#Advanced play
Tips for players who can clear Hard and want Expert S ranks, full combos and SS grades. Numbers here come from the game's rules (see How to play).
#Tune your timing first
Everything else is easier once your offset is right.
- Run Calibration with the headphones or speakers you actually play on. Wired audio feels tighter than Bluetooth.
- Turn on Show early/late and Timing bar (Settings > Gameplay), or Show timing in ms if you like numbers.
- Play a few songs you know well at 1×. Check the results histogram: the two center bars are the Marvelous band (±22 ms). If the hump sits left (early) or right (late) of center, adjust:
- Hits consistently late → make Audio offset more negative (Auto-Sync does this in steps of up to 25 ms per song).
- Picture lags the sound (common on TVs) → use Visual offset.
- Once you're happy, you can turn Auto-Sync off to freeze the offset, or leave it on: it ignores errors under 10 ms and never learns from Hidden, Sudden, speed-changed or failed runs.
#Read density, not single notes
- Expert charts peak around 7-10 notes per second in any one second. Read shapes (stairs, trills, jumps) instead of individual arrows.
- Raise Scroll speed: more space between notes makes dense streams easier to read. Try 2.5× to 3.5× and settle where streams stop blurring. Scroll speed never makes a run unranked.
- Dim the background (Background / Stage brightness) and try the Color-blind friendly or Mono Glow scheme if colors distract you.
- In Classic view, Compact layout and a smaller Arrow size keep the whole pattern in your eye line.
- Doubles share one color makes jumps pop out of streams.
#Holds
- A hold is judged on its head like a tap. After that, you only need to keep holding.
- You get a 120 ms grace to re-press if you slip, and the hold counts once you've held 85% of it or let go in the last 250 ms. So you don't need to hang on to the very last pixel of the tail.
- A broken hold is a Miss: it costs combo and 3% life. During hold-plus-tap patterns, anchor the holding finger first and play the taps with your other hand.
#Same-lane bursts (jacks)
When notes in one lane come fast, the game gives a slightly late press to the older note first (up to the Good window, 135 ms), unless you're within 45 ms of the next one. Practically: don't rush jacks. Hit each one on its own beat and the game assigns them correctly.
#Full combo and SS strategy
- Full combo means no Bad and no Miss. Goods are fine. Prioritize hitting something over hitting perfectly in sections you struggle with.
- SS needs 99.5% accuracy. Each Great costs 0.25 of a note and each Good costs 0.5. On a 1,000-note chart, about 20 Greats is already S, not SS.
- Marvelous (±22 ms) only adds score, not accuracy. Chase it for leaderboard score, not for grades.
#Expert life management
Expert drains 0.65× per mistake and refills 1.25× per Perfect compared with Easy. A short miss streak followed by a clean stretch recovers quickly. If a song keeps failing you at one spot:
- Open Practice Mode, loop that section with [ / ], and start at 0.5×.
- Raise practice speed in 0.05 steps until it's comfortable at 1×.
- Use Retry the part I failed (R) to drop in 5 seconds before your first 3-miss streak.
#Modifiers for training
- Mirror (still ranked) breaks muscle memory and shows whether you're reading or remembering.
- Hidden trains you to read further ahead; Sudden trains reaction speed. Both are unranked, and both have hidden achievements.
- Song speed 0.75× with a higher scroll speed is a gentle way into a new Expert chart; 1.1-1.25× makes 1× feel slow afterward.
#Controllers and pads
- On a controller, try splitting lanes between the D-pad and face buttons. Every press of every binding counts, so alternating hands never swallows a note.
- Dance pads: calibrate on the pad, standing in your normal position. Your feet hit later than your fingers.