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Beat Saber is a virtual reality (VR) rhythm game where players use two sabers to slash and slice through cubes that come at them in time with the music. It’s an incredibly immersive experience and one of the most popular VR games around. Not only does it provide a great workout, but it also allows players to express their creativity by coming up with their own tricks and combos. With its fast-paced action, creative level design, and pumping soundtrack, Beat Saber is an essential VR experience for any fan of virtual reality games. As someone who has put over a hundred hours into the game and learned how to play any song on Expert or Expert+, you can master every song in Beatsaber by following these 5 tips!
Tip #1 – Master the Basics in Beat Saber before Moving on To More Advanced Levels
Beat Saber is a virtual reality rhythm game that combines exciting music with engaging motion controls. It’s easy to pick up and play, but mastering the basics of this game takes time and practice. Many first-time beginners to Beatsaber will make the mistake of jumping right into Beatsaber medium and hard levels without first mastering the fundamentals. At its core, Beatsaber runs on three mechanics:
- Timing
- Direction
- Accuracy
Depending on how long you have been playing, you likely need to work on one of these core mechanics. Direction refers to which direction the arrow points inside the box, and Accuracy refers to the angle at which you slice the beats and how accurately you are able to hit the beat at that angle. The best way to make sure you are mastering core mechanics is to go to one level of difficulty lower than your standard difficulty and work on these core mechanics until you have that level perfect.
If you work on mastering the lower levels like easy and medium, you are sure to improve your beat saber skills quickly. For example, when I practice a particularly hard level on Beat Saber, I will routinely lower my difficulty to hard to make sure I have perfect timing, perfect directional positioning, and highly accurate beat slicing.
Tip #2 – Make Sure Your Quest 2 is Optimized for Quick Tracking.
If you’re looking to take your Beat Saber game to the next level, you’ll need to make sure your Quest 2 is running optimally. The Quest 2 is a few years old but if you are using it correctly, it’s still a very capable headset. As someone who plays on their Quest 2 all the time, I have found a few tricks to make sure your headset is going to hit all the right notes when you slice them.
Make sure your Beatsaber Playspace has plenty of Light and Room
When playing Beatsaber, your headset is using the 4 cameras on the headset to record and track your controllers. Despite popular belief, the controllers on Quest 2 do not actually track any part of their environment. So make sure your VR space is at least 6 ft by 6 ft and that you are letting plenty of light into your room so your headset has plenty of light and space to know where your controllers are in 3D space. If you really want to improve your VR gameplay, many beat saber fans have noticed their high score does actually increase when they use the Quest Pro controllers and pair them with the Quest 2. Click below to buy the Quest Pro Controllers
Optimize Your Playspace with Accurate Height Tracking and by Standing In the Right Space
VR has come a long way since the first Oculus, but there are still a few quirks that new VR users won’t be aware of. Before I undertake a long beat saber or VR fitness session, I always make sure to check all the following boxes to make sure my Beatsaber Playspace is optimized and will be able to track all my crazy arm movements.
Optimize Quest 2 Playspace with Improved Height Tracking:
If you have ever hopped into a VR game and everything renders a bit too high or too low, that means your headset height tracking is off. In Beat Saber, there are a few ways you can combat this. In the settings, you can adjust your player height by disabling automatic height but this is often just a short-term solution. The best way to ensure your playspace is optimized for your unique height is by redrawing your headset boundary and recalibrating your guardian.
If you wish to reset your guardian in the headset, go to the Settings menu and find the guardian. You should have the option to reset it. Alternatively, step outside of your playspace and it will automatically go into the see-through mode, giving you the opportunity to realign your guardian.
The image above is a bit out of date so check out this quick video below shows you where to go in the Quest 2 settings to adjust your guardian:
Optimize Quest 2 Tracing on Beatsaber by standing on your Foot Indicators.
One little-mentioned tip I have seen first-time Quest 2 Beat Saber players miss, is that you may actually be standing too far or too close to the beats! Making this error will throw off your timing and make it harder to learn how to play Beat Saber Correctly. To align your feet with the game, simply look down while opening the beat saber and make sure you are standing as close to the silhouette feet as possible. They will also show the version number of the game – a fun little easter egg for you 😉
Make sure your Quest 2 is Fully Charged to Optimize Your Graphics and Tracking
When your Quest 2 is low on battery, you may notice performance dips as the CPU and GPU inside start to slow down to extend your battery life. Though this is a great feature to extend your gameplay, the quality of your tracking and beat saber quality will also decrease. When I play Beat Saber, I frequently use a headset accessory that allows me to charge it while playing without being tethered to a long chord. To pick up a battery pack extension that also helps to balance out your headset’s weight, click the link below!
Tip 3: Improve Your Accuracy with Optimized Beat Saber Movements.
Improving your accuracy in virtual reality can be challenging, especially if you’re using a traditional controller. In Beat Saber, there are 3 basic types of Movements:
- Wrist Movement
- Arm Movement
- Full Body Movement
There are a few different ways of moving your body when playing Beatsaber. Some people tend to move only their wrists, some people only move their arms. Neither of these approaches is optimal for getting better at beat saber. For beats that are very close to each other, it’s often required to use your wrist to accurately snap back and forth between beats but with beats that are farther apart, you need to use your arms.
One way to help you distinguish between when to use wrist movements and arm movements is to try and hit every beat at the center of your saber. In a fast-paced game, you will likely have to try and hit a beat at the top or bottom of your saber. However, by trying to hit most beats in the center of your saber, you are much more likely to be able to quickly shift your saber to the appropriate amount to hit every note.
Tip #4 – Understand The Song’s Rhythm and Anticipate Future Beats
Understanding the rhythm of a song is essential for any musician, and the same is true for any beat saber expert. As you start to play beat saber more, you will notice that the beat and rhythm of the song are frequently used to map the beats. Once you start to notice this trend, you can anticipate the way notes might come after. With practice, you can anticipate how notes are mapped and move your body accordingly, allowing for a more immersive experience.
One way to get better Beat anticipation is to recognize patterns in the way songs are played. For example, most songs will take a steady base and use it as one of your arm movements. If you are familiar with the song, you can use this knowledge to your advantage and know when one of your arms is going to need to move up or down in order to hit that beat.
Unfortunately, beat anticipation comes with practice, and it’s not quite something we will go into detail about here, but it mostly comes with practice so in our next tip, we will outline some strategies that will help you practice to build up your game sense and have better beat anticipation.
Tip #5 – Be Prepared for Those Faster Sections & Try Out Different Strategies
Beat Anticipation is an important factor in any type of becoming better at the beat saber. There are a few tips I have used to become better at beat saber that you can use in your own practice that should help you become better, at a much faster rate.
1- Utilize the practice mode!
Most people don’t know this but beat saber actually has a built-in practice mode that you can click on right before you hit play. This mode will allow you to move around the song and select different parts of the song you are learning to practice your hardest song in beat saber.
2- Play the Beat Saber Campaign – No really.
Did you know Beat Saber has a campaign mode? Really! This campaign mode uses songs from the free version and will teach you some of the elements we have outlined in this article like beat anticipation, angle accuracy and full arm/body movement.
3- Try Slowing Down Songs
One of the ways I learned how to play Free Bird on Expert was by slowing down the song and learning the movement in a slower pace so my muscle memory could build up an understanding of how my body was supposed to hit the right notes. Once I learned how to do it slowely, at say 75%, I would slowly increase the speed all the way to 100% to make sure I had it down. Utilizing this trick should help you learn and master any song in Beat Saber.
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