First Live: A 10-Minute Calibration Protocol

Start with a chart you can already read

Do not tune settings on the hardest chart available. Pick an Easy or Normal chart, play it once without changing anything, and record whether the result shows more FAST or SLOW judgments.

Change one setting at a time

1. Adjust note speed until you can read patterns before they reach the judgment line.
2. Enable the FAST/SLOW guide and repeat the same song.
3. Change timing offset only when the results consistently lean in one direction.
4. If notes disappear against an MV, reduce background brightness or effects before changing timing again.

Keeping the song and difficulty fixed matters: otherwise you cannot tell whether the setting or the chart changed the result.

Build two baselines

• Clear baseline: a difficulty you can finish reliably.
• Score baseline: the same song played manually with the same team.

Auto play is useful for routine progress, but public gameplay research indicates that its scoring rules differ from manual play. Do not compare an auto result with a manual high score.

Move up only after the result is stable

When the FAST/SLOW balance stops drifting and the chart remains readable, move up one difficulty. If a dense section becomes unreadable, return to speed and background visibility before touching team composition.

Sources and evidence

• hololive Dreams official Expert play video
• horodori public scoring and live-option research
• Official Steam feature description

This article is an original testing workflow built from those observable mechanics; it does not reproduce another guide's wording or images.