Is Needle a better bit than Ball in Beyblade X?

 

A helpful guide before we begin:

Blade: Made out of metal and plastic in the new series. The shape could be aggressive for attack (as shown in the image above) or round for defense. The Blade is the primary contact point for a beyblade during the battle.

Ratchet: A plastic piece that is attached to the blade. The ratchet determines the height of the beyblade. The ratchet is labelled with numbers such as 3-60 in the image above, where 3 is the number of sides and 60 represents the height. The higher the height of the ratchet, the taller the beyblade.

Bit: Generally serves as the foundation of the beyblade. The shape of the bit determines the behaviour and movement of the beyblade.

Terms:

KO: Knock out; when a beyblade is knocked out of the stadium, it is considered a KO. Generally in this case, the beyblade is knocked into the KO Zone (see image above)

Xtreme: When a beyblade is knocked out in the Extreme Zone (see image above).

Dash rail: a special layer added to the stadium which Beyblade X beyblades can use to "dash" (get a sudden rush of speed).

Outspin: When a beyblade is still spinning while the other opponent beyblade stops spinning

                                                                                   

Abstract

This study examined the differences between Needle and Ball bit for Beyblade X. Three different beyblades Wizard Arrow, Knight Shield and Hellscythe were all tested with 4-60, 3-80 and 4-80 ratchet against Dransword 3-60F. I predicted that while Needle is stated as a defense bit in its stock combo with the defensive Knight Shield and Ball bit is stated as a Stamina bit in its stock combo of Wizard Arrow, Needle would be heavily outperformed against attack. As our results indicate, Needle consistently performed poorly against Attack type beyblade while Ball fared significantly better. When comparing the results of ratchets with different heights (such as 4-60 Needle against 4-60 Ball) the results did not significantly differ against the attack type beyblade. Needle consistently performed worse against Ball regardless of ratchet height or shape suggesting that performance in the testing was more dependent on the bit rather than ratchet being a factor.

Introduction

Takara Tomy has released 4 main beyblade types to fulfill the standard combat setup of beyblade that has been followed since Bakuten Shoot Beyblade (1999) series. This setup includes Attack type, defense type, stamina type and balance type. The setup has been continued throughout the beyblade generations from the original Bakuten Shoot series to metal fight, followed by Burst and now to X. Since Balanced types can vary in their performance, they are not subject for today's investigation. Today’s investigation will look into performance of stamina type and defense type against attack types.

Historically Stamina types are considered to fare poorly against attack types as their low mobility, weight distribution and low friction designed for maximum stamina tends to be abused by heavily mobile and hard hitting attack types. The low friction makes the stamina type beyblades easy to get knocked out while low mobility makes them an easy target. On the other hand, defense types with their higher weight are designed to counter attack types. However, with the Beyblade Burst series the existing notions of Stamina types being vulnerable to attack types with drivers such as Bearing Drift and Metal Bearing Drift has been thoroughly challenged. Therefore, the current study helps us understand how Defensive Needle and Stamina Ball bit perform against attack types. Specifically, Beyblades using the Needle bit were expected to perform poorly compared to the Beyblades using Ball bit.

Methodology

The tests were performed against Dransword 3-60F with flat launch. There was no angled launch done in this testing. This was done to keep consistency. While angled launches can be great, flat launches give Dransword the ability to “dash” more often thus increasing the chance of KO. Additionally, self KOs or direct hits (whereby the second launched beyblade directly falls on the beyblade already in the stadium) were not counted. This was done because “Sniping” (when an opponent directly launches the beyblade on the opponent’s beyblade with the intention of knocking out the opponent’s beyblade) is not allowed in competitive play. Additionally self-KO represents a random probability and does not represent the performance of the bits being tested against the attack type.

Beyblade with the bit to be tested was first launched into the stadium followed by the attack type. This was done as both bits being tested (ball and needle) tended to not aggressively move in the stadium and were thus less prone to use the “dash” and exhaust stamina. On the other hand, the aggressive Flat bit of Dransword (our attack beyblade) tended to use the “dash” ability more often and thus exhausted stamina a lot quicker. Using the attack beyblade earlier would provide it with a serious handicap and thus bias the results. The performance of Attack type is not discussed in this study as this study focuses primarily on the performance of defensive and stamina bit, but the performance of attack type can be certainly explored in a further study.

We first measured the amount of wins with each bit (Needle and Ball) as higher wins represent a higher probability of the result. This was done with all possible combinations of ratchets and blades available to determine a pattern if possible. Furthermore, each combination was tested against the attack beyblade for a minimum of 10 times. This was done to increase sample size and which reduced statistical error. 

The results are as follows:

Needle

Avg win ratio 36/90 (40%); Dransword 23 KO, 15 Outspin, 8 burst, 7 Xtreme

Ball

Avg win ratio 55/90 (61.11%); Dransword 20 KO, 5 Outspin, 5 Burst, 4 Xtreme

Discussion

As it can be seen, the Needle bit consistently performed poorly against Dransword compared to the Ball bit. In our tests we observed that regardless of the ratchet or blade, Needle and Ball both had were very prone to KO due to hard hits from attack type. However, unlike Ball which has a larger surface area and contact point, Needle consistently lost balance thus losing stamina causing Dransword to outspin it. While Ball was also a victim to hard hitting Dransword, its wider surface area caused it to regain balance more often and provided enough friction to stay in the stadium compared to Needle. I suspect the smaller contact point also is reflected in the higher probability of Needle getting Xtreme finished more often. While in both cases the attack beyblade was launched after the already spinning beyblade was in the center of the stadium, since both Needle and Ball had similar circumstances, the results are fair and without bias.

Further testing is required to see how 3-60 ratchet changes the performance of Needle and Ball against attack type although as per our testing, it is unlikely that a change in height will affect performance. Additionally, since all these tests were performed solo, it would be interesting to replicate this study in an environment where two competitors are using different beyblades to emulate a more realistic scenario. Lastly, since all these tests were performed using flat launches, it would be worthwhile to investigate how different launching styles would affect the performance of different bits and beyblades.