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THUMPER |OT| THE BEETLE'S ROCK BAND - HIGHWAY TO HELL!

jett

D-Member
Why should I push up on the controller? Also do I tap the button to each beat or do I hold the button in?
Regards.

There's a tutorial for that in either level 2 or level 3. You hold up while hitting a beat to fly. It's done to evade obstacles and to do a "pounding" move (Go airborne, then press down on top of another beat).

And you have to press it, not hold the button.
 
Every single perfect turn is tied to the beat of the music. Every single one. You can play mute... I guess, but man why would you want to. It's actually helpful. :p

But the music isn't that predictive or explicit, it doesn't feature loops and recurrent tunes to the same extent that a game like Amplitude or Crypt of the Necrodancer does. It's as if the turn itself creates the beat rather than simply plays to it.

That's my experience though, maybe you hear something different. Maybe it changes with more experience.

--

Also the thing I tend to mess up at the moment is 'flying' through the rings. It seems that many people struggle with this as in the reviews I have seen for the game, they always miss these checkpoints. They're a little odd, as they're require preparation (you have to lift off off of the preceding beat) but they're not hazardous like the spikes you have to fly over. Hard to get used to reacting them when missing them isn't negatively reinforced like everything else in the game.
 

jett

D-Member
But the music isn't that predictive or explicit, it doesn't feature loops and recurrent tunes to the same extent that a game like Amplitude or Crypt of the Necrodancer does. It's as if the turn itself creates the beat rather than simply plays to it.

That's my experience though, maybe you hear something different. Maybe it changes with more experience.

Well I just disagree completely. Perfect turns do follow the beat of the music. If you get into it and follow the rhythm, they're much easier perform than just using visual information.

Also the thing I tend to mess up at the moment is 'flying' through the rings. It seems that many people struggle with this as in the reviews I have seen for the game, they always miss these checkpoints. They're a little odd, as they're require preparation (you have to lift off off of the preceding beat) but they're not hazardous like the spikes you have to fly over. Hard to get used to reacting them when missing them isn't negatively reinforced like everything else in the game.

The rings require as much preparation as the barriers, they're not really a big deal in their simplest form. A big deal is having to perfect turn multiple times in a row to fly through multiple chains of the things.

But really though, Thumper is the perfect gaming example of the phrase "practice makes perfect." If you keep at it you'll soon be wondering how you even got so good. :p
 

totowhoa

Banned
The rings require as much preparation as the barriers, they're not really a big deal in their simplest form. A big deal is having to perfect turn multiple times in a row to fly through multiple chains of the things.

But really though, Thumper is the perfect gaming example of the phrase "practice makes perfect." If you keep at it you'll soon be wondering how you even got so good. :p

Yeah, that's how I felt when I played super hexagon too. The difficulty and practice required here reminds me of that game a lot.

Hitting the blue rings that require a perfect turn is definitely the toughest thing for me. I frequently crash if I try to hit up+x then go for the perfect turn vs. just hitting the pad with x and taking the turn. Just incorporating the d-pad for both seems to throw me off a bit at these speeds.

Level 6 was beating me up so I just started ignoring the the more difficult rings and it helped a lot. I imagine it's something I'll be able to go back and get down later vs. worrying too much now. Maybe when I need a break from level 7 soon I can give 5 a go again - I think that's when I first started seeing blue rings after turns.
 

bodine1231

Member
Well I just disagree completely. Perfect turns do follow the beat of the music. If you get into it and follow the rhythm, they're much easier perform than just using visual information.



The rings require as much preparation as the barriers, they're not really a big deal in their simplest form. A big deal is having to perfect turn multiple times in a row to fly through multiple chains of the things.

But really though, Thumper is the perfect gaming example of the phrase "practice makes perfect." If you keep at it you'll soon be wondering how you even got so good. :p

They do follow the beat but we he's saying is that the music has weird time signatures that are hard to predict. I agree, it's like playing through a Dream Theater song you've never heard before.
 
Well I just disagree completely. Perfect turns do follow the beat of the music. If you get into it and follow the rhythm, they're much easier perform than just using visual information.

It's barely harder for me with the sound off. In Amplitude or Crypt I feel crippled.

Maybe just me though, maybe different people learn to play the game in different ways. I think in this case, it's clear that all of the information is there to play it without music, but in something like Crypt that's near impossible. On Amplitude it's hard, but doable, and again here it's very doable, more so than Amplitude if only because this game is much easier than Amplitudes harder difficulties.
 

KingKong

Member
The difficulty is tuned perfectly, I've just been steadily improving the more I play and can easily deal with something like level 8 which would have seemed impossible
 

KooopaKid

Banned
I was ready to not like this game for being too hard, elitist, too punishing and not very fun, the "Dark Souls" of rhythm games if you will, but not at all, a few minutes in and I could see the controls were already perfect, it's forgiving because you can anticipate and press the buttons in advance without much penalty, you can input what you want outside the "prompts" without consequences, so it's quite free in that regard.
This game has one of the best aural/visual/vibration feedback of the year.
Just holding A + left or right to make a perfect turn, with the small audio cues indicating you pulled it off, has the same sense of satisfaction as drifting in Mario Kart.
In fact, Thumper's gameplay has a very Nintendo-like quality to it for a music game, drifting, ground-pounding to break a door, the responsiveness and fluidity of it all.
Very pleasantly surprised.
 
D

Deleted member 57681

Unconfirmed Member
Just went in.
Holy fuck this game is INSANITY
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
THIS GAME IS UNBELIEVABLE

IT SHOULD NOT BE CALLED THUMPER

IT SHOULD BE CALLED "BLINK AND YOU WILL FUCKING DIE"

BLINK AND YOU WILL FUCKING DIE IS AMAZING IN VR I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS IT
 

DKo5

Respawn Entertainment
Just played demo on PSVR. Loved it!

My 8yr old made me turn it down, said it was "disturbing" :D
 

Schlomo

Member
I can't get past the very first obstacle in level 3 (spikes on the track). Feeling very stupid right now. Is there a tutorial I've missed!?
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
Getting into the top hundreds scorewise, but I'm not sure I fully understand the score system

No hit+No miss = S rating

But to increase score further I need: Perfect turns, hitting floating blue rings, "thumping down" on blue dots after flying ++ ????

Add me on steam brehs

I can't get past the very first obstacle in level 3 (spikes on the track). Feeling very stupid right now. Is there a tutorial I've missed!?

A+Up
 

Tain

Member
Does this game have an unlockable mode where you have to play entire levels in one shot? It's a cool game but I would greatly prefer that to being able to infinitely retry a given section.

This would make for an awesome arcade game instead of a solid console-style one that way. Would fit the intensity of the game, too.
 

jett

D-Member
Getting into the top hundreds scorewise, but I'm not sure I fully understand the score system

No hit+No miss = S rating

But to increase score further I need: Perfect turns, hitting floating blue rings, "thumping down" on blue dots after flying ++ ????

Add me on steam brehs



A+Up

The ratings are based on your score per level, you can get hit or miss a pad here or there, but you gotta make up the difference in points, by doing everything you said.

To REALLY increase you overall level score you must not lose your combo from one level to another, meaning try to not get hit or miss any pads across multiple levels. Not only will you keep on racking up a lot of points with a multiplier enabled, the bonuses at the end of each level increase too.
 

Juraash

Member
So I bought this last night and have spent...somewhere between 2-4 hours with it. Rhythm games have never been my strong suit, and this game is kicking my ass lol. Got through level 3 after the flying/bass drop mechanic fucking with my head for a really long time.

It's super fun though. I feel like I need to rerun levels 2 and 3 to get more comfortable with the mechanics. Also I notice that, even though there is a health mechanic of sorts, as soon as I take the first hit it completely jerks me out of my zone. I almost never recover after that first hit.
 

totowhoa

Banned
So I bought this last night and have spent...somewhere between 2-4 hours with it. Rhythm games have never been my strong suit, and this game is kicking my ass lol. Got through level 3 after the flying/bass drop mechanic fucking with my head for a really long time.

It's super fun though. I feel like I need to rerun levels 2 and 3 to get more comfortable with the mechanics. Also I notice that, even though there is a health mechanic of sorts, as soon as I take the first hit it completely jerks me out of my zone. I almost never recover after that first hit.

For a while I thought you could only get armor back at the end of a segment, except for boss fights. Maybe that was true for the first few levels, I dunno. But, you'll find that if you can play a small section of a level perfectly, you'll see a pad light up ahead; hitting it gives you armor again. It makes it much easier to keep things together even if you take a hit, and it can be key to making it through some of the longer, more challenging segments.
 

jett

D-Member
For a while I thought you could only get armor back at the end of a segment, except for boss fights. Maybe that was true for the first few levels, I dunno. But, you'll find that if you can play a small section of a level perfectly, you'll see a pad light up ahead; hitting it gives you armor again. It makes it much easier to keep things together even if you take a hit, and it can be key to making it through some of the longer, more challenging segments.

Also, if you pound (the smash while airborne move) four pads without getting hit and without missing a pad, the next pad will turn into a health boost.
 

Kazaam

Member
Thumper... the dark souls of rhythm games (I'm sure a lot of people came up with this very silly comparison). I only found out about this game less than a week ago because of neogaf so I'm really thankful for that (this OT particularly). It very quickly climbed on my goty list for this year and so far it seems I have a clear top 3... still quite a few games coming out that I'm really looking forward to so you never know until the end. But yeah... thumper is one hell of a game that is so hard to put into words. But is beautiful, messing about with your senses in a feverish synesthetic dream and it's extremely rewarding. Plus I don't think I've been this... almost pathologically invaded by a game outside my playing video games time since Catherine. (Well there's Bloodborne but that's a completely different kind of beast that didn't let me sleep for completely different reasons)
 
God this is so good. should i be especially worried about the rings if I'm just getting comfortable With the idea of hitting them? it's not hurting me to not jump for them, right?
 

totowhoa

Banned
Also, if you pound (the smash while airborne move) four pads without getting hit and without missing a pad, the next pad will turn into a health boost.

Ah nice to know, I never put together that I was doing it four times!

im glad the game is light on tutorial since it ruins the vibe of the game, but I wish this game had a robust how-to-play section in the menu. It's a bit opaque, and so much more rewarding the better you understand it.
 

lt519

Member
I only just beat level 4...

LRVnPYqM8DLag.gif

Loving this but also terrified of what's coming.
 
I was really enjoying this up to level 6. Then the final boss deals a much harsher punishment, causing constant repetition of the sections I've memorised before I got another chance to figure out the beat. There's nothing fun about being given like zero opportunity to figure out a rhythm and then having to start again. It undermines the system in place for the other bosses.

I got up to the boss on 7-7, but I don't know how to prepare for the upcoming turns on the final stage, and I'm not interested in memorising it.

Do you people find you can see the upcoming turns, or are you depending on building muscle memory? Quick turns without the red indicator being clear have caused me trouble throughout the game.
 

Stoze

Member
Also, if you pound (the smash while airborne move) four pads without getting hit and without missing a pad, the next pad will turn into a health boost.

Unless I'm mistaking what you're saying, it's easier than that:
Once you get a note streak going (2x in the top right corner), anytime after that if you jump off a note and pound on another one, it should turn the next note into a health note if it's not too far ahead in the track. You can potentially make a health note from any two notes basically.

I'm going to post a rudimentary score guide in a little bit here.
 
Just beat it. HOLY SHIT at that last boss.

I was waiting for them to subvert the constant speed for the whole game. I didn't expect it to be so goddamn jarring and hostile about it though.

I'm imagining what it takes to play that last level perfectly. I'd love to see a video of the number 1 ranks. I mean my run of level 9 was large sections of me just trying to survive and ignoring score for the most part and I still got 8th on PC. Maybe not that many people are playing on Steam.

For sure one of my favorite games this year. I should get all the achievements, but...S ranking those later levels would take a degree of patience I'm not sure I have.
 

Stoze

Member
Alright this is what I've gathered from playing and reading other people's tips on here, apologies if I make some mistakes as it's a work in progress.

Points:
Calculated at the end of each segment.

Perfect turn = 200 each
Yellow strip = 100 each (up to 300 each with 3x multiplier)
Blue ring = 100 each (up to 300 each with 3x multiplier)
Health note = 300 each if you're undamaged (up to 900 each with 3x multiplier)
No Misses = 1000 (+500 for each additional segment completed with no note misses)
No Damage = 1000 (+500 for each additional segment completed with no note damage)
Kills = 50 each (sending a projectile wave by ground pounding or attacking the boss to kill "tentacles" that appear in the background, see below in Other tips)

You don't actually get any points for simply hitting notes and turns. Hitting notes does raise your base multiplier though that appears in the top right of the screen. 8 notes hit raises the multiplier from 1x to 2x, and another 8 raises it to a max of 3x. This multiplier affects health notes, yellow strips, and blue rings as seen above. Hitting turns do not affect the multiplier and perfect turns aren't modified by it.

Oh yeah, no points for hitting the yellow strips without having A/X held after a note hit either.

More in-depth:

If you hit a health note while you're undamaged, you get extra points as indicated by the little blue dots that appear on the side of your beetle. You'll also notice these dots also come up whenever you hit the yellow stripes as well as the blue rings, and the number of them that appears also goes up with your note multiplier in the top right. Each strip and ring is worth 1 blue dot, and each health note worth 3, and the amount gets tripled with a max multiplier of 3x if you're not missing notes. Each of these dots - which are diamonds - are worth 100 points and you see them at the end of the segment in the point total. They are your main source of points.

Starting at a multiplier of 2x, you can create health notes by hitting Up + holding A/X on one note, which will start and maintain flight, and pressing Down to land on another. This will turn the next upcoming note into a health note. You can create one health pack with just two notes, but at times you may want to extend flight over multiple notes or turns before coming down. Extending flight can be done by hitting perfect turns or quickly tapping Up + A/X on notes to hit them as you pass.

In conclusion:

For the most points you want to try and hit things so you're generating as many health notes as possible during the segment while not missing rings or strips, since if you miss 4 or more of those in trying to make a health note you're looking at a net loss of points. It goes without saying that you don't want to miss notes or take damage at all either, and reverting to a checkpoint will reset all multipliers. If you are going for a highscore in a level and take damage and miss a note, then at that point it would be more beneficial to reset the checkpoint and play as perfectly as possible.

Other tips/bits of knowledge:

-There are "tentacles" that creep up from the background in certain parts of each level that can be killed by performing a ground pound on a note or attacking a boss to create a shockwave (you don't need a multiplier going, and their appearance depends on the level asthetic). The pulse from these actions will travel along the track killing them and making a scream sound signifying kills. Each one killed = +50 points to your score total. - credit to Genkobar
-You can also create health notes during bosses. After a successful sequence of not getting missing notes/getting hit, attacking the boss will spawn a health note. You can spawn a second health pack if you pound down after flight on the attack note. -credit to jett, epmode, and EVO
-On later levels you'll also see yellow strips come directly after blue rings with no note in between. Just press Down immediately before coming to the stripes and you'll hit them for points.
-The S-rank in the leaderboards isn't necessarily associated with the score next to it. It just means the player has S-ranked that level at some point, and their highest score regardless of rank is shown next to it.

Other things I still don't know:

-If you pound a health note, when it goes into slow motion, I don't know if that's generating a significant amount of extra points, or it just looks cool/messes up your rhythm. Probably both?
-Boss battles. Some things might work differently there since you can extend them indefinitely if you miss notes. I'm guessing they designed them so you can't up your score this way infinitely, like putting a cap on perfect turns, but I don't know.
-And some other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.
 

jett

D-Member
Unless I'm mistaking what you're saying, it's easier than that:
Once you get a note streak going (2x in the top right corner), anytime after that if you jump off a note and pound on another one, it should turn the next note into a health note if it's not too far ahead in the track. You can potentially make a health note from any two notes basically.

I'm going to post a rudimentary score guide in a little bit here.

Huh, hmm okay, I didn't notice that. Maybe that's the result of what I thought I was doing. :p
What I did notice though is that once you get a massive pounding streak almost every note becomes a health/score boost (along with slowmo).
 

jett

D-Member
Alright this is what I've gathered from playing and reading other people's tips on here, apologies if I make some mistakes.

---

-As I've mentioned before you can generate a health note after every attack against a boss by spamming X/A when it hits. A few times I've gotten two in a row to spawn, but I have no idea how.
-Boss battles. Some things might work differently there since you can extend them indefinitely if you miss notes. I'm guessing they designed them so you can't up your score this way infinitely, like putting a cap on perfect turns, but I don't know.
-And some other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.

That's a solid writeup!

The boss stuff is also kinda mystifying to me. Here's what I've found out:
  • If you do well during a sequence (more or less flawless -- I haven't figured out the specifics), you can just hold the button after your attack, and you will get the health boost.
  • If you let the button go at the right moment and press it again (when the blue explosion is starting in the boss's mouth) you'll get the second health boost. I haven't figured out the timing here exactly here, but that's what most often gives me the two boosts.
  • If you play poorly during a sequence, it's highly likely holding the button won't work and you'll have to time it... I think. I hit the button right before the attack hits.
  • I think the final boss in the game doesn't give up any health boosts whatsoever.
 

epmode

Member
[*]If you let the button go at the right moment and press it again (when the blue explosion is starting in the boss's mouth) you'll get the second health boost. I haven't figured out the timing here exactly here, but that's what most often gives me the two boosts.
I'm almost certain that pounding a bullet note* generates two sequential notes instead of the normal one; The first gives health, the second adds to your multiplier.

*bullet note = the note that fires a shot at the boss if you hit it
 

Stoze

Member
That's a solid writeup!

The boss stuff is also kinda mystifying to me. Here's what I've found out:
  • If you do well during a sequence (more or less flawless -- I haven't figured out the specifics), you can just hold the button after your attack, and you will get the health boost.
  • If you let the button go at the right moment and press it again (when the blue explosion is starting in the boss's mouth) you'll get the second health boost. I haven't figured out the timing here exactly here, but that's what most often gives me the two boosts.
  • If you play poorly during a sequence, it's highly likely holding the button won't work and you'll have to time it... I think. I hit the button right before the attack hits.
  • I think the final boss in the game doesn't give up any health boosts whatsoever.

I'm almost certain that pounding a bullet note* generates two sequential notes instead of the normal one; The first gives health, the second adds to your multiplier.

*bullet note = the note that fires a shot at the boss if you hit it

Thanks for the input guys, I added this stuff into the guide. Went back and tested it in the very first level and you're right; if you just hold on the boss attack you create the note, and if you pound and hold on the attack you'll create both. I totally forgot you need to not mess up the current sequence in order for it to work too.
 

Genkobar

Member
Alright this is what I've gathered from playing and reading other people's tips on here, apologies if I make some mistakes.

...

Extending flight can be done by hitting perfect turns or quickly tapping Up + A/X on notes to hit them as you pass.
I've been wondering how to fly through turns, was sure I did it accidentally at some point. Some parts of levels 3 and 4 make it obvious that you should be able to do it, with the flailing tentacle arms that you get "kills" for if you slam down on a note and create a shock wave.

What an epic score system summary!
 

EVO

Member
-As I've mentioned before you can generate a health note after every attack against a boss by spamming X/A when it hits. A few times I've gotten two in a row to spawn, but I have no idea how.

Stomping the final note spawns two notes. Hitting it normally spawns one.
 

EVO

Member
Thanks for the input guys, I added this stuff into the guide. Went back and tested it in the very first level and you're right; if you just hold on the boss attack you create the note, and if you pound and hold on the attack you'll create both. I totally forgot you need to not mess up the current sequence in order for it to work too.

You don't need to hold anything.
 

jett

D-Member
You don't need to hold anything.

Holy shit you're right. I'm glad I made this guide on here lol

lol

I was holding X and then pressing it thinking I was nailing some complex timing..

It was so simple.

But it's still odd. Just tested on 1-15. I did a perfect sequence, pounded, and only got one pad after randomly randomly pressing buttons during the attack. I messed up on another sequence on purpose, and I got nothing after a pound. But I could swear I've managed to get health boosts before after messing up. I know because I needed them. Maybe I inadvertently ran a perfect sequence those times. :p

Oh well.
 

Stoze

Member
But it's still odd. Just tested on 1-15. I did a perfect sequence, pounded, and only got one pad after randomly randomly pressing buttons during the attack. I messed up on another sequence on purpose, and I got nothing after a pound. But I could swear I've managed to get health boosts before after messing up. I know because I needed them. Maybe I inadvertently ran a perfect sequence those times. :p

Oh well.

Maybe you need to have the 2x multiplier to create it? That or just extra inputs cancel it out.

Also I totally forgot about Kills in the scoring system. I'm still not sure how those are totaled up other than it's related to pounding to create health notes (I think).
 

EVO

Member
But it's still odd. Just tested on 1-15. I did a perfect sequence, pounded, and only got one pad after randomly randomly pressing buttons during the attack..

Did you complete the sequence on your first attempt? I think that has an effect on it too.

Also, you don't need to press anything during the attack. What matters is only how you hit the final note.

Also I totally forgot about Kills in the scoring system. I'm still not sure how those are totaled up other than it's related to pounding to create health notes (I think).

I think it's just the bars/rings. Each is worth one kill.
 

Stoze

Member
I think it's just the bars/rings. Each is worth one kill.

Nope, those contribute points to the blue diamond number at the end.

After testing I think it has to do with the amount of stuff that get hit by the wave sent out when you ground pound, but even then it still seems to be adding kills from out of nowhere.
 
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