[Doug31]

I hate it when people that don't play this game tell me how simple it is to just try to push the buttons at the right time. I use a complicated strategy that clearly shows that kind of nonsense is false. Here's what I like to do:

If the song is difficulty 1-56: Just play for PA since it's likely easy to combo and even if I miss I can probably just restart the song and get an FC one of those times and then when I do FC it will be with pretty good PA.

If the song is difficulty 57-80: Play for PA except on the hard parts to combo and then be more careful on those trying to not miss. If I miss and won't be able to get better than my old best combo, then play for PA the entire rest of the song even if it is a hard section. But if you already have a good score on the song then only play for combo on little enough of the song that if you do manage to full combo it you'll still beat your old best score.

Difficulty 81-99: Play mostly for combo except on the easy parts where you can go for PA. Don't be afraid to mash if it helps keep the combo going. But if you know you can't get past the max combo you've already gotten then try to maximize your raw score, which means only mash if you absolutely have to.