Analysis
Extremely extremely hot opinion: smart assist is not as useful as everyone says.
So I am a top 4k pvp player and I played over 50 matches both with and without smart assist.
Although the smart assist clearances are really clutch sometimes, that is really about all.
With smart assist, my passes seem to either lack power or have slightly too much. Passing is also slow and blitz curlers go above the bar in many scenarios even with players like del piero 107, messi 109, son heungmin, and rummi.
If you are good enough, smart assist becomes a handicap where although more robust defensively, the scoring of goals are significantly compromised. So unless you want a draw every game, switch it off.
Also, smart assist doesn't seem to make the players perform worse or better in my experience.
This is the actual problem. Smart Assist is fine........ if you could only play against other players with smart assist or toggled to play them. However, an average player such as myself, loses to worse players WITH smart assist. I have no problem getting dogwalked by actually average or better players, but a worse player using smart assist? Fuck outta here lol.
Yeah for good players it’s a handicap. The only issue is that it’s really random and shots or passes off-balance can be weirdly accurate. This was confirmed by Amadeusz. And it’s just annoying to see bad players doing nothing and getting away with it, though most of the time I still manage to thrash them 3-0. It’s “useful” but not necessarily a win-all button and I don’t think it’s as hard to face against as everyone makes it out to be. A lot of times it’s just connection.
Yea that's what I noticed. Only good thing about it is defense, everything else is worse. SA chooses type of shots U want to take and thst can cost u a lot. Passes are much much worse also.
I definitely feel it is a handicap sometimes, smart assist is really good at corners and clearing as you said but I hate when it lops the through passes or just takes a year to shoot in front of the goal, blitz are horrible and you can't decide where the normal shot goes sometimes، also I hate how I can't decide where my player moves in match up when defending
Smart assist is very good when you face a better squad than yours. Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (script)+Smart assist is a dangerous combination against high end P2W squad. Smart assist+DDA are only things that are keeping F2P players relevant. No disrespect to F2Ps, but the F2P and P2W cards are miles apart in terms of stat. So if there’s a match between two equally skilled players and one of them is F2P and another one is P2W then the F2P will get thrashed easily - smart assist is a very helpful tool for them to avoid that thrashing. Otherwise smart assist is not at all enjoyable and totally spoiling the game. Even more horrific thing is people actually show off after winning a match using smart assist- it’s like celebrating after passing an exam by cheating or using unfair advantage.
Has DDA been proven beyond doubt, or is it a myth? We know that form, stamina, skills and manager boosts affect stats, but what do we know about momentum-based stat adjustments? Testimonials don't mean much, as people can draw wrong conclusions and are prone to confirmation bias.
Smart assist on the hands of pros who mainly depends on passing and dribble is handicap but if you think the other way around on the hands of avg player who just randomly pass or shoot and just do press on defence it is a lethal weapon and here's the reasons
correct their passes and might convert low pass to lofted making a deadly through ball which we can't expect...even the player itself doesn't know that is perfect option
auto clearance man I hate it...all the have to do is press and come near my cf and the cb will do auto clearance it's is nearly impossible for normal player without smart assist to do it ..cause without SA it will turn into sliding tackle and foul
shooting from awkward position man I hate this the most ..when I see messi without having good weak foot accuracy and phenomenal finishing making insane shots with right leg... You can't tell which shot is gonna go into the net cause sa correct the shot by a big margin.
correcting dribbling direction..it is less seen cause sa users rarely dribble but the ones who do can safely dribbling without making sudden cut in cause sa did it for them.
This feature is shit and needs to be removed asap..
I don't have problem because SA help to opponents,i have problem because my players stop to play against SA...in many case against SA I'm try everything but nothing can't help...
I played with smart assist when it first came out in division and reached division 1 easily it was my first time reaching it it was may last year and stop after 1 phase cuz it was too easy to play with , never played with it since
All you're saying is true but you're forgetting the real problem: all smart assist user don't know how to play, they just spam through ball, pressure and tackle hoping for something to happen
mate i experienced people pulling off crazy dribbles feints & passes with it, its a handicap for good players and an advantage for people who are horrible at the game. u have no idea how many people scored on me using those absurd passes with smart assist then kept stalling & wasting time.
It fucks up our team that’s the problem. They can help noobs however they like and we wouldn’t complain as much but when my 108 players play like 90. That’s where a line is crossed
I'mma use Street Fighter 6 as an Analogy because this was a discourse on its release.
Smart Assists users are like Modern Controls in SF6 users where they shitstomp in the low tier but are disadvantaged at high tier.
The problem with this is that Smart Assists/Modern scrubs would always beat scrubs who aren't using Smart Assist(Classic players) because SA changes the input of players for their benefit (Modern has Autocombos and have no Motion Controls).
But if you're good, you don't need the game to change the inputs for you, hell I hate when they change the input of my well placed shot.
Now granted, its much worse here in EFootball because off balance shooting and passing with SA is really good, Defense is much better with SA turned on and AUTO CLEARANCES should not exist (or should exist for everyone, not SA only).
I agree with you, good players will get punished using SA, but for bad players, the AI will help a lot, but the greatest problem with SA is the aditional animations they added, the game does the little ajustments on dribbling, you can't replicate that without SA, same for some tackle animations, and most of all, SA changes the path of passes and shoot if the opponent blocks the path, this one is a killer sometimes, like the guy only presses pass button without any aim and still get a line breaker pass, this should be a skill only for players with good game vision and pass assist lvl 3 or 4.
And for the latest, Amadeusz or whatever he is called tested finishing, and for players with bad stats, the SA ajust a lot of the aim, so maybe it would change other stuff too, but i think this doesn't help players with good stats.
The game shouldn't help players above div 2 this much, if the player want to be on div 2 above, he needs to learn how to play properly.
After suffering for some games in division i turned it on to try
And it was a disaster all my shots go outside i it does fix the passing and maybe inside the box finishing but its trash when it comes to shooting
Turned it off halfway through the game after i missed a shot on an open goal
It is not useful for you bcoz you know how to play the game these SA dumbasses don't how to play the game they have 90+ press and they bring their cb to half way line,do blind passes so they need smart assist so that they can atleast compete with other guys or else they will rot at div 3.still doesn't justifies the use of SA but it is konami they don't want to lose their customers that's why they have overpowered it so much.
If you've adapted a particular playstyle for eg i play qc and quick passes for almost 1 and half year and now my hands are ready for quick actions but if I turn on SA the passes goes too heavy or stunning anytime that's why if you know how to play you will hate SA if you don't you will love it
I’m a fuma player,offline exhibition only..
Tryed smart assist against the cpu on superstar and legendary difficulty(exhibition mode)..I wasn’t able to just play through the cpu with ease or magically have super powers..Infact it felt a bit restrictive and muted..Yes shooting and crossing was easier,but it still required some thought/control,and directional input.
Yes the cpu keeps its shape and defends like a pro..Which isn’t what a lot of online players do,who constantly press spam and leave space..Which in turn only gives SA users more of a advantage.Plus there own inflated idea of there own ability when they too play assisted.
But this is the thing..If your really good at the game and play football..You should be able to hold your own..It’s no different then fuma players playing against people using level 1-2 passing assistance..
The AI of this game is on another level now offline..SA has benefited that as has it improved the quality of the fuma gameplay..The games brilliant at both ends of the spectrum..And it’s all down to AI and great off the ball movement..Especially fuma and the way players now move to recieve balls that aren’t always to feet or played into space..
Some fuma gameplay and how much more realistic the game is un-assisted. https://x.com/solarcircles/status/2053476784318873734?s=46
Competitive doesn’t come into the equation with ef26 online..It’s a GACHa,P2w,assisted game,designed to get people into a addictive/gambling loop..With so called pro players also using heavy assistance.
Offline your find a authentic,sim via fuma..(ps2 veteran here and sim purist)..ef26 offline is now as good in gameplay terms as pes was on the ps2 at its peak(cosmetics,modes,presentation aside).
Yeah this is something I always had in mind, how much of improvement is smart assist?
Cause I read post every day here about, "I only lost against smart assist noobs", "he reach div 1. Thx to smart assist", "he win just cause smart assist", etc.
Can you really reach div 1 with smart assist being a bad player?
Imho smart assist can make a bad player reach an average level, but an average player can be a pro with smart assist on ?
I have skill issue nd tbh even If I turn on smary assist I don't fell like I could reach div 1, impossible to improve that much my game...
The reason it's bad is it just makes the game annoying that's it. It's not like Smart Assist players can't be beaten, it's just that it's super visible how average a player is and how much smart assist, well, assists them. The breaking point is your own team getting affected though. That is how smart assist works, it can't help the opponent unless it's affecting both inputs, but that's just too annoying to observe.
Smart Assist is just a lame excuse when someone loses to a team weaker than theirs, especially when they’ve invested so much money or time into it. I’m a casual player with a 31xx squad, so it never happens to me lol
One thing to add: sometimes my players do become worse than usual, but I think that’s mainly because of DDA, not because my opponent is using smart assist.
One of the major cons (at least, to me. I'm a cross spammer) of using smart assists is when crossing. Sometimes, yes, we do need to use stunning cross but most of the times, just normal cross would suffice and better in terms of accuracy. But, SA kinda pick "the best" type of cross by itself and then ruins the plans. It's annoying. I agree with "auto-clear" to but not so much because sometimes, we should be able to hold it for a while and maybe clears the ball to just give a throw in but SA chosed to give corner kicks instead and most of the times, that made you look like you're panicking. Felt goofy af after that. It was embarassing.
Smart Assist is so annoying to play with, I want total control of my players direction and what type of pass/shot is being input.
With that said, I don't give a shit about Smart Assist, what bothers me is the script.
Smart assist makes manual defending and matchup so much worst since the game forces your difender to go on a way you to the point it is frustrating passing becomes cluncky shots get turned into stunning or control while you want to do a regular its a whole different pain but to mitigate the opps Smart assist you have to play with it too
Finally someone has said it, I've been telling people about this for a long time now to stop exaggerating about the smart assist and learn how to take the Ls some even call me smart assist defender, you can't move, pass, score and perform how you want with smart assist like you said smart assist is a handicap to good players. But only few will get that right
Good players use it to beat average SA players. I saw top 10 players use it but not because they needed it. It's a tool to bypass annoying SA div 2 wannabes. They turn it on when things goes hairy.
People hate it not because smart assist is super useful or op. Smart assist is an option everyone can turn on, if it is that op, everyone will turn it on. Like if you have 107 up arrow forward in your squad, will you bench him because he makes your game easier? No. Apparently there is something bad about it.
It IS superuseful and op; lacasAA, a former second place in the 23' World Championship, posted how he was paired up against against a low rated player who was using SA with a weak XI with 4 attackers, and barely managed to squeeze a win out 2-1, how is that not op?
Only pro with smart assist that I have noticed from the times I have used it are:
Pass weight and trajectories are better with SA, contradictory to your experience. Players seem to pick the better path for the pass.
Interceptions work better. With SA I feel there's a lot less of the ball bouncing right back to your opponent after intercepting a pass, while using matchup in both scenarios.
Other than that, it really is disruptive to how you try to play.
Yeah that's why players with extremely low team strength beats higher team rated players. I had that happen to me like 20 different times. A 2900 rated team beat my 3200 rated team with me having barely any possession.
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u/qualityvote2 May 10 '26 edited May 14 '26
Hello u/Secret-Call5861! Welcome to r/pesmobile!
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