Forms

In Dub Dash, different Forms give variety to the game and an added challenge.

Each form uses the same controls which are utilized in a different manner which vary between each different form.

Portals connect forms. Some portals are only one block thin and must be squeezed through carefully while most are three to five wide and will align the player in the middle of the next section automatically. In the prototype level, the game automatically realigns the player in maze form before the second plane form if they are not perfectly in the center.

Portals can also maintain forms but change the direction, lighting, or gameplay type, and serve as checkpoints for using lives or in practice mode.

There are two main classes of forms - the compass direction ones and the platformers. Wheel, maze, and dual can be considered compass, although maze constantly switches direction. Compass directions are normally introduced going northwards. Bullet is technically compass, although it always goes north. Plane, flappy disk, and saw form are platformers and usually presented going to the right, although in Sound Ward plane ends moving in the left, and the insane levels have a large amount of left movement.

Wheel Form
Wheel form is the basic form and is introduced in Massive Dance. It appears in all levels and is the only form to do so (unless the ship at the end of Massive Dance is counted).

The player heads down a path of a width of two to seven strips. Movement is by the left and right arrow keys. Spikes, harmful blocks, bounce-able blocks, and jump pads line the floor. The wheel can jump left or right of its axis in free air. It can also rub against safe walls and bounce-able blocks, but in doing so jumps made right after will stretch out further forward. Once a single jump is forward, it returns to its central axis. Holding down in one direction causes the wheel to keep jumping (or rubbing walls) in that direction.

Some wheel sections have constant turning or bouncing which means starting too late can leave the player locked in late. Starting early can be fixed by slightly delaying any given turn or bounce.

Direction is most often north; however, Milky Ways introduces south wheel form, and Dub Dash adds on east and west.

The wheel by default only bounces one tile off its center axis and three forward, but with jumps off of jump pads and subsequent continuous jumps using that momentum, the wheel can reach two tiles off axis and five forward. Chains of long jumps can be used in later levels to make sections easier or to catch notes far off the axis. Stopping a jump chain however, removes the momentum.

In Dubstep Rock, it is also shown that jump pad momentum is conserved not just by doing long jumps, but also by rubbing the wheel or doing one-tile-wide jumps against a safe wall, respectively zero or one blocks away from the axis in either direction. These are easier ways of getting the first note than doing several large jumps.

Early levels have decals with arrows, scripts, and numbers to indicate when and in which direction to jump. These are removed by Sound Ward.

Plane Form
Plane form is displayed going left to right on the screen in a platformer style. Spikes and blocks hang off the floor and ceiling and float in mid-air, and objects cannot be touched, save for the top and bottom of blocks. The ceiling and floor are also safe. Plane moves up with the up arrow key and descends rapidly if not constantly kept up.

Plane form is first seen in Flying High, and is the main focus of this level and Sound Ward, as well as having most of the notes in these levels.

Plane form is introduced as also being in right-left direction in Sound Ward, this level also beginning to feature floating spikes, spiked walls, and spiked floors and ceilings. Dub Dash begins to feature obstructions blocking parts of the view, and Midnight Sun begins to feature large numbers of floating single spikes ('diamonds') which can create dangerous forests in this form and flappy form.

Bullet Form
Bullet form is viewed from the back side and spikes come straight at you. You move left and right to avoid on coming spikes. Some bullet sections have walls to grace shifting at the wrong times while others have spikes on the sides too. A secret section in Milky Way is covered by ceiling tiles, forcing the player to guess where the bullet is at when shifting. Completing this section rewards the player the first note of the level.

Bullet form shows up first in Sound Ward with decals showing up at first to guide the player, from Milky Way onwards, the player is on their own and the paths become more and more complicated.

In insane levels, especially Helium, the player may have a choice of several or even many paths to take to get through a section, with 'forests' of walls and spikes separating paths. Like wheel mode, bullet can safely rub against safe walls (typically dark-coloured) although this makes it take longer to shift after the wall ends.

Maze Form
A rather complicated mode in which the wheel turns clockwise when pressing right and counterclockwise when pressing left, and the wheel can move in any cardinal direction, which can make knowing which way to turn confusing. The music is synced here by speeding up when along outer walls and slowing down when on inner walls, and by having paths wiggle as to average out turns made too short or too fast.

This form is introduced and used extensively in Milky Way, and becomes significantly more challenging in Anti Headache where spikes, frequent portal changes, pillars blocking the view, and coloured floor and wall tiles, begin showing up. In Dubstep Rock, maze sections become very wiggly and can require almost constant tapping.

Later levels add colouration, spikes, and portals to these sections which make them easier or harder depending on design.

Flappy Form
Like plane, flappy form is a left-right platformer in which each tap makes a fixed jump, and many jumps can be done quickly or sparsely as needed to climb, maintain height, or descend. Rapping against ceilings by fast-tapping can keep the flappy disk high. The disk falls smoothly and gradually, slightly slower than the plane. It can be controlled as to fit in tighter passages sometimes, as is used to catch notes in later levels.

Flappy shows up first late in Dub Dash, but is given more focus in the following levels as 'diamond' spike forests, view obstructions, and other types of layouts begin showing up. It is in most focus in Helium, where its jarring reactions to walls is used to make sections harder, as well as both high-speed and the right-left direction being introduced.

Dual Form
In this form, the wheel splits into two and the track does likewise with a safe wall to prevent the wheels from colliding with each other. Since the two control movements are split between the wheels, they both move in the same direction, so moving a wheel to jump will cause the other to rub the dividing wall, although this doesn't affect momentum.

There are no jump pads in this form so the track size is usually fixed at 2 each. Direction is most often north or south but can sometimes be east or west, and changes very frequently. The main difficulty of this mode is that sometimes it is necessary to tap both left and right at once or immediately one after the other.

Dual is introduced in all four directions in Anti Headache.

Saw Form
A left-right platformer in which the saw attaches to floors and ceilings and tapping will cause it to free-fall in the other direction and try latch onto a new overhead or ground. The free-fall is medium compared to plane and flappy forms, and allows for squeezing in tight gaps and between spikes.

Saw form is introduced in Dubstep Rock in both left-right and right-left.

There is no forward momentum on the saw, unlike games its mechanic is based off of: falling straight through a double gap is the same as falling through the first onto a floor, and the falling off the floor onto the second - the floor does not add extra forward distance as the saw is cutting, not rolling - so either way the saw gets the same forward distance overall.