An Advanced EnMusic Gameplay Reference
If you're reading this, you're probably familiar with these, but just in case:
EnMusic Event Guide -- A practical analysis of how to get 5☆ event cards as cheaply as possible.
EnMusic Score Mechanics -- A look at how high scores work.
For any concerns or corrections, you can contact the guide author on Twitter at @joltcounting.
Version: 1.1
Minor revisions to account for new longest songs.
Credits
@Mikan_Muii and @Iam2winkP for the basics of note values, scoring constants, and score manipulation.
Asakoto (@Asakoto1849) for much of the same things, and also a TON of internal mechanics research.
The English Ensemble Stars!! Wiki for hosting said mechanics information.
Rentry for hosting this guide, and imgur for hosting images.
Disclaimers
This guide can be reproduced in part or full as long as attribution is given to the original author(s).
Please retain the version number / changelog and this section verbatim (i.e., as-is).
For any concerns or corrections, you can contact the guide author on Twitter at @joltcounting.
If any guides plagiarize this resource without proper credit and claim to be the original, please refer to the original publishing timestamp at the bottom of the original guide as proof of its being the earliest version possible.
Ensemble Stars! and its related copyrights are properties of their respective owners.
I do not claim to own any of these rights.
--FAQ--
Q: What's this again?
A collection of things that are probably not suited for new players, but which are relevant to veterans' interests and deserve an in-depth look.
Unfortunately, once you get this deep, math is involved. There's no escape.
Q: Aren't there already guides for these?
Probably. I'm just gathering everything into one place so it's easy to find under the umbrella of "advanced stuff".
However, generally speaking, all the stuff taken here from the wiki was either my own research, or someone who's already been credited above.
Many players will have discovered this stuff with their own research, and I don't claim to be the only person who knows the nuts and bolts.
Q: TL;DR of finding your best song?
- In a case where there are two songs from the same unit with the same color, pick the shorter one
- In order of priority, from top to bottom:
- More cards (2-4) from the same unit with the same highest sub-stat, relying on a 120% Center skill
- More cards (2-5) from the same unit but different sub-stats, relying on a 50% Center skill
- A team that relies on a 120% skill, but with only 1-2 unit bonus members that share the same sub-stat
- Try to arrange your team so that the card with the most duplicates (like the free Hiiro / Subaru) uses its Live Skill to hit the Ensemble Time note, if possible
Q: This information doesn't seem to fit my experiences...
I'm open to being convinced that my explanations for why things work the way they do are wrong, if you can prove your reasoning, and I will correct my guides and credit you for the correction.
Shoot me a DM or a reply anywhere you can find me.
Just remember to be careful of confirmation bias -- when you're proving something, test for the possibility that your theory might be wrong -- this allows you to rule out why other possibilities other than your own could be correct.
--TABLE OF CONTENTS--
Score Manipulation
The act of manipulating your score on a song in order to get a specific number or type of number.
Score manipulation has two primary motivations in Ensemble Stars!! Music:
- Tour missions which require your score to end in a specific digit
- A profile title which requires you to clear a Live with a score of exactly 777,777
In order to manipulate scoring, it's necessary to provide an overview of note judgments and the scoring formula.
Since it's not necessary to explain every bit of the scoring formula in order to apply it, only the most relevant points will be covered.
The Scoring Formula
Each of these factors is explained below, in only as much detail as is relevant to the topic.
Base Power and Scoring Constants
Base power refers to the value shown on the Live Unit screen immediately before starting a song. In the image below, this value is 142,389.

Scoring constants are a hidden value specific to each song. Your base power is divided by the scoring constant, yielding the score per note before any multipliers.
It won't be necessary to learn how to calculate them as it's extremely tedious without an organized method of data collection, and a table of score constants will be provided below as necessary.
For now it's only necessary to be aware that they exist.
In this example, a team BP of 142,389 playing Kiss of Life on Easy (scoring constant of 67.75) would get a base score of 2102 for tapping a note PERFECT, before any of the following multipliers.
Combo Bonuses
The combo bonus is added to your score per note once your combo reaches a certain percentage of the total notes in the song -- specifically, at 10%, 20%, 40%, 70%, and 90% of the total note count. The bonus score granted by this bonus varies by difficulty.
As an example: Distorted Heart on Expert, with 949 notes, will gain a combo multiplier from a combo count of 95 or higher; at 855 notes, or 90% of the total note count, the combo bonus is 100%, effectively doubling your base score per note.
For the purposes of this guide, it's important to know that the first combo bonus kicks in at 10% of the total notes.
Note Types
There are six types of notes, each with a corresponding multiplier for score.
| Note type | Multiplier | Additional information |
|---|---|---|
| Normal note | ×1 | - |
| Live Skill note | ×1 | Activates a Live Skill multiplier (does not apply to the Live Skill note that was tapped to activate it) |
| Hold note (beginning) | ×1 | Same as a normal note |
| Hold note (middle or end) | ×0.5 | - |
| Flick note | ×1 | Multiplier is ×1 even when part of a hold |
| Ensemble Time note | ×10 | Special difficulty and certain songs do not have these notes |
When attempting to obtain a score of exactly 777,777, Live Skill notes and hold middle/end notes are best ignored.
When attempting to end a score with a specific digit, interact with these notes at your own peril.
Note Judgments
The judgment of a note is a range from PERFECT, GREAT, GOOD, BAD, or MISS.
During Live Challenges, notes may also be judged as AMAZING, a grade higher than PERFECT -- however, Live Challenges follow a different scoring formula.
The timing windows for each judgment are shown below, along with their associated scoring multipliers.
| Judgment | Timing window | Score multiplier | Score multiplier (Live Challenge) | Breaks combo? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMAZING | ±33ms | N/A | ×1.0 (100%) | No |
| PERFECT | ±50ms | ×1.0 (100%) | ×0.9 (90%) | No |
| GREAT | ±85ms | ×0.8 (80%) | ×0.5 (50%) | No |
| GOOD | ±120ms | ×0.5 (50%) | ×0.1 (10%) | No |
| BAD | ±170ms | ×0 | ×0 | Yes |
| MISS | N/A | ×0 | ×0 | Yes |
These multipliers suggest that when attempting to obtain a score of exactly 777,777, it's ideal to avoid any result lower than PERFECT.
These numbers will result in off-by-one errors due to rounding (all the relevant factors of 777,777 are odd numbers).
GREATS can be used for tour digit manipulation in certain cases, as described in Step 4 of the related section below.
Score Manipulation: Applications
For this section, it's generally assumed that you're playing on Easy. There's no real need to play any of these missions on Hard or Expert.
It will also be assumed that you have the ability to time notes exactly as PERFECT, GREAT, or MISS when necessary.
Cards which reduce VOLTAGE loss are recommended for your support team.
Tour Digit Manipulation
Manipulating digits in tours is easier to improvise on the fly; there's no real need to pay attention to your team's base power, or scoring constants.
What you will need to pay attention to are Live Skills, combo bonuses, and your base score for tapping a note.
For this section, a practical example will be given.
1. Before starting the song, take note of the song's max combo.

For this example, EXCEED, with 219 notes on Easy, will be used.
This max combo count is useful for two reasons:
- It allows you to keep track of when it's safe to break your combo near the end of the song (around 10-20 notes close to the end)
-- This number changes depending on how many hold notes are in the ending (hold notes decrease VOLTAGE less when missed) - It allows you to keep track of when the combo bonus kicks in
In this case, you should start preparing to manipulate the last digit by breaking your combo around the 200-combo mark.
In order for combo bonus not to accidentally ruin the score, your combo count during this part shouldn't go over 22, or 1/10th of the total notes.
2. At the start of the song, pay attention to the score you get for landing a PERFECT.

Pay attention to the last digit, 3.
Suppose the last digit of the score you're required to obtain is 7.
3. Until the end, play as normal, but pay attention to your score.

Once you reach the 200-combo point, it's a good idea to pause the game and think about what to do next.
As shown here, the last digit is currently 1.
4. Break your combo, and do the math.
In order to hit 7, you'd need to add 6 to that number. At this point, if you broke your combo, the combo bonus resets, and normal notes will now add 3 to the last digit. Consulting your multiplication tables, this leaves you with two possible ways to add 6 to this score:
- 3×2 = 6
- 3×12 = 36
Keeping in mind that there would be 17 notes left in the song, it's probably not safe to only hit 2 notes and then drop the rest, as you'd likely fail the song. Therefore, we'll hit 12 notes with a PERFECT, and miss the rest.
NOTE:
Pay attention to hold notes (yielding half score) and live skills! You may want to ignore them completely during this part to prevent them ruining your math.

This can be tricky if the required digit is an odd number and your base score, from Step 2, gives an even digit. In that case, you'll have to rely on Live Skills, the combo bonus, or GREAT hits to turn your score into an odd number as the end of the song approaches, and only then break your combo.
While this may sound complicated, it's much simpler with practice, and more reliable than relying on luck and guesswork!
The 777,777 Title

This will require a bit more calculation.
Think of 777,777 in this way:
777,777 = Notes hit × Base note score
Let's break down 777,777 into a list of all its factors:
A list of 777,777's factors:
1, 3, 7, 11, 13, 21, 33, 37, 39, 49, 77, 91, 111, 143, 147, 231, 259, 273, 407, 429, 481, 539, 637, 777, 1001, 1221, 1443, 1617, 1813, 1911, 2849, 3003, 3367, 5291, 5439, 7007, 8547, 10101, 15873, 19943, 21021, 23569, 37037, 59829, 70707, 111111, 259259, 777777
Since the shortest song in the game, note-wise, is Stars' Ensemble! on Easy, at 80 notes, and the longest song, note-wise, is Seishun Emergency on Special, at 1,339 notes, we can rule out factors smaller than ~70 and larger than ~1300 for the number of notes we can hit.
For simplicity's sake, let's limit this down to note counts fewer than 200 so as not to play Hard, Expert, or Special songs. Most Easy songs won't go over 200 notes, anyway, and playing on Easy will, as the name suggests, give us the easiest time. This yields a more realistic list of values.
Usable factors for notes hit:
77, 91, 111, 143, 147
This also eliminates the corresponding larger factors that multiply into 777,777 on the other side.
Usable factors for base score per note:
5291, 5439, 7007, 8547, 10101
What this does is leave us with the following:
| Notes hit | Base score per note |
|---|---|
| 77 | 10101 |
| 91 | 8547 |
| 111 | 7007 |
| 143 | 5439 |
| 147 | 5291 |
Consult a table of scoring constants to create a team that falls within the Base Power range for one of the given base scores in the table above. The base score formula is as follows:

As an example, let's use Knockin' Fantasy. Its scoring constant is 55.75, and we're aiming to get a base score of 8547. This means your team's base power should be anywhere between 476,468 ~ 476,523 (divided by 55.75, these numbers will round up/down to 8547).

To achieve such a team, it's best to use cards whose Idol Roads and level aren't maxed -- you can slowly adjust levels and unlock nodes as you try to hit the sweet spot range. Once such a team has been created, play the song, keeping in mind the following rules:
#1
Don't hit Live Skill notes, GREATs or lower, or the middle / end notes of holds.
This entire strategy assumes that the multiplier for note score is always ×1.
Hitting any of these notes will throw off the score.
Note that GOODs and middle / end notes hit as PERFECT (×0.5) will result in off-by-one errors, since dividing an odd number by two will result in an even digit when rounded, so two GOODs or two middle / end notes don't actually make a PERFECT.
The Ensemble Time note is fine, but keep in mind that it counts for ten notes in terms of notes hit, while only counting as one for the purposes of combo. On that note...
#2
Don't trigger the combo bonus.
Check the note count of the song you're attempting beforehand, and keep in mind when the combo bonus will trigger.
For Knockin' Fantasy in our example, the combo bonus triggers at 11 (10.6 rounded up).
Therefore, your combo count cannot exceed 10.

"Meta" Songs
A "meta" song is the song which, for any player, yields the highest possible score in the game, and therefore produces the highest score bonus for event points.
Unlike other games, the length of a song does not have an inherent multiplier that allows it to score more or less points (e.g., Hitorinbo Envy vs. Melt in Project Sekai), and only the player's score at the end matters.
Each player's meta song is dependent on their collection of cards, due to the mechanics of unit and attribute bonuses.
As a consequence, being able to determine your meta song allows you to find a song which allows you to obtain event rewards while consuming the least possible diamonds.
While it would certainly be possible to simply cycle through every song in the game, use the automatic teambuilder, and compare the songs that produce the highest-power teams, this is a rather crude method considering there are over 100 songs in Music and climbing.
A more efficient method is discussed below; the following factors should be considered when finding a meta song.
Song Length
In a situation where there are two songs of the same attribute from the same unit and therefore equal unit and attribute bonuses, the song that is shorter is more likely to score higher. The reason for this is that the effects of score-boosting skills will apply to more notes, for a higher score, over a shorter period.
Review the formula for the score constant:
This formula suggests two things:
- Since score per note is Team Power ÷ Score Constant, the higher the constant, the lower your score per individual note
- Therefore, the more notes in a song, the higher score constant, and the lower your score per note
Both the actual playback length and the total notes play a factor in how high a song can score.
A longer playback length allows notes to be more spread out across the song, and as a result fewer notes will be covered by the effect of a skill.
Since the total number of notes determines the score constant, it also plays a factor in how effective a score-boosting skill will be over a group of notes.
In both cases, the shorter the song, and the fewer the notes, the higher the score.
A NOTE
"Dead air" segments in MVs where notes don't appear, like at the beginning of Noir Neige (about 20 seconds) or the ending of Believe 4 leaves (10 seconds) can be safely subtracted when considering playback time.
A practical example can be demonstrated using the Sparkle-attribute Knights songs.
- Grateful allegiance (2:05, 450 notes)
- Little Romance (2:35, 600 notes)
Using the same team for both songs, shown below, the difference in note count and song length results in a large gap in possible score even when the best possible result is achieved for each song.

⏩ Grateful allegiance (2:05, 450 notes)

⏩ Little Romance (2:35, 600 notes)

While 60,000 score may seem like a small difference, these differences in score will add up over time:
- As your teams get stronger, it's likely you will eventually accumulate duplicates of cards, which strengthen their Live Skills, magnifying the score boost effect and exacerbating the differences between long and short songs
- When you're grinding events, it takes at least 100 plays of normal songs (even on 6BP) to hit 3.5m, assuming no scouting bonuses. Multiplying lost score bonuses by 100 tends to show a respectable gap in event points earned.
Team Synergy and Unit Bonuses
Generally speaking, the more cards you have of a unit, regardless of their highest specific stat (i.e., Da / Vo / Pf) the more likely they are to score better, but in a situation where you have multiple team combinations where this is the case, the team whose cards have the same specific stat will be stronger.
As a rule of thumb, a team organized around a Center skill that boosts a specific stat (Da / Vo / Pf) by 120% is able to reach higher team power caps than one that boosts all stats by 50%.
As a result, some songs have a tendency to score lower because the group of cards which benefit from both the Attribute and Unit bonuses do not have the same strongest stat. For example, Temptation Magic, a Sparkle-attribute Switch song, would be expected to score best with the release 5☆ Natsume, and the Feature Scout versions of Sora and Tsumugi. However, Natsume's strongest stat is Dance; Sora's strongest stat is Voice; and Tsumugi's strongest stat is Performance -- a 120% Center skill would be unable to reconcile them.
By comparison, RISKY VENUS and Honeycomb Summer, both Brilliant-attribute Crazy:B songs, are expected to score best with Niki and Kohaku's event 5☆s, as well as HiMERU's Feature Scout card. All three cards share the same strongest stat, Performance, meaning that they can all coexist with a Center skill that boosts Brilliant-attribute Pf stats by 120%.

Skill Note Timings and the Ensemble Note
The Ensemble Note is worth ten times the value of a normal note.
A song during which a score-boosting skill is active when the Ensemble Time note is hit has the power to greatly influence the score.
This is especially the case when cards such as Start Dash Subaru and the Senpai Mission Hiiro are involved, since their Live Skill effects are as strong as those of any other 5☆ card that is maxed out (which generally requires far more effort and/or diamonds spent); hitting an Ensemble Time note specifically when their skills are active would drastically impact the score, compared to a 5☆ card which you only have one copy for.
Therefore, there is likely to be a significant difference in score between a song where it is impossible to hit the Ensemble Time note during a skill's duration, and a song where it is possible. Consider the following teams:
⏩ オモイノカケラ (1:53, 435 notes)

⏩ Brilliant Smile (2:37, 600 823 notes)

Song length and note count aside, notice that despite the higher base power, Brilliant Smile scores less than Omoi no Kakera -- a song wherein the Ensemble Time note is covered by the last skill (Natsume's), and the Live Skill activation from a maxed 4☆ Tsumugi outstrips the event Tsumugi 5☆ at only one copy.
Tour-Related Considerations
NOTE
Some of the information presented here is of a more subjective nature and represents the author's opinions on the subject, with less rigorous calculation.
Finding "meta" songs in tour setlists
Since tours have (so far) focused on two units at a time, with the fourth song of each day being a song from one of the two featured units, a player can only be picky to a certain extent.
Generally speaking, since the 3-3-3-10 BP method (maximizing the effect of the FEVER gauge) is the most cost-efficient method of getting event points in tours, it follows that the high score on the 4th song matters the most, since its value is multiplied by 10.
This doesn't mean you should entirely neglect the other three songs.
The other three songs will also have to be songs you can do to a consistent extent -- if not on Expert, then at least on Hard -- since the FEVER gauge increases higher the better your combo and score are (and keeping a full combo is vital to keeping a good score).
If you're not consistent at difficult songs, such as Lv. 29+ or Lv. 30 songs, you will probably have to avoid setlists that include those songs.

Weighing the Value of Memorial Coins
The Event Memorial coin shop values the first copy of a 5☆ at 30 coins.
This suggests that by picking the 10 coins at the end of a tour, you're getting one-third of the value of picking a new 5☆ instead, but that's not the whole picture.
Excluding cases where you simply don't like either of the 5☆ characters offered for free (in which case no one should judge you for simply taking the coins), consider the case wherein you are playing a tour event to 3.5m event points.
While the coin shop values the second copy of a 5☆ at 70 coins, in terms of raw card power, multiple copies of a card typically grant diminishing returns for the effort expended.
Unless you have reason to believe that a new card from a tour with multiple copies is an integral part of your "meta" song teams, it's probably better to take the 10 coins along with your two new 5☆ cards at one copy each from event points; it's entirely possible that a past event card you don't have will eventually become necessary to form a high-scoring team, rather than banking on the card that's in front of you at the moment.