Complete Newbie - confused about chemistry

Hi all,

I'm completely new to Madden and also to the sport of football. I understand the basic rules so far and can't wait until season kick-off to watch more games and learn more.

Regarding the game, I'm a bit confused about chemistry. Is there a guide that explains how that works?
In my line up, I see the logos of the teams and a number, I guess that's how many players of that team are in my line up. But what does that actually mean?

I used to play FIFA a few years back and there was a line between the players (green, orange, or red depending on the chemistry between the players) and there was a bar that showed the overall chemistry (e.g. 93%). Is there something similar in Madden. How do I know what level chemistry my team has?

Thank you and sorry for annoying newbie questions. I tried ChatGPT first but it's not useful at all, it even provides basic information completely wrong like players ratings.

Hey man, welcome.

So it’s different from the fifa system (which has also changed).

Firstly there is team chemistry. That is about putting as many players as you can together in your lineup to get attribute and overall boosts. If you go to your binder and select a card, you can R1 until you get to an upgraded tab. If you go down the screen and select the team logo it will show you what boosts you get for the number of players you have in your lineup. Max boost is 60 players. All offensive and defensive players add one (unless their card specifically says more) kicker and punter add one and long snapper adds two. Boosts only apply to the players in that team. This is known as theme team chemistry.

There are also several chemistry strategy items you can add in your lineup screen. Go to lineup and scroll down the menu on the left and you will see the slots.

There is a team affinity one where you can add a team badge that again adds chem to your theme team chem. then you have a few position groups such as offensive line, defensive backs etc where you can add strategy items that apply attribute boosts to those specific players in your lineup regardless of what team chemistry they have, and then finally you have a promo strategy slot. Each time a new promo drops they also usually drop strategy cards you can use to boost players. You get these strategy cards from objectives, packs and the auction house.

I hope that helps a bit. Feel free to pm me with any madden questions, it can be a steep learning curve.

Thanks a lot!

For clarification:

"That is about putting as many players as you can together in your lineup to get attribute and overall boosts."
As many players as possible from the same team, right?

"If you go down the screen and select the team logo it will show you what boosts you get for the number of players you have in your lineup."
It says "Unlock Chemistry Slot by purchasing Tier upgrade" but there is no button to purchase it. Where can I purchase it and is it a one time purchase for the whole game or do I have to purchase it for each card?

"Feel free to pm me with any madden questions, it can be a steep learning curve."
Thank you so much. I'll keep it in the forum as long as I think it could also benefit other new players but if something special comes up I'm happy to pm you, thanks!

spacelion2529 said:

Thanks a lot!

For clarification:

"That is about putting as many players as you can together in your lineup to get attribute and overall boosts."
As many players as possible from the same team, right?

"If you go down the screen and select the team logo it will show you what boosts you get for the number of players you have in your lineup."
It says "Unlock Chemistry Slot by purchasing Tier upgrade" but there is no button to purchase it. Where can I purchase it and is it a one time purchase for the whole game or do I have to purchase it for each card?

"Feel free to pm me with any madden questions, it can be a steep learning curve."
Thank you so much. I'll keep it in the forum as long as I think it could also benefit other new players but if something special comes up I'm happy to pm you, thanks!

1. exactly. there are also players that have all 32 team chems on it. like the field pass season 1 players. once upgraded to at least 81 you can put every team chem you want on them. You can also activate any team chemistry from the teams where they have played before at 80+ players. https://www.mut.gg/theme-teams/

it also gives boosts if you have players from a current programm in your lineup. for example 5+ preseason standouts players.

2. you need to go one line up on the player item where you can unlock the chemistry for 5 training points. you only need to do this to activte team chem from a former team.

Thanks!

I got now more than 50 players from the Lions. Then I created 2 lineups and used the "Generate Best Lineup" tool. For the first Lineup I chose "Team Overall" and for the second "Chemistry".
For "Team overall" the tool created a lineup with 16 Lions players, for "Chemistry" is created a lineup with only 15 Lions players. Now I'm even more confused lol. I was expecting a lineup full of Lions players + players that played for the Lions before (I changed their chemistry already to Lions).

spacelion2529 said:

Thanks!

I got now more than 50 players from the Lions. Then I created 2 lineups and used the "Generate Best Lineup" tool. For the first Lineup I chose "Team Overall" and for the second "Chemistry".
For "Team overall" the tool created a lineup with 16 Lions players, for "Chemistry" is created a lineup with only 15 Lions players. Now I'm even more confused lol. I was expecting a lineup full of Lions players + players that played for the Lions before (I changed their chemistry already to Lions).

The uhhh Madden "auto" team building tools often leave a lot to be desired.  These are great for getting a general idea of what you want to do, but you'd almost certainly want to modify that yourself.  For example, if you were to check out the Specialists tab, you'd probably notice that the entire D-line is populated with the exact same card.  Your best defensive line player will potentially be placed at RRE (Rush Right End), RDT (Rush Defensive Tackle) and RLE (Rush Left End).

This is all good and fine, you can have edges playing DT, without any penalty (or vice versa) -- but there are formations where this matters and many where it does not.  Will just take some trial and error... but be wary if you trust anything the game suggests.  Especially play calls, i would almost NEVER accept the suggested plays, they're typically not great and regularly will see the same handful of stuff over and over and over.

Start with "Generate Best" then make your adjustments from that base.  Getting to 60/60 total Lions theme team players will get you the full compliment of boosts.  Keep an eye out for rotating theme team specific (for example, the flavor of the week right now is Preseason Standouts, last week (during pre-release) was Pregame Access whatever, having 18/18 of these specific theme team players gave us all +1 SPD and +1 ACC, which at this early stage in the game are potentially THE most important stats across the majority of your position groups.

If you invest some time building out your roster using the wonderful Lineup Builder feature, you can then post a link and ask the community for suggestions and it becomes significantly more easy to discuss your moves.

EDIT:  For example, here's the lineup i'm working on, this feature just landed this week (possibly overnight/today): https://www.mut.gg/26/lineup-builder/548818c1-41f2-4a2a-b34b-606da5e0deda/