Introduction
Main Document
Welcome to the Science of the Silence!
If you ever wondered how the scoring system works, or what goes into the letter grade at the end of the song, you've come to the right place. This document aims to explain all of the mechanics at work in Unbeatable while you play a song.
Everything here has been found manually through repeated experimentation and the input of the great people over on the Official Unbeatable Discord server[discord.gg] (come check us out!).
The sections you see here are in simplified text format for a quick reference, but full, high quality versions of each section (along with some bonus sections) are over on the main document, which is hosted on Google Sheets[docs.google.com] !
Google Sheets - The Science of the Silence[docs.google.com]
Priority is given to the Google Sheets version, which will be the most up-to-date at any given point in time. However, updates will still be posted to the Steam version as necessary.
Here's a sample of what formatting you can expect to see on the main document:
Overview
User Interface:
1. HP Bar - If you run out of HP, you will fail the song.
2. Beat - You control Beat during a song.
3. Hit Line - When a note reaches this bar, you should hit it (for a perfect note rating)! You can also hit slightly earlier or later.
4. Note Lanes - Notes can come from either the top lane or the bottom lane.
5. Note/Enemy - These are notes that will travel towards Beat.
6. Accuracy - The average note accuracy for this song.
7. Song Score - The cumulative score for this song.
8. Combo Counter - A rough indication of how many notes you have hit in a row.
General Gameplay- In order to clear a song, Beat must survive until the end.
- In order to do so, you have to hit notes as they approach Beat, ideally as close to the visible hit line as possible.
- Hitting the note earlier/later than the hit line will give you different ratings for notes. These will affect your score and accuracy.
- The in-game tutorials do a good job of explaining things (such as how to hit high and low notes, what buttons to press, etc.). Try them out!
- Currently, tutorial difficulties exist for the songs Proper Rhythm and Familiar.
Note TypesThere are a variety of note types (enemies) that you can encounter during a song.
All enemies (except spikes) will gain a red glow when you are able to hit them.
Additionally, enemies have an inner red circle and an outer red circle, for aid in timing hits.
- The outer red circle will slowly close in as the note gets closer.
- The timing for (+000) perfect notes corresponds to when the two circles overlap.
It appears that Beat isn't able to hit notes before they turn red. However, this is not 100% confirmed at the moment.
Screen Switching- Occasionally, the screen will switch sides, or even have both sides active at once!
Note:
- All the controls are still the same.
- Beat will automatically flip sides to hit the correct notes.
An "Up Next" indicator will show up before a left or right screen switch. The position of the indicator will tell you what lane the first note after the switch will appear in.
- Bottom and Top indicators represent their respective lanes.
- Middle indicators are for upcoming Double notes, Double Hold notes, Chain notes, and Spam notes, among other edge cases.
- Basically, any upcoming post-switch note that requires either key or both keys will have a Middle indicator.
The "Up Next" indicator will not show up if the screen transitions to or from a "both sides" view. Instead, the screen will simply zoom in or out accordingly.
Beat/Player Specifics- Beat will slowly "fall" to the ground after attacking in the top lane. You can speed this up by immediately attacking the bottom lane, which will cause Beat to "snap" immediately to the ground. This is very useful for higher difficulties when Beat may have to rapidly dodge spikes.
- When Beat hits a Hold note, she will freeze in that lane until the note is released. If another Hold note appears while Beat is frozen, Quaver will appear and help to hit the note.
- It is currently unknown what lane Beat will default to if two Hold notes (one from each lane) are pressed on the exact same frame.
- If Beat finishes a Hold note in the top lane, she will not be able to jump again until she touches the ground. She can, however, snap back up before landing if there is something to attack in the top lane. If there is nothing to hit, Beat will fall as usual before regaining her jump.
- If Beat misses a note, she will enter a period of hitstun. During this time, the player will not be able to input any commands. This can be very dangerous on higher difficulties when chains of notes can lock you in hitstun for long periods of time.
Extra Resources
For another overview guide on Unbeatable, check out LazySan's guide on Steam:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2486504156
HP System
BasicsAt the top of your screen is a bar that indicates your total HP.
- You have a total of 10 HP.
- A miss makes you lose 1 HP.
- Once you reach 0 HP, you will fail the song.
At 4 HP and lower, the Heartbreak text will appear.
Note:
It may be easier to think in terms of "misses remaining" instead of HP.
- At full HP, you can miss up to 9 times before you die.
- Once Heartbreak appears, you can miss up to 3 more times before you die.
You can regain your HP by gaining HP Counters. This is a hidden mechanic not visible on the screen.
- For every 6 consecutive hits, you gain 1 HP counter.
- Whenever you reach 2 HP counters, you will regain 1 HP.
- While you are at max HP, you can only store 1 HP counter.
- You start the game with 1 HP counter.
Examples:1. You start the song and miss two notes. It will take 3 HP counters to heal to full. This requires 3 sets of 6 hits each, or 18 uniterrupted hits.
It only takes 3 HP counters to heal since you start the game with 1 free HP counter.
2. You have 0 HP counters and are missing 1 HP. You get a 5-combo, then a miss. It will take 4 HP counters (24 uniterrupted hits) to heal to full.
3. You are at max HP. You hit a 12-combo. You only get 1 HP counter because you are at max health.
Extra Details- Every hit counts towards the HP counter. This means Hold notes are worth 2 hits (1 for the initial press, and 1 for the release). Similarly, Spam notes are worth 1 per hit, and Chain notes are also worth 1 per hit. 2Hit notes are also worth 1 per hit.- Although a miss will reset your progress towards a new HP counter, any HP counters you already have will still carry over between misses (i.e. you can never lose any you've already gained).
- Jumping over spikes does not count towards a 6-chain combo (it is not a "hit" of any kind).
- Double notes are counted as two notes and thus are worth two hits - you can delay hitting one or the other. If you miss one half by being too late, the first half you hit will still count towards an HP counter.
Song Grades & Accuracy
Basics - Note AccuracyEach note rating has its own accuracy associated with it.
Your accuracy at the end of a song is the average of all notes.
Note Accuracy Specifics
- The accuracy of Hold notes is determined by whatever action is the worst (the initial hit vs. the tail release, whatever is worse).
- The accuracy of 2Hit notes is determined by whatever one of the two hits is worse.
- The accuracy of Spam notes is determined by the initial hit.
- The accuracy of Chain notes is determined by the initial hit, although missing any mini-notes will result in a miss for the entire note.
Basics - Song GradesThe grade at the end of the song is based on two factors: Average accuracy, and the presence of any misses.
The breakdown is as follows:
If there were any misses during the song, a flat 5% accuracy penalty will be applied before a grade is given.
Extra Details
- A song will show up with "full combo" if every note is hit, and there are no "Barely" ratings.
- A song will show up with "no misses" if every note is hit, and there are one or more "Barely" ratings.
-[X,Y) notation means that the range starts from X and goes up to, but not including, Y (domain notation for math).
-There is a hidden grade for getting all "Barely" ratings (excluding spikes) on a song, within a certain average offfset. It is called "YOUR FINGERS HAVE ASCENDED BEYOND MORTAL COMPREHENSION."
Examples
The people on the D-Cell Discord helped to compile this section! For the sake of privacy here, please see the Google Sheets section "Song Grades & Accuracy".
Scoring System & Points
BasicsEvery song has a Base Point Value (BPV) that determines the inherent value of every note in the song.
This BPV is then scaled depending on the rating of the note.
The rating points are then scaled by a hidden combo multiplier based on where the note will fall in the combo.
This is not the same as the visible combo counter!
"Barely" notes will still contribute towards the hidden combo multiplier, but not towards the visible one.
Together, these two factors determine the final points value for a single note. The song score is the sum of all the note points.
Note Points = (BPV) * (Rating Multiplier) * (Combo Multiplier)
Note Type Specifics
- Hold notes, Spam notes, Chain notes, and 2Hit notes are all counted as single notes for the purposes of scoring, no matter how many hits are involved.
- Points are only awarded at the end of a note sequence (the second hit of 2Hit notes, the release action for Hold notes, the final mini-note for Chain notes, and automatically when Spam notes fall away).
Combo Multiplier Specifics
Here are some examples as to how the combo multiplier functions:
- Your combo reads 19x on screen (assuming no "Barely" notes). Your next note will be the 20th note in the combo and will get a 1x multiplier.
- Your combo reads 20x on screen (assuming no "Barely" notes). Your next note will be the 21st note in the combo, so it will get a 2x multiplier.
- Your combo reads 40x on screen (assuming no "Barely" notes). Your next note will be the 41st note in the combo, so it will get a 4x multiplier.
Other Notes:
- Hold notes, 2Hit notes, Chain notes, and Spam notes are all only worth 1 for the combo multiplier, no matter how many hits you land.
- Dodging spikes is worth 1 for the combo multiplier.
Technical Supplement: Scoring System & Points
Perfect Note SpecificsPerfect notes are not all worth the same! You can hit them early (-), or late (+), with the max range being +/- 51ms in either direction. The closer you are to +000, the better your score.
-At best (+000), a perfect gives you a multiplier of 7.5.
-At worst (+051, -051), a perfect gives you a multiplier of 5.
Here's a graph showing how the multiplier changes with delay.
To illustrate how drastic the multiplier dropoff is:
-From (+000) to (+001), it drops from 7.5 to 7.49 (-0.01).
-From (+009) to (+010), it drops from 7.31 to 7.28 (-0.03).
-From (+050) to (+051), it drops from 5.08 to 5.0 (-0.08).
For the same difference of 1 ms, you lose much more from (+050) to (+051) compared to going from (+000) to (+001). Hitting close to (+000) is better, even if you miss a little!
Song Score Limits & BPV CalculationNot every song has the same maximum score.
- The "theoretical" high score for every song is 1,500,000.
- The BPV for each song is calculated off of this 1,500,000 limit.
- The actual score limit is then determined by counting the number of spikes in a song. The more spikes, the lower the max score.
The BPV calculation assumes that:
- Every note in the song is a single.
- Every hit is a perfect (+000), for a 7.5 rating multiplier.
- Every note is hit, following the combo mutliplier scaling.
The resulting equation is:
Other Notes:
- Spikes have a multiplier of 5 instead of 7.5. The max score is lower with more spikes because the calculated BPV will be overestimating the average value of every note.
- Conversely, for an "All Barely" run, more spikes will lead to a higher minimum score, since spikes are worth more than "Barely" notes.
- The absolute minimum score for an "All Barely" run is 200,000, assuming no spikes.
Extra - The Importance of Rating and ComboHere are some observations to highlight the importance of rating and combo.
If you were at an 8x combo multiplier, a single miss will set you back 348x total worth of multiplier (compared to never missing).
If all of these notes were (+000) perfects, you would lose out on 2610*BPV worth of points!
If you hit all notes with the same rating, these would be the theoretical high scores:
Final Note: Note Types & Mechanics
It can be a bit confusing to keep track of how different notes interact with different mechanics. To summarize:
- All note types (except Doubles, which are basically two Singles put together) count as one note for note points.
- All note types (except Doubles, which are basically two Singles put together) count as one note for the combo multiplier.
- All note types (except Doubles, which are basically two Singles put together) count as one note for accuracy.
- Some note types count as multiple notes/hits for HP regeneration, or even no hits in the case of Spikes.
Wrapping Up
There you have it! Those have been some of the basics behind various mechanics in Unbeatable. Again, if you would like to see full-color, fully formatted versions, please check out the Google Sheets [docs.google.com] document!
The Google Sheets version also has sections on:
- Song Breakdowns by Min Score, Max Score, and Note Type.
- Theoretical Minimum Scores: an effort to achieve the lowest possible scores on every song.
- Behind the Scene segments showing how some of these mechanics were derived.
Please consider supporting the game developers over on https://www.unbeatablegame.com/ to help continue making Unbeatable the memorable experience it is. Thank you for reading!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2611502333
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