FAQ for the Harmonix console game Rockband Rivals
This is an FAQ of the Rivals competitive mode for the Harmonix console game RockBand. It is focussed on how to play rather than a history of the mode.
I started this FAQ because I was frustrated at how thinly this mode is documented. A lot of the information here comes via the good folks at /r/Rockband
See the end of the file on how to contribute additions or corrections. Anything in italics or annotated with (not sure) is something that may very well be innacurate and still needs confirmation.
Rivals is a clan-type competition with players joining a Crew (using their PSN ID). Crews compete with each other for standing and in-game rewards.
To play, you either have to have Rockband 4 and then buy the Rivals expansion, or you can buy both as a bundle. Among other things the Rivals expansion introduced a competitve mode called Rivals (available from the Main Menu under “Career”). So Rivals is used both to refer to the expansion/game and the competitive mode that was introduced in that expansion. In this FAQ it is used in the second meaning.
The game is available on PS4 or Xbox One.
To have fun playing RB while challenging yourself and cheering your crewmates on. Also to crush your enemies and see them driven before you.
Oh, you mean specifically. There are essentially two things you can compete for:
Season Points define your overall position in the competition. The crew with the most Season Points wins (but see Ties). Having a high rank can earn you and your crew badges.
There are also 6 tiers (see Tiers) and many crews vie for promotion for the top tier. Tiers earn you exclusive shop items.
Yes, your console needs to have an internet connection, however it doesn’t need to be particularly high speed. Mostly it uploads/downloads scores.
You can play Rivals by playing songs with:
Pro instruments are not supported except for Pro Drums, but Pro Drums scores are adjusted downwards as if you played normal Drums, so it’s only worth playing Pro Drums if you prefer to.
Harmony vocals do not count.
A Crew can consist of up to 10 players (PSN IDs). While a Code of Conduct is yet to be published by Harmonix, discussions on reddit strongly imply that having more that 10 people in your crew (eg. by allowing a PSN ID to be shared) is considered cheating.
You can play in a Crew of 1 if you are so inclined, but it will be hard to compete at the top tier by yourself.
You can look for a crew in-game.
Crews are either open (you can join by yourself) or closed (you can request to join).
You can also find a a crew through online forums:
reddit’s r/RivalsCrews/
The in-game ability to communicate with your crewmates is extremely limited.
There is a Rockband app (see Smartphone App) which allows for crew chat. The app is generally useful anyway, so that’s probably the best place to start for crews that don’t have another arrangement, but note that you can’t see that chat in-game.
Some crews communicate via general means such as Discord or PSN Message groups.
Rivals is not a synchronous mode - you don’t play with your crewmates (unless you want to organize an online multiplayer session, but that is not necessary). You can play by yourself whenever you like and your contributions get added to your Crew’s total.
There is no requirement for what instruments people play - if a crew is full of drummers or whatever fine. However you will not be able to compete at the top tiers without the ability to score well in all the Supported Instruments.
The competition cycle is called a “Season”. A Rivals Season is consists of eight weekly Challenges.
Generally there is a week between seasons with no challenges, though it can be otherwise (for example there was a 2-week gap break over the 2017 Christmas holiday).
Challenges start at 15:00 in the US East Coast time on Thursdays, and end midnight (same timezone) on Tuesday night.
Timezone-wise that is EDT in the winter and EST in the summer or if you are confused, in whatever time it is in New York City.
That makes it a 39 hour gap between challenges.
During a Challenge there are songs that “count”
There are 6 tiers:
You can only post a Spotlight Score for one crew during any one Challenge. So if you are
… your score won’t post for Crew B’s Spotlight. You can still earn XP for Crew B though.
XP is earned by playing qualified Challenge songs during a Challenge.
The XP you earn for your crew is based on the following formula:
XP = "Play Bonus" +
The Play Bonus is given
To put it simpler, to earn the most XP:
Not specific to Rivals, but because currently online play only supports one player at each console, it is not possible for a crew to play online together if some of them live in the same household and some are remote.
If two crews tie in Seasonal Points the tie-breaker seems to be a behind-the-scenes numeric identifier for the crews. Hence if Crew A and Crew B always end the Season in a tie for the top two positions, the same crew will always be the winner.
If you see something wrong or want to add information to this FAQ: