If you're viewing this, then you've either clicked it just to see what kind of stuff I wrote, or you're interested in learning how to play Double Vision. I'll assume you know the obvious details, but I'll run through it quickly:

• Double Vision features 2 vehicles - one you control with the keyboard (WASD/Arrows, left 2 lanes), and one you control with the mouse (right 2 lanes). If you're using a controller, it's the two analogue sticks that control each vehicle.
  
• It has 4 lanes and 6/7 rows, maximum cluster size is 24/28.
  
• It does not have any special features that allows you to alter the matches.
  
• Present in all 3 difficulties (Casual, Pro, Elite).

And you may ask: Why would I want to learn DV?
Well, it's because:

• DV has the highest score potential.
  
• Room for a match size of 28 which makes it easy to get Match 21 bonuses.
  
• DV doesn't have clean match bonus - can collect whatever you want without necessarily having to worry about clean matches.
  
• Can play with 2 people (if that's your sort of thing I guess...).

As I've stated above, DV has 3 difficulties. Casual, Pro, and Elite.


Tip: If you're already good at another puzzle mode, you have the option to skip Step 2.


Alright then, if you're ready to learn about DV, keep on reading!

Now I'll be honest here: you can't expect this guide to magically transform you into a DV master overnight. It took me about a month to finally stop sucking, and at least about 7 more months to learn DV Elite (I'll call it DVE from now) and play good. Don't be discouraged by these figures though: it doesn't matter if you can't beat that one person with abnormally high skill rating, it's about enjoying and experimenting with different game modes.
Well, if you're really good at one game mode you might want to start competing, but starting off should be about enjoying the game mode.

DV is different from the other modes. You need to first get used to the mechanics.

• Woah, wait. I need to control 2 vehicles by myself?

Yes. It requires a bit more hand-eye coordination than other characters, but don't worry - it's not that hard.
First, put your fingers on the keys A and D.
Second, rapidly type ADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADAD.
While doing that, move your cursor rapidly from left to right.

..
Okay, stop.
Yeah.
Stop now. You uh... You can stop now.

• How the hell does that help me play better.

In most cases, DV requires you to precisely move both vehicles. Timing is extremely crucial between a match gained and a match lost. You need to be able to do the steps shown above quickly in order to collect the blocks you want. Focus on developing the muscle memory for moving the two vehicles.
If you're using the Xbox 360 controller to play this mode, keep in mind that it's the two analog sticks that control the vehicle.

Let's analyse the game mode.



This is what's painted on my mind constantly when I'm playing DV. When you focus on the middle of the track, you should immediately react to the oncoming traffic - whether to move your vehicles with A/D, or Mouse.
For me, this feels automatic. I know which colours to collect (which I'll explain in the later sections), and since I've played DV a lot of times I can move the 2 vehicles without thinking at all. This is the first step you need to master - being able to move the vehicles without focusing on the keyboard. Become part of the mode.
A good way of thinking about this would be to think like the 2 vehicles are like your hands. You move it left and right between the 2 lanes as if you're controlling them with each hand.

The good thing about DV is that the camera stays fixed to the lane. It doesn't move about when you move either of the vehicles. This helps you focus on the oncoming traffic more easily.

• I still don't get it. How can I... "paint" that on my mind so I always act on it whenever I play DV?

Oh boy. Prepare for the most hated phrase in any guide ever to exist.

Through practice.

NO PLEASE DON'T KILL ME PLEASE I'M SORRY-
PLEASE
Let's just... take it easy here.

Okay. This is where the beauty of Audiosurf comes in.
This game has a HUGE replay value. As long as you have an audio file of your favourite track, you can pretty much play this game however many times as you want. Music is endless, and so is this game. Hopefully.


The best DV mode to practice this is DV Pro (DVP). This mode has 4 colours, various power-ups (e.g. paints, sorts, etc.) to help you when you're stuck, and it has a quicker match timer than DVE. For now, try to get familiar with the DV settings. You can try avoiding all blocks if you're not confident in making matches.
... Also, if you're playing it on Pro, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ALWAYS PLAY IT ON IRONMODE. ALWAYS.
NEVER TAKE IRONMODE OFF WHEN YOU'RE PLAYING PRO.
It makes the game tedious because of the 2 extra side lanes. You'd rather deal with 4 lanes instead of 6. It doesn't matter if the 2 lanes don't have any oncoming traffic - that just means they're pointless.



Tips for preventing boredom:

• Obvious, but play a variety of songs.
  
• Play high traffic songs. DV is best played on more intense songs, and it'll definitely make you feel good when you get loads of matches - instead of quiet songs where you'll wait a long time to get a 3-size match.
  
• Don't force yourself to focus exactly like the image provided. Gradually learn to move your vehicles and get used to DV.

... For those who don't know how to find the traffic congestion of a song:


And a handy table for which traffic ranges are best suited for DV.

• How do I know I'm doing well?

Look at your skill ratings when you complete a song. You can view this by looking at your extended stats.



You can only view this about your highest score though. Audiosurf won't tell you in-game about your skill rating.

Skill ratings are calculated with the following formula:


The way I look at it is: if I get 10 times the gold medal threshold on Pro, I get 2000 skill rating. On elite, it would be 3000 skill rating.
This is not 100% accurate. Some songs can be easy to get high skill ratings because the song mainly consists of red traffic. Still, this gives you a rough idea of how well you performed in the song.



TO SUMMARISE THIS SECTION:

• Get used to the DV mechanics! You need to be able to move your 2 vehicles without hesitation or looking at the keyboard. This will really help you play good on any of the DV characters.
  
• How to achieve that? Practice. Make sure you play fairly intense songs around 240ish traffic.
  
• If you can easily move the 2 vehicles, and it feels automatic to you - well done! You managed to understand the mechanism of DV. Let's move on to actual match making.

If you've read the previous section carefully, and have attempted to experience the DV mechanism, it's now time to actually get points on DV.


Everyone here knows (... at least, I hope so) that the minimum match size you can make is 3. You need to have 3 colours grouped on the board you have just under the vehicles.
Yeah. Those grids.

Here's a simple video showing matches you can make on DV. I used DVP for this.


The first subclip showed the simplest form of match you can make - 3 colours grouped together. Very simple, easy to make, etc.
The second subclip showed larger matches. Of course it doesn't always have to be 3, you can make the cluster as large as you want - the board size is the only limit!
The third subclip showed 2 different matches made at the same time. Again, these are just simple matches - you can always make them bigger or expand by collecting more blocks.


This works nearly all the time, so keep this in your mind:
Pick the 2 most common colours present in the song. You will mainly collect those 2 colours.
Watch the video again. You can see that Blue and Purple are the 2 most common colours you can see. When it's like that, don't try to apply complex strategies - just collect them all! It's unlikely that you will overfill. Try and find a song (electronic music usually works the best) with 2 common colours - try collecting everything you can see.

Now, of course you all know that just because the start of the song is full of blues/purples, it doesn't mean the whole track consists of nothing but blue/purple. In fact, most songs have a variety of common colours. So what do you do?
Switch to the common colours you see in the moment you're playing at.
The start had a lot of Blues/Purples, but then later on it has more Blues/Yellows. What do you do? Collect Blues/Yellows! Simple as that.

• ... Wait, that's it? That can't be right... I mean, I thought it was supposed to be really complicated.

Well, we are just starting off here. It's certainly not EVERYTHING you ever need to do, but it's the most productive start.
Remember, DV is about large matches. The larger your match gets, the more you'll benefit from the glory of DV.

But this rule of thumb works even for Elite - for the most part. You'll be surprised how many points you can get by just collecting 2 common colours of a part of a song. That's how I got started with DV.


Even though I just said that collecting 2 common colours will get you to some length, it's still important to apply common sense. There could be a situation when the common colour strategy won't work, and when that happens you might end up being lost and having no idea what to do.


There are 3 main things to consider when attempting to make a match.

• Do you have enough space for the match? If you have some amount of colours on your board which are not the colour of the match you want to make, make sure you have at least 3 spaces available from the top.
  
• How easy is it to make that match? Are they in a bundle like this?:
  
  Or can you make the match just by collecting 1 block, like this?:
  
  
• Other than the one you're looking to make, are there other matches you could make at the same time, or should focus on instead?

Obviously if you can potentially make a really big yellow/red match, it's not worth collecting the trash purples nearby. You can score a lot more with hotter colours.

Common sense, guys. Let's take a look.

Now this may look a tad bit complicated - especially because it's DVE. But when you get down to it, it's quite simple.

• You want to clear the top of the board first. It doesn't matter if you have reds scattered around the bottom of your board and you want to make a match out of it - you need to clear the top ones first.
  
• Usually it doesn't hurt to collect ahead and let it fall - on the image example, I can collect those purples then collect that 1 green. The purple match will clear, and then the green falls to make a match.
  
• Bundles are your friends. They're probably the easiest way to make a match. Only exception when you wouldn't collect bundles would be when you're making more complex matches.
  
• Be creative! There are always more than one way to make a match - you should think about how easy is it to make the match, and how many points you will get.

We now know what to do in the 3 lanes with empty space. Now... About that right lane...

Having a crowded lane is never good. You want to clear it as fast as possible, or else it will affect your overall score and even get you to overfill. Crowded lanes can happen because:

• Too many sequential colours - Blue, purple, blue, purple, and it's not making any matches. You collected too much and didn't leave enough space for matches to be made on top of it.
  
• Two block lock. Details are explained here[www.audio-surf.com], and it's one of the most annoying reasons that your lane becomes crowded. 2 BLOCKS DON'T MAKE MATCH.
  
• THOSE DAMN WHITE BLOCKS GETTING IN MY WAY OF THE MATCHES AND I CAN'T GET RID OF THEM

*ahem* So uh, yeah. In the image you can see that there's a white block obstructing my potential matches. While these blocks give you 2000 points when it reaches the bottom of the board, It's pretty hard getting rid of these, especially in more intense songs. You need to work your way around the lane and clear off the blocks underneath.

Let's see what's you actually need to do to clear the lane.

• Clear the adjacent lane. In the image example, you can see that when I make the green match, I'll be able to clear everything in the lane.
  
• When any kind of match has been made that's under the white, dodge all oncoming traffic. This technique is like letting the timer run out to clear the match, instead of keep collecting to build it bigger.
  
• If all else fails, just restart the song. *shrug*

White blocks can be really painful to deal with, so you need to think before collecting it. Take a look at your board before you collect any white block.
Ideally, you should have a match on the bottom. If you're going to collect any white blocks, you need to make sure you can get rid of it quickly. Try not to place a white block on top of an unmatched red block.


Yeah, the image on the bottom is looking pretty tough to clear. Try avoiding that.



So anyway, now that you know how to make simple matches, you're one step closer to-

• I KEEP OVERFILLING

I uh, what?

• None of what you said is helping me. At all. I just don't get what to do when there's so many colours coming towards me.

Well technically they're moving away from you - but you're going faster. Also-

• TELL ME WHAT TO DO

Read the previous sections, but still unsure of what to do when there are so many colours on the track? Pay attention to this section - it might help you.


Like I said in the first section, these are all something you can do with enough practice. The more you play one game mode, the more you learn about it - and maybe you can develop a whole new strategy to tackle the song to get a good score.

If you can move the 2 vehicles without hesitating, then you have the necessary skills to start making matches. Don't be scared of the oncoming traffic - manipulate them, and clear off colours you know you can collect!
The matches only have to be 3 of the same colour or bigger. Find simple matches you can make, and make your cluster as big as possible.



Here's a table describing what to do in certain situations. Everyone likes tables, right?

It also helps to know how important each of the colours are in each of the modes. Always have these ideas in your head - it will help you decide what kind of match to make, and also allow you to feel like you're doing good.

On Pro, it's all about collecting Blue/Yellow/Red.
On Elite, it's all about collecting Green/Yellow/Red.

Also keep in mind that even a large collection of purple won't amount to a few reds. Purple storms are fine for gap filling but you'd rather collect Green/Yellow/Red.


TO SUMMARISE STEP 2 & 3:

• Know how to make simple matches - collect 3 group of colour(s) or more.
  
• Rule of thumb: Identify the 2 most common colours, then focus on collecting those colours only. Remember though, hotter colours will get you more points!
  
• Look at the oncoming traffic and your board and decide if collecting the ones you see will make a match or not. Bundles are the easiest way to make a match, keep an eye out for them.
  
• Apply common sense. If you have a crowded lane, don't collect anything on top of it. If you see a match opportunity, go for it. If you make a mistake, try to clear it as fast as you can.
  
• Think about the conditions of your board when you're collecting any white block - they can obstruct your matches, so clear it as fast as you can.
  
• Learn about the importance of colours. You should always go for large yellow or red matches.

Once you are able to make large matches consistently using DV, it's time to move on to more complex matches.

Audiosurf is not an easy game.


There are so many techniques you can try in order to get the best score. It's not just a matter of following instructions, it's about finding what works for you, and shaping your logical and decision-making skills - all while playing your favourite music.

These skills are much better experienced than taught. However, I will still go over them - and explain how it will be beneficial when you want to compete with other people.





To describe chaining in a nutshell: The more you make your matches continuously, the more points you get for each match.

Simple, right? Well, not so much when you actually try it.

Keeping your chain requires you to stay constantly focused, make no unrecoverable mistakes, and creatively change the way you collect. One simple thing you do could potentially lengthen your chain and allow you to score more points. Every professional Audiosurf player use effective chaining in order to get fantastic scores. This is likely one of the most important features on Audiosurf that allows you to score better.

Chaining works best on Elite. Casual is a mess and you can hardly do anything about your chain, and although Pro has a somewhat decent chaining feel, it still clears away very easily. DV also has the highest score potential, so if you can chain a ride using DV(E), you'll most likely get a really good score.
"Anything DVE can chain, DVE can win." - NovaTerran

You can look into more about chaining here[audiosurf.wikia.com], but I'll tell you a few things you can do to keep your chain.

• Where can I find my chain progress?

Down 'ere:

• What can I do to keep my chain?

There are a variety of ways to chain than just 'keep collecting and make matches'. One method could be easier, another could get you more points

• Collect trash blocks to lengthen your match/maintain chain. If there is a gap between the blocks you want to collect, you can collect in-between blocks to keep your match and your chain going - then clear it later. This method works best when you're attempting to make a large cluster.
  
  
• Gravity matches. These are matches which 'fall' into place. (VIDEO):
  
  
  
  This requires you to think faster about collecting blocks. You can sometimes get them in pure luck, but if you're going for a high score you don't want to just bet on luck. Look for matches you can make right after the one you'll clear - think and collect ahead.
  
  
  
  Did you know that during the fall, your chain is maintained? Falling blocks can be used to your advantage, because it doesn't matter if you don't make a match directly after the fall - during the fall of the block(s) you will not lose your chain.
  
  
• White blocks. White blocks take time to get to the bottom of the board - and also a small amount of time clearing away. You can earn about .5 seconds of chain, which allows you to collect another block so you can continue your chain.

• How do I 'chain' effectively?

Effective chaining isn't easy, I wouldn't recommend thinking about it if you're still trying to get used to DV.

When you're attempting to chain effectively, remember that the more you chain, the more points you get for each match. You can even let small matches clear early so you can develop your chain faster (Selective clearing). However, during this chain development you will earn only a few points - since you're only making small matches. If you don't want to do that, you can make large matches quickly by collecting lots of traffic (Forced match clearing).
You can see in the video, the 2 things you need to note about each method: the points you get, and the chain you develop.
- Selective clearing will not get you many points, but can often allow you to develop a chain faster. Developing a chain faster means you can score more points later when you make large matches.
- Forced match clearing will get you a decent amount of points, but it depends on how fast you can make large matches. DV is all about large matches, so this method will allow you to score more than other characters.

For some songs, selective chaining will work better. I tend to think that if a song has a lower traffic (170ish), it would be a good time to use selective chaining - because forced match clearing requires large clusters, and on lower traffic songs it takes longer to make a large match. But most of the time I use forced match clearing - especially because I play a lot of high traffic trance tracks. Just find whatever works for you, and go for it.

• Will it make a large difference?

In short: yes.

The difference between a continued chain and a lost chain is huge. No matter how many large matches you make, if you don't chain the song you will hardly get anything from it. If you ever wonder "I'm doing amazing on these songs but I don't get anything out of it", it's probably because you don't chain properly. Of course, this is strictly speaking from the 'high-scoring' point of view. If you want to play DV without bothering about the chain, feel free to do so.


Like I said, there are more than just one way of making matches. You can collect the traffic however you want, and make various different matches. Some of them will score more, some of them will be easier, but most importantly - all of them require some thought to be put into.

• I want to make a really large cluster.

In order to make a large cluster, you sometimes need to limit how you collect your colours. If you have 1 lane full of yellow, for example, you wouldn't want to clear the match away until the other lanes are full.


This image is an example where you have to think about collecting. Yes, it will clear the match - but think: Can I make the match bigger?
To me, I don't think you can. You don't see any oncoming yellow on the rightmost lane, and the leftmost lane will be full when you collect the yellows coming towards the lane. I would collect all oncoming yellow.

Just like that, you have to think about collecting blocks - if the lane is full (and has a match which will clear), collecting any block on top of it will force the match clear.
Be careful when you're doing this, though. If you clear your match too fast, your cluster can't be made bigger. Even if you have a large cluster of say, green for example, if you collect a block on a full lane, the match will go away before you can collect more green.

Sometimes, this can be an advantage. If you clear your match faster, that means you have more room for the next big cluster you collect! It's all about finding when's the right time to clear away the cluster, and what blocks to collect next.

Bonuses can be very helpful when you're scoring large. It's not just about the bonuses you can get at the end - there are other bonuses which you can get during the actual ride, and this will help each cluster to score bigger points.

DV was originally intended for 2 players - one person controlling the left 2 lanes using keyboard, and one person controlling the right 2 lanes using mouse. This is probably why there is a shared match bonus. When you have a match going across the middle 2 lanes, your cluster will get a bonus of 140% (240% of the normal match.)

You should always try to get this bonus. A 140% bonus is a HUGE advantage - and it can easily be done with just having a match go across the middle. If you stand by the rule of thumb, it'll be likely that you'll get a match going across the middle.




Taken from the Audiosurf wiki[audiosurf.wikia.com]:

There is a bonus applied to matching two or more different colors at the same time. This bonus is a flat 30% to each of the single color matches that are scored. This bonus is not affected by the color of the blocks, the number of blocks, nor the number of colors matched. If you match 3 purple, 8 blue, 5 yellow, and 3 red at the same time, you will get 30% more points for every one of those matches, over what they would have been if matched separately. Thus, a match of 18 red blocks and 3 purple blocks (11,128 + 46.8) is actually of higher point value than a match of 21 red blocks (10,000).

So, as explained above, if you have more than 1 colour cluster, it'll give you a 30% bonus on each of the clusters. Not cumulative, not logarithmic, just a flat 30% bonus.
It may not sound like much, but the more sync bonuses you get, the difference between a non-sync run increases. So if you're making a really large cluster, it wouldn't hurt to make a small 3-size match of another colour.


Here are the end-of-song bonuses:

• 1: Clean Finish - if your board is completely clean at the end of the song, you get a 25% bonus to your end score. Try avoiding mistakes at the end of the song.
  You should ALWAYS try to get this when you're playing ANY MODE. Not just DV. I never tolerate any runs I complete if I miss Clean finish.
  It should also be noted that if the song ends when you're about to make a last-second gravity match, Audiosurf will reject that and give you no clean finish bonus. This is also the same for white blocks, so be careful.
  
  
• 2: This is for Mono only. This is about DV, not Mono.
  
  
• 3: Match Bonuses - these are bonuses for the largest match you make in the song. From right to left, the match bonuses can be: Match 7, Match 11, or Match 21. Respectively, they're: 7% bonus, 11% bonus, and 21% bonus.
  You can only receive one of these bonuses. Which one you receive will depend on the number of blocks involved in your largest cluster. For example, if your largest cluster involved 20 blocks you will receive the Match 11 bonus, if it involved 21 blocks or more you will receive the Match 21 bonus - but not the Match 7 or Match 11 bonus.
  Again, you should get the highest bonus you can manage - Match 21 isn't hard on DV, because your board size is 28 (Pro & Elite). This also depends on the intensity of the song.
  
  
• 4 & 5: Seeing Red and Butter Ninja - if you've collected more than 95% of the overall Red/Yellow traffic, you get these bonuses - 5% bonus each.
  This isn't important on DV. It's very unlikely that you will obtain these bonuses (unless you're someone like Zerkg, jesus that guy's crazy good), so I really wouldn't recommend trying to get these.

TO SUMMARISE STEP 4 & 5:

• There are a variety of complex skills you can learn from playing. Chaining is one of them - this is described as: "The more you make your matches continuously, the more points you get for each match."
  
• To maintain your chain, you can: collect trash blocks which will be cleared later, use gravity matches, or collect white blocks.
  
• To develop your chain, you can: use selective clearing or forced match clearing.
  
• Creative match making can allow you to make high-scoring clusters, which will improve your score overall. Expand your ideas about how you can make matches.
  
• Make sure you know about your bonuses - identify any opportunities where you can get those bonuses, and get them.

So you're interested in knowing what I think are super duper advanced techniques you can try in Audiosurf? Well then get ready to learn some stuff, because these are really obscure techniques.

... I'll bet that these aren't as special as I'm making them out to be, but whatever. Here are 5 techniques and properties I've found out by playing Audiosurf.

Safe overfilling is when you collect traffic on overfilled lanes while a match is ready to clear.

Although overcrowded lanes are very bad, it's not the end of the world. When you have a completely full lane and collect a traffic (accidentally or not) you would usually expect it to overfill, and if you're playing on Ironmode that's game over. But don't worry too much, because you don't have to always avoid traffic on a full lane.

When you have a match on another lane that's ready to clear, you may notice that your full lane doesn't flash with warning signs. That means it's safe to collect a few traffic! The match you have on another lane will clear, and you can continue without overfilling.


... Now if you're crazy, you might think "maybe I should purposely near-overfill one lane then make really quick matches on the other lanes".

Please don't. It's completely pointless and you would much rather keep your lanes open so you can make your match as big as possible. Think of this as an insurance, or a really thin safety net for preventing overfilling.

Late collection is when you catch a block from the side (by staying in a different lane then moving in as the block is passing the ship) so that the previous match clears faster.

I remember from a while ago that it was Eraser player jazevo who noticed this and mentioned it on the Audiosurf forum. I can't find the link though, so I'll explain what I mean (VIDEO):

As you can see from the video, the first clip showed the blue match staying on the board as I collected the purple blocks on the rightmost lane head-on. The second clip, however, showed the blue match clearing as I swiped in to collect the purple blocks.

Use this result however you want! If you want to make sure your match stays on the board as you collect spaced-out traffic, collect it head-on. If you want to have the match cleared before collecting more, collect it by swiping-in.

Height adjusting is when you collect trash blocks on shallow lanes to make matches with taller lanes.

Whether or not this is an actual 'technique' may be debatable, but I think it is. This is especially useful when you want to prevent the two-block lock from happening (explained in Step 2).


This is not as easy as it seems, especially on fast songs. Make sure to pay close attention to the state of the board and the colours you want to collect.

Sniping is when you select specific blocks to collect in a bundle. This can mean collecting just a specified amount of the bundle, or avoiding white blocks that are embedded in the bundle.

This requires very quick reactions and movement, and if you make a mistake you may end up with unwanted blocks on your board.


You can see that there's a white block embedded in the purple cluster. You can choose to collect all, collect just the purples, or collect just the white block. This technique requires a lot of practice, so you should play a lot of Audiosurf if you want to pull this off on the fly!

You may think that Ironmode is a necessity for game modes. You would be incorrect (except if it's Pro. Then like I said, ALWAYS play it on Ironmode).

Switching Ironmode on and off will sometimes drastically change the traffic composition. It's hard to explain, but on some songs (specific song files too) when you take off Ironmode the traffic will consist of more yellows and reds, which will let you score a lot higher than if you had played with Ironmode on. Two personal examples are Kamil Polner - Sky Universe (Original Mix)[www.audio-surf.com] and Andy Blueman - Everlasting (Original Mix)[www.audio-surf.com]. Notice that my score does not have Ironmode on - I've played with both Ironmode on and off and in these cases turning it off allowed me to score higher.


The more you practice Audiosurf, the more you'll be able to use these techniques to your advantage. I'm sure there are more secret techniques in this game, so have fun discovering them!

I hope you're learning a lot from this. Let's actually watch a video and analyse the stuff we've learned.

I've talked through a variety of stuff I use every time I play DVE, but you know what?


It's much easier to show you what I do.

Here's a video of my run on Fast Distance - Last Night Without You (Original Mix). The song is 8 minutes long, so I only recorded up to the breakdown (Duration: 3:23). This is what I'm constantly thinking when I play any DVE run.

Make sure you have annotations enabled.


Couple of notes about the analysis:

• Although it may look like I'm thinking a lot during this run, the actual fact is that these all come naturally. I instinctively move my 2 vehicles to collect matches, and think to myself "Oh, I bet I can make use of these somehow".
  
• Some precise details are omitted - only few gravity matches were noted, I didn't mention much about keeping my chain, etc.
  
• The aim of this analysis is to point out how I'm making the matches and what I'm collecting. It doesn't exactly tell you how to dodge oncoming traffic - like I've said in Step 1, this all comes after practice.
  
• There is no 'memorising block positions' involved here. If I tried this song again, I guarentee that the blocks I collect will be different - but the main idea of making large green/yellow matches will stay the same.

This is probably everything I need to tell you about DV - the rest of the experience, you need to try it out yourself.

Just remember to practise making matches and dodging the traffic you don't want. I started off with collecting as many Purple/Blues I can find on DVP, then gradually moved on towards making Yellow and Red matches. This guide is aimed to give you the knowledge of what to do; you need to get used to the mechanics of DV yourself.

You can also look for good DV videos on youtube! That's how I learned to do this stuff - by looking at other people playing this mode. Players like ERtrysDynat, PsYKoTx, and Ultamia are amazing at DVE, so look for their videos online.

Thanks for reading this guide. If you have any questions/queries/comments, use the comment section below. Feel free to point out any details I've missed.


If anyone's interested, here's one of my full DVE runs.




Special thanks to davenz737 for proofreading, sentence/paragraph rewording, and further insights!