For those of us who pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition, we've had roughly 36 hours to get acquainted with the new menus, objectives, mechanics, transfer market, etc. I'll share what I've done so far and what I plan to focus on over the next week.
What to do with your 4600 FC Points
Look, there are two trains of thought on how to start off your journey when a new edition of Ultimate Team commences.
1. You can just straight up buy Premium Gold Packs in the store for 150 FC Points each, which gets you 30 packs.
Or, 2. You can milk it out a little longer and enter some Online Drafts at 300 FC Points and try and earn more pack value ( and test out some players, mechanics, etc ).
I feel like I'm pretty darn good at the game, but no where near good enough to compete competitively in Drafts at the beginning. There are too many "pros" doing this at the onset which makes it extremely difficult to win more than a game. I personally opted for the former and used all my points on packs with the exception of trying out 1 Online Draft.
The reason I like to choose packs is because it allows you to acquire a lot of consumables at the beginning with a potential shot to pack somebody significant. The best player I was able to packwas Gabriel Jesus who I sold for just under 25k. I then proceeded to list up nearly everything that I've packed. A lot of people tend to burn through all of the possible SBCs, even though the rewards from said SBCs are untradeable (we'll talk about that later), therefore, you have a significant chance to sell someone at a much higher price.
Once you start acquiring coins, you can then pivot into
A) Short/Long term investing into highly coveted players or
B) Bronze Pack Method, rinse and repeat. BPM or Bronze Pack Method is very profitable at the beginning of the game, if you are short on coins or have time to invest in the process.
Coin accumulation at the beginning of the game is so key to having a successful season.
Foundation SBCs
These are a must do! You should now have some extra coins if you need to buy a player here or there. Typically you're able to roll most of these rewards right into doing the next SBC in the set, but worry not, you've done some some pre-work, so if you are missing a player or 2, you've got the coins to complete it.
Tip: DO NOT spend more than 350 coins on any player. You want to utilize as few coins as possible for these. Aim to complete with non Top 5 leagues or popular nations if you can.
Also, don't use FUTBIN for solution players, use it rather to find the "pattern" or "method" on how to solve the puzzle. You'll save so many coins in the long run doing it this way.
Mad Ready Objectives
So you've probably opened up the Promo pack containing your Mad Ready Loan Player ( I got Alexia Putellas! ) and you're ready to jump into Rivals and start the grind, right?
WAIT.
This is going to be super important and vital information for you: This objective can be completed in Squad Battles, on beginner. Why is this important? Because you've only got the loan for 24 games and within the objective set, you MUST win 10 of those. There is no sound reason at the beginning of the game on why you'd want to go into Rivals and complete this. You're team up until now may not be very good, if you've even put one together yet (which you shouldn't) not to mention you haven't really tested out any formations or tactics either.
You can combine working on the Mad Ready objectives with several others in Squad Battles to acquire XP and some substantial packs. Of note, EA have reduced the time of each half from 6 mins to 4 mins. Each game now takes roughly 10ish mins.
I personally completed the Mad Ready objectives by playing all of this week's 32 Squad Battles on Beginner and combined them with the following objectives: ( Read through all of this before you start! )
MILESTONES: League Mastery
10 games with a Squad comprised of Putellas ( or whoever your Mad Ready player is ) and:
4 players from the Premier League
4 players from Ligue 1
any 2 other players
The next 10 games with a Squad comprised of Putellas:
4 players from MLS
4 players from NWSL
any 2 other players.
This will complete your Mad Ready objective! You've earned an 85x2 Pack and another loan Mad Ready Player for you to save for your 1st Weekend League. But, you still want to finish out these Squad Battles, I'm telling you.
Now play 10 more games with a Squad comprised of:
4 players from WSL
4 players from France Division 1 Female
any 3 other players.
This will complete you League Mastery objective! Not only have you earned several Gold packs, You just got a Jumbo Rare Players Pack!
MILESTONES: Finishing Mastery
Because you're playing on Beginner, you can quickly grind through these finishing objectives during your 30-32 run.
Chip 10 Goals= 2 Rare Player Pack
Power Shot 50 Goals= Mega Pack
Finesse 75 Goals= Rare Mega Pack
Volley 50 Goals= Premium Gold Players Pack
100 Goals= Rare Mega Pack
250 Goals= Jumbo Rare Players Pack
MILESTONES: Assist Mastery
25 Assists= Gold Pack
50 Assists= 2 Rare Gold Players Pack
150 Assists= Premium Gold Players Pack
300 Assists= Rare Mega Pack
400 Assists= Jumbo Rare Players Pack
So, to sum it up; if you want to acquire all of the above in a relatively short period of time ( 6 or so hours ), all you need to do is average a little over 13 goals per game that are assisted ( I averaged about 20 ). There are also plenty of additional objectives you'll unlock along the way, especially if the players in your squad are first-owned. You also get the added bonus of receiving Squad Battle rewards tomorrow as well!
Other SBC's, I'm looking at you Kevin!
I'm not going to spend too much time talking about this. The Flashback KDB SBC is ridiculously overpriced! The audacity of having an SBC requiring an 86 & 87 rated squad on Day 1 is insane. As much as I love DeBruyne, this is a hard pass. I am not trying to spend any additional money, I am however working towards buying his 91 Gold, as the price right now is at 93k.
If you have untradable players to start chucking into the Hybrid Leagues, Hybrid Nations and League and Nation Hybrid, go ahead and do it. I am just not an advocate for putting tradeable players or spending coins to do these this early in the cycle. These rewards have been untradeble the past few iterations, so in my opinion it's not worth the squeeze right now.
There you have it so far! I've spent a lot of time just grinding through the mundane Squad Battles while completing and combining as many objectives together as I can. I just reached LEVEL 10 where you can get an 83x10! I've had some luck flipping cards already and have invested in several. I am also at just about 100k coins. I haven't opened up any of my Rare Mega's or Jumbo Rare Player Packs just yet as I'm unsure if I want to rip them this weekend or hold for next weekend's promo. Maybe I'll do a little of both! Until next time….
