Why are rookie and veteran so hard this year?!
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Yep, the game is a slog for sure. They are pushing players hard towards online play and/or buying stubs to complete the reward path and collections.
As an offline player myself I’m only at 130K xp and that’s with finishing everything and the head start from collecting the inning 1 bosses.
Add to that I haven’t pulled a significant diamond in weeks, I’m burned out on grinding mini seasons, I’ve finished team affinity for all 60 captains, and there is very little motivation to play the game beyond a couple of weekly check ins.
Ballin packs might be the worst I’ve seen in 7 years of playing DD and the rest of packs aren’t too far behind. Sure a few people have had some lucky pulls but I have a feeling the vast majority of players are not getting even close to completing live series.
If you just play the game, collections are impossible without pulling Judge and/or Ohtani. I have played a ton and am like 1 million from collections. Here's something painful but very real. Say you average 5k a mini seasons run which actually might be high (especially the rate I am pulling). You would have to do 140 mini season runs just to get Ohtani. Then think about all the other collections like Jackie. I did everything I could and think I ended with 28 of the 42 cards to get him. That is 14 I have to buy including the high price and chase cards since I never get a rare or chase pull. It really is unrewarding. I haven't done many mini seasons runs this past week cuz why bother.
I don't mind grinding until it feels like I am not getting rewarded for my time. I have reached that.
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@Ledfoot_19_PSN
Thanks for helping me troubleshoot, and that’s a great question actually! But I’m very intentional about sitting in the same place and the same position when I play. Same camera angles in the settings also. My last hope before I accept that it’s just me is experimenting to find out I have different results with different controllers. Totally grasping at straws before I realize that I can’t play anymore. -
Me too which is why once I check in on the new weekly drops I’m done. I can’t keep doing the mini seasons or diamond quest runs for nothing. It’s pathetic.
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@markemark_NSW This has happened to me before and if the problem feels like pitches are too fast it's almost always that your tv has reset out of "game mode". That adjusts the game input lag so that what you see on the screen is closer to real time. I'm a terrible hitter myself (scared of online play) but usually my problem is either too early or too low. I have a 2019 Vizio and sometimes if it updates it forgets to go back to Game Mode.
That being said there are two major differences from years past...hell of a lot more foul balls by CPU hitters, and more dotting (there's another thread about this) by CPU pitchers regardless of their overall. Also the CPU seems to always want to get to a full count now. Add to that the change they made to Conquest a few years ago (switching it from "casual" to "simulation") and yeah, Rookie is more like All-Star from a few years ago.
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Because this game is terrible lol.
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I don’t know… I put up 16+ runs/game almost every time I play the WBC mini season (9 inn). I’ve been plowing through TA with that setup.
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Get 25 homeruns with player (x) and 25 strikeouts with player (y). Thats why they made rookie a pain in the [censored]. They don't want you sprinting through their precious and tedious bs missions. So they make the cpu put balls in play more often and make the cpu pitchers paint corners and give less meat balls. Its maddening.
Before pxp missions you could easily put up 40 runs in 3 inning games.
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@JDHalfrack_PSN yeah mini-seasons is now the meta for stat gains because it's still on "casual" so hard hit balls actually clear the fence. Conquest used to be like that 2 years ago.
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I’ve posted this before, but I’ll repeat: The Show does not “understand” Rookie mode at all. I play Madden, they dont do a lot of things right, but they “get” Rookie mode.
On Rookie madden, you score SO many points that you gain confidence and actually WANT to play on a higher level to challenge yourself.
In Rookie The Show, all the same “shenanigans” exist except for slightly slower pitch speeds. Pitchers dot and fielders are gold glovers all the time. So, you are NOT encouraged to move up except that you HAVE TO in order to get XP and PXP to get rewards.
A big difference.
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I’ve posted this before, but I’ll repeat: The Show does not “understand” Rookie mode at all. I play Madden, they dont do a lot of things right, but they “get” Rookie mode.
On Rookie madden, you score SO many points that you gain confidence and actually WANT to play on a higher level to challenge yourself.
In Rookie The Show, all the same “shenanigans” exist except for slightly slower pitch speeds. Pitchers dot and fielders are good glovers all the time. So, you are NOT encouraged to move up except that you HAVE TO in order to get XP and PXP to get rewards.
A big difference.
As someone that's played both, you nailed it.
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@Precisionist99_XBL
I appreciate your input! How do you know if the TV is no longer in game mode? And how can it be fixed? I’m using a Roku.And yes, it seems like there are a lot more long counts as there are many more balls out of the zone than in previous years on rookie and veteran.
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@JDHalfrack_PSN
How does that compare to how many runs you were able to score in a 9 inning game against the CPU at the same difficulty level in ’25? -
I’ve posted this before, but I’ll repeat: The Show does not “understand” Rookie mode at all. I play Madden, they dont do a lot of things right, but they “get” Rookie mode.
On Rookie madden, you score SO many points that you gain confidence and actually WANT to play on a higher level to challenge yourself.
In Rookie The Show, all the same “shenanigans” exist except for slightly slower pitch speeds. Pitchers dot and fielders are good glovers all the time. So, you are NOT encouraged to move up except that you HAVE TO in order to get XP and PXP to get rewards.
A big difference.
That's a really good explanation! I think it's meant to frustrate the stat grinders into spending money and possibly getting them to join the cesspool online play.
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I dont know if you'd really be encouraged to play more if Rookie were way easier. You need to figure out how to deal with the "shenanigans" if you're going to be able to play this game. Batting in The Show is way harder than anything in any other sports game - that's what it comes down to.
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@rubicante23_PSN
I’m not really asking for it to be easier. I’m just noticing that rookie and veteran, for me at least, are significantly harder than the same levels last year. It doesn’t seem reasonable for it to have become that much harder. I’m struggling to complete things like stat missions for TA on a lower level than what I was doing ok at in ‘25. I’m never going to finish TA stat missions scoring 1 run and 5 hits per 9 innings on rookie! If it really is just me not being as good as I used to be, then I will accept that, but i’m just trying to figure it out. -
I only got to 350k season one and I’m only at 150K this season after playing a lot.
Yeah, I got within 35k of the boss pack, and I played WAY too much.
The game is awarding way too little XP for games,
A couple years back they (very sneakily) cut game-earned XP in half. Now to be fair, the inning paths used to be way more to complete but still.
even the games that I’m scoring 20+ runs and 25+ hits.
Yeah, it's definitely not rewarding enough IMHO. I'd rather they just revert back to the old way of "offline" grinding by having everyone's teams just there to choose from (Yetis, anyone?) Especially since they slashed game-earned XP.
Does anyone know the XP multiplier for the different levels? I know the PXP, but I'm looking for the regular.
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100% agree with this opinion.
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@markemark_NSW way more. I know others probably put up 20 runs a game in 9 innings vs the CPU. Not me. lol
My goal was always try to get one run per inning against the CPU. I can’t do that very often this year. But against the WBC teams, I can put up 16 to 20 runs a game.
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@Precisionist99_XBL
I appreciate your input! How do you know if the TV is no longer in game mode? And how can it be fixed? I’m using a Roku.It will be on your tv settings. I'm not sure how a Roku works with a game. On my Vizio I open my tv menu and find display settings, it's there mixed in with "bright" "sports" and other display options. Most modern tv's should have a game mode somewhere in their options. I'd imagine even some of the newer ones do it automatically now. It's comical on some tv's when it's off, like literaly the split second you see the ball leave the pitchers hand it's already in the glove.
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I dont know if you'd really be encouraged to play more if Rookie were way easier. You need to figure out how to deal with the "shenanigans" if you're going to be able to play this game. Batting in The Show is way harder than anything in any other sports game - that's what it comes down to.
I always found the hardest thing in a sports game is being able to switch to a DB then get an INT in Madden. For some reason I just could not get the hang of it or get the timing down. I could do it in first person mode when playing the own character mode (forgot what it was called) but top down I would always end up jumping the wrong direction.
