an upgrade will his OTW card get an upgrade?
Really good question.
Yes, the OTW card is also upgraded even if he doesn’t have a TOTW card. It is confirmed for FIFA 17 as you can see with Gonçalo Guedes.
What about a player like mane… he has a otw card that is 82 but once his upgrade takes place will his new otw card surpass the motm card?
Probably not.
First of all, his OTW only upgrades if his TOTW gets an upgrade. He will need a +3 boost and in that case his IF1 may go to 83 which is lower than his MOTM card.
Hey Rodrigo, I have IF mane. I ve won 60k with my investement. When is the best time to sell it? before or after the upgrade? If mane NIF is upgraded to 82, his if will get a 85? Thank you for your hard work ??
Hi Santiago.
If he gets upgraded to 82, his IF should be upgraded to 83. However, there is no confirmation about it yet, so there is a small chance to be upgraded to 85. It’s not easy to decide when to sell.
Hi, for example I have a card of Hazard if they update him will my card update or I need to buy the new one?
If yes do you recommend selling it now?
Hi. If you have his regular card, it will not be updated. In that case, you should sell him as soon as possible.
Hi i was wondering if the totgs cards will get the winter upgrade as well? For example if cavani is upgraded to an 86 will his 88 totgs go to an 89?
Most likely yes but it was not confirmed. In fact, EA answered on the Twitter that special cards will be upgraded too but it is not official enough for us.
hello and thank u for such a useful articles about fifa world.
i have a stupid questions which i haven’t got the answer for a long time!
and that is:
how can we improve the players? (like Salah with 87 in example 5 or a 88 Aubameyang in example 7 at above pictures of this paper – i mean the special player cards)
for example we train them in career mode and we transfer them to ultimate team?!
or the only way to have them is to buy from transfer market? because they are so expensive!
thank u so much again.
Hi. We are here to help you.
There is no relation between what you do in Career Mode and Ultimate Team. Besides that, except in special cases, there is no way to improve your players in Ultimate Team without buying new cards in the transfer market (yes, they are really expensive!). One of these exceptions is the IF cards that can be automatically upgraded during the Winter Upgrades season (February).
Regards
Hi.
Rodrigo.
I see the market crashing. (Mini crash?)
Wil the market go down more in youre opinion?
Because ik dont know if it is a good idea to sell my team now. Please youre advice.
I love youre content keep it up!!
Greetings Paco
Hi Paco.
Prices are low now but should go up tomorrow. They will drop again but only a few weeks later. Now it is a good time to buy.
And what about André Silva? He is a rare silver 74 and he has a great IF that is also 74. If his regular card gets upgraded to gold, will his IF card also get upgraded to gold?
Hi. If EA applies the same rules of past years, his IF card will remains silver.
and what if a silver player got a 74 rated if: his regular card gets upgraded but remains silver (for example from 70 to 74), will his if get upgraded to gold? like dele alli in fifa 16?
Depends. If the overall of the up card is lower than its IF, then there is no upgrade.
Hello, I want to ask something about Upgrades. In your site you say that the special card of Sergio Asenjo (Villarreal CF) will be upgrade 3 points (84-87)
I read in an other site that the same card will be upgrade only one point (84-85).
Do you know what will happen with this card? Thank you for your time.
Hi.
First of all, we don’t said that he will be upgraded in 3 points. That was the upgrade he got in the H2H Seasons mode and the most likely to happen in Ultimate Team. We also know that the other website doesn’t have any consistent information about it. It’s just a shot.
If he gets a +3 upgrade, things will happen like the image we published. If he gets a lower upgrade, the rating of his IF cards will not change. Just the stats.