Playing a song
How Block Band scores you. Hit timing, streaks and the multiplier, overdrive, stars, the crowd meter, No Fail and the sound options.
Difficulties
| Difficulty | Lanes | Biggest chord |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 3 | 1 note |
| Medium | 3 | 2 notes |
| Hard | 4 | 2 notes |
| Expert | 5 | 3 notes |
Built-in songs and songs from MIDI and Note Block Studio files are charted automatically, and the same song always gives the same chart. Easier difficulties keep fewer notes, further apart. Songs with hand-made charts use those charts as they are.
Hitting notes
A note counts if you play it within 80 ms of the line, and it’s a perfect within 40 ms. When you miss, your instrument drops out of the music until you hit again, just as it does in a real band.
Score and multiplier
- 25 points for each note (each pad on drums), plus 12 points for each beat you hold a long note.
- Your multiplier goes up by one for every 10 notes in a row, to a maximum of 4x. Missing resets it.
- Overdrive doubles everything, up to 8x.
Overdrive
Notes in overdrive phrases glow blue-white. Hit every note of a phrase and it fills a quarter of your overdrive bar (on the right of the highway). Once the bar is at least half full, press the overdrive key to double your score until it drains: each quarter of the bar lasts 8 beats.
In a band, overdrive also saves bandmates who have failed out, and two or more players setting it off together earn a unison bonus. See Band mode.
Stars
Stars compare your score with the song: it’s what you’d get by hitting every note with no multiplier.
- 1 to 3 stars come from hitting most of the notes.
- 4 and 5 stars need long streaks (a high multiplier) and good use of overdrive.
- Beyond 5 stars are gold stars.
The meter and No Fail
The meter beside the highway (green, yellow, red) goes up as you hit notes and down when you miss. With No Fail off, the song ends if it reaches the bottom. No Fail is on by default; change it in Settings. In a band, the leader decides.
Sound
- Studio (the default) plays recorded audio, with each instrument its own track.
- Minecraft plays the same songs live on note blocks.
Switch between them on the song list. The music plays on Minecraft’s Jukebox/Note Blocks volume slider, and Minecraft’s own background music stays quiet while a song is on.
The concert camera
While you play in a world, the camera cuts between shots of you (and your band) like a music video. Turn it off in Settings with Concert camera if you’d rather see the world as normal. Darken the world behind sets how much the world dims behind the highway.
Pausing
Press Esc to pause, restart or quit. In a band, Esc opens a menu instead and the song carries on for everyone else.
Your best scores
Your best score for every song, instrument and difficulty is kept on your computer and shown on the song list. On a server with Block Band, Top scores in the menu shows the server’s best players. See Band mode.