Being a rhythm game, much of the terminology comes from music theory (i.e. note duration).
Arrow/Note Related[edit]
- Quarters/4ths, Eights/8ths, Sixteenths/16ths, Twenty fourths/24ths, Thirty seconds/32nds, Forty eights/48ths, Sixty fourths/64ths
These are in reference to the type of arrow/note speed. They also represent the general colors of the arrows in the charts of the newer levels (for example: red arrows generally represent 4th notes, while blue arrows represent 8th notes).
- Jacks
- Jacks or Jackhammers refer to quick repetitions of the same arrow(s) for a certain period of time, such as four right 32nd arrows in a row. There are a few different variations of jacks such as:
- Minijacks, as in two or three arrows hit in a short burst. Minijacks can be referred to as just jacks, but are more commonly stated as their own sub category.
- Long Jacks, as in hitting the same arrow for an extended period of time (approximately 3 seconds or longer).
- Jumpjacks, as in hitting two different arrows repetitively for a certain period of time.
- Handjacks, as in hitting three different arrows repetitively for a certain period of time. This also can be used for defining four arrow jacks instead of the lesser used term quadjacks.
In addition, jacks are defined by their distance apart in frames, such as multiple arrows 4 frames apart, would be considered 4-frame jacks and so on. Mainly, the jacks that will be seen in the game don't come closer than three or two frames apart, except in a very small handful of songs such as Chrono Trigger - Boss Theme and Vertex Beta vROFL where 1 frame, and 0 frame jacks can come into play.
- Taps/Jumps/Doubles/Hands/Quads
Taps refer to a single arrow being pressed at a certain time, while Jumps and doubles describe two arrows played at the same time. If there are three arrows to be pressed at the same time, these are hands, or hits that would normally require the use of hands (along with the feet for Dance Dance Revolution). If there are four arrows that are to be hit at the same time, it is considered to be a quad, or quads depending on how many there are in a row.
- Streams/Jumpstreams
A stream, is a consecutive series of single arrows (usually approximately the same frame distance from one another) in which a pattern of some sort is formed using all four arrow keys. This pattern usually has the arrows alternate and usually doesn't contain any form of "jacking" within the stream of arrows. A jumpstream (JS) generally has the same concept, but tends to use consistent "doubles" along with as single arrows when forming it's pattern. Jumpstreams can also contain "hands" or "quads" within it's pattern, in this case the term jumpstream is still considered the appropriate term, instead of "handstreams" or "quadstreams".
- Rolls
A roll is 4 arrows placed a certain amount of frames apart, in the order of "Left","Down","Up","Right" or "Right", "Up", "Down", "Left". A "roll" can be just a single "roll" over the keyboard, or 1000. Rolls are considered only as "rolls", regardless of their frame distance apart.
- Staircase/mini-staircase
A staircase a series of arrows that form a particular pattern in which the arrows appear to look like a two dimensional staircase. To better explain this pattern, if left was 1, down was 2, up was 3, and right was 4, the pattern made by the arrows could be 1,2,3,4,3,2,1,2,3... or 4,3,2,1,2,3,4,3... A staircase can be long or short, and isn't designated by frames like some of the other terms listed. A mini-staircase is the same thing as a regular staircase, with the exception that it does the staircase pattern on a three arrow scale instead of a four arrow one. The pattern could read out as 1,2,3,2,1,2,3... or 3,2,1,2,3,2,1,2...
- Trills
A trill is a series of arrows (presumably 4 or more) that constantly use two arrow keys. Trills can range from very slow, to ridiculous 1 framers as seen in Croudpleaser, and can last any amount of time. Trills are commonly used for two consecutive drum sounds, piano or other speedcore break-beats that repeat two sounds over again for a certain period of time. In addition to trills there are also jumptrills, in which you consistently hit two jumps for a certain period of time.
- Chains
A chain is usually a series of single arrows that changes over to another series of single arrows by using a double note to make it appear like the arrows are linked together (like a chain). They are found in a decent amount of songs, and can be very fun to play with as chains do not usually ever seem to ascend to 4 or 3 frame speeds in FFR.
- Crossovers
A crossover is a pattern of arrows that would require you to cross over one's legs if playing DDR. To better explain this pattern, if left was 1, down was 2, up was 3, and right was 4, the pattern made by the arrows could be 1,3,4,3,1,3,4,3... or 4,2,1,2,4,2,1,2... A crossover utilizes three arrow keys, generally starting with either the left or right arrow, skipping the second arrow, and then having the player hit the remaining two arrows, and then return back to the starting point of the crossover.
- Runningman
A runningman simply put is a single arrow being constantly pressed (generally a slower jacking sequence) for a certain period of time, while two other arrows are being pressed at different intervals. Although it is to be noted that the two arrows being hit aside from the constant arrows, are on the same side of the constant arrows, otherwise the pattern is instead considered a mini-staircase.
- Combo/Max combo/Full combo
The combo is the current or final number of notes pressed in a row. The maximum arrows you hit in a row within a song would be considered your max combo, which is tallied in to your FFR total by adding 1,000 points for each arrow hit within your max combo. For example, a 450 combo would yield you 450,000 points in addition to your main score. Hitting all of the arrows within a song without missing is considered a full combo, or an FC.
- Combo Breaker/CB
When someone refers to a Combo Breaker, or a CB, they are referring to the number of misses they obtain within a single song. In most cases, CB's are used to describe harder For Guru's Only or D13 songs where missing notes are a high possibility. A Combo Breaker is usually discussed by stating whether you obtained either a high/bad CB count or a low/good CB count (it is worded the same as a PA would be). If you were to obtain only two misses in Reluctantly Accepting Temporary Overexhaustion (Difficulty 13), you could say that you obtained a low or good CB on it, where as if you were to get seven misses in Power (Difficulty 1), you could say you got a high or bad CB on that song. CB is generally based on one's own skill level, but it is usually fairly easy to tell whether you have obtained a good or bad Combo Breaker count on a song based on its difficulty level, and its Full Combo count overall.
Note Scores[edit]
- Perfect
Matches the timing reqirements exactly. Worth 500 points per perfect in terms of scoring.
- Good
One frame behind or ahead of a perfect. Worth 250 points, 50% of a perfect.
- Average
One frame behind or ahead of a good. Worth only a measly 100 points, 20% of a perfect score.
- Boo
Tapped the key when an arrow was not present. It takes off exactly 10 points from your total score for each boo you receive. Boos do not break the combo of your arrows, and can be used to your advantage if arrows you cannot read come into play by mashing to keep up your combo, but dropping your PA level. It takes exactly 21 boos to Fail you from a full life bar, or in other words, each boo takes about 5% of your life away.
- Miss
An arrow that went by without being hit; this breaks the current combo, and also subtracts 310 points from your total score. Misses are an FFR players enemy, and should be avoided at all costs if attempting to get a low rank for any song. It takes exactly 21 misses to fail you from full health (the same amount as boos), but do much more damage to your overall score.
FFR scoring means: Each category is one frame apart from the next category.
- MISS LINE============
- Late Average
- Late Good
- Late Perfect
- Perfect (Center)
- Early Perfect
- Good
- Average
- BOO LINE=============
Final Scores[edit]
The following ratings don't actually apply to FFR (since they do not appear in the game, except for AAA) - however since most of the community is familiar with other DDR and PIU emulators, other players may reference the quality of their plays and others with these.
- AAA: full combo with all perfects. Results in a rank of 1.
- AA: letter representation of a score between 94% and 99.99%.
- A: between 80% and 93.99%.
- B: between 70% and 79.99%.
- C: between 60% and 69.99%.
- D: between 50% and 59.99%.
- E/F: lower than a 50% or failed the song.
Scoring Related[edit]
- Full Combo (abbr. FC)
Full Comboing is where you don't miss any arrows. By combining a full combo with perfect accuracy on every arrow (by getting all perfects, no goods, averages, boos or misses), you will receive a perfect score, or an AAA.
- PA/Perfect Attack/Perfect Accuracy
A scoring method based off of the ratio of Perfects to other stats in your final score (goods, averages, etc). The higher the ratio of perfects to other stats, the better PA you have. A higher PA means you did better on the song; the better the PA, the better the rank. Although a good PA is only truly realized when a full combo on the song is also achieved, as FFR is a high combo based game. Weigh your PA with your combo options on harder songs if necessary, to ascertain the lowest rank you possibly can.
- SDG (Single Digit Good)
This is when you play through any song, and end up with a final total of 9 or less goods for your overall stats. A song does not need to be full comboed or have an absence of averages or boos in order to obtain an SDG, but is most credible when a 9-0-0-0 or less is obtained. Being able to obtain a clean SDG on harder songs will give you much lower rankings, and is one step closer to an AAA
- Clean/Clean run
Playing through a song clean is when you play any song, and when you end up with a final total of zero boos and misses for your overall stats. Playing a song clean usually means that at no part of the song, were any negative points obtained by doing something incorrectly (such as obtaining a boo or a miss). So a 20-2-0-0 could be considered a clean run, while a 8-2-0-4 could not, as they obtained negative points 4 times during their game play (the 4 boos).
Flags[edit]
- Black Flag
A AAA on a song except for 1 good.
- Ave Flag
A AAA on a song except for 1 average.
- Miss Flag
A AAA on a song except for 1 miss.
- Boo Flag
A AAA on a song except for 1 boo. Results in the best AA you can receive.