How to "git gud" at Thumper

Coming from a (former?) Top 40 Thumper pro who has S+ ranked every level, this guide will offer insider tips and tricks and more on mastering Thumper.

The Mechanics: Overview

The general principle behind mechanics: red/orange is dangerous and will give you damage if not hit or dodged, blue/green is safe but worth hitting.

• Red/orange mechanics (right to left above): turns, bars, spikes, scanners, snakes
• Blue/green mechanics (right to left above): thump pads, rings, shields (boss battles only)

There is another color code for the levels themselves. These colors appear on the sides of the track and also on every level ending gate. There are also two breaks within each level (except level 1, which is already easygoing enough), where it's a long stretch of nothing but tentacles — a place to chill out and breathe. Their locations are included here along with the miniboss locations. Numbers in parentheses indicate the location in PLAY+ mode if it's different from PLAY mode. NB there are no training minibosses in PLAY+ mode.

• Level 1: 1/2 time, cyan; 15 (12) sublevels, no breaks, miniboss at 14 (11); training minibosses at 1 and 7.
  
• Level 2: 2/2 and 2/4 time, light blue; 22 (20) sublevels, breaks at 11 (9) and 18 (16), miniboss at 13 (11).
  
• Level 3: 3/4 time, yellow-orange; 26 (25) sublevels, breaks at 10 (9) and 21 (20), miniboss at 12 (11); training miniboss at 1.
  
• Level 4: 4/4 and 4/8 time, yellow; 30 (28) sublevels, breaks at 10 (8) and 25 (23), miniboss at 11 (9); training miniboss at 2.
  
• Level 5: 5/4 and 5/8 time, purple; 29 (28) sublevels, breaks at 8 (7) and 24 (23), miniboss at 11 (10).
  
• Level 6: 6/4 and 6/8 time, magenta; 24 sublevels, breaks at 6 and 20, miniboss at 9.
  
• Level 7: 7/4 and 7/8 time, mahogany; 19 sublevels, breaks at 5 and 16, miniboss at 7.
  
• Level 8: 8/8 time, blue; 27 sublevels, breaks at 8 and 20, miniboss at 10.
  
• Level 9: 9/8 time, black; 28 sublevels, breaks at 6 and 19, miniboss at 8.
  
• Beyond Crakhed: unknown time, variable tempo, white

All mechanics have two sets of sounds: oncoming and player hit. The player hit sounds are the sounds that happen when you the player make them happen by hitting them. The oncoming sounds occur anywhere from half a beat to a few beats before it's expected that you'll hit them. For a turn in level 2, for example, you'll hear a "clap" four beats (in 2/2 time) before you're due to hit it. If you have a discerning ear, this can be useful when you're in those tight tunnels to tell what you've got coming at you.

The Mechanics: Thump pads

• Oncoming sound: chirp; Player hit sound: "boom".
  
• Oncoming sound for weaponizing thump pads: chirp + a blip; Player hit sound: "mega-boom".
  
• First encounter: level 1-1.
  
• Hit them. All of them. This is the very first thing the game teaches you.
  
• You can fly off of thump pads ("up" key/stick direction). If your flight time lasts long enough, you can even smash thump pads ("down" key/stick direction) for kills or gems.
  
• Certain thump pads are pre-activated — the thump pad at the end of every level except the last one, and after hitting a boss the first time.
  
• When you hit 8 or more thump pads, you gain the ability to create activated thumps by smashing them. If you smash the 8th thump to get the 2× multiplier, it will create an activated thump if possible.
  
• Smashing an activated or weaponizing thump is so epic that it temporarily pauses time, just like in all those hack & slash games. Try not to get thrown off by this pause, as it's timed to 1 beat (2 beats if it's a weaponizing thump), not necessarily in the time signature(s) of the level.
  
• During boss battles, sequences of green thumps are linked together, ending in a shiny-looking weaponizing thump pad, which is used to hit the boss. All bosses require 4 hits to defeat them except for 7-Ω which requires 5. Miss even one and all thump pads will turn blue for the remainder of the sequence, and you can no longer get gems from bars and rings in the remainder of the sequence. Eventually, you'll end up having to redo the entire sequence until you get it without missing.
  
• During boss battles, if you clear a sequence the first time, you're rewarded with a pre-activated thump pad. However, if you manage to smash the weaponizing thump pad at the end of a sequence, you're rewarded with a second pre-activated thump pad (which I highly recommend smashing for extra gems).

The Mechanics: Turns

• Oncoming sound for regular turns: "clap"; Player hit sound: metallic "whack" (or "clank" if it's a mini turn).
  
• Oncoming sound for long turns: "vroom"; Player hit sound: metallic "whack".
  
• First encounter: level 1-2 for short, level 1-10 for long, and level 4-1 for mini.
  
• You must hit all of these to survive the level. You learn the details in level 1-2 onward.
  
• There are three kinds of turns shown above: short, long, and mini. Short and long turns only occur when there is one lane, and mini turns end a lane where there are multiple lanes.
  
• There are two non-lethal ways to hit a turn: imperfectly (early) or perfectly (right on time). You'll know when a turn is perfect because you won't just hear a "whack," but also a little mecha-beetle chirp on top of it. In addition, flying into a perfect turn will extend your flight indefinitely unless it's a long turn (which always ends flight, regardless of whether it was taken perfectly or not).

The Mechanics: Bars, Rings, Spikes, and Snakes

Bars and Rings

• Oncoming sounds: metallic and glass "ting"s; player hit sounds: a "knock" and a glass "clank".
  
• Player hit sounds after hitting a thump pad: chirps that steadily increase in pitch as you get a streak.
  
• Additionally, at the end of a phrase with several bars and/or rings in it, you'll hear a little "bling" to indicate that extra gems have been acquired for completing the phrase without missing a bar or ring.
  
• First encounter: level 1-8 for bars, level 2-2 for rings.
  
• Hitting a bar can be dangerous, but hitting a ring is never dangerous, as either you'll hit the ring or go through it.
  
• Hit them after a thump pad to get gems for score! It also sounds cool.

Spikes

• Oncoming sound: hard to describe onomatopeically. You'll know it when you hear it 'cause you can see that vibrant red glow from a distance.
  
• First encounter: level 2-1
  
• For safety's sake, these always have a thump pad in front of them so you can jump over them.
  
• That is all. It's just an obstacle you dodge.
  
• And do dodge them by all means! Running into one of these virtually guarantees you a C rank, and this is the only damaging obstcle that does this.

Snakes

• Oncoming sound: hissing and whooshing.
  
• First encounter: level 4-11 (the boss battle).
  
• Snakes only come where there are multiple lanes, but you have to watch carefully for which lane they land in.
  
• All you have to do is dodge them (or fly over them). You cannot smash them out of existence like you can with tentacles.

The Mechanics: Shields and Scanners

Shields

• First encounter: level 3-1.
  
• These only occur in a select few boss battles, and they will deflect weaponizing thump pads if not popped open.
  
• They are introduced in level 3, and it is truly the only time you ever really need to smash to progress through the game. All you need to do is look for the right time to smash to pop it open — usually spikes or a blue ring will serve as an indicator, but even just two consecutive thump pads in close enough proximity will do (even those in different lanes).
  
• Should you fail to pop open a shield and have your weaponizing thump pad deflected, you'll need to redo the sequence until you get that weaponizing thump through.
  
• Additionally, perfect turns don't count and all gems gained during that sequence are lost and need to be regained (effectively, this is the equivalent of missing a green thump pad, but without the multiplier loss). If you pound the weaponizing thump pad, you can break open only one shield with it.

Scanners (a.k.a. Sentries)

• First encounter: level 5-1, with a couple more training levels afterward.
  
• Just like inspectors, they command perfection of you, but will hurt or kill you with lasers should you fail to be perfect. To be specific, they scan thump pads to ensure that no thump pad passes your metallic bug body... or so kill you should that fail.
  
• Do not be unnerved by their dub-steppy sounds and menacing red looks as they scan each thump pad. Just hit each thump pad and they won't bother you.
  
• You are given some empty time with the scanner before a phrase begins to... adjust yourself I guess. It's a light pacing element that the game has.
  
• Unlike with shields, you cannot pop open scanners to get them to leave. They will leave on their own in due time.
  
• If you take damage from these things, don't worry — they won't return for the remainder of the phrase that they were assigned to (but there may be another one waiting for you in the next phrase).

Details on Scoring

Stealth

• In order to continue, you have to not die. An even tricker challenge is not to take even a single killing hit. First hit removes your shell, and if you get hit without your shell, it's game over and you have to restart the sublevel. If you're playing in PLAY+ mode, you have to restart the whole level.
  
• To get your silver shell back in the normal PLAY mode, just hit an activated thump. In PLAY+ mode, it's harder to get your gold shell back (because gold is more precious than silver). Not only do you need to hit an activated thump, but you need to do it while you have the maximum multiplier.
  
• For completing a sublevel without taking a single damaging hit, you get 1000 initially, but after that, this amount increases by 500. This displays as something like "NO DAMAGE ×3" if you've successfully completed 3 consecutive sublevels without getting hit and is worth 1000 + 500*(3 - 1) = 2000 points. If you don't get damaged again, you'll then get 2500 by the end of the next sublevel. This is one of the most valuable aspects of scoring. For example, level 4 has 30 sublevels, which gives a max. score here of 247500.

Thump pads

• For completing a sublevel without missing even a single thump pad, you get 1000 initially, but after that, this amount increases by 500. This displays as something like "NO MISSES ×3" if you've successfully completed 3 consecutive sublevels without missing and is worth 1000 + 500*(3 - 1) = 2000 points. If you fail to miss every thump pad again, you'll then get 2500 by the end of the next sublevel. This is one of the most valuable aspects of scoring. For example, level 4 has 30 sublevels, which gives a max. score here of 247500.
  
• For every successive streak of 8 thump pads hit, you get a multiplier, indicated by a visual surge of energy and a power-up noise, as well as a little indicator in the top right corner.
  
• Upon getting at least a double multiplier, you'll gain the ability to activate thump pads by smashing them (and you'll know because there's a bass drop every time it happens). If you've fallen in love with the smashing mechanic, good for you! You're well on your way to climbing the leaderboards.
  
• By smashing a thump pad, you'll activate oncoming thump pads to super-smash thump pads. As to exactly which oncoming thump pad will activate (be it the one right in front of you, or 2-3 more down the road), that depends on the song.
  
• In PLAY mode, the maximum is triple, but in PLAY+ mode, the maximum is quadruple. Additionally, in PLAY+ mode, you get two pitch stretches (each one semitone, or approx. 6% faster than normal) for 3× and 4× multipliers. This is the other very valuable aspect of scoring, as multipliers multiply the amount of those little blue gems you get. Nothing else gets multiplied, however.

Turns

• Every perfect turn is worth 200 points per turn. That is all. No multiplier or anything fancy. This applies to every kind of turn in the game.
  
• This even applies to those short turns ending lanes where there are multiple lanes. You just have to hit them to get score instead of outright dodging them.
  
• However, during boss battles, perfect turns only count on the first run. If you miss a thump pad and have to redo the entire sequence, no turn is considered perfect anymore, even if they are hit perfectly.
  
• Flying into a turn will end your flight unless it's a perfect turn, in which case your flight time will be extended indefinitely. Long turns, however, will always end your flight, even when taken perfectly.
  
• Perfect turning is required to get an S+ rank on some levels, such as 5-6, where there are blue rings right after a turn and no thump pad after the turn to reach them otherwise.

Gems/Crak

• Bars and rings that you hit after a thump pad gives you 1 gem per bar/ring times whatever your multiplier is.
  
• There are some phrases where if you hit all bars and rings, you get more gems as noted below.
  
• Every activated thump pad that you hit while you have your shell gives you 3 gems per bar/ring times whatever your multiplier is.
  
• Every activated thump pad that you smash while you have your shell gives you 4 gems per bar/ring times whatever your multiplier is. Be sure to deal with the pause so that your sense of time doesn't get thrown off!
  
• Without your shell, hitting or smashing an activated thump pad will just give your shell back if plaing in PLAY mode (it's more work to get back your shell in PLAY+ mode). There is no pause when smashing to get your shell back.
  
• Create activated thumps by smashing them with a multiplier.
  
• Gems are worth 100 points per gem.

Gem Streaks

• The formula for the number of gems obtained is: (<number of bars/rings in streak> - 1)*0.5*<multiplier> if the number of bars/rings in the streak is odd, (<number of bars/rings in streak> - 2)*0.5*<multiplier> if it's even.
  
• A streak (indicated by rising pitch) must have at least 6 bars/rings to get a streak bonus.
  
• Streaks can be intersparsed by turns and spikes (e.g. level 5-11), occur in different lanes (e.g. level 6-19), or overseen by a scanner. On the flip side, just because there's nothing but bars, rings and thump pads doesn't mean a streak is possible (level 7-5 for example).
  
• If the multiplier increases during a streak, the streak bonus is simply computed with the current multiplier once the streak has been finished (indicated with a chimey "bling" sound).
  
• Any activated thump pads hit near or in a streak have no effect on the streak bonus.

Kills

• Yes, it's possible to kill stuff in the hellish void. This refers to the tentacles on the side of the track. To make a kill, just smash a pad where you see tentacles of any size or shape, and they will scream, turn red and retract. Alternatively, the weaponizing thump can also kill off tentacles.
  
• Only tentacles at or in front of where you smash will be killed, as the shockwave you send only goes forward. Experimentation is useful to find out the limit of your shockwave.
  
• You get 50 points per pair of tentacles killed (one for each side of the track). Seeing 10+ tentacle pairs is common, but it could be 20+ on some occasions.
  
• There are also unkillable tentacles in much of level 1 and during the break periods in all the other levels. They are there mainly to look cool and trippy.

Other stuff that doesn't add to your score:

• Spikes and snakes: just dodge them to avoid damage.
  
• Shields: just deal with them accordingly.
  
• Scanners: hit every last thump pad to avoid damage.

Scores to Aim For (PLAY mode)

NB These are not the maximum obtainable scores, but scores for doing everything perfectly (sans smashing).
Level 1: 208,300
Level 2: 489,400
Level 3: 665,800
Level 4: 947,000
Level 5: 961,400
Level 6: 967,600-982,000
Level 7: 626,900
Level 8: 1,063,500
Level 9: 1,087,000

Details on Grading

• Grades are based on the percentage of stuff you hit right: thump pads hit (regardless of whether they were smashed or not), perfect turns made, and orange bars and blue rings hit. It'll also help if you don't take damage. In other words, the grades you get are independent of your score — that's what leaderboards are for, right? When it comes to boss battles, if you have to repeat a sequence for the third time, you've basically lost your S-rank.
  
• There are only a handful of possibilities in PLAY mode for completing a sublevel: C, B, A, and that golden S. To get that golden S, you have to hit at least 95% of stuff, factoring in the weighting, since hitting a thump pad means much more than hitting a ring. To get an S rank overall, you have to get every single sublevel completed with an S rank. Even one A in a sublevel will make your overall grade an A instead of an S. In other words, getting those S rank achievements requires dedication, patience, practice, and perfection. Expect it to take at least 30 hours of gameplay to S rank all 9 levels.
  
• In PLAY+ mode, there is, as you might expect, an additional S+ rank. To get it, you have to hit everything, and I mean everything — thump pads, perfect turns, bars, rings — all of it 100%, without taking any damage. Even one miss and you'll get an S at best. However, to get an S+ overall does not require you to get S+ in every single sublevel — only 50% S+ will do as long as no sublevel is ranked below an S.

Summary (tl;dr section)

• Not missing and not taking damage both give you points. There is a cumulative streak: 500 base score + 500*<number of levels without missing or taking damage>.
  
• Perfect turns are worth 200 points each (2 gems equivalent), regardless of your multiplier.
  
• Gems come from activated thump pads and bars and rings and get multiplied by whatever your multiplier is. Build up your multiplier by hitting 8 consecutive thump pads per multiplier level. 100 points per gem.
  
• Gem streaks give you 33-50% more gems. See formula above for details.
  
• Kills are worth 50 points per pair of tentacles killed (½ a gem equivalent), regardless of your multiplier.
  
• You get a grade for completion based on accuracy, not score!
  
• The only differences from scoring and grading in PLAY+ mode are a 4× max multiplier (instead of 3×) and an additional S+ rank.

Tips & Stuff to "git gud"

Surely this is what you came here for, right?

Scoring

• Maximizing score often requires a bit of strategy in addition to the expected skill: do I go for the kills and skip out on those gems via bars/rings or pre-activated thumps? Often the answer to this question is "no" if you have (or are about to have) a 2× multiplier or higher on you.
  
• Smash thump pads strategically: 1 activated thump pad = 3 bars/rings (4 if the thump pad is smashed), regardless of your multiplier, but there are other complications as well, such as the extra gems you get for completing phrases rich in bars/rings (i.e. streaks).
  
• Always smash the weaponizing thump, as well as the second bonus thump that comes out of it. It's worth every gem, I promise you.
  
• Remember that streaks will give you roughly 33-50% more gems, depending on the size of the streak. In the early half of the game, it may well be optimal to hit every bar and ring and only thump if it means no bars/rings are missed out on. In the later levels, experimentation may be key to finding the right balance between maximizing gems from thump pads and hitting the most bars/rings possible. Sometimes it's obvious, but other times...
  
• At some point, you may have wondered, "how do I get those rings?" in situations like this one from level 5-6, where it first comes up:
  
  
  Perfect turns will take you far.
  
• Although at first it may seem weird to want to run into a wall, changing lanes to maximize score by getting that perfect turn can actually be beneficial... unless you're scared of taking damage.
  
• You can safely slip in between the snakes in the later levels to score a couple of extra perfect turns.
  
• One of the largest scoring factors is to not take any damage at all (likewise with not missing a thump pad). As you progress, it becomes more important than perfecting those turns, fun as that may be. Not only is there the associated bonus, but you can keep your multiplier up.
  
• Good scoring in Thumper is at least 90% skill, the remainder being about puzzle solving.
  
• And finally, if it's any consolation, Thumper's scoring system, apart from the level 6 miniboss, is entirey deterministic, meaning that with nothing more than correct play, anyone can reach the top easily.

Grades and miscellaneous

• Become one with the rhythm. I know they may say that this isn't a game about memorization, but the more you play, the more you can't help but memorize the track — it becomes familiar, and will in fact aid you. The exception is the level 6 miniboss, where several motifs are thrown at you in a random manner each wave. It'll help you in general if you learn a level's motifs before defaulting to pure memorization. Here's an example of a motif in level 8:
  
  
  A thump pad followed by two rings followed by two bars repeated a few times. Level 8 also has some turn-based motifs as well, some of which are similar to those found in levels 2 and 4.
  Or maybe try this motif from level 7:
  
  
  It's tough to get it perfect. Not only is the rhythm in 7/8 time and with rapid tempo here, but each element (a thump pad followed by two turns) is a mere beat apart.
  
• If you're concerned solely about grades, don't worry about smashing those thump pads unless it's to pop open shields during boss battles. Perfect turns are still important though, and once you start, you may find it hard to stop. Just make sure not to hit a turn late, for then you'll take damage.
  
• Do not be tempted to mentally slow down the tempo or add in your own ritardando, no matter how apropos it may seem. Otherwise you'll be late on hitting stuff and feel like crap for it.
• Likewise if you feel like speeding up the music: you'll be early on hitting stuff. Should a mistake happen and your timing feels thrown off, just restart the level, regain your composure, and get right back in there. With patience, practice and persistence, you will get that S rank and/or that perfect score.
  
• Although the velocity feels fast, especially when you start a new level for the first time, you will soon adapt and come to welcome it. Likewise with the twisty, turny (starting in level 3), and rampy (starting in level 7) nature of the track. Keep calm and try not to let it frustrate you. It's just another thing the game tries to do to throw you off.
  
• No special control is needed to hit bars and rings other than keeping your "thump" key/button held. This is useful to know as you can just hit a thump pad and keep the "thump" key/button held throughout the bar/ring sequence. Mentally, this means that, although they create a cool beat enhancement, bars and rings can be safely ignored for the most part (as long as your course is to hit them!).
  
• Above all, the most important thing is to hit the thump pads and stay stealthy. The second-most important thing is to take perfect turns (meaning that it's better to get an imperfect turn than to miss a thump pad). Everything else is tertiary.

Now go ride your space beetle, be it silver or gold, to victory!

[Wig Bang]

Surprisingly good advice here. I wasn't expecting this to be useful but it really was

[Reslar]

Awesome! Random question: does anybody know how many frames do we have to land a perfect curve? Sometimes it feels like 3-4 frames, sometimes more, some other times less

[Autobaron]

Thanks for the guide mate, and you too; the one who explained the flying turning mechanics, now i can try to get my S rank!

[Aurumai]

I've got to admit, the information in this guide is much more technical than I had imagined it would be. Fantastic work. I love seeing so much depth in guides for games whose mechanics are fairly simple. It really bridges any gaps that some people have when misunderstanding some mechanics.

[MonksTheMonkey]

I have been playing at this game for months now and I have never really noticed the tentacles; I did see them but I never acknowledged that they’d be apart of the game.

[ŘǾFŁÂ҆Čĥ]

I didn't understand how to pass these passages with rings and turns at level 5, but I was able to guess myself, guys, everything is much easier than I thought, you need to not hold the left or right arrow on the turn, depending on what kind of turn you have, but just click on it in timing, that is, let's imagine the situation, in front of you is the lower plate, immediately after it is a ring, then there is a turn and a lot of rings, so, you need to first click on the action and jump up to pick up the upper single ring, then there is a turn, you can let go, hold only the action, and so the long-awaited turn, you just need to press the left or right arrow, I repeat again, do not pinch, but press, you can practice on ordinary turns, when you pass it without clamping the left or right arrow, but pressing it, the sound of the perfect turn passage will appear, at this moment your beetle will jump up behind these rings, you do not need to press the up button at the same time.

[Daryatash]

Beginner question: besides needing a new press for each thump pad, is there a reason to ever let go of the thump key? Or should I hold it down for safety and only ever let go to reapply when new pads come up?

[LilDark]

I finished the game and only got S rank for the first 3 or 4 levels, the rest are really hard to get cause of the rings after the turns.

[CraftedPixel YT]

I failed a run due to random frame drops fml.

[Ninja Gaiden]

Thank you =)