NOISZ STΔRLIVHT is a mobile game, and so differs in gameplay to NOISZ, making use of a touchscreen rather than keys to move. It follows the same visual novel structure that NOISZ does, and songs are still a hybrid of rhythm and bullet hell. The bullet hell aspect remains largely the same - ie, bullet patterns you must dodge onscreen. Instead of shooting and shielding on the beat, you tap notes on the touchscreen.
Playing the Game
Gameplay
The four diamonds at the bottom are the buttons, and they are used to interact with all notes but slash notes. The area above the note indicator line is the character movement area, and tapping it will move the character to that area quickly; tapping and dragging will move the character around precisely. The character's hitbox—the area that will cause damage if touching a bullet—is a small heart over the character.
If the movement area is not being interacted, the character will default to staying in an area in the lower centre referred to as the "dock"; if they are anywhere other than the dock and the player takes their finger off the screen, the character will snap back to the dock, and will be invincible for the duration of movement. This is called a RS-Dash in-game. If staying in the dock means a character will come to harm, a yellow and black circle will appear around them immediately before a hazardous section.
Songs
The structure of gameplay is a song, broken up into verses; during the song, the player must dodge bullets and lasers aimed at them by the boss associated with the song, and tap/interact with notes in a timely manner. Most songs have 3 or 4 verses, and during the beginning of each verse, the character's HP will refill to full, and the verse combo will reset. HP reaching 0 results in a Game Over, with the exceptions of practice Mode and Angel Mode (where HP is infinite) and certain styles.
The pause menu can be found in the top left of the screen, and they have three options from there: they may:
- Continue: Continue the song with a 4-beat lead-in.
- Restart: Restart the song. This will be unavailable if COINZ have been spent on the song.
- Retreat: End the song. Nothing will be rewarded if the song is ended that way, and Verse Stars will not be saved.
The objective of a song is to survive all verses as cleanly as possible; tapping/interacting with notes will do damage to the boss under most conditions. A verse is considered cleared if a boss' healthbar is entirely drained by the end of it. If the player drains it before the verse ends, any additional damage is considered Overflow damage as a percentage of the boss' full healthbar; for example, reaching 100.00% Overflow damage means twice the boss' full health was done by the end of the verse, and that verse's total Overflow will be saved.
Each song also has Total Overflow, which is the Overflow of each verse added up; this is relevant for certain scoring.
Combo
Combo is shared between both the rhythm and bullet hell sections; the player can keep up a combo by dodging all boss attacks successfully and tapping all notes in the right timeframe. If the player succeeds in keeping up full combos in either verse or song, a greater score and rank will be achieved on the song; a full combo for a single verse awards a Verse Star, which is permanent through all plays of that song. The song doesn't have to be successfully cleared for it to stay there, either; it's specific to verse only.
Story
The gameplay is backed up by the story mode; songs may be played freely and without limit, though songs also feature as part of the story mode. Story plays out in the style of a visual novel, with occasional dialogue choices that impact certain details of the main story, but the central plot will always play out the same way.
Story chapters require characters to be certain levels to unlock, which can be raised through gameplay. In addition, the story part of the game has Area Conversations, which aren't vital to the story, but detail various conversations between the main characters of the game, providing insight into their daily lives. They are semi-random, and refresh between songs; the icons over an active Area Conversation show who is part of the conversation.
Gameplay Modes
While songs can be played normally, the player can under certain conditions play songs in different ways, be it to vary gameplay, or for assistance should they struggle. The gameplay can be split roughly into freeplay, event play and story play. Freeplay can be done without limit, though the player can spend COINZ to gain certain benefits while playing.
Practice Mode
Practice Mode is available only during freeplay; in Practice Mode, the player is immune to lethal damage and can start playing from any Verse they choose. However, scores are not saved, and no rewards are given upon completion (no items or experience points).
Angel Mode
Angel Mode is specific to the Easy difficulty, and can be turned on if the player struggles to finish a song; it functions the same way as Practice Mode except that all stats are increased to SS+<ref>https://discord.com/channels/626529477865766933/1175673977654489189/1175675789077909645</ref>, though will allow the story to be progressed. However, it will not count as a clear for the sake of Story Mode song clears, much like Practice mode. Playing on Angel Mode grants Bond Level experience but not Style Level experience.
Challenge Mode
Challenge Mode requires NOISZ STΔRLIVHT/COINZ to play (a minimum of one), and can be accessed either during Events or if a folder's Club Pass has been purchased, which enables Challenge Mode for all songs in that folder.
On starting Challenge Mode, you will be presented with a random selection of 3 challenges, each with varying difficulties and rewards. You can choose to play in one challenge, or you can back out and play normally - though if you back out, the COINZ spent is not refunded. Currently, the challenge rewards are a multiplier on the item drop rate and experience gained.
Possible challenges include:
| Challenge | EXP/Drops Multiplier | Event EXP/Drops Multiplier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| All stats decreased by 1. | 1.10x | 1.50x | |
| Burst is disabled. | 1.10x | 1.50x | |
| Damage received from bullets x2. | 1.10x | 1.50x | |
| Damage received from notes x2. | 1.10x | 1.50x | |
| Halved invincibility on taking damage. | 1.10x | 1.50x | |
| Song speed increases 10%. | 1.10x | 1.50x | The song itself gets faster (a la rate mod in Stepmania), the scroll speed increases and timing windows shrink accordingly. |
| Take damage on getting Sparks. | 1.10x | 1.50x | |
| Notes disappear halfway down the screen. | 1.25x | 2.00x | |
| Take damage on getting Sparks and Radiants. | 1.25x | 2.00x | |
| The player character is invisible. | 1.25x | 2.00x | This renders your character, hitbox, and NOISZ invisible. Additionally, the dock indicator is disabled and every attack is slashes. |
| Your hitbox is slightly larger. | 1.25x | 2.00x | |
| Your scroll speed is doubled. | 1.25x | 2.00x | |
| Your scroll speed is halved. | 1.25x | 2.00x | |
| All damage received x3. | 1.50x | 3.00x | |
| All stats decreased by 2. | 1.50x | 3.00x | |
| All timing windows reduced 50%. | 1.50x | 3.00x | |
| Scroll speed decreases to 50 BPM. | 1.50x | 3.00x | |
| Song speed increases 20%. | 1.50x | 3.00x | The song itself gets faster (a la rate mod in Stepmania), the scroll speed increases and timing windows shrink accordingly. |
| Your hitbox grows while undocked. | 1.50x | 3.00x | You can reset its size by returning to the dock. |
| All damage received x3 after 1 beat of being idle.* | 1.50x | 3.00x | |
| All damage received increased to 99% of max HP. | 2.00x | 4.00x | |
| All stats reduced to D. | 2.00x | 4.00x | If you have a stat at F, it will remain at F. |
| Scroll speed increases to 1000 BPM. | 2.00x | 4.00x | A note is visible for 0.24 seconds on screen. |
| Song speed increases 30%. | 2.00x | 4.00x | The song itself gets faster (a la rate mod in Stepmania), the scroll speed increases and timing windows shrink accordingly. |
| Your hitbox is much larger. | 2.00x | 4.00x | |
| All timing windows reduced 75%. | 3.00x | 6.00x | |
| Notes are invisible. | 3.00x | 6.00x | |
| One random stat reduced to F. | 3.00x | 6.00x | |
| Song speed increases 50%. | 3.00x | 6.00x | The song itself gets faster (a la rate mod in Stepmania), the scroll speed increases and timing windows shrink accordingly. |
| Take 100% HP damage on notes below S-Radiant. | 3.00x | 6.00x | This only applies to Radiants and Sparks. Errors still deal their normal damage. |
| All bullets are invisible. | 4.00x | 8.00x | |
| All input is mirrored. | 4.00x | 8.00x | All input is mirrored horizontally, including the pause button and its menu. |
| All stats reduced to F. | 4.00x | 8.00x | |
| Take damage on getting S-Radiants. | 4.00x | 8.00x | |
| The entire NOISZ is your hitbox. | 4.00x | 8.00x |
These challenges are not yet confirmed exhaustive. Since challenges are randomly chosen, it's possible there is a challenge players have never seen; feel free to add a challenge that is not listed.
*This challenge was not intended to be added to the Challenge Mode pool and will be removed from it in a future update.
Duel Gauge
In True Heroes, certain songs feature a different health bar mechanic, called Duel Gauge. Songs using this gauge use a single health bar for both the player and the boss, which starts at 0. This health bar is displayed both on the boss health bar position, with character portraits on the sides, and on the character's health bar. Unlike regular boss health bars, which look rounded, the Duel Gauge has diamond corners on each side.
Duel Gauge songs are also style and character locked in Free Play, unlike regular songs. It is impossible to fail out of a Duel Gauge song through a Game Over. However, all verses need to be cleared in a single run for the song to be cleared.
Damage mechanics and red damage
By dealing damage, the health bar fills up, and a verse is considered cleared when getting more than 80% overflow. However, on getting hit the health bar will decrease (2% per note and 8% per bullet hit), which may undo the clear of the current verse. This damage is displayed as red damage on the health bar, which can be recovered 4x faster than regular damage. Some part of the recoverable HP will be removed depending on the HP Stat.
Scorched damage
A mechanic exclusive to HINOTORI features an additional type of damage. Scorched damage is recovered slower than regular damage, at a rate of 5/7 times the normal speed (leading to a effective damage loss of 3.2% per bullet<ref name="effective damage"/>). This damage is displayed as black damage on the health bar.
G-Radiants
In these songs, an additional note judgement exists, called G-Radiant, which are roughly 1/4 the judgment window of the S-Radiant. G-Radiants give .01% damage. This damage is displayed as an additional percentage on the verse damage in the results screen, and only counts towards verse clears as V-IGNITED STΔRLIVHT STΔGE Sera.
G-Radiant damage is not considered for the effect of the AA HP perk in Duel Gauge, except when playing as V-IGNITED STΔGE Sera; in her case the extra damage is applied during the song.
G-Radiants also appear outside of Duel Gauge for V-IGNITED STΔRLIVHT STΔGE Sera and V-IGNITED Blue Moon Grace; their bonus damage outside of Duel Gauge is set to 1% and provide a small amount of healing.
Detailed information
| HP Stat | Note Dmg | Bullet Dmg | Eff. Note Damage <ref name="effective damage">Effective means how much damage do you need to deal back to get back to the point before you got hit (assuming you have lost the full 2% or 8% damage)</ref> | Eff. Error Damage <ref name="effective damage"/> |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | ||||
| D | ||||
| C | ||||
| B | ||||
| A | ||||
| AA | ≈0.98% | ≈3.91% | ≈1.23% | ≈4.93% |
| S | ≈0.82% | ≈3.26% | ≈1.11% | ≈4.45% |
| SS | ≈0.68% | ≈2.71% | ≈1.01% | ≈4.03% |
| SS+ | ≈0.55% | ≈2.20% | ≈0.91% | ≈3.65% |
The effects of ATK and SPC are reduced in Duel Gauge. Burst Damage is unaffected.
| Stat | Note Damage (ATK) | OK Damage (SPC) |
|---|---|---|
| F | 100 | 100% |
| D | 100% | |
| C | 108.75 | 108% |
| B | 112.5 | 115% |
| A | 115.625 | 122% |
| AA | 118.75 | 128% |
| S | 121.875 | 133% |
| SS | 125 | 137% |
| SS+ | 127.5 | 140% |
The effect of the AA HP perk in Duel Gauge depends on the gauge progress instead of HP, as HP does not exist in Duel Gauge.