The Secrets to FFR
Introduction (To bunk all of this go to "Tips")
Hey everyone! Just another player here (21992) to tell you how to get better on this game better known as Flash Flash Revolution. I'm closing the gap on 4 years now, and would like to share my tips on how I came to be my skill level. I tried to share my tips during my tournament (Here) but I think that flopped due to the circumstances I was in. I try to analyze the game to find out what I can do to be better, and keep that in mind during gameplay. I realize that even though it's all up to you to get better at the game, there's always tactics that can bring a player from being "Good" to "Fantastic". So without further a due I present to you my tips!
Tips
Note: I might go through more obvious tips to ensure understanding of advance ones.
Customization
1. Get yourself familiar with the game and everything about it. The FFR Picture Dictionary is an awesome place to learn about the different patterns in the game. If you can't read it at least skim through it. This will also let you find your weaknesses, almost every player has their weaknesses if they want to admit it or not (mine being jumpjacks which can decimate me). I'll try my best present tips on improving on certain patterns.
2.Playing Position, there's many different types of playing positions. Find one that is appealing in the FFR Hand Positions Guide. This guide effectively displays pro's and cons of each position and can help you determine one that's right for you. Remember that if a pro uses it, it doesn't mean that it's right for you. As for my recommended position would be "Spread" as this offers a comfortable position for nailing most patterns that show up.
3. Scroll. The scroll is a term to describe the orientation that the arrows will move along the board. 2 are usually used and are "Up scroll" or "Down Scroll" (aka Reverse). I played Guitar Hero before I saw this game so naturally I went with downscroll simply because it felt more natural.
4.Speed Mods. This handy game mechanic speeds up the playing field to make arrows generally more spread out. This is used to make the difficulty in "reading" arrows more mitigated. A MUST when entering songs of higher difficulty as otherwise they are practically impossible to read. Speed mods also make hitting notes visually easier. FFR's accuracy is judged by distance to arrow. The Speed mod will stretch the timing "window" making it easier to hit notes with better accuracy.
4a. A little note on Screen Cutting. Screen Cutting is a trick for FFR that functioned like the Speed Mod setting. You simply block part of your playing field to eliminate confusion. This technique is rather old due to the "C-mod" feature that was added to the engine after the sites downing. Because there was preset Speed Mods people who weren't satisfied with the speed often used these.
5. Keyboards. For the more adept players keyboards matter an awful lot. The Official Keyboard Guide should give you a better understanding of which keyboards to buy. 2 recomendations are the HP Wireless Elite Keyboard and the Kensington K72357US. The HP keyboard is wonderful for play and feel great but is rather fragile and after a year or 2 drops boos and misses. The Kensington is reliable but from my transition from the HP keyboard the keys are a little hard to press and that took a toll on my speed.
6. Use the Standalone Guide. This guide will help you set up the Standalone Engine for FFR. This reduce lag and can be very effective during gameplay. This page also has many other link's to custom engine's with different songs to get you familiar with other patterns. Some are actually even more advance than FFR's own files.
Gameplay
1. Understand where the timing windows are. Most Beginner and some adept players actually don't know the arcane fact of where the timing windows are. Here's a 5 minute picture to demonstrate (for the sake of popularity this picture will apply to Upscroll users)
To many people's surprise the perfect window is actually ahead of where the arrows appear to be. The good window is stubbornly right after that. Most goods in FFR are caused by late taps. With a higher speed mod you may just want to hit arrows in the early perfect window so that you can get a little bit of leeway if you are late. This comes in handy when meeting up with burst patterns. Something a little less useful that you see is that the average window is only in the front. So you can't get an average from being late, ever.
2. Increasing your reading capabilities. A higher speed mod is essential for eliminating those early goods. Running at a speed mod above 2 or 2.1 should eliminate accidental early goods. In my experience running at 2.15 as my current speed mod and 2.225 as what I used to run at, the late good window doesn't seem to change much. So make sure you are comfortable with your higher speed mod. For those who want to go as high as 2.225+ . Try utilizing the offset feature in the game. This feature delays/ reverse delays (I couldn't really come up with any other word) the game music. Use this to your advantage by setting the offset to 1 (maybe 2) and with human delay your late reaction will balance out with the music being ahead of the arrows.
3. Play harder songs. That's right, get out of your comfort zone and play songs that appear harder. So let's say you play 60's seriously and competitively. Try some later 60s or an early 70s. Then go back to your comfort zone. More often then not your going to notice a difference. Because you are exposing yourself to harder songs and frankly don't care about your PA (Perfect Average? Perfect Accuracy? Perfect Attack.). You are also exposing yourself to harder patterns and slowly increasing your speed that remained unchallenged playing easier songs.
4. Feel the music... Say What?!?! Yes. Use the music to your advantage, every song has a beat and a pattern, that's what the step artists make sure happens when they create it. Arrows also correspond to pitch generally (with an exception to some jumpstreams). People usually fully understand this when they AAA songs in the mid 50's to 60's range. Something to help with beats is the Assist Tick in the game Stepmania. It generates a feel for rhythmic patterns which is crucial to perfect scores.
Miscellaneous
1. Play other Rythym Games. Osu! is a great game that requires the mouse and the keyboard. In the Official Osu! Thread you could find out more about the game. This has assist ticks and unique sounds built in to it's beatmaps so it's great for "feeling the music". Osu! also dramatically helped me with my left hand speed. Since this game uses only two keys (Z, X by default) for beats faster beatmaps force me practice my speed. It has helped me astronomically.
2. Take a Break. Yes, Take a break. I know how hard it sounds because FFR is one of the best games you will ever play but try to maybe re... rea... read a book, or play another game. Go out with friends, watch TV. After a day of a break you should have a new attitude for the game and generally score better. But watch out to not refrain from playing for too long as you can "Skill drop".
3. Practice. This is more of a general statement. The more you practice you ought to be better. But remember the quality of the practice matters more then the quantity. 2 hours of Excite Bike isn't going to increase your skill level as much as 5 plays of Shotgun Surgery.
4. Make sure your fingers aren't breaking rythym. When I say this I mean that when you are doing a 16th roll at 180 BPM it sounds like 1-2-3-41-2-34-1-pause-2-3-4 etc. Try taking your hands off the keyboard and trill with one hand as long as possible as fast as you can without breaking rythym.
5. Workout. Hahaha yes. This is something to build stamina as well as nail jacks better. You will not tire out as fast, and you will see that your see that your speed as increased as well.
6. Have Fun. This is a game right? Or have you forgotten that already. Mess around with the modifiers that FFR has to offer. Screw around with the speed mod. Try a wacky position. Mirror perhaps? You'll be surprised about what you can learn from the game from just having a bit of fun with it.
7. Set a Goal. This practically essential setting a goal allows you to go for something. Determination is key to a good score. Have the right mindset. Or even set a daily goal for yourself. Mine currently is earn 200 credits per day! It helps when I also utilize the random feature to get a surprise of a song.
8.Replay Tournaments. What I mean by this is to go into the tournament forum and play your division's (or at least what you think you are in) songs and compare them to the actual result. It effectively ties the "Make a goal" tip as well. Maybe even try to see how far you can survive into the next divisions rounds!
9. Play MP (multiplayer). Playing with other people provides an accurate placement of where you are. Sadly there's almost no one populating the MP lobbies, even after I offered double credits. But it's a great place to test your skills when you are under pressure!
10. Create your own stepfile. As scary as it may seem it's actually quite enjoyable when you know how to do it. Surprisingly it doesn't take that much time. It can help you grasp technique of patterns in the game and give somewhat of a different perspective to the game... as a creator.
Patterns
Streams - See "Breaking Rythym" under Miscellaneous, Tip 4.
Rolls - Just like stream don't break rythym. Be conscious of how fast the song is going or if it's speeding up. Make sure your using the late perfect - Amazing zone.
Staircases - It's hard to explain this but once again don't break rythym. You will feel somewhat of a swing when doing these, that's how you know you are doing it right. Also don't feel behind when you are performing these you just might. I know this sounds corny but you are just going to have to trust yourself.
Trills - Once again Breaking Rythym is important here (it will show up in a lot of patterns). Trill are mostly speed based, I recommend playing osu! to help you out on this. Try the Legacy Isolation Engine or the Velocity Isolation Engine for specific files just for trilling.
Jacks - Jacks are one of the hardest patterns to maintain rythym on. Working out helps you maintain rythym with these. "Vibrating" seems only necessary if you want to FC the song. I tense my hands before attempting to do these.
Triples - You won't see to many of these in FFR. I would just treat them like a jump... with 3 arrows.
Jumps- Hit them like just another arrow... but with another arrow. Make sure you can differentiate between jumps and stream patterns.
Jumpstream - Once again make sure you don't break rythym. Listen closely to the beats that mark the Jump. There will always be one, so try not to be confused.
Gallops - Along with staircases you will feel a swing but it will be a different type. If you mess up here it's actually quite hard to get back to following the pattern.
Crossovers - On this pattern you will feel behind but don't let that late good rob you of your AAA. This is also a pattern where you just might hit (or at least feel like hitting) the early good window. Be cautious and expect when the pattern will come up.
Running Man - Let the "anchor" give you the rythym here. Because if you have the rythym down for that one the other notes are just a stream with the BPM of the anchor.
Chains - These give me insecurity when I'm hitting them. Make sure you carefully listen to the music and only hit the jump when you hear a noticeable beat.
Quads - Not much to say about this. Just make sure you don't treat this like a Burst.
Frame Jacks - Utilize the early perfect window to make sure you don't get a late good. But make sure you aren't hitting the early good either.
Bursts - Depending on your speed you may try to just nail this pattern without doing anything real special. But I recommend utilizing the late perfect window strategy.
Outward
Well Thanks for reading this guide. For the most part I wish that you can benefit as a player. I feel like I should contribute to the community as much as any of other people have. Please give constructive criticism or correct me if anything in this guide is wrong. And if you have a tip of your own. Write your own segment and if it's exceptional I will copy it into the guide.
Have a good one and hope this helped you, peace.
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