Since release, I’ve been trying to crack the code behind FC 25’s player cards. After months of trials, failures and heading back to the drawing board, I’ve finally found a way to master building a squad that has seen me rise up the divisions.

Whether you’re a seasoned FIFA player or a newcomer since the name-change, this guide will help you build your FC 25 Ultimate Team while avoiding the common mistakes!

The Basics: What are Player Cards?

This section is to get true newcomers up to speed, so unless you’ve never touched Ultimate Team, you can skip this section. 

In Ultimate Team, Player Cards are the virtual footballers that make up your team. Each card corresponds to a real-world player—current or retired. On the card you’ll find a variety of stats: their overall rating along with their shooting, passing, defense and more.

Understanding Rarity

Rarity is incredibly important. Each player can come in Bronze, Silver, Gold or FC 25’s unique Hero tier of rarity.

As you can imagine, bronze cards are the most basic—offering rookies or players past their peak. While Gold cards boast elite players like Mbappé and Messi. While Hero cards go above and beyond, offering some of the most exceptional and game changing players.

When opening packs or looking to buy cards with FC 25 coins, bronze players will be the most common and cheapest while gold and hero tier cards are incredibly rare and, thus, expensive.

Looking Beyond Rarity (Specials)

While it’s a no-brainer to want to go for the gold and hero-tier cards, there’s another level you need to keep in mind. Special cards.

These limited-edition cards celebrate players in their prime, offering the peak stats of current stars, record breakers and legendary icons. In other words, you’re looking at the best of the best. Special cards are time-limited, meaning they can only be obtained during events. Some of these events are annual, while other are one time. So keep your eyes open for events to grab some of these cards. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Acquiring the Best Cards

There are plenty of ways to get your hands on cards in FC 25. The most vanilla method is to buy or earn packs. These packs are lucky dip loot boxes, like their real-world trading card equivalents. While you can get luck with these, the chance of you pulling a good card—let alone one you want—is pretty slim.

If you have a specific player, team or skill set in mind that you want to add to your team, you can get your hands on them with FC 25 coins. As you know, you earn these coins by simply playing the game. But you can also purchase them directly. With these coins, you can participate in the transfer market to buy players you want. You can also sell players you don’t want in this exact same way.

Buying players directly on the transfer market is almost always going to yield better results than opening packs—at least in my experience. So I recommend you focus your efforts here.

The 5 Tips That Built My Dream Team

1. Team Balance

No matter what division you’re playing in, you need a strong, balanced team to win games. That means you need good stats all the way from your keeper to your striker. So when you’re starting out don’t put all your eggs into one basket—or player—prioritise filling all the roles with fairly competent players, even if they’re Bronze or Silver.

2. Player Chemistry

For newcomers, chemistry is one of the most underrated parts of building a team. A well-coordinated Bronze team can totally dominate a Gold team with no chemistry. Players from the same nation, league or club have better chemistry. So plan your squad around those factors.

3. Buying Stats, not Names

Look, we all want Messi, Ronaldo, Haaland, Mbappé, De Bruyne and all the other big names. But we have to face the facts: to do that we’re going to need to put some serious money on the table. But you can get your hands on players of similar skill levels with slightly less high-profile names. So when you’re looking for new players, look for stats and not just big names.

4. Try Before You Buy

The loans system is a powerful tool which allows you to try players before handing over a stack of FUT coins. This will allow you to ensure that the player actually fits into your squad and performs as you want them to.

5. Keep Up to Date

As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of events throughout the year which offer up special cards. Not only that, but EA also host plenty of opportunities to get your hands on other unique cards and bonus coins. 

Mastering FC 25’s Ultimate Team is no easy task. But by understanding the options and systems available to you, and following these tips, you’ll be able to make great progress towards building your dream team. Trust me, you’re closer to that dream team than you think.