All New Features in EA FC 25 Ultimate Team
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EA SPORTS FC 25 is just two months away from release, and more information about the new title is slowly being released by EA SPORTS. Today's news drop was a deep dive into Ultimate Team, showcasing a ton of new features that are coming with release. Ultimate Team is by far the most played game mode on EA FC, and a lot of these changes will be welcomed by fans. Here’s everything you need to know about Ultimate Team in EA FC 25.
EA FC 25 Ultimate Team: Rush
Rush is a new way to play and win in Ultimate Team with friends. Select your favourite player to control and build your dream 5-a-side squad with up to three friends, then compete for rewards in 5v5 matches.
Related Article: EA Sports FC 25 Logo Revealed
A New 5v5 Experience
Rush is a 5v5 experience, including AI-controlled goalkeepers, allowing you to either team up with up to three other friends or drop in as a solo player and get matched up with other players. Bring your favourite player to control and your teams’ choices will contribute towards earning Rush Points.
Events
When playing Rush, you’ll need to first select an event. Rush events in Football Ultimate Team™ are designed to offer players another layer of challenge in squad building by limiting the Player Items you can bring into the event. Each event can come with specific entry requirements and these requirements may restrict the eligible pool of players based on Rarity, Attributes, or countries/regions, leagues, and clubs. Different Rush events may provide faster progression towards completing your weekly Rush Objectives, but all events will contribute to the same set of weekly Rush Objectives.
Squad Building
Rush introduces a collaborative squad building experience in Football Ultimate Team™. You will need to work together with your team to pick players that perform on the pitch, and also complete block requirements to maximise Rush Points earned.
After finding teammates, you will enter the squad building phase. Players from your Club will be pre-filtered based on the event entry requirements for you to quickly choose from. If you’re not satisfied with the recommendations, you can still search for specific players from your Club during this phase.
You and your teammates will have 90 seconds to select the players you want to use in the match - remember, each of you will only be able to control the player you select. Duplicate players are not allowed on the same team, including other versions of players as well. Once each player has locked in their selection, or the timer expires, your team will begin matchmaking with opponents.
Earning Rush Points
Rush Points are the primary way you will complete Weekly Objectives and earn rewards in Rush. They can be earned both on the pitch, and in squad building by completing block requirements with your team.
The fastest way to earn Rush Points is to win matches with friends in your group - but there are many ways to earn Rush Points:
- Winning a match
- Playing a match
- Playing with friends
- Completing blocks
- Winning multiple Rush matches in a row
Blocks are optional challenges that your team can solve collectively, and within each Rush squad building phase your team can have up to 5 blocks to complete. Blocks offer ways to earn more Rush Points, and they may change from event to event.
Block requirements can target player Attributes, team composition, and more.
By successfully completing these blocks, your entire team will be rewarded with bonus Rush Points. Some blocks will provide flat points, multipliers, or conditional bonuses. As mentioned before, our goal here is for players to collaborate closely with their team, strategizing on team composition to meet these requirements.
Blocks can award your team with:
- Rush Points
- Rush Point Multipliers
- Bonus Rush Points on win
- Bonus Rush Points per goal
Rush Objectives
A Rush Objective Group will be available each week, allowing you to earn rewards based on Rush Points earned that week. By participating in Rush events and completing block requirements, you can increase the amount of Rush Points earned from that match for you and your team. While these Rush Objectives will be available each week, there may also be additional Objectives related to Rush allowing you to earn more rewards.
Matchmaking
In Rush, you can play with any group size up to 4 players, and whether you’re playing as a solo, duo or trio, players will be found to fill the remainder of your team. Matchmaking will take into account your skill level within Rush specifically and use this to match you with
teammates, and your overall team skill when finding opponents. Matchmaking pools will be separated based on events to ensure that players will be playing with the same event entry requirements and eligible pool of Player Items.
If a player leaves a match in-progress, their chosen player will be controlled by the AI. The match will end if all players on a team are not present.
In summary, build your dream 5v5 squad with up to 3 other friends while maximising your Rush Points. Then, compete to win and complete Objectives for exciting rewards.
FC IQ
FC IQ overhauls tactics to deliver greater control over your team's strategy, both on and off the ball in 11v11 Football Ultimate Team matches. A new AI model, powered by real-world data, influences player tactics through all-new Player Roles
Manager Items also now come with Tactical Presets, which you can use to emulate some of your favourite real-world tactical setups.
Manager Presets
Manager Items will feature their real-world tactical preferences and allow you to influence how your team plays. They also have Tactical Presets which are a great way to try out new and different team setups for those who want to experience new tactical approaches without customising from scratch.
You will be able to use the Tactical Preset of your currently active Manager and save it to a Tactics slot, enabling you to assign it as your starting Tactic or one that you reactively switch to during a match.
Formation and Position Changes
Removed
- 4-4-1-1 (Other variations are available)
- 4-3-3 (5)
- 5-2-2-1
Adjusted
- 4-3-2-1 (2 CF replaced by 2 CAM)
- 5-3-2 (LWB/RWB replaced by LB/RB)
- 5-2-3 (LWB/RWB replaced by LB/RB)
- 5-2-1-2 (LWB/RWB replaced by LB/RB)
- 3-4-2-1 (2 CF replaced by 2 CAM)
Duplicate Storage & SBCs
Untradeable Duplicate Players will now have their own storage system as part of SBCs. This means that if you acquire an Untradeable Player Item that you already own, you can now store it directly in SBC Storage instead of quick selling the duplicate.
SBC Storage can hold up to 100 Untradeable Items, accessible from the new SBC Storage tab within each SBC. You will also be able to access and send Items to SBC Storage from the FC Companion.
Division Rivals
Division Rivals is intended to be your everyday destination for competitive play, and we’ve made a number of changes in EA SPORTS FC 25 to improve the experience and reduce friction points for players.
Weekly Rewards & Points
We want your hard-fought draws and 90th-minute equalisers to be worth something. So we’ve adjusted the reward system to be based on points instead of wins. You will now earn 3 points
for a win and 1 point for a draw, ensuring that your efforts in close matches are not in vain and will contribute to your weekly rewards progress.
We’ve streamlined weekly Rivals rewards into a single selection, where we were previously seeing many players unsure about which choice to pick even though many picked the same one. In addition, we’ve removed Seasonal Milestone rewards from Rivals. By simplifying the design, our team can better focus on maintaining reward tuning that is more relevant to you throughout your FC 25 Ultimate Team journey.
Checkpoints & Relegation
We are reducing the number of checkpoints in Rivals and introducing relegation when competing in the highest divisions.
Division 1 and Division 2 will have no Checkpoints and losing a match at the beginning of a Division will result in being relegated to the end of the previous Division. As before, once you reach the Elite Division you cannot be relegated until the end of the season.
We are also reducing the total number of Checkpoints. While Checkpoints are an important and useful mechanic to give you a place to feel at ease on your journey through the Divisions, we’ve heard your feedback that sometimes after a run of matches or win streak you could get stuck at too high of a skill floor.
Contract Removal
To streamline gameplay and reduce the amount of general management, players and managers will no longer need Contracts. As a result, Contract Items have been removed from the game.