FC24, for the first time in Ultimate Team history, will introduce a player evolution mechanic. It’ll mean that players can boost their own club legends and receive unique cards, completely different to another player’s version of the same card.
Part of Ultimate Team’s charm has always been the personal nature of squads. No two are the same, with players able to throw together so many different card combinations, campaign players and hybrids that it has long felt naturally independent. That’s about to grow in FC24, with the devs confirming the implementation of a new ‘Evolution’ feature.
FC24 Ultimate Team Evolution Feature
It’ll mean that players can select players to put into ‘Evolution Paths’. This will trigger a series of objectives that span FC24’s life cycle. Completing the objectives upgrades aspects of your player.
We don’t yet have an exhaustive list of the aspects of a player that can be evolved, but OVR, skill moves, position, Playstyle+ and specific stats were all mentioned by developers as potential upgrades.
An example of Virgil Van Dijk was shown, transformed from a base gold CB card into a box-to-box CM. Similarly, Youssoufa Moukoko was used as an example, moving from 69 OVR to 77 OVR and then all the way up to 85 OVR.
Senior Producer Garreth Reeder explained: “Evolutions is a new feature in Ultimate Team that lets you upgrade player ratings, skills, positions and the items themselves. So you put players from your club into Evolution Paths, complete in-game challenges with those players to get permanent upgrades… [It’s] giving you the power to choose and upgrade your own players.”
Putting players into Evolution Paths makes them ‘in-progress players’. They will begin at Evolution Level 1 then Level 2, and so on.
We do not know the exact nature of the challenges and objectives players need to complete but, for the Youssoufa Moukoko example, his Level 1 Evolution Challenges were to: score 2 goals with the player and play 2 games with the player in Squad Battles or Rivals. This would give Moukoko a +5 in Pace and a +5 in Dribbling.
The devs hinted that the Evolution feature will match up with in-game seasons, suggesting that players can progress through one Level per season. This was not confirmed, though.
Producer Jean Tether also confirmed that campaign and promo players can be evolved as well. She said: “So it’s not just about taking regular players and upgrading. For our competitive Ultimate Team fans you’ll want to know our special and campaign items can be upgraded too.”
The example given was Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, whose concept TOTW item was upgraded to receive a Playstyle+ (another new FC24 feature). The Evolution system will also include “cosmetic upgrades”, with players’ evolved cards looking – as well as playing – differently to others.
In the words of Reeder, it adds an element of “pure fun and personality” to specific players’ squads. The beauty of Ultimate Team is that your squad is your own. In FC24, your players are too.
That’s everything there is to say about Evolutions in FC24 Ultimate Team. For everything else EA’s upcoming football title, stick with us right here.
