Ultimate Olympic Decathlon scoring guide: how to get 1,000 points an event
Every event in Ultimate Olympic Decathlon turns your time, distance or weight into points, and 1,000 is a very good score for one event. This guide gives the performance each event needs for a given score, so you know what you’re aiming at, and the pacing that gets you there.
POINTS TABLE
| Points | 100m | Javelin | Discus | 800m | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 | 14.1 s | 30.0 m | 21.5 m | 2:19 | 87 kg |
| 500 | 12.8 s | 43.9 m | 31.8 m | 2:08 | 119 kg |
| 700 | 11.8 s | 57.5 m | 41.7 m | 1:58 | 149 kg |
| 900 | 10.8 s | 70.7 m | 51.4 m | 1:49 | 177 kg |
| 1,000 | 10.4 s | 77.2 m | 56.2 m | 1:45 | 191 kg |
| 1,100 | 10.0 s | 83.7 m | 60.9 m | 1:41 | 205 kg |
Points don’t rise in a straight line. In the 100m, the last second you knock off is worth far more than the first, so it pays to push.
EVENT BY EVENT
100M
Your speed comes only from how fast you alternate Z and X, and air resistance grows with the square of your speed, so each extra tap a second buys a little less. About six taps a second gets you round in roughly 17 seconds, which scores almost nothing. Ten a second gets you to about 11 seconds and over 800 points. The track’s top speed is just over 13 metres a second, and only the very fastest tappers get near it.
The same key twice in a row counts for a third of a tap, so alternate rather than hammering one key. A false start doesn’t cost points, but it sends you back to your marks.
JAVELIN
The longest possible throw is 90 metres, from a full-speed run-up and a release at exactly 45 degrees, which is worth about 1,200 points. Speed counts for more than angle: a perfect angle at half speed loses to a decent angle at full speed.
The needle starts at 45 degrees. So the most reliable throw is a quick press and release of Space while you’re at full speed and still well short of the line. Cross the foul line before you let go and you score nothing.
DISCUS
The longest possible throw is 70 metres, worth about 1,300 points, from a full power bar and a 45-degree release. A dozen or so perfect beats fill the bar. Stay with the metronome as long as you can, then throw. A miss late in the run costs you only a little.
800M
The event that punishes mashing. The green band on the stamina bar runs from about 3 to 5½ taps a second. Inside it, stamina refills slowly. Above it, stamina drains, and once it’s gone you crawl.
Your speed inside the band depends on how fast you tap. At the bottom of the band you run at about 60% of the speed you’d reach at the top. The best plan is to tap as fast as you can without leaving the green, about five taps a second, for the first 720 metres.
Then FINAL SPRINT! comes up for the last 80 metres. From there, tapping above the band costs less than half the stamina it did, and the same effort runs faster. Speed tops out at about seven taps a second. Tapping any faster than that drains stamina without making you any quicker. Seven a second for the last 80 metres is well within what a full stamina bar can afford.
Run it like that and you finish in around 1:35 to 1:40, for well over 1,000 points. Mash from the gun and you won’t make 2:30.
WEIGHTLIFTING
The weight you lift is set by how full the power bar is when the seven seconds run out: 60 kg with an empty bar, up to 205 kg with a full one. That’s about 1,100 points at most. Then you have three seconds to keep the bar level with Z and X. Small, quick corrections work best. If the bar tips too far, the lift fails and scores nothing, so a slightly lighter lift held steady beats a heavy one you drop.
THE FULL DECATHLON
The Full Decathlon runs all five events in order: 100m, javelin, discus, 800m and the lift. The best five totals are kept on a leaderboard in your browser. Around 1,000 an event is roughly a 5,000-point total, and getting over 5,500 means the 800m and the discus are going well.
▶ PLAY ULTIMATE OLYMPIC DECATHLON
The controls, the story so far and how the game was made are on the Ultimate Olympic Decathlon page.