Tips and Tricks

This section will explain some basic tips that will help you improve your skill level.

Well-designed levels are synced properly and constructed to emulate the music well. This implies that usually, you don't have to time the notes visually, but rather simply listen for the beat and time the notes with the song. This will dramatically improve your accuracy early on, and eventually you'll get a feel for how to time the notes visually naturally.

Remember that ultimately, reading ability comes down to a lot of muscle memory, so the only thing that can improve your skill level is just more practice. Don't be frustrated, be patient. You don't always have to push yourself. Don't forget to just enjoy the game once in a while! Listen to the kind of music you like and try music outside of your comfort zone!

Although there is a historical reason for why most of the community chooses to use arrow-shaped notes and receptors, this is actually not optimal to gameplay, as the irregular shapes add extra clutter to the screen and the arrow directions do not serve any purpose. It is highly recommended to use a simple graphical noteskin, such as bars or orbs. It is also generally recommended to play with the notes scrolling downwards rather than upwards. Once again, there is a historical reason why most of the community plays with notes scrolling upwards, but many VSRGs are downwards scrolling only, so getting comfortable with this scroll direction allows you to easily transition to those other games, should you find yourself interested in trying them in the future. These things may not make a big difference early on, but they will very quickly become habit, so it is better to configure these early.

It might seem counter-intuitive at first, but making the notes faster actually improves your score. At first, it might take some time to get used to the reflex time required to hit the notes, but once it becomes comfortable, you'll notice a dramatic improvement in not only accuracy but reading ability. This is because the faster the notes move, the more they will be spread out. With fewer notes on the screen, it becomes easier to read the patterns. The faster speed will also increase the size of timing windows visually, since the same time now covers more distance. This allows for more accurate timing visually as well. That being said, once you have increased the speed of the notes to where you are comfortable, try to not fiddle with it too much, as it may impact your reading ability in the long run.

Timing is important for achieving a high score, but so is making sure you hit all of the notes. Always try your best to improve your reading abilities. If you can hit all the notes in an entire level consistently and fairly accurately, it's probably a bit too easy and you should try something harder. Push yourself within reason. Play songs that you can barely keep up, but not so difficult that you end up randomly mashing buttons and can barely pass.

Sometimes you can develop bad habits when playing the same levels over and over again. In these cases, it might be better to take a break and come back to it. You'll be surprised how much you can improve by simply not playing for a while. A break as long as a month can make a huge difference.