Equipping badges can give you some boosts and special abilities which you can use to gain in-game advantages, so having and upgrading badges is a crucial element in NBA 2K23. This guide will show you the fastest way to get badges and how to upgrade them in 2K23.

What Are Badges?

Badges in NBA 2K23 are attributing traits that apply to your MyPLAYER. You can make Badge Loadouts which give your MyPLAYER different playing builds. You can make an Iron wall defense build or an Ace Shooter build. The more Badges you have, the more various builds you can make. Each badge has 3 levels of upgrades (Bronze, Silver, and Gold). Each level will increase the effect of the badge.

When Can You Unlock Badges?

As long as you are playing a normal game in MyCareer, you will be able to unlock badges. After each game, you can gain Badges by all your actions are separated into finishing, shooting, defense/rebound, and playmaking.

What's the Fastest Way to Earn Badges?

The Fastest way to unlock Badges is to only concentrate on a certain category. Let's say you want to get the Shooting Badges. Firstly, you must run up to the 3-pointer line in your match. Once you do, Fake Pass and Jab Step. This will initiate a Takeover. In that, take the 3-pointer shot. A Green Flash should shine above your MyPLAYER Avatar. That's about it, and this is all you have to do to get a ton of points. The only prerequisite is to equip the Triple Threat Styles -> Normal 1 stance. This will get you all of the Shooting Badges, no problem. If you want Playmaking Badges, then do more Alleys-oops and for Defence, play more Defence in Hall of Fame Mode.

How to Upgrade Badges?

Here we will see some ways to upgrade badges in NBA 2K23 quickly:

1. Playing the game

One of the most common ways to upgrade your badge is to keep playing the game. There are various techniques you can use to build up your attributes.

1). Stealing, blocking, rebounding, good shot contests, poking the ball free, and other defense or rebounding actions will level your defense/rebounding badge.
2). Hitting open jump shots, 3-pointers, free throws, and other shooting actions will level up your shooting badge.
3). Good ball movement, assists, passes leading to assists, passes leading to fouls, and other playmaking actions will level your playmaking badge.
4). Finishing with layups or dunks and converting and-1s will level your finishing badge.

As long as you play well, you should be able to complete your progress in no time.

2. Don't skip practice

The next step you can try is to keep playing Practice Sessions—because practices provide a great amount of badge progression. The better one does in the practices, and the more progression one will get. While you can skip your practice sessions before the game, playing them is recommended, as these will add up to your badge progression.

3. Play in The City and The Neighborhood

And last, participating in the mini matches around The City or The Neighborhood is another great way to upgrade your badges quickly. However, you should have at least some progress completed before heading out into the open world. These games can be intense, and since in a lot of them, you will face players in the 80s and 90s, having completed some progress will at least ensure that the contests will be competitive.

Places like the Theater have weekly sessions and rotating playlists that you can participate in, which is a great way to make quick progress.

4. Completing team practices

You can get insane amounts of Badge progression points in team practices. You can finish up to four drill challenges each practice. If you 3-star each practice on hard, you could get a minimum of 3,000 badge points.

You can earn more than 3,000 badge points because, during the practices, the trainer can call the whole team up and set their drills for free. These random drills from the trainer will have a badge leveling bonus. The coach drill bonus gives you a double multiplier on leveling your badges for each drill.

Additionally, in team training sessions, here are some tips:

1). Play games in My Career to unlock more Training drills
2). Once you've unlocked the "Free Throw Golf" drill, play it as often as possible; it's probably the easiest drill in the game.
3). Earn at least 3000 progress points for your Shooting Badges; if there's a Legend in attendance, you'll get 3x the Badge progression; with four free throw drills in the space of about 5-6 minutes, you can gain 9000 progress.

Hopefully, this guide has helped you get all the badges you need. You can also read our other guides to learn more about badges in NBA 2K23.