Game Mechanics (Arcade)

Difficulty

• Four difficulties are available: EASY / NORMAL / HARD / EXTREME.
• The difficulty can be changed with the □ button or with the touch screen in-game.
  • EASY: Only ○× notes appear normally. Some □△ notes can appear during CHALLENGE TIME. Multi notes and hold notes do not appear at all.
  • NORMAL: All ○×□△ notes appear normally. Multi notes and hold notes can appear during CHALLENGE TIME.
  • HARD: All notes including multi and hold (and multi-hold) appear normally. There is no CHALLENGE TIME.
  • EXTREME: All notes appear frequently. There are more varieties of multi and multi-hold notes. There is no CHALLENGE TIME.

Note Rating

• Every note is rated based on its timing, as shown in the table below.

	EXACT ←　　　TIMING　　　→ OFF				MISSED
CORRECT BUTTON	COOL	FINE	SAFE	SAD	WORST
WRONG BUTTON	WRONG	WRONG	WRONG	WRONG	WORST

• For hitting COOL or FINE consecutively, the game will keep count on-screen, beside each note hit starting from 5, for example: FINE 123.

Multi Notes

• Multi notes only appear normally on HARD and above, but on NORMAL some can appear at the start and/or end of CHALLENGE TIME.
• They appear as red-colored notes whose component notes are linked together on-screen by a line, and have to be hit at the same time. They can exist in any combination of 2-4 notes.
  • For double notes, up to 6 can be chained consecutively. They can appear as any combination and are usually linked as vertical or horizontal lines, however slanted lines can appear.
  • Up to 4 triple notes can chain consecutively. They are usually limited to combinations of △□× or □×○ linked in a triangle shape, however △×○ and △□○ can appear on EXTREME difficulty linked as lines.
  • Only 1 quadruple note will appear per chain, usually linked in a square shape, however EXTREME can display them as parallelograms, horizontal or vertical lines.

Hold Notes

• Hold notes only appear normally on HARD and above, however on NORMAL they can appear at the start and/or end of CHALLENGE TIME.
• Hold notes are normal-colored notes marked by the word HOLD in small letters at the bottom of the notes.
• A score bonus is rewarded as long as the indicated buttons are being held down. The rate is increased the more Hold notes there are.
  • If another Hold note appear while already holding a note, the new Hold note can be hit and held while the previous note is being held down. The rate of score bonus will increase.
• Multi notes can also be hold notes. All the notes in a multi-hold note must be held down to gain the score bonus.
  • Since ココロ was added on 2011/06/23, it and a few other newer songs contain multi notes that are partial hold notes, where only one button needs to be held down to gain the score bonus.
• For maintaining the Hold for 5 seconds (counting from the last Hold note being hit and held), a MAX HOLD BONUS is rewarded.
  • Even if a WORST or WRONG is scored on non-Hold notes while a Hold note is being held, the Hold will not be interrupted.
• The game is updated at 60 frames per second and 10 points are rewarded per Hold note per frame.
  • In other words, each Hold note can score a maximum of 3000 points ( 5 seconds x 60 frames x 10 points ).
• The potential score for Hold notes is summarized below:

NO. OF HOLD NOTES	SCORE BONUS	MAX HOLD BONUS
SINGLE	3000	1500
DOUBLE	6000	3000
TRIPLE	9000	4500
QUADRUPLE	12000	6000

• When a new Hold is added, the potential bonus is reset. For example, when a SINGLE becomes a DOUBLE, the potential score bonus becomes 6000 + whatever the SINGLE has scored.
• Please see Completion Rate for detailed scoring mechanics for all notes.

Life Gauge

• Hitting COOL or FINE will increase the life gauge while SAD or WORST will deplete it. Hitting SAFE will never decrease the life gauge.
  • Hitting the wrong button will also deplete the gauge.
• The life gauge begins at a value of 127 (50%) and has a maximum value of 255. Hitting 0 results in an instant FAILED.

Table from Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Arcade Future Tone Version B Revision 3

	CORRECT BUTTONS					WRONG BUTTONS
	COOL	FINE	SAFE	SAD	WORST	WRONG	WRONG	WRONG	WRONG
EASY	+3	+2	+1	-10	-20	0	-1	-3	-15
NORMAL	+2	+1	0	-10	-20	0	-1	-3	-15
HARD	+2	+1	0	-10	-20	-3	-6	-9	-15
EXTREME	+2	+1	0	-15	-25	-6	-8	-10	-20
ENCORE (Unused)	+1	+1	0	-15	-30	-6	-8	-10	-20

• If the life gauge hits 0, the song ends immediately and the result is a MISS×TAKE. Any trials undertaken will also automatically fail.
  • When Finish Mode has been chosen for the game mode, the word PROTECTED will appear over the life gauge. Even if it hits 0, the song will not end. However, the words NOT CLEAR will appear over the completion gauge.
• At the start of every song, a SAFETY lock prevents the life gauge from depleting beyond. A countdown timer will display on the lock with 11 seconds remaining on the lock (SAFETY10 is displayed with 11 seconds remaining, SAFETY0 with 1 second remaining).
• The total duration of the SAFETY lock is as below:
  • EASY: 60 seconds for 1st song / 50 seconds for 2nd song
  • NORMAL: 40 seconds for 1st song / 30 seconds for 2nd song
  • HARD & EXTREME: 30 seconds for any song
• During the game, if the life gauge decreases beyond the SAFETY lock level, a small amount of score is deducted (does not happen in Finish Mode).
• When the life gauge has reached its maximum value, a point bonus of 10 is rewarded for every COOL note hit.

CHALLENGE TIME

• Appears on EASY and NORMAL towards the end of the song.
  • It is functionally similar to CHANCE TIME on the PSP versions. The difference is that it is much shortened compared to on the PSP.
  • On EASY, □△ notes can appear while on NORMAL, multi and hold buttons can appear.
  • Players can easily look out for CHALLENGE TIME moments before the screen changes by paying attention to the appearance of markers for □△or multi/hold notes.
    • It is advised to use this period to practice and prepare for higher difficulties rather than to focus on improving a highscore.
• During CHALLENGE TIME:
  • The life gauge will not decrease.
  • For keeping a combo going, a score bonus of 10 points per note is rewarded incrementally for the combo count from the start of CHALLENGE TIME, maxing out at 500 points per note for a combo reaching 50 and beyond.

Completion Gauge

• The gauge is fixed at 100% while a borderline marker on this gauge continuously updates to indicate the minimum completion percentage required to clear the song.
• Depending on the percentage scored, a rating of MISS×TAKE, STANDARD, GREAT or PERFECT is given.
  • As of ver.B, the rating EXCELLENT has been added between GREAT and PERFECT.
• STANDARD and above designate a clear rating. Even if a full combo is scored, if the percentage does not achieve STANDARD clear, the rating given will be MISS×TAKE.
• If the player's completion percentage is higher than the borderline marker, the gauge will be colored blue. If lower, it will flash red and yellow. If the completion percentage exceeds 100%, the gauge will be highlighted in rainbow colors.
• Before ver.B, the percentage required to achieve STANDARD was higher for the second song in comparison to the first song.
  • While different difficulties could be selected for each song, the STANDARD percentage was still modified for the second song, as seen below:

	1ST STANDARD	2ND STANDARD (before ver.B)	GREAT	EXCELLENT (ver.B onward)	PERFECT
EASY	30%	40%	65%	80%	FULL COMBO & gauge above borderline marker
NORMAL	50%	60%	75%	85%	FULL COMBO & gauge above borderline marker
HARD	60%	70%	80%	90%	FULL COMBO & gauge above borderline marker
EXTREME	70%	80%	85%	95%	FULL COMBO & gauge above borderline marker

Vocaloid Points (VP)

• VP are mainly used for the purchase of modules and skins, and can also be used to enable PV mode or change the player's name.
• When a new memory card is initiated, 50 VP are presented free of charge.
  • As of 2011/06/20, the starting VP has been increased to 393 VP.
• At least 1 VP will always be rewarded for every song played. Extra VP will be rewarded depending on performance and difficulty.

	MISS×TAKE	STANDARD	GREAT	PERFECT
EASY	1	2	3	5
NORMAL	1	2	4	6
HARD	1	2	5	7
EXTREME	1	2	6	8

Optional Trials

• Trials can be attempted in Normal Mode or Contest Mode. They are not available in Finish Mode.
• Players can stake their existing VP to attempt to win many more VP. In the event of failure, the staked VP is lost. Trials cannot be attempted if a player does not have enough VP.
• All trials at all difficulties have to begin with a standard CLEAR TRIAL where the objective is to clear the song (achieve STANDARD and above).
• Upon completion, a GREAT CLEAR TRIAL can be attempted on the same song and difficulty (achieve GREAT and above).
• Following which is the EXCELLENT CLEAR TRIAL (achieve EXCELLENT and above).
• Lastly, a PERFECT CLEAR TRIAL is the final test for the player.
• When all three trials are completed, a golden box indicating TRIAL COMPLETE will display over the trial toggle button. No further trials on the same song on that difficulty can be undertaken.
• If a trial is failed, it can be retaken anytime provided the player still has enough VP.

	FAILURE	SUCCESS
CLEAR TRIAL	-5 VP	+5 VP
GREAT CLEAR TRIAL	-10 VP	+15 VP
EXCELLENT CLEAR TRIAL	-20 VP	+30 VP
PERFECT CLEAR TRIAL	-30 VP	+60 VP

• In ver.A, a CLEAR TRIAL was easier when attempted on the first song as the clear requirement was 10% lower than the second song.
• The explanation on the official (English) website is here.

Levels & Ranks

• Please see Levels and Ranks for more information.