Madden NFL Mobile: Tips, Cheats and Strategies

Madden NFL Mobile is EA’s latest attempt to bring the console sports gaming stalwart to mobile devices. There are some card game elements involved as you attempt to build the best possible team of real NFL players, but the action on the field is action-oriented whether you’re playing the game’s Live Events, Season contests or asynchronous Head-to-Head matches.

Though it’s certainly not the most complicated football game ever to take the field, there are a few tips and strategies to keep in mind that will make the climb to gridiron glory a little easier. Fortuitously, we happen to have a list of them on hand …

• Save your coins. This year’s edition of the game is more generous than ever with coins, and while there’s a strong temptation to spend them on packs to take a shot at an Elite player, there are so many other ways to obtain players that you’re better off saving them for special offers in the Store or for use in the Auction House to spend on players or collectibles you really need.
• If you have an unneeded player, check every Set to see if there’s a spot for him. Completing Sets can get you some really nice rewards, so before you use Quick Sell or auction extra players away, use them to fill out Sets first.
• Speed kills. It’s fine to use the Best Lineup button to get your best players into most positions, but when it comes to the people who will be running, receiving or returning the ball, the Speed rating is king. Definitely consider using faster players at WR, HB, KR and PR if other attributes are relatively equal.

• Live Events should dictate what you’re going to do most of the time. That’s because they’re always changing, and many of them only pop up on certain days. Season games will always be there when nothing else is going on, and you only have a limited amount of Stamina. Use it on Live Events when good ones are scheduled.
• Feel free to pick and choose who you want to play in Head-to-Head games. Don’t be bullied; you don’t lose any fans by declining a challenge, so if someone wants to play and it’s obvious they’ve been playing the game 24/7 or spending real money to improve their team, decline the match and don’t even think twice about it. Conversely, the potential rewards for challenging a team much stronger than yours aren’t really that great, so unless you’re just a challenge junkie of some sort, stick to opponents around your overall team rating.
• Call your own plays. Can’t be bothered to run anything but what the game suggests? You’ll regret it, as even after you’ve unlocked most of the playbook (one of the game’s most annoying features, by the way), the AI uses a comically small percentage of your options to pick from in any given down and distance. You’re much better mixing it up and calling stuff on your own.

• It pays to use the Strategy feature for multiplayer games. As you level up, you unlock the ability to defend against more and more specific plays run against you. Since you aren’t controlling the defense when you play Head-to-Head, this represents the only tool you have to make life difficult for the opposing offense. Study the plays that opponents like to run and make sure you have the most common ones in your active slots.
• Go for it on fourth down in Head-to-Head games until you’re in field goal range. Yes, this isn’t realistic. But guess what? Madden NFL Mobile isn’t intended to be a sim. All that matters is scoring on each drive in multiplayer games, so even if it’s 4th-and-15 from your own 10, go for it. Your opponent still has to receive a kickoff when it’s his or her turn.
• The path to the top is a marathon, not a sprint. Here are some truths: you aren’t going to get the collectible you need the majority of the time, playing enough Seasons to get the Playoff and Super Bowl rewards is going to take forever, and some of the Live Events are cruel with how often they give out the best stuff. Get over it. The NFL season is a long one, and this game is sort of like that too.

Nick Tylwalk

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Nick Tylwalk enjoys writing about video games, comic books, pro wrestling and other things where people are often punching each other, regaardless of what that says about him. He prefers MMOs, RPGs, strategy and sports games but can be talked into playing just about anything.