Guide · 5 min read

When to play Bench Boost and Free Hit

These are the two chips whose value depends almost entirely on the fixture list. Get the week right and either can be worth a month of good transfers. Get it wrong and you've spent a chip for a handful of points.

Doubles and blanks

A normal gameweek gives every club one fixture. When matches are postponed and rearranged, usually because of cup rounds, a club can end up with two fixtures in one gameweek, or none. A double gameweek means players from that club can score twice. A blank gameweek means they score nothing, and if you own several of them you may struggle to field eleven.

These weeks are where Bench Boost and Free Hit earn their place. Both chips have a first-half version that must be played by gameweek 19 and a second-half version available from gameweek 20; the full windows are in Every FPL chip explained. Most rearranged fixtures fall in the second half, because that's when postponements have accumulated, so the second-half chips are the ones you plan around.

Bench Boost: what it's worth

Bench Boost adds your four substitutes' points to your total. Nothing more, nothing less. So the value of the chip is just the sum of what those four score, and the question is how to make that number as big as possible.

In an ordinary week a bench built the usual way, a second goalkeeper and three cheap outfielders, might score 2, 1, 3 and 2: eight points. Play the chip there and you've gained eight. In a double gameweek where all four have two fixtures, the same bench might score 6, 4, 8 and 3: twenty-one. The chip is worth nearly three times as much, from the same players.

The conditions to look for, in order of importance: all fifteen players have a fixture, because one blank on the bench wastes a quarter of the chip; as many as possible have two; and all fifteen are fit and likely to start, because a substitute who doesn't play scores nothing and nobody comes on for a bench player. That last condition is why Bench Boost is so often paired with a Wildcard the week before. You build fifteen players with doubles, then boost them.

The gameweek 1 question

In the first gameweek of this season, over 814,000 managers played Bench Boost; the chip counts for every finished gameweek are on the gameweek pages. The case for it is real. Before the season starts you have unlimited changes, so all fifteen players are genuinely your picks, all are fit, and the first-half chip has to be used by gameweek 19 anyway. If you don't expect a double before then, a well-built gameweek 1 bench is a reasonable spot.

The case against is the one you'd expect. A gameweek 1 bench scores a normal single-fixture total, and you've given up any chance of a first-half double. Whether that trade is right depends on whether you think a better week will appear before gameweek 19. Most first halves don't produce one. Some do.

Free Hit: what it's worth

Free Hit lets you build any squad you like for one gameweek, after which your original team returns untouched. Its value is the gap between what your real squad would have scored and what the borrowed one does. In a normal week that gap is small, a few points from swapping fixtures, and you've wasted the chip. In an extreme week it can be enormous.

The clearest use is a blank gameweek. Suppose only six of your eleven starters have a fixture. Fielding six players who average 4 points gives you 24, plus whatever auto-subs from a thin bench manage. A Free Hit squad of eleven players who all have fixtures, averaging 4.5, gives you 50. The chip has been worth around 26 points and, just as importantly, has saved you from taking hits to patch a team you'd only need for one week.

The second use is a double gameweek you don't want to commit to permanently. If a big double lands but the doubling clubs aren't ones you'd want long-term, a Free Hit lets you load up on them for the week and get your own squad back afterwards.

Putting them in sequence

The classic second-half pattern uses three chips across three or four gameweeks. Wildcard before the biggest double, building fifteen players who all play twice. Bench Boost on the double itself. Free Hit on the blank that usually sits nearby, since the rearranged fixtures that create a double are the ones that left a hole somewhere else. Managers who pull this off cleanly can pick up fifty or more points on a rival who doesn't, and nothing else in the game moves a mini-league that fast.

The pattern only works if you keep the chips. Every Bench Boost played in a normal week for eight points, every Free Hit spent to dodge one bad fixture, is a chip that isn't there when the real week comes.

When not to play them

Don't Bench Boost when a substitute is doubtful; a zero from one of the four is a quarter of the chip gone. Don't Bench Boost when your bench is the usual cheap fodder and the week is ordinary, because eight points is not what the chip is for. Don't Free Hit to avoid one hit; a hit costs 4, a chip can be worth 30. And don't hold a first-half chip so long it expires. A mediocre week beats no week.

The Rivalry Report scores chip usage for both managers, meaning what each chip returned in the week it was played, so you can see who's been timing them well. Compare two managers and check.