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Comment by mintplant | Hacker News Reader

> So if Beat Saber scoring isn’t about timing, then how does it work? The scoring system is actually based on motion. In fact, it’s actually designed to make you move in specific ways if you want the highest score.

> The key scoring factors are how broad your swing is and how even your cut is through the center of the block. So Beat Saber throws these cubes at you and challenges you to swing broadly and precisely.

Oh. Coming from a rhythm game background, I couldn't figure out why I kept failing charts when I tried Beat Saber on my friend's VIVE. Now I finally understand what was happening. The experience was frustrating and disheartening. Maybe it wouldn't have been if I'd gone through the tutorial instead of picking up from my friend's game save?

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"Maybe it wouldn't have been if I'd gone through the tutorial instead of picking up from my friend's game save?"

As far as I know this is not explained anywhere in the game itself. Coming from DDR I finally twigged that something was up when I did a full combo and realized I was still light years from the #1 score, and realized there must be more to it than that. Obvious in hindsight, but easy to miss. And I would not have guessed how much it wants your swing to be rather large; scoring [1] is 70 points for a 100 degree approach, 30 points for a 60 degree follow through, and 15 points based on accuracy in hitting the center. Nice in the sense that it creates a lot of headroom for high scores, but most people should not obsess over score too much. The swing sizes it "wants" get absurd pretty quickly as the boxes start coming faster.

[1]: https://bsmg.wiki/ranking-guide.html#scoring

It is literally explained in the first five minutes of the turorial

Or you can intuit from the score displayed after you cut each block

To be fair the tutorial wasn't always there. And when it was added I had no reason to go through it. Not the parent though.

This is the tutorial I got: https://youtu.be/EJIMULOXbYI

Maybe you have a different one on a different platform but there is no score discussion there.

Intuiting things at 3 blocks a second is a challenge.

It's explained 3-4 levels into the campaign, not the tutorial you linked

https://youtu.be/PgjSc8Y9Poc?t=608

It’s been so long I don’t remember if they explain the scoring system fully in a tutorial… but it becomes very intuitive if you _flow_ the direction the blocks want you to go in, with liberal follow through. Also, this makes way more sense at higher difficulties, because the lower ones are so slow that flow and follow through just isn’t intuitive.

I’m not at all interested in high score min/max, but I do confidently play most “dancey” expert+ (as in, not the ridiculous Camellia stuff), and this is how I think about the game.

You won't fail out due to not hitting the blocks "right," other than direction. You fail from missing them (or hitting them the wrong way) or being in those box-hurt-zones, hitting the mines...and I think that's about it.

That said I always kind of wished it was based more on the the timing, if only because it feels good to hit the boxes in time with the beat. People tend to move around though and that'd throw that off.

Hah I also skipped the tutorial and was lost for a while the first time I played.

Its like playing Wii Tennis without swinging your arms.

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