Massive changes are ahead in Ultimate Team, as EA Sports has now put the speculations to rest ahead of FC 26's official launch.
The latest patch notes contain all significant changes to the popular mode and its contents. This includes tweaks to rewards, seasons, tournaments, and much more.
Table of contents
All FC 26 Ultimate Team Launch Update announcements
Ultimate Team officially launches on Sept. 17 with the launch of the Web App, followed by the Companion App. However, you can play starting on Sept. 19, when early access for Ultimate Edition owners goes live.
Here's what you can expect for the first week if you have early access.
- Team of the Week 1 and 2
- Evolutions
- World Tour and Squad Foundations releases
- Flashback SBC
- Showdown SBCs
- Opportunities to earn Season Points
The first official promo begins on Sept. 26 with the launch of Cornerstones, a new promo making its debut this year. In simpler terms, early access players won't have any promo cards to get from the pack (barring TOTW).
Power Curve changes
There will be changes to the general power curve regarding rewards and sustainability of lower-rated items.
- Rare Golds, Icons, and Heroes will mark the benchmark for top squads. The overall upgrades provided to certain cards, like Showdown, will be nerfed from +2 to +1.
- Promos will remain weekly, but the boosts will be more lateral on average. There will be exceptions to this rule, like Black Friday, TOTY, and TOTS. Boosts to promo cards between periods will be much more measured than last year.
- The same tuning and power curve will apply to all rewards from different modes.
- Boosts provided by Chemistry modifiers have been nerfed to a 3/6/9-point boost system compared to the older 4/8/12 system.
- Pace-heavy modifiers will be more of a choice as boosting your speed will have heavy trade-offs.
Seasons
Seasons will continue like in FC 25, but with some changes. Every season will center around historic International tournaments, and we will journey across different eras. Season 1 will focus on the English side of 1966, when they went on to win the FIFA World Cup.
Players will be able to earn special cards from divisions in the UK. Some cards will be available via the Season Pass (both Standard and Premium), along with World Tour: Silver Superstars.
Silver Superstars
We will be able to get Silver-level Icons and Heroes who are remembered for their performances in specific tournaments. You can obtain them from season-long objectives, Live Events, and more. These cards will have adjusted stats, but they should still be fun.
Game modes and reward changes
To manage the power curve and accommodate the environment of Live Events, rewards across all modes will be changed. For example, the rewards for getting Rank 1 in Champions have been significantly nerfed. You can expect this trend across rewards from every mode.
- 85,000 Coins
- 2x current Campaign Guarantee (Untradeable)
- 3x 83+ TOTW Player Pack
- 3x 88+ Rare Gold Player Pack
- 10x 84+ Rare Gold Players Pack
- 10x 83+ Rare Gold Players Pack
- 10x 84+ Rare Gold Players Pack (Untradeable)
Similarly, Advanced SBCs will be easier to complete and will drop gradually across the cycle. They will now be separate from the Foundation SBCs and available in Challenges.
Evolutions
Evolutions will be focused more on boosting the stats of bottom and middle-tier items to keep the power curve in check. You'll be able to take cards through many evolutions to take them to the next level, but the process will be slow.
Evolutions will aim to help increase your club depth, which will be helpful in modes like Gauntlet. Certain Evolutions can also be repeated, and a cooldown will be applied once you complete the previous run. As announced, you'll be able to retain the core designs of cards after you evolve them if the upgrades are minor.
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The post FC 26 Ultimate Team Launch Update patch notes – Economy rebalance, Silver Stars, and more appeared first on Destructoid.
