As usual, I've summarised the key points of the developer insight, which are as follows:
- A new Animation Glossary allows gamers to look up their desired animations and check their height and attribute requirements so that builds can be tailored accordingly.
- Create Your Own Build makes comparisons to real NBA players to find the animations that are the best fit and assign them by default, streamlining the creation process.
- There's a Build via Badges option, which locks in the minimum requirements for the desired Badges, opening up the rest of the attributes to be assigned as preferred.
- Previews of the body types that can be unlocked for a specific build are shown in the NBA 2K26 MyPLAYER Builder. The additional body types are unlocked by completing 3-star Gatorade Gym workouts.
- Three types of Build Templates will be available: NBA (based on real NBA players, with new players added each Season), Community (templates from the community's best build makers, starting in Season 2), and Pro-Tuned (designed by the developers according to Position and Best Skill).
- NBA 2K26 will have roughly ten times the number of archetype names that were available in NBA 2K25, with more unique titles that emphasise a build's strengths.
- The final step of the MyPLAYER Builder in NBA 2K26 is a Scouting Report highlighting key information about the build, including strengths, weaknesses, and Go-To Badges.
- MyPLAYERs now have a maximum height of 7'4". However, efforts have been made to ensure balance between builds of different heights, allowing them to remain effective against each other on the court.
- Badge Perks are back, including Max +1 and the new Max +2 (boost Badges one or two tiers beyond their maximum level respectively), Takeover Surge (boost Badges a tier beyond their maximum level with a Level 5 Takeover), Hot Start (boost Badges by one tier beyond their maximum level early on in the game), and Clutch Gene (boost Badges by one tier beyond their maximum level late in the fourth quarter and overtime, as well as late-game situations in Park).
- Takeover Surge, Hot Start, and Clutch Gene will be rotating Seasonal rewards, with one available per Season. Badge Perks reset to their original tier at the end of a Season, while Badge Elevators will still provide permanent upgrades within a Badge's max potential. Performance Multipliers are still available to accelerate Badge progression.
- Badge Accelerators also speed up Badge progression, and are earned by completing drills in team training. The better the star rating you earn in a drill, the more impact the Accelerator will have.
- When creating a build, it will be assigned a Takeover that best suits its archetype. Heating up and using Takeover across multiple games unlocks over 40 Takeover-related rewards.
- Takeover Tokens unlock new Takeovers and Takeover Abilities. There are 44 Takeovers and 11 Takeover Abilities, which is around half as many as in NBA 2K25. This is to ensure that each is more impactful. All levels of new Takeovers are instantly available and don't need to be unlocked.
- Takeover Presets allow you to change which Takeover you have equipped between games without exiting to the MyCAREER menu.
- Takeover Accelerators speed up how quickly you fill your Takeover Meter.
- The final Takeover reward is the Custom Takeover, which allows you to design a Takeover from scratch and choose which boosts and abilities it provides.
- Build Specialisation introduces quests based on specialising in one of five areas: Finishing, Shooting, Playmaking, Defense, or Rebounding. You can pick one specialty per player and complete nine quests to unlock rewards including Skill Boosts, unique apparel and cosmetic items, Badge Perks, Cap Breakers, and additional archetype names.
- Cap Breakers have been redesigned to help gamers address weaknesses in their build. While they'll still raise the cap on a MyPLAYER's highest attributes by one, Cap Breakers will now offer bigger boosts to the lowest attributes.
- As before, Cap Breakers can only be applied to each attribute a maximum of five times, cannot boost attributes beyond the maximum potential based on the build's height, weight, and wingspan, and attributes must be maxed-out before applying a Cap Breaker. Cap Breakers are still earned through quests, Season rewards, REP rewards, and other methods that are yet to be announced.
- There are multiple tiers of Rebirth in NBA 2K26. Silver Rebirth is unlocked at 90 Overall, granting the ability to create a second MyPLAYER with the maximum potential of the highest rating you've already reached, accelerates Badge progression by 10%, and automatically upgrades your Badges to Silver once the attribute requirements are met.
- Reaching 95 Overall in new saves unlocks Gold, Hall of Fame, and Legend Rebirth, which will automatically upgrade your Badges to those respective tiers once the attribute requirements are met.
