Attributes play a vital role in defining the type of player you are in NBA 2K21. Without the right ones, you won’t be able to execute what you have in mind on the court, causing you to lag behind the competition.
Alongside regular player development drills, you’ll have the option to utilize badges. These are essentially special boosts that boost specific attributes of your character. The Gym Rat badge will increase your stamina, strength, speed, and vertical by four, making it a decent badge to unlock for offensive players.
There are two ways to obtain the Gym Rat badge in NBA 2K21, and each will have different usage conditions despite being the same badge.
Here’s how you can unlock the Gym Rat badge in NBA 2K21.
Method one: Unlock the Gym Rat badge through MyCareer in NBA 2K21
MyCareer is always a unique experience and a perfect way to relive your basketball dreams on the digital screen. If you fulfill the following conditions during the regular season, you’ll automatically unlock the Gym Rat badge.
- Play 40 regular-season games in MyCareer.
- Win the playoffs and finals.
- Simulating games was forbidden at first, but you can now simulate some of the games if you meet the following conditions.
- You can sim 40 regular-season games after you’re up by 25 points.
- After you play 40 regular-season games without simulating any of them, you can sim all the remaining games until the playoffs.
- You can simulate the playoff games after you’re up by 25 points.
- Simulating games was forbidden at first, but you can now simulate some of the games if you meet the following conditions.
Considering you’ll need to win the finals to unlock the badge, it may also be a decent idea to practice with your team before the match kicks off. If you fail to win the finals, you’ll need to go through the same process from square one.
There’s a catch you should be aware of, however. The Gym Rat badge you’ll unlock through MyCareer will only be for the player that you earned it with. This means that none of your other characters will be able to use the badge since you didn’t unlock it with them.
Method two: Unlock the Gym Rat badge by increasing your MyRep progression
If you’d like to unlock the Gym Rat badge and use it on all of your available characters, you’ll want to go through the second route. This method will require you to reach “Superstar two” on MyRep progression.
Players on next-gen consoles, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, will need to continue the grind until “Superstar three,” though. Playing through MyCareer may have sounded too troublesome at first, but it may take relatively shorter compared to grinding MyRep progression.
You’ll need to keep playing in the city to increase your MyRep progression, and there’s no easy way to quicken the process.
Players with a single character who don’t expect to create another one in the future can pick the first method to save some time and to enjoy the story if they haven’t already.
Players with multiple characters will have to go through the second method since the Gym Rat badges acquired through the first method will only be usable by the characters they were unlocked with. Before you reach Superstar status, you’ll be going through many tiers, each offering awesome rewards. You’ll also get access to other badges as you progress through MyRep, which can be another motivation source during the grind.
