The Back Page | It’s All About Chemistry!
dmcdonagh
2010-12-13
This week, Darren Cross looks at the importance of chemistry in FIFA 11 Ultimate Team, then reveals how you can create a quality all-gold team for less than the cost of a single gold pack…
Millions of us FIFA fans have become completely addicted to FIFA 11 Ultimate Team since the mode launched as a free download a short time ago, and – for those of you yet to try it – it only takes a few minutes of playing for the first time to realise why. Because as well as having a great football game at its heart, FUT11 gives players that ‘I’ll just play one more game’ feeling as they go in search of a win to bag them the extra coins they need to finally be able to buy the player their team has been missing. Which probably explains why I’ve been unable to get to bed before 3am most nights this week.
Like most FUT players, I started out with plans to build an all-star team as quickly as possible, so I sold or traded most of my cards from my two free gold packs – you get those if you’ve played FUT10 – then bought a few more with Microsoft points and began to put my dream team together. Everything looked like it was going to plan on paper as I added more and more big-name players to my squad, but I couldn’t seem to do the business on the pitch and often found myself losing – actually, make that getting hammered – by players with what I consider to be inferior teams. Sometimes vastly inferior teams in fact.
For the first few games I put it down to having a bad day, but after the fourth or fifth bad day in a row I was left with the realisation that I was either crap at FIFA, or I was missing something. Hoping it was the latter, but worrying it might be the former, I actually paid attention to the Upcoming Opponent screen for my next match, and noticed that he had a 90 rating for chemistry. My own team, though packed with much more talent than my opponent’s, had just 43. Sure enough, I got thrashed again.
I’d heard that chemistry was really important in FUT11 but I hadn’t really given it much thought until then. So, now satisfied that I’d discovered where I was going wrong, I decided to build a team of great players who also have top chemistry – the ultimate team, in other words. Name’s a bit of a giveaway eh?
For those of you who are also struggling, or perhaps looking for a new challenge, here’s what I did…
First off, I looked into chemistry to find out exactly how it works and discovered that teams with weaker players but higher ratings for chemistry have the advantage over better players with lesser chemistry, due to the boosts they receive. It’s as simple as that.
The important thing to remember when trying to build a team with high chemistry is that you get the best bonuses for players from the same club. Next are players from the same league, with players sharing the same nationality picking up the smallest bonuses.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of coins to build an excellent team with very high chemistry. Believe it or not, you can do it for less than the cost of a gold premium pack and I know that because it’s exactly what I did. Not wanting to lose the big-name stars I’d spent so long collecting, I started a reserve team and used that for my chemistry experiment.
With just over 7000 coins in the bank, I set out to create the best starting XI I could with a chemistry rating in the 90s, and began searching for English, Premier League players valued at 500 coins or under.
Blackburn’s Paul Robinson came in as my keeper for 450, then I signed Luke Young and Kieran Gibbs for 500 each as my full-backs. Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross cost me 500 coins for one of my centre-back slots, then I got City defender Nedum Onuoha – on loan at Sunderland – for 650.
That gave me height, pace and power at the centre of my defence, with a bit of pace out wide too.
I like to play 4-1-2-1-2, so a CDM was next on the list and I managed to find Hargreaves for 500. That was a bargain as he’s quick, strong and can take set pieces. Wide left was Matty Etherington from Stoke for 500, with Villa’s Marc Albrighton on the right for 600 coins. Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere filled the CAM slot for just 650.
Andy Johnson – at 600 coins – took one of my ST positions, with Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge completing my XI at 800 coins. This gave me pace and, with one right-footed striker and one lefty – balance up front.
The total cost? 6250 coins. Total chemistry? 93.
A couple of my first teamers made up my bench, and off I went to test out the ressies in an online cup. My first opponent had a much better team on paper, full of Real Madrid and Barcelona players, but just 72 for chemistry. I comfortably won the game 3-1. A good start.
Next up came a team with five stars but a measly 23 for chemistry. I won that game 6-0 – I was on to something. After winning the next game on penalities against a team that included some of the biggest names in the game, and following that up with a 7-0 win, it became obvious that FUT11 really is all about chemistry.
The next step was to sell my original first team, then use the cash to upgrade the reserves with better players. In came Gabriel Agbonlahor for 12,000 coins and Joe Cole for 1,500, which increased my star rating and bumped my chemistry up to 97. I then discarded David Moyes and replaced him with an English manager and boom, my chemistry hit 100.
I honestly haven’t lost a game since.
So take a look at your own chemistry rating then go through your squad to see where you could improve things. Remember, players from the same club team have the highest bonuses, so they should be your priority.
Have fun and don’t worry if you’re struggling to raise the cash to get the players in. Just pop back here next week, when I’ll be going through how to raise coins quickly by buying and selling.
See you then.
Darren.