In-Depth Scoring Guide

Yo!

This here's my first guide and it is about how you can aim for higher scores in Runner 2. Most of this is common knowledge for owners of this game, such as what obstacles are, but here it is. Please comment your criticism/thoughts, including anything I should add to the guide!

For a tl;dr, check out the score summaries.

Modes and collecting "mode-ups"

The reason I'm starting with this section is that mode-ups affect almost everything score-wise.

Modes

In the game there are modes. Depending on which mode you are in, you will gain more score. The modes in order of score multiplying are:

• Hyper - 1x points
  
• Mega - 2x points
  
• Super - 3x points
  
• Ultra - 4x points
  
• Extra - 5x points

Mode-Ups

To progress through the modes, you can collect "mode-ups" throughout the levels.
The first mode-up will award you 10,000 points.
Collecting every mode-up in a level is crucial for getting a high score.

Gold

Gold appears in every level in healthy numbers.


It often requires high-risk to collect gold bars, especially in the later levels. Collected while progressing through the modes will multiply the initial 5,000 points.

So collecting gold, especially in the later modes, can also affect your score heavily.
Collecting every gold stack in a level enables you the "Bonus Chance".

Bonus Chance

If you manage to pick up every stack of gold and every mode-up and make it to the end of a level, you can play the bonus chance.

When you get to the end of a level with all gold you will run past the finish line and up to a cannon. Upon entering the cannon, a large dartboard will appear from the right. When it's done appearing, the cannon will begin to move up and down slowly. Hit space to fire commander video towards the target. Aim for a bullseye, ofc.

The following picture shows the cannon, dartboard and the angle I used to get a bullseye (while the cannon was moving downwards):

Hopefully, after firing the cannon, you should see something like this:

Scores that can be achieved from the Bonus Chance:

• Miss - 0 points
  
• Previous ring - 2,000 points
  
• Blue ring - 4,000 points
  
• Next ring - 7,000 points
  
• Bullseye - 10,000 points

Checkpoints

In every normal level there is a checkpoint close to halfway through.
Running through the checkpoint allows you to go back there instead of the beginning of the level when you hit something.
However, if you jump over the checkpoint, you instantly recieve 50,000 points at the cost of having to respawn at the very beginning again. This is known as "Skipping the Checkpoint".


Skipping the checkpoints is a breeze on the early levels, but further in you may need to rely on that checkpoint just to complete the level. If that is the case, use the checkpoint and come back later to max your score.

Obstacles

This is another obvious one. There's really not much to say here as dodging the obstacles is almost always compulsory. Some exceptions found below.

There are many types of obstacles. The look can differ between worlds but the function is the same. You must jump over, slide under, kick through or jump on obstacles for some examples.
Every obstacle you successfully dodge will initially award you 1,000 points, scaled by modes.

Beats

Bouncing away beats scores you 3,000 points, scaled by modes.

You can optionally slide underneath them, but you will receive no points. So make sure you hit them all for a higher score!

Trampolines

There are 3 types of trampolines:

Very high bounce. Commonly required for level progression.


Low bounce. Commonly required for gold aquisition.


High bounce. Sometimes used for level progression.

While it is possible to avoid them, they're almost always more profitable to use. Using a trampoline awards you 2,000 points, scaled by modes. Missing a trampoline gives you no points.

Keys, locks and chests

Keys

After completing a key vault in a world, you unlock every key in that world. Keys only appear in some levels.
Picking up a key awards you 10,000 points. This can be scaled by the modes.

Locks

Locks are only found on levels which have keys. You need the key or you bonk on it and go back to the start. (Or the checkpoint). Levels with locks always have a chest (see below).
Opening the lock with the key gives you 20,000 points, scaled by modes.

Chests

Chest are also only found on certain levels and hitting one of them opens it and unlocks a skin for one of your characters. Once you open a chest, the next time you play the level it will already be open.
If it is already open you can still collect the 50,000 points, scaled by modes. Because the chest is usually found late in the level, you're often looking at 200,000 - 250,000 points.

If you haven't completed the key vault in a world don't attempt a high score until you have, as you get points for the key, lock and chest as you can see.

For a more detailed description on how keys, key vaults and locks work in a gameplay perspective, check out DonSeismo's guide here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=152396915

Alternate Routes

In a few select levels there are Alternate Routes.
These take the form of either difficulty splits or exit splits.

Difficulty Splits

Difficulty split signs are two arrows. One is red with a skull, the other is green.
Both paths have equal gold bars and mode-ups, but generally the red (harder) path has more obstacles. Which means more score.

Exit Splits

Exit split signs look the same except instead of red with a skull, it's blue with a question mark. Following the blue path will unlock a secret level on the map.
Although, unlike the difficulty splits, most of them have no gold bars or mode-ups, but this is not always the case. So the best thing to do is probably complete the level and unlocking the secret level, then coming back and getting your score up by going the normal path.

Dancing

Dancing will become available in the first level of world 2. It would be impossible to get a high score before unlocking dancing, so hold out till world 2 before hitting the leaderboards. ;D

Pressing 'A', 'Ctrl' or 'Numpad 5' on the keyboard will make Commander Video dance. While dancing, you are still moving foward but are unable to perform actions such as jumping or sliding.

Dancing awards you 2,000 points, which are affected by the mode multipliers.

As you can see from the scores you get, especially in the later modes, dancing can be a quick way to make easy points. The dancing animation takes a bit less than a second and is very useful for the beginnings and ends of levels where there is just flat ground and no enemies.

As dancing also gives you more points than the average obstacle, it can sometimes be wise to run the level on a lower difficulty as there will be fewer obstacles. This gives you more room for dancing!

Completion

Finishing without bonus chance

I tested collecting no gold bars or mode-ups on multiple difficulties and always turned up with an additional 102,000 points upon completion. I then tested collecting everything except one gold bar which awarded me 110,000 points at the end.
This is what I base the 102,000 - 110,000 point summary on.

Finishing with a Perfect

This was tested across all difficulties and many bonus chance scores. Collecting every gold bar and mode-up will award you 110,000 points when you cross the finish line regardless of bonus chance score (except bullseye).

Finishing with a Perfect+

Again, I tested this over every difficulty. Hitting the bullseye on the bonus chance will give you 310,000 points.

Difficulties

As I mentioned previously, I tested different scenarios in all difficulties and got the same score for each. This appears to show that there is no additional bonus for higher difficulties.

Score Summaries

Score in modes

Mode-Ups	10,000	15,000	20,000	25,000	Maxed
Gold	5,000	10,000	15,000	20,000	25,000
Obstacles	1,000	2,000	3,000	4,000	5,000
Beats	3,000	6,000	9,000	12,000	15,000
Trampolines	2,000	4,000	6,000	8,000	10,000
Keys	10,000	20,000	30,000	40,000	50,000
Locks	20,000	40,000	60,000	80,000	100,000
Chest	50,000	100,000	150,000	200,000	250,000
Dancing	2,000	4,000	6,000	8,000	10,000

Score in Bonus Chance

Miss	Previous ring	Blue ring	Next ring	Bullseye
-	2,000	4,000	7,000	10,000

Score for Skipping Checkpoints

50,000 points

Score for completion

Based off this test data:[pastebin.com]

Finish	Perfect	Perfect+
102000 - 110000	110000	310000

[Gamertron7500]

If I remember correctly, there's the outer edge of the target during the Bonus Chance. If you hit that, you'll get 1 point.

[Power King]

Great guide! Thanks a lot!

[Jepp]

Hiya kwest, sorry for the super late reply.
While difficulty doesn't have a direct effect, it can affect score indirectly.
For example, playing on easy will give you fewer obstacles, but will give you more time to dance, which can give a lot of score. At least 2,000 per dance.
And playing on Hard you get a lot more obstacles, but not much time for dancing. People have expressed opinions that playing either way can give more score depending on the level.

Hey Maxtasy, the loops are tricky to record score from, so I'm not sure how they work really. I've been meaning for a long time to attempt to record some kind of score values from loops.

[Maxtasy]

There are also loopings, and I saw you can get some different points from them. How exactly does that work?

[kwest407]

Jepp, thanks for the guide. I just started playing so found this very helpful. The one thing that confuses me is how in the world some people are getting a score in the high millions and even a billion on the first level. I've completed it on normal with a perfect plus and my score was around 870,000. Is there some secret scoring mechanism I'm missing?

[Bloomdotwav]

Ok! Thanks!

[Jepp]

There's another guide on that, but you basically have to get a Perfect+ on each difficulty on a level.

[Bloomdotwav]

I always (and sometimes) Get a perfect and (sometimes... again) Pefect +! But i want to know how to get a pefect +++ is really strange to get 1 for me x(

[Lost_Kitty]

Great post. Didn't know about the dancing part but it will help me now!

[Jepp]

Yes, dancing more than dodging obstacles will more often than not net you more points. People have also recommended playing on easy, so there are less obstacles to dodge.

And I need to get those loops up. I'm having trouble working out exactly how many points you get per spacebar press. I'll get there sometime though.

Thanks for stopping by!