In NBA 2K, hot zones are spots in the courtroom where a participant is powerful in shooting the ball. Hot zones are one of the most powerful features that you will want to unlock early on in your NBA 2K21 if you want to stand a chance against other good players. In this guide, we will show you what are hot zones, explain how do hot zones work, and explain how to find a player’s hot zones. Of course, it also includes others, such as how to reset your hot zones, the fastest way to get hot zones, and the best badges to help get hot zones.
What Are Hot Zones in NBA 2K21?
The shooting area, starting from the three-pointer line all the way to the post is split into 16 different zones. With time, you can unlock each one, which will make your shooting from that particular area into the basket a lot more accurate.
If you unlock the ‘hot spots’ near the basket, your scoring chances will also improve when you are implementing post moves when you try to outplay your opponents. Those ‘hot zones’ can be unlocked by simply shooting successful shots and scoring in the basket. You will also need to be playing real matches in order to unlock the ‘hot spots’ on the court.
Bear in mind that for each game mode within 2K21, you will need to start over when it comes to unlocking the different ‘hot spots’ as they quite simply do not get carried over.
How Do Hot Zones Work?
As you start to obtain more and more ‘hot spots’ on the basketball court, your shooting from those particular areas on the court will become much more accurate. This means that even if you don’t get the perfect green every time, by shooting from a ‘hot zone’ that you have unlocked, the likelihood of scoring the ball in the basket increases quite significantly.
While we cannot be sure about the exact maths and probability, if you have played 2K games before, you would know that shooting from ‘hot spots’ will just make your overall play much easier, and more enjoyable.
Note: When grinding out games for hot spots, we would recommend that you set each quarter to 5 minutes rather than the full length of 12. This is quite simply going to make the process a lot quicker for you. But, if you are trying to enjoy the game to its fullest, and are trying to get the ‘hot spots’ the proper way, then sticking to full-length matches is an option that you can go for.
Are Hot Zones Actually Important?
In NBA 2K21 hot zones have a significant impact on the value, percentage, and impact of a shot in a certain area of the court. It is arguably more important than ever to take notice and know about your player’s hot and cold zones on the court. Ignoring these will lead you to long term shooting inefficiencies.
If you’re a 90+ mid-range shot, your success rate in a hot zone is going to be up around 20% higher than any shots you take in a cold spot. At a rating of 90+ you’re going to hopefully be making more shots than you miss, anyway, but to be really damaging you want the boost a hot zone provides you. 20% is rather significant: think of it as going 9/10 as opposed to 6/10 or 7/10. You’re still performing well regardless but you’re getting some additional boosts.
You also need to look at it from the perspective of a low ranked attribute. If you’re a 70+ ranked mid-range shooter those hot zones are going to have more impact on your success rate, but you’re already battling to make shots. It makes sense that, the lower your attribute, the smaller the window for error is.
How To Find A Player’s Hot Zones?
One method you can use to check hot zones is by practicing with a player. Head over to 2KU by selecting Play Now and from there, choose Freestyle. Here, you will be able to not only play around with the new controls but also check a specific player’s hot zones when in practice mode. Keep in mind that hot zones will be indicated with red, while cold zones, where a player struggles the most with shooting, will be blue.
A second method is to go directly to a player’s bio. Go over to the Roster tab, and select that individual’s player card. You will have to scroll over to the Hot Zones section of the card using LT/RT (for Xbox) or L2/R2 (for PlayStation).
Lastly, you could also check a player’s hot zones in MyTeam. When you’re scrolling through your active lineup, click on a player and then scroll over the card’s attributes using the trigger buttons until you find the Shot Charts section.
Have Hot Zones Changed in 2K21?
Hot zones have not changed a whole lot in 2K21 as compared to 2K20. In fact, if you have played the older version of the game, you can pretty much apply the same strategy NBA 2k21.
How To Reset Your Hot Zones?
In NBA 2K21, the game looks at your past 25 games to determine your hot and cold zones. You’ll get a ranking for these areas before then, but if you’re looking to actually improve and reset these areas to neutral again, you’re going to have to play through at least 25 games.
It’s not technically a “reset” but it’s looking at your performance over 25 games, effectively as an average. So for you to break out of that shooting funk for a specific area on the court, you’re going to need to play through a lot of games quickly to minimize the grind and get that little hot zone boost for your shots. Otherwise, you’re going to keep clunking them.
The Fastest Way To Get Hot Zones
If you’re looking for a faster and more proficient way to get your hot zones up without the need to grind, try these settings:
1). Set match difficulty to “Pro”.
2). Set quarter length to 5-6 minutes. This is to maximize the number of games you play as you ultimately what to quickly breeze through the 25-day barrier to change through zones.
3). In “controller settings”, go to “Shot Timing” and change this to “real player percentage. Changing to “real player percentage” effectively lowers the ceiling and window for timing your shot, meaning the higher the player attribute the more likely you are to hit that shot.
There are a few things to consider, however: if you have a low-ranked attribute in a particular area, forcing shots won’t magically lead to gaining a hot zone. You’re going to need to grind to get those attributes up regardless. Here are some key things to remember:
1). Focus attribute points on shooting areas you want to improve in.
2). Aim to get mid-range and 3-point shots into the 90 attribute range.
3). Utilize teammate screens and Shooting badges to maximize off-the-dribble and open shot.
Best Badges To Help Get Hot Zones
I’d look at first equipping these badges to help improve your shooting and overall play performance:
| Badges | Notes |
| Difficult Shooter Badge | Improves the ability to shoot difficult shots off the dribble. High difficulty jumpers such as hop steps, spins, stepbacks, and pull-ups receive a shot percentage boost. |
| Catch & Shoot Badge | This badge will give you a boost to the chances of hitting a jump shot immediately after catching the ball. |
| Corner Specialist Badge | This badge will give you a boost in shots taken near the corner on deep and mid-range shots. |
| Deadeye Badge | This badge will see a reduction to the impact a defender may have in closing you out when taking a shot. |
| Flexible Release Badge | This badge will reduce the impact of a penalty received from a mistimed jump shot release. |
| Volume Shooter badge | This badge will boost the shot percentage of any shot attempts accrued during a match. |
Once you’ve improved the rate of hot zones on the court for your player, you can equip:
| Badge | Note |
| Hot Zone Hunter Badge | This badge will boost the percentage of any shots taken in a player’s favorite spots on the court. |
Whether you are a 2k veteran or a novice, these Hot Zones tips above will be useful to you, then stick around. In addition, we are also an online store selling 2k MT, which can provide 100% safe NBA 2K21 MT for consumers. Meanwhile, you can enjoy a preferential price, timely delivery, and professional service. Buy here and enjoy shopping.
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