All new Ultimate Team features in EA FC 25

EA FC 25 aims to re-energize Ultimate Team through a variety of new gameplay and quality-of-life features.

Despite being the series’ most popular mode, Ultimate Team has suffered from a lack of fresh ideas in recent years, resulting in criticism from fans. With EA FC 25, the devs are introducing some changes that tackle some of these fan complaints head-on.

All Ultimate Team changes in EA FC 25

• Division Rivals changes
• Untradeable Duplicate storage system & SBCs
• Evolution requirements & cosmetic changes
• Contracts removed
• Gameplay tweaks

For a glimpse at the new pack opening animation in FC 25, skip to 0:23 in the video above.

Division Rivals changes

Division Rivals, the core competitive mode alongside Champions, is getting some neat changes in FC 25 Ultimate Team. For starters, the devs are reducing the number of overall checkpoints to ensure that you’re matched with players of a similar skill level.

The intention behind this is to help keep your matches competitive and reduce the amount of time you’re spending in a Division that doesn’t match your skill level.

Weekly Rivals rewards will now be awarded based on points instead of reaching a specific win threshold. “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.” This change automatically gives more value to matches that end as draws.

Aside from this, your starting Division in FC 25 Rivals will take into account your highest Division achieved in EA FC 24. This change ensures that you’ll be slotted in a Division that matches your skill level right from the start.

Untradeable Duplicate storage system & SBCs

After years of requests from fans, the devs are finally adding a storage option that stores all the Untradeable Duplicate Player Items you gather while opening packs. You’ll be able to store up to 100 Duplicate items in the SBC Storage system and have easy access to them when needed.

This change should make it easier to hold on to high-rated Duplicate fodder for SBCs.

Evolution requirements & cosmetic changes

Evolutions lets players upgrade their favorite cards through various stat boosts and new PlayStyles. The feature was largely welcomed with open arms from fans, although there were complaints about the overly restrictive requirements for most EVOs.

The devs have addressed these complaints by toning down the requirements and making them accessible to a greater pool of player items. They also plan on releasing more Evolutions throughout the game’s cycle, giving you more opportunities to upgrade your players.

Another major change to Evolutions is arriving by way of customization. You’ll be able to upgrade your EVO player items with unique “backgrounds, borders and SFX.”

Contracts removed

Contracts are officially being removed from Ultimate Team, so you’ll no longer have to apply these arbitrary items to players and managers. This change felt inevitable, as in recent years, Ultimate Team has begun bombarding players with packs meaning you always have a large stockpile of contracts.

Nevertheless, Contracts can now fly off into the sunset to join Squad Morale and Player Fitness.

Gameplay tweaks

EA FC 25 is introducing some major tweaks to the core experience which will undoubtedly have a strong impact on UT.

Chief among them is FC IQ, an AI-driven tactical overhaul that will give you more control over your players’ actions off the ball. In addition, “Manager Items will feature the manager’s real-world tactical preferences, authentically influencing how your team plays on the pitch.”

Besides this, the game will introduce Corner Kick Support Assignments, allowing you to choose the focal point of these set pieces, the player who occupies the near post, and the player positioned at the back post. The new system should give you more control and open up the possibility of setting up corner routines.

The devs are making changes to manual goalkeeper movement. GKs can now only move 1-2 steps in any direction before entering a cooldown period to prevent players from exploiting manual movement.

Make sure you’re also caught up with all the new Career Mode features and the new 5v5 Rush mode.