FIFA 18 Ultimate Team: A beginner's guide

Are you new to FIFA 18 Ultimate Team? In need of help building your squad?

Read on for our simple guide to getting up and running on the latest version of the world’s best football game.

FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) is a collectible card game in which every card is a player that can be added to your team.

The aim is to build a team containing the best possible players you can find, before taking them online to defeat other FIFA Ultimate Team managers.

Successful players will win trophies, boost their reputation and earn more FIFA 18 coins to improve their team even further.

Once you’ve gone through the process of accessing FUT and naming your team, you’re ready to start playing the game.

You’re given a starter pack of 34 cards to build your first squad, in addition to kits and badges to get them out on the pitch in your preferred style.

These players won’t be capable of winning the Champions League for you, so steer clear of playing matches at this stage.

Make sure you complete the early tutorial objectives and spend some time tackling the new Squad Building Challenges. You should be able to successfully navigate enough of these to win those all-important FIFA Coins.

These allow you to improve your team more quickly, but there are ways of gaining these without parting with your hard-earned cash.

There are four categories of packs you can buy for your team – players, staff, consumables and club items.

It’s important to have a good mix of staff and consumables at your teams, as without a good infrastructure your players won’t perform to their potential.

The players themselves are broken down into three basic classes ñ gold, silver and bronze. Your starter pack players will largely contain bronze players, with maybe a silver or two thrown in if you’re lucky.

Planning your first squad is important. You get the option to add a selection of top players to add to your team at the very start, but these are only on loan and for a limited number of games.

FUT rewards players who don’t just assemble a list of big names, but good chemistry.

Players from the same club, league or country will help your team chemistry and that’s really important in the game.

When picking the star player to bring in on loan, make sure you’ve considered these factors before adding them to your team.

A player like Gareth Bale has connections to the Premier League, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, La Liga, Real Madrid and Wales, so could be a useful starting point to build around during his loan spell.

Lay solid team chemistry foundations at the start of the game and you’ll reap the rewards further down the line as you start making improvements as things progress.