In the past two weeks I've become absolutely obsessed with this game and I'm currently on my way to doing a Rhythm Master run. I want to share some of the strategies that have helped me go above and beyond the call of duty and completely WRECK everyone in this game.

This guide is NOT intended for beginners or for a first run, since a lot of these strategies are unlocked or made easier by getting every collectible. This guide is intended for people who have nothing better to do and want to pan out this incredible game's runtime with the totally absurd and reward-less task that is getting an S Rank on every Chorus, in every Track, in every Difficulty.

In short, if you're completely out of your mind and insane, you've come to the right place.


Disclaimer: these strategies are not guaranteed to work on Rhythm Master since I haven't tried them myself. However, having said this, I don't think you should have any problem maintaining an S on your Rhythm Meter.

Constructive criticism and witty banter is equally welcome in the comments section ^-^

Second disclaimer: Most of these strategies are geared towards an S Score Rank, since it's what I've struggled the most with in the game.

It took me 70 hours, but I only just now realised that in order to receive the S Crown Rank, you can't die a single time. No continues allowed.

Third disclaimer: this guide was written prior to Update 5, and thus, it doesn't consider the newest arcade modes.

I'd like to start with setting up a Build that Will Work 99% of the Time. Obviously, chip builds depend on playstyle, but I'll just share my approach and you can decide if you wanna try it out or not :]


Combo Holder Lv2: Reaching multiples of 10 will give you increasing net bonus scores (for example, +24,000 points for reaching 100 hits). The rewards increase expoentially.

Parry Charge Lv2: This is super important. Parrying is already a necessity for several reasons (for example, instantly breaking electric shields or Z-Shielding). Since you're gonna do it anyway, might as well get a crapton of batteries out of it. Having Reverb Charge will be useful for the God Combo I talk about later in this section.

Invincible D-Parry Lv1: This is super important to avoid losing your combo and getting the Ouch! negative effect. Two terrible things by themselves that usually happen at the same time. Not getting hit is one of the keys to a high score.

Having said this, DO NOT rely con D-Parries. Learn from my mistakes. When I got this chip for the first time I had it on at Lv2 at all times and because of that I never had to learn any parrying patterns besides the Rhythm Parry attacks. This is how I avoided learning the WA-ES-2 (the samurai)'s patterns, and it cost me free score bonuses. The attack pattern takes a bit to learn but once you do, you get a lot of bonuses for multiples parries in a row. Definitely worth it, so I do not recommend you use this over Lv1.

Also, if you haven't figured it out yet, destroying barrels will always give you batteries, and SCR-UB most of the time will also eventually drop them.


Exactly what it says. Aerial Rave and Jam Combo both multiply your score individually, so stacking them is paramount for a high score. To add insult to injury, you should always go for Overkill because it has insane score bonuses. Anything the size of a SBR-001 and smaller will die with an Air Launch into Air Countdown with a Partner Beat Hit, giving you an Overkill bonus, use this to your advantage and spam it. If you're using your chip build to get batteries, you should have Reverb at all times for pretty much every fight.

TL;DR: Anything the size of a SBR-001: Air Launch + Air Countdown + Partner Beat Hit.

On to bigger enemies, like the ES-101 or the BA-B00. You should work towards breaking their shields and stun first. You're gonna do the Air Launch again, but instead of doing an Air Countdown, you're gonna do the first part of the Harmonic Beam or Compressor Slam, i.e. a Light and Heavy attack in the air, and then do the Air Countdown and finish with a Partner Beat Hit.

This is a God Combo that will Overkill anything, and will net you huge scores while not draining your Reverb (like Special Attacks do), and being almost risk free, since very few enemies can hit you while in the air.

And here's the kicker: it works on bosses too. Well, only two of them: Rekka and Kale.

Techincally, it also works on Mimosa, but it's not as effective because her dress recharges no matter if she's being juggled or not.

TL;DR: Antuagh's God Combo: Air Launch (Dash then Heavy) + Light Attack + Heavy Atack + Air Countdown (Light x4 in the air) + Partner Beat Hit.

For both combos, I recommend using Peppermint since she keeps enemies in the air, and you can Magnet Link to them and hit them for one extra measure, just to really show everyone at Vandelay who's boss (and get extra points too). I only use Macaron when she is on cooldown, and sadly, I never use Korsica.

You will feel tempted to use this combo on small enemies on Very Hard and Rhythm Master because you want All The Points, but I advice against it because it slows you down and it can affect your Clear Time (who would've guessed?!)

For more tips on score rank, you can check out HOP's extremely cool guide here.

If you have been having trouble with Air Combos, GRIS might be able to help you out ;)


So far, this section has been geared towards getting high scores and getting an S Score Rank, however, you may be struggling with Just Timing. Besides the obvious "stay on the beat" and "feel the rhythm" advice, I can also recommend you look into how you're moving between the fights. Rhythm Dodging is faster anyway, and it will add up to your Just Timing when you finish a Track. Jumping on beat also contributes to it.

So yeah, stay on beat, even outside the fights.

To help maintain my Rhythm Meter, I like to dash between the stages of a Chorus and whenever Macaron is on cooldown, forcing me to wait on Z-Shielding enemies.

For more info,you can read lel's A small mini guide to "Just Timing".


You heard me right. You can try your best, fail, get a B Score Rank, and still retry that fight, and not just bosses. You just have to be kinda quick about it and quit to Hideout before you get the final rank of a Chorus, and you can retry and test how many points you need for an S rank, or how quick you have to be.

*Edit: Switching Streamer Mode on or off reloads from checkpoint right away without making you quit to the Hideout. This is faster.

Speaking of being quick, Clear Time is wayyy too generous. Honestly, I don't know if anyone has ANY trouble with Clear Time during the Choruses. Even on the bosses Clear Time is ridiculously generous. I've rarely gotten an A on this. Follow the other strategies here and you should be fast enough to get an S every time.


If all else fails, use your spare Reverb to have 808 absolutely DESTROY an ES-101 (I do not recommend you use is on SBR-001 enemies or very agile enemies). I recommend you break its Stun first since they actually... get stunned for a few beats before jumping back on the fight. If you use 808 correctly, an S Score Rank should be everything but guaranteed.


After S Crowning Very Hard, I can safely say that these strategies still work. However, since all enemies have more health, you may get carried away and use the God Combo on everything. This will give you an incredible amount of points, but it will likely cost you on Clear Time Rank.

If you're trying to S Crown Very Hard, you should have formed an expert feel on the game, so I advice you to follow your heart and speed things up with basic combos when you feel you're taking too long.

This does not apply to bosses.

This section is dedicated specifically to strategies that are meant to S Crown Rhythm Master.


It seems Clear Time is adjusted to difficulty, so even though you should try to end fights as quick as possible while getting high scores, it's still very forgiving, if not extremely so.


I modified my original chip build and it helped me a lot overall. I only had to change it once for Mimosa (see the Mimosa... the Drink? section for more on that).

I added Rhythm Meter Rush Lv1 because the closer you are to S Rhythm Meter, the safer your S Crown run is. This proved quite helpful a handful of times when I was caught in a pinch with those damn HG-0G and HG-0M units.


I also suggest using Hibiki and Pick Me Up for your Special Attacks. Hibiki is absolutely broken in every way, and Pick Me Up is a little ace up your sleeve you probably will only use for Roquefort and Kale on this difficulty, since they hit really hard.


Really. Using Partner Summon also boosts your score and keeps your Rhythm Meter up a little bit (not as much as actually fighting, but, you know, it's something.).

This is particularly useful for VU-T0R1 and VU-REV units (the vultures), since they are a pain, especially the VU-REV in Chorus 3 of Track 10.

Now let's break down the bosses.

Let me be frank (but my name is Antuagh!): QA-1MIL is easy.


Not only is it easy to defeat, but I've found it oddly difficult to score lower than S on anything. You don't even have to use the fancy strats I just taught you in the sections above, and your score should be S worthy by the end anyway.

As with other bosses, I will limit myself to sharing general tips rather than breaking down the two phases this fella has.


Every single one of QA-1MIL's attack can be parried, and you can Partner Parry for extra chip damage (I recommend Peppermint).

The only ones I've had trouble with with the timing are the lasers and big sweep after breaking it's face.

I think for the lasers you can stand on either side of the platform facing the boss, or at the dead center, and timing should be okay. Yes. Okay.

In any case, if you get hit, it's not the end of the world.

For the Big Sweep After Chai Breaks It's Face, my tip is to just practice and feel it out.


Oh yeah, you gotta be careful when parrying its fists too close to the edge (say for example that you were attacking its chest like an idiot).

Since the fists have collision, when you parry them Chai is forced to move out of the way, and that can sometimes mean outside the platform.


I do this mostly to speed up the fight a bit. Breaking QA-1MIL's face and attacking the head will make the fight faster while also bumping up your score with the Aerial Rave bonus.

With these tips and little practice, scoring an S rank should be pretty easy on any difficulty.

Note: 808 GigaWatt Cat Attack won't work on the chest, and if you land it on the hands, it won't do much damage. I suggest that, if you're gonna use specials, go with Hibiki instead, because it's totally broken.

Rekka is sadly a pushover if you just spam her.


Since the general strategy is basically wail on her and don't get hit I will just share some tips that should make this fight a little easier.


Spamming summons is key to getting an S-Rank (while also farming 100-hit combos), especially when Chai can't get to Rekka right away.


The God Combo works on Rekka... if you can manage to get her in the air.

There are a couple ways to stun her. Once you do, you must attack with any ground combo, and finish with Macaron's Partner Beat Hit. This will spawn a vortex that will lift a stunned Rekka into the air.

Then you can follow up with the classic God Combo using Peppermint, and then again with Macaron.

This setup takes out HALF of Rekka's health on Rhythm Master in any phase (meaning that if you do this and nothing else 8 times you will have Rekk'd her.)


Summon Peppermint. You will probably get to summon her only once or twice before Rekka does her super AoE attack. Summoning Peppermint keeps your combo and Rhythm Meter going.


This is a really neat trick I figured out: Partner Beat Hits lock Chai and the target enemy in an animation. This includes Rekka and Kale. The really cool thing about this is that you can use it to prevent Rekka from taking out more pipes during the fight.

Why would you want to do this? While Rekka uses the pipes, she's much harder to hit. During the spin attack, she's immune, and you have to parry when the tubes lock on to you, distracting you from Rekka. On top of this, even if she isn't spinning, most of her pipe attacks are jumping attacks.

So, in summary, the Pipe "Pattern" is a huge waste of time. Cancel it with a Partner Beat Hit.

I prefer to use Macaron over Peppermint because the Ground variation summons a sort of... tornado? that hits Rekka over and over adding to your combo.

BEWARE: if you don't do it right away, you will get hit as she takes the pipes out.

Note: Pipe Cancel also works whenever Rekka intends to get electrified.

Korsica isn't the boss. Track 7: The Climb is the REAL boss, because it's too damn long and the fights have very few enemies (thus, getting S scores is much harder. For this, refer to the General Strategies that Will Work 99% of the Time section in this guide).

One you get to Korsica, don't panic.


The fight is very straightforward. Parry and Dodge on beat and don't get hit and mash to skip the dialogue. If you do get hit, however, you have a chance to reset the fight without having to do the entire level again by pausing and going back to the Hideout, or switching Streamer Mode on or off in the Options.

Previously, I said that you could only reset the phases, however I've found this to not be true. You can reset as soon as you fail a pattern or attack :] This makes everyone's lives easier. Again, I recommend you be quick about choosing to reset since I haven't looked into when the checkpoints show up (if before or after dialogue).

You can still reset even if you (hilariously) fail to catch her.

It's actually surprising how obnoxious this boss can be with how simple it is to S Crown.


I've been putting off writing this because I hate this fight, but I made a deal with the devil and here I am.


Some people might remember this section much more differently. I blame HOP. With one simple and swift comment, they rendered all my previous strategies and advice completely useless.


In the comments section of their guide, HOP explains that you can stunlock Mimosa if you Summon everyone at the same time as she's getting up. This is useful for every reason on Rhythm Master.

1. Stunlocking makes the fight a piece of cake.
   
2. It makes the fight go by WAY faster, and I mean WAY WAY faster.
   
3. For some reason it bumps up your score WAY high, meaning that an S Score Rank is pretty much guaranteed.

This applies to most of her attacks, but I find Invincible D-Parry a life saver when it comes to the Notes attack Mimosa does.

I previously said that you should also use it for the lasers, but it's much more beneficial to parry the ones that come in sequence because doing so will put a huge dent in her Stun gauge. Definitely use the D-Parry invincibility when she attacks with four lasers at the same time.


You know what attack I'm talking about. The most annoying one where she blasts you with a wave and locks you in a tiny cage. Sure, this attack also ends with breaking her stun (I think?), but it's generally shunned upon within the community because it's regarded as a HUGE WASTE OF TIME.

There's a clear sound queue right before she does this attack. You can dodge it, or, if you're a try-hard, you can attempt to parry it, but you have to be really close.


I previously said that her slap grab was an insta-death on Rhythm Master, however, on my own playthrough, I discovered that if your Rhythm Meter is higher than a C, you should be ble to survive.

These tips should also help you do the fight hitless on Easy.

You're gonna be great out there!

Okay, so this boss is annoying for several reasons:

1. The song kinda sucks. I will die on this hill, I do not like remixed classical songs. I am not sorry.
   
2. He has A LOT of health, and five phases, all equally annoying (and not super creative either).
   
3. He attacks in 3/4 (not really), so his patterns can be confusing.

The general strategy is to wail on him, spam your summons (especially Partner Parry, since cooldown is extremely quick), and don't get hit. Take your time and watch him closely. Thankfully he has only a handful of attacks and you can learn them easily.

Even if you screw up and get hit, it's really not a big deal. I almost die every time I fight him and I still get an S rank.

So instead of a step-by-step guide I will just share some important tips in my opinion.


The Invincible Parry chip and the Partner Parry will help you stay alive, keep your score and combo, all while doing decent damage, since Roquefort never really stands down for long.

This tip applies for all wolf phases.


During Phase 4, Roquefort will turn back into his human form and will summon laser walls and turrets. Keep an eye on the turrets, not the wall, D-Parry them, and dash for Roquefort.

I've managed to one-cycle this phase but only on Medium. His increased health on harder difficulties may make a one-cycle way harder than it's worth the effort. In any case, a two-cycle is pretty much guaranteed for this phase.


Phase 5 is just like every other wolf phase, but this time he has an incredibly annoying attack: the Scrooge McDuck Dive (patent rejected; Disney sent me a cease and desist). During this attack, Roquefort will dive into the coins and totally Jaws you. He will dash at you twice, and you can D-Parry it (shocker).

Then, different mounds will spawn randomly, one of them being a stone fist. Dash as close as you can for this and just wait for Roquefort to bring his own demise. He will get stunned for a measure or two and you can wail on him with everything you got (INCLUDING 808GW CA).

If you follow all these tips and don't die in the process, I'm sure you'll get that S Rank.

Remember what I said about not relying on D-Parries? Throw that out the window. RELY ON D-PARRIES FOR THIS ONE.

Same with the other bosses, you can always retry the phase you're playing if you aren't doing very well. You can also retry the entire phase 4 even when you're on the last QTEs after the last Rhythm Parry Kale does.


Really I don't know what to tell you about this one. Dash straight for Kale and double jump over the fire. Mash B when you see the yellow bubble. Repeat one more time and you're on to phase 2. Clear Time is super generous in bosses but it's safer to be as quick as possible in this one.


D-Parries will be your best friends because honestly I never bothered to learn Kale's patterns because... I didn't have to. The Invincible D-Parry chip even on Level 1 makes you immune to most of Kale's attacks. You can even parry the big lightning that strikes him You Ever Parry A Lightning?.

Strike him as much as possible and D-Parry and Partner Parry (yes both) whenever you can. Repeating shouldn't affect your score as long as you use the god combo I mentioned in the General Strategies that Will Work 99% of the Time section. Above all else, once you break his stun, DO NOT LET HIM TOUCH THE GROUND.

Juggle that Kale like you're a fancy vegan chef.

He eventually gets grounded I guess to avoid cheesing, and rinse and repeat.

You should only ever leave Kale alone when his drones flash so you can correctly D-Parry them, and when he telegraphs his "You annoying little LOSERS!" flame attack with a set of dashes (I believe he can only do that attack from certain spots in the arena so with enough practice you should be able to See All Those Hits Coming a Measure Away). Wait for him to summon the first wall of flame and use Korsica. 99% of the time she will get rid of all the fire.


Kinda like Phase 1: Kale Can't Deal with a Cat, Phase 3 is pretty straightforward, and the attacks that he does are easily D-Parried. After you do, I recommend dashing away for safety especially if he still has the blue electric shield arm, and keep dashing while you wait for his next attack to maintain your Rhythm Meter.

Don't forget to D-Parry and Parry Summon Macaron when he does the overhead attack with the Z-Shielding arms.

I haven't been able to find a reliable combo that instantly takes out the arms once you have the chance. The problem is either damage, or Chai going all over the place and not hitting. Really, just wing it. Once again, Clear Time is super generous.

Edit: I have since figured out that spamming summons may help you. This is equally as inconsistent as anything else though.

Edit 2: I have once again figured out a fairly reliable combo: Heavy x3. Yup. That easy. Sigh...


This is Phase 2 with extra spice and one or two new attacks. Tackle as if it's Phase 2, it really is the same fight.

For the really really long sweeping sword attack, with Invincible D-Parry you can D-Parry the first attack and probably be fine.

Follow the same tips for Phase 2, don't mess up the Rhythm Parry attacks too much, and you should easily get an S Crown (and maybe even beat Kale hitless) and finish the game! Congrats!

Well, that's it! Thank you for reading through this monstrosity, and I hope it has been useful and helpful.

Always remember:

• CNMN (2023, or whenever HFR takes place.)

Credits to Kamo Game on YouTube for gameplay footage because I was too lazy to screenshot the game myself.

*03-03-23 Note: the response to this guide has been incredible! I'm so happy so many people find it useful. I really poured my heart and soul into Hi-Fi Rush and this guide and I'm glad people have liked it so far ^-^ Now I have to S Crown Rhythm Master, and the guide will officially be complete! (until new strats are discovered) (looking at you, speedrunning community.)

*03-06-23 Note: I've done it! I finished my S Crown Rhythm Master run and now the guide is complete! Thank you all so much for the awards and favourites! Updates to this guide are possible, but unlikely, unless the newer strats are truly game-changing (like the Mimosa stunlock omg). Happy S Crowns! You are a rockstar!