Rift of the NecroDancer: How to Get High Score

A hit gives score based on accuracy

Perfect = 555
Great = 333
Good = 222
OK = 111

(Accuracy leniency awaiting data)

This is the number that is multiplied by your combo multiplier, which ranges from x1 to x4, and vibe doubles whichever you have, letting you have up to x8 mult.

It takes 10 hits to get from one mult to the next in line, and on missinput you drop back to x1.

Which means a perfect hit generally gives you 2220 points, and in vibe it’s 4440 points.
Which is a lot compared to getting greats with 1332 and 2664 points respectively.

Each non-perfect hit costs you a lot as you can see, and the usage of Vibe in the most optimal place possible is crucial for getting the highest possible score.

Wyrms (hold notes) score as a hit when you hit their head, but the tail gives flat (not multiplied by your combo) +333 points every beat.

These also don’t matter for the Full Combo tag, you don’t have to hold them to get them the tag. BUT they do count for the Vibe charge combo if the Wyrm happens to be charged.

Food does not score points, skipping it does not drop your combo, but it DOES count for the Full Combo tag, you CAN’T skip it if it’s charged and you want the vibe meter, and it DOES help you get to the next mult.

There is a hidden mechanic in the game we call Crit Perfect. For Crit perfect you need to hit the note with a leniency of +-37.5ms. That would give you flat, not multiplied, +1 score.

There is also Super Crit Perfect with a leniency of +-7.5ms (just frame). It gives +2 flat score.

Getting Full Combo, nor beating the chart in Coda mode does NOT give any extra score. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go for it if you are trying to set a record score, but if your goal is just S+, actually getting those tags doesn’t do anything. But if you score too high and get Full Combo later with lower score, it won’t register, check needed, might have been changed. And Coda mode just forces you to score high with your notes or you lose, but it gets you on a separate leaderboard.

There is an achievement for getting S+ without using Vibe. Because of how weird the scoring requirements are, you need at least 570 perfect hits in the song. Ravevenge or Visualize Yourself are the easiest picks for that.

To optimize score you need:

Get as many Perfects as you can, each Great is a lot of points lost.

Use Vibe where you can get the most hits, hence the most perfect hits, it’s a massive boost to points, which can even get you S+ if you would think you have failed. Neither using single nor double Vibe is necessarily more efficient than the other, if a song has a solid long section with many hits you may use the double, if it doesn’t, use singles, the total Vibe length stays the same.

DO NOT drop your combo. Dropping from 4x to 1x in the middle of the song loses out on 60 basic hits, which if you otherwise do all perfects loses 33300 points, not even accounting for you encountering a good Vibe spot.

Wyrms don’t matter for Vibe. If you see a section with long wyrms and you think it might be good for Vibe, you have to recognize all of that length is empty.