Free Hit Chip in FPL: Everything You Need to Know

Free Hit is the one-week escape hatch. It lets you rebuild your entire squad for a single gameweek, then hands you your original team back straight after, no long-term commitment, no lasting damage if it doesn’t work out. Here’s exactly how it works.

What Is the Free Hit Chip in FPL?

Like Wildcard, Free Hit gives you unlimited free transfers within your normal budget. The difference is what happens afterward: once that gameweek is over, your squad automatically reverts back to whoever you had before you played the chip. It’s built for exactly one gameweek and nothing more.

That makes it the tool for a single unusual week, a Blank Gameweek where half your squad has no fixture, a Double Gameweek you want to load up on without disrupting your actual team, or a one-off injury crisis, rather than a genuine long-term squad rebuild.

How To Use Your Free Hit in FPL

Go to the Transfers page and activate Free Hit before making changes, then transfer as many players as you like, same budget and squad rules as normal, just without the usual 4-point hit. Confirm your transfers to lock it in for that gameweek only.

Once confirmed, Free Hit cannot be cancelled, so it’s worth being sure before you activate it. Any free transfer you’d banked beforehand is preserved and still there waiting for you the following week, since none of the Free Hit transfers actually touch your real squad.

The Rules

• You get one Free Hit per half of the season, so two in total: one before the Gameweek 19 deadline, one after.
• Chips don’t carry over. An unused first Free Hit is lost once Gameweek 19 passes.
• Transfers made under Free Hit are free, however many you make, and any existing points hits are cleared when you activate it.
• Your squad automatically reverts to what it was before Free Hit the following gameweek. You don’t need to manually transfer anyone back.
• Your banked free transfer, if you had one, is untouched and still available afterward.
• Only one chip can be active per gameweek.
• Once confirmed, it cannot be cancelled or undone.

When to Use Your Free Hit

Free Hit is at its best in a Blank Gameweek, when a chunk of Premier League teams don’t play due to cup fixtures or postponements, and a big part of your normal squad has no match that week. Rather than scrambling to patch a squad full of non-players with normal transfers, Free Hit lets you field a full strong XI just for that week, then return to your actual squad once the fixture list normalises.

It also works well in a Double Gameweek, loading up on players with two fixtures that week, or as an emergency response to a run of bad injury news that’s hit several of your players at once and would otherwise take multiple hits to fix properly.

The key distinction from Wildcard is commitment. If the changes you want to make are ones you’d be happy keeping for the rest of the season, Wildcard is the better tool since it’s permanent and you keep the squad you build. If it’s genuinely a one-week problem, a Blank Gameweek, a specific Double Gameweek play, Free Hit is the cheaper option since you get your real squad back afterward with nothing lost.

Common Mistakes

The most common mistake is using it like a Wildcard, building a squad you actually wanted to keep, only to have it vanish the following week. If you’re building toward the future rather than solving a one-off week, Wildcard is almost always the right chip instead.

The other mistake is playing it too cautiously in a Blank Gameweek, filling the squad with safe, cheap players who are guaranteed to play but unlikely to score much, rather than using the one-off nature of the chip to take a swing on players with strong underlying form and a good matchup that week.

Free Hit FAQs

Will I lose my normal squad if I play Free Hit? No. Your real squad is untouched underneath, it comes straight back the gameweek after Free Hit.

Can I bank a free transfer while using Free Hit? Yes, any free transfer you had saved beforehand carries over normally to the following week.

Is Free Hit better than Wildcard for a Blank Gameweek? Generally yes, since a Blank Gameweek is a one-off problem rather than something you want to build a squad around long-term. Save Wildcard for changes you actually want to keep.

Can I cancel Free Hit after activating it? No, once confirmed it can’t be undone, so double-check your transfers before locking it in.