37 Resources
Practice maps and sets named by the creators
- Long stream practice maps, the sets khz's ladder is built on: https://osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets/72474#osu/207692 and https://osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets/76465#osu/403024 5
- Stream practice maps, long stream practice maps, burst stream maps, square jump practice maps, and a deathstream compilation used as a benchmark: the map lists in Korilak's guide, which range from 120 to 270 BPM. 31
- The maps shown in the skill chart video, listed skill by skill in DigitalHypno's credits document. 2
- Tournament mappools, published for every rank range on the osu! site and mirrored as ready-made collections: the widest variety per download, and the reason tournament players end up well rounded. 44
Further reading
- The two classic improvement guides of the early 2010s, still the ancestors of most advice in circulation: jesse1412's https://osu.ppy.sh/forum/t/99612 and Scarletstory's https://osu.ppy.sh/forum/t/187364. Neither was reviewed for this book. 66,72
- The retry analysis thread, worth reading with its critics rather than without them: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/676392 65
- ferret_irl's 2026 write-up, the source of the small-goal method in Ch. 28 and the tapping advice in Ch. 6: https://www.reddit.com/r/osugame/comments/1qwl2le/8_real_tips_to_get_good_from_a_top_20_player/. Worth reading in full; it is funnier and blunter than any summary of it, including this one. 38
- The official rankings, if you want to know who the current top players actually are before taking advice attributed to them: https://osu.ppy.sh/rankings/osu/global 61
Tools
- osu! trainer — makes modified copies of maps (BPM, AR, CS, OD). The core tool for speed ladders: https://github.com/FunOrange/osu-trainer 83
- McOsu — a standalone osu!-compatible client with practice features, including speed and difficulty overrides, used for slowed-down technique work (Ch. 31): https://github.com/McKay42/McOsu 82
- OpenTabletDriver — the current open-source tablet driver: https://github.com/OpenTabletDriver/OpenTabletDriver 84
- Custom tablet firmware — https://files.shav.it/osu/tablet/ and the site listed in BTMC's description, https://xstarry.dev/firmware. Read Ch. 18 first: flashing can brick a tablet and void a warranty, and neither site was tested for this book. 86,87
- khz's written stream guide — the companion document to his video: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xbNwH_vN4O3azBYwua-Z_3GOAI2d-kV_EeE96aiRLBU 30
Who to watch, by skill set
Community picks from a 2026 thread, useful mainly as a map of who specializes in what. Read the caveat underneath before spending an evening on replays instead of playing. 37
| Skill set | Players named |
|---|---|
| Aim, low BPM | Hyeok |
| Aim, high BPM and Double Time | mrekk, with Plasma, byeok2044 / suyung, and WhiteCat named for nomod aim |
| Precision | Bonk |
| Aim control | Worst hr player |
| Flow aim | ASecretBox, mrekk, ezchamp, enri, WhiteCat |
| Bursts | Ivaxa |
| Finger control | Kama |
| Stamina | Roaz |
| Speed | cryshina, toro, Akolibed, NINERIK |
| Accuracy, low BPM | Kirby mix |
| Accuracy, high BPM | cryshina |
| Technical maps | mrekk, MALISZEWSKI, FlyingTuna, Worst hr player |
| Easy mod, and rhythm reading | gn, badeu, ekoro, ttv_ufo |
| Hybrid | milosz, lifeline, mrekk |
Several of these names sit in the current top 50 and some don't, because specialists and inactive players both show up in lists like this. Check the rankings rather than assuming. 61
Fact check: Does watching help?
- Nuance. The thread's own top reply says you can't improve much from watching, and recommends working on accuracy, pushing occasionally, and playing variety instead. As a statement about where improvement comes from, that's right; as a statement about observation having no value, it's too strong. 37
- Research. A meta-analysis of observational modeling found a clear benefit over practice alone, but a lopsided one: the effect on movement dynamics, meaning how the movement is performed, was about 0.77, while the effect on movement outcome was about 0.17. Watching teaches form far more than it teaches results. 156
- Research. Observation works best interleaved with your own practice rather than instead of it: observing an expert model between practice blocks improved movement planning more than extra practice trials did. Effects vary by task, and some studies find none. 157
- Nuance. In osu! the mismatch is obvious: a replay shows the cursor and the score, which is the outcome channel, and hides the hands, which is the dynamics channel the research favors. For technique, look for handcam footage; for pattern reading and movement strategy, replays are fine.
The thread's two most useful lines for a reader of this book are not about who to watch. One: the skill that matters for learning a new skill set is finding maps you enjoy within it (Ch. 22). Two: be deliberate about technique, tapping above all (Ch. 6). 37
Websites
| Site | What it's for, and what to watch |
|---|---|
| osu.ppy.sh | The official site: rankings, beatmap search, and your own profile. Your top plays and most-played maps are the diagnostic you already own (Ch. 32). https://osu.ppy.sh |
| osu!Collector | Ready-made map collections you can download in one go, including practice ladders and tournament mappools. The fastest way to assemble both the sets the programs in Ch. 31 assume and the variety Ch. 23 calls for. https://osucollector.com |
| osu!Farmer | Finds high-pp maps for your level. Good at exactly that, and therefore risky as a diet: these are the optimized farm maps Ch. 32 is about. Use it to push a rank goal, not to train. https://www.osufarmer.com |
| osu!pps | Another pp-map finder, with maps and mappers ranked by mod. Same caution. https://osu-pps.com/#/osu/maps |
| osu! skillset analyzer | Graphs a skill profile from your plays. Useful as a second opinion on which skill is weakest; the weightings are one developer's model, not official, so read the shape rather than the numbers. https://osu-skillset-analyzer.vercel.app |
| osuck tools | Profile analysis and related utilities. https://tools.osuck.net/?category=profile_analyze |
| osu!track | Tracks rank, pp, and accuracy over time, with ladder statistics; the clearest picture of whether the last month did anything. https://ameobea.me/osutrack/ladder-stats |
Third-party tools depend on the osu! API and on pp formulas that change every six to eight months (Ch. 24). When a tool and the game disagree, the game is right. 59
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