Points

Points (or score) are given upon completing any level, story levels and arena levels alike, and serves to rate the player's performance in the level. The impact of the score on completion depends on the game mode, sometimes giving the player stars and other times simply being listed with no completion attached to it. The exact method of computing the score depends on the game mode, as both the categories that make up the final score and how said categories are calculated vary based on the game mode.

Points and completion

Points serve different roles depending on the game mode, with certain game modes giving more importance to points than others. In story levels, the high score is listed below the secondary objectives in the level card and is not associated with any completion stars. In story mode battle stages, a star is awarded for completing the level and then 2 additional stars are awarded for reaching certain point thresholds specific to each level, with one star given for reaching the first point threshold and another for reaching the second.

In Adventure Mode, the high score for each difficulty is listed above the respective difficulty on the level card, and do not have any point thresholds as completing the level on a certain difficulty is enough to get the trophy. In Survival Mode, the high score for each difficulty is listed on the leaderboards next to the player's in-game username and their position on the leaderboards, though if you die after amassing more than 10 million points then the leaderboards will not update your high score, instead continuously refreshing until you close the screen and displaying your previous high score upon reopening the leaderboards screen. In Battle Towers, points are not listed anywhere in the menus, however high scores are still saved in the save file.

In Multiplayer Mode, both players compete to get the best score, and the player with the higher score at the end of the match wins. On the post-match end card, the winner will have their score become yellow and will have a crown above their avatar, while the loser will have a white score. If a special event is happening, then the winner will also get some bonus medals on top of the usual medals gained from a completed match. If the match finishes prematurely due to a disconnect, the post-match card will make both players' scores white and no bonus medals are given to the winner.

Computing points

There are 3 different point systems present in the game, being the story level system, the arena level system and the multiplayer system. They each have a different combination of point categories, and even categories that share the same name may be calculated differently in different point systems.

Story level system

The story level system is used in all story levels, and uses 5 point categories: time, enemies, damage, secret areas, and smashed objects.

Time

The time score for a level is based off of the par time listed on the level card. The time itself is the total time spent with the controls visible, which is saved at every checkpoint, though with the milliseconds truncated. This means it is possible to "save time" in a level by resetting from the last checkpoint, for instance if you reached the first checkpoint of 8-1-1 after 7.983 seconds, pausing and quitting and continuing from the checkpoint will save 983ms from the time that you would have had had you continued the level to the end. By default your time score is 10000, which decreases by 20 for every second slower than the par time for the level, down to a minimum of 0 which occurs if your time is 8 minutes and 20 seconds slower than par time. A bonus of 10000 points is given if you complete the level with a time less than or equal to the par time. Specifically, for P the par time in seconds and T the time spent in the level in seconds, the time score is 20000 if you complete the level in less than the par time, 0 if you complete the level 8 minutes and 20 seconds over the par time or higher, and 10000-20*(P-T) otherwise.

Enemies

The enemies score relies not only on the total enemy count within the level but also on which types of enemies are defeated. Each enemy will give the player a certain amount of points, with more difficult enemies generally being worth more points.

Bosses are not counted as enemies, giving no points and not counting toward the enemy counter. If all enemies in a level are defeated, then the enemy score is doubled.

Damage

The damage score, unlike the other story level point categories, is not tied to a star. By default the damage score is 10000, and decreases by 40 for every point of damage taken down to a minimum of 0 once 250 damage has been taken, and gives a bonus of 10000 points if no damage is taken. Dying will reset all scores back to what they were at the last checkpoint, so the damage taken in a section is reset upon death. The damage score received after beating the level while taking D damage is 20000 if no damage was taken, 0 if more than 250 damage was taken, and 10000-40*D otherwise.

Secret areas

The secret area score depends on the number of secret areas visited and the total number of secret areas in the level. Visiting a secret area rewards the player with 2000 points, and visiting every secret area doubles the secret area score, giving that the secret area score after visiting S secret areas is 2000*S if not all secret areas were visited, and 4000*S if every secret area was visited.

Smashed objects

The smashed object score depends on the number of objects broken and the total number of breakable objects in the level. Breaking an object rewards the player with 100 points, and breaking every object in the level will multiply the smashed objects score by 4, so the smashed objects score after breaking B objects is 100*B if not all objects were broken, and 400*B if every object was broken.

Gold

In the gems split only, the damage score on both difficulties of Main Story is replaced with the gold score, which depends on the gold par unique to the level. A bonus of 10000 points is given if the gold par is reached. The gold score after picking up G coins in a level with a gold par of P is equal to 10000*G/P (rounded down) if G is less than the gold par, and 20000 if G is greater than or equal to the gold par. All other campaigns, including Prologue, use the typical story level system.

Arena level system

The arena level system is used in all singleplayer arena levels, and uses 3 point categories: skill, time, and damage.

Skill

The skill score, loosely speaking, reflects the player's battle performance. The skill score itself is a sum of the skill scores for each combo, with each combo itself having 3 components to its skill score: combo length, damage, and hit variation. Once the arena finishes, no more combos can be started and so the skill score will not update after the arena finishes.

Combo length component

The combo length component gives points based on the number of hits dealt in a combo. A combo will stay active so long as hits are being dealt frequently enough, allowing the combo length to increase. A hit is specifically each time that a non-explosive attack hits exactly one enemy, however explosive hits (ie a shot from any level of RPG7 and Carlgustav, or the ultimate AK-47) will always only count for one hit even if they hit several enemies at once. This means that a high kick that hits 2 enemies will count as 2 hits, meanwhile a Carlgustav grenade that hits 5 enemies will only count as 1. If the combo is interrupted by the player taking damage, no points will be given for the combo length component. During the combo, there will be a display on the right side of the screen with the number of hits dealt in the current combo along with a descriptor above it matching the number of hits. The combo will be stopped if the gap between consecutive hits is too long or because the arena finishes, at which point the player will receive points based on the current descriptor.

Because of the fact that combos can be stopped midway to redeem points immediately, it is convenient to analyse the points per hit for each combo length, as this can better identify the best way to maximize point gain. For example, a 14 hit combo gives 1000/14 = ~71.43 points per hit, whereas if we were to split this into 2 separate 7 hit combos it would give (750+750)/(7+7) = 750/7 = ~107.14 points per hit, so having shorter combos can actually give more points.

Graph of points per hit against number of hits

The above graph shows the points per hit on the vertical axis and the number of hits in the combo on the horizontal axis. Each sudden peak is the moment that the combo length descriptor changes, giving a sudden boost to the number of points per hit. Generally speaking, it is best to end a combo the moment a new descriptor is reached rather than partway in, as the highest points per hit for each descriptor occurs at the very beginning of its hit range. This maximum is 50 for a very poor and poor combo, and stays at 100 until bonza! where it rises to 120, then it continues to rise until dantastic! which is the last descriptor. There is an exception though, as a 7 hit cool combo gives ~107.14 points per hit which is higher than any other combo up until bonza!, thus if an bonza! combo cannot be made then it is better to split this combo into a combination of 7 hit cool combos and combos that give 100 points per hit. As an example, a 20 hit combo would normally give 100 points per hit, but by instead replacing it with two 7 hit combos and two 3 hit combos we get (750 + 750 + 300 + 300)/20 = 105 points per hit, which gives an additional 100 points total.

Damage component

The damage component is related to the damage dealt in a combo. Melee attacks give points based on the base damage of a hit, meaning a high kick will give 40 points, a double down kick 20 + 40 = 60 points, and Barry's shotgun 30 + 30 = 60 points. Extra damage hands will have no effect on the score obtained from a melee attack, but a critical hit done while wearing crit hands will give no points whatsoever, not even the base damage. The berserk powerup has no effect on the damage component, as it will still give the base damage, and a critical hit with berserk will still give 0 points. Weapons give points related to the type of weapon they are rather than their base damage. Shurikens and Throwing Knives give 5 points each, with a critical throw giving 20 points. The Modern Rifle and AK-47 give 10 points each, with the Modern Rifle giving no points in the event of a critical shot. RPG7s and Carlgustavs give 20 points each. The damage component is tied to each hit done by an attack, thus a high kick that hits 2 enemies will give 2*40 = 80 points meanwhile a Carlgustav grenade that hits 5 enemies will still only give 20 points.

Hit variation component

The hit variation component relates to the number of different types of hits used in a combo. Bonus points are given for each new hit type introduced into an active combo, up until 3 different hit types are used. The exact bonus increases for the number of hits that have been used, starting at 100 for a combo with 2 hit types and increasing by 200 for each additional type added. Specifically, a combo with N hit types will have 100*(2N-1) points from hit variation if more than 1 hit type was used, and 0 if the same hit type was used throughout the entire combo. Only the last 3 hit types are stored at any given time, which means that the moment a 4th hit type is introduced the 1st hit type will be considered new again, allowing for an endless stream of bonus points by cycling through the same 4 hits. The hit types are:

• Punch, the type for any hit from all levels of the punch combo
• Down kick, the type for all down kicks
• High kick, the type for all high kicks and jump bashes
• Short throw, the type for the basic and advanced throw
• Long throw, the type for the ultimate throw
• Sucker punch, the type for all sucker punches
• Uppercut, the type for all uppercuts and jet punches
• Power attack, the type for all power attacks
• Grab breakout, the type for breaking out of a grab
• Shotgun, the type for all levels of Barry's shotgun
• Weapon, the type for all levels of all other weapons

Some hit types listed in the same category might be coded as different hit types in the game files (the basic throw for instance looks like it could be a different hit type to the advanced throw), it would be impossible to check this in-game since this would mean using 2 different upgrades of the same attack. For this reason, for all practical purposes it is correct to say that there are 11 hit types.

Time

The time score is calculated based on the time shown on the clock at the top of the screen. If the level in question is not timed and no clock appears at the top of the screen, the time score will always be 0. Otherwise, the time score is 0 if 1 second is remaining on the clock and increases by 300 for each additional second, so if T seconds remain on the clock at the end of an arena then the time score will be 300*(T-1). The extra time powerup does not directly affect the time score, though it does increase the number of seconds given by each clock item by 1.

Score double-counting bug

In timed arenas, it is possible to have the current arena's score be counted twice by picking up a clock item after the arena finishes. Say that you complete an arena with S skill points, T time points at the moment of finishing the arena, and D damage points. The total score (S+T+D) is already computed the moment that the arena complete message appears on screen, with the time score using the number of seconds left on the clock at the moment of finishing the arena, and then updates again the moment before the total score is displayed. The expected behavior of picking up another clock item worth t points after the arena complete message appears on screen should be that the additional points gained from picking up this clock item should be added onto the time score, which modifies the total score to S+T+t+D right before the total score is displayed. However, due to an oversight, the actual effect of this is that it will add this extra time t onto the total score, and then this new total score (S+T+t+D) is added to the original total score (S+T+D) to give a total score of 2*(S+T+D)+t. To most optimally gain points from this bug it is ideal to leave the lowest value clock item on the ground for after the arena, so that all the high-value clock items can have their score be doubled. To demonstrate this idea, consider a 6 second clock (worth 2400 points) and a 1 second clock (worth 300 points) left on the ground right before the arena finishes. Picking up both before the arena finishes will not double-count the score, and picking up both after the arena finishes will not double-count any points gained from these clocks, so one should be picked up before finishing the arena and one should be picked up after. Picking up the 1 second clock before and the 6 second clock after will lead to double-counting the 1 second clock's score, giving 2*300 + 1800 = 2400 points from these clocks, doing the reverse and picking up the 6 second clock before and the 1 second clock after will lead to double-counting the 6 second clock's score, giving 2*1800 + 300 = 3900 points from these clocks, so the optimal course of action is to pick up the 6 second clock before finishing the arena and to leave the 1 second clock for after the arena.

Damage

The damage score is calculated based on the damage taken in the arena. By default the damage score is 5000, and decreases by 50 for each point of damage taken, down to a minimum of 0 once 100 or more damage has been taken, and if no damage is taken you receive a bonus of 5000 points. Specifically, completing an arena after taking D damage will give a damage score of 10000 if no damage was taken, 0 if 100 or more damage was taken, and 5000*(100-D) otherwise. If additionally d damage is taken after the arena is finished, the total score will be updated right before the total score is displayed by changing the damage score from 5000*(100-D) to 5000*(100-D-d) if D+d < 100 or 0 if D+d > 100.

Multiplayer system

The multiplayer system is used in Multiplayer Mode, and uses 3 score categories: skill, gold and damage. Skill is computed in the same manner as in the arena level system.

Gold

The gold score is computed using the number of coins picked up in an arena, with each coin being worth 120 points. Specifically, completing an arena after picking up G coins will give a gold score of 120*G. If g gold is picked up after the arena finishes, the total score will be updated to have a gold score of 120*(G+g).

Damage

The damage score is calculated based on the damage taken in teh arena. By default the damage score is 15000, and decreases by 150 for each point of damage taken, down to a minimum of 0 once 100 or more damage has been taken, and if no damage is taken then you receive a bonus of 5000 points. Specifically, the damage score after taking D damage in the arena is 20000 if no damage has been taken, 0 if 100 or more damage has been taken, and 150*(100-D) otherwise. Taking damage after the arena is finished will update the damage score accordingly.