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RHDS scoring explanation sandbox
In Rhythm Heaven, each Rhythm Game contains a fixed set of inputs that it expects from the player. What the player does for each input mid-game determines what is happening within the Rhythm Game, and also determines the player's final rank. A few different mechanics come into play to decide this.[1]
Input outcome
For any given input, there can be one of three outcomes, depending on what the player does:
Ace
An Ace hit is when the player hits the required button or performs the required gesture within an acceptable time frame. Typically this performs something good within the Rhythm Game.
As explained below, getting a sufficient amount of Ace hits is necessary in order to pass a Rhythm Game, as well as to get a Superb rank.
Early/Late
An early or late hit is when the player hits the required button or performs the required gesture a bit too early or a bit too late. The effect depends on the Rhythm Game, and it can be indistinguishable from an Ace hit, indistinguishable from a Miss, a different outcome where something good happens, or a different outcome where something bad happens.
As explained below, an early or late hit will not count as an Ace hit for the sake of passing or getting a Superb rank, but will also not count as a Miss for the sake of getting a Try Again rank.
Any early or late hit triggers a failure in a Perfect Campaign, with the exception of the following Rhythm Games (alongside their appearances in sequels and Remixes):
Miss
A Miss is when the player does not hit the required button or perform the required gesture. Whenever this happens, the player is given an "invulnerability period" where they will not be penalized. This period depends on the Rhythm Game and the input. In some Rhythm Games, a Miss can also be registered if the player presses a button or does a gesture in a time where they shouldn't. This is the case for example if the player claps when they shouldn't in Fan Club, though clapping at will becomes allowed during the ending where all of the monkeys cheer, where it's not registered as an Ace, an Early/Late, or a Miss.
Some Rhythm Games start with a number of "grace" misses. If the player makes a Miss on certain types of inputs while they have "grace" misses left, their number decrease by one and the player's number of Ace, Early/Late, or Misses is not changed in any way. The "invulnerability period" will still take effect after this.
As explained below, if the player misses too many times, they will get a Try Again rank.
Input availability
Mid-game, an input is normally available, but can become unavailable because of actions the player performed earlier. An example would be if the player lets the ball fall in Space Soccer: the next few inputs will not be available since the ball takes a while to return from the bottom of the screen. As explained below, unavailable inputs will not be counted when deciding the score.
Types of input
Every input is categorized into one of several different types, up to five per Rhythm Game. What exactly a type means depends on the Rhythm Game, for example, regular inputs during Freeze Frame belong to "type A" whereas inputs when there are crowd distractions on-screen belong to "type B".
Each Rhythm Game contains data for how each of the five input types behaves. Each input type contains the following properties:
- Hit properties: These properties are important for calculating the ranking, and their values can either be a number or a percentage – in the case of the latter, it's a percentage of the inputs that were available in this attempt.
- Superb requirement: Inputs that need to be Aces for a Superb rank. Early/Late hits do not count.
- Passable requirements: Inputs that need to be Aces in order for the player to pass. Early/Late hits do not count. In Rhythm Games where this is always 0%, like in Crop Stomp, that means it is possible to pass without a single Ace (provided there aren't enough Misses).
- Try Again requirements: Inputs Missed that will trigger a Try Again rank. Early/Late hits do not count. This can also be undefined, in which case this requirement will not be accounted for.
- Other properties:
- "Grace" allowed: Whether the player can use one of their "grace" misses on these inputs.
- Superb message: If the player meets this type's Superb requirements, the rank screen will display this message, if any.
- Try Again message: If the player meets this type's Try Again requirements, the rank screen will display this message, if any.
Ranking
At the end of each Rhythm Game, the game will check the number of inputs that were available in that attempt, the number of Aces and Misses performed by the player for each input type, and all of the requirements in that Rhythm Game's data, and use those to determine the final rank.
Superb
In order to get a Superb, all of the following need to be true:
- The player meets the requirements for an OK rank, as explained below.
- The player met all of the necessary input type Superb requirements.
- The player made zero misses.
OK
In order to get an OK, all of the following needs to be true:
- The player met all of the input type passable requirements.
- The player has avoided all of the input type Try Again requirements.
If the player meets the requirements for a Superb, as explained above, they will instead get a Superb.
Try Again
If any of the following is true, the player will get a Try Again:
- The player failed on any of the input type passable requirements.
- The player met any of the input type Try Again requirements.
Perfect
A Perfect rank is only awarded during Perfect Campaigns. If the player gets any Miss, the Perfect Campaign is failed right there and then. The same happens with an Early/Late hit, although there are a few exceptions as explained above.