Speed Modifiers

Lore & Background

Work on Beat Saber began after the completion of Hyperbolic Magnetism's previous title, Chameleon Run. Slovak developers Vladimír Hrinčár and Ján Ilavský began creating demos and prototypes, and some of these were posted on Facebook. Czech composer Jaroslav Beck saw some of these prototypes and met the team in Prague to convince them to let him create the soundtrack for the game. After around two years of development, the game was released in early access on May 1, 2018. Hyperbolic Magnetism changed its name to Beat Games. Facebook via Oculus Studios acquired Beat Games in November 2019.

In Their Own Story

The neon horizon stretched out, a tunnel of red and blue light waiting to be sliced. The song was a frantic techno storm, but today felt different; the blocks seemed to crawl with unnatural slowness. Alex adjusted the slider in the menu, watching the numbers shift until the incoming stream accelerated into a blur. With a sharp exhale, they raised their sabers, ready to meet the rhythm exactly where it belonged.

Reader's Guide

The player uses VR controllers to relocate a pair of glowing sabers, which by default are colored red and blue for left and right respectively, although the colors are changeable to any color. In each song, the game presents the player with a stream of approaching blocks laid out in sync with the song's beats and notes, located in one of the 12 possible positions of a 4x3 grid. Each one may also be marked with an arrow indicating one of eight possible directions in which the block may be required to be cut through. There are also blocks with dots instead of arrows, which players may hit in any direction from the sides (not poked through the dot). When a block is properly cut by a saber, it is destroyed and a score is awarded, based on the length and angle of the swing and the accuracy of the cut. In addition, there are sometimes bombs that the player should not hit, and obstacles in the form of oncoming walls that the player's head should avoid. Underneath the path where the blocks travel is a white 'energy bar,' also called 'battery.' At the beginning of every song, the bar is halfway full, slowly filling up as the player hits notes correctly. If the player makes mistakes, such as hitting a note in the incorrect direction or with the wrong saber, missing a note, hitting a bomb, or running into a wall, the bar will decrease. If the bar becomes empty, the level will end. Before the start of each song, the game offers the option to enable Modifiers. These are options that affect different aspects of gameplay, such as the presence of bombs, or the speed at which the song plays. Modifiers can either increase or lower the player's rank depending on the impact on difficulty. For example, the 'No Fail' modifier allows the player to complete the song without fail if the energy bar depletes, but the final rank will be lowered. The 'Super Fast Song' modifier will increase the player's rank, but the song will progress at 150% speed.

Did You Know?

• Beat Saber sold over a million copies by March 2019.
• By February 2021, the game had sold over 4 million copies and 40 million songs have been sold through paid DLC.
• In 2025, Meta compiled its '50 best-selling paid Quest games of all time', with Beat Saber topping the list at number 1.
• The game was fully released out of early access on PC on May 21, 2019.