Typing Battle Strategy

In Typing Battle, finishing a prompt deals damage to your opponent, and mistyping deals damage to you. This page explains, with actual numbers and worked examples, the formulas that determine damage and points. The controls and how to read the screen are in the how-to guide; here we focus on how to type to your advantage.

Contents: How damage is determined ・ How heavy a mistake is ・ The arithmetic of a 1000 HP match ・ Rank points and tiers ・ Tips for real matches ・ How to practice

How Damage Is Determined

The damage you deal to your opponent when you finish a prompt is 50 + 25 × units, capped at 250. For units, one hiragana character counts as one unit; a combination such as "きゃ" or "ふぁ" counts as one unit even though it is two characters; and "っ," "ん," and "ー" each count as one unit as well. It depends only on the length of the prompt, not on how many times you press keys.

At 8 units you reach the cap of 250, so a prompt longer than that stays at 250 no matter how many units it has. Counting with actual prompts gives the following. "Damage per key" is a guideline for when you type with the shortest spelling.

The shorter the prompt, the more damage each unit deals (50 per unit for 2 units, about 21 per unit for 12 units). Finishing one long prompt does not earn as much as finishing short prompts many times. Conversely, piling up mistakes in a panic when a long prompt appears is a loss.

How Heavy a Mistake Is

When you mistype, you take 25 damage per mistake, regardless of the prompt's length. The wrong key is ignored and your position in the prompt does not advance, so you can continue by typing the correct key again. However, you lose the time it takes to retype.

The table shows how many mistakes cost you while you finish a 4-unit prompt (150 damage).

Just one mistake per word cancels out about 17% of the damage you deal. For example, if two players trade 6 four-unit prompts each at the same pace, both take 900 damage. If one of them has made 4 mistakes (100 damage), their HP lands exactly on 0, and they lose even though their typing speed is the same.

The Arithmetic of a 1000 HP Match

Both players start at 1000 HP. With only 4-unit prompts, each deals 150 damage, so it takes 7 words to deplete the bar (1000 ÷ 150 = 6.67). With only 2-unit prompts it takes 10 words, and with prompts at the cap of 250, 4 words are enough. Each match has 50 prompts prepared, so you will almost never run out. Taking your typing speed as keys per second, the guideline times are as follows (the time for switching between prompts is not included).

In an actual match, both players' damage builds up at the same time. The first to bring the other's HP to 0 wins, so both typing fast and not letting mistakes reduce your own HP matter. The lower the HP, the more directly a single mistake (25) or the damage of one word (100 to 250) decides the result.

Rank Points and Tiers

In Ranked Match, points rise and fall according to wins and losses (they do not change in Casual Match or matches against friends). The amount is determined by the winner's remaining HP. The formula is the value of 10 + 190 × (winner's remaining HP ÷ 1000), rounded to the nearest whole number; it is added to the winner, and the same value is subtracted from the loser.

The bigger your margin of victory, the more points you gain, and even a close win earns at least 10. A draw leaves points unchanged, and points never fall below 0. If a player does not press Ready within 10 seconds, the change is a fixed 50 points regardless of remaining HP (−50 for the player who did not press it, and +50 for the opponent).

Points start at 0, and you move up one tier for every 1000 points. Because the tier is determined by points alone, if your points drop you go back to a lower tier.

If you can keep winning with 500 HP remaining, that is 105 points per win, so you move up a tier in about 10 wins. Each mistake takes 25 off your own HP, so the points you earn for a win also drop by about 5 (25 × 190 ÷ 1000 = 4.75). Typing accurately translates directly into rank growth.

Tips for Real Matches

• Accuracy before speed: four mistakes cancel out the damage of finishing one 2-unit prompt (100). While you are still getting used to the game, slowing down a little to make fewer mistakes makes it easier to win.
• Choose the shorter spelling: even for the same sound, some spellings take fewer keys. "し" can be si, "ち" can be ti, and "つ" can be tu, each saving one key. "を" also needs just one key, o. The romaji below the prompt is only a sample, and the shorter way of typing is accepted too.
• Know the sounds that take 3 keys: contracted sounds such as "きゃ," "しゅ," and "ちょ" mostly take 3 keys (kya). "じゃ・じゅ・じょ" can be typed in 2 keys: ja, ju, and jo. You can check the shortest number of keys for each sound in the list in the romaji input chart (in Japanese).
• Fix your habits with "ん" and "っ": a word-final "ん" is complete with one n. If you type nn, the second n moves on to the next prompt and causes a mistake. For "っ," you simply double the next consonant; xtu cannot be used. The detailed rules are in the "ん" and "っ" section of the chart (in Japanese).
• Do not panic on long prompts: past 8 units, 250 remains the cap. Finishing the prompt reliably pays off more than rushing and piling up mistakes.
• Be careful when your HP is low: when your remaining HP is 250 or less, you lose from a single long prompt. Avoid mistakes and type reliably, and if your opponent's HP is 250 or less, finishing a long prompt is your chance to end it.

Examples of how many keys you can save with a shorter spelling.

Considering that you type around 7 words in a match, a difference of 1 to 2 keys per word adds up to a large difference. To begin with, we recommend switching only "し, ち, つ" to the shorter spellings. Before Ranked Match, try it out in Casual Match, which requires no login.

How to Practice

Trying to change everything at once only increases your mistakes. We recommend trying one thing at a time, in the following order.

1. First, type as in the sample without mistakes: in Casual Match, which requires no login, you can try without worrying about rank points. Count your mistakes in a match and reduce them little by little.
2. Switch only "し, ち, つ" to the shorter spellings: change to si, ti, and tu. At this stage it is fine to leave longer spellings, such as those for contracted sounds, as in the sample.
3. Check the keys you miss most: if you log in and play matches, you can review your most-missed keys on the match history page. You may find habits with "ん" or "っ."
4. Settle your contracted and loanword sounds: decide how to type the sounds you use often (such as "しゃ," "ちゃ," and "ふぁ") using the chart (in Japanese), so you can type them without hesitation.

Speed comes naturally once your mistakes decrease. Knowing the damage formula lets you calmly judge whether it is worth rushing at any given moment.

Related Pages

• Play Typing Battle
• Romaji input chart (in Japanese): a list of accepted ways of typing, and a hiragana search
• How to Play Typing Battle: rules, controls, and how to start a Ranked Match

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