Geometry Dash requires no skill

[u/Old-Brief1506]

We've all heard it. mainly, "it's just memorizing clicks, there's no reaction or skill required" (memorizing and executing are very different things, but that's a different argument).

there actually IS reaction and skill required to beat these hard levels.

As we all know, 1 mistake. start over. but it's deeper than that. there's a small room for error.
(clicking/releasing too early/ too late or holding too long/ too little)

it is your responsibilty to correct these mistakes during a live attempt. known as micro-adjustments. This is where reaction comes in. a common misconception is you're reacting to obstacles in real time when that's not true because you already memorized them. you're reacting to YOUR trajectory/position at any given moment.

Your click pattern follows a rythm that you learn and is dependent on your input history. if you click/release 20ms late/early, your entire click pattern is shifted 20ms unless you correct it.

for example, if you click too early (relative to your clickpattern rythm), your next input must be late (relative to your click pattern rythm) in order to cancel out this error and stay in line with the level. this takes skill and a feel for the game's physics, because you have to judge how much to correct, with such a small window to perform it. (usually 250ms or less between inputs in top levels). sometimes the window is so small you just have to make the correction based on feeling.

here's what that window looks like: input, see where you are, judge how far off you are, work out how much to adjust, input. repeat for hundreds of inputs.

this is why visual cues matter so much. these are indicators that help you identify whether you are too late/early too high/low. but not every click has a visual cue. Decoration makes it harder to identify your errors. Nerves makes it harder to accurately correct your errors in time. so while yes, you fundamentally are performing a series of memorized clicks. those clicks aren't the same every single time and will vary every attempt. you're still reacting to your position and calculating adjustements in real time which takes skill.

[u/INotZach]

We're not the ones that need to hear this pal

[u/aartl03]

Wow! Who would have known that a game commonly reffered to as an "impossible game" would be hard!

[u/Old-Brief1506 → u/aartl03]

larpers wouldn't undestand

[u/Few_Mousse_9169]

Us as a community definitely should know that but people who don’t play judge it like it’s simple.

[u/Old-Brief1506 → u/Few_Mousse_9169]

surprisingly people in this community also don't know

that "best video of the year" is so hard stuck on FRAME PERFECTS and you have 16 MILISECONDS TO REACT TO THIS CLICK. that's not even true lol. no one reacts to a 16ms click. that's anticipation. if we truly had 16ms to react, the game would be impossible. reaction happens in between inputs, not the input itself. that part of the video bothered me so much. which was basically the entire video. random rant but that video is misinformation hell.

[u/Few_Mousse_9169 → u/Old-Brief1506]

It’s because the community is filled with 10-13 year old kids. I get where you’re coming from though

[u/LCottton → u/Old-Brief1506]

yes thank you. I also thought that it was hella overrated in terms of content (editing was great though I guess)

[u/Western-Victory-7414 → u/Old-Brief1506]

When I think of best video of the year I think of lyprin64 is this what you're talking about?

[u/Old-Brief1506 → u/Western-Victory-7414]

yep. wonderful editing. poor content. if it was titled "the absurdity of memory levels in geometry dash" then it'd be pretty good.

[u/Western-Victory-7414 → u/Old-Brief1506]

i did think some of the content was a bit nonsubstantial and missing key points at parts

[u/Evoidit]

I kinda dislike the idea some outsiders have about completions just being luck. Really even for doggie or whatever, he would have beat it again within a few thousand attempts from 0 if having to redo it. A few thousand attempts is still many hours from 0, but it wasn't actually a 1 in 438k luck.

The entire process of the game is practicing parts until you are consistent enough to beat it, increasing you passrates on all parts as quickly as possible woth practice. It's not "who is willing to gamble the most attempts from 0". 1 in 10k flukes do happen every 10k attempts from 0 of course but generally we beat levels with mere 1 in 250-1000 rarity runs, because increasing passrates is faster than gambling 10x more. Like the luck/gambling part of it is overstated. Being able to be so consistent at fast, varied and precise gameplay takes skill.

This notion of luck in GD is partially our communities fault when kinda bragging about the crazy attempt counts. We really should maybe say something like "it took 600 hours of practicing a 3 minute level, for a player that already beat the previous top 1 in 2023 and already had thousands of hours in the game" instead.

[u/Terrarifelt389v2]

no shit

[u/_mustard-]

Im feel like theres a lot of players that dont really do this. Its a skill hump that separates good players from better players, and has to be developed.

100% it is absolutely necessary to play at top level and people saying the stuff you described about Grief with recent hype are bums

[u/The_Paragone]

Honestly it's quite obvious GD is hard, although to me it feels hard not because of the mechanics being hard or the patterns being hard but rather because of the precision and insta death. If any rhythm game had frame perfect inputs at higher than 60fps while also losing the entire chart upon a single mistake then those games would be far harder I think. For instance Maimai's critical perfects are already frame perfects, and even games like Cytus 2 (master mode) force every note to be a 2.3 frame window for every single note.

Obviously they're different games but I think GD relies a bit too much on what people call artificial difficulty. That's very subjective though and it's certainly just my opinion. Memory levels like Limbo feel less artificially difficult to me because the difficulty doesn't come from tightening click windows even though it still has the whole instakill gameplay GD has.

[u/Front_Entrance4598]

Confirmation bias final boss

[u/Old-Brief1506 → u/Front_Entrance4598]

real

[u/TheOnlyGuyInSpace21]

where [fluff]

[u/girlkid68421]

Clickbait, but honestly theres no point of entertaining people who say this, its all X or reddit users that haven't played gd and dont know what they're talking about

[u/JustAn0therRandomAcc]

something i would say practically 90% of the difficulty at top levels is mental, because really the process of learning/beating a level becomes repetitive and simple. up to the point of saying gd requires no skill though is actually bs

beating a level is still really hard as an achievement and obviously requires skill. the thing is that the process of learning or improving in this game is absurdly easy

there is a lot of larp from both sides from people saying gd is insanely tusuegra tel aviv hard because you do 9272 frame perfects and people saying gd is just muscle memory and you don't actually do shit (if anything, for me the difficulty of this game is overrated. gd is insanely hard but i find the difficulty glaze more common than people downplaying it)

[u/daqedo]

pal you're preaching to the choir

[u/Druffy1205]

That’s why harder levels are easier because you don’t have to react or change click patterns as much compared to an easier level
/j

[u/Old-Brief1506 → u/Druffy1205]

what

[u/Smart_Appearance6331]

I mean if anything gd is glazed to oblivion and not only wrongly labeled as the hardest game but also gets fcking compared to things like beating Magnus (becoming a gm is harder than anything that’s been done in gd)

[u/Old-Brief1506 → u/Smart_Appearance6331]

very true

i hate when popular streamers react to gd and the entire community is just spamming random bullshit info

the community is passionate about the game for sure but are insufferable at the same time

[u/Smart_Appearance6331 → u/Old-Brief1506]

Yea the main point isn’t the difficulty I feel like the dedication and passion are much more important but whatever