Five Stars On Expert - The Continuing Spiral Into Insanity

[Elliot]

As much as I love DJ Hero, and think it's a fun game and a much more interesting one than anything you play with a guitar, the difficulty jump between Hard and Expert is unbelievable.

Having finally managed to conquer Groundhog and complete my sweep of Hard five stars on all ninety three mixes, I decided that naturally, it was time to try and obtain five stars on expert for all songs.

I started with the guitar setlist, as there are only ten of them and I thought that it wouldn't be too bad a starting point. I was wrong. So very wrong.

After attempting Bring The Noise 20XX over fifty times, I finally obtained the expert five stars... On the last note of the song, after twiddling the effects dial like a madman. Had I missed it by only 100 or so points, the controller would have gone out of the window, into the garden, to lay forgotten until I wished to tour the outside of my house next.

So, whilst I continue to strive for the DJ Hero platinum, and update this thread accordingly, my question to you is this: What DJ Hero songs do you find hard / impossible / unfair / just plain madness on Expert, or Hard, or whatever difficulty you play on?

As they say, forewarned is forearmed, and if I go into a song I know will brutally rip me to shreds, you can say that you told me so.

[IzzyJohnno]

TTFaF, Raining Blood, Number of the Beast, One, Cliffs of Dover, Caught in a Mosh, Good Mourning/ Black Friday, Blackened, Ride the Lightning, ...And Justice For All, Peace Sells, We Three Kings (GH3 DLC), Top Gun Anthem, I Am Murloc, Ernten Was Wir Saen, Surfing With the Alien, For the Love of God, Avalancha, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, The Trooper, Bark at the Moon, Rock you like a Hurricane, In the belly of a Shark, YYZ, Jordan, Thunderhorse, Institutionalized, Misirlou.

There's more, I could go on... and on... and on... and on...

[Elliot]

That's funny, none of them are on DJ Hero...

OP edited for clarity. >__________>

[IzzyJohnno]

That's funny, they're all songs that are hard on Expert

[jaymon250]

Pie is talking about DJ Hero, not Rock Band

[Elliot]

Thanks, Jay.

Also, I have now done DJ Hero / Jukebox Hero and Ace of Spades / Groundhog, which were the scourge of the Guitar Setlist, and moved on to the Standard Setlist.

I even managed today to do Bustin' Loose / Time of the Season, which Manners (for those of you who don't know him, he's the only person with the DJ Hero plat on this site at the time of writing) said was the hardest, along with Beats and Pieces.

Still have Beats and Pieces to look forward to, as well as re-doing bloody Groundhog on Expert, but that's an adventure for another day.

[DJ_Keyser]

Boom Tap. Boom Tap. Boom Boom Tap. Boom boom bo-Boom Tap.

I really need to start playing this again.

[Elliot]

Boom Tap. Boom Tap. Boom Boom Tap. Boom boom bo-Boom Tap.

I really need to start playing this again.

Yes, yes you do, it's an awesome game.

If you need a boosting partner on DJ Hero 2, I need one too by the way.

Also, Boom / Tap was easy, it's the damn directional scratches are hard, Boom / Tap was delightfully simple to do.

[DJ_Keyser]

Yes, yes you do, it's an awesome game.

If you need a boosting partner on DJ Hero 2, I need one too by the way.

Also, Boom / Tap was easy, it's the damn directional scratches are hard, Boom / Tap was delightfully simple to do.

Yeah man, I'll be down for that. Just give me a week or two to get back in the game so I don't embarrass myself, hehe.

[Mio]

TTFaF, Raining Blood, Number of the Beast, One, Cliffs of Dover, Caught in a Mosh, Good Mourning/ Black Friday, Blackened, Ride the Lightning, ...And Justice For All, Peace Sells, We Three Kings (GH3 DLC), Top Gun Anthem, I Am Murloc, Ernten Was Wir Saen, Surfing With the Alien, For the Love of God, Avalancha, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, The Trooper, Bark at the Moon, Rock you like a Hurricane, In the belly of a Shark, YYZ, Jordan, Thunderhorse, Institutionalized, Misirlou.

There's more, I could go on... and on... and on... and on...

i believe that would be guitar hero 3.

[Elliot]

i believe that would be guitar hero 3.

Yes, he frequently tells me how hard GH3 is.

Groundhog was pleasantly easy, much to my surprise. Only 33 left to go, one of which is Beats and Pieces, which is brutally, brutally difficult. Apart from that, it shouldn't be too bad.

[IzzyJohnno]

Well, every GH game has its rapehard songs, GH2 has Jordan, GH3 has TTFaF and TDWDTG etc.

I was with Pie when he finally five-starred Beats and pieces today, I helped

[Elliot]

Ian is quite right, I managed to 5* Beats and Pieces! So I have now done every song on expert, I'm pleased to say!

The hardest songs are as follows:

Beats and Pieces

Bustin' Loose / Time of the Season

DJ Hero / Jukebox Hero (Guitar Setlist)

Ace of Spades / Groundhog (Guitar Setlist)

[Tristalex]

I'm one song away from platinum. I don't know if i want to revisit it, having finished 800pts away from 5-Star

The song ? Beats'n'Pieces. I know if I practice a bit more then I can rape the intro with rewinds, but....it's just so damn long. I mean 2-3 tries and my hands are hurting like hell. Guaranteed wrist killer for sure. One day I'll get back to it, but for now I'm perfectly content to get my ass kicked at other games

[Apocalypto_ch]

I'm one song away from platinum. I don't know if i want to revisit it, having finished 800pts away from 5-Star

The song ? Beats'n'Pieces. I know if I practice a bit more then I can rape the intro with rewinds, but....it's just so damn long. I mean 2-3 tries and my hands are hurting like hell. Guaranteed wrist killer for sure. One day I'll get back to it, but for now I'm perfectly content to get my ass kicked at other games

You only need to know, when you should use SP. I had like 3 SP and some Rewinds. With that I have 5 Stars on that Mix. This is the hardest Mix for me in DJ Hero 1.^^

Edited July 25, 2012 by Apocalypto_ch

[kevnhaze4]

I am gutted i will not get 5 star trophy on epert because it is so difficult.

[Shadowrider50]

This post is getting really big, so I've spoilered the content:

I just bought this again and I'm trying it now.

I've done 59/93 Expert 5*s after 15 hours of playing (7 yesterday, 8 today). I also Expert 5*ed Bustin' Loose vs Time of the Season in somewhat over an hour... phew, last time I owned DJ Hero (2.5 years ago, I think), I couldn't get this despite playing it over and over and over. I did well and streaked well at the start, but at the end I got excited and started missing a bit, but thankfully I JUST made it (I got 175324 points, and you need like around 175000 to Expert 5*). I wonder what criteria made this mix of »average« intensity, perhaps one criterion could've been time, but I don't feel like difficulty was properly taken into account. It's funny, because if you play the lyrics »time of the season« backwards, it does actually sound like »it's the season for Hell«. Poison vs Intergalactic took me 1-2 hours though and it was the last one that I did for tonight, and I was really tired after it and seriously thirsty, and now I'm up 1 hour past my sleeptime because of it. It really helped me to watch kristoph212's FC videos and observe his scratching, so thanks to him for that.

It's frustrating when the occasional 1 second loading freezes happen mid-game and it makes me miss.

I'm gonna keep on persevering, and hopefully I'll have this prized platinum eventually.

EDIT (2014.02.01): I'm up to 77/93 Expert 5*s now after a few hours today on DJ Hero. What's really been helping me is knowing where to activate euphoria. I play so much and it makes my shoulders and back pain and also I feel reekingly damp.

I noticed that it looks like kristoph212 puts the controller on his lap, which is interesting, and I tried it whilst sitting with my legs vertically bent because I was frustrated with the flimsiness and unstability (it happened on that tough mix Ace of Spades vs Groundhog, which barely has any Groundhog funnily... and I'm currently up to it and stuck on it badly), and it felt somewhat more comfortable and accurate (no bending back as before it was on-floor) but I couldn't really get into it/used to it much and do better, and my arm hurt more.

EDIT (2014.02.02): I just tried recalibration for the first time in DJ Hero, because of the frustration on Ace of Spades vs Groundhog, thanks to a tip in a tips video, and I feel more accurate, despite playing on a CRT TV (I thought that recalibration was mainly for HDTVs, but the guy in the tips video said that I should do it for any TV).

Ace of Spades vs Groundhog's Expert 5* is really stressing me out... I still don't have it after hours of gameplay today, although the best I got was about 13000 points away *sigh*

EDIT (2014.02.18): So I'm back to focusing on DJ Hero, and I tried again and I got my nonworking DJ Hero controller working! The batteries went flat (and I did try other batteries before, from my other controller, so that was weird) because it wouldn't connect and always flashed red, and I used a different brand of batteries from some remote and now somewhy it's actually connecting. Now my mind feels more at ease, because now both controllers work and I won't have to buy another for DJ Hero 2, and I can use my preferred one as this is my preferred one.

Currently 91/93 Expert-5*s! Just Beats and Pieces remaining, and Groundhog I'm saving for last. It's easier to pause with PS button because it's bigger than that tiny little joke of a start button, and you still get a resume countdown. I remembered this from reading this that in the freestyle red sections, you can play 2 different effects for 100 points each (4x = 800, 8x = 1600, that's considerable!). If you rewind to the middle of a euphoria section, then you can clear it without having to do it all, and just what's upcoming. Using euphoria to combo in the right places is important, because not only do you get points and autocrossfades, but you can also use it to get rewinds easier in some sections of some mixes with the autocrossfading.

A tip that really helped me that I read was that you need to understand the chart. So many times I put off understanding some parts, thinking that I'll get them »later on« or »sometime«, but the game is communicating to you what it wants you to do, and you need to understand it confidently... this really helps, and you can combo in the craziest of places if you really put an effort into understanding it all. Wherever you fail, you have to try and understand that part.

Sometimes when I get stressed, I play too fast, so keep this in mind if you get stressed and are wondering why you can't hit scratches/taps/crossfades/etc that you hit so well before.

If you get too stuck on a mix, I'd suggest to do other mixes if you have any remaining... I was stuck on Aces of Spades vs Noisia, but I just finished off other mixes and returned to it later, and I played so much better and Expert-5*ed it in a few tries (I have to chiefly thank Here's A Little Something For Ya vs The Number Song (2009), which was fun to Expert-5* and really improved my scratching and my eye-hand coördination thereupon), and if you get stuck on the game, take a break I'd suggest because a clear mind has helped me improve so much. It's also motivating, and helpful, to read/watch/hear/etc others' experiences/advice/etc.

It also helps to have a stable DJ controller... I've always been on a wood-panel floor, and sometimes it can slide slightly, so I adjusted the TV and my body and sometimes the controller, but I can get it firm also, but for Expert-5*ing Rockit (which was fun, and moderately challenging... rewinds and euphoria and comboing was fairly easy/medium and is what matters), I started putting it on a pillow (with a rough cover) in my crossed-legs sittingly because it was always sliding on the floor with the hecticness therein.

I heard some complaints about synchronisation in Monkey Wrench vs Sabotage - according to Kristoph212, it's actually that the overscratching is oversensitive... so I tried hitting the scratches that had gaps separately like Kristoph212 did, and that worked well and I even got the euphoria sections (I don't know why the game always lags a bit on the first section, other mixes have similar problem) and Expert-5*ed it in a few tries. With euphoria, I recommend using one bar for the intensest spikes section - that is the most confusing section, which is right after the tapping section (don't use euphoria there. You need to save it for this.) and you can streak right through that with an 8x multiplier on top. BTW The PS3 chart is unique as some of the generic scratches are instead directional scratches (says so in Kristoph212's FC video hereof). I think that other mixes may have this, or at least Kristoph212's Beats and Pieces video says that Beats and Pieces also has one on the PS3, so this game is (very slightly) harder on PS3.

Oh yes, I saw Kristoph212 wearing a slick Sonic-shirt in one video - that's awesome

EDIT (2014.02.19): I've Expert 5*-ed Beats & Pieces today! It took a quite a few hours today, with some familiarisation and practice runs from yesterday, and I was really tired and soooo glad when I did it. This is the hardest mix to Expert-5* in DJ Hero.

Here are my notes from my general gameplay:

Don't necessarily restart a song if you fail at the start. Unless you're confident that you can get 5* if you restart, you can still play onwards and practise getting better at the later bits, which will help you and it's also less stressful to not restart. Unless you're confident in your ability to 5* by now, it helps to practise the latter bits stress-free.

For me sitting legs-crossed can hurt after a while, so I switch my position (e.g. sometimes on controller on blanket instead, or sometimes vertically bent legs with a space in between, etc), but I always do that when gaming even if not DJ Hero anyway.

As with any game, it's annoying when you're doing so good that your heart races and it gets distracting. At this point just »believe« that you can focus and that seems to help.

When scratching intensely, there may be a possibility you can get something like an ingrown fingernail... I had to bite my nail and skin to assuage it somewhat, but it still hurt but it got better after a while... well, for me it just got number as I replayed Beats & Pieces that I didn't even notice it anymore

If you rewind, really try to keep comboing, because if you don't you lose the double multiplier, so keep this in mind when rewinding.

The FX dial is important, because not only do you get more points, but it doubles your multiplier. In some sections it might be too hectic to use it, but where you can use it, try to.

Here are my notes for Beats & Pieces:

For Beats & Pieces, I recommend watching this video to get an idea of what you have to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Zp8yI9APM

You have to practise getting as many rewinds and euphoria, and you really have to combo combo combo. This is especially important at the start and the repeating scratch-pattern sections, but also still matters as the mix progresses, until the end with huge long scratches like <-><>->-><>->-><> where you just have to try and survive and get as many as you can. It really helps to practice everything so that you know what to do and can combo it (and really do try to understand the scratch patterns in every part) except for the last part. Try to improve wherever you are failing and understand how before the final section. When you really want to 5*, you'll want to combo as much as you can at the start, and the repeating scratch-patterns part, and get many rewinds and euphoria. Save the first euphoria section that you get for the green scratches section.

Since Beats & Pieces is really tiring, when I got really tired after each full attempt I layed down to clear my mind and rest for about a minute or so.

I was usually getting scores around the 320k-360k near the end and once I got 380k, but when I made it, I did so well a run that I got 431848 points. For reference, you need 388k points for Expert-5*.

EDIT (2014.02.21 and 2014.02.22): Ugh! I had some serious recording problems with this that delayed me by quite a few hours. I tried many different wires and splitters at different points and thought of solutions, but in the end what worked was using a TV output instead of splitters (whereof all I'd bought from cheap shops... *raises eyebrow*). My current TV had a video output on top of an audio output, but I didn't realise until later, and now I'm using our kitchen TV and we swapped the TVs, and I'm sticking with this one because it supports stereo (and the screen-size is only very slightly smaller, from 35cm to like 33cm/34cm). It's like a blessing, because using this TV output is more convient and less messy... well, thanks be to God, that all worked out. This new TV has a more curved design and is somewhat bigger, whilst the other had an edgy design... so this looks worse and it's harder to stack things atop, but I'll acclimate. Also it has an inbuilt redundant DVD player, which used to be an old gimmick for TVs. The funny thing was, that I've had this problem for some time when using all of my splitters (you can't play on the recording preview, as DJ Hero's gameplay's too fast), but it started out of nowhere originally (at first, it was counteractable by fiddling around with the splitters, but that didn't work), and before it worked fine with this exact setup. The video editing went alright, eventually that is, as I had two different »problems« trying to run two video editing software that I use, so I tried another one, which was Blender, and it was a bit of a pain to learn, but it's decent for basic video editing.

Before starting a session of playing DJ Hero... drink a glass or few of water. Be careful of eating food though... I felt emetic at one point in repeating Beats & Pieces, but I just burped several times and thankfully never had to emesise. When I Expert-5*ed Beats and Pieces... my body was so shaky, and my arms didn't feel much like they were there, and my voice remained very light - even into the next day my shoulder and arm muscles had a little pain (that's normal for playing DJ Hero Expert though ), but it felt good and relief-ful because it was the pain of success.

I didn't mention this before, because it's more of a subconscious thing, I always had a fan running next to me... whether I'm playing DJ Hero or not, I oft have it running.... I love cold weather! Perhaps it helped, because I know that hot weather is more stressful and all that, and since DJ Hero is physically and mentally strenuous, that doesn't seem like a good combo.

Some people say that if you hit a button whilst doing a rewind, that you lose your multiplier... actually, whilst you are rewinding, you have a safe window for mistakes, but if you mistake outside of that window, then it will count.

Groundhog is very mild of a challenge actually, you just have to get down all the simple patterns, and then rack up your multiplier to 4x and 8x as much as you can. I always use rewinds right away, even if it's in an transition section, as you'll keep on increasing your combo anyway therein, and you get points just for the crossfade being on.

For some reason, euphoria sometimes messes me up in parts that I do very well in - possibly because I rely on using the crossfader to help me time, or it's confusing when to start and stop using crossfader, or I'm used to reading the chart whilst actually crossfading or seeing the colours... this is only in some sections though, so perhaps in such sections still using the crossfader could be more convenient.

DJ Hero WOULD be my new rarest platinum, but even DJ Hero's 0.55% (today it changed to 0.56% though) is not a match for Free Realms' skewed percentages (which are thankfully slowly rising, as more trophy hunters are playing it now). DJ Hero 2 is even rarer than DJ Hero 1 though, and I'm going for DJ Hero 2 now.

EDIT (2014.08.30): I should add that for those very fast scratches, I find that it helps to put the buttons at somewhat of a 45-degree angle, like southwest or northwest, and then it feels easier on the arm to scratch.

2014.02.21: #58 DJ Hero. I've done it!

Edited August 30, 2014 by Shadowrider50

[Valtekken173]

I just wanted to pop in and tell my experience to anybody who might read in the future.

This plat took me 8 years on and off playing the game, either by myself or with friends. Today I got the platinum, finally. A few months ago I resolved to finally crush the last stupid trophy that had kept me from reaching the platinum, so I called a friend and we set out to play every track on expert until we got the 5 stars on every single one. He was on crossfade, euphoria and effects wheel duty while I was on the platter. We endured a fuckton of challenges and almost gave up multiple times, but decided to persevere nonetheless. Today we had a lucky run on Beats and Pieces and managed to get 389K, narrowly fulfilling the 5 stars requirement. My only suggestion to anybody attempting this platinum is: get a friend who knows how to play this game and leave the whole left side of the turntable to him. It'll do wonders for ya. If you don't have any friends who know how to play the game, teach them and you'll be pulling 5 stars in no time. Good luck!

[boromir120]

On 22/06/2011 at 10:30 PM, Shmenon-Pie said:

Ian is quite right, I managed to 5* Beats and Pieces! So I have now done every song on expert, I'm pleased to say!

The hardest songs are as follows:

Beats and Pieces

Bustin' Loose / Time of the Season

DJ Hero / Jukebox Hero (Guitar Setlist)

Ace of Spades / Groundhog (Guitar Setlist)

That’s odd because I’ve found all those way easier than monkey wrench/sabotage. That’s the only song I can’t 5*

[Elliot]

On 6/3/2020 at 3:08 PM, boromir120 said:

That’s odd because I’ve found all those way easier than monkey wrench/sabotage. That’s the only song I can’t 5*

I don't know what the fact that as soon as I read those words, I heard the song playing in my head says about how many times I played that track.

[Dale2e1]

On 03/06/2020 at 3:08 PM, boromir120 said:

That’s odd because I’ve found all those way easier than monkey wrench/sabotage. That’s the only song I can’t 5*

Sabotage is glitched as hell, it's the only song in the series like it. Definitely noteworthy for anyone trying to 5 star everything, especially since rewinds are not possible