Guide to Scoring and Ranked Play in Beat Saber

Every time you hit a block in Beat Saber, a score is given between 1 and 115.

• 100 of the points are based on your swing-angle. A perfect hit will have a pre-swing angle of at least 100 degrees, and a follow-through of at least 60 degrees.
  
• 15 of the points are based on how close your cut was to the center of the block.

Try not to over-swing! While going over the 100-60 degree swing-angle will still reward you with maximum points, it is more likely to tire you out and it will make it harder to complete the rest of the song.
Arcs are long beams of light that are used to guide you from one note to another. There is no scoring tied to Arcs themselves, so you are allowed to move your saber however you'd like. On the other hand, notes connected by arcs are scored differently:

• If there is a note is at the beginning of an Arc, a follow-through of 60 degrees is no longer required.
  
• If there is a note at the end of an Arc, a pre-swing of 100 degrees is no longer required.

• For Chain notes, the beginning section of the chain with the arrow will only take accuracy into account (how close your cut was to the center) and your pre-swing angle. This block will give a maximum of 85 points.
  
• Each of the dotted links in the chain is worth 20 points, regardless of how you hit them.

If the Chain note shown in the image was hit perfectly, it would give 165 points; 85 for the starting link and 20 points for each of the 4 following links.

After your Hit Score is calculated, it is multiplied by your current Score Multiplier
The more blocks you hit in a row, the higher your Score Multiplier will be. The multiplier builds to 2x, then to 4x, and caps out at 8x. As an example, if you hit a block for 110 points, and your current Score Multiplier is 4x, the number added to your total score will be 440.
Doing any of the following will instantly halve your current Score Multiplier:

• Missing a block
  
• Slicing a block the wrong direction or with the wrong color (bad cut)
  
• Hitting a bomb
  
• Having your head in a wall for any amount of time

Lowering your Combo Multiplier can quickly put you behind hundreds of points, so it is very important to keep a high combo, even if that means sacrificing some Hit Score accuracy. Accuracy is the percentage of your current score compared to what the score would be if the song was done "perfect" up to that point. Different ranges of accuracy are assigned a letter grade as a quick and easy visual indicator for how you're doing:

• 100% - SSS (practically impossible)
  
• 90-99% - SS
  
• 80-89.99% - S
  
• 65-79.99% - A
  
• 50-64.99% - B
  
• 35-49.99% - C
  
• 20-34.99% - D
  
• Anything below 19.99% - E

Your current accuracy can be viewed in-game if Advanced HUD is enabled in Player Options. Modifiers can be used to make songs easier or harder, which will decrease or increase the score respectively. The amount in which this happens can be viewed when selecting the modifier in the menu.

Most ranked maps do not allow positive modifiers to improve your score (modifiers that make the song harder for a point increase), however all ranked maps allow negative modifiers (modifiers that make the song easier for a point decrease).

In the lower-center of the game's HUD is the health bar. The bar starts at 50% health, and is raised/lowered depending on your performance.

• Every successful hit (regardless of score value) will raise the bar's health +1%
  
• A miss (not hitting a block) will decrease the bar's health -15%
  
• Hitting a bomb will also decrease the bar's health -15%
  
• A bad cut (slicing a block the wrong direction or slicing it with the wrong color) will decrease the bar's health -10%
  
• Having your head in a wall will decrease the bar's health rapidly

  When the bar's health reaches 0, you will fail the level and be exited back to the song-select (or have your score reduced by 50% if using the No Fail modifier)

  

Ranked is an unofficial gamemode achieved through the mod ScoreSaber. If you are unsure how to mod your game, there are many resources online to help you. I recommend this guide for Windows and this guide for Linux.

Only maps that meet the ranking criterias[scoresaber.com] are accepted for ranked play. To view these maps, visit the official ScoreSaber website,[scoresaber.com] or filter by ScoreSaber Ranked in the "Get More Songs" tab in-game.

An alternative mod called BeatLeader is also available, and has been growing in popularity. While this guide will only cover ScoreSaber, the two systems are largely similar and a lot of the information below will apply to both. What players use will come down to preference, though many will opt to run both. If you're looking for more information on BeatLeader specifically, their wiki is a great resource.[beatleader.wiki]

Ranked score is tracked through Performance Points (abbreviated to PP). The more Performance Points you have, the higher on the leaderboard you will be.
Every time you complete a map, you are awarded a certain amount of Performance Points depending on the difficulty of the map played and how well you performed. This number is your raw point value.

Image: Top 5 players on the ScoreSaber Global Leaderboards[scoresaber.com] (August 2021)

However, there is a curve to ranked scores. This curve is calculated using the formula 0.965^(x-1), where x is the position of the song in your profile's ranked leader-board. Your raw point value, when put into this equation, creates the weighted point value. Only your weighted value is added to your total point score.
To simplify, every ranked PP score will be calculated as a percentage of your top score.

Example:

• A player's top score on a map is 200pp. Because it is their top score, they are awarded the full 200 points.
  
• That player's second-to-top raw point value on another map is 180pp. When ran through the curve, the amount awarded to the player's total PP score is 173.7pp, or 96.5% of the raw value.
  
• Their third-to-top raw value is 170pp. Its weighted value is 158.3pp, 93.1% of the raw value.

And so on Your weighted and raw point values can be seen to the right of every ranked song on your ScoreSaber profile.[scoresaber.com] The number is blue in your raw value, while the smaller number in parentheses is your weighted value.

While it can be confusing at times, the Performance Point system is an effective way of competitively ranking players in Beat Saber. It allows players to enjoy a variety of ranked maps, while still making it worth it to go back and improve your bests.

Ranked maps are assigned a Star Rating (★). The Star Rating system is a more precise way of displaying the difficulty of a map than the usual Easy to Expert+ system. Songs with a higher Star Rating will award more PP.

A map's Star Rating can be viewed either on the ScoreSaber page for the map or in-game with the BetterSongList mod.[github.com]

I hope this guide was able to help you. If it did, a rating would be very appreciated! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

The ScoreSaber Team[scoresaber.com] - for kick-starting and maintaining ranked Beat Saber!
The BeatLeader Team[beatleader.xyz] - for maintaining an awesome leaderboard of their own!
You - for reading my guide!