What is the most productive combination of powers to use in Quickplay+ mode?

Question

Once you've unlocked all eight warriors in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, you have their second-level powers available to you during Quickplay+ mode, and you can use any two powers when playing a song (but only for the specific challenge that permits it).

Which two powers produce the most stars for a given song? If it depends on the song, the skill level of the player, the instrument, or any combination, that's good to know, and if there's one pair that trumps all the rest, I'd like to know that as well.

Powers available:

• Axel, Resurrector+ (5 ankhs to resurrect you, unused ankhs become bonus stars)
• Casey, Streak Guardian+ (2 shields guard your streak, long streaks earn bonus stars)
• Judy, Crowd Hyper+ (Rock Meter starts maxed, overflow meter to earn bonus stars)
• Johnny, Speed Freak+ (2x minimum multiplier that rises quickly, stay over 3x to earn bonus stars)
• Lars, Multiplier Extender+ (max multiplier is 6x)
• Pandora, Star Power Nova+ (Star Power multiplier is 6x)
• Echo, Star Power Generator+ (get 10% Star Power for every 10-note streak)
• Austin, Star Power Amplifier+ (Star Power earned from phrases is 4x normal amount)

Answer 1

I have played this game far too long and far too much, and I still enjoy it.

That being said, I have experimented quite a lot with these powers. Basically, this will depend on the length and difficulty of the song, as well as the amount of notes and whether or not you can/will streak on it.

There is no pair that trumps the rest, but below are some guide lines:

• If the song is short, I would suggest using Axel, Resurrector+, since it grants them regardless of length.
• If the song is long, and you can streak, it could be useful to use Lars, Multiplier Extender+
• If the song is long and contains lots of notes that are streak-able, use Echo, Star Power Generator+

The above STRONGLY applies to guitar. Also, always remember that the higher the skill level, the more the notes, the bigger the score! Although, this only works that way IF THE PLAYER CAN PLAY that skill level. Rather get 90% and above on Hard than getting less than 60% on Expert - Streaking is important!

My personal bests are done with 'Pandora, Star Power Nova+ (Star Power multiplier is 6x)' and 'Echo, Star Power Generator+ (get 10% Star Power for every 10-note streak)' on expert, since I streak a lot on expert, which gives a lot of notestreaks (which gives a lot of Star Power), which allows me to keep my Star Power active through almost the whole song, meaning I get a constant multiplier of 24x (4x6)!!

Using Echo and Pandora, I cannot remember ever getting less than 14 stars ever.

Hope this helps*

Answer 2

I am going to go ahead and highly recommend Star Power Generator+ and Star Power Nova+ to have the potential to get the maximum number of stars in this mode if you are highly adept at the song (on whatever difficulty with enough notes, though there is definitely the most potential on Expert, which I have been playing on for quite some years) and can take close to full advantage of the 24x multiplier to get, in this case, up to 20 "score" stars plus one more for a "full combo" (no misses or overstrums) for a total of 21 possible on "score-20-able" songs, or one more than otherwise where it is only possible to achieve 16-19 of these "score stars" no matter how you manage the star power! "Maximum starrability" does vary a fair amount in this game, especially in Quickplay+ Power Mode!

These 20 "Power Stars" from score are awarded for a 21.000x or higher average multiplier throughout the song, as available in "More Stats" for the song, and each star below that is 1 1/6x lower in average multiplier in terms of cutoff for it (so 19* is at 19.833x, 18* is at 18.667x, 17* is at 17.500x, and so on) where I have performed in this mode to date. 14* without a "full combo" is at 14.000x in this scheme, and likewise 8* would be at 7.000x... which would put 7* at 5.833x and 6* at 4.667x... this makes sense from what I've observed through my own rather long-time play on Expert in this particular Guitar Hero game!! If you cannot pull off keeping your (usually 24x to fully pull this off) multiplier most of the way to get a "Power Star" score above 14-16 stars on whatever difficulty you play on, it would probably be better to use two powers that gain stars from things other than score that you can pull off, but if you can score "very" well on any given song "normally", then I have long observed and achieved scores above the 15-17 stars possible from other combinations of powers that don't involve score enhancement, from my own use of SP Nova+ and SP Generator+ in my own play a vast majority of the time!

Edit 8/24/2019: I can add to this answer that Star Power Amplifier+ is a viable option too most of the time I would suggest Star Power Generator+ with the Star Power Nova+, because it completely fills your star meter for every single star phrase you get. This is useful on charts with less notes for which Star Power Generator+ would be less effective, which includes on lower difficulties with less notes overall. I've been playing on Expert which has the most notes, making SP Generator+ more useful to me overall.