22/03/2024 You can no longer complete this challenge in FIFA 21 because the limited-time challenge has now expired and the game’s servers have since been taken offline.
In FIFA 21, Squad Building Challenges undeniably became an integral part of FIFA Ultimate Team. Introduced initially as a way to trade in the dead wood from your club, they became one of the best methods to get some coins in the bank in the early stages of a FIFA title.
FIFA 21 was no different in that regard, and saw one of the FIFA community’s arch nemeses return to the League and Nation Hybrid set: The Puzzle Master SBC. This conundrum pushed FIFA players’ squad-building abilities to the limit as its 11 players had to hail from nine different countries and play in seven different leagues. Oh, and the squad had to be 82-rated, which was a tall order for many players at the start. It had long been notorious for causing massive frustration, as this was not an SBC you could just throw coins at to complete – loyalty was also needed, meaning you had to either pack some of the players or play them in ten games of FUT.
Unfortunately, the FIFA 21 servers have since been taken offline, disabling Ultimate Team, so this challenge can no longer be completed.
League and Nation Hybrid SBC set
The multi-league, multi-nation hybrids in this set could be a bit tricky to get your head around but weren’t too much hassle once you knew the formula. One thing that could have caught you out was the squad ratings in Advanced, Fiendish, and Puzzle Master, so it was always worth making a concept squad to check that the players you were thinking of using added up to the required squad rating.
A general tip for completing these was to be aware of club chemistry links. These helped increase chemistry links while using players from different nationalities. Since you had to fuse so many leagues and nations together in Fiendish and Puzzle Master, strong links were key, as the chances of you making a nice flowing hybrid with everyone on high chemistry were, well, nonexistent.
FIFA 21 Puzzle Master SBC solutions
So, how did we crack this mind-bending Puzzle Master SBC? Well, unfortunately, you had to rely on some loyalty. It was impossible to solve Puzzle Master without at least seven players having a loyalty bonus.
There were a couple of slight variations when it cames to the shape of your squad, but essentially you needed:
- Five players on nine chemistry
- Five players on six chemistry
- One player on three chemistry
- Seven of those players to have a loyalty bonus
It didn’t matter which players in the squad had the loyalty bonus.
The key to this method was having a triangle of players from the same club in the ST and CM positions. This gave you three players straight away on nine chemistry (ten with loyalty bonus). All of them should have been from different countries too, to help bump the nationality count up.
Then it was a case of making some links between the RM and RW and then the LM and LW, with one side of the team also linking down to a CB.
Related: FIFA 21 First XI SBC solutions without position changes
That left two more CBs and the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper should have had a regular orange link to one of the CBs, while the other CB was the lone three-chemistry player. This player did not need to link to anyone, so this was usually a good option for a high-rated player from a less common nation/league.
Here is an example of how we solved the Puzzle Master SBC. The chemistry being shown is slightly inflated as the concept squad builder automatically applies loyalty bonuses to all players, but it worked with just seven loyal players. This was a relatively cheap solution that cost between 22,000 and 25,000 coins, depending on player prices.
- GK: Hradecky
- CB: Fonte, Matip, and S. Bender
- RM: Salvio
- CM: Rabiot and Ramsey
- LM: Rafa
- RW: Ocampos
- ST: Morata
- LW: Everton
However, there were many player variations you could try, so the best practice was to go through your club and identify any high-rated players you thought would work in the positions of the 3-4-3 formation.
The trickiest and least changeable part of this SBC was the left side. There were only two viable options if you did not want to use Position Change consumables. They were: Everton, Rafa, and Jose Fonte (as pictured above) or Alexis Sanchez, Perisic, and Corluka.
So that’s the pretty foolproof method of cracking the Puzzle Master SBC in FIFA 21 that we used. As with all of these challenges, we were very thankful for the concept squad option to make an optimal team easier to plan.