NBA 2K26 Attribute Ratings Badge Test on Steals & Intercepto video

What is good everybody and welcome to the NBA 2K lab. In this video, we'll be taking a close look at the Interceptor badge and go over some different test scenarios to give you the best recommendation for each badge level. Now, Interceptor isn't the easiest badge to test. And while most of our tests are automated, defensive badges typically require more manual testing. With that being said, we still ran over 4,000 steel attempts for this entire test to give you the most conclusive interceptor badge test for NBA 2K26. And we're not going to waste your time. So, let's get right into it. Now, one of the most important things when it comes to Interceptor is that your steel rating is the foundation for good animations in a bigger steel window. And using badge perks like a max plus one or plus two on this badge will only provide a minimal boost. So, for example, a 69 can only get 90 steel at a max wingspan. So, going past 85 after gold interceptor normally may not be worth it. But after seeing this test, you might want to max it out. We tested this theory with running lane steals using bronze interceptor at a 60 steel rating in the same test again at a 70 steel rating. And when you look at the results, the difference was actually pretty significant. The steel rate jumped up by 6% in the green and the miss rate in red went down as well. So if you want more lane steals, your steel rating will be the key factor, not the badge level. We also tested to see how much your wingspan made a difference with running lane steels. And surprisingly, it only made a slight impact, which may not even be noticeable. We tested this with an 85 steel and gold interceptor on players with a minimum and max wingspan. And the max wingspan only saw a 2% better steel rate, suggesting that your wingspan isn't a huge factor when it comes to this badge. Now, when testing this badge, we wanted to run two different scenarios. So, we looked at running lane steals and also sweet spot steals while standing directly in the passing lane. Since we know the pass is coming in these tests, these steel percentages may be higher than an actual game. But what we want to look at here is the difference between each level. These badge levels were all tested at an 85 steel rating. And looking at the running lane steals first, bronze shows a huge jump in steel rate by about 10% from no badge. And the miss rate also shrinks by about half, making it worth targeting on any build. Silver and gold both show linear results each with about a 5% boost in steel rate. And then it starts to taper off at the hall of fame and legend levels. Now keep in mind this was all with an 85 steel. So the hall of fame and legend levels represent what it would look like with a max plus one at Hall of Fame or a max plus two to legend. And as we mentioned earlier in this video, it's only a minor boost when using badge perks. We ran the same scenario, but tested at each badge threshold, and you can see the clear difference that your steel rating makes. Hall of Fame and Legend levels show much better results over gold with a 68% and 73% steel rate, respectively. Not only that, but they also have a 0% miss rate. Gold still looks to be the sweet spot for value. And in this scenario, bronze and silver don't look as great, but they are still decent. We also tested standing sweet spot steals and once again the results match what we've been testing and seeing with a linear rise for each badge level and gold once again shows great value. Now when it comes to the recommendations we do not recommend using your max plus one or twos on this badge as it will only provide a minor boost which may not be noticeable and your steel rating is the main driving factor when it comes to more effective steel attempts. For badge levels, bronze is great for bigs as it doesn't cost much and honestly we recommend getting at least bronze on any build. Silver shows a nice boost from bronze. And if you don't like to reach often, but still want the ability for the occasional steel, this is a solid threshold. As we get to gold interceptor, this is the sweet spot for consistent effective lane steals. And it provides great value by only requiring an 85 steel. Competitive players will likely target the hall of fame or legend levels for maximum effectiveness. And with that higher elite steel rating comes a much larger timing window when going for lane steals. But that is all we have for the Interceptor badge test. Thank you all for watching. It's been Spill and I'm out. later.