MLB The Show 26 Store

In MLB The Show 26's Diamond Dynasty mode, a vast array of content awaits your acquisition, and a significant portion of it can be unlocked by completing offline objectives.

One of the primary ways to accomplish offline goals is through Conquest mode. This straightforward mode offers substantial rewards, including uniforms, card packs, stubs, and various other items. The following information will help you secure all these rewards in the shortest time possible.

What is Conquest Mode?

For newcomers to Diamond Dynasty, Conquest can be understood as a board-game-style strategy mode similar to Risk. Your objective is to expand your territory by capturing Strongholds on the map, which represent real-world Major League Baseball teams.

With the global release of the game, the iconic USA Map series has gone live. This includes three separate maps: East, West, and Central. These are the largest Conquest maps in terms of content for this year. Additional maps will be added through future game updates.

Clarify Your Objectives

Before embarking on your Conquest journey, the most crucial step is to identify your thematic goals. Various Themed Programs or Team Affinity Programs within the game include a series of missions, and these can generally be completed in any mode, including Conquest.

The requirements for different Programs within Conquest mode often vary. Therefore, before entering any Conquest map, be sure to check Program you're working on and place the required players into your game lineup. The advantage of doing this is that you can accomplish these Program missions while simultaneously progressing through Conquest map—effectively killing two birds with one stone.

Conquest Map Reward

Once you select a map you wish to challenge, you can immediately view its specific objectives. These typically include:

Capturing Specific Divisions: For instance, taking control of all Strongholds in AL West will directly reward you with an 88 OVR Diamond Player Card, Colt Emerson.

Completing an Entire Map: Finishing any single USA Division Map will grant you a Spring Breakout Choice Pack, along with various other card packs and MLB The Show 26 stubs rewards.

These are the direct rewards within Conquest mode itself, independent of the rewards from themed Programs you're working on, making the overall payout very substantial.

How to Complete Conquest Mode Efficiently?

Conquest mode is an engaging strategic game, and exploring its mechanics on your own can be part of the fun. If you're short on patience, you can follow these steps to conquer the mode.

Attack Phase

During your attack turn, use all available reinforcements (your "fans") to expand as far as possible. The goal is to connect as many hexes as you can, forming a large contiguous territory. The number of reinforcements you receive each turn is entirely determined by the total number of hexes you control. More hexes mean more troops for the next turn.

Once you've exhausted your troops or can no longer expand, the game proceeds to Steal Fans Phase. Unless the specific map has an objective requiring you to steal fans, you can safely skip this phase entirely. Simply advance to Reinforcement Phase.

Reinforcement Phase

Now, you'll receive new reinforcements based on the total number of hexes you held in the previous turn. Concentrate all your reinforcements onto a single hex from which you plan to continue your expansion (typically a hex adjacent to one of your Strongholds).

Skip Move Fans Phase again and return to Attack Phase. By repeating these steps, your territory will grow larger, and the number of troops you gain each turn will increase. After a few such cycles, you'll quickly control most of the empty or lightly defended areas on the map, establishing a vast foothold.

Capturing Strongholds

After using the territory-encircling method described above to turn most of the map into your territory, it's time to directly confront the other teams.

Clear the Periphery

For any enemy hex that is not a Stronghold (marked with a team logo), you can use overwhelming troop numbers to Simulate the battle. It functions like a dice-rolling mechanic; the more troops you have, the higher your chance of success. Occasional losses are nothing to worry about.

Assault the Core

Once you've cleared all hexes surrounding a Stronghold, you can attack its core. To capture a Stronghold, you cannot simulate; you must play and win a 3-inning game yourself.

You can select the difficulty based on your troop advantage over the stronghold. Beginners may prefer Rookie. However, for players with some experience, Veteran difficulty is often a better choice. On Rookie difficulty, the computer pitcher's velocity is extremely slow, and pitches frequently miss the strike zone, which can throw off your hitting timing. Veteran difficulty offers pitching speeds closer to a normal game, providing a better rhythm.

If your troop count isn't sufficient for a comfortable margin, you can continue to stockpile fans for a few turns, accumulate over 50 troops, and then choose a difficulty you're comfortable with to secure the win.

Keep Mission Objectives in Mind

While playing these manual games, always keep Program missions you're working on in mind. If you need doubles or home runs, patiently wait for a favorable pitch.

If you need innings pitched, remember that in Conquest mode's 3-inning games, even if your pitcher's stamina runs out, the computer struggles to mount effective offense on lower difficulties. You can easily have them pitch the entire game to efficiently complete those tasks.

In offline modes, it's advisable to forgo the complex Pinpoint Pitching. While it's the preferred method for high-level online competition, against the computer, using simpler and faster methods like Analog or Meter pitching is more than enough to get batters out. This choice can significantly speed up your grinding process, saving you a considerable amount of manual time.

Conquest mode stands as one of the most relaxed and efficient avenues in Diamond Dynasty for acquiring free card packs and players. You can naturally progress through all Programs while enjoying your games. Hopefully, the strategies above will help you conquer every map with ease.

Beyond participating in standard modes and matches, the primary source for earning additional rewards in MLB The Show 26 lies within its various programs.

The good news is that there are almost always active programs available in the game, ensuring that you can make progress at any time.

The bad news, however, is that new programs are released at a rapid pace, often alongside long-term, ongoing ones, making it difficult to keep up with every single one. Consequently, you might inadvertently miss out on the specific player cards you desire most.

This time around, we're here to offer the perfect solution to this dilemma!

What are MLB 26 programs?

Programs are a structured reward progression system introduced within MLB 26's Diamond Dynasty mode. To advance, you must complete specific objectives to earn MLB 26 stubs, XP, card packs, or rare player cards.

Common program types include:

• Missions: Accumulate specific statistics (such as hits or innings pitched) using designated players or teams.
• Moments: Complete specific actions to recreate classic baseball scenarios.
• Showdowns: Assemble a team to face off against a boss pitcher.
• Exchanges: Trade in your existing player cards to earn points.
• Team Affinity: Complete various specific tasks to advance your progress with a designated team.
• Featured Programs: An umbrella term for a series of new, limited-time events that are continuously updated as the game evolves.

Currently, there are over 80 active programs available in MLB 26 (making it more urgent than ever to manage them efficiently!). Based on the highest potential returns in Stubs, XP, and Player Rewards, we've compiled a list of those you should prioritize:

• Most Stubs: 1st Inning XP Path, Multiplayer 1 Program, Arizona Diamondbacks Program.
• Most XP: Multiplayer 1 Program, Starter Program, World Baseball Classic (WBC) Pool A-D Programs (four separate programs in total).
• Most Player Rewards: World Baseball Classic (WBC) Pool A-D Programs, WBC Recap Program, Multiplayer 1 Program.

The best strategy: stacking several programs

Our recommended method for tackling as many programs as possible, and thereby maximizing your rewards, is to stack them whenever their respective time limits allow.

For many of the current high-value programs, the specific tasks often simply require you to perform a particular baseball action using a designated player.

Crucially, neither the difficulty setting you choose nor the specific composition of your team will affect whether these tasks are successfully completed.

Therefore, if your roster includes players required by multiple tasks, you might even be able to complete several tasks within a single game. By stacking these objectives a few times, you can effectively make progress on multiple programs simultaneously.

However, to maximize the efficiency of this stacking strategy, there are a few additional tips you should master, and we're here to share them with you.

The strongest team isn't always the best

Given the competitive nature of baseball games, you might be accustomed to fielding the absolute strongest team possible for every matchup. Awkwardly enough, this isn't a particularly effective strategy for completing specific program objectives.

If you build your team solely around overall power, resulting in a roster where only one or two players actually meet the program's specific requirements, you'll find yourself constantly having to reshuffle your lineup after every single game.

Admittedly, a slightly weaker team might take a little longer to finish a game, but the hassle of constantly rebuilding your roster is far more annoying!

Therefore, you're much better off reviewing the program requirements in advance and selecting multiple designated players to assemble a dedicated "Program-Specific Squad."

In fact, most program objectives don't impose any requirements regarding game difficulty. So, feel free to simply select the lowest difficulty setting to start your games, the priority here is to earn your rewards as quickly as possible!

Choose the suitable game mode

In addition to lowering the overall game difficulty, you can also boost your task-completion efficiency by selecting the right game mode, specifically, we recommend prioritizing Conquest mode.

In this single-player mode, the objective is to capture territories on a specific map and grow your fan base to expand your influence, ultimately culminating in the defeat of your opponents' Strongholds.

With this in mind, we suggest focusing on accumulating fans as quickly as possible during the early stages of the game. This allows you to capture more territory faster, thereby lowering the difficulty of subsequent matchups.

Once you've established this advantage, you can apply our earlier tip regarding roster construction to knock out even more program objectives.

Another excellent option is Mini Seasons. Its key advantages are low difficulty and a fast pace: you only need to complete short, three-inning games.

Furthermore, Mini Seasons allows for repeated playthroughs. This means that if you're short on gaming time, or if your "Program-Specific Squad" happens to be particularly low-rated, you can simply stick to playing this mode exclusively.

In addition, we specifically recommend opting for the offline mode. While it might lack some of the excitement of online play, it eliminates matchmaking wait times and offers an even more relaxed, straightforward experience.

Choose the custom stadiums

Some program tasks require you to execute specific in-game actions. If you select a stadium with conditions that are ideally suited to those actions, you can complete your objectives with far less effort and much greater efficiency!

For instance, hitting a home run is easier in stadiums situated at higher altitudes, while dim lighting can help you better confuse opposing players.

Therefore, we recommend that you utilize custom stadiums to complete your project tasks. By freely designing a stadium environment that works to your greatest advantage, you can achieve your objectives much faster and more easily!

That covers everything we wanted to share with you in this guide. As a quick reminder, we have also previously published walkthroughs for several specific projects; combining those guides with the tips in this article will make for an even more effective gaming experience!