FIFA 23 | Pitch Notes - FUT Deep Dive

Hello, I’m Mike Barnucz, Line Producer for the FUT 23 development team and I’m excited to share the new features that are coming to FIFA this year. FUT 23 brings a new way to play and earn rewards with FUT Moments, a total overhaul to the Chemistry system that gives you more squad-building flexibility, cross-play, new FUT Heroes, and much more as you build your dream squad.

FUT MOMENTS

FUT Moments, our newest single player experience, brings a new way to play FIFA Ultimate Team™ and earn rewards. FUT Moments focuses on fun, short scenarios with a variety of challenges. In FUT Moments, you’ll earn a new currency type, FUT Stars, which can be exchanged for Items and Packs in the Moments Star Gallery. 

With FUT Moments we wanted to achieve the following:

• Deliver a new mode that offers a wide variety of unique Challenges that will be updated throughout FUT 23, ranging from skills training to recreating real football match highlights.
• Provide a shorter match experience than our other game modes.
• Offer unique gameplay for all skill levels of FUT players, with a wide variety of difficulties.
• Create a progression and reward system that gives players more control and choice.

STORIES

You will start each Moment by selecting a Story. Each Story will be based on Seasonal Themes, FUT Campaigns, or real events from football’s past or present. In this example we'll enter the Rise of Mbappé Story.

Some Stories will be time limited and will need to be completed before they expire, while other Stories will be available throughout the duration of FUT 23.

CHAPTERS

Each Story is made up of Chapters, themed groups of play that contain the Moments themselves.

You’ll always start with at least one Chapter unlocked in a Story while others may be locked, requiring you to collect a specific amount of FUT Stars from the unlocked Chapters in that Story to be able to unlock it and continue.

Here, in Rise of Mbappé: Early Career starts unlocked, so we’ll make progress here first before we can unlock and play the rest.

MOMENTS

Moments are the individual scenarios you will be playing. Here’s how they work:

• Moments have one to three Challenges that you are required to perform to complete the Moment and earn the associated FUT Stars.
• They all have a starting point in game, such as a free kick, throw-in, or in the middle of an attacking or defending scenario, which will define how you begin attempting the Challenge.

• Moments have at least one Reward Level, with some having up to a maximum of three, which will offer one to three FUT Stars respectively.
• You can start at the lowest Reward Level and work your way up, earning a FUT Star each Reward Level you complete, or you can try your hand at the highest Reward Level first to try to earn all unearned FUT Stars for that Moment in one go.
• Different Reward Levels can change elements such as the Squad Requirements, time to complete, or CPU AI Difficulty as you increase/decrease the Reward Level.
• You’ll have to complete all Challenges within the completion time or you’ll have to try again. 
• You can replay an unlocked Moment at any time, however you can only earn the associated FUT Stars once from any Reward Level.
• Completing all Moments and all Reward Levels in a Chapter will provide you with bonus FUT Stars (more on this later).

Let’s try Victory in the 88th Moment in the Early Career Chapter. To complete this Moment you’ll enter the match with two minutes remaining in an attacking scenario. You need to score a goal with Mbappé to tie the match, while also ensuring that the other team doesn’t score, to earn one FUT Star.

There are lots of Moments in other Stories for you to explore and try. This Moment has no Squad Requirements and relies on some fancy footwork; complete a rainbow flick and score a goal in a single sequence.

Some Moments focus on mastering training scenarios: gain possession with a tackle, pass the ball only once, and then score a goal.

Many Moments have a narrower, but no less challenging, focus like scoring a goal from a free kick.

RETRIES

If you didn’t complete a Moment the first time, don’t worry. You can quickly reset the Moment at any time and get right back to trying to complete the Challenge.

FUT STARS AND REWARDS

Progressing in FUT Moments earns you FUT Stars, a new currency that can be exchanged in the Moments Star Galley for Rewards. FUT Stars do not expire and you will be able to use them across Seasons in FUT 23.

There are two ways to earn FUT Stars:

• Completing Moments
  • Increasing the Reward Level will reward you with more FUT Stars. 
  • You can earn the FUT Stars for a Reward Level only once, but you are free to continue to replay a completed Moment if it is still available.
• Completing all Moments and their associated Reward Levels within a Chapter will earn the Group Reward, a bonus number of FUT Stars.

At the end of every Moment you’ll see which Challenges you have completed and, if you were successful, how many FUT Stars you earned.

FUT STAR GALLERY

Now that we’ve completed several Moments and have some FUT Stars, let’s head to the FUT Star Gallery. Here we’ll find a variety of Rewards available year round, as well as some rewards only available for a limited time.

Some Moments may require that you use specific players, like Kylian Mbappé to participate in a Moment.  From time to time we’ll offer these players as Loans in the FUT Star Gallery for zero FUT Stars to help you meet the Squad Requirements.

MOMENTS RECAP

I’m extremely excited for players to get their hands on FUT Moments and experience this new way to play. In just a few minutes, you can earn progress towards improving your Club while playing through some unique and challenging scenarios.

We have lots of content planned for the launch of FUT 23. We’ll be updating FUT Moments regularly throughout the year with new Stories and Challenges, along with new content to unlock in the FUT Star Gallery.

CHEMISTRY REDEFINED

FUT 23 brings a complete overhaul to the Chemistry system, making it easier than ever to build your dream squad.

In changing the Chemistry system in Ultimate Team, we wanted to achieve some key goals:

• Increase squad variety and allow for a wider range of player selections, enabling more diverse team compositions by removing the barriers created by positional links.
• More intuitive mechanics in key areas to make squad building easier, making it more authentic and more rewarding.
• Remove common pain points such as lowered player Attributes caused by low Chemistry, or the calculus of Squad and Player Chemistry, a design that was often not intuitive to new players.

Before we dig into the details of the new system, there are some key changes that impact the system as a whole:

• We’ve completely removed the negative impact to Attributes caused by low Chemistry, so players will always play with at least their Item’s Attributes, with Chemistry being additive. 
• We have removed overall Squad Chemistry, so you only need to focus on building the maximum Chemistry for each individual player.
• Positional links have been completely removed, and your Players can now link, and impact the Chemistry of Players in the Starting XI, regardless of their position on the pitch.
• The Loyalty system has been removed.

Now let’s dive in!

BUILDING PLAYER CHEMISTRY

With the removal of overall Squad Chemistry, the focus is now on increasing the Chemistry of each individual Player in your Starting XI. Each Player will be able to gain up to three Chemistry Points, allowing for an individual Player Chemistry score of 0-3.

There are three primary factors that go into determining the Chemistry score for each Player in your Starting XI.

Preferred Position

A Player in your Starting XI will only be able to gain Chemistry, and raise their score above zero, when they are playing in their Preferred Position.

• A Player in your Starting XI will also only contribute to the Chemistry Thresholds for the Squad when they are playing in their Preferred Position.

*Note* - You will still be able to adjust a Player’s Preferred Position in FUT 23, but things have changed a bit, which is explained in more detail later in this article.

Chemistry Thresholds

A Player in your Starting XI, in their Preferred Position, will add one increment to their Club, Country/Region and League Chemistry Thresholds.

• As you add Players to your Starting XI that match either the Club, Country/Region or League of other Players in your Starting XI, you will hit Chemistry Thresholds that trigger the addition of Chemistry Points to the associated Players.
  • Depending on how many Players in your Starting XI share the same Club, Country/Region or League, you could gain up to three Chemistry Points.

*Note* - Chemistry Thresholds are the primary way that your Players will increase their Chemistry, so we will go into more detail on this in a minute, including with some examples to help ease any confusion.

Manager Bonus

Your Manager will contribute one Chemistry increment to all players in the Starting XI that share either the Country/Region or the League of the Manager.

*Note* - Some Items, like ICONs or FUT Heroes may break aspects of the above rules a little bit. You can check the details on those Items later in this article.

So with all that in mind, let’s break it down and take a look at an example of how we build Chemistry with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson. To start, we are just going to look at how they build Chemistry using just the Club Chemistry Threshold.

• First, in order for Trent Alexander-Arnold to be able to earn any Chemistry, or to contribute to growing the team’s Chemistry, we need to ensure that we have him playing in his Preferred Position, so we would slot him into the RB space of our Starting XI.
• Now that he is in the Starting XI, Trent Alexander-Arnold is contributing one increment towards the Club Chemistry Threshold by playing for Liverpool, as shown by the blue icon below.

• As shown in the image below, the first Club Chemistry Threshold is hit when two players from Liverpool are in the same Starting XI.
• When we add Robertson to the squad, making sure we slot him into his Preferred Position of LB, we get an additional increment for the Club Chemistry Threshold for Liverpool, as shown by the second blue icon below.

• Because we’ve crossed the first Chemistry Threshold for Clubs, both Players now receive one Chemistry Point each.
• On the bottom left of the Item, you can see that both Players have gained a Chemistry Point as shown by the blue diamond. As each Player gains Chemistry, those blue diamonds will fill up to a maximum of three, one for each Chemistry Point the Player has.

Quick pause before we move on. Notice that Trent and Robertson are influencing each other’s Chemistry, despite playing on opposite sides of the pitch. This is because, as mentioned earlier, Players no longer need to be next to each other in the Starting XI to be able to impact each other’s Chemistry. No matter where you place a Player in the Starting XI, they will be able to contribute.

• If we were to continue the example above, and we added three more Players that played for Liverpool to the Starting XI, we would hit the next Club Chemistry Threshold for Liverpool, and all Liverpool Players would have two Chemistry Points. 
  • If we added four more Liverpool Players, that would hit the last Club Chemistry Threshold and all Liverpool players would have three Chemistry Points.

Hopefully that helps to clear up how a single Chemistry Threshold works in relation to a single Club, Country/Region or League. However, the flexibility of the system really comes to light when you take a broader view.

Let’s look at Trent and Robertson again, but this time, let’s look at how the two Players are impacting the Chemistry Thresholds for Club, Country/Region and League at the same time.

• Trent is adding one increment to the Club Chemistry Threshold for Liverpool, one increment to the League Chemistry Threshold for the Premier League and one increment to the Country/Region Chemistry Threshold for England.

• Robertson is also adding one increment to the Club Chemistry Threshold for Liverpool and one increment to the League Chemistry Threshold for the Premier League, but instead of England he is adding one increment to the Country/Region Chemistry Threshold for Scotland.

• We know that both Trent and Robertson have one Chemistry Point due to hitting the first Club Chemistry Threshold for Liverpool, and from the earlier example we know that we could continue to add Players from Liverpool to keep growing their Chemistry, but now we can also see some different ways that they could gain additional Chemistry Points:
  • We could add an additional Premier League Player to hit the first League Chemistry Threshold for the Premier League to get an additional Chemistry Point for all three Premier League Players. 
    • Just to highlight this again, we could add this Premier League Player anywhere in the Starting XI and it would still continue to the League Chemistry Threshold.
  • We could also add two additional Players from England to grow the Chemistry for Trent for hitting the first Country/Region Chemistry Threshold for England.
  • We could add two additional Players from Scotland to grow the Chemistry for Robertson for hitting the first Country/Region Chemistry Threshold for Scotland.

As you add Players to your Starting XI, more potential pathways to grow their Chemistry will become available, and it will be up to you to decide how a Player earns their Chemistry Points. You may have to make tradeoffs in one Chemistry Threshold to make gains in another by adding and swapping Players.

It’s also important to note that, because we have removed the negative impact on Attributes when Players are on low or zero Chemistry, choosing to play with Players not at maximum Chemistry will still mean you get to play with the full Attribute value of that Player.

*Note* - The Chemistry values being presented here are not final. We will be looking at player feedback around the Chemistry Thresholds for each of the three parameters, and may be making adjustments before FUT 23 launches. We’ll be publishing an updated Pitch Notes article at a later date with a full Chemistry breakdown, so stay tuned!

POSITIONS

We’ve streamlined how positions impact Chemistry with the aim at making it more authentic and intuitive.

OUT OF POSITION PLAYERS

As we covered earlier, Players will now only gain and contribute to Chemistry when they are in their Preferred Position. When a player is out of position they will always be at zero Chemistry and play at their FUT Item Attributes. 

When a player is out of position, their position on the pitch will feature a yellow exclamation mark in the Chemistry Panel.

In the above example, the Mbappé on the left is out of position, and the one on the right is in position and thus able to grow beyond zero Chemistry.

Moving a player out of Position will also impact how they contribute Chemistry to other players who share the same parameters. For example, moving Mbappé out of Position means he is no longer contributing an increment to the Chemistry Thresholds for France, PSG, and Ligue 1, and may move everyone down by one Chemistry Point if you are on the edge of a threshold. 

ALTERNATIVE POSITIONS - BASE PLAYER ITEMS

Base Players, such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold, now have a Preferred Position and up to three Alternative Positions. These positions will be set for all Base Player Items when FUT 23 releases.

Mbappé’s Preferred Position is ST, however he can also play at LW and CF. Using a Position Modifier item will make it possible to change Mbappé’s Preferred Position to one of the listed Alternative Positions. Mbappé could then be slotted into that position in the Starting XI and now be able to gain Chemistry.

This opens up the potential, based on the Player, for position changes across the pitch as opposed to just vertically through your formation. Alternative Positions are available to be seen on all Player Items as a Player View or in the Player Bio.

Certain Preferred Positions will also have automatic Alternative Positions assigned to all players in these positions. These will contribute towards one of their three possible alternate positions. It is important to note that this only applies to the original Preferred Position for the Player.

ALTERNATIVE POSITIONS - BASE PLAYER ITEMS

Players featured in themed position change FUT Campaigns, such as Shapeshifters, could be given new Preferred and/or Alternative Positions for more squad building options in the future. Make sure to check out the Items in game using Concept Squads or the Transfer Market so you know what positions are available for those Items.

CHANGING POSITIONS

To make changing positions easier, we’ve streamlined Position Modifiers into a single Consumable Item. Using these Consumables, you can change a player to any of their Alternative Positions.

If you change a position, their previous position becomes available in the list of Alternative Positions, so you can always change back with an additional Consumable.

For example, if a player has ST as their Preferred Position and LB and CF as their Alternative Position, using a Position Modifier and converting them from ST to LB will make LB their new Preferred Position and CF and ST their Alternative Positions. Important to note, it will not introduce LWB as a new Alternative Position as LB was not the initial Preferred Position for that Player Item.

CHANGES TO FORMATIONS

There are some changes we’ve made to formations in FUT and the available positions within. We found that we had very few Right Forward (RF) and Left Forward (LF) Players and we only had two formations that featured those positions, so we have removed the RF and LF positions from FUT. 

In addition to this, we’ve modified the 4-3-2-1 and 3-4-2-1 formations to use CF positions instead of RF or LF.

PREVIEWING SWAPS

With all the changes to Chemistry, we wanted to ensure that the Squad screen, where you will be making all those decisions about what Players to put into your Starting XI, makes it easy to understand the Chemistry impact that swapping Players in and out will have.

With the new Chemistry Panel, you’ll be able to preview the impacts of adding, removing or swapping a Player on your overall Chemistry. The panel will preview what would happen if you were to make the change, including if you will go up or down a Chemistry Threshold to gain or lose Chemistry Points. 

By default, the panel will display your next Chemistry Threshold for each parameter. You’ll have the option to toggle a fully expanded view with all thresholds.

Decreases to a Chemistry Threshold will be shown with a red player icon, and increases to a Chemistry Threshold will be shown with a green player icon. If you are hitting a new Chemistry Threshold, or dropping below one, you’ll see that change indicated in green or red as well.

Changes are also indicated on the players themselves. Whenever you are making a change that would impact any player who shares a Country/Region, League, or Club you will see this indicated on the individual Chemistry icons.

Building your Squad may result in trade-offs in Chemistry, with losses in one area but gains in another. The Chemistry Panel and Player Chemistry Icons will help you preview these choices when making decisions to optimise your team.

FIRST OWNER STATUS

With the new Chemistry system, we’ve removed the Loyalty Bonus calculation and icon from players.

You’ll now see an icon representing First Owner status on the second view of your Player Item. This applies to any Player Items where you are the first person to receive them from a pack or reward. 

The icon is removed once a Player Item transfers to another owner through the Transfer Market. You can also still see First Owner status in the Player Bio. 

CHEMISTRY STYLES

Chemistry Styles will be familiar to our players, with a few small changes. Chemistry Styles will still impact how Chemistry impacts Attributes for Players and Goalkeepers, with different Chemistry Styles offering a choice between balance or boosting a few Attributes or many. This is indicated with new icons on the Chemistry Style view to show which level of boost you are at.

• When a Player is at 1 Chemistry, they will get a small boost to their Attributes
• When a Player is at 2 Chemistry, they get a medium boost to their Attributes
• When a Player is at 3 Chemistry, they will get a full boost to their Attributes

*note* - We are still tuning exactly how much Chemistry Styles will impact Attributes, and will have more to share in an upcoming Chemistry pitch notes.

ICONs

ICONs will always have full Chemistry when played in the Preferred Position, regardless of the rest of the squad.

ICONs will also count as two increments towards their Country/Region’s Chemistry Threshold, making them a powerful tool in Squad Building.

HEROES

Last year we brought some of football’s fan-favourites back to the pitch as FUT Heroes. This year we're adding even more - including Yaya Touré, Park Ji-Sung, Claudio Marchisio, Ricardo Carvalho, and plenty more to be announced soon.

• Heroes will always have full Chemistry when played in their Preferred Position, regardless of the rest of the squad.
• Heroes will count as two increments towards their League Chemistry Threshold, and will count as one increment towards their Country/Region Chemistry Threshold. 

SQUAD BUILDING CHALLENGES

The new Chemistry system also means changes to Squad Building Challenges (SBCs).

We will still continue offering unique puzzle building in SBCs with minimum, exact, or maximum Chemistry requirements. There are two ways we will be asking players to build squads:

• Total Chemistry of all Players combined, up to a maximum of 33
• Chemistry Points per Player between 0 and 3

For example, an SBC might ask for a minimum of two Chemistry Points per Player, meaning all eleven Players need at least two Chemistry Points.

OBJECTIVES

There are also additional changes to Objectives with Chemistry requirements. An Objective might also ask for more specific criteria, like a maximum of three Brazilian Players and a Team Chemistry of exactly thirty-three.

LIVE FUT FRIENDLIES

Live FUT Friendlies will also feature the same changes to Chemistry requirements as SBCs.

Live FUT Friendlies also now support cooperative gameplay. The Live FUT Friendlies Events can be played in three different ways, depending on the event:

 Free for all

• These Events support 1v1, 1v2, 2v1 and 2v2 gameplay.

 Co-Op only

• These Events only support 2v2 gameplay. You won’t be able to access these Events if you’re not pairing up with a friend through the Co-Op Lobby.

 Solo only

• These Events only support 1v1 gameplay. You won’t be able to access these Events if you’re in a Co-Op Lobby.

With the introduction of the EA Social widget, we’ve also repositioned the Co-Op Lobby. You can now access it from the Play tab.

CROSS-PLAY

MATCHMAKING AND MODES

We announced cross-play in FIFA 23 with our recent Pitch Notes Deep Dive. Here’s a quick recap of how it will work in FUT 23.

• Cross-play will be available in all 1v1 modes, including invite modes like Play a Friend.
• Cross-play won’t be available in 2v2 Co-Op modes. 
• Cross-play will function on platforms of the same generation
  • PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Google Stadia can play against each other
  • PlayStation 4 and Xbox One can play against each other
• You can opt out of cross-play if you want to only play against your platform.
  • Note that players who opt-out of cross-play could potentially take longer to find an opponent when matchmaking, as opting out of cross-play naturally reduces the amount of potential opponents that could be found. Opting into cross-play will ensure that matchmaking will look for the largest pool of potential opponents possible.

In 1v1 matches in FUT, you’ll be able to play against players on the same platform generation in FUT Rivals, FUT Friendlies, FUT Champions, Play a Friend, and FUT Online Draft, helping you get into your next match more easily.

TRANSFER MARKET

Previously, the Transfer Market was shared between platform families such as PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

For FUT 23, we’ve expanded the shared Transfer Market to combine PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Google Stadia, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. PC and Nintendo Switch will continue to have their own Transfer Markets respectively.

LEADERBOARDS

Leaderboards in FUT will now have a Global Leaderboard for all platforms, and a Local Leaderboard for just their platform (PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 for example). You will only be able to see the Global Leaderboard if you’ve opted into cross-play.

For Squad Battles specifically, we’ve removed the Top 200 leaderboard, as there is now a single reward tier for this group.

FUT STADIUM

For FUT 23, we wanted to focus on some key visual improvements to the Stadium. Tiers 1, 2, and 3 feature an all new roof design, with lighting colour matched to your Stadium Theme colour. These will apply automatically as you are customising your stadium.

We’re also bringing more life to the stadium, with animated baseboards and megascreen textures, in addition to animated TIFOs and Pitch Props that will be moving while the match is playing.

Authentic Club VIP areas have been updated with new smoke effects, as well as adding more life to the crowds with increased dynamic motion in our Crowd Cards and Flags

ADDITIONAL UPDATES

We’ve added the ability to rename your Club outside of the current Objectives system. This will appear as a new option under the Club Settings menu. You’ll have the ability to rename your Club as many times as you like.

We have also removed the option to Delete Your Club after finding that most players don’t use this option.

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and FIFA Ultimate Team

We’ll have more to announce about the Men’s FIFA World Cup™ in the coming months. The FIFA World Cup 2022™ will have deep integration with Ultimate Team in some new and exciting ways.

WRAP UP

With fundamental changes to Chemistry, an all new way to play with FUT Moments, new Heroes, cross-play, great new Stadium Visuals, and more, there’s never been more depth to Ultimate Team and I’m excited for players to get their hands on FUT 23. 

• Mike Barnucz and the FUT Development Team in Vancouver and Bucharest

FIFA 23 is available to pre-order for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia.

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