MLB The Show 21 carries over some changes to the PCI allowing players to be more informed than ever about how to properly hit and get home runs easier. Well, at the very least you’re more informed than ever, you still need to be skilled of course! Here are some tips and how to hit and get home runs more consistently for all platforms and consoles.
How to Hit in MLB The Show 21
MLB The Show 21 carries over the more useful PCI (the default hitting settings) that will not only show the contact of the hitter you’re using via a smaller inner circle, but also shows you their plate vision too. In the past, it was an average of the two and it didn’t really accurately tell you what was going on which led to frustration for many players.
While hitting still isn’t a perfect science in MLB The Show 21, it’s definitely better than it was before.
Assuming you’re using the PCI to hit – which is what we recommend – the way it works is that you use the left analog stick to control where the PCI goes and the goal is to try and get it as close to the center of the inner circle as possible for the best contact. The further away you are from the center, the worse the contact will be.
Of course, you’ll also need to balance bat timing too. If you’re too early or too late, you’ll get jammed up and it will usually lead to poor contact, even if you get the PCI on it properly. You need to balance both timing and accuracy with the PCI in order to get hits in MLB The Show 21. The lower your difficulty, the more forgiving everything we just described above will be.
While the PCI is fresh-looking and more useful now, it’s not literally brand new. What is though is the Perfect/Perfect dots you’ll see in the very center of the inner PCI circle.
When the dot is bigger towards the top dot, that batter will lean towards powerful, well-angled fly ball hits, while the bottom diamonds will lean towards better contact; hard-hit grounders that can penetrate out of the infield and line drives that will more likely split the outfielders.
If you can line up the ball with those dots and combine that with perfect timing, you’ll have the best possible chance to get good hits that lead to productive at-bats in MLB The Show 21.
Finally, if your goal is contact and base hits, rather than power, you should normally use the X on PlayStation or A on Xbox button to swing. You can use Circle on PlayStation or B on Xbox button instead, which will increase the chance of getting the bat on the ball, but it will reduce the power quite noticeably.
We’d recommend only using the Circle/B button when you just need to get the ball into play to move a runner over or in a hit and run scenario where you just want to avoid a double play. Otherwise, use the X button.
