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3 best ways to level up shooting badges in NBA 2K22

Rise and grind to shoot your shot.

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Originally Published: 
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NBA 2K22 is a premier basketball game, and that means you’ll need to be able to shoot well to make the most of it. The most effective way to do that in the MyCareer mode, of course, is to level up your shooting badges as quickly as possible. This almost always requires a substantial grind on your part if you’re not using glitches, but some grinds are better than others. Below, we explain three of the top shooting badge grinds making their way around the 2K community that won’t get your account banned.

Before getting to the actual badge methods, let’s lay out a few basic ground rules that will hugely assist your badge grind regardless of the tactic. First off, while previous NBA 2K entries featured badge methods that worked really well in the Training Facility, this year’s outing seems a lot more tuned to getting points from playing actual games. High-difficulty drills will still offer up a good amount of progress if you’re just getting your feet wet, but playing in a real game is much more effective.

Lastly, it helps to play through college and G League before joining the NBA as well, as that offers access to more badges up front. This only works with new players who aren’t yet committed to an NBA team, but it’s still worth shouting out anyway. As for the methods, these work best on Hall of Fame difficulty, but can still yield decent results on lower levels too.

Shooting badge method 1: The corner shot

This method arrives courtesy of the experts at NBA2KLab on YouTube. Go into the corner and call for a pick and roll. The screen should run towards the middle. Have the ball on your right hand as the screen approaches, hold turbo, and then flick the right stick to the right or down. When you do this your player will hop up, causing the defender to loosen his coverage. As the ball pops up, keep holding turbo and push the left stick downward. The defender will get stuck, allowing you to pull out and get a clean shot off the wing.

See the corner shot badge method in action

You can also go into the corner, hold turbo and press the right stick downward to trigger a step back. When the defender gets fooled, now press the left stick down to exit the coverage and shoot your three. The trick is to step back just before the screen defender gets set. Once the AI starts adjusting to the move, just move out and lob up alley-oops instead.

Take advantage of the open space in the corner to grind those badges fast.

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There have been lots of variations to this method established since launch. One slight tweak you can make it to move your player in a zigzag pattern just before you make that corner shot. The AI is typically too slow to keep up, leaving you wide open to shoot.

Shooting badge method 2: Catch and shoot threes

As soon as you get the ball, release instead of holding on.

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The next method from Korzemba is to simply hover around the three-point line till one of your teammates passes you the ball. Once they do, just keep jacking up threes. This grind might only work well if your player is starting from a decent OVR rating, but it’s still effective. Coverage is pretty weak just as your player gets the ball, which means making the shot should be fairly easy. You can make it even easier if your build has the Catch & Shoot, Sniper, or Limitless Spot-Up badges equipped.

A little catch and shoot to improve your badges

Shooting badge method 3: Brickley’s Gym

If you do decide to grind badges from training, the best way to do that is by leveraging Brickley’s Gym, which should open up sporadically throughout the season. Through his drills you’ll get triple or quadruple the badge points whether you win or lose. As long as the gym is open in your game, it’s a great way to get a nice jump on your badge grind in any category, especially shooting. In fact, if you purposefully lose these games you can keep repeating them without losing any previously earned XP.

Using any three of these methods, you should be able to level up your shooting badges quickly in NBA 2K22.

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