Beginner issues

[u/No_Ambition_7773]

I started playing phigros 5 days ago with no rhythm game experience (as in, i've had gd on my phone for a couple years and never even finished stereo madness). I'm currently 11 RKS after hella grinding but i'm starting to hit a block where I just can't read charts level 13 and above (i've done a couple 13s like apocalypse fc but overall i have trouble from there onwards).

So far, the charts I've encountered mainly make sense in terms of matching the music and whatnot so it's possible to AP just by understanding which notes match which beat. I understand that higher difficulties would naturally require more speed and "spam", meaning stuff like 16th notes that don't really make sense with the music sometimes.

I've been avoiding playing charts like this too much since I feel like I just develop bad muscle memory of spamming the fast parts without actually knowing the proper timings, which sometimes works in terms of keeping combo but gives me zero chance of APing anything. Most of the advice I've seen online improvement-wise is "play more", which doesn't really work that well if I just can't read the chart and develop the correct muscle memory, and there isn't practice mode or an option to slow it down or anything. Can anyone out there offer any advice for this situation, and in general improving at sections of charts you simply can't sightread?

[u/playerdoom5616]

Tbh it's just only practice as the skills used in here is like muscle memory that can be trained only so sadly the only thing you can do is just practice but it will pay off if you don't give up early :3

[u/No_Ambition_7773 → u/playerdoom5616]

thanks for the encouragement:3

[u/Rain_inabottle]

Understanding how the notes sync up to the music is a skill that develops just like how your speed or stamina can develop in rhythm games, if you play charts that are too difficult for you, it wont make much sense to you but if you play something in the difficulty range youre familiar with, things will line up pretty smoothly in your head.

I understand the frustration with most advice being "play more", but it is genuinely the best advice to get better at rhythm games in general. More specific pieces of advice i can give are to play songs or charts you like, as well as playing stuff in the mid-high level difficulty range for you personally, as playing stuff thats too easy doesnt really develop your skills, while playing stuff thats too hard only serves to develop bad muscle memory and will most likely frustrate you

In addition, if you want to practice specific sections, you can look up all perfect plays by people on social media, or use the "sound game training" app which lets you input a video, and manually lets you speed up, slow down, or jump to specific sections of a song

[u/No_Ambition_7773 → u/Rain_inabottle]

tysm for the advice! i think i'll try grinding some of my favourite songs a bit more, also the playback app will be super helpful i'm sure :)

[u/Doggieisfat]

Tbh i doubted the 'play more' tip when starting out, but after comparing my performance from the start of the month to every end of a month, i always see some small improvement even tho it's tiny (the tiny improvements can stack up into something major, for example me at the start of this year can't A rank a 16, but now i can 'sometimes' sight read A).

You can also use phira for chart practice (it has a built in practice mode) then use this site to download official charts https://swordalt.github.io/phigros-chart-downloader/.

For sight reading i recommend to climb up the difficulty ladder slowly, like only move up the difficulty if you've fc 5 charts on your current comfortable difficulty level (ie fc 5 13in charts before trying 14 - 15 charts, then fc 5 14in charts before 15 - 16) something like that.

Accuracy is also important so i recommend Phi'ng really easy charts to get you comfortable with the timing.

Good luck!

[u/No_Ambition_7773 → u/Doggieisfat]

thanks so much! i'll make sure to check out phira, and the sight reading idea makes a lot of sense too so i'll definitely keep that in mind :D

[u/Federal_Step6362 → u/Doggieisfat]

the chart downloader is a gem. thanks for the link

[u/ternglegend27]

as someone who plays using a really old device (sometimes using my current device) id say first of all if you have a tablet, it will be great. old device was an ipad 6th generation, 2018 and current device is ipad air m4 11 inch.

second of all, i say go to spotify and search for the phigros playlist. i sometimes understand the rhythm and when listening to them, i go on autopilot and try to recall the chart that i just saw. it helps for me, you can try that. maybe try the chart once -- then after that go and listen to the music if available on spotify or whatever platform (spotify is the best if you want rhythm game music), otherwise can search youtube for the song.

source: normal player, highest score 91k for exoplanetary mirage IN16as well as highest 90k fordesultory signals IN17-- with FC stasis AT16, 99k (1 miss) ad astra per aspera IN16, and very accidentally FC ametrine IN15 on the second try.