Need help fully understanding the "stomp" mechanic.

[arch]

So I've just beat level 3, but I still don't fully understand the "stomp" mechanic introduced in the very beginning of that level (where you hold up on a beat to fly in the air, and then press down to slam the ground), and there seems to be a LOT of nuance to it. Now, I know it's mainly used to get rid of those circle-shields in front of the bosses, but you can do it outside of the boss fights, too.

Some things I've noticed...
-You can use the "flight" to fly over the small barriers that you usually hold A to smash past.
-The flight ends after a certain point, and then you can't "stomp" anymore.
-You can make the flight last longer by doing perfect turns on the walls.
-When you stomp on a beat, sometimes it makes a "health-refill beat" appear... but only sometimes? (Why is it only sometimes?)
-Sometimes the stomp is "bigger". It can even freeze time for a bit, which is weird because it severly hampers your ability to play to the rhythm. It almost seems like you DON'T want it to be too big of a stomp...

However, after looking at these things, my MAIN question is... why? Why would I need to do any of this? Is there some kind of deeper game mechanic I just don't know about yet, or is this simply for points? And if it's just for points, what is the full "ruleset"? Have I learned all of it already, or is there still more?

And most importanly, how do I know I did it optimally, aside from tediously counting point totals over different runs of multiple levels? Should I always be attempting to do a smash whenever I can, or should I only bother setting it up when I see spikes or those flying rings you can hit?

Sorry, that's a lot of questions, hehe. But if anyone knows what's going on here, or has any more info on this, that would be appreciated.

[YinYin]

It's for points and subsequently shield replenish. (don't know to what extend either though - might be related to combos or how many barriers you broke beforehand > the little blue glowing dots following you)

I'm currently always going for it unless it would make me miss out on smashing barriers below me or would stomp me onto a pad that is a setup for a jump (obstacles or overhead rings).

Essentially break all the things you can.

[arch]

After messing around a little bit in level 4, I've found that there are apparently different "sizes" of stomps? Some are little, but other times they're HUGE and even stop time for a bit. However, that severely messes with the rhythm, and makes hitting the next beat near impossible. I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks for the help, though. I've added this little quirk to the points above as well, for anyone else who decides to read this thing.

[brian gibson]

The main objective in the game is to survive and progress as far as you can. But once you're an expert and comfortable surviving, next you may want to maximize your score and rank.
The stomp mechanic has multiple purposes. When you stomp it sends out a shockwave. If the shockwave hits a boss shield it will open the shield. If it hits another "thump" (the white square beats) it will activate it. If you need health (a new shell) the activated thump will replace your shell. If you have a shell already, you will collect blue gems, which help your score and rank.
As you noticed, sometimes the shockwave won't activate a thump if there are none nearby. You could try to pound as many thumps as you can, but you might miss out on bigger rewards, like collecting a long string of the red bars. And pounding is risky, and you could blow your multiplier. (you gain 2x and 3x multipliers if you perfectly hit thumps)
We'll post a cheat sheet on all of the scoring details in the coming days. We wanted to include a lot of secret tricks for experts to maximize their score. Some people love score chasing, some people don't, we didn't want to be too in your face about it. In the meantime, maybe you will discover some of those tricks on your own!

[YinYin]

Thanks! :D

I've noticed the shockwave moving past several thumps and activating one in the distance though, which was a bit confusing. Does it activate the last thump in range?

[brian gibson]

yes, if there are several thumps in range it will activate the last one. We did it this way because it creates opportunities to pound the activated thumps, which is an added challenge, and increases your bonus.

[YinYin]

So that's the ones with additional hitlag (like pounding the checkpoints). Got it.

[sayre85]

Brian, my question is more in line with what to do when there's a series of beats that require the player to fly high in the air (To grab the blue arcs), followed immediately by a thump that then leads to a series of red bars. Mid levels seem to repeat this mechanic with increasing difficulty and quickness in switching altitude. On the thump immediately after nabbing the blue arcs, is it optimal to then switch quickly to DOWN+A, or does simply tapping either button independently (DOWN or A) get the job done? My hunch is that the correct input is a quick DOWN+A followed by holding A (to nab the red bars), but I had a little trouble getting consistency out of this approach. Could just be that I'm so new to the harder levels.

Also, have to say I totally love that each level seems to have it's own signature stretch of beats that the player returns to periodically. Reminds me of a leitmotif in a musical.

[YinYin]

Just down gets the job done. I'm holding A through most of my flying (and continue for pounding on a thump and crashing through turns/red bars afterwards).

Hitting A as usual should get the job done as well (and letting go of up if you aren't dropping before the red bars).

[sayre85]

Interesting. So rather than hitting A for the majority of thumps, are you just keeping A held down and tapping down to nail them?

[arch]

Originally posted by brian gibson:

The main objective in the game is to survive and progress as far as you can. But once you're an expert and comfortable surviving, next you may want to maximize your score and rank.
The stomp mechanic has multiple purposes. When you stomp it sends out a shockwave. If the shockwave hits a boss shield it will open the shield. If it hits another "thump" (the white square beats) it will activate it. If you need health (a new shell) the activated thump will replace your shell. If you have a shell already, you will collect blue gems, which help your score and rank.
As you noticed, sometimes the shockwave won't activate a thump if there are none nearby. You could try to pound as many thumps as you can, but you might miss out on bigger rewards, like collecting a long string of the red bars. And pounding is risky, and you could blow your multiplier. (you gain 2x and 3x multipliers if you perfectly hit thumps)
We'll post a cheat sheet on all of the scoring details in the coming days. We wanted to include a lot of secret tricks for experts to maximize their score. Some people love score chasing, some people don't, we didn't want to be too in your face about it. In the meantime, maybe you will discover some of those tricks on your own!

Ah, thanks for the help, Brian! I'm only halfway through level 4, but I'm starting to see the complexity that the score-chasing entails... I keep wanting to do all the fancy stuff as soon as I see the opportunity, but it's mainly just screwing me up right now. I'll have to come back to the earlier levels and really figure out how to maximize the score.

Although, I'm still unsure of what the purpose of the "pauses" are... It seems to happen whenever you stomp on a checkpoint or health beat, but more often than not, it just screws up my rhythm. Now, I've also noticed that the pauses themselves are on the rhythm, so you can count along that way, but the problem with THAT is I can't predict how long the pause will be... And also it just feels wrong, in most circumstances. Maybe there's something more to it, but for now it feels distinctively off-rhythm, unfortunately.

[YinYin]

^ hit lag creates emphasis - makes the impact more powerful

I'm not having any problems with those pauses to be honest, the only ones that do screw me up are ring lasers - fortunately you are supposed to avoid them anyway.

Originally posted by sayre85:

Interesting. So rather than hitting A for the majority of thumps, are you just keeping A held down and tapping down to nail them?

Not the majority, just the ones I pound on from flying.

[brian gibson]

So the pauses when you pound the bonus thumps and weapons, are to add a sense of anticipation and visceral impact for doing something 'extra' special. The game treads a funny line between being an old fashioned rhythm game, and a satisfying action/arcade game with powerful feedback that's not beholden to the rhythm. Hopefully we found a balance, but I totally understand how that pause can be flow breaking rhythmically and it's something we'll keep thinking about.

[DaveKap]

Not trying to crap on the opinion of the OP! However, I love the pauses. "Visceral" is absolutely the word I've been using the most with this game and that's exactly what I'd use to describe having the impact of the ultra-pause when you hit it.

That said, I believe that pause really shouldn't break your rhythm for two very specific reasons. 1: The pause is actually to the beat, so if you're worried about it breaking your metronome, don't! You can keep tapping your feet to the beat and you'll come out of the pause and back into the rhythm with no actual steps lost. 2: The pause only occurs when hitting a checkpoint or an attack point. Both of these things typically have a "sleep" period after them where either the music and/or tempo changes or the boss is getting its bearings back to attack you again. There are no beats you need to hit immediately after the pause, so there's no reason you need to worry about staying on beat.

I'm super curious what other secrets lie inside this game. I've only just beaten level 5 and I can see myself replaying plenty in the future.

[YinYin]

You can activate thumps mid sequence via a pound shockwave to regain your shell of them. I think when I pound such an activated thump I also get the pause.

[arch]

Originally posted by DaveKap:

Not trying to crap on the opinion of the OP! However, I love the pauses. "Visceral" is absolutely the word I've been using the most with this game and that's exactly what I'd use to describe having the impact of the ultra-pause when you hit it.

That said, I believe that pause really shouldn't break your rhythm for two very specific reasons. 1: The pause is actually to the beat, so if you're worried about it breaking your metronome, don't! You can keep tapping your feet to the beat and you'll come out of the pause and back into the rhythm with no actual steps lost. 2: The pause only occurs when hitting a checkpoint or an attack point. Both of these things typically have a "sleep" period after them where either the music and/or tempo changes or the boss is getting its bearings back to attack you again. There are no beats you need to hit immediately after the pause, so there's no reason you need to worry about staying on beat.

I'm super curious what other secrets lie inside this game. I've only just beaten level 5 and I can see myself replaying plenty in the future.

Yeah, I totally agree it's cool! It really does give the game an exciting feeling, especially with that 3-beat long "ultra pause" when you stomp on the boss-attacking beats.

Unfortunately, it really loses its luster when you're going through the first level trying to get a high-score, and you see it 20 times in a row. Also, while the pauses ARE on rhythm, there are some that seem to only last for half a beat, and that leaves me tapping my foot in between beats, majorly messing up any internal timing I had going. (Although, maybe that just means I need to be tapping at twice the speed to avoid that problem, but that just doesn't feel natural to me.)

Additionally, there are several points where (if you're going for high-scores), you can easily find yourself paused RIGHT before a series of sharp turns. Of course, I'm not trying to crap on your opinion either (sorry if it seems like that), but at times it makes me wonder if it's actually trying to discourage using the stomps in crowded areas.