NBA 2K23 Core Badge Patterns & Core Badges Explained

November 30, 2022

Announced in Season 3 of NBA 2K23, exclusively for Next-Gen, are “Core Badge Patterns” for the MyCAREER Level 40 Season 3 Reward. After a lot of fan feedback, 2K has taken Level 40 Rewards to a new level that now affect the actual MyPLAYER gameplay to reward users for the Level 40 grind.

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NBA 2K23 Core Badge Patterns Explained

To go along with Core Badges, you can now change the pattern of your Core Badge slots as a MyCAREER reward. Core Badge Patterns expands on the idea of Core Badges and gives users more flexibility on which skill categories (i.e. ‘Finishing’, ‘Shooting’, etc.) to core. So far, there are two Core Badge Pattern Packages, each containing four unique badge patterns. Both packages are available as a Season 3 Level 40 MyCAREER Reward and Season 6 Level 39 MyCAREER Reward on new gen.

An advantage of Core Badge Patterns is that it can change a build’s meta, particularly for specialist type builds who have no use for some skill categories. For example, a shooting build who doesn’t care about dunking could become OP in a shooting badge, an inside center who doesn’t care about shooting can add more badge points to defense / rebounding, etc.

CORE BADGE PATTERN PACKAGE 1 (Season 3 Level 40 Reward)

1 of 4

Pattern 1 (Default): 1 Finishing, 1 Shooting, 1 Playmaking, 1 Defense/Rebounding
Pattern 2: 2 Finishing, 1 Playmaking, 1 Defense/Rebounding
Pattern 3: 2 Shooting, 1 Playmaking, 1 Defense/Rebounding
Pattern 4: 1 Finishing, 2 Playmaking, 1 Defense/Rebounding
Pattern 5: 1 Finishing, 1 Playmaking, 2 Defense/Rebounding

CORE BADGE PATTERN PACKAGE 2 (Season 6 Level 39 Reward)

Pattern 6: 2 Finishing, 1 Shooting, 1 Defense/Rebounding
Pattern 7: 2 Shooting, 1 Finishing, 1 Defense/Rebounding
Pattern 8: 2 Playmaking, 1 Finishing, 1 Shooting
Pattern 9: 2 Defense/Rebounding, 1 Shooting, 1 Playmaking

CORE BADGE PATTERN PACKAGE 3 (Season 8 Level 40 Reward)

Pattern 10: (TBD)
Pattern 11: (TBD)
Pattern 12: (TBD)
Pattern 13: 2 Defense/Rebounding, 1 Finishing, 1 Shooting

.@Beluba breaks down the new Level 40 Core Badge Patterns on New Gen 🛡 https://t.co/HPMJDZGoFo pic.twitter.com/o9ayauS0b8

— NBA 2K (@NBA2K) December 2, 2022

NBA 2K23 Core Badges Explained

There are four default core badge slots: Finishing, Shooting, Playmaking, and Defense/Rebounding.
Badges in core slots don’t cost any badge points, giving you more freedom to spend those badge points how you choose in other areas.
To add a badge to a core slot, you must first equip the badge and complete its core challenge.
Each core badge will have a challenge requirement that, once met, will allow the badge to be placed into a core badge slot.

Here’s the Badge Cost breakdown:

Tier 1 Badges cost: