Arcaea Song Purchasing Guide

(Last updated 8 September 2024: Rotaeno pack updated)

Thinking of buying your first song, or window shopping for what to buy with your freshly-obtained memories?

This guide to song purchasing is an unofficial guide to what I personally think is a good order to purchase charts that considers the charts and songs only.

If you care about reading the story, the lead author for Arcaea, Terrence Smith, recommends "reading Arcaea in release order, side and short stories alongside main"; fan recommendations for story order vary, including Marina's Story Pack Buying Order Guide here.

In general, the main concept for this guide is that the charts come first: there's no point in buying a pack when all of the charts are either too easy or too difficult for you. Most of this list depends on when you can play most of the charts in a given pack comfortably.

One important note, however:

(Please note that in general, I will not be considering PST charts and PRS charts below 8 in this review. Generally, if the FTR 8s in the Arcaea pack are too hard, I would not recommend buying any new charts yet; see above for the sole exception.)

The numbers in brackets you'll see later on indicate what difficulty you preferably should be comfortable with playing (i.e. at least an EX) before purchasing a pack. You can skip through the order if you already feel comfortable playing a certain difficulty unless stated otherwise.

PART 0: HOW TO BUY MEMORIES

It's best to buy memories here at the official website if possible for you. The various app stores take a cut of the profits so it's generally cheaper to pay there than in the app itself. Of course, this is unless you want to use your Google Play points up or something.

PART I: EXTEND ARCHIVES 1 AND 2

To new players, the Extend Archive packs are probably the best packs to buy. The packs each have a total of 20 songs, which averages out at 35 memories per song, one of the cheapest rates you can get charts at. The song and chart qualities of these packs is on average very high, and the charts contain patterns not found in the Arcaea pack while providing a good difficulty curve: from chill and easy charts to some of the nastiest arc or tap note-focused charts you can find in the game. The 700 memory price tags and the hopes of free reruns in the future may put some people off, but given the uncertainty of whether there will be further map reruns for the songs in these pack, these are the packs I'll recommend for players window shopping for their first one.
The two packs really aren't that different, though I would say that the charts in Extend Archive 2 are on average slightly harder than that in 1. Choose the pack that fits your taste in music better.

PART II: STORY PACKS

After the Extend Archive packs, the Story Packs are the packs I would recommend new players to buy first. My recommendation for main story pack purchasing order is this:

Luminous Sky (8+) -> Adverse Prelude/Eternal Core (9) -> Vicious Labyrinth (9+) -> Black Fate (low 10) -> Final Verdict (mid/high 10)

• Luminous Sky is one of the gentlest packs to start with and has an extremely high chart quality overall. Halcyon/Ether Strike PRS and Maze No.9 are all brilliant 8/8+s both in terms of chart and music to start with, and Fracture Ray PRS serves as a very good transition to "graduate" out of PRS charts and is a challenging 9 in its own right. The Message and Sulfur are easy 9+s, a difficulty which is at the high end of the difficulty range free charts provide you.
• Adverse Prelude's 8/8+s are slightly more challenging, and there's a rather large gap in difficulty from 8+ to 9+: this is probably best exemplified by the fact that Vindication's beginning and end play like an 8 and a 9+ respectively. If 8s are too easy for you yet 9+s are beyond what you can do, this pack might not be a good first choice.
• Eternal Core also has this problem with a large difficulty gap from the mid-9 of Essence of Twilight to the low 10s of Sheriruth and PRAGMATISM, as well as having the problematic 8+s of memoryfactory.lzh and cry of viyella. The quality of some of the music in this pack is relatively subpar for modern standards.
• Vicious Labyrinth has good 9s in the form of Grievous Lady PRS and Iconoclast, but the jump to challenging 9+/10s is simply too large and unfriendly - see the reputation Soundwitch and Conflict have in this server. I'd recommend getting this pack when you're okay with 9+ charts.
• Black Fate should be purchased after the aforementioned packs (apart from story reasons) due to song unlocking requirements, and the jump from mid-high 9+ Antagonism and Lost Desire to the top-tier 10+s of Dantalion, #1f1e33 and Tempestissimo FTR is even more unfriendly. It is very strongly suggested that you should at least have all previous main story packs except for VL before purchasing Black Fate.
• Apart from (obviously) how the game locks you out from Final Verdict until you clear out the previous packs, there's the little thing that this pack's easiest song (in the FTR difficulty) is a mid-to-high-9+. You are going to have a very bad time going through the unlocks if you do not have at least a decent amount of skill in playing 10s.

PART III: SIDE STORY PACKS

The recommended buying order for the side story packs go like this (ignoring recommended story order):

Ambivalent Vision (7+/8) -> Binary Enfold* (8/8+) -> Ephemeral Page/Crimson Solace/Divided Heart/Pale Tapestry# (low to high 9) -> Absolute Reason/The Journey Onwards/Light of Salvation/Shared Time# (9+) -> Absolute Nihil/Lasting Eden/Lasting Eden Ch. 2/Shifing Veil (10)

No specific order: Sunset Radiance, Esoteric Order (see below)

You aren't required to buy all (or any!) of the main story packs before buying these.

• Ambivalent Vision has a huge gap between mid-8 Moonheart and mid-9+ Lethaeus; best time to buy AV is when 7s and 8s feel challenging. Chart-wise, Romance Wars, Blossoms and Genesis FTR are very easy charts; for the full experience, it's better to get this pack when PMing 7/7+s is still a real challenge.
• *Binary Enfold has a good 8 and an even better 8+; there's also a 10ptt restriction to unlock Luna with Singularity PRS, after which you have to grind the FTR chart to do so. This pack would probably be in the high 9 category otherwise. If you don't care for Luna, this pack can hold off for a bit; if you like her, however, it's best to get this pack before you reach 10ptt.
• Ephemeral Page has a high 8 and three low 9s, all of which are very fun; if that seems like a range you're comfortable with, buy this pack for maximum benefit.
• Crimson Solace's Flashback and Flyburg and Endroll also sit in the 8+/low 9 range, though Party Vinyl is slightly more tricky to do.
• Divided Heart's two 9s are both rather technical, but their difficulties sit comfortably in the 9 range. If your arc skills are good, neo kosmo can feel on the easy side of 9+s as well.
• Pale Tapestry's 9 is rather high in difficulty; best purchased when you can deal with harder 9s.
• Absolute Reason is best bought when you can deal with hard 9+ charts; the jump from Cyaegha PRS and Antithese to the 9+s is very large.
• The Journey Onwards, Light of Salvation, and Shared Time are all best bought when 9+s are doable.
• Absolute Nihil looks like it would be ranked here as a 9 or 9+, but the very nasty arcs and technical streams cause me to place this pack here as a 10. This goes for In Vain and Hypnotize ETR in particular.
• Rise of the world and UNKNOWN LEVELS are both challenging 10s; due to the big difficuty gap between them and Raven's Pride, I cannot recommend buying this pack before you are able to deal with 10s adequately. Lasting Eden Chapter 2's Logos and Ego Eimi are less challenging but still rather technical. Shifting Veil's Nameless Passion is more difficult than the rated 9+ due to its high 200 BPM trills.

As for the packs not in order:

• Sunset Radiance's AIUEOON and AWMoL sit in the high 9 range, and this pack is better when you can play these songs. If this pack's songs are appealing enough to you, you can buy it for the 8/8+ as well.
• Esoteric Order has a significant gap between Aegleseeker PRS/Crystal Gravity and Loschen/Far Away Light; again, this pack is better when you can play in the low 10 range, but if this pack's songs are appealing enough to you, you can buy it for the 8 to 9s.

# Pale Tapestry and Shared Time both have good PRS 8s for their respective boss songs; if the songs in the pack are appealing to you, you can also consider purchasing them if you are able to play 8s decently.

PART IV: COLLABORATION PACKS

Recommended order:

Dynamix (low 9) -> Muse Dash (mid 9) -> WACCA/Lanota/Rotaeno (high 9) -> Tone Sphere (low 9+) -> Lanota Ch. 2/maimai Ch. 2 (mid 9+) -> Groove Coaster/ONGEKI Ch. 2 (high 9+) -> ONGEKI/maimai (low 10) -> WACCA Ch. 2 (mid 10) -> Cytus II (both parts) (high 10) -> CHUNITHM (both parts) (10+)

• Dynamix is the easiest pack overall, but Evoltex is hard enough that I don't recommend buying it until you're okay with 9s.
• The Muse Dash pack is overall on the easy side for their rated difficulties; the charts are suitable for people new to the game and have a bit of experience with other rhythm games.
• WACCA's Quon is an easy 8+ but the 9s and the 9+ are all technical and accuracy focused; this pack should preferably be bought when the absolute majority of 9s are doable.
• The Lanota pack has a very good difficulty spread; if you like the songs enough, any time is a good time to buy this pack, though I would recommend high 9 (Quon's difficulty) as a good center point.
• The Rotaeno 8+s are pretty tricky, so I generally would give this a minimum rating of mid-9, though you may also want to consider holding off until you can do 9+s or 10s.
• Tone Sphere's STAGER and Linear Accelerator are both tough and gimmicky, so although in theory this pack is rated similarly to Lanota I don't recommend this pack until you're able to do some 9+s.
• Lanota Chapter 2 has Protoflicker, a pretty standard mid-tier 9+, and I would not recommend buying this append until you can play this chart. Same goes for maimai Chapter 2.
• Groove Coaster's OMAKENO, DX, and GHoR are all similarly tough for their rated difficulties, so this pack gets rated a bit higher than Tone Sphere. ONGEKI Chapter 2 has Ai Drew (tech) and FLUFFY FLASH (speed) as 9+s as well as a really challenging 9 (Heart), so this gets rated similarly to Groove Coaster.
• ONGEKI and maimai both have very good charts at the low 10 range; if you're getting familiar with 10s, these two packs can serve as a second step.
• For WACCA Chapter 2, XTREME and eden are both high BPM charts that deserve their 10 rating, so choose wisely if speed isn't a major part of your skillset.
• In both Cytus II chapters, the diffculty spread is such that they are best played when you can handle 10s with reasonable ease.
• CHUNITHM is all high 10 or above. There is no point in getting this pack or the append until you're doing fine on 10+s.

PART V: MEMORY ARCHIVE

Buy these in whatever order fits your remaining memory balance, your skill level and your taste in music. If you've got some memories to spare after buying an append, for example, you can always grab a couple of Memory Archive songs. If there's an event that requires a certain song, or a partner that requires you to buy a song to unlock the map for, then by all means go for that. However, caveat emptor: here's a list of songs that are hard for their rated difficulty that you should read before buying.

• dropdead: Can only be described as a meme chart, buy at your own risk
• Fallensquare, Altale: Very slow; if your normal note speed is above ~4 then these may feel uncomfortably slow even at 6.5
• Galaxy Friends: Extremely hard 9+, may feel like a hard 10
• Manic Jeer: LuzeriA brand trills, you will suffer if trills are not your strong suit

These songs may feel harder than their rated difficulty to some players:

• Filament, Hiiro Gekka: Lots and lots of arcs that are hard to hit
• Einherjar Joker, Back to Basics: Requires very high stamina
• Scarlet Cage: Hand placements may feel awkward to some
• Heavenly Caress: Crosshands, long 241bpm 16ths ending trill

Some final notes:

1. I recommend buying charts (even if they're out of your difficulty range) if an event gives a partner that you care about and requires a certain Memory Archive song shows up. You can always play the Present chart and save the Future chart for later.

2. I advise in the strongest possible terms against rushing to get to 11 ptt for the sole purpose of unlocking Saikyo STRONGER, Aegleseeker, and Abstruse Dilemma. All of these are VERY HARD CHARTS, and you will kill your muscle memory dead if you rush it. To a lesser extent, this also applies to the unlock requirements of all the 11s: many a player has killed their muscle memory on Axium Crisis (one of the most muscle memory-dependent charts in the whole game) to unlock Grievous Lady and has come to regret it.

3. Similarly, I very highly recommend against rushing to 9ptt to unlock the Beyond charts. If you have to grind to get to 9, the Beyond charts are most probably beyond your skill level; if your skills are sufficient to play these charts, then 9ptt should not be a problem at all.

4. There's an anniversary sale every March. If you're not in a hurry to get some songs that you're not sure about, then consider waiting until then.

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