The best way to beat Diamond Quest on GOAT difficulty in MLB The Show 25 is be very good at the game. However, we’re not here to be honorable and good at the game for this guide. Instead. we’re here to cheese the CPU and get our stadium rewards by any means necessary.
Even if you’re good at the game, you might not want to sweat your way through one or two intense stadium games after 20-45 minutes of grinding to reach those stadiums. Losing a stadium game in Diamond Quest feels way worse than losing in a Showdown to me, and it doesn’t even feel great to win a lot of the time on levels below GOAT difficulty because your odds of securing the top rewards might not even be that great. So, while this “method” won’t guarantee success every time out, it’s a more relaxing way to hunt the rewards on any map of Diamond Quest. And, for those of you who struggle a bit more at the game, this might be a nice way for you to weasel some top rewards without needing to always purchase them on the marketplace.
Diamond Quest GOAT Difficulty Guide
You might be able to guess, but this method is all about speed on offense and just pitching enough to get by. This methodology is also built on years of Show mechanics and recommendations from other users, so a lot of what I’m recommending here might be familiar to veterans out there. We’re also going to try and keep the lineup relatively “cheap” so most people can access some form of it even if they don’t play tons of Diamond Dynasty.
The goal is to make it so 80+ percent of the time you can beat GOAT difficulty with relative ease — and you should get better at the mechanics over time so you’re eventually winning 95+ percent of the time.
Roster Construction
It starts first with a lineup. What we care about for the lineup is speed, drag bunting/bunting, and that’s it. If you end up not being able to get every member of the recommended roster below, I would focus on top-end speed first and drag bunting second. I think the drag bunting rating is important, but more times than not even average drag bunting ratings can work with some consistency.
Here is the starting lineup I recommend and how to acquire each player:
- LF – Topps Now Chandler Simpson (April Spotlight Drop 4 Program)
- CF – All-Star Richie Ashburn (April Fool’s Program)
- RF – Egg Hunt Pete Crow-Armstrong (Egg Hunt Collection Reward)
- 3B – 20th Anniversary Honus Wagner (20th Anniversary Collection Reward)
- SS – 2nd Half Heroes Ozzie Smith (2nd Inning Program XP Path)
- 2B – Live Series Garrett Hampson
- 1B – Negro Leagues Jackie Robinson (Jackie Robinson Program)
- C – Jolt Series Craig Biggio (Astros Team Affinity Program)
- DH – Egg Hunt Rod Carew
The only cards that should cost any amount of money to pursue are Pete Crow-Armstrong and Honus Wagner, and Wagner is the only one who should really set you back because the 20th Anniversary Collection is expensive (as of now). If you did not play enough to get Ozzie Smith in the 2nd Inning Program, then he’s off the table for you no matter what.
(I’m also writing this guide in May, so there are likely to be better and better options as the year progresses and more cards are introduced.)
Three other cheap options are Live Series Byron Buxton and Victor Robles for the outfield, or the Contributor Brian Roberts for the infield if you go through the Orioles Team Affinity Program. Again, you can also just focus on speed (95+) more than drag bunting that is 75+ if you’re truly in a pinch or don’t want to grind out certain free programs. The only card I think is mandatory to have so your lineup 1-9 can be effective is Jolt Series Craig Biggio since your catching options are limited.
And here is the batting order and bench I use:
The players on my bench are there to act as pinch runners if need be, and then Negro Leagues Rap Dixon (Jackie Robinson Program) is there to be the super utility player who can play the entire infield. I think Dixon is essential for this team so you can use the other bench players as pinch runners when you want.
For clarity, the other players on my bench are Egg Hunt Rickey Henderson along with the Live Series Corbin Carroll and Takeover Elly De La Cruz. Any fast players with top-end speed and stealing work for the bench spots — drag bunting is irrelevant.
On the pitching end, I don’t really care as much who you use. You want to get the best pitchers you have and like, and the focus should be on H/9 if you really want to focus on a rating. I’m honestly not sure if HR/9 even matters against the CPU in Diamond Dynasty so I won’t say to focus on that rating (it’s turned off for online H2H games). I prefer guys who throw hard and have splitters/sinkers/sliders as one of their best pitches, but I don’t think that has to be part of the equation for you.
With that said, here is the starting rotation I use:
As for the bullpen, I do think this matters a bit more. I think Egg Hunt Lucas Erceg is essential, and I think New Threads Tanner Scott is also essential. Erceg is a Diamond Quest reward (the irony) that you can buy, and then Tanner Scott is a New Threads card you can buy.
(Again, this guide is being made in May, so the pitching options will only get better over time.)
Beyond those two, you want relievers who have high PCLT (pitch clutch). You can use ShowZone to search for pitchers who fit that mold. Other than that, it’s up to you in terms of who you prefer. I just want a healthy mix of left-handed and right-handed pitching, and then most of them tend to throw very hard.
Here is the bullpen just so you can see my setup as an example:
Pitching And Batting Settings
Now we start getting to the scummy stuff. We’re going to be drag bunting every at-bat, so you’re going to want to change your hitting settings to Directional in the settings menu (do this before you enter Diamond Dynasty). For pitching, it’s your call what interface you use. I’m lazy when doing this method and just use Classic, but if you want more control over your pitches, use whatever method you prefer.
We will be bunting to the first-base side every at-bat, so you’re just going to be holding right on the left stick and then pressing triangle/Y to drag bunt after the pitch leaves the pitcher’s hand. Using Directional is the easiest way to remove some of the variance with this method.
How To Approach Non-Stadium Games And The Board
Using this sort of lineup means certain challenges might be hard. We’re not messing around though, I go right for the stadium on most of the available boards right now. If you want to make sure your GOAT difficulty odds are 70+ percent, then you might need to play (and win) a couple more challenges, but I’m mostly focused on efficiency. If you want to play the Sweeper as well, that’s your call, and this method should help you win those games, but it’s not what I usually do.
The challenges I dread are the home run challenges and XBH challenges since directional hitting and the fact that we have a low-power lineup make those a struggle. The easier challenges are any Showdown, ones where you need to get hits/score runs, or the pitching ones. Just try to get through these challenges as quickly as possible and never forfeit any challenge because that just costs you percentage points for the stadium reward. If you lose a challenge, that’s fine, it just means the stadium percentage will not go up after the game.
When you get to the stadium bosses, just be sure you’re not going in with any brutal penalties for your attributes (especially bunting or pitching ones).
How To Cheese GOAT Difficulty
Okay, so the goal is to drag bunt the ball to the first-base side and make the 2B field it. When we get on base, we’re going to steal second base and third base almost every time so the next bunt that gets down brings the man home from third and starts the cycle anew.
How do we successfully drag bunt? Well, here is a look at it when it works:
There is a subtle “art” to it. You notice how the camera shifts just slightly pre-pitch? That is me holding straight to the right on the left stick, which shifts the camera as well. Do not press the left stick up or down as you do this because with Directional hitting that influences the ball flight.
As for when to press the bunt button, you’ll get a feel for it as you do it more and more, but I like pressing it a split second or two after the pitch leaves the hand of the pitcher. You also need to understand you’re going to have some bad outcomes. You’re going to pop out some, you’re going to drag bunt at balls way out of the zone that you’ll miss, and you’ll strikeout on bunts with two strikes at times.
If you’re good enough to read the pitch is going to be a ball before you choose to bunt, then good on you, but I’m telling you I have this down cold at this point and I barely ever worry about taking pitches with no one on base — even though I could — even if they’re obvious balls.
The reason this method works well for scoring runs is not so much the bunting, it’s the stealing of bases and the abuse of how the AI handles runners on third base. That part of the strategy is how we bring the variance down and ensure we’re usually scoring enough runs to offset giving up a couple runs on GOAT difficulty.
As for how to efficiently steal bases, here is that runner now stealing second and third base on the next two pitches after getting down the successful bunt:
It’s really that easy (most of the time). I’ll walk you through how to do this in a second, but I want to be clear about a couple things. I trust almost anyone to steal second base with this method — even if the pitcher slide steps and pitches out for the most part. You’ll get thrown out here and there, but you should have a 95+ percent success rate stealing second base overall.
When it comes to third base, it’s a little more risky when the pitcher slide steps/pitches out. Using Richie Ashburn as the example, he’s 83 speed and 62 stealing. I still attempt to steal 3B with him every time, but he’s probably only going to be successful 75 percent of the time, and the chances go down if the pitcher slide steps/pitches out. Point being, if you absolutely must have a run, this is why the bench exists. Substitute in one of your 90+ speed/steal guys and get the “must have” steals in those cases for guys like Ashburn, Carew, or even Hampson.
As for how this steal method works. Here’s the step by step:
- Wait for the pitcher to come “set” on the mound. Whether he looks over to the base or not is mostly irrelevant by the time you do the next thing.
- Press R2/RT once the pitcher is set, this freezes the CPU pitcher and he can’t pitch while you’re holding R2. This also means he won’t throw over unless you take too big a lead (which means anything more than a one-step lead).
- Take a one-step secondary lead by tapping (L1/LB) once while still holding R2.
- Then press the steal button (LT/L2) — your controller should rumble/vibrate if it has the ability to do so.
- Variations: If runners are on first base and second base, have them steal second and third this way as well. If runners are on first base and third base, you need to hold R2 still but also press your left stick towards the first-base side until the baserunning UI arrow lights up (it will turn blue). Continue to hold right on the analog stick towards the runner on 1B and then do the usual secondary lead and steal method so only the player on first steals rather than the player on third base also trying to steal home.
- Release R2 when you’re ready so the pitcher can actually pitch to the hitter, and then don’t bunt under any circumstance because we want to steal the bases. You can see I’m in an 0-2 hole at the end of this video, but that’s fine because our runner is now on third base.
Why holding R2 after the pitcher is set causes the pitcher to never throw over unless you take a two-step lead is beyond me, but that’s the way it is, and it’s been that way for a long time in The Show. This method usually allows us to get solid jumps as well, so even though we’re just pre-loading the steal rather than timing it off the pitcher starting his motion towards home plate, we’ll usually get positive outcomes.
Yes, you will still get a bad jump every so often that will lead to you being thrown out, but this is a much more effective way to score runs over the long haul. Identifying a good pitch and getting a good bunt down to the correct spot along the right side of the infield is much more high variance over an extended number of at-bats. I would much rather have to get one guy on base via bunting and be down 0-2 after stealing two bases versus needing 3-4 good bunts in a row to get a run home.
Why this method can snowball into numerous runs in an inning is because once the runner is on third base, most of the time the AI will want to throw home rather than to first base even though they usually have no shot at getting the speedy runner at home plate.
The only thing you need to do once the runner is on third base is take the one step secondary lead with L1/LB before every pitch. You’re obviously not going to steal home or put the runner in motion for a squeeze play, but the one extra step does help.
Here is how the AI handles bunts most of the time when you bunt to the right side of the infield with a runner on third base with fewer than two outs:
It’s not a great bunt, and I’d likely be out at first, but instead the CPU tries to come home, and it’s not a remotely close play. This is how we get more players on base via bunting and why things are easier with a man on third — hence why this can turn into a snowball inning.
As for pitching, the only real recommendations I have are to throw hard stuff up and in, and then soft stuff (or even sinkers) low and away. When it comes to managing the bullpen, I only let guys throw to 1-2 batters, and if they give up a hit or walk they are immediately pulled for the next guy. We’re only playing three innings, use your whole bullpen if you must.
At the end of a successful stadium game, here is what a good outcome looks like:
I gave up a three-run home run in the first, but we rallied and scored seven runs on eight hits over three innings. We had 17 stolen bases and two caught stealings (both at third base). I did let Mason Miller go a full inning because he was looking dominant enough, but we used six arms over three innings.
After the win, hopefully you get the top stadium rewards. You can stop after just one stadium if you want, but I think once you get more confident with this method, you’ll usually trust yourself enough to win both stadium games and come away with all the best rewards available on the board. If you do this method right, most of the boards should be completed in less than 60 minutes, and some can even be knocked out in 30 minutes.
