DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION EXTREME Mission Mode FAQ Created by: James "brak2000" Morgan EMail: braktheman (AT) gmail (DOT) com Date: Wednesday, April 6, 2005 Version: 1.2 Status: New cheap strategy for Mission 98 submitted by Engy It can be found in the strategy for mission 98 as it only applies to that mission. *WARNING* THIS FAQ CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT UNLOCKED SONGS AND MISSIONS. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THEM, THEN BACK AWAY NOW. *WARNING* Table of Contents --- A) Introduction B) The Basic Missions (1-25) C) The Normal Missions (26-50) D) The Hard Missions (51-100) E) Mission Quick List F) Cheap Strategies G) FAQ H) Credits I) Contact J) Legal Stuff ---------------- A) INTRODUCTION ---------------- Hello! Welcome to my Mission Mode FAQ. If you are having troubles with a certain mission or just want to see what this game has to offer, you've come to the right place. There's no unlock list or codes or anything in here, so if you are looking for that you better go elsewhere. This just has a listing of missions available in mission mode and strategies for beating even the hardest of them. I have been a DDR enthusiast for year and I am happy to finally write my first DDR related FAQ. ----------------------- B) THE BASIC MISSIONS ----------------------- Mission 01 --- Song: Only You - Captain Jack Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 35%-40% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! This is a real basic beginner stage to get you in to mission mode. You have a moderately filled dance gauge so even a few missed arrows will lead to a cleared on this one. Mission 02 --- Song: Simply Being Loved "Somnambulist" - BT Section Start: Around 50% Section End: Around 80% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! Much like the last challenge, this one is another basic beginner stage. The life gauge is on the brink of DANGER, but don't let that worry you. This is the first mission to contain jumps, but they come fairly slow. Clearing this should not be a problem. Mission 03 --- Song: Do Me (H.I.G.E.O Mix) - Mustache Men Section Start: Around 10% Section End: Around 25% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: Clear with more than 3,500,000 points. The trick of getting high scores is nailing perfects and keeping your combo going. This mission has a very simple clear goal considering a perfect combo will nail you 7 million points. There are only 32 steps in this one, so do your best to work with what you have. Mission 04 --- Song: Theme From Enter The Dragon (Notorious Mix) - B3-Project Section Start: Around 65% Section End: Around 75% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: Left Goal: Get the following results more than 20 times in total: PERFECT, GREAT. The first mission with a modifier and it really doesn't even make a difference. You have 28 steps in this one. Just keep 20 of them accurate enough for even a great, and you'll get it. No problem. Mission 05 --- Song: Go West - Pet Shop Boys Section Start: Around 35% Section End: Around 75% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! Another real simple opener. You have 52 steps and a decently filled meter. If for some reason you fail, practice is the only thing to help. Mission 06 --- Song: Scorching Moon - Shawn the Horny Master Section Start: Around 10% Section End: Around 20% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. Only 28 onbeat steps make this challenge incredibly easy. There isn't much of a strategy to it, just stay as accurate as possible. Mission 07 --- Song: You're Not Here - Heather Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 20% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: Get more than 20 PERFECT results. The first mission requiring you to perfect attack isn't all too difficult. With 42 steps total, you only need perfects on less than half of them. Even if you are no good at getting perfects, this one should be simple. Mission 08 --- Song: Music (Bosck Radio Edit) - Darude Section Start: Around 65% Section End: Around 95% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: Little Goal: Clear the song with a Letter Grade of AAA, AA, A or B. Don't let the standard difficulty fool you. With the little modifier on this plays more like a light challenge. Even if you break your combo, an A or B should be simple enough to get. Mission 09 --- Song: I'm For Real - Slake Section Start: Around 65% Section End: Around 97% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: Little Goal: Get O.K. on all freeze arrows. Much like the last mission, the standard difficulty doesn't mean much here. Since the only goal is to get OK on freeze arrows, the other steps aren't quite as much of a necessity. Just make sure you hit enough so you don't fail the song. This song has 19 freezes, so be ready for them. And just for some lovely trivia, I can't stand this song. Mission 10 --- Song: Like A Virgin - tama_happytone Section Start: Around 15% Section End: Around 50% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Dark Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. We're movin' up now! 2 stars difficulty here we come. Why the 2 stars you ask? Well because there is no place for our steps! The grid where you line up the steps is gone and you'll have to rely on your ears for the most part. The steps for this are pretty simple so it shouldn't be much of a problem. If you are having problems, try turning up the volume and just stepping by sound instead of the arrows. Mission 11 --- Song: Kick the Can - Bus Stop Section Start: Around 70% Section End: End of song Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: Don't step on any arrows simultaneously. So what does this goal mean, you ask? Skip any two foot steps or jumps you have to do in this mission. There are 21 jumps and all of them should be skipped. Yes, missing them does affect your meter so it is necessary to make up for it by nailing as many regular steps as possible. In this mission it won't be a big deal, but in future missions it is essential. Mission 12 --- Song: Wonderland (UKS Mix) - X-Treme Section Start: Around 15% Section End: Around 55% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Little, Reverse Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. A simple enough stream for this mission. It's a 2 star difficulty because it brings in the wonders of reverse scroll! *APPLAUSE* I for one hate reverse scroll, but it's just something we're going to have to learn sooner or later. The trick is to realize that when scrolling opposite, the mind likes to play tricks and get location of arrows mixed up. With practice, this becomes less each time. For this mission, reverse shouldn't screw you up much. Simple and easy introduction to the modifier. Mission 13 --- Song: .59 - dj TAKA Section Start: Around 50% Section End: End Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Little Goal: Play so that the Dance Gauge is below 10% when you finish. Don't you love games where the goal is to play poorly? Surprisingly, it takes a lot of skill to play so horribly. Just skip a bunch of steps at the beginning until you are close to failing. How close you want to be probably is figured by your skill level. Just keep it down as low as you can without failing. If it seems to great near the end, just start skipping steps as you hear the end of the song starting. Mission 14 --- Song: Peace-Out - dj nagureo Section Start: Around 20% Section End: Around 97% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Get N.G. on all freeze arrows. Don't let the heavy difficulty fool you. This song isn't too difficult. The key to getting a N.G. on a freeze arrow is to play the arrow like a regular step. It is crucial to at least hit the start of every freeze or it will be instant game over. Treat freezes like a regular step and you have this in the bag. Mission 15 --- Song: The Reflex - Duran Duran Section Start: Around 70% Section End: Around 98% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Hidden Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. Ooooh...This modifier is ugly. Lucky for us, The Reflex has some simple patterns on light. The key to this is watching the arrows in the middle and then listening to the music for your timing. Since this isn't exactly a difficult song, it is perfect for learning this. Try to master this skill as it will become essential in missions to come. Mission 16 --- Song: There You'll Be - DJ Speedo feat. Angelica Section Start: Around 50% Section End: Around 80% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: x2, Little Goal: Don't get the following results more than 4 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. It's time to pick up the pace! Not only does this song have a faster BPM, but the arrows have a double scroll speed. What this means is you will have less time to react to arrows, but they will also be further spread apart. The thing about speed modifiers is they don't actually change the arrows. They just separate them far enough so they are easier to read, but require a greater reaction time. The steps in this mission are still pretty quick and there are a few jumps and freeze arrows to catch too. Overall it isn't too difficult though. Mission 17 --- Song: Don't Clock Me - Popula Demand feat. The Get Fresh Girls Section Start: Around 75% Section End: End Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Column Goal: Don't get the following results more than 2 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. As far as I know the odd modifier used for this stage doesn't have an official name. For purposes of this FAQ, I will call it column. In this modifier, the arrows are all toppled on top of each other so instead of hitting arrows based on a knowledge of location, you are hitting arrows based on the direction it points. It requires some quick reaction times since you will have to think about what arrow to hit instead of just the column it is in. This song is real easy though for using this modifier, so you shouldn't have any problems. Mission 18 --- Song: Miracle - St. Jennario Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 25% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: x2, Sudden Goal: Don't get the following results more than 4 times in total: N.G., GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. The sudden modifier. Also a feared modifier in the DDR world, it causes arrows to scroll from the center of the screen instead of the bottom. This requires much faster reflex times. To top it off, in this mission the arrows are also scrolling at double speed. Thanks Konami! Luckily, the difficulty of this song is not very great, so it will be more of an introduction than a challenge. Mission 19 --- Song: 321 Stars - DJ Simon Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 80% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Step on 1/8 beat unit arrows with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. Don't step on other arrows. 1/8th arrows? What are these?! Luckily Konami has color coded these for us. You might want to learn what they are though, because in future levels they won't be color coded. Step on the blues, ignore the reds...simple as that. As for the Heavy difficulty, it's more like a Standard level when you have to ignore all the other arrows. Mission 20 --- Song: Love Love Sugar - dj TAKA feat. NORIA Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 15% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: You can only step on arrows simultaneously. Step on two arrows simultaneously with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. 3 Stars? Don't get discouraged. This mission requires you to skip all non jumping arrows. This means all those regular steps mean nothing. The key is to realize that most of the double step arrows are offbeat. Once you get how they go, it's a very simple mission. Mission 21 --- Song: Believe - Eddie.J Section Start: Around 70% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Clear the song with a Letter Grade of C. While this may seem simple by looks, it means you have to get exactly a C. AAA, AA, A, B and D all mean nothing in this mission. You're going to have to throw a lot of steps while still keeping your meter alive and not falling down to a D level. To give you an idea of the stats you'll need, I passed this mission with 36 Perfects, 27 Greats, 11 Goods, 12 Almosts and 8 Boos. Obviously this is not the only solution and there are probably hundreds of combinations that would still give you a C. Just try to be crappy, but not too crappy. Mission 22 --- Song: Make It Better - Mitsu-O! Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 30% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Flat Goal: Don't get the following results more than 2 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. The flat modifier takes away all color coding. This means that all steps look exactly the same. This song has quite a few quick step combinations that can be difficult to read for some. If you have problems reading it, just learn the song in the regular game mode with colors and it will be a lot easier fresh in your mind. For this song, arrow location is probably sufficient. Mission 23 --- Song: Drop the Bomb - Scotty D. Section Start: Around 55% Section End: End Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Keep the Dance Gauge below 30%. Being bad is fun! Hit a few steps, miss a few steps. Just keep the meter low in the red without failing and this mission should be over. If you have any problems, just try it again. Once you have a feel for how many steps it takes to fail it becomes much simpler. Usually I just skip 4 or 5 and then hit 10 or 15 and repeat. It depends how well you are scoring though, so keep an eye on the meter. Mission 24 --- Song: Miracle - St. Jennaro Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 25% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Boost Goal: Get the following results more than 75 times in total: PERFECT, GREAT. While I don't think this modifier has an official name either, we will call it boost. What it does is starts the arrows off slow at the bottom and then accelerates them as they reach the top of the screen. It gives it almost a reverse Star Wars opening credits effect (NERD ALERT!!). Since there are 91 steps here, getting 75 of them should not be a problem. Once again, if you are having problems reading take a shot at the song without any modifiers and then come back to it immediately while it is fresh in your mind. Pattern recognition is a good way to get past tough missions. Mission 25 --- Song: Mobo Moga - Orange Lounge Section Start: Around 15% Section End: Around 60% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Clear with between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 points. The first mission that took me a fair amount of tries. Falling within a low scoring target is not a simple task. My statistics were 15 Perfects, 33 Greats, 16 Goods, 10 Almosts, 9 Boos, 2 OKs. I found it easiest to miss steps until I was about to lose and then great attack arrows until my meter was back up to miss a few more. This strategy got me about 2.6 million. I wouldn't worry too much about undershooting the target, just try not to get too many perfects. Congratulations! You have completed missions 1-25! Once all of these are unlocked, you will have access to another 25 missions! Hooray! ----------------------- C) THE NORMAL MISSIONS ----------------------- Well, you've made it to the stage 26. Can you keep it up? Mission 26 --- Song: A Stupid Barber - Sho-T Section Start: Around 30% Section End: Around 60% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: DLRU Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! Ohno! What is going on? The DLRU modifier, as I am going to call it, changes the order of the arrow columns. Instead of your usual left down up right pattern we get down left right up. This is extremely disorienting as you have to focus on the direction of the arrows instead of their physical location on the screen. Once again, this is a good introduction because you can make a lot of mistakes and still pass this mission. If you are having problems, there isn't much you can do in this case except practice. Mission 27 --- Song: Never Ending Story (Power Club Vocal Mix) - DJ AC-DC Section Start: Around 85% Section End: Around 98% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 2 Star Modifiers: Column Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. Remember that crazy modifier back on the Don't Clock Me mission? It has made its return. In this one, the arrows come a lot faster and you can only miss 3 of them. Just concentrate on the top of the arrows and stay ahead of them enough so you aren't rushing to figure out what they are. I like to concentrate on the center of the screen with minimal memorization so I can be ready for them when they finally arrive at the top. This requires you to pay attention to the music a little closer, but it makes things a whole lot easier, especially later on. Mission 28 --- Song: Higher (Next Morning Mix) - NM feat. Sunny Section Start: Around 20% Section End: Around 30% Difficulty: Challenge Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Slow Goal: Don't get the following results more than 2 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. New modifier! What the heck is going on with that music? It appears our vocalist has turned in to a man. Either that, or the music has slowed down. This can actually be used to our advantage as the stream is slow enough to bring it down to about a standard difficulty. Just pound out the 48 step stream only making a mistake or two and this mission is yours. Mission 29 --- Song: Can't Stop Fallin' In Love (Speed Mix) - Naoki Section Start: Around 35% Section End: Around 87% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: LUDR Goal: Don't step on the up arrow. Step on other arrows, or two arrows simultaneously with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. I don't know about you, but to me this mission is a pain. there are a few ways to look at missions like this. You can either: A) do your best to ignore the column of arrows which works fine for some people. B) do something physically to your mat/controller to prevent yourself from hitting the up arrow. C) be a big fat cheater and head over to the cheap strategies section and check out the "Paper Trick". The choice is up to you. If you are one of the many that can simply ignore the arrows, doing it the legit way is very satisfying. The LUDR modifier really doesn't affect it too much, pending you are concentrating so much on direction the arrows are in anyways. Mission 30 --- Song: Pink Rose - Kiyommy + Seiya Section Start: Around 65% Section End: End Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: x5, Shuffle Goal: Clear with more than 5,000,000 points. x5 is pretty fast. Be prepared for some fast flying arrows. The fact that they are on shuffle means they have been reorganized to not the default pattern, but one of a few select patterns. This means either you can bother to learn all the shuffle patterns or simply just concentrate on the fast scrolling arrows. They may be coming at x5, but if you have any experience with the faster of DDR songs, this shouldn't be to much of a problem. 5,000,000 is still pretty generous for missing quite a few arrows. If you really have a problem reading arrows go play The Legend of Max on light or try songs you know well with speed modifiers to get used to quick scrolling. Mission 31 --- Song: Jet World - Mutsuhiko Izumi Section Start: Around 92% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Dark Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. A Full Combo is achieved by stepping on all arrows with PERFECT or GREAT results. Yikes, its time to full combo a technical section of a heavy song. This section goes with the music extremely well so use your ears and hit the arrows with the melody of the music. A lot easier than it may first appear. Keep this mission in the back of your mind too because later you're going to have to do the exact same thing in a much more difficult environment. Mission 32 --- Song: Keep on Movin' - N.M.R. Section Start: Beginning Section End: End Difficulty: Edit Steps Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! This is just like passing a regular ol' song in the normal game mode. The only trick is, the steps are custom made for this mission. It is a fairly draining stepchart, so I hope you have your stamina built up by now. Be ready for a lot of constant stepping with many jumps thrown in. Don't be fooled by some of the jumps as the steps keep coming immediately after a majority of them. Mission 33 --- Song: Tsugaru - RevenG and DE-SIRE Section Start: Around 2% Section End: Around 25% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Slow Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. Much like the Higher (Next Morning Mix) mission a while back, this is a Heavy pattern slowed down for you. This one is much longer but goes with the music so well it shouldn't be a difficulty. 108 steps total, go for a max combo! Mission 34 --- Song: Move Your Feet - Junior Senior Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 40% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Little Goal: Clear with less than 2,000,000 points. Here comes another mission where you have to be horrible. 2,000,000 points is not much to work with, so do your best to hit many goods and stay away from the perfects. Keep your energy bar low, or those points are going to start adding up. Mission 35 --- Song: Wonderland (UKS Mix) - X-Treme Section Start: Around 80% Section End: Around 98% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Sudden Goal: Don't step on the down arrow. Step on other arrows with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. Once again, this is going to require some concentration. If you need serious help, check out the cheap strategies section for the paper trick again. It really can help if you're having problems. This one is going to be more difficult than the last as you need to keep Perfects and Greats going and can't miss any arrows. Also, step on a single down arrow and it's instant loss for you. The sudden modifier as always will make things much more difficult since the arrows are coming from the middle instead of the bottom of the screen. This song has such a constant pattern that much of it could come from memory even. Practice makes perfect! Mission 36 --- Song: V (For Extreme) - dj Taka Section Start: Around 80% Section End: Around 97% Difficulty: Challenge Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. While this song doesn't have modifiers, it appears to be a simplified version of the V steps. This will test your skills as the combinations it gives you are extremely close arrows. This is more practice than difficult as you should get it in a few tries. There isn't any trick to this other than practicing. Mission 37 --- Song: Your Rain (Rage Mix) - Akira Yamaoka feat Mary Elizabeth McGlynn Section Start: Around 5% Section End: Around 50% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Dark Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. A Full Combo is achieved by stepping on all arrows with PERFECT or GREAT results. I found this mission to be the most challenging so far. It gives you a close together pattern, and then turns on Dark. To top it off, you need a full combo to pass this one. Focus most of your energy on first learning the pattern. It really isn't too difficult of a pattern once you know it, even though the steps don't go exactly with the music. Once you have that down, focus on the colors of the arrows. It will help you to tell what beat the arrow is on so you don't accidentally step off beat and lose your combo. I had to try this one a good 25 times, so don't get discouraged. Mission 38 --- Song: Absolute - dj TAKA Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 40% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 4 Stars Modifiers: Change Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. Alright. 4 stars. I hope you are ready. The first thing you may notice is the insane speeding up and slowing down of music. I am going to name this Change for lack of a better term and because the speed is constantly changing. The good news is the steps aren't extremely hard. The other good news is the changing of the speed isn't random. If you fail, the speed changes will remain the same each time. Use this to your advantage if you are having difficulties and figure out where each one is and remember it in the back of your mind. Mission 39 --- Song: B4U - Naoki Section Start: Around 50% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 4 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Don't step on the same direction twice in a row. (Stepping with one foot and stepping with both feet count as different directions.) Ack. You're going to have to deal with this one as there are no little tricks to it. It's easy to get caught up in the wonders of hitting each step twice in a row subconsciously. Keep in mind that as the goal states doing an arrow and then a jump containing that same arrow are not the same direction apparently. This means if you see a right arrow and then a right down jump, this is not two in a row. If you skip the jump section, you will most likely fail the song so remember this rule. B4U has a repetitive enough pattern that remembering where the two in a row arrows are won't be too difficult. All the runs don't have this, so you shouldn't have to worry about hitting the same arrow twice on a run. Mission 40 --- Song: A - D.J. Amuro Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 25% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Hidden Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. While this mission was a huge problem for me, some other people that I was playing it with found it to be not a big deal. The key is to realize exactly how the pattern works. If you have problems with it like me, go in to training mode and get it down. Once you know where the steps go with the song, this becomes a cakewalk. The steps themselves are very simplistic because of the light difficulty. This can also be a problem as you may find yourself going offbeat because of the big gaps between arrows. Tap your feet to the music to help prevent this. Mission 41 --- Song: Drop Out (From Nonstop Megamix) - NW260 Section Start: Around 85% Section End: End Difficulty: Challenge Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: x1.5, Shuffle Goal: Step on 1/4 beat unit arrows with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. Don't step on other arrows. The key to this mission is knowing what arrows to step on. I'll help you out with that part. Shuffle mode does make it a little more difficult, but when you know the trick, a few tries should do it. First of all, the 1/4th beats are at the start of each run. For example, if your pattern looks like -> ^ -> ^ <- v <- v, you'd want to hit the first right arrow and the first left arrow. At one point it will try to trick you and give you the same run twice in a row and your brain will want to switch to a different arrow. Don't fall for it! Also, focusing on the color of the arrows can sometimes help you. This can also be risky because the color of the arrows change as the song goes on by default. Either way, this is a mission that is much easier with practice and once you get it you'll realize exactly how easy it is. If you are better as a foot tapper, as you tap each beat that is the arrow you want to hit. Mission 42 --- Song: So In Love - Caramel.S Section Start: Beginning Section End: End Difficulty: Edit Steps Mission Difficulty: 4 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! The Dance Gauge will not increase. Stamina! If you don't have it, this is going to be a nightmare. The custom steps turn this song in to one giant run of over 300 steps. If you haven't built up much stamina, this could be difficult as there are zero breaks in it. To top it all off, your dance gauge starts half full and never increases. Every time you miss a step, you are closer to failing with zero chance of redeeming your mistake. The runs are fairly repetitive so they shouldn't be hard to read at least. Its all just a matter of practice and stamina. Mission 43 --- Song: Kick The Can - Bus Stop Section Start: Around 30% Section End: Around 50% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 4 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Get the following results more than 25 times each: PERFECT, GREAT, GOOD. At first appearance, this may seem to be a standard max combo mission. The trick is, it's not. This is a very hard mission which requires you to get at least 25 of each PERFECT, GREAT and GOOD. The real challenge comes in getting the 25 Goods as they are the most difficult to achieve. Because of this, you will probably have an easier time if you just try to get as many goods as possible throughout the entire song. If you find yourself lacking Perfects or Greats after you seem to have enough Goods just switch gears. This one required around 20 attempts for me, so just keep giving it a try. Draco Legend from GameFAQs says: Nice Mission mode faqs, but though I'd just say something about the mission 43, the Kick the Can mission where you're to obtain at least 25 Goods, Greats, and Perfects. I found it way easier just PAing the first part for a 25-27 combo to get the perfects and then good attacking after. That way I could ignore the perfects for the rest of the song and concentrate on the goods. Wasn't really concerned with greats as I would always be getting those while trying to get goods. When trying goods first, I always lost count of how many of each step I had. Just saying. Might be helpful for others...=/ Mission 44 --- Song: JaneJana - T.E.M.P.O. feat Mohammed&Emi Section Start: Around 77% Section End: End Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 4 Stars Modifiers: Hidden, Reverse Goal: Don't get the following results more than 2 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. Like all Hidden missions, if you are having problems, you should resort to practicing the song in training mode until you get the pattern down. For this song, the steps are offbeat at times which is one of the reasons it appears to be very difficult at first. The song actually has an easy to remember pattern that can be played by ear, so learn it well. Nothing more than practice to nail this mission. Mission 45 --- Song: Tsugaru (Apple Mix) - RevenG and DE-SIRE Section Start: Around 40% Section End: Around 45% Difficulty: Challenge Mission Difficulty: 4 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Get more than 45 PERFECT results. Perfect attack time! This one teaches you the skill of galloping. Galloping is a technique many heavy/challenge songs use in which you plant one foot immediately before the other. It gives off an appearance of a gallop and is a lot of fun to do. Take the song and look at it as a bunch of two step combinations one after another. Each gallop goes from one arrow to another and are separated by about a beat. If you are still having problems after my explanation, go in to training mode and pick regular Tsugaru on Heavy. Keep going down until you find the section that looks similar to this mission and try it over and over until you understand how it works. Getting 45 Perfects should be much easier when the gallop has been learned. Mission 46 --- Song: Maximizer - Cli-Max S Section Start: Beginning Section End: 45% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: x2, Reverse Goal: Don't get a 4 Combo or above. Many peoples first look at Maximizer is an odd one. The goal of this mission is to stay below a combo of 4. You can't just skip all the steps as you must keep your dance gauge alive. In order to do this, it is best to do a combo of 3 and then skip a step. Some people may find themselves hitting combos of 4 when they do this, so feel free to skip extra steps if necessary. The dance gauge is very generous so you can skip a lot of steps and still pass. Because this mission is on light difficulty, the reverse scroll should not be a problem. Remember that in DDR Extreme a simultaneous arrow step only counts towards a combo of 1. Mission 47 --- Song: La Senorita - Captain.T Section Start: Around 60% Section End: Around 80% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 5 Stars Modifiers: x1.5 Goal: Step on 1/8 beat unit arrows with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. Don't step on other arrows. Because of the length of this segment, I won't be able to explain the whole thing. The key is to know you are stepping on the offbeat arrows starting with the first arrow on the left. Use this to keep following the pattern throughout the song. You can always follow the colors of the arrows, but remember that they change as the song progresses so it could come back to trip you up. Trial and error is a good strategy for this also. You can miss a few steps, so use that to your advantage if need be. This is the first 5 star mission and one of the hardest ones on the first page. Mission 48 --- Song: Drop Out Section Start: Around 15% Section End: Around 25% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 5 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Clear the song with a Letter Grade of A. The good news is getting an A is not too difficult. The bad news is this is the fast section of Drop Out with lots of jumping. If you can't do quick jumps, this will be a nightmare. Once you have mastered quick jumping, just miss one step to break your combo and get an A. When having troubles jumping, missing a few could still get you an A so keep that in mind. Another mission where there are no tricks, just practice makes perfect. Mission 49 --- Song: The Legend of Max - ZZ Section Start: Around 95% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 4 Stars Modifiers: x8, Shuffle Goal: Step on all arrows with PERFECT results. Get O.K. on all freeze arrows. MEANWHILE BACK AT KONAMI HEADQUARTERS: Guy #1: Let's do some ridiculous challenge involving x8 speed on the hardest song in the game! Guy #2: OK. Ah yes, wasn't that an excellent story? Now back to the mission. In this insane challenge, you must hit the final freeze arrow in Legend of Max on x8 Shuffle. You are going to have to play this by ear as the arrows are virtually invisible. The freeze will appear in one of four spots.... Down+Right, Down+Left, Up+Right and Up+Left. Pick one and hope for a pass. The good news is this mission is an instant AAA so you can tell all your friends you AAA'd Legend of Max on Heavy 8x Shuffle! Mission 50 --- Song: Frozen Ray (For Extreme) - dj TAKA Section Start: Around 50% Section End: Around 70% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 5 Stars Modifiers: RUDL Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. A Full Combo is achieved by stepping on all arrows with PERFECT or GREAT results. Doesn't this combination work out perfectly? Either practice until you get it down perfect or just be cheap and use the turn trick down in the cheap strategies section. Both will get you the same results, its all up to you now. Congrats! You have completed missions 26-50 unlocking the final missions (dun dun dunnnnn) Now its time to really show the world what you've got. There are tough missions ahead so be prepared. --------------------- D) THE HARD MISSIONS --------------------- It's time for real legends to be made. The missions from here on out are no easy feat and only the best players can finish them all. On another note, all difficulties have been reset meaning 1s in here are much more difficult than 1s in the earlier missions. Mission 51 --- Song: Wonderland (UKS Mix) - X-Treme Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 15% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: None Goal: Clear the song with a Letter Grade of AAA or AA. AA means you not only will have to full combo this song, but get a large amount of perfects. Too many greats will mean failure and if you get a good or worse, just start over as its impossible to get an AA. The song itself is a simplistic stream, so as long as you are accurate, this one should come easy. Mission 52 --- Song: Love Love Sugar - dj TAKA feat. Noria Section Start: Around 50% Section End: Around 80% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: Flat, Boost Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. Flat and Boost is not the best combination, but the patterns go enough with the music that a full combo will come after a few tries. As always, if flat is giving you a problem you can check in to training mode and practice the section out. The boost status is not too much of a threat, but can mix with the flat to mess with your mind sometimes. Mission 53 --- Song: Make It Better - mitsu-O! Section Start: Around 80% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: Sudden Goal: You can only step on arrows simultaneously. Step on two arrows simultaneously with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. The jumps in this song come really close and can sneak up on you due to the sudden modifier. The jump patterns begin as simple alternating with single steps, but after a few jumps you will find that there are extra jumps thrown in between. The pattern usually goes 1 jump, 1 single, 3 jumps. Just keep an eye on the tricks it throws you. Practice the ending to be sure the awkward jumps don't make you lose seconds before victory. All of the steps are onbeat, so timing should not be a problem. Mission 54 --- Song: Funk Boogie - Funk Kid feat. Kool Boys Section Start: Around 65% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: Column Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. Yuck, the difficulties of the column modifier begin here. There is not much to this one except practicing it and getting it down. I failed it 10 times before finally passing it as some of the quick patterns can stop you dead in your tracks. If you keep your mind on the game, this mission can be a lot easier than it seems. Sadly, if you want to be cheap you will have to dig real deep to find a stepchart as this game just came out and these things take time. Mission 55 --- Song: Ecstasy (Midnight Blue Mix) - d-complex Section Start: Around 65% Section End: Around 80% Difficulty: Challenge Mission Difficulty: 1 Star Modifiers: Shuffle, Flat Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. The key to this is practicing in training mode. The flat arrows are a pain to read if you don't know the patterns and shuffle mixed in to it makes it a lot harder as theres more to think about. Most of the steps are offbeat and tend to go in a "triplet" fashion. Even with flat on, I managed this one on my first try, but everyone has a different style so what is easy for me may be difficult for you. Mission 56 --- Song: Highs Off U (Scorccio XY Mix) - 4 Reeel Section Start: Around 80% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Don't step on the down arrow. Step on other arrows with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. The whole missing arrows thing gets extremely tricky starting with this mission. In fact, this is where I invented the paper trick that can be found in the cheap strategies section. After 30 tries, I simply could not concentrate enough to do this mission and decided to just cover the column on the tv physically. One try later, I had it passed. If you have the concentration required to ignore the down arrows on your own, then you most likely don't need a strategy as the rest is a fairly simple stream. Everyone else who is having difficulties, I suggest covering the column on the TV with paper. It really does wonders. Mission 57 --- Song: Do Me (H.I.G.E.O Mix) - Mustache Men Section Start: Around 3% Section End: Around 20% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Hidden Goal: Don't get the following results more than 2 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. This one originally had me pulling out my hair. A whopping 35 tries I recorded until I learned my fault... The steps change beat after a while. After studying a stepchart, I played the song once in game mode and it became obvious how the pattern went. Much like the last song, it is instant relief and I finished it immediately after. If you know how the song goes, this becomes simple. Just remember when practicing that this mission is not on Heavy, but Standard. Mission 58 --- Song: Higher - NM feat. Sunny Section Start: Around 30% Section End: Around 60% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Brake Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. This modifier is something that is painful to watch as you find yourself constantly rushing arrows. The most important thing to do on this one is to either A) use a stepchart, B) practice in training mode and learn the patterns or C) sightread it and play by ear/color. The A method can be found in the cheap strategies section. The B method is self explanatory and the C method is a bit more difficult. The C method is hard because it is very easy to rush arrows. If you look at them by a color pattern and then play them by ear, you will find yourself having a much easier time comboing, pending you can remember the order the arrows belong in. If you are playing by sight as well, be sure to not rush the arrows as it is very easy to do when they are so tight together. This mission will take practice, so do your best to learn your method of choice. Mission 59 --- Song: Kids In America - Kim Wilde Section Start: Around 50% Section End: Around 80% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Reverse, Sudden Goal: Get N.G. on all freeze arrows. Practice your skills on reading sudden arrows and stay light on your feet. The easiest way to get N.G.s is to pretend they are regular steps. Be sure to hit all the arrows or you will fail and be sure to not have them go to the point of an OK. The patterns in this song are not too difficult to follow, so reverse and sudden will only be a threat the first few times when you don't know precise patterns. Mission 60 --- Song: Frozen Ray (for Extreme) - dj TAKA Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 20% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: x0.5, Flat Goal: Don't get the following results more than 2 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. PRACTICE THIS SONG FIRST. Flat is extremely difficult on this song and learning the patterns is crucial. Many points use either gallops or streams and it is impossible to tell the difference at x0.5 speed with the arrows being flat. Once you have the stuff memorized, it still tends to be a difficult mission. If you don't want to take the time to do that, a stepchart will do you wonders here. Mission 61 --- Song: Ecstasy - d-complex Section Start: Around 10% Section End: Around 30% Difficulty: Light Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Sudden, Hidden Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. The trick to this mission is that the arrows will only appear in the middle of the screen because they are hidden from the bottom and suddenly disappear on the top. Lucky for you, the difficulty on this song is only light and all the steps go on the thumpin bass beat easily. This mission should be no problem, just make sure to watch out for the few beats that are skipped. If you continue having problems with this mission, just practice it in training or game mode. Real simple patterns to understand. Mission 62 --- Song: Move Your Feet - Junior Senior Section Start: Around 15% Section End: Around 60% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Boomerang Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. Get O.K. on all freeze arrows. I like to call this modifier the boomerang effect. The arrows will bounce up and down along the screen as they go to the top. This is very disorienting and can be extremely difficult to read without practice. Learn the song. Know it. Whatever it takes just know exactly what the pattern matches in relation to the song. This mission is much easier if you go in to it knowing the material. I also would like to say I love this modifier and wish it would be in game mode. Mission 63 --- Song: You're Not Here - Heather Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 20% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Get more than 25 GOOD results. Get O.K. on all freeze arrows. Depending on how your good attacking skills are, this mission can either be very simple or a killer. The problem is while you are good attacking the single arrows, the freeze arrows have to be all OKed so you can't stay off beat for them. Once you have your offbeat pattern down, this becomes a lot easier since the section is just the same arrows over and over with an extra step thrown in occasionally. If you have huge problems, sometimes turning the sound off or down can make it easier to get goods. Just experiment with your best way to get goods and stick with it...theres still another mission like this ahead so this will be good practice. Mission 64 --- Song: A - D.J. Amuro Section Start: Around 70% Section End: Around 95% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: x1.5 Goal: Keep the Dance Gauge below 20%. Theres a couple different strategies for this one that may help you. Either you can perfect attack, miss some arrows until your gauge falls and then repeat or you can try good attacking the whole thing. Neither are easy as this section is the fast stream at the end of A. I found it best to mix the two strategies and good attack and when I got too many perfects miss a few steps to let my meter fall. The stream itself is fairly easy to follow as the modifier can actually help you in this situation, so practice more on being bad then learning the song. Mission 65 --- Song: i feel... - Akira Yamaoka Section Start: Beginning Section End: End Difficulty: Edit Steps Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! The Dance Gauge will not increase. Yuck Yuck Yuck. I for one hate these steps. The key to this song is that most the steps are in fact freeze arrows. Missing a freeze arrow really packs a punch to your Dance Gauge so you can only miss a few the whole time. The steps themselves are not very difficult. The mission difficulty is because they make you hold awkward freezes while throwing regular steps at you. There is no trick to this but practice, unless you want to cheat so much to find another person to take two arrows for you. That is a bit disturbing and not going to help you a whole lot though. Oh yeah, and to top it all off your dance gauge doesn't start very high. GOOD LUCK! Mission 66 --- Song: PARANOiA MAX ~Dirty Mix~ - 190 Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 20% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Clear the song with a Letter Grade of B. The starting level of the Dance Gauge is lower. I did not have many problems with this mission. The strategy I went with was Perfect Attacking until my meter was around 20% and then letting it fall and repeat. My ending stats were 43 perfects, 25 greats, 6 goods, 0 almosts and 12 boos. My max combo was a 20 and my score was around the 4.5 million mark. Use these numbers as a basis but as with all letter grades you have a large gap to fall into. Mission 67 --- Song: Only You - Captain Jack Section Start: Beginning Section End: Around 30% Difficulty: Standard Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Column Goal: Step on all arrows with PERFECT results. Don't let the column modifier scare you away. The steps for this song are not difficult at all and consist of basic patterns. The difficult part is that you have to get an AAA on this section. The key is to not rush steps as it can be very nerve racking trying to get all perfects. With practice, this mission becomes simple. Mission 68 --- Song: The Legend of Max - ZZ Section Start: Around 40% Section End: Around 65% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: x0.5, Little Goal: Don't get the following results more than 3 times in total: GOOD, ALMOST, BOO. Intimidating? Yes! Difficult? Not too bad. In the first of a series of heavy difficulty Legend of Max missions, this one is the easiest. First of all, the little modifier gives us some breathing room for this mission. It also makes all the steps onbeat. The x0.5 modifier is a little bit trickier as the arrows tend to be so jammed together they can be difficult to read at parts. Play this in practice mode if you are having difficulties and it will be much easier. Just make sure you practice it in little mode so you don't practice things that aren't actually in the mission. Mission 69 --- Song: Bad Routine - D.J. Spugna Section Start: Around 10% Section End: Around 35% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Clear with between 4,000,000 and 4,100,000 points. Another one of those missions that will be easy or impossible, this mission forces you to have your score fall between two tight scores. I found it easiest to do my worst without failing and then at the end if my score was too low I would perfect attack. This is another one of those "practice until you get a feel of the score boundary" missions. There isn't much else you can do. Mission 70 --- Song: B4U (B4 ZA Beat Mix) - Naoki Section Start: Beginning Section End: End Difficulty: Edit Steps Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Don't get the following results more than 4 times in total: ALMOST, BOO. STREAM! STREAM STREAM STREAM!!! If you still don't have good stamina, you are screwed now buddy! This is a long and tiring stream that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. You get no breaks. The only break you get is the ability to hit goods and not mess with your goal. If you feel like you are going to die when playing this on a mat and really want to get past it, just use a controller. Your legs will thank you. If you insist to use a mat, practice makes perfect and if your stamina is already good, you have this one in the bag. Mission 71 --- Song: Never Ending Story (Power Club Vocal Mix) - DJ AC-DC Section Start: Around 40% Section End: Around 60% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Column, Reverse, Boost Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. Hi. My name is Mission 71. I like to pile ridiculous modifiers on top of each other to make a difficult mission. This mission is not much fun and I resorted to using a step chart to pass it (see cheap strategies section). Either way, if you memorize the patterns, you'll get the same effect without being cheap so practice until you know it. Site reading all these modifiers at once is not easy at all so you need to come in knowing the steps. Theres still another column mission to come, so don't think you are out of the water quite yet. Mission 72 --- Song: FireFly - BeForU Section Start: Around 50% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: Change Goal: If your Dance Gauge runs out then it's game over! The Dance Gauge will not increase. This mission amuses me to no end. Something about the way the vocals change when they're randomly speeding up and slowing down is hilarious. If you are having problems with this mission, learn where the speed changes happen so you can anticipate them. This mission is not quite as difficult as the ones around it, so if you are trying to pick a mission to do, this is a good one. Mission 73 --- Song: Drop Out (From Nonstop Megamix) - NW260 Section Start: Around 85% Section End: End Difficulty: Challenge Mission Difficulty: 2 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Don't step on the down arrow. Step on other arrows with the following results: PERFECT, GREAT. Depending on your skill level, this is another simple or difficult mission. This mission is in fact where the paper trick was invented so feel free to use it. It can be found in the cheap strategies section. Even with that trick, this mission can still be difficult as the steps are extremely fast and you can not miss a single one. Yet again, learning the steps and getting your stamina up to hit them is the best strategy for this. Mission 74 --- Song: JaneJana - T.E.M.P.O. feat Mohammed & Emi Section Start: Around 75% Section End: End Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Hidden, Flat Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. The good news is, this song has many repeating patterns. The bad news is, the end is pretty complicated on flat at times. The stepchart trick works extremely well on this mission if you want to check out some cheap strategies, but if you want to play it legit you are going to have to learn the patterns to heart. For the most part, this mission is not as difficult as it seems. Most of the patterns do repeat and the end part matches the music almost perfectly. Guess what? Practice makes perfect yet again. Mission 75 --- Song: Drop Out - NW260 Section Start: Around 15% Section End: Around 30% Difficulty: Edit Steps Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: Sudden Goal: Clear with a Full Combo. 62 quick jumps at your disposal. Definitely not an easy mission and you can't practice the steps because they are edit steps. Learn the patterns by trial and error as it is your only true option. The jumps have an easy enough pattern that memorizing them isn't too difficult. Good luck. Mission 76 --- Song: .59 - dj TAKA Section Start: Around 5% Section End: Around 30% Difficulty: Heavy Mission Difficulty: 3 Stars Modifiers: None Goal: Clear with between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 points. So we begin the second half of our hard mission journey. This is not a good start mission. Getting a low score on this song is extremely difficult and will require you to do very poorly while not failing. Do not worry about doing too poorly as it is near impossible. You're going to have to good attack it seeing as perfects and then boos will not work in this case. Too many perfects and greats will usually end you 500,000 points too high or so. Practice being crappy, and this mission will be yours. Mission 77 --- Song: Ladies Night -