駄目、中々、為、など Are classified as "rare" kanji, but I know I've seen them often in RPGs in other Japanese games. I know when I went karaoke in Japan, some old songs used stuff like 此れin the lyrics. So, in the end, are they really "rare"?

Actually, what defines "rare"? Are these kanji outside of the JLPT scope? I'm keeping the "rare" kanji option on (can't see how learning more kanji is a bad thing), but I'm just curious. Even though I'm still working on the last bit of 3kyu vocab, it feels like I have a bit of 2kyu and 1kyu knowledge crammed into me from studying "rare" kanji.

With that said, it should make the transition to studying 2kyu kanji easier than just having hundreds of new kanji thrown at me. It feels like Skritter spreads out both characters and vocabulary well.

I bet a lot of the times that kanji like 此処　or 貴方 are actually used, it's for some sort of effect. Though what effect that might be, I can't imagine (antiquity?).

I've seen people use (in their typing at least, haven't seen them handwritten yet) certain rare-ish kanji to avoid having too many hiragana letters in a row, for ease of readability (or so they said). Kind of like how they will sometimes spell kanji out in　hiragana to avoid having too many sequential kanji compounds. 有る especially comes to mind.

Speaking of rare kanji, I've noticed that when they're turned off, Skritter won't even have me review rare kanji that are already on the My Words list.

Is there any way to prevent Skritter from asking me to write rare kanji, but still allow me to review the characters already on my list?

Rare=you will notice them in public but most Japanese have no idea how to write them even if they read them daily. Often when you see them it's just the author of the text wanting to seem more… intelectual? academic? ;) and use "rare" kanji even though nobody usually writes them.

Just a simple example; 下さい
Of course you can read it, basic vocab. Now have you ever seen a native write it by hand?

Basically rare means, we think (or our sources think) that the word is more often written in kana, or sometimes written in kana. So for example, see here:

http://jisho.org/words?jap=其処&eng=&dict=edict

It marks several of them, directly or in the definitions, as 'Usually written using kana alone.' We sourced many of our words from the same dictionary, Edict, which has these 'rare' kanji marked. So our own markings are mostly drawn from that.

Also, xiaobill, I would disagree with you about learning priorities. I think there are more helpful kanji to learn than rare ones, at least if you're starting off. Better to focus on the things you need to study the most, that will get you the most benefit, than to add and spend valuable time on less frequent kanji.

@Netbrian: It should work the way you describe, I think. I'll put it on my list to look at. Either way we wouldn't want to have a separate setting for something like that.

I'm not exactly a beginner. I've been studying Japanese for almost five years, and lived in Japan for about 15 months of that time (although the past year I barely studied any Japanese in Korea). It's embarrassing how low of a level I'm at. I started using Skritter in September, and I'm almost at a thousand characters. And I'm understanding text in video games much better because of the rare kanji, so it is immensely beneficial for me.

I agree it doesn't make much sense to learn rare kanji for beginners, but if you already have experience with the language, I think rare kanji is really useful!

That's a good point! I guess I hadn't realized how common 'rare' kanji were; I kind of assumed they were more archaic. It's good to know they're more important than I'd previously thought.

nearly all the writings marked as "rare" (that i've seen) are used (in certain situations).
writing something in kana instead of kanji changes the context or feeling slightly. when things are written in kanji, they feel more formal or serious. if i wanted to compliment you, but i didn't actually mean it, i would probably use kana instead of kanji for the kind words used.　kana carries less meaning than kanji, and sometimes using too much kanji in a writing has too much of a formal feel.　sometimes things are written in only kana not because they are difficult to write or remember, but because the word wasn't meant to be emphasized that much.

スゴイネ！
ジョウズだよ。