Well, I'm probably going to leave FFR soon, as I have AAA'd almost every song I'm capable of AAA'ing (have like 14 left), and am stuck with BF's on a lot of songs. So I'm retreating to Stepmania to practice for a few weeks so when I come back I can finally AAA some FGO's, and then I thought some other people would like to know how to increase their skill if they can't AAA/FC anything anymore, so I'm making a guide!!
NOTICE: This guide is not for complete n00bs, but for people who can clean FC standard + songs
Step 1: Playing methods
It is VERY important to choose the proper playing method for your hands and ability. Spread is by far the easiest way to get better at the game. If you haven't learned how to play spread, learn it. I suggest you have at least two ways of playing (I play spread and index). This is useful for different types of songs, ex. I couldn't AAA Klungklung until I switched to Index for it, but I could never AAA Choprite if I didn't play spread.
It's important to practice both methods, but everyone should try spread at least once. Once you've reached spread mastery (index would be the 2nd best method, but as I'm still learning I can't help with that as much), you can move on to the next step
Step 2: Reading Songs
Before you can practice your reaction time, combo, and PA, you have to be able to read the songs. My friend Stavie can easily AAA a challenging song stamina and reaction time wise, but he can't read dense stream, which throws him off greatly.
To start reading more difficult patterns, you want to practice on songs that you can beat without mashing, but can't FC with less than 10 boos. If you can FC with less than 10 boos it means you can probably read most of the song.
Once you've found the song, remove all autofail and try passing it without mashing. You can get as many misses as you want, but your goal is to reach as high a combo as you can without any boos. FC'ing comes next, so don't worry about misses as much as boo count. If you can read the notes you should be able to hit them without mashing. Songs for each level to practice on:
Standard - Tricky players: Try Thinking Different (D2)
Difficult - Very Difficult players: CIA Rave (D2)
Very Difficult - Challenging players: Over the Frail Dream
Very Challenging +: You can probably read everything under FGO. Go to SM to practice on really dense and hard songs
Step 3: Clean FC
I choose to concentrate on this before reaction timing, as I reference that with PA. The key to getting a clean FC is to be able to read all the notes in the song and have your fingers follow. It doesn't matter when you hit them as long as you hit them without boos. Try to get an FC with below 20 boos, then 15, then 10, until you get it clean. It's tricky at first, but if you can read the song, make sure you make your fingers follow. The biggest problem for a clean FC IMO is that when some people see a pattern they're used to or a really complicated one, they will just move their fingers randomly instead of following the notes (either due to memorizing the pattern, or having no idea what to do). This led me to mental block on songs like L9 when I was up and coming. READ THE NOTES CAREFULLY! Do not move randomly, as it will lead to mental blocks and you will just keep moving them like crazy when you hit that spot in the future. Read it and follow. Use the same songs to practice as the ones above, and once you can clean FC those try others of the same difficulty (check JX' R1 difficulties thread)
Step 4: Reaction Timing
If you want better PA, you need to increase your reaction timing. The key to this involves 3 things. One you need to know the perfect system works. I'm pretty sure you're all aware of frames, each note has a certain amount of frames you have to hit it with perfect/good/average timing. Most have 5 frames, but some have 4, 3, 2, etc. Although the avmiss is gone, framers still exist, do not forget that. The faster the bpm the more framers there will be and the less time you'll have to hit a perfect.
To work on this, simply raise your speed to the next level (ie .5x to .75x) and try songs two levels lower than where you usually play. It will be much faster the first time you play like this, but you aren't supposed to stay at that speed. Once you've sped it up, concentrate on avoiding averages, goods don't matter as you'll get a ****load if it's your first (or even 10th) time at a higher speed. But once you can hit all the notes with good timing or less, change the speed back to what you usually have and it will seem much easier to hit perfects. You'll not only hit more perfects, but it will literally feel like you have more time to hit the note, and more time to get perfects. This brings us to our next step, PA
Step 5: PA
PA stands for perfect average, and it's what you need to AAA songs. Before you can AAA, concentrate on getting an SDG (single digit good). To do this, you want to definitely go back to easier songs, but not easiest. I suggest two levels lower (ie VD down to Tricky). Work on getting your good count down, and remember, don't stick with one song forever, you aren't going for a AAA, you're going for a nice good count. PA takes all skill, while AAA takes both skill and luck. Concentrate on a variety of songs to prepare yourself with different patterns and speeds. Then slowly move up in the difficulties. This just takes practice, that's really all there is to it.
Step 6: The Dreaded AAA
To AAA a song, you need to hit all perfects. This is a lot of luck, as even the best of players have trouble AAA'ing songs they can easily Blackflag. If you can Blackflag a song (1 good), that's all the skill you need for a AAA. As I say, if you can BF it, you can AAA it. What makes the 1 good difference? Luck. No matter how good you are, human error is always factored in. Your hand might twitch unconsciously, brain signals might take a bit longer at one part, you have an itch somewhere, etc. When practicing AAA'ing, go to the absolute easiest songs in the game. Once you've AAA'd those 4, try up to easy difficulty. I suggest you go for the new songs (not the all blue note ones as they are off beat and actually difficult to PA ex. SSSG). Even if you can SDG VC songs, if you don't have a VD AAA, stick with trying to AAA every song in the standard - tricky range. Just cause' you can AAA one doesn't mean you can move up a difficulty. Keep practicing until you can consistently AAA or BF 25% of the songs at that difficulty, then move up. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO WHORE A SONG TILL YOU AAA. It's like a game of poker. It takes some skill but you need to keep playing and if you lose one, you should try again and eventually you'll get lucky. Since this is free, don't give up on a song until you've AAA'd it, unless you've played it 30+ times, then try another and come back to it the next day. If you're already able to AAA up to VC songs, but you can't AAA FMO's, it's time to switch to SM, which I'll get to very soon
Step 7: Pattern Practice
If you have made it this far, the only real problem you should have left before moving up to VC level is trouble with certain patterns. What separates a VC from a Challenging song or lower is not speed, but patterns (patterns + speed generally move it to FMO, and more speed makes it FGO). Patterns in VC songs tend to have trickier patterns less than faster speed (as Over the Frail Dream has much faster and longer stream than half of the VC songs but the patterns are easy). Patterns to work on:
Runningmen: This is when you have 1 note repeating in a jack while 2 others alternate around it. This requires you to work on inconsistent hand strength, unlike one handed trills. Instead of keeping up the one handed trill, you'll be switching from jacks to triplets with one hand, and that takes practice. Good songs to practice on are Classical Insanity (C) and Uber Rave v2 (P)
One handed Trills: Trills with one hand. This is my weakest point. It just takes a lot of stamina and hand strength. Practice makes perfect. Songs to practice on are Max Forever (S), Flight of the Bumblebees (C), and K8107 (S)
Bursts: Bursts are really fast notes (6 notes long max) in either a roll or some other pattern. Practice speed and make sure you read the pattern, because if it's not rolls or inverted rolls, you'll need to respond properly and their are no shortcuts. Songs to practice with bursts are For Your Love (D2), Choprite (Misc)
Roll walls: Roll walls are really fast (generally 32nd) rolls that go in the same direction (If they alternate or change, it's burst or 32nd stream like in Solar, ex your screwed). If they're in the same direction, the key is jump trilling. Jump trilling is when you use 12 34 jumps back and forth at an even (generally 16th) pace in order to hit the notes. The 32nd's should be so fast that if you hit them at the same time as the previous note, it will still count it as a perfect. Songs to practice on are Hajnal (Misc), Legendary Etude (C), Master Maid (P), For FFR (S)
Jumpstream: Streams with jumps in them. This just takes a lot of reading ability. Good luck. Songs to practice are Frozen (D2), EHHS (D2), Etude to a Dragon (D2)
Jacks: 1 note repeating. Takes extreme stamina, speed, and vibrations skill. As I can't vibrate I can't really help. All I can say is try using your arm or wrist instead of finger to hit long ones. Also keep your muscles stiff. Good songs to practice on are AIM Anthem (P) and Club (Misc)
If you've mastered all of this, you should be able to AAA at least one FMO song. But once you do that you must be wondering why this isn't helping you get any better. It's because it's not longer your skill, but your capabilities themselves that won't let you move on. This is when it's time to move on to SM for practice
Final Step: Advanced PA, Speed, and SM
SM is stepmania for those that don't know. SM has hard song packs that are so insane that FFR would never allow them anywhere near the engine. These songs are so outrageously difficult that most will never get above a C on their challenge or + difficulties. If you want to AAA FGO's, what you need to do is download SM, then download the hard song megapacks. You can find them at this link: http://izzy.bemaniso.ws/StepMania%20Songs/
Download the rars, open them and put them in your songs folder. Set the SM setting to "Fail at End of Song" and just keep playing it over and over. Even if you lose, keep trying as if you were alive. This will eventually make you better. Stepmania also has a much harder judging system, which will help FFR PA as well. When you've played SM for about a month come back to FFR and be amazed at what you can do
That's about it, thanks for listening, hope this helps!
NOTICE: This guide is not for complete n00bs, but for people who can clean FC standard + songs
Step 1: Playing methods
It is VERY important to choose the proper playing method for your hands and ability. Spread is by far the easiest way to get better at the game. If you haven't learned how to play spread, learn it. I suggest you have at least two ways of playing (I play spread and index). This is useful for different types of songs, ex. I couldn't AAA Klungklung until I switched to Index for it, but I could never AAA Choprite if I didn't play spread.
It's important to practice both methods, but everyone should try spread at least once. Once you've reached spread mastery (index would be the 2nd best method, but as I'm still learning I can't help with that as much), you can move on to the next step
Step 2: Reading Songs
Before you can practice your reaction time, combo, and PA, you have to be able to read the songs. My friend Stavie can easily AAA a challenging song stamina and reaction time wise, but he can't read dense stream, which throws him off greatly.
To start reading more difficult patterns, you want to practice on songs that you can beat without mashing, but can't FC with less than 10 boos. If you can FC with less than 10 boos it means you can probably read most of the song.
Once you've found the song, remove all autofail and try passing it without mashing. You can get as many misses as you want, but your goal is to reach as high a combo as you can without any boos. FC'ing comes next, so don't worry about misses as much as boo count. If you can read the notes you should be able to hit them without mashing. Songs for each level to practice on:
Standard - Tricky players: Try Thinking Different (D2)
Difficult - Very Difficult players: CIA Rave (D2)
Very Difficult - Challenging players: Over the Frail Dream
Very Challenging +: You can probably read everything under FGO. Go to SM to practice on really dense and hard songs
Step 3: Clean FC
I choose to concentrate on this before reaction timing, as I reference that with PA. The key to getting a clean FC is to be able to read all the notes in the song and have your fingers follow. It doesn't matter when you hit them as long as you hit them without boos. Try to get an FC with below 20 boos, then 15, then 10, until you get it clean. It's tricky at first, but if you can read the song, make sure you make your fingers follow. The biggest problem for a clean FC IMO is that when some people see a pattern they're used to or a really complicated one, they will just move their fingers randomly instead of following the notes (either due to memorizing the pattern, or having no idea what to do). This led me to mental block on songs like L9 when I was up and coming. READ THE NOTES CAREFULLY! Do not move randomly, as it will lead to mental blocks and you will just keep moving them like crazy when you hit that spot in the future. Read it and follow. Use the same songs to practice as the ones above, and once you can clean FC those try others of the same difficulty (check JX' R1 difficulties thread)
Step 4: Reaction Timing
If you want better PA, you need to increase your reaction timing. The key to this involves 3 things. One you need to know the perfect system works. I'm pretty sure you're all aware of frames, each note has a certain amount of frames you have to hit it with perfect/good/average timing. Most have 5 frames, but some have 4, 3, 2, etc. Although the avmiss is gone, framers still exist, do not forget that. The faster the bpm the more framers there will be and the less time you'll have to hit a perfect.
To work on this, simply raise your speed to the next level (ie .5x to .75x) and try songs two levels lower than where you usually play. It will be much faster the first time you play like this, but you aren't supposed to stay at that speed. Once you've sped it up, concentrate on avoiding averages, goods don't matter as you'll get a ****load if it's your first (or even 10th) time at a higher speed. But once you can hit all the notes with good timing or less, change the speed back to what you usually have and it will seem much easier to hit perfects. You'll not only hit more perfects, but it will literally feel like you have more time to hit the note, and more time to get perfects. This brings us to our next step, PA
Step 5: PA
PA stands for perfect average, and it's what you need to AAA songs. Before you can AAA, concentrate on getting an SDG (single digit good). To do this, you want to definitely go back to easier songs, but not easiest. I suggest two levels lower (ie VD down to Tricky). Work on getting your good count down, and remember, don't stick with one song forever, you aren't going for a AAA, you're going for a nice good count. PA takes all skill, while AAA takes both skill and luck. Concentrate on a variety of songs to prepare yourself with different patterns and speeds. Then slowly move up in the difficulties. This just takes practice, that's really all there is to it.
Step 6: The Dreaded AAA
To AAA a song, you need to hit all perfects. This is a lot of luck, as even the best of players have trouble AAA'ing songs they can easily Blackflag. If you can Blackflag a song (1 good), that's all the skill you need for a AAA. As I say, if you can BF it, you can AAA it. What makes the 1 good difference? Luck. No matter how good you are, human error is always factored in. Your hand might twitch unconsciously, brain signals might take a bit longer at one part, you have an itch somewhere, etc. When practicing AAA'ing, go to the absolute easiest songs in the game. Once you've AAA'd those 4, try up to easy difficulty. I suggest you go for the new songs (not the all blue note ones as they are off beat and actually difficult to PA ex. SSSG). Even if you can SDG VC songs, if you don't have a VD AAA, stick with trying to AAA every song in the standard - tricky range. Just cause' you can AAA one doesn't mean you can move up a difficulty. Keep practicing until you can consistently AAA or BF 25% of the songs at that difficulty, then move up. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO WHORE A SONG TILL YOU AAA. It's like a game of poker. It takes some skill but you need to keep playing and if you lose one, you should try again and eventually you'll get lucky. Since this is free, don't give up on a song until you've AAA'd it, unless you've played it 30+ times, then try another and come back to it the next day. If you're already able to AAA up to VC songs, but you can't AAA FMO's, it's time to switch to SM, which I'll get to very soon
Step 7: Pattern Practice
If you have made it this far, the only real problem you should have left before moving up to VC level is trouble with certain patterns. What separates a VC from a Challenging song or lower is not speed, but patterns (patterns + speed generally move it to FMO, and more speed makes it FGO). Patterns in VC songs tend to have trickier patterns less than faster speed (as Over the Frail Dream has much faster and longer stream than half of the VC songs but the patterns are easy). Patterns to work on:
Runningmen: This is when you have 1 note repeating in a jack while 2 others alternate around it. This requires you to work on inconsistent hand strength, unlike one handed trills. Instead of keeping up the one handed trill, you'll be switching from jacks to triplets with one hand, and that takes practice. Good songs to practice on are Classical Insanity (C) and Uber Rave v2 (P)
One handed Trills: Trills with one hand. This is my weakest point. It just takes a lot of stamina and hand strength. Practice makes perfect. Songs to practice on are Max Forever (S), Flight of the Bumblebees (C), and K8107 (S)
Bursts: Bursts are really fast notes (6 notes long max) in either a roll or some other pattern. Practice speed and make sure you read the pattern, because if it's not rolls or inverted rolls, you'll need to respond properly and their are no shortcuts. Songs to practice with bursts are For Your Love (D2), Choprite (Misc)
Roll walls: Roll walls are really fast (generally 32nd) rolls that go in the same direction (If they alternate or change, it's burst or 32nd stream like in Solar, ex your screwed). If they're in the same direction, the key is jump trilling. Jump trilling is when you use 12 34 jumps back and forth at an even (generally 16th) pace in order to hit the notes. The 32nd's should be so fast that if you hit them at the same time as the previous note, it will still count it as a perfect. Songs to practice on are Hajnal (Misc), Legendary Etude (C), Master Maid (P), For FFR (S)
Jumpstream: Streams with jumps in them. This just takes a lot of reading ability. Good luck. Songs to practice are Frozen (D2), EHHS (D2), Etude to a Dragon (D2)
Jacks: 1 note repeating. Takes extreme stamina, speed, and vibrations skill. As I can't vibrate I can't really help. All I can say is try using your arm or wrist instead of finger to hit long ones. Also keep your muscles stiff. Good songs to practice on are AIM Anthem (P) and Club (Misc)
If you've mastered all of this, you should be able to AAA at least one FMO song. But once you do that you must be wondering why this isn't helping you get any better. It's because it's not longer your skill, but your capabilities themselves that won't let you move on. This is when it's time to move on to SM for practice
Final Step: Advanced PA, Speed, and SM
SM is stepmania for those that don't know. SM has hard song packs that are so insane that FFR would never allow them anywhere near the engine. These songs are so outrageously difficult that most will never get above a C on their challenge or + difficulties. If you want to AAA FGO's, what you need to do is download SM, then download the hard song megapacks. You can find them at this link: http://izzy.bemaniso.ws/StepMania%20Songs/
Download the rars, open them and put them in your songs folder. Set the SM setting to "Fail at End of Song" and just keep playing it over and over. Even if you lose, keep trying as if you were alive. This will eventually make you better. Stepmania also has a much harder judging system, which will help FFR PA as well. When you've played SM for about a month come back to FFR and be amazed at what you can do
That's about it, thanks for listening, hope this helps!
![[TeRa]](data:image/svg+xml;base64,CgkJCTxzdmcgeG1sbnM9J2h0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDAvc3ZnJyB2aWV3Qm94PScwIDAgNTAgNTAnPgoJCQkJPHJlY3Qgd2lkdGg9JzEwMCUnIGhlaWdodD0nMTAwJScgZmlsbD0nIzQzZDdiYScgLz4KCQkJCTx0ZXh0IHg9JzUwJScgeT0nNTAlJyBmaWxsPSd3aGl0ZScgZm9udC13ZWlnaHQ9J2JvbGQnIGZvbnQtZmFtaWx5PSdBcmlhbCcgZm9udC1zaXplPSczMDAlJyBkb21pbmFudC1iYXNlbGluZT0nY2VudHJhbCcgdGV4dC1hbmNob3I9J21pZGRsZSc+WzwvdGV4dD4KCQkJPC9zdmc+CgkJ "[TeRa]")
Never played sm in my life. Lol I have AAA'd one fmo song, hopefully I'll keep improving
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