MLB The Show 26: Diamond Dynasty Beginner's Guide

Diamond Dynasty is MLB The Show 26's "ultimate team" mode, tasking players with building their best squads through gameplay and packs. There's a ton of content and stuff to do, which can be an intimidating set of screens for new players.

We've put together a guide to help you get started in Diamond Dynasty. We walk you through initial steps, provide teambuilding tips, and get you pointed in the right direction within the mode.

Open Any Packs

Without buying packs, it's possible to have quite a few to open when booting up the game for the first time. Anyone completing the Now & Later Program in MLB The Show 25 earned free packs in this year's game. Additionally, there's a number of Twitch Drop packs for those that watched pre-release streams and linked their accounts.

Beyond that, if you're planning on buying packs, doing so from the beginning is how you effectively start building your team. Packs are handed out handily in this game, so you can jump into grinding to start earning plenty of free packs along the way.

Starter Program

Completing the Starter Program this year rewards Gold versions of Albert Pujols, Felix Hernandez, and Troy Tulowitski. Teams are very weak starting from scratch, and adding Golds to your squad with just a little bit of grinding is great value. You'll have a chance to experience the basics of Diamond Dynasty content within the program, and add a couple of decent Golds for free.

Mazeroski/Hafner Programs

Completing the two Player Programs currently available will reward you with your first Diamonds, unless you pulled from packs. Taking advantage of free upgrades will be critical for no money spent players, and these cards will be necessary in future collections as well. These collections require you to lock in a ton of cards, but are typically the best cards available in the game.

Knocking these out early upgrades your team and pads your binder.

WBC Content

At this point, you've added some solid cards to your squad. Between packs and the free programs, you can now jump into the WBC programs to start earning even more free cards.

There are four unique WBC Programs for each pool of teams. For complete breakdowns of the missions and rewards, check out ShowZone's new Programs page. You'll find every Program released in Diamond Dynasty, with all rewards and requirements for completion in one place. Additionally, you'll be able to track your progress with a built-in tracker to update your progress in every program.

Completing the WBC content will allow you to upgrade your team to diamonds very quickly. Start with the Moments in each of the four pools, unlock as many WBC program cards you can, then start grinding missions for these cards. You can do this anywhere in the game, so pick your preferred method of play. I highly recommend the Event, as you'll earn progress in multiple programs at once. If you want to stick offline, Play vs CPU or playing through the WBC Conquest map with your team constantly updating as you complete missions and unlock new program cards.

Online Pivot

At this point, you've probably built up your binder and squad enough to take your squad online - provided online interests you. There's plenty to do offline, which I'll detail below. Anyone looking for the human challenge can jump into Events, and begin working toward the Event exclusive WBC Brice Turang diamond. Don't worry about wins - as you can complete the program this year without achieving an arbitrary number of wins.

You can earn what will become a valuable card, for free, just for playing the Event online. You can lose literally every game but still get the card if you play enough. Events will be a great way to get used to online gameplay, as it feels very different from offline.

You can also hop into Ranked Seasons or Ranked Co-Op and begin that journey. Battle Royale doesn't use your team, but you can attempt to make Stubs here while sharpening your gameplay in competitive games.

Conquest/Diamond Quest/Mini Seasons

Even if you take the plunge online, everyone can benefit from time with these offline modes. Conquest is a Real-Time Strategy style mini-game, where you capture territories by moving around fans. It's a menu-based game until you get to a Stronghold, where you play the designated MLB team to defeat them and "capture" their Stronghold.

Diamond Quest is an amazingly fun, arcade style game where you roll a dice, move a number of spaces, and complete Moments and Mini-Showdowns to increase your chances at the designated reward cards. There are two Diamond Quest maps at launch that will reward up to a total of 6 diamond cards, allowing you to further boost your initial squad's power level.

Mini Seasons has a new 9-inning option this year, allowing you to play a combination of 3 and 9-inning games across 7 and 28 game seasons. There is a WBC themed Mini Seasons with a ton of WBC cards for rewards, where you actually play against the real WBC teams in pool play. This only happens during WBC years, which means this version of Mini Seasons won't happen for several years and is too fun to not play.

Keep in mind that the WBC Mini Season is locked into 28-games.

Along the way, you'll be earning packs, cards, and other rewards that you can have fun with. Whether you're collecting your favorite players, or ripping packs for today's biggest stars; you're ready to take on Diamond Dynasty with the best of them.