Hitcents, which you may know as the maker of the recent Godfather game, is back with another title for Android and iOS gamers, and this time, it focuses on something more legal than organized crime – professional basketball, to be exact. But NBA Life, despite its inclusion of real-life NBA elements, isn’t your average basketball sim. In fact, it deals with the life of an NBA player based on your own character, as opposed to allowing players to control their favorite teams and players from the real-world National Basketball Association. And as an up-and-coming star in the world’s leading basketball league it’s your job to improve your skills, collect more bonuses, build your signature look, and choose the right agent, among other things.
This game, as we can see, combines the mechanics of those games where you get to play an up-and-coming Hollywood star, musician, or whatnot with the wild world of professional basketball. And this also means things may be a bit complex at first, as you may not be able to pick everything up right away. Have no fear, though, as our NBA Life strategy guide should be your ultimate resource if you want to become a big, marketable star in the NBA, at least in the in-game world, in no time flat.
1. Keep Logging In To The Game
Compared to your average high-end mobile gamer, there really aren’t too many rewards you can pick up for free. But you will get rewarded if you log into the game at least once a day. And if you log in more than once a day, you can earn even more rewards. Your rewards will keep improving as you log in for more consecutive days, so make sure you are, at the very least, logging in, even if you won’t actually be playing the game.
Now if you are able to get some play time in during any given day, you should be going after the daily gift boxes. All in all, there are six gift boxes for you to collect, and you’re allowed to open one for free. But if you want to open more, you can watch a video, as the game serves them up every 15 minutes or so. All of these boxes include helpful items that could help you progress quickly, so keep on watching those videos so you can open as many boxes as possible per day.
2. A Background Of Each Building
While it might not be part of an average NBA player’s job description, take note that NBA Life is a game, and not necessarily the real thing. In other words, you should always be busy working out within the buildings, as well as upgrading the buildings you already have.
Your House may sound like just that – your house – but it’s also ground zero for producing a number of upgrade materials. Collect these materials on time, and build new rooms once they’re unlocked – typically, you can unlock these rooms by winning league games.
While in the Workout Facility, you will be shown six separate areas which you should work on and fill to the maximum. These areas will allow you to improve your player’s skills. Whenever you see a stat that’s lagging behind the others, work on that stat so you can have a well-rounded, balanced player. You also have the option to work on a specific area and only collect what you gain at a later time. Additionally, you should be upgrading each training type once you’ve got enough materials handy.
The Practice Drills building is where the actual player improvement takes place. Just as we had advised earlier, you should train all areas within this building equally, and focus on one specific skill whenever you expect to be away from NBA Life for some time. That’s because you want to prioritize those skills with long waiting times whenever you go to sleep, go to work, or enter any situation where you won’t be playing for hours on end. You’ve also got the Bonus Challenge and the Speed Boosters (which can be collected from Your Home), which can reduce the waiting times when training skills.
Lastly, the Wellness Center is where you should be going to produce energy. Energy production is based on your Health Coach’s level. In order to play games, you need to have hearts, which are the game’s energy units. Visit this building so you’re sure you always have enough hearts to play a lot of games, or if you wish, you can leave them there, wait, and collect them when you feel you need them the most.
3. Why Should You Join A Crew?
Although it appears to be optional as it often is, it’s still important that you join a crew, and make sure you’re joining one that is actually active. While part of a crew, you can donate and receive items, and once you reach the required amount of a certain item when donating, you will receive more of that item in return. And as each member of a Crew keeps picking up wins, that will allow the Crew Meter to fill up. Once the meter is filled up, you will be given a box, which you can open for some enticing rewards. These rewards include Juice, which is the game’s premium currency.
As a bonus tip, this is quite a new game, and that means there will be more features making their debut with subsequent updates, including tournaments. These should give you more opportunities to win stuff. So if you aren’t in a crew yet, make it a point to join an active one.
4. Collect Your Money Through The Dyme App
You don’t need to worry – this isn’t a separate companion app for the game that you need to download. This Dyme app only exists in the in-game world, and it can be accessed by going to your in-game phone’s menu. You can collect varying amounts of currency for each game you win, but you’ll have to wait a certain amount of time before that currency can be redeemed. Game rewards would always allow you to wait 15 minutes, but you may have to wait longer for other rewards, but regardless of what the rewards are, make sure you’re collecting frequently from the Dyme app!
5. Don’t Pay Much Attention To The Clothes Store
As of now, the Clothes Store is one building you shouldn’t be focusing on too much. Though you shouldn’t get us wrong here – the clothes you can buy here aren’t just for aesthetic purposes, as they could actually enhance your player’s skills for a limited time, with the duration of these items’ efficacy depending on your Stylist’s level. But we haven’t seem too much benefit to buying and using these clothes – who knows if this is going to improve in subsequent updates? Also take note that you cannot take off clothes after you wear them – be sure you’re using these items only when you need them!
6. What Can Threads Do For You?
On the other hand, clothes purchased at the Clothes Store do have their own benefits on top of what we had already discussed in the above tip. These clothes could get you Threads, which you can then use for a lucky draw in the store, giving you some nice rewards in return. Then again, the type of Threads being used for these draws doesn’t seem to be important, as we’ve observed that the draws can be very random. Apart from that, Threads don’t have any other practical use, though using them for draws is a great way to load up on Juice and other goodies.
7. You Still Need To Strategize
We should, at this point, stress once again that NBA Life is not your average basketball sim for mobile devices. If your skills happen to be better than that of the player you’re facing, then there’s a very good chance you will win. But since there are some defensive skills that could de-buff some offensive skills, you may need to incorporate some strategy. And that would actually bring us to our eighth and final tip for this strategy guide.
8. Tips For Winning More Games
If you come to think of it, winning games in NBA Life isn’t too hard at the end of the day. But as we mentioned above, you still need to think of the strategy you will be using. For example, you could get bonuses if you chose Closeout on defense to counter your opponent’s selection of Three Pointer on offense. But since things aren’t always cut-and-dry in this game, we would recommend that you tap on the Scout button before you choose your move – that will allow you to see the move your opponent had put into play, and allow you to make a more informed decision. When choosing offensive moves, you may want to go with whatever moves your opponent had successfully used. And when choosing defensive moves, go with whatever counters one of your opponent’s offensive options.
All in all, we would again insist that it’s all a matter of getting used to things. For instance, if you’re restricted to Hookshot as one of your offensive options, while the opponent has Pressure and Closeout defenses to play, you should choose Hookshot, as the opponent won’t have any move that could counter it. Think of this as NBA Life’s version of card battler mechanics, albeit much simpler than the mechanics in your average TCG or CCG.