Scouting Prospects
If every prospect's rating were fully visible the moment they appeared on your board, recruiting would be sorting a spreadsheet. Instead, an unscouted prospect sits behind a fog of war, and clearing it is part of the game.
What an Unscouted Recruit Actually Shows You
Every prospect always shows an honest star rating — that headline tier is computed from their true talent at generation, so a 3-star recruit is never secretly a disguised 5-star. What you can't trust yet is the fine detail:
- Their overall rating shows only as a range, and that range is deliberately fuzzed — it can run wide of their actual number in either direction.
- Their potential, individual attributes, and personality are all hidden entirely.
Scouting Levels
Scouting a prospect happens in three cumulative steps, each revealing more:
| Level | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| 1 | Every raw attribute becomes exact, their likely position/archetype becomes clear, and their overall-rating range tightens to something trustworthy |
| 2 | Their exact overall rating |
| 3 | Their exact potential, and — critically — their personality |
Upgrading a partially-scouted prospect only costs the difference to the next level, not the full price again, so scouting a promising recruit further as your interest grows is never wasteful.
Some prospects arrive partially pre-scouted — a proven transfer or a well-known blue-chip junior often starts with film already on file — so your scouting budget stretches further on the murkier middle of the board instead of re-confirming what was already obvious.
Two Ways to Scout
- Offseason scouting spends a points budget against the current recruiting class, right before bidding opens. Your points come from your coach's recruiting rating, your program's prestige, and any scouting bonus your staff provides.
- In-season scouting trips send a hired Regional Recruiter out against next year's class, a full season early, giving you a head start on the following cycle. Unlike the offseason points budget, trips cost money out of your NIL Collective, so they compete directly with your other NIL spending. See Support Staff.
Building scouting rapport with a prospect during the season also carries a small bonus into next offseason's bidding — an edge worth chasing for a Loyal personality type in particular. See Recruiting.
See Also
- Recruiting — what happens once bidding opens
- Support Staff — how a Regional Recruiter expands your scouting reach