EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile - FC Mobile 26 Update - Gameplay Deep Dive

Gameplay Deep Dive

Hello FC Mobile Community and welcome to the FC Mobile 26 Update Gameplay Deep Dive!

We’ve improved the gameplay experience by honing in on critical community feedback over the past months. Special thanks to those who participated in the Gameplay Beta and Limited Beta over the past months, the feedback you provided was incredibly valuable and helped bring this update to life!

Overall, the FC Mobile 26 Gameplay Update focuses on improvements and balancing to:

• Kickoff Rush
• Through Passes
• Crossing
• Headers
• Referee Logic

Let’s get into it!

Passing

You Asked: Kickoff Rush

We know how frustrating the Kickoff Rush can be in Head to Head matches. We’ve reduced the effectiveness of Kickoff Rush by rebalancing the long lofted through passes.

That being said, if there’s a mismatch of speed between a CB and ST, and the long ball is played by a highly-rated passer, there’s still the potential for Kickoff Rush to catch defenders flat footed. However, the distance of the pass and attributes of the passer will better reflect the outcome and success of these long through balls.

We will continue to monitor community feedback on Kickoff Rush post update, and look to adjust accordingly, so keep the feedback coming!

Balancing Lofted Through Passes

We've fine-tuned the accuracy and travel time of Lofted Through Passes to better reflect Long Passing attributes. Now, defenders will have more time to react to long Lofted Through passes, ensuring more consistent and attribute-driven outcomes across all scenarios. The further and higher the pass, the greater the accuracy error, promoting strategic decision-making.

Mid to Long distance Lofted Through passes now have a longer travel time and lower accuracy, based on your player’s Long Passing attribute

Crossing and Headers

In order to diversify attacking play and options to score goals, we reworked our Crossing and Header systems. These will create more variety in how you play, as crossing will feel more effective and headers will feel more responsive.

Crosses

Cross accuracy is now more heavily influenced by player attributes and the defensive pressure on the crosser. A defender who is tightly marking your player will significantly affect his accuracy. This means that getting into space and a good crossing position will positively impact the cross quality. We adjusted this to encourage smart decision-making in the final third and to reward the combination of player attributes and positioning, without re-introducing overpowered crossing.

Headers

We’ve improved header battles to prioritize physical attributes, offering more realistic outcomes and rewarding positioning. Further tuning has been applied to adjust header accuracy in contested scenarios, emphasizing the importance of positioning and timing.

Header success and header accuracy are now more connected to the attributes of your player, the jump, his initial position, and the player contesting the aerial battle. Far more factors play into the outcome of a header, meaning they feel more rewarding.

Referees

Improved Referee System

We've improved Referees’ decision-making, by investigating and improving situations, where incorrect fouls were called from light and non-tackle collisions, as well as making sure that attackers are more grounded during their shot attempts.

Overall, Referees have been tuned to feature more realistic collision detection. Small bumps are no longer automatic fouls, and doing a skill move into defenders won't guarantee you a foul. Football is a physical game, and the latest gameplay improvements aim to highlight that, while keeping the Referee’s decision-making accurate and fair.

We will continue to monitor community feedback on the Referees post update, so keep the feedback coming!

Shooting

Shooting has been adjusted to better reflect player attributes, positioning, weak foot, and swipe inputs:

• Shot accuracy is reduced when you shoot while turning away from goal, rewarding better skill and positioning.
• Basic shots from low attribute players are adjusted to better showcase their attributes.
• Gesture shots follow swipe input more accurately to improve responsiveness.
• We slightly reduced the amount of Shot Error on 3 and 4-star Weak Foot players.
• We increased the impact of the Curve attribute on Finesse Shot trajectory and outcomes.
• We addressed an issue where your player would use the incorrect foot when taking a finesse shot, leading to curling the ball away from the goal when going far post with a shot.

Balancing

• VSA Chance Generation: Optimized chance generations towards the end of a VSA match after the first 10 chances to ensure better balance.
  • Tuned Good Chances to better reflect their quality and be consistent (issue with some good chances being harder than they should in certain scenarios).
• Dribble Boost: Improved agility and responsiveness during jog dribble to help you navigate tight spaces with better control when using high-rated dribblers.
• Driven Ground Trap Error: Reduced for smoother build-up play.
• Ball Visibility Toggle: Toggle this button to change the ball to a simple white colour for accessibility and visibility.
• Defending Improvements: Defender deceleration and tackling are more closely tuned to defender attributes, making duels and defensive recoveries feel more authentic. Auto tackles have also been adjusted to give you more control on your defensive actions.
  • Attribute-based Deceleration will ensure players will decelerate faster or slower based on their Acceleration attribute, in order to create a better balance against dribblers and better respect attribute impact in this duel.
  • We improved an issue where your Defenders would launch unrequested auto tackles far away from the dribbler, putting you into a tough situation.
  • Improved attribute impact in Jostling situations to ensure physically and strong players are more impactful.
• Goalkeepers: GK behavior has been tuned to feel less overpowered, creating more realistic and balanced save outcomes.
• CB Passing: Center backs now have weaker short passing, adding risk when using them in build-up play.

New Formations

Test out new tactical setups, including the highly requested 4-2-1-3 and 4-1-3-2, giving you more flexibility in Head to Head, VS Attack, and Manager Mode matches.

Full list of new Formations:

• 4-2-1-3
• 4-1-3-2
• 3-1-4-2
• 3-4-2-1 
• 4-4-1-1 
• 4-3-2-1
• 5-4-1

Match Presentation

New Look and Feel

• New Menus, scoreboards, HUD, buttons
• Updated pre-match and post-match cutscenes
• New Player Item animations for goal celebrations
• New pre-match camera angles

Matchmaking Lobby

• See your captain and your opponent’s captain
• Select your home/away kit to avoid kit clashing
• Customized walkout before the match

New Star Heads

The newest update includes over 100 updated Star Heads. You can now see improved likeness for certain players in the game. Notable players with newly-updated Star Heads:

Premier League

• Ethan Nwaneri
• Ayden Heaven
• Rodrigo Martins Gomes
• Hugo Ekitiké
• Romain Faivre

Serie A

• Jay Idzes
• Stanislav Lobotka
• Johan Vásquez
• Niccolò Pisilli

New Celebration

• Endrick’s Signature Handshake

Along with all these updates, we’ve fixed a number of minor issues and improved general connectivity stability! We’ve focused hard on making sure it meets the community’s expectations. Make sure to follow us at @EASFCMOBILE on Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, Twitch, and WhatsApp to get the latest updates!

The Club is Yours, Anywhere.