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WWE 2K23 features a new timed pinning system that requires the player to flick up the R-Stick or press X to line up an indicator and a green zone before the count of three. While players can stick with using the button-mashing mechanics, the timed system offers the most flexibility in matches.
Thanks to the complex lists of sliders and settings, players can tailor their experience, making WWE 2k23 more accessible than any previous WWE game. Unfortunately, these sliders aren't explained in-game and require some experimentation to find a player's personal preferences. This guide will explain the advanced slider values, making the pinning system as manageable or challenging as a player wants.
Pin Difficulty Settings
Making adjustments in the Pin Difficulty Settings affects all pinning mechanics. Unlike the Gameplay Balancing sliders, increasing the value makes the game more challenging. Lowering the Pin Value makes it easier for the human player to kick out of Normal and Pressure pins.
Human Player Values
- First Count Lock: When on, this setting forces the count of one, but reduces the chances of kicking out.
- Human Finisher Values: Lower the value to make it easier to kick out of finisher moves. Players can make additional finishing moves harder to kick out of for realism.
- Human Signature Values: The lower the value, the easier it is to kick out of signature moves.
- Human Post Kick Out Recovery: The most impactful value for the player. The lower its value, the easier it is to kick out of everything. If the value is zero, even a badly damaged wrestler can kick out easily.
The above image presents Hulk Hogan's Kickout bar as almost all green when the Post Kick Out Recovery Value is reduced to single digits and combined with an increased Kickout Zone sizes. Hogan was hit with four Roman Reigns finishers, had negligible health, and had little to no impact on his kicking-out ability. However, a badly damaged character can still get submitted. This only works with kicking out.
If the player uses the Timed Pin mechanics, the green bar behaves like a second health bar by getting smaller in addition to the indicator moving faster when more damage has been taken.
AI Values
- AI Finisher Pin Values: If players are getting frustrated with the AI kicking out of every finisher, increase the Finisher Pin Value. This makes it harder for the AI to kick out of a pin after a finishing move in WWE 2K23. For realism, raise the value for the Additional and 3+ History Pins. Or if players are looking to create a squash match, raise all three to 100.
- AI Signature Pin Values: The same as finishers, but if players want to make it harder for the AI to kick out of signature moves, increase the value.
- AI Post-Kickout Damage Recovery: Like the human counterpart, the Post-Kickout Damage Recovery value will determine how easily the AI kicks out of a pin. Players should increase this if they don't want the AI kicking out easily. Keeping it between 60 and 70 will give players a good back-and-forth match in Legend mode.
Timing Pin Mini-Game
WWE 2K23's new pinning system features Timed Kickout mechanics with an indicator that moves left to right, and a green zone that decreases with size and gets faster the more damage a wrestler takes. The challenge increases each time a WWE wrestler is pinned after a signature and finisher. If players want to make the pinning system as accessible as possible, then using and customizing the Timed Pin Mini-Game is the way to do it.
- Pin Indicator Flag Speed: This covers Normal and two Pressure Pins when a signature and finisher have landed or two consecutive finishers. If players want to slow down the white line, reduce the value.
- Pressure Pin Kickout Zone Max: The higher the value, the larger the green bar, giving it less room to move from side to side. This covers Normal and two Pressure Pins.
- Pressure Pin Kickout Zone Min: The lower the value, the slower the green bar moves from side to side. If players reduce the zone to zero, the green bar will remain stationary, and only the flag indicator will move. This is a good option for players struggling with the timing of two moving objects.
That's everything players need to understand the advanced Pin settings and have the WWE 2K23 matches they want. Of course, skilled players can make the AI more difficult, especially if they are good at WWE 2K23's timed mini-games.
WWE 2K23 is available now for the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.