EA Sports College Football 25 has brought collegiate football back to the virtual world for the first time in more than 10 years, and that means even the most hardened NCAA veterans might have a little rust to shake off.
To help you hit the ground running, here are some of our best EA Sports College Football 25 beginner’s tips for you to keep in mind as you’re starting out, whether you’re jumping into your first big Dynasty or collecting the best cards possible in Ultimate Team.
Choose your favorite team
When you first start up College Football 25, the game will prompt you to select your favorite team. While this will mostly affect the look of the main menu, and which school the game starts you on in the team select screen, it also has a bonus in Ultimate Team.
To get you started in Ultimate Team, the game will generate a fresh squad for you that includes several players from your favorite team. While this might make it seem like you should pick the best team you can, they’ll all result in a roster that’s a 65 overall, and you’ll quickly replace the players you get from it. So don’t overthink this one; just pick your favorite team and don’t worry too much about the Ultimate Team roster it’ll give you.
Start with some Ultimate Team challenges first
Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts
If you’re a virtual college football veteran, you’re probably itching to jump straight into your first Dynasty. But College Football 25 has a lot of changes from the previous version of the game, and the easiest way to get a handle on those changes is through Ultimate Team’s Challenges, even if you don’t plan on spending much time in the mode overall.
More specifically, you should run through the Ultimate Team 101 Challenges as soon as you start the game. These will feel a little basic, but they should help you get used to the new passing mechanics, the newly rebuilt option plays (which use a different control scheme than before), and the new kicking mechanics.
Find your perfect playbook
College Football 25 has more than 100 unique playbooks and 10 different offensive schemes, which can make picking the one you want to use a little daunting. Thankfully, Ultimate Team’s Challenges come in clutch once again with the Offense and Defense Scheme Trials Challenges.
These challenges are designed to give you a taste of each scheme, from Air Raid to Spread Option, as well as show you which teams use each one. This should give you a solid baseline for your first few games, and is a perfect place to start experimenting from.
Jump into some games
All this prepping and planning is great, but at the end of the day, the point of this game is to play it — and that’s a great way to learn, too. Put in a few games with your favorite school, then once you have the hang of things, switch it up and experiment with some other playbooks and NCAA stars.
Experiment with the Switch Stick
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Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts
One of College Football 25’s new features is called the Switch Stick, which allows you to swap players in the defensive secondary with more precision than the one-button switches in previous games. This may not sound like much, but it can actually make a huge difference — for example, if you’re trying to swap to a safety to cut off a route rather than a cornerback who’s already in coverage.
But to make the most of the Switch Stick’s potential, you’re gonna have to experiment with it quite a bit. The best way to do that is just grinding out some games, but you’ll probably give up some embarrassing touchdowns while you’re experimenting, so it’s best to keep these to Play Now.
Start Dynasty mode with a dry run
Dynasty mode is really the star of College Football 25, with all kinds of new additions to the formula that made it great over a decade ago. But with all these new features, the mode is now even more complicated — and there’s a lot to mix up in the menus. After all, if you’re aiming to build a Group of Five conference from the ground up to the College Football Playoffs, the last thing you need is to lose a five-star recruit because you pressed the wrong button in a menu.
That’s why we think you should create a test Dynasty before the one you’re really committing to. Start with a school you don’t care too much about so the mistakes won’t matter to you. You could even start with an existing powerhouse — that way, you get a taste of what it’s like to land recruits and have some pull before you turn it up to hard mode and try turning Old Dominion into a top-ranked program.
Play every Solo Battle you can
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Image: EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts
[Ed. note: Ultimate Team isn’t necessarily for everyone. So if you’re mostly concerned with the Road to Glory and Dynasty modes, you needn’t worry about these next few tips — they’re for Ultimate Team players only.]
Solo Battles in Ultimate Team are a mode that puts you head to head against another player’s Ultimate Team roster. The twist is that it’s played by the computer, not the player that made it. Each Solo Battle grants you more rewards than a regular game against the AI might — like Solo Season games, for instance.
Solo Battles are technically community events that each last about four days. Within that time, everyone plays against the same user-created rosters. New match-ups appear each morning, and you can play four of them a day. Each game earns you Battle Score based on how high the difficulty was, how you played, and whether you won the game. At the end of each four-day event, scores will be totaled, a leaderboard will be created with the top performers, and everyone will get special rewards based on how well they did.
Check in on Sets
Sets are an Ultimate Team mechanic that lets you turn several lower-rated players into a single player with a higher overall rating. You won’t have to worry about this too much early on, but as you upgrade your team, make sure to check in on the Sets menu to see if you can turn any of your old unwanted players into meaningful upgrades.
Buy the Ultimate Team daily recruit pack
You can buy a fresh Recruit Pack for a reduced price every day. The packs only contain low-rated players, but for just 100 UT, they’re worth grabbing each day to fill out your early Sets.
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