SegmentNextMechanics
Our two NBA 2K23 mechanics pages sit in different modes and answer different questions, but they share one shape: each describes a change you want to make and what the game charges before it shows up on the court. The attribute upgrades guide is about your MyCareer player, and its price is paid twice, in VC for each upgrade and in MyPoints to lift the cap that stops you at 85. The custom teams guide is about MyLeague, and its only price is time in menus, which the page puts at several hours if you start from nothing and far less if you copy a roster someone else built. This page sorts the two by that cost.
Four Changes and Their Price
| What you change | Mode and menu | What it costs | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| One attribute, up to the cap | MyCareer, Progression, then the Attribute tab | A set amount of VC per upgrade, earned in career games and events or bought in the store | Attribute upgrades |
| The cap itself, past 85 | MyCareer, through play | MyPoints, earned by playing, until the game says Attribute Upgrade Available | Attribute upgrades |
| A whole team from scratch | MyLeague, custom league or expansion team | Several hours and some trial and error, choosing a city, an arena, a uniform, a logo and the players | Custom teams |
| A copy of a ready-made roster | Features, then Create a Roster | Far less time; pick a developer or community roster and edit it | Custom teams |
Attributes: Two Currencies, One Ceiling
The attribute upgrades page is clear that raising a number is the easy half. You need VC, the game's currency, which comes from playing career games, attending events, or paying real money in the store. With VC in hand you open the Progression menu, pick the Attribute tab, and pay a set amount per upgrade. Which attributes you are even allowed to raise depends on the build you picked at the start: the page's example is a Point Guard whose upgrades centre on Playmaking and Finishing while a Center's sit somewhere else entirely, and the darker bars under each category show what is open to you.
The hard half is the cap. Every new player starts capped at 85 overall, and once you reach it no amount of VC moves you until the cap itself rises. That takes MyPoints, which accrue from playing, and the game tells you the moment a new upgrade is unlocked. The page gives three ways to earn them faster: change the difficulty settings, finish Coach Wayne Graves' quest for a permanent MyPoints buff, and equip the badges that make your shots fall more often, since made shots pay MyPoints. It names four such badges, Space Creator, Green Machine, Amped and Comeback Kid. Three of those four appear at Bronze in the shooting badge list of our Paint Beast build, which is otherwise a defensive centre whose seven shooting badges all sit at Bronze; only Green Machine is absent.
Where to spend first is a build question rather than a rule. The page's answer for a Point Guard is finishing and playmaking, for a Center finishing and defense, and its second answer applies to anyone: some animations and badges have attribute requirements, so an attribute that unlocks one of those pays twice.
Custom Teams: Hours or Minutes
The custom teams page describes two routes into the same MyLeague team. The long one starts in the MyLeague section of the main menu with three choices, edit an existing NBA team, build a custom league from scratch, or take an expansion team, and then asks for a home city, a home arena, a custom uniform and a custom logo before you get to the players. The page warns this can take several hours and a few attempts before you are happy enough to press play.
The short one goes through the Features sub-menu to Create a Roster, where developer-made and community-made rosters are waiting to be copied. You can swap players, edit members and change the look, save it, and share it back to the community. If a copied roster is close but not right, the Create a Player menu holds every custom character you have made: cycle with the bumpers, pick one, choose copy to team, and name the team. A full team will need someone released first.
Neither route touches MyCareer. Our starting lineup guide says MyCareer has no editable rosters of that kind, and that trades and drafts are the only way to reshape an NBA team there to any real degree; what you can do in MyCareer is reorder who starts, from the Coach Gameplan screen or the Substitutions menu.
Where to Go Next
If the attributes page has you planning a build, the Paint Beast build is the one worked example we have, with its attribute targets, its 40 badges and its two takeovers. The camera angle settings apply whatever mode you are in, and the NBA 2K23 guide sorts every page by the mode it belongs to.
Upgrade and Team Questions
Why can I not upgrade my player past 85?
Because 85 is the starting cap. VC buys upgrades up to the cap; MyPoints, earned by playing, are what raise it, and the game notifies you when a new upgrade opens.
Can I build a custom team in MyCareer?
No. Custom teams are built in MyLeague, or copied through Features and Create a Roster. In MyCareer you can change the starting five and make trades, but not create a team.