EA FC 25 arrives in early access on September 20, and as with every new entry, EA Sports’ football series is introducing plenty of groundbreaking features you should know about before diving in.
Every year there is a new EA Sports FC game, and even though they maintain the same structure, they go through several changes to improve the gameplay and keep players engaged.
This year, EA FC 25 has two main features stealing the spotlight that will have an impact across all modes: RUSH and FC IQ. However, each mode is also getting unique tweaks, additions, and overall improvements that’s set to change the game, and we’ve listed them all here so you’re fully prepared for launch.
Ultimate Team
Ultimate Team is where players can go and build their dream squad using both current football stars and past icons. Then, they can face off against other players or go solo in single-player.
The most popular parts of FUT are the challenges that allow you to earn different items by opening packs. These are filled with random rewards such as player cards, stadium customization items, kits, balls, consumables, and more.
Rush
The new 5v5 experience will have you select an event in Ultimate Team. Each event has its own set of rules to add a layer of complexity to the squad-building process and you’ll earn Rush Points by winning matches.
The entry requirements for each event are based on rarity, attributes, regions, leagues, or clubs, and taking part in them will grant you a faster progression toward completing your weekly Rush Objectives.
When you and your teammates enter the squad building screen, you’ll have 90 seconds to select your players. Just keep in mind there can be no duplicates on the same team, so be sure to bring some variety.
Stadium & match experience
Plenty of stadiums have been redesigned for the new EA FC title, including Real Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Villareal CF’s Estadio de la Cerámica, and Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park. Others like River Plate’s Mâs Monumental and Sporting CP’s Estádio José Alvalade will be making their debut.
New broadcast sequences will be played during matches along with new presentation elements that will highlight lineup decisions and other team details on both sides to enhance your experience.
Additionally, a new state-of-the-art Stadium exclusive to FUT will debut this year, with space for bigger crowds, new locker rooms, tunnels, and more. This will be fully customizable, letting you create your dream ground.
Cosmetic Evolutions
Customizing players in UT has long been a fan-favorite feature, and now EC FC 25 players will be able to go even deeper thanks to Cosmetic Evolutions.
In EA FC 25, you’ll be able to customize your players’ items, add animations, or even sound effects. New visual elements include backgrounds, borders, and SFX.
Evolution requirements
Evolutions in EA FC 24 were quite limiting, as it wasn’t always possible to evolve the Player Items due to the strict entry requirements. However, FC 25 promises to be more flexible, letting you use more players for each evolution.
In EA FC 25, Evolutions will place a maximum limit on certain Attributes, but those who manage to meet or exceed such limit will still be allowed to receive the Evolution, though the upgrade will fall into another of their Attributes.
SBC Storage
The infamous Untradeable Duplicate Players in UT will now have their own storage system as part of SBCs, so you won’t be forced to immediately discard your duplicates when you get them.
The SBC Storage can hold up to 100 Untradeable items and it will be accessible from the new SBC Storage tab. Players who use the FC Companion App will also have the possibility to access and send items from there.
Friendlies & Contracts
EA is decoupling Live Friendlies and Rivals matchmaking, so now the former is based strictly on form, much like FUT Champions. This means your wins and losses across all Live Friendlies will be taken into consideration to match you with someone with similar stats to you.
EA has already previously removed Fitness, but EA FC 25 goes one step further by making players and managers no longer need contracts.
Division Rivals improvements
The first main change in Division Rivals is that the reward system will now be based on points instead of wins to ensure players’ efforts are not in vain, with results now rewarding the following points in Rivals:
- Win: 3 points
- Draw: 1 point
- Lose: 0 points
Furthermore, Seasonal Milestone rewards have been removed, the number of Checkpoints to advance into a new Division is being reduced, and relegations are coming back.
Finally, instead of every player starting in Division 10 and progressing toward Division 1, players will begin in a Division based on where they finished in EA FC 24.
Career Mode
Career Mode allows you to follow two separate journeys in EA FC 25: one as a Player and the other as a Manager. Whether you’re one or the other, in this iconic offline mode you’ll be able to play through multiple seasons and leagues while you strive to be the best in the world.
As a player, you’ll be able to personalize your avatar, including its looks, position, playstyle, and more. After some matches, your performance on the pitch will determine the offers you get and will set your path to becoming a star.
As a manager, you’ll have to have the difficult job of managing teams while accomplishing the board’s expectations. You’ll have to control scouts, recruitments, training sessions, budgets, performance, and more.
Live Start Points
Live Start Points is a new feature that will bring players closer to their favorite teams by allowing them to live out the biggest storylines from the real-world 24/25 football season.
This means that in both Player and Manager Careers, the game will follow the real events from 10 leagues and 12 cup competitions to let you jump in during any game week of the season. That way, you’ll be part of authentic competitions and will have the opportunity to change the outcome with your performance.
Each Live Start Point will reflect current points totals, goals, transfers, cup progress, player form, injuries, suspensions, and even potential point deductions.
Women’s teams
For the first time in the game’s history, users can now play Manager Career in five of the most important leagues in women’s football: Barclays Women’s Super League, Arkema Premiere Ligue, the National Women’s Soccer League, the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga, Liga F, and the Women’s Champions League.
Women’s Manager Career includes every feature the standard mode already has, so there won’t be any big gameplay differences. Plus, it will include some unique challenges that exist solely within the women’s game. Users can also start their Player Career in women’s football.
Development Plans 2.0
The addition of Player Roles to the game with FC IQ has opened up the door for Role Growth, which consists of each Role having its own Development Plan.
If a player is constantly growing their key Attributes, then a Role Rating level up will be triggered to increase the potential of such Attributes and unlock a new stage of growth. For example, if a player is training as an Advanced Playmaker, key stats like Vision and Long Pass will progress faster.
The Development Plans also let you know in which stage of their careers players are by labeling them with Growth, Peak, or Retiring. This comes in handy when you are playing Manager Career and are in the scouting process.
Press Conferences & Morale
In EA FC 25, the Press Conference questions are being revamped to now focus on tactical choices, the opponent’s setup, and match statistics.
On the other hand, the player’s morale system is being changed to give it more depth. If a player’s morale drops to a certain level, they won’t be happy and grow complacent, and their mental Attributes will decrease. This way, users will have to find a way to keep their players happy or pay the price.
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Youth Academy
Scouting reach has been expanded, allowing Scouts to search for emerging talent across over 160 countries. More so, you can scout up to four specific positions and each assignment can be broken down into specific roles.
Rush
Rush is being introduced to Career Mode as part of the Youth Academy. Now, players will be able to engage in 5v5 matches with the young rising stars using both their Overall Rating and their full Potential Rating, so they can have a better idea of how they might perform when fully developed.
These matches take place as bi-monthly tournaments and winning will significantly impact the growth of your Youth Players, allowing them to increase their Rating faster.
As a nice touch, young players will actually look young and if you stick with them for a long time, you’ll have the chance to see them physically grow over time, adding an extra layer of immersion.
Customization
The EA Sports team took on feedback and changed some game settings to give them more control over their gaming experience.
For example, those players looking for more difficulty can make transfer negotiations stricter, set the board expectations higher, slow down the training recovery rates, and much more.
Player customization has also been improved, letting you create more realistic-looking avatars thanks to Cranium Technology.
Menu visuals, Match Intros & Social Media
Career Mode has plenty of content, so it can get overwhelming at times. To make it easier to follow through with all your duties, EA FC 25 introduces the Tasks List, a dynamic rundown of pending actions you’ll be able to check upfront.
The devs took fan feedback into consideration, with the game bringing back full authentic pre-match intros, including cinematic sizzles, player walk-ins, and line-ups.
The Social Media platform is an in-game section where users can check the latest news regarding their achievements, results, upcoming matches, transfers, and more. Clubs, Leagues, Players, Fans, and News Outlets will be posting, so look often to see if you’re making headlines.
ICONs
Times change fast and the football world does too, so if you ever wondered how a legend like Beckham would perform in this modern world, you can find out thanks to ICONs.
With ICONs, you can now pick between some of the greatest names in football history to bring them to Player Career. The list of available players will change over time to keep the experience interesting, but so far you can count on these ICONs.
Player Origins
The new Origin Stories will add a fresh perspective to Player Career by allowing users to pick between three paths, each with their pros and cons. Each path will guide the beginning of your career, presenting you with particular opportunities.
These are the paths available:
- Great Expectations: Start as a child prodigy from a legendary football family and prove your worth.
- Climb to the Top: Start from humble beginnings but with an unshakable dream and loads of talent.
- Return to Glory: Start as a former top-class player making a comeback after a career-threatening injury.
You can also create your own starting conditions with Custom Start.
Clubs
Clubs is where you create a Virtual Pro Player to participate in online matches and fight for the top spot in the leaderboard, going on your journey alongside friends to become the best.
You can fully customize your avatar by gender, height, weight, appearance, position, style, and more. You can also build up your club and earn fans for a more immersive experience.
Clubhouse
The Clubhouse is a social space created to connect players and clubs. This hub allows players to navigate through all the features Clubs has thanks to the overhauled menus and the introduction of the Quick Switcher.
More so, players can even personalize the Club Crest, the Kits, the Stadium bundle, and more to represent their team’s identity and to give you the sensation that you are actually walking into a real locker room.
Clubs Rush
Rush is across all game modes, but Clubs allows for solo or group matches. This means you can engage with three other players (the goalkeeper is managed by AI) or just enjoy the feature by yourself.
Here you’ll climb through the different divisions depending on your Rush Player Rank, which will fluctuate based on your performance in matches and your earned Rank Points. Of course, you’ll get rewards for climbing the ranks. However, and the end of the season Rank Points are partially reset.
You will also earn Victory Points for every match won and those will determine your place on the global Rush leaderboard.
Facilities
As mentioned above, Clubs mode is meant to give players a more realistic experience and that’s why Facilities were introduced. With Facilities, you’ll be in charge of hiring club staff, building special training rooms, and more.
Every Facility can be upgraded, and depending on that level, Attributes for all clubmates will be enhanced. The highest Facility levels can even unlock and increase PlayStyles or PlayStyles+ for the whole team, so you’ll want to keep on top of it.
However, you’ll be tied to a budget. The more your Club’s popularity grows, the more fans you’ll have, and the bigger budget you’ll have to spend.
League Relegation
Relegation is back in Clubs, giving players a bigger challenge this season, but EA has added a new system to keep things fresh.
It consists of giving each club a certain amount of chances upon entering the division, sort of as a buffer to avoid relegation. Once you’re out of chances, then you’ll enter a Relegation Battle, a high-stake one-off match that will determine whether your Club stays or falls from its current Division.
To keep it fair, you’ll be matched against a club of similar skill and if you win, you’ll secure your divisional status and also reset your chances.
Cosmetics, Customization & Club Store
Aside from the implementation of the new Cranium Technology that allows you to create more realistic avatars, you’ll also have access to a wide array of new cosmetics in the Club Store. These include hairstyles, headwear, facial hair, tattoos, boots, accessories, and more.
You’ll also be able to enhance the atmosphere of your stadium with new Stadium Bundles, Club Kits, Tifos, and Trophies to make your arena unique. These cosmetics are all purchased with Club Coins that are earned via gameplay.
Height, Matchmaking & more
After going through the community’s feedback, EA Sports decided to implement some smaller changes to Clubs mode to improve balance and overall gameplay.
These include a maximum height for all Virtuals Pros of 6’5″ or 195.58 cm. Also, Goalkeepers will have more accurate PlayStyles, matchmaking will prioritize finding Clubs with similar Skill Ratings, and players will be able to send predetermined messages during matches through the Quick Chat feature.
Those are all the changes coming to EA FC 25’s game modes. Even though the top 50 players have been revealed, don’t forget to search for hidden stars among the fastest players available, as well as the best loan players and the ultimate wonderkids before building your ideal team.
