Interface and Features (Mobile)

*For information about the Nintendo Switch version, see Interface and Features (Switch).*
*For information about Arcaea's gameplay, see Gameplay.*
This article describes the main features of Arcaea, including menu interfaces and online functionality.

## Main Menu

This is the screen that appears after the title screen, from which all of Arcaea's main game modes and options can be accessed.

Main menu buttons (left):

* **Music Play**: Arcaea's free play mode, where songs can be played without restriction (once they are unlocked).
* **World**: Provides access to World Mode, which consists of various maps that can be played to unlock new content and resources.
* **Story Mode**: Contains Arcaea's various stories.
* **Course Mode**: A series of preselected four chart courses of increasing difficulty.
* **Network** (globe button): Provides access to account login and other online functionality.
* **More**: Selecting this brings up various other features:
	+ **About**: Link to Arcaea's social media, and main game credits.
	+ **Tutorial**: Provides access to Arcaea's Basic and Advanced Tutorials.
	+ **Language**: Option to switch languages between English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Traditional), and Chinese (Simplified).
	+ **Manage Downloads**: Options to download all unlocked song audio/chart files to the device, or to clear the cache.
	+ **Achievements**: Brings up the iOS/Android achievements list.

Status bar (top, from left to right):

* (left) An indicator showing the current menu title.
* (middle) Current player details:
	+ Player name and nameplate. Displays "Guest" if not logged in, or "<OFFLINE>" if network becomes unavailable while logged in.
		- New nameplates can be unlocked in Course Mode. Names can be changed online.
	+ Partner icon showing the currently equipped **Partner**. Selecting this brings up the **Partner Select** screen.
	+ Current player Potential, and worldwide ranking for players in the top 200. Displays "--" if Potential display is disabled from Settings.
* (centre-right) **Settings**: Brings up the Settings popup.
* (right): Indicators for the currently owned Fragments and Memories.
	+ **Fragments**: Shows the number of Fragments in the current stack (max 3 stacks). Selecting this brings up the total Fragments owned over all stacks.
	+ **Memories**: Number of currently owned Memories. Selecting this brings up a menu to purchase new Memories in sets of 100, 510, or 1020 Memories.

Other content:

* (right) Full portrait of the currently equipped partner.
* (lower left) **Scenery Select** menu to change the background image used in the Main Menu and player Profile card. New Scenery can be unlocked in World Mode.
* (lower right) Gallery showing new song and pack updates. Selecting any of the images here will bring up the song or pack in Music Play.

## Settings

The settings popup menu can be accessed from most menu screens by selecting the Settings button in the top status bar.
Settings are divided into three tabs:

* **Gameplay**:
	+ **Pure Late/Early**: Toggle late/early display for 'Pure' timings during gameplay (late/early Far timings show by default).
	+ **Note Speed**: Control the speed at which notes approach. Speeds range from 1.0 to 6.5, in increments of 0.1.
	+ **Show Potential**: Toggle the Potential display next to the Partner icon in the status bar.
	+ **Stamina Notification**: Enable phone notifications when stamina has refilled to 12.
	+ **Skill Display**: Toggle the Partner skill cut-in that shows before song start.
	+ **Pause Type**: Choose how to pause or disable pausing. Options are single tap (the pre-v5.0 default), double tap, long press, or no in-game pause button.

* **Audio**:
	+ **Note Volume**: Adjust the volume of note sound effects. This is disabled when offset is over 100 or under -100.
	+ **Offset**: Adjust audio offset to compensate for audio playback delays (adjust using − for Early, or + for Late). Selecting **Setup** brings up a calibration wizard.
	+ **Audio Preset**: Tap to switch preset for audio setups (i.e. note volume and offset). Two separate presets can be saved.

* **Visual**:
	+ **Colorblind Mode**: Enable to change Arc colours. Enabling this changes red (pink) arcs to yellow, and blue arcs to a slightly different shade of blue.
	+ **FR/PM indicator**: Adjust where the Full Recall/Pure Memory indicators display. Options are under the combo counter, under the song info display in the top right, or no display.
	+ **Late/Early Position**: Adjust the position of the late/early timing display to the top, middle, or bottom of the play screen. Late/early indicators will show in the same horizontally centred location for all three options. Pure/Far/Lost indicators will still show up near the note input location.
	+ **Performance Mode**: Reduces visual effects for low end devices.
	+ **Show Touches**: Display a visual effect on screen touch. Touch effects can be enabled globally, enabled in menus only, or disabled.

## Music Play

This is Arcaea's free play mode, where songs can be played without restriction once they have been unlocked.
The mode is accessible by selecting **Music Play** in the main menu.
Entering Music Play or selecting Play (or Play+ or Traverse) in World Mode will bring up either the Song Select screen or the Pack Select screen, depending on what was last active.

Note that when not logged in, only songs from Arcaea without World Mode requirements can be played.
If the device is logged in but the internet connection is currently inactive, all unlocked songs can be played, but scored will not be saved.

### Song Select

* Song list (right):
	+ Can be scrolled by sliding up or down.
	+ The up/down arrows in the bottom right can be selected to jump to the top/bottom of the song list, or the top of the previous/next song folder if folder grouping is active.
	+ The "RANDOM" button at the end of the song list directs to a random song without selecting it to play.
	+ Certain hidden songs will appear blank or not appear at all until unlocked.

* Song difficulties (top left):
	+ Each song has multiple charts of varying difficulty. The difficulty can be selected from the icons on the upper-left. Icons will include the chart level.
	+ There are four difficulties in this game. In increasing order:
		- Past (PST)
		- Present (PRS)
		- Future (FTR)
		- Beyond (BYD) (not all songs have a BYD chart)
	+ The BYD difficulty selector will be blank for songs with a BYD chart that has not yet been unlocked.
	+ The BYD difficulty selector will not appear for songs with no BYD chart, but the area it would usually occupy can still be selected to access the BYD chart list.
	+ For certain Anomaly/Terminal songs, the chart level will read "?" if the corresponding difficulty has not yet been unlocked.

* Song search, grouping, and sorting (bottom centre-right):
	+ Brings up a popup for song list organisation.
	+ Songs can be searched via the textbox. Search results will match both song titles and artists.
	+ Songs can be sorted by any one of these criteria:
		- Title
		- Difficulty (i.e. level, ascending order)
		- Date (of chart release, ascending order)
		- Grade (descending order; ties are sorted by score)
		- Clear (type, in descending order; ties are sorted by score)
		- Artist
	+ The songs can also be grouped into folders based on any one of these categories (sorting takes place within folders):
		- None (no folders)
		- Version (of chart release)
		- Level
		- Grade
		- Clear (type)
	+ Folder headings will show the total number of charts in that folder (on the currently selected difficulty). The number is shown in yellow/blue if all charts have been completed with Full Recall/Pure Memory.

* Link Play button (bottom centre): Enter the online multiplayer Link Play mode.

* Song jacket (left):
	+ Can be selected to toggle leaderboards (bottom left). The options are no leaderboard, your global ranking, top global rankings, and your ranking among friends.

* Pack select (top centre):
	+ Selecting this button brings up the song pack select screen.
	+ Displays the pack currently being viewed (including All Songs), as well as the number of charts with Full Recall, charts cleared (easy green Clear not counted), and total charts in the pack on the currently selected difficulty.
	+ Cannot be selected when under a Random effect in World Mode.

### Pack Select

* Contains a side-scrolling list of all song packs in the game, including a button for All Songs in the bottom right.
* Packs are categorised with separators into:
	+ Favorites
	+ Memory Archive and Extend Archive
	+ Free packs: Arcaea and World Extend
	+ Story, i.e. Main Story
	+ Side Story
	+ Collaboration
* Selecting a pack brings up the Song Select screen, which will only list songs in the selected pack.
	+ Selecting the Favorites pack without any songs in it will bring up a tutorial on how to use it:

*Slide songs to the right to add them to Favorites*
* Pack icons will show the total number of charts with Full Recall/Pure Memory, charts cleared (easy green Clear not counted), and total charts in the pack.
* Packs that have not been purchased will display a lock icon, and icons showing the Partner/s and Ether Drops that come with the pack.
* Pack Appends are displayed under their respective pack if they have not been bought.

## Gameplay and Results

*Main article: Gameplay § Play Screen / Results Screen*
*See also: Beyond Mechanics, Course Mode*
Selecting a song from Song Select (in Music Play or World Mode) or starting a song in Course Mode brings up the main gameplay screen where charts are played.

Completing a song play brings up the Results screen, which summarises play performance and rewards. Course Mode and World Mode's Lost Chapter: Beyond have their own results screens that differ from the basic Music Play and World Mode Results screen.

## Link Play

Link Play is a multiplayer online game play mode within Music Play added in v3.10.
It is accessed by selecting the Link Play button at the bottom centre of the Song Select screen (see image).
All players can connect online by entering a room code that others have shared or by generating a new one.

Up to 4 players can connect via a single code, and can play songs that every player in the room possesses. Players in a Link Play lobby can play the same song (at different difficulties) in real-time together, fully synchronized.

**(A) Room Code**: A 6-digit code (four alphabet letters + 2 numbers) for a particular lobby. Selecting on the "eye" icon will reveal the code for players to share to other players, and selecting it again will hide it.

**(B) Song Information**: The previous song, its side, song title, composer, and jacket art is shown on the bottom left of the menu, just above the ***Room Options*** menu.

* The current selected partners of each of the players is also shown behind the Song Information tab in the same order shown from top to bottom on the Player List.

**(C) Player List**: A list of the players currently in the lobby, including their player names and selected Partner. Information about their Last Play, viz. Score, Difficulty, Rank and Clear Status are displayed below each player.

A **(D) "High Score"** badge will be displayed over the player who achieved the highest score, *regardless of difficulty*.

A **(E) "Personal Best"** badge is also displayed if that player achieved a higher score than their all time high score in the previous play.

The **(F) "Lead"** of the lobby is the player that can select the next song that all players will be playing.

Via Room Options, the room can be set to **Round Robin Mode**, where the lead switches after every play, according to the ordering in the Link Play tab, or it can be set to **Normal Mode**, where the lead will be the player who achieves the *highest numerical score out of all players*, *regardless of difficulty*, i.e. the player who possesses the "High Score" badge.

To return to the song select menu, one simply needs to press the **(G) Back button** situated at the middle of the top of the menu.

Non-Lead players can suggest songs by tapping on their song select menus, even if some players in the lobby do not own the suggested song. Song suggestions will be displayed near the bottom of the screen, above the Link Play tab. The Lead player may press on the suggestion, in which case the suggested song will be selected.

If one or more players do not own a song, the song cannot be selected. If "selected", a message will appear stating that not all players own the song, and thus cannot be selected.

After the Lead player has selected a song, other players can choose the difficulties owned by the players at which to attempt the song, as well as change their selected Partners, **regardless of what other players have chosen**. Note that the default difficulty will be set to whichever difficulty the Lead player selects the song in; if the player does not own that difficulty, the next highest difficulty will be chosen instead.

*(e.g. if the lead player selects overdead. BYD, then all players that own overdead. BYD will default to selecting overdead. BYD; those who do not will instead default to dropdead FTR.)*

Once all players are "READY", a countdown of 3 will launch, during which changing difficulty and/or Partners is impossible, and the song play begins.

It is impossible to pause during a link play, but this may be circumvented with other means (e.g. quitting out of the app and then entering it again).

The pause button is instead replaced by a real-time leaderboard where other players' names, their respective Partners and difficulty chosen, as well as their score (*relative to the current score* of the player; if the other players' scores are above the current score, they will appear as red instead of black)

The positions of the players in the real-time leaderboard will not change; instead, the ranking of each player is updated according the score of each player at any given moment. Only when **the player is in the lead** will the badge of the player become gold; if other players are in the lead, the badges of other players do not turn gold.

For difficulties/songs that have different lengths (e.g. PRAGMATISM and PRAGMATISM -RESURRECTION-), if other players are still playing, or that the online connection is unstable, the player must remain in the play area and wait until all players are finished; a banner will be present below the TRACK COMPLETE / FULL RECALL / PURE MEMORY end banner detailing the cause of the wait.

If a TRACK LOST is obtained before the end of the chart (e.g. by using a HARD skill), the player will still remain in the play area, but the TRACK LOST banner will be present and none of the remaining notes can be interacted.

* One oddity with this feature is that all timing changes that don't affect the main track (e.g. sections in ω4 FTR, PRAGMATISM -RESURRECTION-, Pentiment BYD, etc.) are disabled, which may result in weird visual glitches.

The "Back" button in the results screen is replaced by a "Continue" button, similar to Lost Chapter: Beyond progression. Upon clicking, a final leaderboard of the entire Link Play lobby will be shown, ranking players in order of **numerical score** regardless of clear, Grade or difficulty.

* Players can toggle between the results screen and the scoreboard by tapping in the middle region.

The difficulty each player attempted was displayed upon the launch of v3.11.

Note that the next Lead player **cannot select a new song** unless all players in the lobby have left the leaderboards screen.

## Unlocking Songs

All players are able to play every song in the Arcaea pack for free. Songs in Memory Archive and song packs can be bought with Memories, which are purchasable with real money. Each song in World Extend can be permanently and individually unlocked for free for a limited time via World Mode, or can be purchased as a whole pack with real money. To see the cost for each song pack, access the song pack's page from Songs by Pack.

Certain songs, free or paid, have locked higher difficulties. The unlock criteria for most songs fall into one of the following categories:

1. Reaching milestones in World Mode maps. Songs unlocked this way are listed in the Songs by Pack page (in bold).
2. Paying Fragments. The cost varies by song and difficulty.
	* The cost for most Present charts are around 20-80 Fragments, while those for Future charts are around 150-280.
3. Playing certain other songs on particular difficulties. These plays may come with clear requirements and/or rating requirements.
	* e.g. To unlock GOODTEK (Arcaea Edit)'s Present difficulty, you first need to clear Harutopia ~Utopia of Spring~ on Present.
4. Other special unlock conditions, e.g. Anomaly and Terminal songs.

These requirements are generally displayed on the song selection screen. For songs with multiple remaining requirements, these requirements flash by every second or so. The song can be selected to view the full checklist.

## Partner Select

*Main article: Partners*
Selecting the Partner icon at the top-centre of the screen will bring up the Partner Select screen.
This screen is used to view Partner details, seal or switch their skills, level them up using Ether Drops, or switch Partners.
Note that when offline, Partner skills and stats will not be active.

## World Mode

*Main article: World Mode Mechanics*
*See also: World Mode Chapters and World Mode Data*
This mode consists of various maps which players can progress through to unlock new songs, charts, Partners, and other resources.
It is accessed by selecting **World** in the Main Menu.
Playing songs in World Mode requires the consumption of stamina, which recharges in real time after being consumed.

Note that World Mode cannot be entered while offline or not logged in.

## Story Mode

*Main article: Story*
This mode contains Arcaea's various stories, including the Main Story, Side Stories, and Short Stories.
It is accessed by selecting **Story Mode** in the Main Menu.

Note that Story Mode can still be entered while not logged in, but only story entries that have been unlocked on the current device can be read, and new entries cannot be unlocked.

## Course Mode

*Main article: Course Mode*

This mode contains a series of Courses, each consisting of four charts that must be cleared in order under certain challenging conditions. It is accessed by selecting **Course Mode** in the Main Menu. Playing Courses requires the consumption of stamina or Warped Shards. Clearing courses successfully grants special username backdrops and other rewards.

Note that Course Mode cannot be entered while offline or not logged in.

## Network

There are several Network features accessible by selecting the Globe button (under the Course Mode) on the Main Menu.

Options when offline or not logged in:

* **Login** to an existing account.
* **Register** a new account.

Options when logged in:

* View, add, or delete **friends**.
* **Profile** view.
* **Cloud Sync**.
* **Account management**: Logout of the current account, or delete the account (requires email confirmation).
* **Redeem Code**: Enter redemption codes for exclusive Partners or songs.

### Registration

In order to play online, it is first necessary to register with an email address, username and password. To log in, the latest version of the game is required. The Arcaea pack contains free songs playable without registering, but songs with World Mode requirements are unavailable, as well as other paid song packs. Once registered, you can purchase Memories and have access to all Network features.

### Profile

Added in 1.6.0, this feature provides a beautified summary which shows:

* Your username.
* The current Potential.
* The selected Partner.
* Your User ID.
* The total number of songs with Clear, Full Recall, and Pure Memory on each difficulty.

The background of the profile is dependent on which Scenery is currently set on the Main Menu.

By default, the total number of cleared songs for Past difficulty is shown. Selecting "PST" on the bottom-left allows you to toggle between difficulties.

When all charts of a difficulty mode (Past, Present, Future, Beyond) have reached a certain grade, the following changes occur on the profile:

* All charts Full Recall grade or above - Full Recall text becomes Yellow on the respective difficulty
* All charts Pure Memory grade - Pure Memory text becomes Blue on the respective difficulty

### Cloud Sync

Added in 1.1.2, this function lets you upload your best scores to or download them from the Cloud, allowing you to use a common save file across multiple devices. This is device-specific and not account-specific.

Since 1.6.1, a "Sync" button is also available on the top-left corner of the result summary screen. This unconditionally uploads the current state and overwrites the previous save state.

Important features:

* Only the best scores displayed on the top-left corner of the song select screen are synced.
* Fragments are not synced.

The following do not require Cloud Sync, and are saved to your account automatically:

* World Mode progress
* Memories
* Best scores on Leaderboards

### Friends

To add a friend, select "Add Friends", input your friend's user ID and tap on "Add".

Adding a friend does not send a request for the other party to accept and adding them to your friends list does not automatically add you to their friends list. They would have to add you manually, and an icon with the text "Mutual" would appear if they do so.

The Friends feature allows you to:

* View friend-exclusive rankings on the song selection screen.
* View each friend's the most recently played song (with difficulty and grade).
* View each friend's Potential.
* Your friends list has a capacity of ten, but you may spend Fragments to increase the limit by selecting the button situated to the right of the "Add Friends" button. Adding a friend would fail if you:
	+ Enter an existing friend's user ID.
	+ Enter a nonexistent user ID.
	+ Enter your own user ID.

Initially, only 10 Friend slots are available. By spending Fragments, more slots can be purchased by selecting the up arrow shown on the right. The maximum amount of unique Friends one can currently have at a time is 30.

## Arcaea Online

**Arcaea Online** (accessible here) is a web-based service that provides a number of account features.
Logging in uses the same username and password as the in-game Network features.

Arcaea Online also includes a paid subscription service that grants access to certain premium features.
Subscriptions cost 200 Memories every 30 days, with the option of auto-renewal.

The following menu items are accessible to all logged in players:

* **Memories and Subscription**:
	+ View and purchase Memories. Memories can be bought in sets of 550, 1100, or 2200 Memories. In most regions, the cost per Memory here is cheaper than Memory purchases in-game.
	+ Subscribe to Arcaea Online.
* **Profile**: View player Profile.
	+ Background scenery can be changed here (provided the player has unlocked Scenery from World Mode).
* **Friends**: View and manage Friends.
	+ The maximum Friend limit cannot be increased here since it requires Fragments, which are stored locally on devices with the game installed.
* **Partners**:
	+ View and change the currently equipped Partner.
	+ View details for all Partners (list can be sorted by name or level).
	+ View the currently held Ether Drops and Cores.
* **Leaderboards**: View total leaderboards for each difficulty, based on players' total scores across all songs.
	+ Leaderboard options:
		- Global top 50
		- Player's global ranking (not available below rank 10,000)
* **Account & Settings**:
	+ View and change username. Each name change costs 100 Memories.
	+ View and change account email.
	+ Redeem and download Digital Contents (currently only includes Arcaea Sound Collection albums).

Subscribing to Arcaea Online provides access to the following additional features:

* (under **Leaderboards**): View Friend leaderboards.
* **Score Data**: View individual song score data:
	+ Clear status, high score, FR/PM status
	+ Note judgement breakdown for the highest scoring play
	+ Player's leaderboard ranking for the song on each difficulty
* **Potential**: View player Potential details and history
	+ View graph of Potential history (past 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, or 5 years)
	+ View best 30 and best recent 10 Play Ratings
	+ Export top 30 scores as an image (using Profile's selected scenery)

## April Fools

*Main page: April Fools.*
Each year on April 1st, Arcaea introduces new gimmick UI features that can only be accessed on the day (see page for details). Interacting with these UI elements also grants access to a new gimmick-heavy Error Track that can also only be played on April 1.