Do YOU want to be an NBA Hall of Famer? League MVP? Champion?
We all do, and we get the chance to do so in NBA 2k19 MyCareer mode, but it can be a long, long, process. Here are some tips that the pros in the 2k League use, and you can too, to jumpstart your Hall of Fame career.
The first thing you need to do, and what all pros do, is plan ahead from the beginning of your MyCareer:
- Think of some of your favorite NBA players and have an idea of what you want your player to play like. There are a ton of options out there but if you can at least have a player or two in mind, it will help you have a better idea of what you want your player to be like.
- Next, you need to pay attention to the different primary and secondary skills. You can pick two different skills or the same one twice to be “pure” player. I’m going to go into detail about some good builds later, but if you keep the NBA player in mind that you want to play like, this will be easy.
- Know the strengths and weaknesses of the different playstyles. All playstyles are different and you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. When we get into the builds, I’ll discuss what you need to know.
- IMPORTANT: Understand the attribute caps and badges available for each build. When you first make your player, the game will show you the attribute caps and all the badges available to your build before you confirm it. Take the time to check them out and really understand your player.
- Plan with friends. If you plan to play pro-am, figure out what fits with your friend’s playstyles. If your team already has everything but a shooting guard, be a shooting guard. If your team already has 4 scorers, maybe be a rebounder or defender.
- Customize everything. Every part of your player is customizable, and though a lot of it is just visual changes, pay attention when you’re creating your player to what customization options are actually changing your game.
- Wingspan and height can change gameplay drastically. Don’t underestimate these categories. Shorter players with short arms are quicker and can cross you over in a heartbeat. Tall players with a long wingspan dominate on the glass and on defense.
- Have an NBA team in mind that will suit your playstyle and you can start at as soon as possible. If you want to be a point guard, don’t plan to play for the Warriors. Maybe a season or two later you’ll get that starting spot, but you want to maximize your minutes as soon as possible. Play on a team that’s weak in the position you want to play.
The pure slasher is a terror around the rim, but completely lacks shooting ability.
Here are a couple of really good and simple builds that I would recommend. I bet at least one will fit your playstyle. Note that there are A LOT more builds than this and opinions on builds are always changing. I’m not saying these are the best builds, but just some of what I consider to be the most popular.
Shot Creator/Slasher
Think of DeMar DeRozan or Donovan Mitchell—this build is one of the most fun as your player will be able to score at will from almost anywhere. If you love dunking, this is the playstyle for you. Your athletic frame will fly to alley-oops, but still be able to hit a mean fadeaway from inside the arc. This playstyle’s main weakness is the three-point shot and passing, but I bet you won’t miss them as you posterize some of your idols.
Pure Glass Cleaner
Think of Shaquille O’Neal—This build isn’t for everybody, but it’s one of the most effective, especially on online play. You’ll snag rebounds like it’s nobody’s business and have more standing dunks and second chance points than anyone around, and no one’s gonna stop you. The strength of this playstyle is consistency, but the weaknesses are shooting and passing. If you’re willing to sit in the paint all day, you’re gonna put up some big numbers.
Pure Shot Creator
Think of Kobe Bryant—similar to the shot creator/slasher, this build will let you pull up from anywhere you want, at any time. Love making contested jumpshots after breaking two other guys’ ankles? This is the build for you. Its weaknesses are passing and some inconsistency from three, even when maxed out, but within the arc you’ll be lights out.
Playmaking/Sharpshooter
Think of Steve Nash or John Stockton—this build is reminiscent of the more traditional point guard, and if you love to dish the ball, this is the build for you. This is my personal favorite build and my player averages just under 10 assists a game. The main weakness is finishing around the rim, but once you get close, you’ll have a big man to dish the ball to.
Pure Defender
Think of Andre Iguodala—this build isn’t the most fun, but the most valuable to pro-am teams. In your offline career, you’ll be able to guard players you imagined unguardable, and online, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Most online teams nowadays focus on one scorer who can dish to teammates when double teamed, but a pure defender will never need help on that end of the ball. The obvious weakness is offense, but if you’re with the right team, it won’t matter.
Pure Sharpshooter
Think of Steph Curry or Klay Thompson—if you want to be like champions, this is the build for you. Increasingly more popular each year, and also getting more and more fun, this build will let you hit regularly from half court once you max it out. Being unstoppable from outside the arc opens up spacing for your team too and you’ll likely get a ton of assists as well. The weakness of this build is the inside game, but you’ll never even need to step within the arc.
Earning badges is vital to becoming elite in a specific skill.
The next most important thing in MyCareer mode that you need to understand is badges. Badges are probably the most important part of the game now, and unlocking them will drastically raise your level of play.
- Each build comes with set badges you can unlock that relate directly to your build. If you’re a pure Sharpshooter, you’ll be able to unlock Deep Range Deadeye and Limitless Range. Pay attention to these when you’re picking your build.
- There are four levels of badges: bronze, silver, gold, and hall of fame. You’ll level these up by using the related skill in game For example, for Deep Range Deadeye, every time you take a three, you’ll earn points toward the Deep Range Deadeye badge. The other, and more efficient way, is to the hit gym, AKA, team practice.
- DO NOT skip team practices. After every game you’ll have the ability to go to team practice and do drills which unlock badges. Until you have maxed out your badges, I would not skip a single one.
- At team practice you’ll have team drills which boost your team chemistry, and then you’ll be able to pick four different drills to do before practice is over. Depending on how well you do on the drill, you can earn 100-700 points towards a badge for every drill. To put that in perspective, you’ll maybe make about 1000 points a game toward a badge—at practice you can make up to 2800 on one badge.
- Do the most important badges first. Returning to the pure Sharpshooter build, you should focus on building up badges for your three-point shooting before you focus on some secondary badges like Defensive Stopper or Tear Dropper.
- Don’t give up on drills, sometimes a drill can seem ridiculous or overly difficult, but just like practicing anything you’ll eventually get better at it. If you get 1 star the first few times, don’t sweat it. You’ll eventually figure out the trick to the drill, as every drill has one.
- Know how to get your badges in-game. You need to understand how to earn your badges in-game to maximize your badge earning potential. When you do something in game that affects a badge, the game lets you know, so pay attention and you’ll have Hall of Fame badges in no time.
- The next most important thing is to perfect your jumpshot (all of your jumpshots).
- You should pick a custom shot for every shot you have: jumpshot, free throw, pull up, step-back, you name it—they’re all customizable and they all matter. I would recommend picking one of an NBA player you’re already familiar with, or at least picking one that is “quick” to help get your shots off.
- Make sure to customize ALL of your shot types. I can’t emphasize this enough. If you don’t know your step back jumper very well or it’s clunky, it’s gonna take a lot away from your game.
- Hit the gym, and even after you’ve completed all your drills, stay a little longer. Other than making your virtual coach happy, you’ll also learn to get that green light on your jumpshot every time, and we all know excellent releases never miss.
- Practicing certain shots and dribble moves at practice gives you VC. For example, if you do 10 dribble moves at practice, you’ll get 10 VC. It’s not a lot, but it’s still more than nothing and it adds up quickly.
- Customize all your ball handling moves as well. You’re going to want to become familiar with your crossovers and how to combine them. If you pick all from the same player, it’ll help them combine more easily, but it doesn’t really matter. Just experiment with them and find the ones that you think are the most fun.
Explore the Neighborhood to earn VC quickly during special events.
- 2k gives you a lot of incentives to hang out in the Neighborhood, and you should take advantage of them.
- The limited time game modes usually have the most VC. In the picture above you can see that it is “Dime Time.” This is just one of many daily special game modes, and if you even contribute 1 assist to the goal, you’ll earn 2,500 VC when the goal is met. That’s just one of many, so make sure you get in the Neighborhood and see what’s available.
- Do all the daily goals. If you check the Neighborhood, 2k will let you know when you have goals, such as get 25 points, 25 assists, and 25 rebounds before the day is up. Sometimes the offer VC, but usually they offer MyPoints, which you’ll learn are arguably more valuable.
- Play other game modes for achievements. All of the game modes in the neighborhood have their own unique achievements for you character that come with rewards. If you get tired of the career mode grind, get out there and ball on some other players online for some easy VC and MyPoints.
- If you have enough friends who play, go ahead and make a Pro-am team. Pro-am is 5v5 online and earns you a ton of Points and VC, if done right. Although, it can get very, very competitive
- Spin the Wheel: next to the Ante Up building is the daily wheel that you can spin for prizes, and it’s definitely worth it. It used to be inside the Ante Up building and was horrible, but the new update makes it way more accessible and worth the short walk over.
- If you aren’t willing to hash out the cash to buy VC, then you need to spend it wisely. Here are some personal finance tips for your VC.
- Be patient with buying things. This might seem obvious, but it can be very tempting to buy a pair of Jordans or get a tattoo, but wait until you’ve maxed out your player to buy these things.
- You will get a lot of aesthetic things for free, once you get endorsements. If you’re patient, 2k will give you a lot of things that you want without spending a cent of your VC, but you’re going to have to grind.
- Know which endorsements to get and what they do. If you really want shoes first, pick the footlocker endorsement over the Gatorade endorsement, you can always get the Gatorade one later.
- When you’re selecting your endorsement, make sure you pick reasonable goals to max out your VC. If you’re a glass cleaner, don’t make your goal to hit 5 threes in a game, pick the 15 rebounds so you have something attainable to aim for.
- Pay attention to your team contract, and make sure you get the most out of it. You may want to lower your salary in trade of the higher teammate bonus multiplier.
- Note on both endorsements and the team contract—from the offered contract, you’re gonna have to give and take to get different things. If you want more money straight up, you’re gonna have to give up bonuses and vice versa.
- Once you hit a cap you can use all your VC on aesthetics. I’ll go into more detail about caps later, but once you hit that first cap on your player, you can start blowing your VC.
- You can get VC for your MyPlayer even on different game modes. My recommendation is to play all your games that you play for fun in the MyLeague mode. It doesn’t take long to set up, and in MyLeague instead of Play Now, you actually earn more VC.
- Always go for fans over Team Chemistry. When you’re in interviews, always go for the answer that gets you more fans. If you’re following the earlier steps, you’ll get plenty of team chemistry at practice, but you can only boost your fans in interviews. Always pick your fans over your team and you’ll have some sweet endorsements before you know it.
Play well to earn in-game currency such as VC and MyPoints.
- Once you get to a high enough level, all that’s going to matter is earning MyPoints to get past that cap breaker to be a hall of fame level player.
- You earn MyPoints for pretty much everything you do, but you need to learn to make the most of them, and scoring points isn’t the only way to do that. Assists and rebounds often offer a lot more MyPoints than just scoring does, and when you figure out which one that earns you the most per game, take advantage of it.
- Play on a higher difficulty, if you can. A higher difficulty in career mode gives you a multiplier on your MyPoints every game, but if you’re getting wrecked there’s no point in going up. Find the difficulty that you can still win games and get a high teammate grade in.
- Skip season games that won’t make you a lot of MyPoints. If you play bad teams, you won’t get the bonus for opponent strength. Even though you can put up crazy numbers, you might not get as many MyPoints as scoring less but winning against Lebron instead of scoring 50 on the Nets.
- The Cap Breaker is the bane of every elite player’s existence. It will stare you down after every game and make you feel bad that you can’t get up to that beautiful 90+ overall. Also, it requires A LOT of MyPoints but here’s a well-kept secret.
- Once you hit that cap break and don’t really need VC anymore, raise your quarter length all the way up to 12 minutes, but only play to the half and then sim. Max out your production in the half and get your teammate grade up to an A, and then sim the second half because your player will be tired. This way you can get the most out of your player even if your stamina isn’t great.
- Go to Gatorade training center. The Gatorade training center only requires 3 drills for you to get an energy bonus in-game, and it’s super worth it especially if you play the 12 minute quarters. Plus, you get MyPoints for the drills you do there.
Now you know what it takes to make it into the Hall of Fame in MyCareer Mode in NBA 2k19. Get out there and start hooping.
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