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More details emerge on Rock Band Rivals

by: Dan - posted: 9/2/2016 3:55:00 PM
More On: Rock Band 4 Rock Band Rivals

As promised, Harmonix has released more details on Rock Band Rivals, the expansion pack for Rock Band 4.  Out at PAX West today (and detailed on the blog), the Harmonix team introduced some new lingo you will need if you pick up Rock Band Rivals:

  • Rivals Hub: This is your go-to spot for the latest information about your Crew.
  • Weekly Challenges: These are timed events made up of two distinct gameplay elements – Weekly Challenge Songs and Spotlight Songs.
  • Weekly Challenge Songs: Songs noted with a “W” in your Song Library are eligible for the Weekly Challenge. Playing these songs will earn you Crew XP. Your Total Crew XP is then compared against every other Crew in your Tier.
  • Spotlight Songs: There are three songs each week that are designated as Spotlight Songs (noted with a spotlight symbol in your Song Library). You’ll need to earn high scores on each instrument for these tracks.
  • Rivals Points: The average of your total Spotlight score percentile and total Crew XP percentile. Rivals Points is what determines your promotion/demotion into different Tiers.
  • Tiers: Tiers show you where your Crew is currently placed in the worldwide rankings. Depending on how you stack up relative to all the other Crews within your Tier on Total Crew XP and Total Spotlight Score, you will get promoted to a higher Tier, stay in your current Tier, or be demoted to a lower Tier.
  • Skill: The Skill stat quantifies how skilled you are on an instrument based on your best scores on every song you've played. The Skill stat ranges from 0 to 1000.
  • Experience Points (XP): You'll earn XP for every song you play in Rock Band. Your star performance and difficulty level determine the amount of XP you earn per song, and contribute to your Crew’s total XP score.

All of the above is part of the expansion, including the ability to create of join a Rivals Crew.  One pint of emphasis, is that the best crews are the ones that are well balanced and players that excel on many different instruments.  In addition, you will have the ability to promote and demote players, compare how they are doing and have use of an official Rock Band Rivals companion app.

While I was hoping (and most of us believed) that the basic feature to play online as a band should have been included within Rock band 4, Harmonix has gone way past expectations with the Rivals pack and taken inline play to another level.