FIFA 12 Ultimate Team Q&A with FifaRalle

When he’s not making awesome FIFA videos, YouTube Titan FifaRalle is also a dab hand at building FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) squads. Here he runs through some of the basics of FUT for those of you just getting started with a few pro-tips thrown in to turbo charge your season.

Other top FUT links:

• Beginners guide to FUT on our forum
• FUT Web App
• FUT 12 forum
• FUT 12 FAQ
• How to keep your FUT account details safe
• Check out one of FifaRalle’s squads

What does chemistry mean for your team?

Chemistry is key for your team. With a high chemistry rating players will make runs for each other and be positioned better. Chemistry is just as important as the rating of your team.

What's the best way to build team chemistry?

Chemistry can be achieved in several ways - from position, formation, the players around you and from your manager.

• Position: with this you can get up to three chemistry points
• Formation: formation gives you up to three chemistry points
• Players around you: the players around you can get provide up to five chemistry points
• Managers: with a manager you’ll get 10 chemistry if he plays the same formation as you use. And then you get one chemistry point for each player in the starting 11 that have the same nationality as the manager.

Try to add all those factors into play when you are building your team. Remember a player can only add 9 chemistry points to the team chemistry even though he might achieve 11 chemistry.

What do the green boots mean on the Player cards?

The boot symbol tells you the chemistry your player can achieve in the position you’ve put him. It can have three different colours: Black, dark green and light green.

The black colour means that your player is playing in a wrong position and he gets zero chemistry from the position he is playing.

The dark green means that the player is in a position close to his preferred one (like a LW playing LM) and he gets one chemistry point.

Finally there is the light green boot, which means the player is in his preferred position and he gets three chemistry points.

What do the formation symbols mean on the Player cards and the different colours?

The formation symbol tells you how much chemistry your player gets from the formation you’ve chosen to play. Again it is divided into three different colours: black, dark green and light green.

Black means that your player doesn’t know the position you are using and gets zero chemistry.

Dark green means that your player is somewhat used to the formation. How the formation chemistry works can sound a bit complicated - but if your player is used to a formation that has the equal amount of players in the line he is playing to the formation you are using, then he will get a dark green boot. Here are some examples:

Defenders: Your formation is 4-4-2 and your defender has a preferred formation which is 4-3-3. He has 4 at the defending line as the formation you are playing, so he will get a dark green formation symbol

Midfielders: Again your formation is 4-4-2 and your midfielder has a preferred formation that is 3-4-3. He has 4 at the midfield line as the formation you are playing and will get a dark green symbol again.

Attackers: 4-4-2 once again, and your attacker has 4-2-2-2 as his preferred formation. He has 2 at the striker line just like the formation you are using. He gets a dark green boot.

The light green boot is given when your player’s preferred formation is the same formation as the one you are playing - he will get three chemistry.

What happens when a player gets injured?

When a player gets injured he will be out for a few games. The amount of games varies but it is usually two-four games of Ultimate Team that you need to play before your player can return.

To get rid of an injury you can buy a healing card on the Ultimate Team market. Sometimes this can be quite expensive since demand is usually high due to people wanting their players fit at once - so if you get injuries each game you can quickly waste a lot of coins healing your players.

TIP: It’s a good idea is to have a wide squad with substitutes to replace your injured player. That way you don’t have to waste money on healing cards but can just put your player in the reserves and play a few games without him.

How do you know what a decent price is for your player?

It is always difficult to know what a player goes for!

TIP: The best way to find the average price of a player is to look at the auctions for the given player and add lots of them to your watch list. Wait till the auctions end and that way you’ll get an idea of the average price the player should sell for. Remember that the price of the player can change from week to week. If you haven’t checked the market in a while it is a good idea to check the price of the player before selling or buying.

Is it possible to build a decent team without spending lots of money?

You can easily build a decent team without spending lots of money. It is important to remember that chemistry is just as important as the rating.

TIP: When starting up it would be a good idea to build a team with players from the same league or country to achieve chemistry and before you start just getting players, decide a league or nationality to go for.

If you want good players cheap, look into some of the less demanded leagues. If you look into the Premier League you will find that the players are usual extremely expensive compared to players in League One, since the demand is much higher.

TIP: If you want a good rated team look into the less demanded leagues, where you can pick up some decent players on the cheap.

At the same time try to get players that fit your formation and the position you want them to play. Remember that some formations are in higher demand than others - if you want to start with a cheap team try to build it around a cheap formation.

Why do people build bronze teams? Or silver teams? Why not just go with gold teams?

Because of the match making in Ultimate Team, you will get matched with teams with the same rating as your own team. Therefore some people build a bronze team or a silver team to get a break from meeting all the gold teams.

At the same time it is great fun to play with lower rated players. You can usually find gems on the Ultimate Team market - low rated players with great stats. That way you can build a team with great players even though it doesn’t have a high rating.

What is Happy Hour?

Happy Hour is where you can get either a discount on packs or have twice the chance of getting a good player in a pack. If you want to pick up a good player this is the best time to buy packs. Happy Hour varies from week to week. It’s usually announced EA SPORTS FIFA Twitter account.

What is Team of the Week?

Each Wednesday at 6pm GMT a new team of in-form players are released in packs, called Team of the Week or TOTW. The in-form players are based on the players form in real life. If the player has a great performance during the week FUT players are rewarded with an in-form version in-game. These in-form versions are very rare and will only be in the packs for a week until a new TOTW is released, so they usually go for quite a bit.

There will be links to the TOTW in the FUT forum, on the FUT Web App, @EASPORTSFIFA and the new(ish) official FIFA Ultimate Team Facebook Page. You can’t miss it!

You can also check the TOTW on your console, where you can play against the current team and that way see who is in it.

How do you stay safe on Ultimate Team and avoid getting scammed?

To stay safe on Ultimate Team never give your account details out. There are loads of phishing websites trying to pass themselves off as official EA sites. So when logging into EA’s web app always check the URL.

The phishing websites often claim that they are EA and that they give away players, coins and packs. But that is not true. They just wait for you to log in with your account details and that way they can take your details and then your players and coins.

Other people claim that they can duplicate players if you give them your account details that way they can log into you profile and get your players.

And some even send you mails claiming to be EA and want your details. Again this is a scam. EA will never ask for your login information.

There are loads of ways people try to scam, so the simple way to stay safe is to never give away your account details to anyone. The only place you use them is when logging into the official EA FUT Web App - nowhere else. Read more on how to stay safe while playing FUT.

Why do you play FUT?

I started to play FUT because I found it entertaining building my own squads. I usually build several squads, with players from all over the world. It is always fun to think of new ways to build teams with players from different leagues and nationalities. It can of course be difficult to find ways to get chemistry out of each player. But due to the huge amount of players, you can always find new great and unknown players that will fit your team.