Ratchets vs. Raw Stamina #1 - Phoenix Feather

Alternate title: How much does your ratchet choice help or hurt your raw stamina?

I am very curious about how each individual blade's pure stamina is affected by different ratchets, how each blade balances with different ratchets, etc., so I decided to run some solo stamina tests with different blades on all ratchets, starting with Phoenix Feather. The other tests will also be posted to this thread.

I just did ten timed spins for every 60-height ratchet currently available in an empty X arena, all on the Ball bit for stamina and consistency. If a given launch performed an Xtreme dash at the start, I'd just cut the timer and start over. I wiped the dust off of the bit after each attempt so that it wouldn't affect spin time.

Going in, my hypothesis was that 3-60 would give the most stamina due to it syncing up with the 3-blade design, but 9-60 would be similar, and 4-60 would give the least stamina. It's good to have hypotheses before testing, right? They always made a really big deal of that in science classes. Anyways, here's the table.



AVERAGES
3-60 - 1:36
4-60 - 1:21
5-60 - 1:32
9-60 - 1:32

My hypothesis was correct in that 3-60 had the best raw stamina, but by only a marginal amount. 9-60 was not far behind, averaging just a few seconds short, but it was amazingly perfectly matched with 5-60. I suppose the more even weight distribution of both ratchets made them perform very similarly. My hypothesis about 4-60 was also correct by a much more significant margin.

One more thing I was really curious about was exactly how much the ratchet affected stamina in particular. I knew there was some effect, but it's nigh impossible to detect exactly how large the effect is when you're just playing casually and using different ratchets. After this test, it seems I have my answer: not very much at all, especially not between 3-60, 5-60, and 9-60. It makes a lot of sense though when you compare their shapes.

I will keep testing different blades though. I want to know if other blades show more of a difference between ratchets, or even if any excel in raw stamina with 4-60 in particular above the others. I am really interested in whether or not these same results will be consistent across all beys, or if there will be some or even a great deal of variance based on each individual blade's shape. Will a two-bladed shape like Shark Edge prefer the more symmetrical 4-60? Will a more unbalanced blade like Knight Shield change the results? Maybe, maybe not. I'll find out.

Conclusion
What's the best ratchet for raw stamina for Phoenix Feather? Honestly, any ratchet that doesn't start with a 4.
I know that "4-60/4-80 is bad" isn't exactly a new sentiment by any means, but I hope you got some value from this little testing session anyways. Obviously, it's worth noting that the raw stamina isn't the only factor when choosing a ratchet, nor is it the most valuable factor, but it's really interesting to me to see the difference a simple change in ratchet can make! I'm relatively new to the community and was honestly just eager to add something to the testing pool. Thank you for reading :) Happy blading, friends!

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Great tests, highly appreciate some quality post content. All I can really say is that these things can vary from Blader to Blader and I agree with your assessment that the focus should be less on what is definitely best but rather on what performs noticeably worse as that kind of metric is more likely to be ubiquitous across individual performance.

There will always be general truths like the one outlined here, but even with those in mind it is very important to consider the specific Blade you want to use a given Ratchet on too, so Bladers should do what they can to be as specific as possible when testing to meet their competitive needs. One's collection and quality of parts will be the primary factor in determining what is best for them. Just a note, for others that read this test thread, or for people that may add onto it later.

It should be noted that when I do these kinds of tests I do everything I can launch-wise to reduce Beyblade contact with the Xtreme Line as even the slightest of touches can not only be a bit problematic in its direct reduction of potential spin time via contact but also in the more abstract way of warping the patterning/trajectory.

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shout out 2 kai-v 2.

The Complete Competitive HMS Resource

Great tests, highly appreciate some quality post content. All I can really say is that these things can vary from Blader to Blader and I agree with your assessment that the focus should be less on what is definitely best but rather on what performs noticeably worse as that kind of metric is more likely to be ubiquitous across individual performance.

There will always be general truths like the one outlined here, but even with those in mind it is very important to consider the specific Blade you want to use a given Ratchet on too, so Bladers should do what they can to be as specific as possible when testing to meet their competitive needs. One's collection and quality of parts will be the primary factor in determining what is best for them. Just a note, for others that read this test thread, or for people that may add onto it later.

It should be noted that when I do these kinds of tests I do everything I can launch-wise to reduce Beyblade contact with the Xtreme Line as even the slightest of touches can not only be a bit problematic in its direct reduction of potential spin time via contact but also in the more abstract way of warping the patterning/trajectory.

Thank you! I agree with everything you added too, I think anyone who sees a test like this should do some tests on their own as well if they can just to see what works for them and their own parts. I'm super interested in the differences between blades too though, I'm already working on my next tests now. 

I tried my best to reduce contact with the Xtreme Line here and restarted any rounds where there was major contact, but I'm going to be even more diligent in my next session to make sure there's no contact at all during rounds. I considered even just testing in a different stadium that has no Xtreme Line, but I want the beys to spin on the exact same material that they would during a match. Although I tried to shoot at the same angle each time, I hadn't thought much about how the patterning could affect the potential spin time though, that's definitely something to at least consider going forward.

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Ratchets vs. Raw Stamina #2 - Shark Edge 
( INSANE RESULTS ) ( NOT CLICKBAIT )

Okay, jokes aside, I did find these results pretty interesting.

So, I did the exact same method as last time, but this time I was even more careful about any contact with the Xtreme line. I also flat launched this time instead of a slight tilt for PF, but it shouldn't make a difference since the launch type was consistent across each individual testing session.

Going into this, my hypothesis was that 4-60 would have the best stamina for Shark Edge. I was thinking that since Shark Edge has two large blades, one on either side, that the even square distribution of the 4-60 ratchet would help it keep its balance the longest. Was I correct? Let's see the results!

Since I'll be doing more stamina tests, I made my own online tool for easy stamina testing. Check it out here!

(Sorry, I left the last cell highlighted for no reason. How unprofessional of me!)

AVERAGES
3-60 - 1:08
4-60 - 1:28
5-60 - 1:36
9-60 - 1:30

Very interesting results here! I test these ratchets in ascending order, so as I was testing 4-60 and seeing it perform 20-30 seconds better than 3-60, I was shocked at how correct my initial hypothesis seemed. I was even more shocked to see that the other ratchets did pretty much just as well! Once again, it seems to be a case of one ratchet performing far worse than the others rather than one ratchet performing far better.

So, we've learned already in test #2 that 4-60 is not universally bad for stamina, and can in-fact far out-perform other contenders like 3-60. We also learned that the 3-pronged ratchet really throws off Shark Edge's double-weighted balance, but the more evenly rounded 5- and 9-pronged ratchets still perform rather well. 

Conclusion
What's the best ratchet for raw stamina on Shark Edge? Honestly, any ratchet that doesn't start with a 3.

Going forward, I have a few general hypotheses:
- 9-60 and 5-60 will perform well on every blade due to them having such a well-rounded distribution
- Besides those, each individual blade will either prefer 3-60 or 4-60 greatly depending on how its blade's weight is distributed
- Maybe more rounded/ stamina-type blades will have a less stark contrast between 4-60 and 3-60, leading to the ratchet choice mattering overall a lot less for stamina?

Let's forge on to see which categories each bey falls into, shall we?

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Ratchets vs. Raw Stamina #3 - Wyvern Gale

Straight to the point this time!

My hypothesis going into the Wyvern Gale test was that, due to the blade's pretty round shape, any ratchet would have good stamina on it with little difference between prong count. Let's seeeee the results!



AVERAGES
3-60 - 1:35 (WOBBLY)
4-60 - 1:21
5-60 - 1:35
9-60 - 1:46

Wow! I was pretty wrong here. While there's not quite as stark of a contrast between one ratchet to another like there was for Shark Edge, there's a clear hierarchy here. 9-60 ranked quite a decent bit above the evenly-matched 3-60 and 5-60 ratchets, with 4-60 falling behind significantly. 

However, although this is a stamina test primarily, I do want to note that the 3-60 ratchet caused Wyvern Gale to wobble quite a bit before stabilizing in the middle, indicating that, although it still had good stamina overall, the 3-60 ratchet is not well-balanced with the blade. The other 3 blades were far more stable while spinning in comparison.

Conclusion
What's the best ratchet for raw stamina on Wyvern Gale? 9-60! 5-60 is a good choice too and 3-60 is serviceable but unbalanced.
The most comprehensive conclusion statement so far! My hypothesis at the end of the Shark Edge post about stamina/rounded blades having a similar stamina between 3-60 and 4-60 ratchets is starting to look false so far. Will 4-60 be the big loser on more rounded, evenly-weighted blades? Find out next time! Once my wrist stops hurting...

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Ratchets vs. Raw Stamina #4 - Hell's Scythe

I often hear that 4-sided ratchets are the best for stamina optimization for Hell's Scythe, but since the addition of 5- and 9-sided ratchets, I didn't really believe that until I did testing myself. My hypothesis for this test was that 5-60 and 9-60 would be the best, but would be pretty much even. Results time!



AVERAGES
3-60 - 2:19
4-60 - 2:30
5-60 - 2:44
9-60 - 2:56

These results are very interesting to me for one big reason: For the second time in a row, 9-60 has a major advantage over 5-60. For the first two ratchet testings I did in this little series, 5-60 and 9-60 were pretty close. I assumed that since both had good, round weight distribution, they'd typically perform pretty similarly. However, on Wyvern Gale and now Hell's Scythe, 5-60 is being left in the dust. Will this be a running theme for these more rounded, stamina-oriented layers?

Speaking of rounded, stamina-oriented layers, remember what I said last time? "Will 4-60 be the big loser on more rounded, evenly-weighted blades?" Well, apparently not! I'd like to point out the clear dominance that 4-60 had over 3-60, which leads me to believe that the notion that 4-60 was optimal for stamina on HS came from a time before the existence of 5-60 and the idea just continued to circulate. Feel free to do your own testing to prove me wrong, though. A true use for 4-60 would be great. 

It's also interesting to note that HS's stamina increased by around 11 seconds for each increase in ratchet protrusions. Who knows, maybe when we get a new ratchet one day with even more protrusions, we'll be able to eek out another 11 seconds of spin time out of this dependable little layer.

Conclusion
What's the best (low height) ratchet for raw stamina on Hell's Scythe? 9-60!

Thank you so much for reading. Next time, perhaps I'll do Unicorn Sting. I've been loving that blade so far!

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wow! these comprehensive tests and results for the meta blades and ratchets sure are amazing. thank you for the effort put into each of this tests, it greatly helped me in joining competitive events in our place.

Awesome work!! Really appreciate this.
Would love to see more blades comparison especially with hells chain!

Ratchets vs. Raw Stamina #5 - Wizard Rod

Hi. I've been waiting a long time for this blade to come out. Luckily for you, science never takes breaks. Let's get straight into testing.

Wizard Rod is a blade with 5 blades with a heavy focus on outward weight distribution to increase the bey's stamina. As such, I believe the ratchet with 5 blades, 5-60, will give it the greatest stamina. 

We (unfortunately) have a new 60-height ratchet added to our testing, 1-60, which will add a cool half hour to my testing session. Cool beans. I've also decided to additionally test out the stamina for the stock combo, WR 5-70DB, just because I was curious and it seemed like an amazing stock to begin with. Let's see the results!



AVERAGES
1-60 - 2:28
3-60 - 2:26
4-60 - 2:42
5-60 - 2:50
9-60 - 2:42
Bonus: 5-70DB (Stock) - 2:45

Hey, what do you know? 5-60 seemed to edge out a win over the tied 9-60 and 4-60. 5-60 has more OWD and matches the blade count, so this makes sense. All of these would make good options if you're only looking at stamina alone. 

The biggest gap between two ratchets' results was between 4-60 and 3-60. 3-60 and 1-60 showed similarly poor performances, which is a bit of a shock. Usually, 3-60 performs rather well, and I didn't expect 1-60 to stand up to it at all either. This is also an impressive showing for 4-60.

Now, let's talk about the stock combo shortly. It has the benefit of a 5-sided ratchet, which as we've discussed seems to have the best spin time performance for the Wizard Rod blade. I expected Disc Ball to have more of an effect on the bey's stamina, but the difference seems negligible if there's any difference at all. I believe that the average spin time would be a lot closer to the 5-60B tests if I ran more trials. However, DB did tend to add around 2-3 seconds of spin time due to its great life-after-death. 

Besides great LAD, the biggest thing I noticed that Disc Ball had over Ball was its stability. During testing with Ball, the bey would often make large swooping circles near the beginning of the spin time, tapping or coming very close to the X-line before eventually calming down. However, when using Disc Ball, WR never even came close to the X-line in any test, instead staying in the center circle of the stadium for all tests I performed. It stabilized into the direct center much quicker than Ball as well. I think the strength of this new bit is how stable and balanced it is rather than it adding extra stamina.


Conclusion
What's the best (low height) ratchet for raw stamina on Wizard Rod? 5-60! Though 4-60 and 9-60 are great options as well.
I intend to do further testing on Disc Ball to see if it really does or doesn't have an affect on stamina, as well as probably a video testing session to show off the difference in stability. No promises though, I'm a very busy gal you know!

Thank you so much for reading. Next time, perhaps I'll do Unicorn Sting (for realsies this time).

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First off thank you for all the information collected. I also have been waiting patiently for this blade to come out and greatly appreciate the early testing. Truly this blade is gonna be a monster in tournaments. I found it really surprising that the 3-60 ratchet performed worse than 1-60. 3-60 is usually a consistent ratchet for me and I did not expect the ratchet with seemingly the least balance to edge it out. So now we know that 5-60 is the champ for stamina. I would love to see more tests to indicate the effect disc ball has on stamina, especially vs regular ball.

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never knows best

Ratchets vs. Raw Stamina #5 - Wizard Rod

Hi. I've been waiting a long time for this blade to come out. Luckily for you, science never takes breaks. Let's get straight into testing.

Wizard Rod is a blade with 5 blades with a heavy focus on outward weight distribution to increase the bey's stamina. As such, I believe the ratchet with 5 blades, 5-60, will give it the greatest stamina. 

We (unfortunately) have a new 60-height ratchet added to our testing, 1-60, which will add a cool half hour to my testing session. Cool beans. I've also decided to additionally test out the stamina for the stock combo, WR 5-70DB, just because I was curious and it seemed like an amazing stock to begin with. Let's see the results!



AVERAGES
1-60 - 2:28
3-60 - 2:26
4-60 - 2:42
5-60 - 2:50
9-60 - 2:42
Bonus: 5-70DB (Stock) - 2:45

Hey, what do you know? 5-60 seemed to edge out a win over the tied 9-60 and 4-60. 5-60 has more OWD and matches the blade count, so this makes sense. All of these would make good options if you're only looking at stamina alone. 

The biggest gap between two ratchets' results was between 4-60 and 3-60. 3-60 and 1-60 showed similarly poor performances, which is a bit of a shock. Usually, 3-60 performs rather well, and I didn't expect 1-60 to stand up to it at all either. This is also an impressive showing for 4-60.

Now, let's talk about the stock combo shortly. It has the benefit of a 5-sided ratchet, which as we've discussed seems to have the best spin time performance for the Wizard Rod blade. I expected Disc Ball to have more of an effect on the bey's stamina, but the difference seems negligible if there's any difference at all. I believe that the average spin time would be a lot closer to the 5-60B tests if I ran more trials. However, DB did tend to add around 2-3 seconds of spin time due to its great life-after-death. 

Besides great LAD, the biggest thing I noticed that Disc Ball had over Ball was its stability. During testing with Ball, the bey would often make large swooping circles near the beginning of the spin time, tapping or coming very close to the X-line before eventually calming down. However, when using Disc Ball, WR never even came close to the X-line in any test, instead staying in the center circle of the stadium for all tests I performed. It stabilized into the direct center much quicker than Ball as well. I think the strength of this new bit is how stable and balanced it is rather than it adding extra stamina.


Conclusion
What's the best (low height) ratchet for raw stamina on Wizard Rod? 5-60! Though 4-60 and 9-60 are great options as well.
I intend to do further testing on Disc Ball to see if it really does or doesn't have an affect on stamina, as well as probably a video testing session to show off the difference in stability. No promises though, I'm a very busy gal you know!

Thank you so much for reading. Next time, perhaps I'll do Unicorn Sting (for realsies this time).

Woah great testing! So I was reading your post on Wizard Rod and noticed the final paragraph relating to Disc Ball vs Ball. The conclusion you came to may have been mistaken for the ball becoming worn. Are you using the same ball driver from your first ever testing? Worn ball goes to the X line much easier and wobbles more than a mint ball.

Trust me, I lost a tournament because I had used my ball driver too much lol