Stamina Limitations

Don't do this. If your stamina is drained from a single 10 footer, playing these songs back to back will just wear you out fast. Instead, play for a few hours at a time. Once you've played, say, for an hour and a half, play a 9 footer you know you can do. Since you know you can do it, likely you'll still pass it, just do it messy. What you're doing now is pushing yourself now that you're already tired. Once you get better at doing stuff when you're already tired, getting through a 10 is a bit easier as you know you can "get past the wall" of being tired mid song.

^Definitely this. I notice if I try a 9 or higher as my first song my legs feel tired nearly straight away, and I can't play properly for a while until I warm up after that. Starting low and slowly going up the difficulties does help a lot. The dead/tired feeling isn't there for me if I warm up properly, and that's when I have my best attempts at the 10s.
Although once I got lucky and did HDV with a B grade on my first credit of the day..

I know I can get a Full Combo on most of the songs in DDR EXTREME, but what I hate about it is that I am always graded "A" I got a Full Combo on PARANOiA Eternal, MATSURI Japan and Miracle Moon, but was given an A because of the GREAT timing :/ .

Also, on my first play of the day, I played Miracle Moon and TRIP MACHINE -luv mix- on , but when I played MAX 300, I got easily worn out and couldn't pass the part after the slowdown. However, I did manage to play PARANOiA Survivor and for the first tme, passed with a "B". But looking at the groove radar, MAX 300 is slightly more difficult than PARANOiA Survivor .

Some 8 footers and a lot of 9 footers drain me a lot. I end up breathing heavily after a song. Most 10 footers drop me on my knees out of exhaustion.

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The other day when I was playing at my local SM machine, it's fixed now. , I did a round of Horatio-, MAX300 -, and VD- (the weakest 15 there is), so I did a round of all lvl. 15's. I was about to drop dead after MAX300-, and I got 550 combos too, with 1 f*ckin' Almost at the beginning! Made me mad. Could of been a milestone of FC'ing MAX300, but there's always next time. I also got 400-something combo on Horatio. It's the last death run that made me lose my combo. And VD- just sucked. Got a "B" out of sheer exhaustion from the other two songs. MAX300 was a first ever 10-footer "AA" on an arcade machine. Horatio was an "A" (too many greats).

And BTW, does playing at different elevations affect your stamina? (This would apply to frequent DDR travelers) I play @ 6,000 ft. above sea level, so the oxygen's not as thick up here as it is down at sea level. I've always wondered about that.

While I doubt it would have a huge impact on your performance, I'm curious about it. Thinner oxygen levels -> less oxygen going to muscles -> less energy for play -> more intense breathing -> poor performance, if you make a little hypothesis about it, but it's just a theory, it'd have to be studied I'd say xD

Also, would you really say VD is the weakest 15? I've tried neither since I'm not at that level of play yet, but I always thought ZETA looked fairly easy.

Valkyrie Dimension Difficulty is easier than New Decade and Anti Matter. I think it's misrated

I think so too. VD- & should be a lvl. 12 & 14 respectively.

That's pretty accurate. Comparing VD to the other 13s it doesn't seem right.

For me, I recently played at my local arcade.I DID have a full combo on songs like Spin the disc, PARANOiA Eternal and MATSURI Japan, however, I was not satisfied with the grade given, which was mostly A. Why? Despite having a Full Combo, you have to have at least two or three flashing groove meters on the result screen (e.g. You got a AA on A with stream, freeze and chaos flashing) or is it that I keep getting GREATS because my results display about 230 perfects and 80 greats. I always wanted to aim for AA but what keeps me from doing so are the GREATS. Perhaps, I easily get tired after a 1 min from the start of the song, which sounds pretty sad to me.

Is your local arcade perhaps to be an EXTREME or SN1? In EXTREME, the AA cutoff is 93% or greater Perfects/Marvelous, while Supernova 1 is 95% PA (9,500,000pts.) I hope this helps.

Well my stamina's improved a lot lately, but I still have some problems. I can no-bar pretty much any 9 and below, plus I'm a lot closer to passing some new 10s.
One thing that really frustrated me: about 3 times today I got to the final run of Max 300 SMMM but had to give up in the last 8 seconds or so because I just couldn't keep my legs going. I can tell I'm REALLY close to passing it, but it's annoying me now >_<

I can no bar pretty much up through 9-footers now as well. I don't even remember if I used the bar on Horatio- or not, seeing how it's mostly trills. But on stuff like MAX300 or PARANOiA Survivor, the bar is a must for me.

And when I get too worn down, I incrementally get worse rather than give up (but sometimes I give up entirely). I got a "B" on VD- the other day after doing Horatio- & MAX300- in the same round. My legs just couldn't keep up any longer, but I continued to struggle through anyway.

I rarely give up either, and whenever I'm worn out after playing enough rounds, I usually just do what I can not to fail instead of going for PA or giving up. However, the 10s are a different story for me since I haven't actually passed any X-scale 15s yet. Sometimes it gets to the stage where I just can't keep up, fail, and have to sit down for a few minutes until I have enough energy to walk properly again xD

What I used to do for stamina training is play a hard/heavy stage first, before I got tired, then play 2 songs for timing/accuracy. But don't forget to correct the two biggest flaws people have in boss-level songs:

1. Outrunning the song.

Hitting the arrows faster does not always mean hitting them "better." Keep in pace! You won't beat Trim by hitting the spurts at 400 bpm...

2. Holding your breath.

This is the big reason why people fail stuff like the climax of MAX 300, or the end runs of PSMO/Pluto Relinquish. Resist the urge to hold your breath through these sections, they're deceptively long (usually about :40-:50 apiece), and holding your breath for an entire minute is very physically depleting!!

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Don't forget that if you're only aiming for a clear, try playing said song on first stage. DDR has progressive lifebar, so the closer you're to the final stage, the lifebar gets harsher. However this was phased out in DDR X apparently.

MAX 300 is always the first milestone.

Oh, if you have access to it, try PARANOiA ~HADES~ , it's harsh as hell.

I step lightly and as close to the center to conserve energy, though the first part is kinda impossible when I try to score well on a song.

Just yesterday, I finally got AA again in New Decade after quite a long time.

MAX 300 (Super-Max-Me Mix) is pretty harsh at the end. I tried this after I could pass MAX 300, but I couldn't clear it. So I opted to MAXX Unlimited. Those jumps are pretty killer.

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The progressive lifebar was still in use for SuperNOVA eh? I didn't think it applied. Any songs I expect to fail I usually play on the final stage, mainly because I don't want to 'waste' the other 2 stages of the credit. I'll keep that in mind!
Hades , well, I tried it once on a SuperNOVA 2. Did terribly xD
As for MAX 300, I haven't attempted it in quite a while, but since I can get to the deathruns of PARANOiA survivor and Super-Max-Me-Mix fairly easily as my final stage, I suppose I'll have to give it a try again soon on the first to see how I do.

I can't debate which is harder, MAX300- or PARANOiA ~HADES~ . The latter has so many jumps with 300bpm 8th triplets while MAX300 is just a straightforward stamina drainer with few jumps. Unreal - is also very draining to me. I can pass them all on home versions, but i've never attempted to pass ~HADES~ on an arcade machine. Gives me something new to try for next time. That and FELM-.

Hades is only a 14, but I find it a lot harder to read/follow than MAX 300 , even though it's a 15. I'm really not a fan of fast jumps. (One of the reasons I never really liked MAX 300 SMMM , the step-step-jump-step-step patterns just annoy me).

HADES got changed to a 15

see for yourself

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