How the hell does Jackpot/Flame Notes even work?

[SheSaidSheSaid]

I've heard this being the secret weapon of all top-scorers. Not that I really care about topping the leaderboards, I'm just curious. The only time I've tried it I failed miserably. I never could keep a Jackpot alive long enough to actually score with it. Or if I did, it was only because I ignored the Flame Notes entirely.

I can do Jackpot/Blast Notes or Road Rage/Flame Notes (the former for somewhat less note-dense songs, the latter for ridiculousness like TTFAF). But I can't see how Jackpot and Flame Notes can both be exploited to full potential on the same run. Is it just an inherent gulf in skill? That's fine if so (like I said, topping the leaderboards doesn't really matter to me...I'm happy just to GS most of my songs).

[jibjqrkl]

you just need to be able to switch lanes without breaking combo, while crazily fast spotting all the flame notes

so yeah, it takes a lot of skill to do it properly on even slightly fast parts.

[www1221]

Each flame note is like 2400 or 24k under Jackpot I cant remember which So if you are really good at switching lanes while still keeping combo you can get a TON of points with that setup.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

I don't even know if the tempo of the song matters much. After the first 2 or 3 Flame Notes, they start coming so quickly one after another that even slow songs would have them tightly grouped.

[Bront20]

I don't even know if the tempo of the song matters much. After the first 2 or 3 Flame Notes, they start coming so quickly one after another that even slow songs would have them tightly grouped.

Yes, but it's easier to swap lanes and keep a streak on slower songs.

[zage1337]

It's all about being able to switch lanes without dropping combo and catching the flame notes. I try to hit flame notes on different lanes so I can have a good spread of flame notes then I just catch them as they come up. I can get over 100k jackpots per jackpot while catching flames.

[Epsilon82]

Yeah, the key is getting comfortable with switching lanes at will. It's best to get practice with this while using other powerup combos so that you aren't under the pressure of losing a Jackpot if you mess up. I think a lot of people have trouble dealing with the way the game enforces the back end of the strike line even on notes that are no longer visible, making it seem as though it's breaking your streak even when there's no note to hit.

The way to deal with this is to get in the habit of essentially switching lanes and hitting a note at the exact same time. So if you're on the guitar lane and you want to switch to bass, it's a good idea to wait until there's a bass note hitting the line next to you, and then switch and hit that note pretty much at the same time. That ensures that you've waited long enough to avoid getting penalized on a late previous note, and you'll also have plenty of time to hit the new note because the back end is so lenient on the standard calibration.

Once you're proficient at switching lanes consistently without breaking combo, Jackpot/Flame just becomes a natural extension of that. You build up overdrive, wait until you see a flame note coming up, and then activate Jackpot (preferably timing it so that the countdown ends just before you hit the flame note), and then just keep an eye on future flame notes. There's a lot of randomness to the way they spread, and you have to get a sense for what you can get away with without unduly risking your combo. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor (it's better to let a flame note slide than break combo and lose everything, especially if you're near the end of a Jackpot or you have already banked a lot of points in it.) I find myself getting progressively more conservative in my lane switching the higher the bank or the closer the Jackpot is to extinguishing.

So basically, first you want to get super comfortable with clean lane switching (which is also generally valuable in keeping Blitz mode for extra points), not just because it is so critical for using Jackpot in general, but also because Jack/Flame gives you no help with raising multipliers, meaning you have to be a lot more active in switching even when you don't have Flames to chase in order to keep the multipliers as high as possible.

Then you throw in Jack/Flame and get familiar with what you're comfortable with and what you're not in terms of chasing flames, and then progressively, with practice, you can get more aggressive and bank more lucrative Jackpots, although the randomness of the flames can make a huge difference in your scoring capability on any given run.

[pelemerengue]

Right now, according to Rock Band World, I have 26 #1 scores, 23 #2 scores, and 15 #3 scores, and I've never used Jackpot+Flame Notes. And all of my songs are gold-starred, usually in the first run.

Just sayin'.

[zage1337]

Right now, according to Rock Band World, I have 26 #1 scores, 23 #2 scores, and 15 #3 scores, and I've never used Jackpot+Flame Notes. And all of my songs are gold-starred, usually in the first run.

Just sayin'.

Depends on the song, jack/flame is not always the best option. There is also the possibility that a really good player has yet to play any of those songs, so a typical jack/blast or rr/blast combo might get 1st place, but you won't keep it when a good player does a jack/flame or band/flame run on that song.

Not all songs are like this but the vast majority have jack/flame and band/flame as the killer combo.(i.e. my blitz setlist scores)

EDIT: oh you're Zoetroupe..how the hell did you get 797,093 on Red Tandy? Not possible to get that without flame notes unless you are really good with pinball

but yeah..Band/Flame is the OTHER killer combo and it's actually better than Jack/Flame on many songs..most notably on 4 lane songs.