HEXA DIVER

Last Updated: Feb 2022 (for EXCEED GEAR)

HEXA DIVER is a new unlock system introduced in SOUND VOLTEX VIVID WAVE. In EXCEED GEAR it is available for selection when the BLASTER GAUGE fills to 100%. It closely resembles the battle system from GRAVITY WARS, in that the aim is to deal damage to a meter in order to progressively unlock difficulties for a song.

In HEXA DIVER each song has 10000 hit points, with the NOV, ADV, EXH and MXM charts each unlocking after (presumably) 1000, 2500, 5000 and 10000 damage dealt respectively. Playing lower difficulties deals less damage proportionally based on that difficulty, e.g. playing on EXH will deal half the damage compared to that of MXM. In addition, playing on lower difficulties only deals damage up to that difficulty's unlock threshold, e.g. to deal more than 2500 damage you must play the EXH or MXM chart, otherwise playing ADV again would deal no further damage, capping out at 2500.

After selecting a song difficulty, you can choose to play at a HEXATIVE RATE (HR) from 1 to 5. The higher the selected HR the more damage you will deal, but the harder the gauge will be in exchange.

The HR gauge starts at 100% and you crash if you drop below 0%. In general, HR1 is very lenient and even easier than the SKILL ANALYZER gauge, HR4 is close to a typical EXCESSIVE clear, and HR5 is more difficult, with even nears doing damage to the gauge.

To speed things up a bit you can purchase the BLASTER PASS, which multiplies the damage dealt by 1.5. It also enables the ALTERNATIVE RATE SYSTEM (ARS), i.e. if you fail the HR gauge it switches to the regular EFFECTIVE RATE gauge and you keep on playing. If you plan to play using normal credits, BLASTER PASS in EXCEED GEAR also doubles the rate at which the BLASTER GAUGE is filled (no effect for BLASTER START).

Below is the amount of damage you can deal when playing the MXM difficulty chart. For EXH, ADV and NOV, divide the values by 2, 4 and 8 respectively.

To put it simpler, here's what the above implies:

• Without BLASTER PASS, HR1-5 each take 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 shots respectively. If you crash you'll barely do any damage.
• With BLASTER PASS, HR1-3 each take 4, 3, 2 shots respectively, i.e. one less. If you fail the HR gauge and hit ARS it'll still help a bit, though more if you actually clear it.

In fact, if you're using BLASTER PASS, I would recommend:

• Aiming for 2-shot: HR3 twice. If you fail the HR3, try HR2 then HR3 again once you know the chart better (regardless of how you went with ARS on the fail).
  • Alternatively, HR5 for the difficulty one lower as the first song, which may be easier. This strat can only be done on the first song, since lower difficulties can't blast the full gauge.
• Aiming for 3-shot: HR1, HR2, HR2. If you fail the first HR2, play HR1 two more times (regardless of how you went with ARS on the fail).

Without BLASTER PASS, there's also the following strategy:

• Aiming for 3-shot: Play HR5 for the difficulty one lower, then HR2 twice on the difficulty you wish to unlock. This may or may not be easier than three straight HR3 shots.

As with Ω Dimension (or at least, how it used to be) there is an unlock order. Namely, earlier prerequisite songs must be unlocked before later songs are available to be damaged, up to the difficulty you've unlocked the prerequisites to.

Historical Notes

• HEXA DIVER used to only be available on EXTRACK (in VW).

References

• HEXA DIVER on BEMANIWiki (Japanese)