Avant-Garde Discerning Paralleler has a total of 16 selectable stages and 2 difficulty levels. There are 2 player teams to choose from: Ran Yakumo with Chen, and Seiga Kaku with Kyouko Kasodani. Each team has a different play style and a different set of stages to play. Scoring revolves around the "Connect Bonus" system. Collecting special Connect items will start a time limit, during which any point items collected by the player will be added to the bonus. The time limit can be extended via Connect items and grazing. Should the player hold on to the bonus until the boss arrives, its value will be added to each of the boss's spell card bonuses, resulting in a vastly higher score. A high cumulative score is required to unlock the more difficult stages in the game. The most recent version of the game (1.10) also includes a series of standalone "Boss Challenges". These boss battles feature unique rules regarding player characters, scoring and bombs, as well as a surprise guest appearance from the Seihou Project.