CICADAMATA: How to Farm Points for DMND

farming By GuideLVL · Checked October 9, 2026

DMND rank in CICADAMATA comes from the score, so the way to get it is to farm points on a route you already know rather than to shave seconds off a fast run. This page lists what each action is worth, what the two score multipliers are worth, and the point routes for all seven enemy types.

The short version: get to 5,500 points to enter “Zone” and keep it running for double points, or hold “Starstruck” for quadruple. Land normal shots on enemies before you finish them off another way, since every non-lethal hit is 50 free points, but never on Flowers, Spheres or Espers. Chain stomps on anything you are allowed to stomp. Blow up Flowers when other enemies are standing near them. Chain hurdles wherever a level gives you three in a row. On SPHERE 1-1 | AENSLAND the DMND line sits at 50,000 points, and I cannot give you a figure for the other levels, so treat 50k as that level’s number rather than a universal one. All values here are current at the time of writing and a patch can move them.

How points are scored

Every kill pays a flat 500 on top of whatever the killing method itself is worth.

The killing method is worth 250 for a dash, 200 for a railgun shot, and 500 for spikes or a void. One normal shot is a burst that lands three hits at 50 each, so a burst is 150, and two bursts kill a standard enemy for 800 in total.

The time bonus

Until you have maxed out your interactions and settled on a route, I would ignore the time bonus and farm instead. If you do want to balance the two, this is how it is scored.

That last row covers only the flat 500 every kill pays, so it is not the decision rule on its own. How long a kill is worth spending depends on which kill it is: divide its total in “How points are scored” by 100 and you get what it pays back in seconds, with no multiplier running. That is 7 seconds for a railgun kill, 7.5 for a dash kill, 8 for a two burst kill and 10 for spikes or a void. Even the cheapest kill on that table buys back seven seconds, which is why a setup that takes a while is usually still worth taking.

Staying in the “Zone” and “Starstruck”

Reaching 5,500 points puts you into the “Zone” state, which doubles what you score from then on. You keep it alive by killing things or simply landing hits on them, and the longer it stays up the bigger your end total. Hold it across a whole level and DMND becomes very achievable. Two runs with more or less the same routing can land 5,000 points short of DMND or sail well past it purely on how much of the level was spent in “Zone”.

“Starstruck” runs on the same mechanics with a bigger multiplier, worth four times your points instead of two. The same actions keep it alive, so nothing about your play needs to change once you are in it. Hold it for the whole level and DMND is very likely.

Telegraphing

Telegraphing means putting normal shots into an enemy before you close in and finish it some other way. Every hit that lands without killing is worth 50 points on top of the kill you eventually use. Five hits can land before an enemy dies outright, so the ceiling on free chip damage is 250 per enemy, and that doubles while “Zone” is running. It is tiny per enemy and large by the end of a level.

Hits score one at a time at 50 each, which is why the five hit ceiling does not divide neatly into three hit bursts. Where a table below says five hits, it means five landed hits rather than a whole number of bursts.

Three enemy types punish you for chipping at them, so dash into them or railgun them instead of putting a single bullet in first: Flowers, Spheres and Espers. Each has its own section below.

Stomping

A stomp on a standard enemy’s head takes 1/3 of its health. A stomp landed near it, rather than on it, takes 1/6 and launches it. Vicinity stomps therefore keep an enemy alive longer, which gives you more chances to farm it.

Direct stomps chain if you land them quickly. Each stomp in a chain is worth 50 more than the one before, capping at 350.

A standard enemy dies to the third head stomp, so treat the last two rows as the top of the scale rather than something you can land on a single target. Finishing a chain on the third stomp adds the 500 for the kill, which makes 1250.

Vicinity stomps pay 100 per launch, so five launches is 500. Opening with a vicinity stomp before you start a chain of head stomps gets more out of a target than going straight to the head, because the launch does less damage. A stomp chain is not always the highest total an enemy has available, so check its section below before you commit to one.

Hurdles

Hurdles chain the same way stomps do. Each one you pass through shortly after the last is worth 50 more than the one before.

No level has turned up with more than three hurdles chainable, so 1200 is the ceiling here as of the current build.

Exploding Combo

Flowers explode when they die, and any enemy caught in the blast dies as a Blackout Kill. The blast pays 400 for each enemy it catches and the flat 500 for the kill lands on top, so every enemy caught is worth 900 to you, on top of whatever you scored on the Flower itself.

Kill a Flower with two other enemies standing near it and you collect all of that from one kill. This is the biggest single payoff on the page, so it is worth going out of your way for a Flower with company.

How to read the route tables

The rest of this page is one section per enemy. Each table lists the routes worth knowing on that enemy, with the total and the pace. “Practical” routes cost little time and are the ones I would build a route around. “Slow” routes take longer to set up, and some of them are the highest total that enemy has available while others simply cost time for less. Every total below assumes no “Zone” or “Starstruck” multiplier.

Crabs

Crabs cannot be stomped directly. Vicinity stomps still work on them.

Shooters

Shooters take head stomps, which makes them the most rewarding ordinary enemy on this list.

Spheres

Spheres, also called Bouncers or Bouncy Spheres, are one of the three types you cannot farm. Do not chip at them with single bullets. Dash or railgun them, or take the single stomp.

Birds

A head stomp on a Bird takes half its health, so you only ever get two of them.

Espers

Espers teleport you when you shoot them, so never open on one with normal fire. Close in and dash, or take it out at range with the railgun.

Flowers

Flowers, the exploding bulbs, are not farmable by chipping either. What makes them valuable is the explosion covered under Exploding Combo above, so pick your kill by what is standing next to them.

Flowers also score their own way. A stomp on a Flower pays 300, more than the 200 a first stomp pays on anything else, and a dash into one pays 200. That is why stomping first and dashing to finish totals 1000 here and 950 on a Bird.

Spiders

Spiders cannot be stomped directly. These are the two routes worth using on them.

CCDA clearance

CCDA clearance is earned per level, and getting it is the same job as everything above done at speed: farm points across the whole level while still moving as fast as you can. If you are only playing for the achievement list, you can skip it entirely, because no achievement is attached to CCDA clearance.

Putting a run together

Doing only some of this gets you close. Telegraphing on its own has been enough to reach 49.9k on SPHERE 1-1 | AENSLAND with no attempt at a fast time, which shows how far those 50 point hits go over a full level.

So the order I would learn it in is this. Learn the level well enough to stop dying, since the time bonus matters far less than uptime on your multiplier. Add telegraphing to every enemy you were going to dash into anyway. Then add stomp chains on the enemies that allow them, and finally look for Flowers standing near other enemies. By the time all four are in the route, “Zone” should be up almost permanently, and that is where DMND comes from.

• achievementsCICADAMATA: All Achievements Guide

  How to unlock all 32 CICADAMATA achievements, including story clears, gameplay challenges, level milestones, Sphere Rushes, and secrets.

  Published September 15, 2026

• CICADAMATACICADAMATA: How to Decode CCDA Text

  How to decode CICADAMATA's CCDA circle and box typefaces, read Dotsies, scan barcodes, and handle omitted vowels or rotated text.

  Published September 10, 2026

• strategyCICADAMATA: Esperia Rush and + FOR AEGIS Guide

  How to clear the Esperia Sphere Rush in CICADAMATA for the + FOR AEGIS achievement, with the Esper damage and drag numbers.

  Published September 3, 2026

• locationsCICADAMATA: All Sphere Terminal Locations

  Where to find all 18 sphere terminals in CICADAMATA, with a screenshot for every one and the area each of them sits in.

  Checked October 9, 2026