You may have heard talk of "invisible matches" or "unmissable notes" from time to time. This guide sets out to define them and explain how to use them.

There are multiple systems at work, so I'll explain them here one at a time.

If you hit any match at a given time, you hit *all* matches at that time.
It is nearly impossible to miss any of these match configurations. Note the purple glow in the third image--there's a match of each color there.

If a match occurs at the same time as a slider mid/endpoint, the match will always hit.
This does not apply to the tap at the start of the slider itself.
All that matters is that the match happens at the same time as a mid/endpoint. Position/color is inconsequential.
Extra note: slider endpoints don't work on their own. They need to be part of an actual slider.
EXTRA extra note: slider lift-offs don't work consistently for this.

Colored notes (matches, taps, sliders) can be turned colors that don't usually exist.
In the code, blue notes are color 0, red are color 1. We can have invisible "blue" notes with color 2 and invisible "red" with color 3.
These invisible notes play the exact same as visible: they affect score, health, aim assist, note tick noises, particles..
Note that taps still generate a fine white line despite being invisible. Note that sliders still render, albeit always red, and without taps or liftoffs.
Also of note, is that all invisible notes appear red in the editor, but always generate blue particles.

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Combine all of these together and you get a lot of potential for neat visual effects, note tick noise manipulation, patterns that make players double-take, and all sorts of extra options for anyone willing to experiment with them.
Check the end of this guide for a small list of charts that show what these notes are capable of.

Invisible notes are often used for visual flair, completely separate from the playable patterns.
Aim assist doesn't care if notes are invisible or unmissable. It will still treat them like normal notes.
To this effect, it's very important to keep aim assist in mind when using them.

Avoid unmissable matches during patterns that require the player to move*
*unless the movement comes from a slider, more on that soon.

Here, I'll try to introduce some examples and offer potential solutions.
The leftmost images are the patterns as I want to chart them.

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This pattern can be made aim-assist friendly by making it missable. As odd as it sounds, doing so removes any ambiguity about the intended location for the wheel.
Another fix is to simply use a slider instead. Sliders take priority for aim-assist's consideration. No ambiguity.

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This pattern can be made friendly by removing the movement from it. If the player never moves, aim-assist never has a chance to try (and fail) to align to the next note.
Another fix is to simply use a slider instead. Again. Noticing a trend?

Sliders are always the best place to use unmissable matches. They provide opportunities to use mid/endpoints instead of stacked matches, they take priority for aim assist, and their lack of flashy particles makes for a nice canvas for whatever firework show your invisible notes are putting on.

When talking about stacked matches, I was very careful to say "nearly impossible to miss." In instances of stacked matches, you need to hit at least 1.
You need to hit at least 1.

A lot of charters take for granted that 2 opposite-colored, stacked matches will always hit, but it's actually very possible to miss both. I'll use these patterns as examples:


After hitting the tap, the player will be exactly, precisely positioned with blue on lane 1. The matches (one of each color) will be perfectly between the red and blue wedge.
They miss.











The charter might expect this to work because the matches are stacked, but the game averages their color/position to determine where to end the spin, and lo and behold, perfect misalignment.







This "perfect misalignment" only happens after what I'll call alignment points: any part of a chart that sets the wheel's position precisely on a lane.
This happens once at the very start of the chart, then after every spin.

One more important note, is that it is astronomically unlikely for the player to perfectly misalign in any other position. However, it is trivial to return to the previous alignment point. As an example:
This pattern prompts the player to move away from the alignment point. Good!
It also directs them back to the alignment point, before exposing them to stacked matches. Oh no!

There are 2 ways around this.

1. avoid stacked matches in any position 2 (+4n) lanes away from the alignment point.
2. use tripled matches

While doubled matches are astronomically unlikely to misalign, tripled matches are truly impossible to.
There doesn't exist a single location that won't hit at least 1 of these matches. You can even move the extra ones off-track or make them invisible!

If you don't feel like checking all your alignment points, you could just triple every match. This will further inflate score and combo though, so I recommend avoiding it.

Even perfectly placed notes can be missed with the use of spin state. Spin state is something that happens when you hit a spin (wow), but it can also be triggered at will by click-to-move and turntable players.

All that aside, it really only comes into play in 2 ways.

1. A ctm player gets bored and spins in a section they thought would be blank. They miss the invisible matches.
2. Any playstyle hits a spin a little early, without knowing there were invisible matches right before it. They miss.

The first example isn't a big deal. Lesson learned, right?
The second is a bit of a pain though, and a lot more likely to happen.

The solution is simple: don't put invisible matches too close to a spin

There's a reason it took multiple years for people to start using invisible notes. They're unintuitive, hard to obtain, and very fragile in the editor. There are a few resources available to make it easier though.


I wrote a mod that allows you to turn visible notes invisible and vice versa. It also allows color swapping invisible notes (invis-red to invis-blue).
It also removes the lane limit in the editor.

You can find more info, downloads, and a setup guide here[github.com].


Before the mod existed, most charters copied illegal notes from another chart. Palette is designed to provide as many useful patterns as we could come up with. Please read the description if you intend to use it.
Palette 8![spinsha.re]

It's very important to test sections with invisible or unmissable notes, especially when you're just starting to use them. Not only are they a lot easier to mess up, they're a lot more confusing to the player when they miss.
Please don't tarnish the reputation of experimental charts. Test your notes!

I'm gonna use a real chart as an example, one that I tested extensively for its inclusion in a tournament.

Here's what we're looking at:

I'm going to delete every single missable note here except the alignment point and the spin before it. (Turn the alignment point into a slider if it isn't already). I'm also keeping every single slider endpoint because those might affect missabililty too.
Here's what I'm left with:

Now, if I play the chart, hit the alignment point, and hold completely, perfectly still, nothing should miss. If it does, then I have a perfect misalignment issue to solve.
I highly recommend hitting the alignment point with your hands off your mouse. Even a small twitch could completely invalidate your test! Use your keyboard instead.

This test is similar to the previous, and it's purpose is to ensure your unmissable notes are actually unmissable.

Same chart as before, except now I am removing the alignment point.
The idea is to run this whole section from each lane and see if anything misses. If it does.. well, it wouldn't be unmissable now would it?
Note that I am not testing at perfect alignment, and I am not moving.

This one is simple. Play the section on keyboard or controller. If anything feels jank, doesn't align properly, moves strangely, etc. consider modifying it.
Consider slowing the game down and removing all beat notes to make things easier.

The editor is bad about this. Copy-pasting is bad about this. Float error is bad about this. I recommend requantizing all unmissable notes just before uploading your chart.

..yeah. Even invisible notes will cause cut-outs on beat notes. If you must have notes there, you can remove the cut-out by adding 1 or 2 extra invisible matches at the same time, far to the right. The rightmost notes take priority, and the game only considers up to 2 notes when cutting beats.
Be very careful that these new notes don't create any new issues!






Spin Rhythm has a hard-coded limit to how many particles it will render at once. There's no known way around it. Try to reduce the number of notes you're using, ie. by using slider stacking instead of double/tripled matches, removing every other note, etc.

Same as previous. The game has a cap on how many note tick sounds it will play at once.

I'll include a list of charts that use invisible and unmissable notes in different ways. Maybe you'll find something to inspire you.
(more subtle charts towards the top, overt/outlandish ones below)

Σ[spinsha.re]
Ether[spinsha.re]
Reflex Angle (KOAN Sound Remix)[spinsha.re]
In the Absence of Comfort[spinsha.re]
Ursulan uni[spinsha.re]
華の集落、秋のお届け (Hana no Shuuraku, Aki no Otodoke)[spinsha.re]
Accelerated A[spinsha.re]
A Gleam for the Sightless[spinsha.re]
kayak[spinsha.re]
RGB[spinsha.re]
Vanishing Point[spinsha.re]
Outside[spinsha.re]
MARENOL 1mg[spinsha.re]
▌▌▌▌▌▌▌█▓▓▓▒▒▒░░░░░░░░░[spinsha.re]
I'YUEXIO[spinsha.re]
Angst[spinsha.re]
Mistempered Malignance[spinsha.re]
感情自読論。[spinsha.re]
POLYMER[spinsha.re]
wavetapper[spinsha.re]
halved halved halved[spinsha.re]

Feel free to leave a comment or join the SpinShare discord.[spinsha.re]
I've updated this guide before, and I'm not afraid to do it again.