Tips for improving at Pad/DDR?
 

Sup fellas! I had a question!

Me and a couple friends drove out to this arcade that had a lot of sick rhythm games (i.e sound voltex, beatmania, pump it up, etc.) and they also had a really nice DDR Ace cabinet. Seeing this, me and one of my friends spent several hours playing DDR but I was (understandably) significantly worse than when I'd play on a keyboard. However-- reading wasn't the issue, rather, I didn't know how to move my feet efficiently to hit certain patterns.

At first, I could barely play any 4s but by the end of the night i was able to AA a couple 8s and 9s, but I'd like to get at least as good as my friend who was FCing 13s and 14s. Any tips on how to get into, get better, and improve at DDR? Thanks for reading and thank you for any feedback!

Re: Tips for improving at Pad/DDR?
 

I've only started a few months ago but the first thing you should do if you'd like to keep track of stats is create an e-amuse account and get an e-amuse card somehow at the arcade you're gonna be going to. Mine was $6 I believe but I'm also at Round1 so I'm not sure if D&B or any other arcade would have different rates. You're gonna have to navigate Konami's website which is mostly in Japanese so good luck with that google translate is gonna be your friend for a bit.

Something I'd highly recommend starting out if you're willing to give the time is look up charts on a channel called yuisin[MusicGame]. Their previews are pretty much always upscroll so if you're a downscroll player I found watching O4MA pretty helpful. I liked going through videos finding charts that I think I'd either enjoy playing or test a skill that I'm not the best at.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Cmod but DDR's charts have a lot of BPM speed-ups/slow-downs and stop gimmicks so be prepared for those, which is also why watching the chart beforehand on yuisin or o4ma (or any other channel that either plays/displays the chart) is very helpful.

Doing math to figure out the BPM you read at is also essential. I use 2.55x scroll speed on FFR and play at about 500-550 BPM scroll speed on DDR for reference. Not sure what 500 Cmod actually looks like on FFR but it feels about equivalent to me.

Hitting 9 on the keypad brings up the options menu (on white cabs and gold cabs anyway, not 100% sure about A) and the speedmod you put will multiply the display BPM and give you your scroll speed.

Ghosting to charts on the floor while you watch them is also pretty helpful for getting used to where the buttons are and the motions you're gonna be doing the entire time you play the game. Channels like DKOYproductions are good for this with their how to execute videos. They seem to be pretty high-level charts but I've been doing it to higher level songs on like .5-.75x youtube speed for years before I actually started playing.

There's prolly a lot more but these are the things I used to get myself started up into the 14-17 range.

Re: Tips for improving at Pad/DDR?
 

Thank you for the advice! My friend helped me figure out like hitting 9 on the keypad, and learned about what Cmod is the hard way when i took 3.5x on a 220+ bpm song and got COOKED haha (for reference, I use 3.725 on FFR)

I also got an emuse card when I was there for about $6!

Though I never thought about watching some of these people you recommended me. Thank you for the insight! I'll for sure take a look at these videos

Re: Tips for improving at Pad/DDR?
 

yeeee I played Elemental Creation on 1.5x thinking I'd be fine and got my ass beat by 636 BPM almost instantly. Don't underestimate low BPM either cuz that's another way to get BPM diff'd.

Re: Tips for improving at Pad/DDR?
 

Find a speedmod range that you're comfortable with. I usually hang around 480-550 for reading speed.

So for example, I use 3.25x on 160 BPM (160 * 3.25 = 520).

Reading slower speeds is also important for DDR since you'll encounter a lot of charts where the highest BPM throws off your speedmod, because some other part is half or even quarter BPM in some cases (e.g. Pursuer's highest area is 300 at the end, but a lot of the chart runs at 75).

Reading too fast does affect how you can hit patterns. For example: a crossover might come and you haven't placed your positioning in time.

When it comes to patterns, you need to account for the time it takes for your feet to reach the panel. Candle steps and crossovers are a big one here: If you underestimate them, you'll get misses or end up tiring out really fast.