#How to play
#The highway and the lanes
Miko Rhythm has four lanes: left, down, up and right. Notes travel toward a row of four receptors. Press the lane when a note meets its receptor.
You can play in two views (switch them in Settings under Visual style):
- Neon Arcade: a 3D highway on an arcade stage, with Miko performing.
- Classic Miko: a flat, traditional lane layout (Roomy or Compact).
#Notes
| Note | What to do |
|---|---|
| Tap | Press once as it reaches the receptor. |
| Hold | Press on the head and keep holding until the tail passes. |
| Double / chord | Two or more notes at the same moment: press their lanes together. By default chords share one highlight color so they're easy to spot (you can turn this off). |
Miko Rhythm has two note types: taps and holds. A double or chord is a combination of those notes played together.
Hold details
- If your finger slips, you have 120 ms to press the lane again and keep the hold going.
- A hold counts as complete if you let go within the last 250 ms of it, or after holding at least 85% of its length.
- Letting go earlier breaks the hold: it counts as a Miss and resets your combo.
#Judgments and timing windows
Every press is judged by how far it was from the note, in real (wall-clock) milliseconds:
| Judgment | Window (±) | Score | Combo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marvelous (inside Perfect) | 22 ms | 1,000 + 50 bonus | keeps |
| Perfect | 45 ms | 1,000 | keeps |
| Great | 90 ms | 750 | keeps |
| Good | 135 ms | 500 | keeps |
| Bad | 180 ms | 250 | breaks |
| Miss | note passes 220 ms late, or a broken hold | 0 | breaks |
- Marvelous is a sub-tier of Perfect. It adds a small score bonus but counts as a Perfect everywhere else: accuracy, grade, full combo, achievements and XP.
- A press more than 180 ms away from any note hits nothing. It isn't a Miss and doesn't use up a note.
- When notes in one lane are close together, a slightly late press goes to the older note first, so you don't accidentally "steal" the next note.
- The windows are the same at every song speed, because they're measured in real time.
- The game can show early/late markers, your timing in milliseconds, and a timing bar. On the results screen, a histogram shows how early or late your hits were.
#Combo
Every Perfect, Great or Good adds 1 to your combo. A Bad, a Miss or a broken hold resets it to 0. Your best combo in a run is your max combo.
- Full Combo: a cleared run with no Bad and no Miss.
- All Perfect: every note judged Perfect (Marvelous included).
#Life and failing
Your life bar starts full. It's separate from your score.
| Event | Life change |
|---|---|
| Perfect / Marvelous | +0.8% |
| Great | +0.4% |
| Good | no change |
| Bad | −2% |
| Miss | −4% |
| Hold completed | +0.8% |
| Hold broken | −3% |
Difficulty scales these: losses are ×1.0 on Easy, ×0.9 on Normal, ×0.8 on Hard and ×0.65 on Expert (dense charts would otherwise drain you instantly), and gains are ×1.1 on Hard and ×1.25 on Expert.
If life reaches 0, the song fails. In Practice Mode you can't fail.
#Accuracy, grades and scoring
Accuracy = your score without Marvelous bonuses ÷ (number of notes × 1,000). An all-Perfect run is 100%.
| Grade | Accuracy |
|---|---|
| SS | 99.5% or higher |
| S | 97% |
| A | 93% |
| B | 85% |
| C | 75% |
| D | 65% |
| F | below 65% |
Your best score, grade, accuracy and combo are saved per song and difficulty. The results screen highlights new records for score, accuracy and combo.
#Ranked and unranked runs
A run is ranked when nothing makes the chart easier or harder:
- song speed 1×
- no Hidden and no Sudden
- not Practice Mode
- not a custom song
Mirror keeps a run ranked because it only swaps lanes. Unranked runs still give XP and still count for some achievements (for example "clear with Hidden"), but they don't set personal bests.
#Pausing and restarting
- Pause: P / Start.
- Restart: F2 / RT.
#Miko, your host
Miko dances on stage, cheers your streaks and reacts to misses. Pick her attitude in Settings:
- Sassy: cheers and playful roasts ("Was that a rhythm or a rumor?").
- Sweet: encouragement only, no roasts.
- Quiet: no speech bubbles.
You can also switch her between a Full 3D model and a lightweight 2D version (Settings > Video > Miko style), or turn the mascot off.