Gauge Options
Table of contents
List of gauge types
Normal gauge
Setting the gauge option to “OFF” will use what people usually call the normal gauge.
It starts at 22%; it goes up if you get GOOD or better, and goes down for BAD / POOR. If you end the song with 80% or above, you clear the song.
The rate of increase per note is (usually) relative to the number of total notes. The rate of decrease is fixed.
Easy Gauge
Same as normal gauge, except that when you get BAD or POORs, the gauge will decrease less. You still need 80% to pass the stage, and the rate of increase remains the same.
Assist Easy Gauge
Same as easy gauge, except that you only need 60% to pass the stage.
Hard Gauge
This is the “survival” gauge - you start with 100%, and every BAD and POORs will decrease it. GOOD and above will still refill the gauge, although at a fixed rate. Once you hit 0%, you immediately fail out of the song.
About 14 POORs in a row will bring your gauge down from 100% to 0%.
At or below 30% gauge, the rate of decrease for BAD / POORs will halve.
EX-Hard Gauge
Harder version of Hard gauge - each BAD and POORs will greatly decrease the gauge, and failing out of the stage at 0%.
About 6 POORs in a row will bring your gauge down from 100% to 0%.
Unlike hard gauge, there is also no halved decrease rate bonus for 30% and below.
DAN Gauge
This is not a selectable option in Standard mode, but it is used by default during Class mode. In past versions, this was also used for Expert Mode (course mode), so it was sometimes referred to as Expert Gauge.
You start at 100%, and fail out if it falls below 2%. The gauge amount carries over from one stage to the next. It is like hard mode in that there is a halved decrease rate at 30%, but it is much, much more lenient.
About 40 POORs in a row will bring your gauge down from 100% to 0%.
EX-DAN gauge
In Class mode, you can press VEFX Change button to switch to EX mode, which will turn on the harder DAN gauge. See this page for details.
More details
If you need to know the exact parameters for various gauge types, such as the algorithm used to calculate the increase / decrease, check out this page.