Visual Concepts is also adding a new Build By Badges mechanic that lets you shape how your MyPLAYER will develop. You can pick your preferred Badges and tiers, as well as a minimum attribute requirement (which will be automatically locked in).
Furthermore, NBA 2K26 will give you new visual previews on your MyPLAYER. And you can unlock more Body Types when you complete 3-star Gatorade Gym workouts.
In terms of Build Templates, NBA 2K26 offers three types:
- NBA – Matches real-life player. Mirrors player style, signature animations and more. The developers also plan to add more templates each season
- Community (Season 2 & Onward) – New templates submitted by NBA 2K Community
- Pro-Tuned – Created in-house by the development team. Select Position & skill to see list of curated builds.
Lastly, the MyPLAYER Builder features a new Scouting Report feature to help you understand your build better. Overall, it shows off your best attributes and badges, strengths and weaknesses.
Furthermore, the new maximum height for NBA 2K26 MyPLAYER is now 7’4″. To compensate, the developers made some balances to the builder to ensure a fair and fun experience.
Badges, Takeovers, & Cap Breakers
Badges, Takeovers, and Cap Breakers all return in NBA 2K26, all which make your MyPLAYER even more effective on the court:
- Max +2 Perks – You can now climb two tiers higher instead of one, helping you reach that Legend Badge Perk faster.
- Takeover Surge – Boost your badge one tier beyond their max potential when Takeover is active.
- Hot Start – Boosts your badge one tier beyond max potential during early portions of games
- Clutch Gene – Boosts your badge one tier beyond max potential during high-pressure situations (late-game, 4th Quarter, Overtime)
You can earn these Badge perks as rotating awards, with one available each season. Every season a Badge Perk resets to its original tier. However, you can use Badge Elevators to earn permanent upgrades within a Badge’s max potential. Furthermore, you can boost Badge Progression with Performance Multipliers.
Completing drills in team practices earns you Badge Accelerators to speed up your progression temporarily. The better your stats, the greater the impact the Accelerator has on your Badge.
Takeovers are automatically assigned based on what fits their archetype best. Like usual, paying well increases your Takeover meter, which you can activate to become even better on the court. NBA 2K26 features over 40 takeover-related rewards.
Earn Takeover Tokens to unlock the 44 takeovers and 11 takeover abilities, which already come with all of their levels. You can also use Takeover Presets to change which one you have equipped. This way, you don’t need to back out of the MyCAREER menu.
Like Badges, Takeovers possess their own Accelerators, helping you speed it up. Last but not least, you can actually unlock a Custom Takeover as the final reward. This lets you build your own Takeover.
Fortunately, Takeover reward progress is shared across saves. Therefore, you only need to unlock them once to use reap the benefits.
Lastly, Cap Breakers will still increase your highest-rated attributes by +1 point. However, if you put them towards lower-rated attributes, you’ll earn bigger boosts. A Cap Breaker could instantly improve one of your stats by double digits.
This year, you can earn Cap Breakers from Build Specialization quests, Season Rewards, REP Rewards, and more.
Build Specializations
NBA 2K26 also adds new Build Specialization questlines to further improve your player. In each save, you’ll pick one of five areas to focus in:
- Finishing
- Shooting
- Playmaking
- Defense
- Rebounding
