NOISZ STΔRLIVHT/Difficulty and Power

In NOISZ STΔRLIVHT, there are three general metrics indicating the difficulty of a song: Difficulty (e.g. Hard), Difficulty Level (e.g. Lv10.5), and Boss Power.

Difficulty

There are four difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard and Overload. While Easy, Normal, and Hard are designed to be playable using thumbs (two fingers), Overload has no such restriction and often requires even more fingers.

• Easy and Normal difficulties are unlocked by default.
• To unlock the Hard difficulty, get an A in the Normal chart.
• To unlock the Overload difficulty, get an S in the Hard chart.

Alternatively, buying a Club Pass unlocks all Hard difficulties in its corresponding song folder, and buying a Maso-Pass from the Support Shop unlocks all Overload difficulties in its corresponding song folder as well.

Difficulty Level

Each chart has a difficulty level, which is a number ranging from 1 to 13.5.

• Easy difficulty charts range from 1 to 7.
• Normal difficulty charts range from 3 to 10.
• Hard difficulty charts range from 6 to 12.
• Overload difficulty charts range from 8 to 13.5.

From 1 through 10, levels step by 1, meaning all levels are whole numbers. From 10 onwards, .5 levels are introduced.

Level Difficulty 1 Easy 2 3 Normal 4 5 6 Hard 7 8 Overload 9 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5

Power

Each boss has a certain number called Boss Power, and each character/style combination has Style Power that can grow based on the level of that style. Facing a boss with lower Power will incur a penalty by reducing some stats; the game will issue a warning as such.

Boss Power

Each chart has its own Boss Power. While the chart may have its Boss Power freely determined, the community has found some correlation between Boss Power and the difficulty level, difficulty name, and song appearance in the story.

Boss Power appears to follow this formula:

P_B = P₀ + N_D + 25D

• P_B is the resulting Boss Power.
• P₀ is base power. This corresponds to the song and generally matches its appearance in the story; the later it appears, the higher the base power. Some songs have special importance in the story and have different base power than expected.
• N_D is additional power from the difficulty name.
• D is the difficulty level of the chart. Difficulty numbers that end in ".5" are treated the same as those that don't (for example, 10 and 10.5 would both give the same value for this variable).

Unlocked in Base Default 100 Chapter 1 100 Chapter 2 125 Chapter 3 150 Chapter 4 (besides Lure) 175 Chapter 5 200 Chapter 6 275 Chapter 5 (True Heroes) (besides Crossroads of the Brave) 200 Chapter -1 275 Chapter VS 100 Chapter 6 (True Heroes) (besides with my (last+1) breath) 275

Other songs Base power Club/Event Pass 100 Lure 275 Crossroads of the Brave 275 with my (last+1) breath 999 Forged in Darkest Abyss 100 ⠀ 100 D.S. al fine 375

Difficulty Power Easy 75 Normal 150 Hard 225 Overload 300

For example, consider ikasu on Normal difficulty.

• ikasu appears in Chapter 2.I. The base power for songs from Chapter 2 is 125.
• Normal difficulty adds a difficulty power of 150.
• This chart is Lv5, so the difficulty level contributes power of 25 x 5 = 125.
• In total, the Boss Power is 125 + 150 + 125 = 400.

It should be noted that Boss PW will always be capped at 999, even if it would go above it.

Style Power

Each style has a base power (its Style Power at Level 1) and a per-level power (additional Power added for each level up). Barring other changes, a style's Power scales linearly from its base power at Level 1 to its maximum at Level 44. A style's Power is capped at 999.

In the most general form, a style's power can be computed using this formula:

P_S = P₀ + P_L(L-1) + 75U

• P_S is the computed Style Power.
• P is the base power for the style.
• P_L is the per-level power for the style.
• L is the style's level.
• U is the number of upgrade points spent to increase Power.

However, there are other circumstantial bonuses and penalties that add to this formula:

• Playing a song with the folder's associated character awards a +200 Power bonus.
• If Hitori is using one of Sumire's styles, there is a -200 Power penalty.
• Similarly, if Sumire is using BLACKHEART, there is a -200 Power penalty before V-IGNITION, and a -100 Power penalty after V-IGNITION.
• Grace's Blue Moon style awards the same folder +200 Power bonus for playing in Dia folder.
• Similarly, Sera's Attitude Mint style awards the same folder +200 Power bonus for playing in Clover folder.
• All Reminiscence styles award +250 Power for playing a chart that has previously been cleared.
• BLACKHEART and all STΔRLIVHT STΔGE styles gain +100 Power after completing certain story chapters.
• While in Forge of Antiphon, all Antiphon Armament styles gain the +200 Power folder bonus.
  • Additionally, Style Power in this mode can be used as a currency. It can be spent for numerous uses during the mode, which also permanently deducts the power from its Antiphon Armament style for that run.
  • Some modules also award bonus Power.
• While in Joker folder, Sera's STΔRLIVHT STΔGE Style gets an additional +75 Power. After V-IGNITION, this is increased to +100 Power.
• All STΔRLIVHT STΔGE styles gain up to +200 Power on V-IGNITION based on the levels of their respective character's other styles.
• STΔRLIVHT STΔFF gains up to +150 Power on V-IGNITION based on the levels of Joker's other styles.

Some styles can be further leveled up to Level 50. The Style Power at Level 50 is set directly and does not follow the formula above.

Penalty from Power

Facing a boss with lower Power will incur a penalty by reducing some stats. For every 25 Power difference (including any remainder), one stat of the style drops.

The dropped stat is determined as follows:

• The first stat dropped goes to the main stat of the character. For example, Grace's main stat is HP, so the first stat drop will be to HP. (The exception is Joker, whose main stat is PW but whose first stat drop will affect HP)
• Further stat drops follow in a cycle: HP → SPC → ATK → TEC → HP, in a cycle.
• If the stat is already at F, it will be skipped and the drop will go into the next stat in line (unless all stats are already at F in which case it just does nothing).

For example, suppose a Grace style is 140 Power lower. This is a total of 6 stat drops. The stats dropped will be HP, SPC, ATK, TEC, HP, and finally SPC; for a total of 2 HP drops, 1 TEC drop, 1 ATK drop, and 2 SPC drops.