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Mono

All three mono characters.

The Mono characters are characters that have very different gameplay from the other characters. Whereas other characters collect blocks of different colors to make the best matches, Mono characters only have two different kinds of blocks: colored blocks and grey blocks. The goal is to pick up the colored ones whilst avoiding the grey ones. There are three different Mono characters: Mono (Casual), Mono Pro (Pro) and Ninja Mono (Elite).

Mono[]

The regular Mono has no Special Abilities as it is a "casual" (beginner) character.

Character descriptions[]

Character select screen[]

Only 2 block types:

HIT COLORS

DODGE GREY

A relaxed ride

Character info[]

  • Dodge greys, hit colors
  • 30% bonus if you never hit a grey

Mono Pro[]

Mono Pro has the special ability widen, which allows blocks in all three lanes to be picked up at the same time. It can also jump using the right mouse button, which allows it to simply float over grey blocks for about a second.

Character descriptions[]

Character select screen[]

Dodge greys, hit colors. Left click: widen, right click: jump. No shoulder.

Character info[]

  • 30% bonus if you never hit a grey
  • Left click to spread fins
  • Right click to jump
  • Point bonus for consecutive color hits

Ninja Mono[]

Ninja Mono has widen and shurikens which break apart the grey blocks. This is done by clicking the right mouse button, after which the grey blocks disappear from the board and the player loses 11 points. This can also be used to delay a match, so you can collect more blocks for a bigger cluster. If Ninja Mono is played in Ironmode, it loses all of its abilities and the grey blocks disappear on their own, like the other Monos.

Character descriptions[]

Character select screen[]

Hit colors and dodge greys. For a huge bonus, never hit any greys. No shoulder.

Character info[]

  • 30% bonus: dodge all greys
  • Left click to spread fins
  • Right click to shuriken greys
  • Point bonus for consecutive color hits.
  • He states he enjoys long walks on the beach.

Scoring system[]

Because of its different gameplay, the Monos have a unique scoring system. Although not mentioned in its description, the consecutive color hits system also applies to regular Mono.

Consecutive color hits[]

The first colored block you pick up as a Mono character is worth 1 point. After that, with each additional block you pick up, you get more points per block.

  • For regular Mono, the first block is worth 1 point and all subsequent blocks are worth 1 more point than the last (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc) to a maximum of 66 points.
  • For Mono Pro and Ninja Mono, the first block you pick up is worth 1 point and all subsequent blocks are worth 4 more points than the last (1, 5, 9, 13, 17, etc) to a maximum of 200 points.
  • Once you reach the maximum score for hitting a colored block, all subsequent blocks are the maximum score (66 points or 200 points) until you hit a grey block.

Grey blocks[]

Besides colored blocks, there are also grey blocks on the track. These are not matchable and do not give points; whenever the player hits a grey block, their consecutive color scoring is reset. For example, if a regular Mono player would pick up three colored blocks, hit a grey block, then pick up another three colored blocks, they would get 1 point for the first, 2 points for the second, 3 points for the third, hit a grey block, then get only 1 point for the fourth, 2 points for the fifth and 3 points for the sixth. This means that hitting a grey block when the consecutive counter is maxed the player is missing out 561 points on casual and 4950 points on Pro and Ninja. As such, it is very important to avoid the grey blocks as much as possible.

Besides disrupting the consecutive hits scores, grey blocks also clutter up the board, making matches more difficult and eventually even overfilling a column. For both Mono and Mono Pro, the grey blocks that are picked up deteriorate over time. In Ninja Mono, the player has to manually eject the grey blocks by using the shuriken ability.

In Ironmode, Ninja Mono loses the shuriken ability, but grey blocks disappear over time like the other Mono modes. In addition, when a grey block is hit, all color blocks immediately disappear off the board, including currently matching blocks.

Stealth[]

One major advantage for Mono players is Stealth. Stealth is a Mono-exclusive bonus of 30% that you get if you don't hit a single grey block during the entire song. There are also three achievements you can get by getting stealth on Ninja Mono on a song of at least three minutes, seven minutes or 11 minutes.

Matches[]

Like the other characters, Mono characters can also score points by making color clusters. All colored blocks are the same color, so all connected blocks count towards the match. The amount of points you score depends on the amount of blocks in the cluster. The following is the cluster score chart for Ninja Mono on Elite difficulty.

Blocks 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Mono (3.33) 120 243 398 580 786 1010 1251 1504 1768 2041 2316 2585 2846 3097 3337 3567 3787 3997 4200

Criticism[]

A major point of criticism among Mono players is the fact that Mono scores are often low compared to other characters. Because of its simple gameplay, one could get a perfect score by collecting all colored blocks and avoiding all grey blocks. This also means that Mono players have a limit as to how high their scores can be. This is often not enough to compete with other characters, and is at times not even enough to get a gold medal.

Players can add [as-monoonly] to the tag of a song to force the use of Mono characters, but they will only be compared to other players that entered the tag.

Strategies[]

Mono You can get a higher score if you avoid 3-block matches in favor of greater ones.

For example, if you miss 1 block and avoid doing a 3-block match, but then pick up two blocks and do a 4-block match, you will lose at most 66 points from your final scoring. However, a 4-block match has 92 more points than a 3-block match, so you get more points than you missed. This strategy is all the more useful since regular Mono matches disappear faster; it's harder to queue up long ones.

Mono Pro[]

Since Mono Pro has a maximum block score of 200, it's only useful to skip a block if it would make it possible to make a match of 12 blocks or more. This is hard to foresee in practice, so it's easier to simply pick up every block.

Ninja Mono[]

Same as Mono Pro, but matches disappear the slowest. You therefore have more time to queue them up and can worry less about small ones and more about getting a Stealth bonus. A trick you can use, should you fail to attain stealth, is to take advantage of your shuriken ability. Whenever you erase the grey blocks on your board, you RESET the match timer.  Use this to build up larger groups when there are gaps that are just barely too long to combine groups. Since collecting gray boxes also RESETS the match timer, this technique can allow chaining on slower songs where it would otherwise be impossible.

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