Got the hang of it? Good! Now you're ready to learn the finer points of rocking Taiko no Tatsujin. Make everyone jealous of your skills and knowledge!
Counting points
For each note you hit, you get points. Sounds simple, right? Here's how scores are calculated in a regular playthrough of one song:
-Notes(
and 
)The base score for hitting one note is different for every song, depending on its difficulty and the total number of notes in the song. For every time your combo increases by ten, the score you get for hitting each note increases, and caps out at 100 combo and above. The increment in score is also different for each song. I'm going to use a Kare Kano Kanon play video as an example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4_1wsuhfeQ
For the first 10 notes, the score for each note hit is 450. For notes 11 to 20 (in a row), the score increases to 550 per note, then 650 for notes 21 to 30...you get the point. After 100 combo is reached, the score for each note no longer increases. And if you miss one note, thus breaking your combo, you're back to square one, gathering the small number of points till you reach 100 combo again.
So you can see how important it is to not miss when you're aiming for a high score. The position of the note you missed also matters. If your combo breaks in the middle of the song, you're going to lose a lot more points than when you break at the very end. Of course, you'd want your combo to not break at all, right? :) A perfect combo. That's one of the highest achievement a Donder can aim for.
Also affecting the score of the notes is whether you get a '良' (great) or a '可'(good).
If you're familiar with rhythm games, you know that accuracy affects the score a lot as well. 良 is awarded for hitting it right on beat, and 可 means you're less accurate with your hit. 不可 means you completely missed. Back to the example video, getting a 良 will net you 450 points. If however, you get a 可, the number of points you get is halved. So it's 230 instead (rounded to the nearest 10). 不可 is of course, 0 points.
Big notes also follow the same rule, except you get double points when you hit them. If the score per note is 450, then a big note is worth 900 if you hit it with 良. If 可, you get 450 for the big note (half of 900). In arcades you're allowed to hit big notes with just one hand, but in the console versions, you have to hit the big notes with two hands/buttons (or in the case of Taiko DS, hit the high-scoring area on the Touch Screen), otherwise the score would be calculated as a regular sized note. Let's try to put this in a simpler way.
-Shinta Mode
A different and simpler method of scoring introduced in Taiko no Tatsujin 14. Each song has different base scores, as usual, but combo no longer affects the number of points obtained. Whether you're just beginning the song or you're at 100 combo and above, the number of points per note will still be the same. Go-Go Time still affects the score, however (see below). The base score is for notes hit with 良, and is halved for 可. Big notes still give double points for a two-handed hit 良. High scores are not recorded in the leaderboards if you choose to play in Shinta Mode.
Shinta Mode is exclusive to Taiko no Tatsujin 14.
-Drumrolls
Drumrolls are more rigid in terms of scoring. Each hit on a drumroll is 300 points, regardless of your current combo. Giant drumrolls are basically the same thing, except it gives out 600 points instead of the usual 300.
-Balloon Notes
As is with the drumrolls, scoring with the balloon note is fixed. It's 500 points for one hit, with a bonus of 5000 points once you burst the balloon. (Note: In Taiko DS3, the first hit does not give any points. The 2nd and subsequent hits give out points as usual)
-New scoring system
Three major changes have been introduced on the HD Taiko, and used on all subsequent versions of Taiko.
One, you gain a bonus of 10000 points for every 100 combo you obtain (that means you'll get the points at 200, 300, 400 and so on too). This bonus is not affected by Go-Go Time.
Two, the score increments are no longer after every 10 combo, but at differing intervals now. Let's use Red Rose Evangel as an example. The base score is 420 for this song, and the common difference is 98. The scores increase only 4 times, after the first 10 combo, then at 30, 50, then the last increase at 100. From 10 to 29 the score will be 420+98=518 points per note, and regardless of the digit at the back it will always be rounded down to the nearest 10, so you get 510 points instead. Following that, at 30-49 the score is 420+98+98 rounded down, and the progression continues.
Three, drumrolls now give only 100 points per hit, and 200 for a giant drumroll. Balloon note hits are not affected and continue to give 300 points per hit.
Go-Go Time
In Go-Go Time, there will be fire burning over the marker where you're supposed to hit the notes, the grey bar will glow pink, and Don-chan will start dancing. It's not just for decoration though- Go-Go Time increases your score too.
It applies to everything you hit, notes, drumrolls, balloon notes, everything. All the points you get is 20% more than the usual amount during Go-Go Time. So, you get 360 points for a hit on the drumroll, and 720 for a large drumroll, for example.
Go-Go Time usually activates during the highest point or chorus of a song, though there are exceptions (e.g. Taiko Ranbu- Honoo no Maki, Go-Go Time is present for the entire song, while it may be almost completely absent, like in Shimedore 2000).
Accuracy
Hitting notes with accuracy isn't just for getting points- it serves another purpose. To allow you to clear the song in the first place. 良 will fill up the Tamashii Gauge faster than 可. In fact, it is possible to fail a song even if you get a Perfect Combo if your hits are solely made up of 可. Video of a 'no miss, no clear' feat below.
Also, the accuracy requirements to get 良 is more lenient in Kantan difficulty than in the other three, with Oni being the strictest.
Forked paths
It looks complex, but the forked path idea has been around since the first arcade, and carried all the way to the present time. The idea is that if you do well, the game promotes you to a higher level with tougher notes than before, and if you struggle, the game lowers the level down to easier notes. There are three paths in Taiko no Tatsujin.
Normal notes (普通譜面)
Advanced notes (玄人譜面)
Master notes (達人譜面)
In terms of difficulty, the general plan is Master > Advanced > Normal. There will be specified parts where the game decides to switch your level up or down, so there won't be any disorientation. The patterns of notes, ideally, are different on all three paths (most prominent in the Garyoutensei songs), and though the number of points per note remains the same, the actual total number of notes will affect the outcome.
Exceptions:
For Taiko Ranbu- Kaiden and every song in the Garyoutensei series, the entire song will be played out on one of these 3 routes, and all are equally hard. To get to any one of the three paths, a small drumroll is always given at the beginning of the song. To go to Normal, ignore it completely. To go to Advanced, hit the drumroll once. To go to Master, hit the drumroll twice or more. This manual path choosing is also in Kechadon 2000 for the latter half of the song.
For Soroban 2000, the switch from Normal to Master and back again is forced by the game regardless of how you do. It's just the way the song goes. However, if you refuse to hit the first 317 notes, the game will set the rest of the song to Advanced mode, where a message from the Taiko Team in Morse Code is relayed to the player by means of notes and short drumrolls (which represent the dots and dashes in real Morse Code.) The message is different for each arcade version. In the below video, Player 1 gets to the Morse Code message, while Player 2 plays normally. What do the messages say? Click here.
Game modifiers
Introduced at different stages throughout the series' development, these put a spin on your Taiko gameplay. None of them affect how you score, but most raise the challenge considerably. If you're looking to make your game harder, look no further!
As of Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX, there are 9 modifiers, grouped into three categories.
Speed modifiers
Double speed (Baizoku ばいぞく)- Notes scroll towards you twice as fast
Triple speed (Sanbai さんばい)- Notes scroll towards you three times as fast
Quadruple speed (Yonbai よんばい)- Notes scroll towards you four times as fast. You're going to need a lot of memorizing work or quick reflexes to be able to even see the notes!
Note modifiers
Reverse (Abekobe あべこべ)- All
becomes , and vice versa. Not as easy or pointless as you might think. Just try it!Whimsical (Kimagure きまぐれ)- Note streams of the songs change into random patterns every time the song is played with this modifier. The note position along the song doesn't change.
Random (Detarame でたらめ)- Similar to Kimagure mod, but even more haphazard changing.
Special modifiers
Auto mode (オート)- Console versions only for obvious reasons. Mekadon will show up and play through the song perfectly for you. Scores won't be registered on Auto mode. Perfect for learning note patterns.
Sudden Death (かんぺき)- Console versions only. Miss a note and the song is stopped and you're automatically failed, or passed if the Tamashii gauge is above the clear quota.
Invisible (Doron ドロン)- All notes become invisible. Your only clue is the 'don' and 'kat' words on the bottom of where the notes should be. Think you can remember everything?
Tokkun (とっくん)- Console versions only. When a note is missed, it acts like the Sudden Death modifier; however, the song automatically restarts from the beginning, rather than leading to the usual Result screen.
Gimmick notes
Non-standard notes that aren't used for competitive, ultra-hard play since they pose quite a distraction, and thus, most of them are exclusive to console games, and even then are mostly excluded from Oni difficulty with only a few exceptions. However, gimmick notes add to the fun of playing Taiko in general!
Video of the note being used
Video
Video
Video
Video
Video (both bomb and fight note)
Kusudama note (くす玉音符)- A new note introduced in Taiko HD with not-so-new functions, it's basically a replacement of the Yam note with exactly the same scoring as before.
Video
This section will be updated as more details/suggestions roll in. Have fun exploring the deep, wonderful world of Taiko!
