What is "Ratchet Swapping" in Beyblade X?
- DAN
- Apr 11
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 13
Note: "Ratchet Swapping" of any kind is considered an illegal modification unfit for use in official B4 environments regardless of appearance, legal by default* in WBO environments, and up to varying discretion in other fan-run environments.
*Event Organizers can opt out via "No Disassembled Components" clause
The short answer is that "Ratchet Swapping" is the complete disassembly and reassembly of Beyblade X Ratchets with functionally identical componentsfor aesthetic or performance reasons. Specifically, achieving part performance parity with out-of-the-box "good" Ratchets.
In the first case, you can swap parts between functionally identical components of different colours originating from different official releases to produce an entirely new looking Ratchet. Sometimes this may even mean emulating the look of exclusively released Ratchet recolours. In the above photo we have created a unique looking 1-50 Ratchet by putting together the UX-15 fuchsia"50" component and UX-05 lilac "1" component.
It looks great on Shark Scale:
In the second case you are less concerned with aesthetics and more with improving the performance of a given Ratchet. In the competitive Beyblade X world, the repeated purchasing of parts in search of the imaginary "best" version is commonplace. Manufacturing tolerances ensure that pieces fall within an acceptable range, but not that they're all identical. This means that that no two parts will perform identically. Therefore, there will always be performance outliers that are incredibly desirable due to their innate properties like height, weight, balance, and resistance. This ranges from Blades to Ratchets to Bits.
For example, a number of Hasbro-specific Ratchets come with an incredibly tight internal bi-stable snap-fit locking mechanism out-of-the-box, including but not limited to:
G0284 Roar Tyranno's 9-60
F9588 Tusk Mammoth's 3-60
G1682 Fort Hornet's 7-60
G2738 Stun Medusa's 9-60
I've also personally inspected a UX-05 ShinobiShadow 9-60 that could not physically Burst or come apart once assembled, the lock mechanism and shaft were behaving well beyond intended Ratchet capabilities. It did not pass our inspection phase in tournament as a result, despite being an as-is, "original", unmodified product. On the other hand, there are many out-of-the-box Ratchets that have the opposite innate attributes on average, such as the historically quite loose BX-00 Lightning L-Drago 1-60.
The end result for us as players is a system that rewards multiple repeat purchases and an expanding collection of duplicate parts in the quest for unique components that are tighter/shorter/taller/more balanced than what we already have.
Essentially, for many, competitive Beyblade X means treating product like a slot machine, looking for a "jackpot" like the aforementioned UX-05 ShinobiShadow 9-60 or various consistently good Hasbro releases.
One potential solution to this rather consumerist competitive system is "Ratchet Swapping". While you may need multiples of specific parts, you are maximizing the capability of your existing collection in a more economically prudent, sustainable way. For example, you can swap together components into Ratchets you may not already have, like taking a 4-50 and 1-60 apart to create a 1-50, or mix together the same parts in different ways to emulate a purchasing "new" part with its own unique tolerances in hopes of bringing forth an improved singular part.
So, while some players may buy multitudes of the same part/release in hopes of hitting the tolerance lottery, or even just getting lucky on one of their first purchases (ex. my very first BX-00 Lightning L-Drago 1-60 was incredibly strong), players with smaller collections or limited resources have the opportunity to even the playing field by tinkering with their components and trying to reach that higher competitive threshold in a more fiscally responsible way. At least with their Ratchets, that is.
This method is imperfect, since there is no guarantee the newly swapped parts will be any better (sometimes they are even worse...), but it allows the likes of a beginner player with two Ratchets to experiment in making a distinct third one that may rival a "good" Ratchet that came off the assembly line as-is (ex. taking two loose 3-60s, and mixing parts together for a chance that the resulting 3-60 is as tight as a "naturally" tight one).
Often when discussing the topic locally, purists and detractors have the notion that "Ratchet Swapping" provides an "unearned" and "unfair" advantage to players, or that it just shouldn't be done. Possibly because they are ignorant to the process or have unrealistic expectations of what mixing components can actually produce in practice.
"Ratchet Swapped" Ratchets cannot consistently produce parts that are drastically better than how an original, out-of-box Ratchet would be. In general you would be immensely lucky to produce a "Ratchet Swapped" Ratchet that is just as strong as some of the unusually powerful (and guaranteed!) Hasbro Ratchets mentioned above, and far "luckier" to produce an illegally-good Ratchet like my earlier 9-60 anecdote. On top of this, a single Ratchet does not behave the same on every Blade or Bit. Part cohesion plays an important role.
For this reason I've decided to detail this process in just a few pictures, and describe the function of Ratchet components as I know them to be, so that you can learn how to do it yourself or understand the process better.
If trying this yourself, note that a tri-wing screw head is necessary to properly disassemble an official Ratchet without stripping the screws.
Here is a breakdown of each individual component and their intended role/impact:
Screws - Fastens the shaft, socket, and tab to the base. Holds the Ratchet together. Unevenly screwed Ratchets tend to have an unstable locking motion and can jolt into the unlocked position after some force is applied.
Shaft - Matches with a specific "height" base, determines Bit resistance (i.e. "70" shaft only fits in a "70" base, and has greater grip on Bits than "60" shafts)
Socket - This is the gimmick portion of the Ratchet, pictured above is the "1" variant. These are all interchangeable among all existing 50/60/70/80 Ratchets at time of writing, and couples with the latch to form the the bi-stable snap-fit lock. I assume that variations in its friction lock tabs determine how firmly a Ratchet holds onto a Blade/Assist Blade.
Latch - This is other part of the snap-fit mechanism that secures the socket's two positions: locked and unlocked. Variations in the socket and latch size seem to play a role in lock how tight a Ratchet can hold a lock/unlocked position, on top of the friction fit of the socket itself.
Base - Matches the shaft and determines the "height" of the Ratchet. Along with the shaft, variations in the base result in slight differences in height between Ratchets (~+/- 0.3mm). Note that a "60" base cannot work with a "50" or "70" shaft as they are too short and tall respectively. This is likely a deliberate choice by the manufacturer and consistent across all Ratchets.
With this in mind, aesthetic changes can mean the following:
Any existing, officially released socket (1, 3, 4, 5 ...) combined with any existing, officially released compatible base that creates a pre-existing, officially released Ratchet. Please note that in competitive environments, both official and fan-run, that "imaginary" Ratchets (i.e. Ratchets that have not yet been released in official products yet) are not legal for use.
This means a variety of unique colour combinations are available, especially when considering the pool of recoloured options released in Random Boosters or Hasbro releases which often include all-new colours or unique shades.
Competitively-minded changes can mean the following:
Socket, Shaft, and Latch Relationship - no two components have the exact same resistance profile, so mixing and matching these three represent the quickest way to diagnose and assist an overly-loose out-of-the-box Ratchet.
Base and Shaft Height Combination - as mentioned, base and shaft combinations can have slightly taller or shorter profiles overall. Manufacturer tolerances appear to present a range of roughly 0.3mm taller or shorter Ratchets when finalized.
Shaft Resistance - no two shafts are identical, and not all shafts work identically with any given Bit. Essentially, every single shaft is "personalized". If you have a very potent 50/60/70/80 that holds onto Bits tighter than others, that is in part the doing of that specific shaft (and to a similar degree the Bit involved). Switching out the shaft to fit a specific usecase (ex. switching a tighter "5"-60 into a "1"-60) is one way to try and optimize your part selection without purchasing oodles of product to hit the jackpot on a given Ratchet.
If you take the above information at face value it can become quite exciting (or worrying!) to think about engineering "the ultimate Ratchet" from the comfort of your home, but reality is much different.. The truth of the matter is that even if you were to wish on a genie's lamp for some of the best of each of these individual components, bringing it all together to form a cohesive, well-balanced, yet not illegally-good Ratchet for a specific Blade/combo is not guaranteed.
For example, I once tried a simple swap on a G0284 Roar Tyranno's 9-60 base with a different one I found to be more aesthetically pleasing, the end result was actually a worse Ratchet by far. There is simply something about all of those parts together, specifically, that made it what it is.
Parts in conjunction work in inexplicable or suboptimal ways that are out of our control, whether we buy or create new Ratchets. "Ratchet Swapping" with the intention of improving part performance only allows us to merely attempt to have more agency over our collection, it is not the fast track to reliably top-tier performing competitive parts "for free".
In the same way that there is a lot of luck involved in the composition of a "good" Ratchet in the manufacturing stage, there is a lot of luck in a modified Ratchet turning out similarly "good". There is nearly endless experimentation involved if your aim is part and combo improvement.
Bear many of these things in mind when tinkering, and focus on enjoying the wonderful game of Beyblade X in the way that suits you best! The science of Ratchet tinkering is as deep as you allow it to be, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy it or want to partake, and you don't have to!
How we derive pleasure from this game is completely subjective, as is how cool the following beastmode Ratchet swaps are (credits in caption) that you can look to for inspiration:
