It turns out that my ultimatum was off the mark and that I was looking in the wrong place. Besides, the whole purpose of the 1.34.4 beta was for the base game developers to streamline their version release process, not to mention 1.35.0 dropped within a week of my latest blog post, so I don’t envision any more of the latest versions to have mods anytime soon. (…Well, that’s what I thought earlier this month, but apparently 1.35.0 has Mapping Extensions now. I haven’t tried it myself, just pointing it out.)
Cutting to the chase, I did mention BeatSaver back then and, while I’ve known since nearly the beginning that the modding group has a wiki, it did not occur to me that I could just check the “PC Modding” page and find the link to BSManager. Not that digging through the Steam guides was in vain; rather, it gave me the insight to copy my CustomLevels (and CustomWIPLevels) folders from the Steam version of the Beat Saber_Data folder to a freshly downloaded counterpart of version 1.29.1,* as well as the UserData folder in the parent directory. Now, I am able to boot up Quest Link, bring up my PC’s primary monitor, and use BSManager to launch 1.29.1 in Oculus Mode. With a fixed rate of 10 Mbps through AirLink, I find that it’s playable enough…at least to keep on notice when I’m in the mood to play a map that requires extensions, upvote a map that I really like, or playtest whatever custom levels I have in the works. (Otherwise, the latest version on Steam performs significantly better, especially since tweaking the AirLink bitrate inspired me to lower the SteamVR refresh rate from 90 Hz to 72. Another thing to note about playing in Steam Link is that the A and X buttons can be used to pause the game while the usual pause button has delay as a result of prioritizing the Steam menu; I like it better this way now, but it took some conditioning to restrain my right thumb from accidentally pressing the A button.) “Fury of the Storm” by DragonForce is one map that requires extensions; I don’t know if this has been the case for previous versions, but unmodded 1.35.0 won’t load any of its notes or obstacles (as in the “Mr. Invisible” case I mentioned before). Also, I haven’t noticed much of a difference between having and lacking Noodle Extensions (please excuse my improper terminology before), so…well, they’re there if I want to try them out. (I gave it a test run with Centipede on max difficulty, but I scare too easily to get past the intro.) What’s annoying about switching Steam versions is having to re-accept the EULA and privacy policy every time, especially since the former requires waiting 5 seconds on 1.29.1. This brings me to a gripe that I have about Steam Link and AirLink alike: When the headset loses connection, the game does not pause; it just keeps on running, thoroughly disregarding the possibility of an ongoing level attempt. At least Steam Link has the decency to stay active while it’s disconnected, whereas AirLink just ejects the player to the main menu without a word. Worse, the one time the latter has happened to me, the game shifted the floor level up to my neck for whatever reason, in a way that I could not rectify without exiting the game and relaunching it.
*While 1.34.2 is the version when I got into using mods, I felt like taking up BSManager on its recommendation…and I couldn’t go back; I tried running 1.34.2 in Oculus Mode, and it came up with a non-VR window as opposed to the intended behavior of launching as a Quest Link app (like how I used to do SteamVR before Steam Link). Also note that BSManager requires ownership of the game on Steam or Meta, and I have not tried the latter.
Speaking of DragonForce, I did in fact pass the “Ring of Fire” cover before realizing the existence of BSManager, and earlier on the same day [as that pass] I managed to FC “Run Devil Run.”
Also, thanks to modded 1.29.1, I got screenshot proof of the passes I got on modded 1.34.2: Acid Rain, Forbidden Girl Plus A, Silvera, and Wheel of Time. I also passed “Megitsune” by BABYMETAL…sometime between the former two, if memory serves.
(Side note: I don’t know how I was unable to find “Dance with Silence” before; I recently searched again and found it easily.)
Another thing about Fury of the Storm: It took me only three attempts on modded 1.29.1 to pass, prior to which I had never reached the second verse. In my first two attempts, that one slew of trills just before the last minute of the song (not quite the end of the solo) was the big show-stopper, especially considering my arms would always get weary as early as the first chorus and reach zombie status before the big guitar solo. (“Zombie status” as in so worn out that I start questioning how I’m still moving my arms, which also happened halfway through my first pass of Flying Whales.) But…well, somehow I got it.
(Right after this pass, I did a victory lap of the Noukin OP and choked right before the final “Waho waho”.)
One week after the fact, I got another pass that I had been going for in tandem, following a run that died to a major lag spike.
It didn’t wanna break me down, so the Wi-Fi did instead. The deciding run was wild; I maintained my combo throughout the entire Magic Mamaliga sounding instrumentation near the middle (It’s mostly like RLR gallops like in Curtains), and then I did the Joetastic map of the Machine Doll ED for a victory lap, which in itself held a wild outcome: 304 combo, -3, SS rank.
In case it wasn’t obvious, I do custom maps on maximum difficulty. The only exceptions I’ve ever made were for Steam achievements and maps that I once found inconvenient to play, whether in terms of passing or extension requirements. Even as the spider ED and Valley of the Vale remain on the chopping block (no pun intended), they are far from the only two that I aim to pass one day.
“NIGHTMARE † CITY”, “Looking for the Edge of Ground (feat. Hatsune Miku)”, and “POLYBIUS GB SPEEDRUN” by Camellia – Quite an assortment from one artist, and who other than the one responsible for Spin Eternally and the only official freebie track pack? They are listed in what I find to be ascending order of difficulty, although I’m not sure about Polybius because I haven’t played it as much.
“Organ Farmer” by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – One of the only two currently mapped songs by this band, the other (“Big Fig Wasp”) being the easier one, albeit with some nasty doubles near the end. As for this one, the main source of difficulty is how fast the notes fly; otherwise, it’s like Unlimited Power but with slews of triplets and sixteenths. The farthest I’ve gotten is to the part in the preview.
“The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku” by Storyteller – The sets of three bounces at the start of the triplet vocals are the first hurdle, and I still can’t quite keep up with the awkward mapping of the sixteenths.
“Ending Medley ~ Ultimate Exquisite Rampage” by cosMo@BousouP – As much as it peeves me that the Disappearance part has sixteenths even though everything fast about it (including the double bass drumming) is triplets, there is a part of me that can get behind this as a long-term goal.
“Save Me” by Avenged Sevenfold – A whopping 10-minute song, and it’s hard enough just to get to the second bridge, let alone as far as halfway through the guitar solo. Passing the whole thing…we’ll see. (Note that “Nightmare” off the same album is easier than this and (not off the same album) Afterlife.)
“Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce – A logical follow-up for Fury of the Storm, which first was for the Ring of Fire cover. Having fewer notes than Fury might make it seem easier, but just by having gotten past the first chorus, I have found that this map is not above bounces in its sixteenths. (And the drums-oriented mapping is fiercer.)
“RAISE MY SWORD” by Galneryus – I’ve gotten to the key change before the outro, but I didn’t have the stamina to maintain my rhythm. That was the one time I had reached the first chorus, whereas I more commonly can’t even get past the first verse. (Part of what I meant by “technical prowess” before is swing control, that is reining in rapid swings in parts that require it. That’s what gave me the idea of establishing Victims of Contingency as a previous milestone.)
“Panic Attack” by Dream Theater – It’s hard enough to get to the second verse, let alone the first “helpless hysteria” part. This map has some stinky doubles.
“Jordan” by Buckethead – This is not happening any time soon. At full speed, I cannot keep up with the part that’s called “Solo B” in GH2.
Difficulty aside, I would also like to vouch for the Molgera battle theme (from Zelda: Wind Waker) as one of my favorite maps and “Witch Doctor” by Cartoons as a fun FitBeat map. That’s all the go-backs I have regarding mods. As for the Quest-native copy that I’ve been keeping vanilla, I got a few more FCs since my last report…and I suspect that I forgot to add Lift Off and Heavy Weight to the Expert Faster counter (I know for sure I have the former; I got it in my latest Setlist Shuffle), which would make it 33 or 34.
This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race – Easy scoop. FOB 3/8
Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff One-Saber – This took way more attempts than it had any right to. Just when I realized where I missed on my sightread was the fourth chain note in the second verse, the second bridge started screwing me over out of nowhere…but hey, at least I didn’t choke after that. Electronic One-Saber 2/2
Burning Sands (!) – My favorite song in the game, which I’ve long considered the “holy grail” in terms of FCs I had left. Strangely enough, much like in the case of Legend, I was going for The Sweet Escape when I decided, “I’m not in a very ‘hit note’ mood…or am I? I’ll let Bernie Sanders be the judge of that.” Moreover, I was previously never able to maintain a combo past the transition out of the first drop, let alone in either of the two previous sessions. Then it just freaking happened, first try of the day, prior to my Fury of the Storm pass. Non-DLC 26/50 (screenshot below)
Born to Be Wild – It was only a matter of time.
The Sweet Escape – Another way overdue one. That second verse was a real bother to the end.
I Was Made for Lovin’ You – All I had to do was learn beyond the second chorus. Rock 3/8
Don’t Cha – This came out of freaking nowhere. I started the session with Sugar and branched out to other DLC including Freestyler, The Rockafeller Skank, Party Rock Anthem, and Rollin’. Then, despite not having played this song much, I got it on my first try. Interscope 3/7; DLC 15
FOB One-Saber 2/2 in one fell swoop – I was merely going for SS on all the DLC songs, having managed Free Bird and DNA earlier in the week, and only just started taking care of the One-Saber side of things. I Don’t Care just happened to be one of the songs I only had a single S on (along with DNA and The Pretender), so I gave it an attempt and simply got it. (Granted, it was after a standard run where I missed in the third chorus due to a brain fart.) Then, My Songs Know… happened straight-up back-to-back. DLC One-Saber total: 5
I also managed to pass Ghost on Expert+ for 46/50. This makes me want to pass every X+ song, but when my arms get too sore as a result, I’ll instead go for 22 DLC FCs out of the 44 songs I have, perhaps alongside the One-Saber SSs I have left. (Based on my latest three FCs, it’s been working for me so far.)
Another thing I want to mention that there’s more to the Quest 3 than I said before. It has a softer rumble by default than the Quest 2 does, but not in Steam Link or Quest Link; thus, the more I play custom songs, the more disoriented I get when playing vanilla, particularly when cutting through chain notes. Given that the overhead strap support beam was what pushed me to transition from Quest 2 to Quest 3, another thing to note is that that of the new headset doesn’t look any more durable, but I’m hoping that the easier-to-adjust strap will help it last longer. Regardless, the Quest 3 certainly has moments of briefly flashing white before the system startup animation and producing sharp blip noises amid scene transitions in Beat Saber. (One might guess that the latter is related to the volume level, but that too is lower by default on Quest 3.) It also has a slight gap at the underside, but on the bright side, this facilitates using my phone to verify which songs to play during a Setlist Shuffle. Speaking of bright sides, non-grayscale Passthrough is a minor convenience in the event that I want to do a thing or two on my PC (e.g., (un)locking it or bringing up any pertinent applications such as Steam) while I still have my headset on.
Lastly, I suspect that I owe an explanation of why I haven’t gotten around to uploading any videos despite having hinted at the possibility. Here’s the thing:
If I want to make videos, they would have to be picture-in-picture.
I’ve been bouncing between rental homes at least twice a year for the past 5 years or so.
I’m not confident in my current body shape or skill level.
Given the above factors, I do not currently feel comfortable with the practice. It will take some time and possibly other things before I resolve enough to consider it for good.
…and yes, I am still very much at it. The last time I talked about this game in the usual amount of detail was nearly 1.5 years ago. Since then, I got 7 more Expert FCs, 6 more Faster, 3 more Super Fast, 12 more Expert+ FCs, 6 Faster, 2 more One-Saber FCs, 2 more 90° FCs, and 1 more 360° FC. These make my grand totals 45/50, 32/50, 5/50, 25/50, 6/50, 27/28, 18/19, and 18/19 in that order.
Did I say 50? Yes, I said 50. Volume 6 dropped recently with 5 songs including new Boom Kitty, new Camellia, and even DragonForce. The other two are negligible by comparison, although I will say that Heavy Weight reminds me partly of Octopath Traveler and partly of the “Castle / Boss Fortress (Super Mario World / SMB3)” remix in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. (Also, I felt good about FCing the song on X+ as quickly as I did.) In terms of Expert difficulty, Cathedral (the new Boom Kitty) was no slouch to FC, especially at the part with the bombs and the circling arcs, while the two big dogs were painstaking final songs to SS. Tempo-Katana (the new Camellia) in particular has me questioning the Beat Saber Minimum Points Per Rank Breakdown that I’ve had since my first report and have been updating regularly (now with Hard, Normal, and Easy difficulties); the formula has the SS cutoff as 1,165,203, but I previously scored 1.18 mil and still got a mere single S.
Before I get carried away with this, I should mention that “the Noir color profile with no visual effects” I brought up in my Topster post did not last long. I came up with a custom color profile that I consider the ultimate sweet spot between playability and ease on the eyes.
Left saber: 128 Red
Right saber: 128 Green
Obstacles: 128 Red, 128 Green (dark yellow)
Background 1: 128 Red, 64 Green (dark orange)
Background 2: 192 Red, 96 Green (not-so-dark orange)
Notice the lack of blue? I’ve heard that blue light is the kind that causes the most eye damage, hence the ubiquity of “night” modes on electronic devices that make their screens look orange. (Not to mention eyeglasses that filter out blue light, which I have been wearing for as long as I can remember.)
Speaking of orange, I chose it as the background color because it’s my favorite color, while my saber color choices are based on how “left” is “sinister” in Latin. Then, by process of elimination, I chose yellow for the obstacles. Unlike color profiles, environment overrides are reset between sessions, so the exact background colors are the best fit I could find for every single non-DLC environment. Also, if I want to put on the Ghost Notes modifier in order to max out one of my Expert scores, I have a variant of the color profile where the sabers are fully red and green instead of just half; it makes the incoming arrows easier to see.
That brings me to new Expert accomplishments. Prior to the Volume 6 songs, I got 215$-Step and Final-Boss-Chan, the latter of which gave me at least two more outro chokes since my last report about it. The farthest I had gotten in 215$-Step before the FC was at the tail end of the piano part, which had me thinking I focused too much on the duos of upward notes; all I did differently in the FC run was tell myself, “Don’t think,” during that part. After the Volume 6 songs came an FC of Spin Eternally that required some serious consistency refinement. If memory serves, I have had at least one run past the first part where I choked (which I realized within a few runs was because I overlooked the double before the final spins), but my nerves crumbled when the sixteenths rolled in. That leaves #45, the one that gave me too many chokes for its own good: EXiT This Earth’s Atomosphere.
I like to call this song “Sam I Am” because of how I mishear the vocal sampling in the buildups. At first, the intro deterred me from even thinking about this one, but I’ve improved a whole lot since then. It just took a whole lot of trial and error, and for the outro in particular, I find that it helps to lean in the recessive direction (left in my case). In the end, the chokes included one reverse (at the transition into the outro), at least one within the last five notes, and one within the last three notes. Such a pain.
I don’t remember offhand what the Faster FCs were, but I do know that I scooped up Into the Dream and also got Full Charge, Unlimited Power, and Magic. I’ll say as many times as it takes that Full Charge is my least favorite song in the game, partly because its Expert map is chock full of parts that have no right to be as tense as they are. I have been going for It Takes Me for a while, considering that I tend to pair it with Into the Dream, but it’s been so stubborn that I’ve been heavily moderating my fervor in pursuing it.
As for Super Fast, I have added One Hope, Country Rounds, and Reason for Living to my collection. Why exactly I even bothered with the latter two, I’ll touch upon in due time.
Okay, Expert+ time. I got Legend out of freaking nowhere while trying to grind for Escape. Last I reported about Unlimited Power, “My best run so far got a choke in the first cycle of the second chorus. Now I’m somehow incapable of even getting past the intro.” Then came one fateful run when I got a combo past the intro by what felt like a total fluke, and I didn’t even miss anywhere after that. LUDICROUS+ was a rather quick one, primarily on account of how short it is, but to think I previously couldn’t even claim to pass it on command. (That outro is wild.) Firestarter was a real pain, especially after I choked at the uppermost of the freaking last three notes. I did get Escape at some point, but I don’t remember when exactly.
Origins was just a matter of learning the quad zig in the intro, and then getting accustomed to the rest of the song. The former front was a saga in its own right, which also involved my first pass of EXiT on X+. In terms of freebies, that intro and the transition into the outro of EXiT were two of three quad zigs I knew at the time, the other being in the second half of Spin Eternally. (These are in ascending order of speed. Note that the Origins zig consists entirely of sixteenths, despite the percussion triplets.) Naturally, the one in Origins was my go-to for ingraining the technique into my muscle memory. The technique in question: Focus on the bounces in the center, and make a circle with the arm on autopilot. The Origins zig has four bounces: from the bottom with the dominant hand, from the top with the recessive hand, from the top with the dominant hand, and from the bottom with the recessive hand. Prior to each bounce, the other arm is making a circle. That’s as well as I can explain it. The learning process for me was about 50-50 between concept and feel.
That aside, after Lift Off and Heavy Weight, and rather recently too, I freaking finally got Immortal after having reverse choked in the second drop at least once and having choked past the halfway point of the outro.
Before I move on to the Faster FCs, which surprisingly do not include Rum n’ Bass or Breezer, let me take a moment to talk about… How should I put it? A sibling concept of Setlist Shuffles. It’s called a Setlist Sweep, where I go through the entire set of free-to-play songs across two sessions (because the Quest 2 doesn’t have enough battery life for just one) and play each of them in the easiest format that I have not yet FC’d. (The standard flow at this point is Expert ==> Expert+ ==> Faster ==> Expert Super Fast ==> Expert max% [Super Fast + Ghost Notes] ==> Expert+ Super Fast, etc.) I haven’t actually done one of these since before Volume 6, when I found it best to start at Volume 1, go from top to bottom, and split between $1.78 and Curtains. (If $1.78 wasn’t such a horrible song to start off with, I would have easily said between Volumes 4 and 5 instead.) With Volume 6 added to the mix, I would split between Volumes 5 and 6 if I were to take up the practice anew.
What I’m getting at is that all of my X+ Faster FCs are wild ones that I would have never considered in the absence of Setlist Shuffles and Setlist Sweeps. First was Crab Rave, a matter of getting used to the drops after gaining firsthand proof that I could hit the second buildup. Then, $100 Bills in one of my earliest Setlist Sweeps. Yes, it was a Sweep. First song of the session. I thought the whole time, I will never hit the big dumb. (The “big dumb,” of course, lines up with the first “$100 Bills” in the drop.) Guess what? I hit the big dumb. On an FC run, no less. I was like, “What?” and fortunately didn’t choke afterwards. As if that in itself is not crazy enough, the exact same Setlist Sweep held the next Faster FC: Reason for Living. How I was even hitting those buildups at all, I don’t freaking know. Country Rounds is one that felt more within reach every time I played it, so it felt closer to a grind than the previous ones. Give a Little Love happened in a random Setlist Shuffle. Finally, the most recent one was Escape: a real slap in the face, having taken only two tries after normal speed took me practically two years. (The first try had a really dumb miss at the first note of the break, but somehow no other misses.)
It’s also worth mentioning that I only have 5 songs left to pass on Expert+, with Spin Eternally being the most recent one knocked off the list.
Final-Boss-Chan: I previously couldn’t even get past the first drop, but now I’ve gotten as far as the second buildup. I’ll explain later.
215$-Step: I’ve gotten past the piano part exactly once.
Ghost: The left-start sixteenths before the final leitmotiv are a real show-stopper.
Power of the Saber Blade (DragonForce): At best, I’ve only barely gotten past the intro.
Tempo-Katana: Same as above
In terms of One-Saber, I painstakingly got Into the Dream and randomly got Cycle Hit, so now Ghost is the only one I have left. As for the circular maps, Rum n’ Bass 90° and Origins as a whole were not too bad; only Pop/Stars remains.
With all that on the table, I have three confessions to make throughout this post. Number one: I went and purchased a few DLC track packs. The main impetus was feeling like the base game is worth far more than just $30 USD, and even with my recent car and phone upgrades, I still have plenty of savings. It started with the Electronic and Rock Mixtapes in late November 2023, followed by Queen in December, Interscope in January, and Fall Out Boy just this month. I was enticed by Darude Sandstorm; Free Bird; Queen in general; Party Rock Anthem; and Dance, Dance in respective order. I only play the songs on Expert+, even Free Bird. Let me give a quick rundown.
Alone: I remember hearing this in a 360chrism stream once. The verses sound like Jigglypuff’s lullaby. The parts before them are not sightread-friendly. This is one of my two FCs in the Electronic Mixtape.
Animals: I’ve heard this on the radio in the early 2010s, back when I carpooled to college with my siblings. It’s the kind of song that tries to be funny but isn’t. It jams, but it’s not as easy as I feel like it should be.
Freestyler: I like the beat, but not so much the vocals. My best combo is over 900; kind of a pain in some places.
Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff: Honestly the weakest song in the pack. It’s also the easiest, but my two-saber FC of it was more painstaking than it had any right to be, and my One-Saber sightread got screwed by a really dumb miss (I don’t remember exactly where), so dumb that it’s hard to believe I can’t just scoop it up with any subsequent attempts.
Icarus: Easy One-Saber SRFC, but the chains in the two-saber map are a real pain. My first experience with Madeon was when a MyAnimeList user recommended the song “Finale”, but ultimately I don’t find the artist particularly appealing.
Darude Sandstorm: This is either the Newgrounds BGM or the “Song name?” meme, depending on whom you ask. More than that, it’s the most difficult and fun song of the pack, so I want to get SS someday.
Stay the Night: My brother used to play this song from time to time, back in the college years when we played multiplayer games more often than sparingly. It’s a decent song, and I never would have guessed that it featured Hayley Williams (lead singer of Paramore), but those buildups are the absolute bane of any FC attempts on my part. (I did manage to hit all of them in one run, but it feels at this point like I merely got lucky.)
The Rockafeller Skank: In the same boat as Freestyler, but with tempo changes and one nasty outro.
Waiting All Night: Pretty much another “fun rhythm with unappealing vocals” kind of song. It’s quite a long one too.
Witchcraft: Arguably the hardest one to pass, on account of those buildups. The intro sounds like Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Born to Be Wild: This sure is a song. I was 7 notes shy of an SRFC, but I can’t be bothered to grind this too extensively. It’s also one of the two One-Saber songs in the pack.
Eye of the Tiger: I didn’t expect this to take after FitBeat, but it makes sense because the song was written for Rocky III. I’m so close to FCing this.
Free Bird: Of all the songs on the list, this one is the true middle ground between Camellia songs and regular songs. Half of it is a snooze fest, but the other half is an endurance test.
I Was Made for Lovin‘ You: I never was a fan of KISS, and this particular song has no bearing on that stance. It’s the kind of song that I wouldn’t go out of my way to play.
Seven Nation Army: A rather easy FC because of how Warriors of Rock made me intimately familiar with the song. (It’s one of the few songs I managed to OMBFC [one-man band full combo], no less the only one in which I have an optimal score on drums.) However, I was just shy of an SRFC due to misremembering the second half of the guitar solo.
Smells Like Teen Spirit: One of the songs of all time. Expect some serious bounces.
Sweet Child o’ Mine: Anyone familiar with Guitar Hero 2 should know this song to some degree. In a way, it’s like Free Bird but small-scale.
The Pretender: Besides Free Bird, this one was the hardest in the pack for me to pass. Those inline fills are not sightread-friendly in the slightest. That said, in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of phenomenon, I kinda like the song. And hey, One-Saber is not so bad.
Another One Bites the Dust: Fun song.
Bohemian Rhapsody: Iconic. Another song from WoR. As expected, the guitar solo is where it starts heating up. One of the 4 FCs I have in this pack so far, but I don’t have a One-Saber FC yet.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love: I’ve only played this once.
Don’t Stop Me Now: Good song. Kinda trippy, though. It’s also the other One-Saber song.
I Want It All: Iconic, but I haven’t played it much.
Killer Queen: The most fun song in this pack that I have FC’d so far. The snare roll mapping is the highlight of it in terms of difficulty. This song is one of five I had as paid DLC back in the Warriors of Rock days, per recommendation alongside Somebody to Love and A Classic Case of Transference. (The other two were ones I knew I wanted: Living Dead Beat and World on Fire.)
One Vision: I’ve only played this once. The “one direction” part has some clever mapping.
Somebody to Love: Pretty good.
Stone Cold Crazy: The hardest song in this pack, the one with the most chaotic energy. It was also featured in Guitar Hero Metallica, specifically the one demo that I have played at a GameStop.
We Are the Champions: Another FC that I have, and I’ve almost gotten it Faster in a Setlist Shuffle. The chorus with the arcs and bombs is the trippiest part.
We Will Rock You: The intro is not sightread-friendly, but it is clever. This is the other FC I have in this pack.
Counting Stars: Surprisingly fun. The gallops are satisfying. Currently the only (two-saber) FC I have in this pack.
DNA.: I freaking hate playing this song. It’s even worse than Full Charge. I can at least tolerate Full Charge, but this song I straight up dislike. How annoying that it has to be one of the two One-Saber songs in this pack.
Don’t Cha: Iconic, but I haven’t played it much.
Party Rock Anthem: Peak. I want to FC this someday, but it has some tricky bits, especially the doubles about halfway through the outro. (I have managed a combo up to that exact point.) On a brighter note, the “I’m running through these hoOoOo like Drano” part never gets old, and this song also has a fair few gallops.
Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle): Loaded with censorship in the verses. NHL Hits nostalgia. Pretty fun, especially the final chorus. Deceitfully tough to FC, though.
Sugar: One of those “I know this melody” kinds of songs, and I never would have guessed that it was by Maroon 5. Second-weakest song in the pack, but hey, One-Saber SRFC.
The Sweet Escape: I freaking choked in the outro. It’s not a hard song, just a bit pesky at times. Going back to the subject of quad zigs, the second “refrigerator” part has an even slower one than Origins does.
Centuries: “I know the melody” again. Pretty meh; the chorus is the only remotely memorable part.
Dance, Dance: Considering Beat Saber is not far off from dancing, I expected more from this map. But hey, easy FC thanks to WoR experience. (The only thing that threw me off in my sightread was the transition into the second chorus, with upward cuts at the “love” and arcs indicating that the sabers should be moved back to the bottom. I did not get the hint.)
I Don’t Care: I love it The words “pants” and “pull” together in the second verse…mate, that’s one of my fetishes. That aside, this song is rather difficult for its pack and resembles Uprising by Muse. It’s also one of the One-Saber ones.
Immortals and Irresistible: I’ve only played these once each. So far, they’re the least memorable songs in this pack.
My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ’em Up): Clever mapping in the choruses. This was a decent FC to get. The intro is rather trippy. Also the other One-Saber song.
This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race: I feel like I should have an FC of this by now, but the game begs to differ. The sixteenths in the instrumental break might seem daunting, but it’s actually before that that I tend to miss more often than not.
Thnks fr the Mmrs: I went from S-ranking on sightread to getting a -2. The first miss was dumb, so I’m glad it wasn’t a full-on reverse choke. The part in the chorus with the offbeat snare hits is fun to play, but it takes some getting used to.
(That’s a grand total of 10/44 two-saber FCs and 2/10 One-Saber.)
Overall, DLC has marginally improved my prowess at the game, namely in terms of flexibility in hitting rather unusually mapped notes. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to solo players, especially the pragmatic sort.
That brings me to confession number two: I have delved into the world of custom levels and game modifications. I’ve been considering this since Steam Link became a thing, but I ultimately never followed through until late December. It made me have to upgrade my networking setup, and while I thought a 50-foot Ethernet cable was adequate for any situation, I find that it’s only barely enough in my current home, no less with the wiring involving four Cable Armor Floor Channels. I chose the Steam version (and yes, bought the game again, even though it never goes on sale) primarily because I want to keep the headset-native copy of the game pristine, and also because it seems easier that way. Thanks to a Steam guide by JaffaCakes118, I have the Mod Assistant application on my PC and BeatSaver bookmarked; it’s as simple as that. Playing with mods on 1.34.2 was fun while it lasted, but now that the current version has been 1.34.6 for the past two weeks (I’ve read that mod creation is volunteer work, so I know that being patient is in my best interest), I can only play a particular subset of custom levels. I am aware that the community has guides on how to downgrade the game, but currently I can’t be bothered.
One thing I learned the hard way: The game is not actually modded until after the “Install or Update” button is clicked with all appropriate mods selected, and the green version numbers appear in the fourth (?) column. If the game is in this state, then it’s unable to load the “PLAY” button for certain songs such as Centipede by Knife Party. It used to be that way for many more songs, but now only the statistics (average NPS, total notes, and so on) are absent; in this state, pressing “PLAY” will softlock the game, leaving it in a pure black environment for the rest of its runtime. It’s always been that way with the SeHa Girls anime OP on an unmodded game, at least in my experience, but now it also applies to songs like the following:
One thing I shied away from when I modded 1.34.2, besides Chroma because I wanted to keep my eye-friendly colors, is Noodle Mods. Just having them installed, even playing songs that don’t require them, causes the game to lag more than usual, so I shudder to imagine how it would run a map that does require them. What I mean about “lag more than usual” is that my network setup is not perfect, meaning that the game lags from time to time, somehow more so on unmodded 1.34.6 than on modded 1.34.2 (without Noodle Mods). Speaking of lag, it’s worth noting that scrolling through the custom level list might come with a few stutters if the cover images in the folders have overall sizes greater than 1 MB. (The guideline is 512×512, but not every BeatSaver map is complicit with that. Heck, a map I found of “Run Devil Run” by Crowder has a freaking 5000×5000 cover picture that’s a whopping 2.54 MB big. That was the first one I noticed as a source of this kind of lag.) Another means by which I reduce lag is by setting the Mirror Quality to Off and reducing debris from the notes; however, the former setting tends to reset to Medium for no apparent reason, which is kind of a pain.
At any rate, having a new version of Beat Saber, I challenged myself to get all the non-Career achievements on this version, including the 15 FCs on both Hard and Expert. Ironically, the former took longer. I figured the best way to present proof of this is in a Google Doc, linked below.
Evidently, most of what I play is related to either video games or anime in some way (yeah, I’m a filthy weeb), although I would play more Christian maps if there were more good ones. The “Run Devil Run” map I mentioned is my second-favorite, with my absolute favorite being one of “Amen” by Matthew West. Somehow I had never heard the song before playing the map, but doggone is it a great song and a whole lot of fun to play. It’s the hardest one I’ve gone out of my way to FC, not that that takes much (not only because of the lag, but for a more important reason that I’ll explain shortly.)
Very rarely do I play a custom map any more than once after passing it. The sky’s the limit as far as community-made rhythm gaming maps are concerned, so singling any of them out is quite a commitment. (There, that’s the reason.) Some exceptions that I have yet to mention are listed below:
“The Phoenix” by Fall Out Boy – I love this song more than anything in the DLC pack, both musically and in terms of mapping. Granted, the second time I played it, it wasn’t as fun as I remembered.
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin – “She’ll push and pull you down!” Even apart from the appropriate mapping there, it jams and has some tough surf rock bits.
Caramelldansen – A vintage Internet meme with bits of mapping based on the dance associated with it.
“Gangnam Style” by PSY – Same as above, but not as vintage. The mapping not based on the dance is kind of awkward.
“Nevermore” from RWBY – The quintessential example of double bass pedals mapped as sixteenths, my favorite kind of mapping.
“99.9” from Mob Psycho 100 II – I didn’t feel so strongly about it at first, but I went back to it at some point and really liked the second half.
“Black † White” by Iori Nomizu – As a long-time fan of the Mondaiji series, I’m so glad this is mapped. (Too bad the ED is not.) It’s rather difficult, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Also, the “1 2 3” mapping is clever, and “Rollin'” from the Interscope Mixtape has something similar.
“Question!” by System of a Down – It’s daunting at first, but I actually had fun when I passed the song. (Not unlike “The Pretender,” honestly.)
Currently, my favorite part of custom maps is how they push the limits of my technical prowess and arm endurance. I like to establish milestones as I go, that way I can improve step by step like the average shounen protagonist. Here’s a rough timeline of how I’ve progressed.
“Dance with Silence” by Camellia – In a similar vein to Super Spice Bros 2 (in the Google Doc), I’ve had this since Christmas 2023, but I can’t find it on BeatSaver. Its ID is 23ecd.
Below are screenshots for some of the above. Others were done in modded 1.34.2.
More recently, I passed “INTERNET YAMERO” after too freaking many attempts and having to practice the part with the slews of 3-4 side-to-side blocks per beat. It disappoints me that the current highest-rated map has no relation whatsoever to the dance that exposed me to this song in the first place, but it’s still a fun map overall. (Also worth noting that the Curtains on speed part takes some getting used to.)
(Side note about the cover art: That heart-shaped foreground light makes it look in the downscaled version like the girl’s panties are showing. Alas, it’s a case of Schrödinger’s panties.)
I also like doing FitBeat-type maps like Tubthumping by Chumbawumba (the “I get knocked down” song), “Let Me Hit It” by Sporty-O (the “When I’m bored” song), the Epic Sax Guy song, “Pump It” and “I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas (the latter is not evidently FitBeat except on a modded version of the game). Those feel more like workouts than just swinging my arms. Also worth noting that the BeatSaver search engine has a Fitness tag.
In terms of future milestones, here’s what I’m thinking:
“Valley of the Vale” by Twilight Force (not to be confused with “Valley of the Damned” by DragonForce) – I’ve passed it one difficulty below max, at least.
I’ve also been considering making my own custom maps, namely desiring to add more Christian music or something related to Bravely Default that doesn’t have a freaking 35.4% rating, but as much as I’ve played so far, I just can’t piece together what makes a good map. It’s like being a glutton who can’t cook. Maybe someday I’ll find the inspiration to at least try.
One thing to note about custom maps is that the notes tend to fly faster than in songs native to the game (especially in unmodded play, unless that’s just my imagination), like how it is in the Volume 4 songs compared to Volumes 1-3. The more I get accustomed to them, the better my hand-eye coordination and so forth, the easier it is to hit notes in Camellia X+ songs. That’s how I’ve gotten so much better at Final-Boss-Chan than I was before I started playing custom levels. On the flip side, if I go too hard on the custom songs, then it hinders my ability to FC some of the easier maps. Just as “you cannot serve both God and Mammon,” there is a time for accuracy and a time for feats of endurance; at most, I tend to start my sessions with the former and end them with the latter.
Confession number three (appropriately): I splurged on a Quest 3. The Quest 2 had a good 2.3-year run (give or take), but the overhead strap support beam snapped off recently, meaning that the best I could do to keep the headset suspended was take off the silicone covering, put on a baseball cap, and wrap the overhead strap of the headset around the Velcro strip at the back of the cap. The silicone covering made the headset slide down too much, whereas the final setup was too tight for me to keep up in the long term. So…the new headset is much more compact than the previous model, but not much else is different except some oddities in the controller detection (maybe it takes some getting used to) and that headset-native Beat Saber has more detailed obstacles. I will say that it helped me learn one unusual tidbit the hard way: If the headset has downloads queued up, then Steam Link lags like mad; on modded 1.34.2, it was too laggy for me to even play the Noukin OP.
It has been six months since my first steps into Beat Saber. I cleared Campaign mode within three months of getting the game, including all the extra levels. The three main obstacles, in ascending order of difficulty, I rank as follows.
20B: Legend, One-Saber, 1 Life. Even slowed down, the double underhand in “I’ll be going ape like Congo” is a real pain in the neck.
29: Rum n’ Bass, Expert, upper limit of misses. As much as I love this song for its atmosphere and punny name (in fact, I’d even go as far as to say that it’s my favorite Campaign song), this level is a veritable proving ground for aspiring Expert players. At the alternation bit in the second buildup, I found as an amateur that it helped to count the number of red swings out loud: one, two, three, four, five.
28B: Angel Voices, Expert, Arm movement lower limit. All told, the hard part is passing the song, and the lower limit of points is virtually (no pun intended) nonexistent. In particular, the five-minute mark is the one and only part of the entire Campaign that I’ve ever had to take into Practice. (RD, LD RU, LU RD, LD, RU LU, RD LD, RU, LU RD, LD RU, LU, RD LD, RU LU, and so on while shifting left or right every five swings) Because of its relative difficulty and six-minute total duration, I like to compare Angel Voices to Through the Fire and Flames in Guitar Hero 3 (as I do $100 Bills and Slow Ride because of how early they’re listed despite not being the easiest songs in their respective games (although the former case is due to alphabetical order)).
Then came the rest of the achievements, starting with the 15 full combos (FCs) on each of Hard and Expert. Conveniently, 15 is exactly the combined total of Volume 1 songs and Volume 2 songs. Some of the other packs also have easy songs, including Reason for Living in Volume 3, Magic in Volume 5, and One Hope in Extras. (One Hope on Expert is similar to Breezer, but with off beats and polyrhythms.) I say this as cautionary advice in case Elixia is too boring to grind out. (Trust me; I’ve been there.)
Hard FCs: Crab Rave, $100 Bills, Rum n’ Bass, Be There For You, Unlimited Power, Balearic Pumping, Breezer, Legend, Escape, Lvl Insane, Beat Saber, Angel Voices, Country Rounds, Commercial Pumping, Turn Me On, Elixia, Origins (17 total)
First 15 Expert FCs: Breezer, Rum n’ Bass, Balearic Pumping, Legend, Lvl Insane, Escape, Beat Saber, $100 Bills, Commercial Pumping, Country Rounds, Turn Me On, I Need You, Unlimited Power, Be There For You, Elixia
(I was pleasantly surprised to find Crab Rave in this game, as it’s the only song I recognize from outside the game. Admittedly, though, I hadn’t ever listened to the whole thing before playing the game.)
All FCs were S-rank, despite one little oddity: My first Expert FC of Rum n’ Bass was actually A-rank, so even though I had previously done an S-rank non-FC run, the game prioritized the latest run towards the achievement, meaning that I needed to S-rank the song again. Fortunately, I did just that without a hitch, getting another FC in the process. (Also worth noting that One-Saber does not count towards the FC achievement, as I learned the hard way with a pathetic A-rank FC of Beat Saber (the song).)
While going for my first SS on Expert, I narrowed it down to three candidates: Breezer, Beat Saber, and Turn Me On. (I also got 89.5% on Lvl Insane by a total fluke.) Ultimately, through all the pain of grinding, Breezer won out. As part of this ordeal, I learned all about the ranking system through a Google search leading to a Reddit post containing a spreadsheet, although I had to adjust it because apparently the maximum score per note changed from 100 to 115 at some point in time. The adjusted version—including Expert+, One-Saber, and circular (360° and 90°) statistics—is linked below.
Speaking of circular, I haven’t dabbled much into those maps, largely due to the limited space in my room, but I can say for sure that Crab Rave has the most clever mapping. At the start of each drop, the downward diagonal cuts and arrangement of obstacles give off the impression of dancing like the flagship crab in the music video (in a similar vein to how Pop/Stars is mapped, except I hadn’t ever watched that music video until early this year).
That just left the 24-hour playtime and 100 million points, which just came naturally over the course of my uphill climb to improve at the game. I started by pursuing more Expert FCs including Crab Rave, One Hope, Origins, Give a Little Love, Angel Voices, Reason for Living, Bernie Sanders Burning Sands, Pop/Stars, and Immortal. (I also dabbled a bit more into One-Saber, which noticeably helped with my coordination.) Consequently, Burning Sands became my favorite song in the game: atmospheric like Rum n’ Bass, and such a blast to play. (I pursued that before Pop/Stars because I wasn’t all too interested in the latter song, and I found the halfway point of its chorus disorienting while I was accustomed to the refrain of Burning Sands.) On a more vexing note, my first FC of One Hope was a SS, such a slap in the face considering how long it took me to get the Breezer SS.
Then I started branching out to Expert+, intending to pass as many songs as I could while also working towards Volume 4 and the Camellia pack, along with Spooky Beat and FitBeat, on Expert. I also scooped up Full Charge, the one song in the game that I absolutely dislike (because it was a pain to pass on Expert, and I’m just not a fan of the melody, in no small part due to the audio samples), with another slap-in-the-face SS. And speaking of passes, I have passed every freely available song as of Version 1.20 (as I have no interest in DLC or mods), and what a coincidence that Volume 5 dropped the day after I passed Ghost, the last remaining song after Light it up, Crystallized, EXiT This Earth’s Atomosphere [sic], WHAT THE CAT!?, Spin Eternally, and Cycle Hit in reverse chronological order. As for Volume 5 itself, I actually found $1.78 harder to pass than Final-Boss-Chan; even though the former is significantly shorter, it’s utter cacophony mapped as note vomit, whereas the latter has easily taken the place of Spin Eternally as the best Camellia song in the game.
Among the songs that I had FC’d on Expert, the real dastards to pass on Expert+ were Beat Saber, Lvl Insane, and Angel Voices. The former two do not belong in Volume 1 whatsoever, and the latter intensifies in 4.5 minutes instead of 5 (and boy does it intensify). (Also, guess what? Full Charge was a breeze.) Unlimited Power and Burning Sands are notable runners-up, although the latter is just as fun for its difficulty as the Expert map.* (Balearic Pumping was also a doozy, but nowadays I consider it a lesser version of Angel Voices.) *That said, I’m disappointed that the triplets in the refrain are mapped as mere sixteenths.
My efforts produced seven Expert+ FCs:
Rum n’ Bass. I just did a run one day and somehow FC’d everything but the intro, ending up with a -3 and a note streak greater than 800. Even more surprisingly, it was the first time I had ever gotten a SS without FCing. That’s when I knew that this song had to be my first Expert+ FC…although, in reality, the grind was more painful than I could have imagined. The intro is still the hardest part, but that didn’t stop me from missing after it, especially in the drop. Even after the drop, specifically the outward horizontal double at the end of it, I had an FC up to there and the red note just whizzed by. That’s gotta be one of the most painful chokes I’ve ever experienced.
One Hope. I knew I had it in me before long; it was just a matter of putting the pieces together. (Goes to show, as I like to say, a tech FC is not an FC.) I fortunately didn’t have any chokes in the outro, just the second chorus.
Crab Rave. Second try of the day, and my first time ever past the second buildup. Admittedly, my method for the second buildup is one that would slice off my right arm if the game allowed it: keeping my right hand out with the wrist moving down and up, while making clockwise circles with my left arm.
Be There For You. Practically a micro-grind, mostly on account of the second drop.
Breezer. The run before the FC was a reverse choke, where I straight-up missed in the intro, although I can’t remember where exactly. Thankfully, the runback was a cinch.
Elixia. Also second try, whereas the first try involved an annoyingly usual whiff of the first red in the second set of sixteenths. (Strangely enough, the day before that, I had a run where I thought I needed to practice some part of the outro, but it turns out I didn’t have to practice a thing.)
Country Rounds. I got -4 SS twice in a row and a third time the day after, followed by a -1 later on and eventually the FC. It’s a straightforward map, but with a few weird bits.
(As far as passes go, I only have Volume 4, every Camellia song, Curtains, Firestarter, and $1.78 left.)
The cases of Country Rounds and Rum n’ Bass, as well as a few Expert SS runs, are proof that my first SS grind has irrevocably affected the way I cut blocks, allowing my SS runs to easily precede FCs instead of being an extra mile that I can’t be bothered to go. Thus, as part of the improvement process, I redid a whole bunch of Expert songs to ensure that all of my FCs were SS-rank, for the sake of consistency to deprive Full Charge of its undeserved entitlement.
Unfortunately, I have since fallen into a slump. For the longest time, I could swear that Give a Little Love on Expert+ was within my grasp the moment I started getting consistent at the build-ups, but of course I just kept missing in the second drop, not least at the last freaking note of the final alternation bit. Reason for Living was in a similar boat, with the second chorus being the big choke point. I’ve also been considering Spin Eternally on Expert, especially after getting a 1k note streak and hitting the two hardest parts—the horizontal swipes after the break, and the little burst of sixteenths at the tail end of the multitasking part—on a first try one day. (More recently, I got a streak up to the slew of double hits after the “ファイト! (Fight-o!)” and lost it in the transition into the final spinning part.)
Cutting to the chase, I once decided on a whim to shuffle a playlist containing all five volumes of the official soundtrack (which, for the record, I did purchase through the iTunes Store) on a 20-30 minute drive back home from work, and then play them in-game on difficulties and in modes beyond what I have FC’d so far. (As for the Extras and the Camellia pack, I use random.org and append the results to the setlist.) The catch is to not reset apart from failure or some extenuating circumstance like an early controller clack. In the former case, I go down a level unless I’m on Expert (such as when I painstakingly often fail in the intro of EXiT), in which case I just move on. This has challenged me to use the Faster Notes modifier for some songs on Expert (and to do more One-Saber), namely those that I’ve either already FC’d or haven’t passed on Expert+ (e.g. Rum n’ Bass, It Takes Me), and I enjoyed the practice so much that it inspired me to do the Setlist Shuffle (as I like to call it) regularly. Bottom line: Grinding sucks; the best way to deal with a slump is to break out of one’s comfort zone, and speed-ups work wonders on that front. (As a side note, I have never used any modifiers in Solo play besides the speed-ups and Ghost Notes, nor tweaked any settings apart from the few occasions I have gone lefty for One-Saber (even then to no avail).)
Along with the few candidates mentioned above, I’ve since picked up a few others.
Pop/Stars, Expert+. Just recently, I got a reverse choke in the rap verse (missed about halfway through, yet hit “I’m the realest in the game, uh,” the one part I normally miss more often than the others), followed by chokes in the first half of Chorus 2 and at the halfway point of Chorus 3. Not as overdue as Give a Little Love, but pretty close.
Legend, Expert+. In my most recent Setlist Shuffle, I managed to hit just about everything except the bottom-right note in the fifth set of sixteenths into doubles in both of the verses, which I took into Practice mode and handled just fine. I haven’t ground this song too much, but perhaps now is the time to start cracking down on it.
WHAT THE CAT!?, Expert. The big stinker is the tail end (no pun intended) of the second drop, and I recently managed to hit it in a real run. In an earlier run, I FC’d up to the second buildup. In a more recent run, I can only blame tunnel vision (the perfect term for a rhythm game like this) for whatever the goodness I missed in the second drop. (All I know is that it was on the right side, a few notes after the last set of sixteenths.)
Lastly, here’s a list of FCs that I haven’t mentioned.
Expert: Into the Dream, Spooky Beat, LUDICROUS+, FitBeat, It Takes Me, Magic, Firestarter, I Wanna Be a Machine, Curtains (Grand total: 34/43)
Expert+: $100 Bills (Grand total: 8/43)
Expert, Faster: Breezer, One Hope, Beat Saber, Legend, Elixia, Escape, Reason for Living, Rum n’ Bass, I Need You, $100 Bills, Turn Me On, Lvl Insane, Commercial Pumping, Balearic Pumping, Origins [miraculously first try], Immortal, Country Rounds, Give a Little Love, Be There For You, FitBeat, Pop/Stars (Grand total: 21/43)
Expert, Super Fast: Elixia (Grand total: 1/43)
One-Saber: Beat Saber, Breezer, Commercial Pumping, $100 Bills, Legend, Balearic Pumping, Crab Rave, Be There For You, FitBeat, Country Rounds, Escape, Turn Me On, Elixia, Pop/Stars, Lvl Insane, Reason for Living [Expert+] (Grand total: 16/22)
(I would love to put Rum n’ Bass on the One-Saber list, but somehow the stupid freaking last possible bomb broke my combo right before I could hit the last note. Like…how? I also choked Origins X+ by missing the last upward cut.)
Afterword
Beat Saber filled—no, overflowed the void left by my inability to play Guitar Hero. It’s such a unique, fun, and challenging rhythm game, even the bare minimum setlist of 43 songs is perfectly adequate for at least a year’s worth of satisfaction. In other words, it’s my new favorite rhythm game and one of my new favorite games of all time. I might even revive the currently dormant YouTube channel that I had previously dedicated to Guitar Hero, as a means to genuinely prove my prowess.
Vouiv-review 
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