Welcome to the beginner’s guide to MLB.com Home Run Derby for the iPhone and iPad! MLB.com Home Run Derby allows you to compete as real life players, ranging from Jose Bautista to Yoenis Cespedes, in a quest to become the number one home run derby champion in the last 5 years’ all star games (every player in the game is from the actual years that they participated). And of course, there is the arcade mode, which lets you play for fun, points and coins. Read on for the beginner’s guide to MLB.com Home Run Derby!
First in the game is the selection of your player. You can choose a player from 2010 all the way to 2013, and whoever you pick, they will compete against players from the same year. Players cost anywhere between 100 and 700 MLBucks, which is the premium currency of the game, depending on what their statistics are.
Each player has two statistics that define their performance: power and contact. A higher contact score means that their contact area in the game itself is larger, so it’s easier to get the sweet spot of the bat on the ball. A higher power score means that the ball simply travels farther off of a player’s bat.
There are single player two modes of play. One of them is the arcade mode. This will cost you no tickets to play, and you will earn coins from this mode based on how many total points you rack up and how many home runs you hit, as well as your best home run streak. This mode earns you the most coins out of the two modes.
The other mode is the derby mode, which puts you a competition that is set up similarly to the home run derby in real life. Your goal here is to try to work your way up the ladder by hitting more homers than your competition. This is where you can earn free MLBucks. The more total home runs you hit, the more you earn. First place earns you 5 MLBucks, while second earns you 3, third earns you 2 and fourth earns you 1.
Click here to continue on to part 2 of the MLB.com Home Run Derby beginner’s guide!