What's your Powerup loadout?

[HMXmattitude]

Does ANYBODY use Synchrony? I've never touched it and nobody in the group says they have either :/

I've been experimenting with Synchrony lately and am always surprised by how many points it awards me at the end of a song. I imagine it would go crazy well with Jackpot, but I'm not an advanced enough player to pull it off successfully.

[Apples]

I have basically sworn off any of the powerups that require lane switching to be functional. This include things like the pinball, flame notes, runaway notes, syncrony, etc.


The reason being: lane switching is a very important tactical element of the game, and taking that decision out of your hands is a very dangerous proposition. For many songs you will get put into the position where the game tempts you into switching to a lane position which is long-term harmful to your score. (For example, flame notes wants you to play a maxed-out track instead of ranking up your multiplier elsewhere, or you chase the pinball and break combo repeatedly)

Situationally some of these powerups may be optimal for certain songs, but on the whole they can do as much harm as good.


Also, as someone previously mentioned, the bandmate powerup doesn't synergize well with bomb notes. Even aside from that, the two tend to cancel each other out. Although there is an interesting strategy where you can use the bandmate on a guitar solo to get past an impossible section and get the 100% combo bonus.

[TheStuddz]

I'm sorry, I have nothing to add to this conversation. But I just had to say: Yay, Apples is back!

[Apples]

I'm sorry, I have nothing to add to this conversation. But I just had to say: Yay, Apples is back!

I never left man. I may not post all the time, but I am always watching. Always.

[Traycer]

My usual combination is 2X + Bomb + Super, although one of the Pearl Jam instrumental tracks is particularly well-suited to Bandmate + Flame + Super. I posted a video of my #1 scoring run, and I surmise that it may be possible to break 1,000,000 points on that track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm5-L3vTclk

[Traycer]

Once I get better at chasing down flame notes without Bandmate, I may try the "Master/Slave" track again using Jackpot + Flame + Super. Since the power-ups stack, it would be possible to get 6750 points per note hit (1500 flame × 150% super × 300% jackpot)...

[Ultrace]

Bandmate, Flame Notes and Super x here. It's worth noting that I don't have the lane-switching precision that many people do (for instance, switching to guitar for 1.5 seconds of notes between vocal strings), so I don't achieve as much in the way of base points as others would. With that in mind, on a decent run, I'll usually score more from Flame Notes than I actually would from base points. I've gotten a few gold stars and usually at least 5 stars with this, so while it might not put me on top of any scoreboards, it's certainly a doable setup. Unleashing bandmate at the start of a flame note streak can net me 50-100K+ if it goes well.

Jackpot and Flame Notes sounds like a paradise in the making, but I'm honest enough to admit I don't have the skill to keep juggling tracks for the flame notes while still keeping my perfect jackpot combo going. Those who have that ability, enjoy your spots at the top of the leaderboards.

Blast notes are nice, but don't seem to have the same point potential that flame does. Runaway has a big payoff but is a pain to chase down. Maybe I haven't seen it used correctly yet, but Pinball does not seem to provide much in the way of points for how much effort it takes to keep it on the board. Likewise, I've heard people speak of the greatness of Road Roage, but I just don't get it; it looks like it would take out way fewer notes than Bandmate would (although maybe it provides large bonus points, not sure.)

[Ultrace]

Once I get better at chasing down flame notes without Bandmate, I may try the "Master/Slave" track again using Jackpot + Flame + Super. Since the power-ups stack, it would be possible to get 6750 points per note hit (1500 flame × 150% super × 300% jackpot)...

I'm not sure this works--I've watched my wife play Jackpot with Blast Notes and the Blast Notes points are not added to the Jackpot (I don't think she even gets jackpot points for the base notes destroyed by the blast.)

[www1221]

I dont know about blast notes but the flame notes do get added to the jackpot which is why that setup is so good. Its 2400 per flame note while under jackpot.

[Ultrace]

Well, that doesn't seem to make sense. I think flame notes are worth more than 800 to start with, so they're not being tripled for jackpot. I guess maybe there's some portion of a bonus added...