FIFA 16: how to build your FIFA Ultimate Team and earn coins

You're going to want to earn coins quickly to build your FIFA Ultimate Team. This is where you should focus in the early stages of your career.

With the release of FIFA 16 comes an improved FIFA Ultimate Team online mode. You're going to want to get off to a good start, so allow us to kick things off with some tips and methods to build an ultimate team without resorting to spending real-world cash unless absolutely necessary.

Bronze, Silver, Gold

FIFA Ultimate Team ranks players as Bronze, Silver and Gold. When you enter the mode for the first time you'll be able to name your team. After that, study your randomly generated roster of players. It's the Gold members you want to be watching. Get to know their skill sets as they will stand out as early leaders on the team, and you're going to want to build the rest of the team around them.

Players ranked 0-64 will be on Bronze cards, those ranked 65-74 are on Silver cards and the top tier ranked 75-99 are on Gold. This makes it easy to keep track of and identify your best players.

Start with chemistry

One of the most important aspects of FUT is chemistry - how team members get along with one another. When you view your active squad you'll see players connected to neighbouring players with a coloured line - either red, yellow or green. A green line means they get on well and have good chemistry. A yellow line means they have a little less chemistry but may have similar attributes. A red line means they have poor chemistry.

Chemistry is based on a number of factors, all of which appear logical. Nationality, the clubs they play for and the leagues they play in all contribute. A lack of chemistry will see your squad suffer from poor communication and a breakdown of defense. You can save time by using the player preview tool, which will show you how a particular player will affect your starting line of of 11 players, rather than swapping players in and out to find the best chemistry.

Earning coins

You begin the FIFA Ultimate Team mode with 500 coins. Once you're familiar with your roster, head on over to the Store and to Browse Packs. Open the complimentry packs you have to get started. You want to sort your assets here. Go to Quick Sell to get rid of any players you're comfortable are not going to work with your roster, and you'll earn a few coins. Keep any high ranking players using the Send to Club option, and separate the consumable assets, such as managers, stadiums and kits.

Don't be too quick to Quick Sell your consumables as FIFA recommends activating consumables that may boost your fitness rating, for example.

Now you're going to need coins. To earn coins you'll have to compete in matches, tournaments and drafts. Start in a single player session and start earning what you can, and use these to boost your FIFA Ultimate Team.

FIFA Points

Aside from playing the long game to earn coins, you can head to the store and buy FIFA Points for real-world currency. FIFA Points are used to buy Silver and Gold packs and to enter FUT tournaments. It can be quicker to buy better players, but understand the cost before doing so. Early on with FUT you might be better off just playing the game and getting to know the changes from last year before shelling out your hard earn cash too soon.

FIFA 16 single player modes

You have four options here; Single Player Season, Single Player Draft, Single Player Tournament, Team of the Week

• Single Player Season: you play in leagues of 10 game seasons, winning coins for match bonuses.
• Single Player Tournaments: You can select from four ladders of 16 teams in the Road to the Finals atmosphere. Players gain coins and FIFA points as rewards.
• Single Player Draft: players are in a fantasy draft, selecting one per round from a crop of five players at each position. Once the team is complete, the objective is four consecutive wins to grab the top prizes and assets.
• Team of the Week: Beat the Team of the Week in the single player menu for more unlocks.
• You can also earn extras by completing assorted Manager Tasks in the My Club tab.

When you're feeling pretty confident that you have a good enough FUT and you've bagged enough coins, you'll want to take your team online. You want a tight team with player skillsets that compliment one another. Again, make sure your players have good chemistry and high skills. It may take a while but the single-player grind eventually pays off.

Go into the Squad tab and use Concept Teams to try out on a virtual pitch. You can see here how your dream team might work. Work out their positions and check the chemistry . This is vital to see what will work and what won't.

Extra tips:

Start with single player and aim to take on challenges that are a little out of your comfort zone. The higher the challenge the bigger the reward, but don't play modes you're not able to win on.

Remember to keep checking chemistry because it's essential. Match players by country, club and league.

Players gain coins and assets for match achievements, so play to the very last whistle in order to hit the criteria.

Save coins from seasons, leagues and drafts and buy players with good chemistry.

Try out the FUT Draft mode to to pull together a fantasy squad. Win four consecutive matches and you'll take a top prize home.

We'll have more FIFA Ultimate Team and FUT Draft features coming this week