One of the biggest changes between FIFA 22 and FIFA 23 is in the way that the Pro Clubs mode is set up.
In FIFA 23, EA merged Volta with Pro Clubs, and your avatar’s progress across these two game modes is now synchronized.
Also, the number of levels that you can attain as you earn XP was increased from 25 to 100, and the number of skill points that you can gain from maxing out the levels has jumped from 100 to 185.
However, if you’re looking to get your avatar in FIFA 23 to a 99 rating, you still need to lower those expectations a tad. The next best thing is to try and improve your player into the mid-90s, and this guide offers tips to help you achieve that.
Let’s get into it!
Choosing The Right Build
Even before you get into the game properly, the way you build your avatar has a significant impact on their starting attributes and overall ability.
For instance, if you were building a left winger, and you choose to make him heavyset and very tall, his stats for pace will be worse off than if you built a smaller player with less weight.
We all know that pace is the meta in FIFA games, and the Pro Clubs game mode is no different. If you’re going to be a winger, then you want to make sure that your avatar’s starting pace stats are as high as possible.
In that example, it would be beneficial to have a look at the best winger build if you’re unsure how to proceed. If you’re building a player in another position, there are guides that cover those too.
Obviously, if you were building a center-back, a taller player would be the smart idea to boost those attributes for aerial ability and strength. However, you should still try to keep that height at a reasonable level so you don’t lose too much agility and balance.
Apply this logic to whichever position you want and you should be good.
Leveling Up Your Pro
I mentioned earlier that the highest achievable level in FIFA Pro Clubs is up to 100 from 25 in the previous year’s version.
It means that you level up faster in FIFA 23, although it would still take longer overall to achieve the maximum level. However, it is also a bit easier to gain XP which is a welcome change.
There are multiple effective ways to level up fast in FIFA 23 Pro Clubs, and you should know about these before getting started so you don’t miss any important bits of information.
There was even a glitch early in the game cycle that players took advantage of to achieve the maximum level within a couple of hours. That glitch has since been patched, but it takes the fun out of the game anyway in my opinion.
Each time you climb up a new level in FIFA 23 Pro Clubs mode, you’re given skill points that you can assign to your skill tree to boost specific attributes and earn perks and archetypes.
You have three slots for perks, and the first one is unlocked right from level 1. As you progress through the levels, you will unlock the other two and be able to use them too. You can also swap out and replace perks that you’ve unlocked in the three available slots.
These perks and archetypes also offer temporary and permanent attribute boosts, and generally affect the way that your pro plays in-game. The best perks in FIFA 23 are determined by the position that you play in, so be sure to familiarize yourself with each one.
Assigning Skill Points
If you’re familiar with the skill tree in Career Mode, the one in FIFA 23 Pro Clubs works just about the same way.
There are several categories that you can invest skill points into to boost specific attributes, and these boosts in turn affect your player’s overall rating. When you invest the maximum number of skill points in a particular branch of the tree, you can earn an archetype for your player.
When assigning skill points, you need to pay close attention to the attributes that are most important for the position that your pro plays.
As I suggested earlier, pace is meta across multiple positions, but there are other areas such as shooting, defending, passing, dribbling, and physical that have varying levels of importance determined by position too.
Even if you choose the right build when creating your avatar, you will not achieve a 90+ rating at the max level if you don’t invest your skill points in the right areas.
As a template, consider the following:
- Defending and Physical attributes are important for defensive players
- Passing and Dribbling attributes are important for midfielders
- Shooting, Dribbling/Physical attributes are important for forwards. The decision to focus on either dribbling or physical attributes depends on your preferred style of play, and whether you play on the wings or up front as the main striker.
Playing Games
“Playing games” gets its own section because it is arguably the best long-term way to earn XP in FIFA 23 Pro Clubs Mode.
The Skill Games that were newly introduced are nice, but you can only earn a maximum of 2000 XP per week from those.
There is no such limit when it comes to playing actual games, so the amount of XP you earn completely depends on how much time you can afford to spend on the game and how well you perform in those games.
Generally, playing with friends is the most exciting part of Pro Clubs. However, if you don’t have any friends to play with, you can join a random team of random players in the “Drop-In” mode.
Each action that you perform in each game affects your match rating, which in turn affects the amount of XP that you earn at the end of the match.
This, in my opinion, is the reason why the Drop-In mode should be a last resort. You have to hope that your team’s players are willing to pass the ball to you.
Unfortunately, FIFA 23 Pro Clubs mode does not support cross-play. This also severely limits your chances of playing with friends if you’re not on the same platform as them, and it also reduces your options in terms of the pool of players available to play with or against.
If you consistently play very well and often, you should level up quickly and earn all the 185 skill points that you need to build that 90+ rated pro. It’s not quite 99, but it’s still pretty good!