For those of you trying to get this achievement WITHOUT the turbo controller, I have some tips for you.
1. Don’t download any extra songs! Downloadable songs aren’t required for the achievement, nevertheless they WILL show up in your ‘Other’s Club’ and they will get drawn randomly for you to play.
You only have to fill the song status of the game’s original 50 songs. This achievement already requires a ridiculous amount of time to complete. Don’t make it any longer by downloading songs.
2. Song Status: No one has mentioned what actually makes the song status go up. On my quest for the achievement, I’ve noticed a direct correlation between the amount of steps you take and the amount the gauge goes up.
-If you want the gauge to go up a lot, complete the song on Expert difficulty. With difficult trick modes, this is easier said then done. Believe me I know. You could sacrifice the amount of steps you take by lowering the difficulty thus giving you piece of mind to finish the song, or risk an insanely difficult trick mode on ‘expert’ difficulty, causing you to fail the song prematurely.
-You’ll also notice that songs with intrinsically few steps are going to take the longest to fill up despite playing them on ‘Expert’ difficulty.
For example, “I’m Yours” by Jason Mras (that damn song...) was one of the last songs I filled up, while “Dreaming Can Make a Wish Come True (full version)” was one of the first songs I filled up.
-I’m not sure about whether a ‘perfect’ step fills up the song status faster than a ‘great’ step. I want to say it does, but I haven’t taken specific measures to verify this. If any one else out there knows, shoot me a comment.
3. Lowering your difficulty: For those of you concerned about how to lower your difficulty while in play, hit the arrows right before or right after they pass the guide arrows. If you’re getting a bunch of ‘greats’ and ‘goods’ your difficulty will go down in about 10 seconds. This is easier with a controller, but completely doable on your pad as well. You don’t even have to break your combo by missing notes.
-If you’re already well on your way to getting this achievement, I would suggest any song you’ve already filled up completely, keep it at ‘Basic difficulty’. You don’t want to start your 20 song run over again because a difficult trick mode threw you off. When a song shows up that you need, risk it all and play on ‘Expert’ if the game will let you. And play with the controller. It’s worth it. That last song you need might not show up again for awhile. Make every step count.
4. Trick modes:
I can’t find any information on the web about what the different trick modes are. So, presenting for your consideration, the different trick modes to watch out for:
Trick level 1:
- Difficulty Change
- Arrows scroll up at 1.5x their normal speed
- Arrows change to the red/blue (or "note") color scheme
- Arrows scroll up slow at first and get faster as they reach the guide arrows
Trick level 2:
- Difficulty Change
- One of the guide arrows moves down
Note: This could be any of the four guide arrows
- All arrows are the same color
- Arrows scroll up at 2.0x their normal speed
Trick level 3:
- Difficulty Change
- Two of the guide arrows move down
Note: The guide arrows that move down are next to each other. For example, ‘left’ and ‘down’ guide arrows could move, or ‘down’ and ‘up’ could move, or ‘down and right’ could move.
- Bottom half of arrows become invisible.
- Groove gauge splits into 8 pieces
- Arrows scroll up at 3.0x their normal speed
Trick level 4:
- Difficulty Change
- Guide arrows change places
Note: Either up and down will swap or left and right will swap.
- Groove gauge splits into 4 pieces
- Arrows go 4.0x their normal speed
- Top half of arrows become invisible (arguably the hardest trick mode and should be a level 6 trick mode in my opinion)
Trick level 5:
- Difficulty Change
- Two guide arrows move down
Note: The guide arrows that move down are staggered.
For example, left and up would move, or down and right would move.
- Arrows go at 8.0x their normal speed
Trick level 6:
- Difficulty Change
- Guide arrows scramble themselves
Note: I’ve seen (down, right, up, left) and (up, down, left, right) and (left, down, right, up)
- Arrows scroll up in a ‘bouncy’ motion. I don’t know how else to describe it… You’ll see what I mean when you get there.
- Arrows scroll up very quickly and then quickly slow to almost a stop before they pass the guide arrows. They will all be bunched up close to the guide arrows and it will be difficult to tell which arrows come next.
-There are FOUR trick modes per song, assuming you are getting mostly perfects. Even if you downloaded the full versions of ‘Dreaming Can Make a Wish Come True’, ‘Private Eye’, and 'Let's Get Away', there are still only four trick modes.
-Pay attention to when these trick modes are going to happen. There is a gauge on either side of the arrow screen. They will both have a small blue dot that travels from bottom to top. As soon as it gets to the top, a new trick mode will start.
5. ALWAYS play a 20 song run: Songs don’t show up twice in the same run, so statistically speaking, you’re more likely to hit a boss song or other song you need the further along you play.
6. The Boss Songs:
- Just so there is no confusion, the boss songs are:
- “Crazy Love”
- “Max 300”
- “New York Evolved”
7. Getting those last few songs:
- If you’ve already got the boss songs and you’re needing some of the more common songs, I suggest searching for them as the first song of the set. If it doesn’t show up, end the set by pressing and holding the ‘start’ and ‘select’ button on your controller and repeat.
These are the songs that will show up quite regularly with this method:
- According To You
- Missing
- I’m Yours
- Dancing In the Street
- Need You Now
- Plastic Beach
- Love Like This
- Rhythms Inside
- Rio
- We Are Family
- In the Zone
- Flowers
- Bad Romance
- Animal
- Battlefield
- My Life Would Suck Without You
- I Got You
- Share the Love
- So Fine
- Hey, Soul Sister
- Win the Game
- According To You
- I'm Yours
Note: The other songs can show up as the first song as well, but the probability is much lower. Boss songs can even appear as the first songs, but the probability of those showing up is 100 fold rarer. I’ve had Max 300 show up twice, Crazy Love once, but never New York Evolved.