Tutorial

Basics

Touch the notes to the beat of the rhythm when the sphere overlaps with its frame. The more precise the timing, the bigger the explosion, and the more points you get!

Tap note

Hold note

Slide note

Silver note

Tap note

• Simply tap the note when the outer circle lines up with the inner circle.

Hold note

• Tap and hold the note until the explosion fills out the whole sphere and disappears. Due to camera movements, the hold note may move around, so be sure to keep your finger on the note.

Slide note

• Directional slide notes have arrows to indicate the direction you have to slide INTO the note from. They often come with basic notes and operate as a fast flick or come in long chains as a slide path.
• Spherical slide notes do not have arrows and instead have a black sphere. These notes can be slid into from any direction. As with directional slide notes, they will also come as flicks or chains.
• Timing for slide notes are looser compared to tap notes.
• Slide notes do not actually require the action of sliding INTO the note, they only require the detection of touch movement within the bounds of the note. As such, it is possible to tap a slide note and then drag slightly at the same time in order to hit the slide note. This is useful if you want to ensure that your timing is spot on for flicks, but for chains it is not recommended to do each slide note individually.

Silver note

• These notes give 10 combo instead of the usual 1, but otherwise have the same properties of tap notes.

Gameplay Options

Touch Effect

These sound effects will play whenever you hit a note. It is very useful if you prefer aural feedback to visual feedback. Select a sound effect repeatedly to change its volume. You can turn them off here as well.

On Android devices, touch effects do not appear in the options menu unless "usetapse" is inserted as a "username." After entering the phrase, exit and reenter the episode to use them.

Device

On Android devices, instead of selecting between touch effects, players can adjust two different settings. If "usetapse" is in effect, these options cannot be changed.

• [Vibration] allows players to choose to use a vibrating feedback when playing, either with all note judgements, Perfects only, or no vibrations at all.
• [Graphics Quality] allows the player to change the quality of the graphics. The values available are Low, Normal, High, and Highest.

Combo Position

This alters the position of where the combo number appears after you hit a note. You can turn combo numbers off as well.

​Extra Effects

These effects alter gameplay slightly, and are meant to be used for fun.

• [Shakycam] will use the device's gyroscope to affect gameplay. It will detect the device's relative position and rotate the game's camera accordingly.
• [Harlem Shake] is a hidden effect under Shakycam; it makes the chart shake uncontrollably.
• [Stealth] makes notes invisible, save for a thin outline that appears very briefly.
• [Pinhole] is a hidden effect under Stealth; it makes notes and their hitboxes extremely tiny.
• [Sixth sense Stealth] is a hidden effect under Stealth; it makes notes completely invisible.
• [Jumbo] is a hidden effect under Stealth; it makes notes and their hitboxes very large.
• [180' Upside Down] rotates the chart such that it's upside down and flipped left to right.

Online Function

By pressing the [Set Username] button, players can change the name they appear as in the leaderboards or enter a code word. If no name is set, they appear as a blank name in the leaderboards.

Hidden Effects

These are effects that can only be found by entering a key phrase (which are case sensitive) into the [Set Username] option. If correctly entered, the game plays a clicking noise. They cannot be used as usernames and closing the game or entering the key phase again will remove these effects.

• "showmehitboxes" allows the player to see the hitboxes of the notes.
• "sidesphere" changes the orientation of the game so the player can play the game sideways.
  • This makes the gameplay resemble that of Cytus, another mobile rhythm game series which Tone Sphere creator Sta has contributed to.
• "judgedelta" allows the player to change the judgement of the notes to be more lenient or stricter. Inserting "judgedeltaXX" will make getting Perfects easier, while "judgedelta-XX" makes getting Perfects harder.
  • Your judgedelta setting will be shown in the name of the song at the beginning of a chart if you do this. Making the game easier using this method will also prevent scores from being registered online or locally. You will, however, still receive Lumina.
• "GrimDarkEnds" allows the player to unlock all Press/Start / Solarphere charts (except April Fool's charts), regardless of their Sphere Rank. Note that this does not change the player's Sphere Rank itself, only the availability of the charts.
• "fullbgmode" hides the gameplay interface so that the player can see the background better. The notes are still visible and the player can still leave the song, even though the "back" button is hidden.

Appearances

These alter the appearance of gameplay.

Note skins:

• [Default] makes Tap and Hold notes red and Slide notes blue.
• [Rhythm] colors notes by their timing. 4th notes are red, 8th notes are blue, 16th notes are yellow, 32nd notes are orange, and 12th/24th notes are purple. Silver notes are still silver, and can be of any timing value.

Explosion effect:

• [Default] makes the explosion color whiteish-purple for Perfects and becomes darker the less accurate the judgement is.
• [Cosmic] makes the explosion color blue for Perfects and purple-orange for Greats and Way Offs.
• [Sunset] makes the explosion color red-orange for Perfects, but otherwise the same as the [Cosmic] selection for other judgements.
• [Moonlight] makes the explosion color blue-grey for Perfects, but otherwise the same as the [Cosmic] selection for other judgements.
• [Sensei] makes the explosion a picture of Opto-sensei for Perfects, but otherwise the same as the [Cosmic] selection for other judgements. This effect can only be chosen once the player has reached Sphere Level 28 in Press/Start (might also be obtainable via Sphere Level 28 in Solarsphere.)
• [Flash] makes the explosion color mainly pink with a flash of color for Perfects, and a small, dull grey-blue explosion for Greats and Way Offs. This effect can only be chosen once the player has unlocked Memory of the Past in Empyreal Bon Voyage's Sphere Map.

Other:

• [Cover] darkens the background so that notes are easier to see. The cover values available are 10%, 25% and 50%.
• [Speed] affects the timing at which the notes appear, the fastest choice being +6 and the slowest being -3.

Tiny Record Manager

• This is a feature added in version 1.1.5, and allows for erasing your score/combo/star record for individual songs if you need to.
• The feature is accessed by tapping the stars 8 times in a row quickly.

Timing

• You can tell how precise your timing was for a specific note by looking at the combo color, explosion size, and (if you turned it on) the sharpness of the sound effect.
• For Perfects, the combo will be purplish-pink. For Greats, the combo will be orange, and for Way Offs, the combo will be dark yellow.
• If you get a Way Off, the combo for that note will not be counted, but the combo will continue.
• Note taps give a base score of 405/329/46 points, multiplied by a combo multiplier that maxes out at 4x once you reach a 12 combo. Main article: Scoring#Points Score

​Stars

Note: This section is outdated and probably now incorrect. See Scoring

• You gain stars based on the number of perfects and greats you have. Stars use a different scoring system, where perfects add 2 points, and greats add 0.33 points. Wayoffs and misses don't deduct anything.
• The game will show you, in real-time, how many stars you have obtained throughout the song. A sound effect will play if you have obtained a star.
• The clear requirement, 2 stars, is the total notecount of the song. In other words, if you perfect exactly half the notes and miss the other half, you will get 2 stars, but just barely.
• The 1-star cutoff point is 0.25x the total notecount
• The 3-star cutoff point is 1.35x the total notecount
• The 4-star cutoff point is 1.70x the total notecount
• The 5-star cutoff point is 1.87x the total notecount
• The 6-star cutoff point is 1.95x the total notecount

Spherical charts

• Spherical charts are special charts that are aren't counted as one of the usual four difficulties. These charts may simply be harder charts for existing songs or entirely new hidden songs. Playing them once will unlock them permanently.
• Spin-Angular-Momentum is particularly notable, as it contains the use of a unique, new note-type, Angle notes. These notes force the camera to rotate and change views. Missing these notes will not break your combo, and you can in fact choose not to hit these notes if you don't want to change your view.