This is directed more towards players at around my rank or about 100-200k lower (so top 700K or better).

Notes on the choices, or at least my interpretations:
Never - I will never ever go for SS's. Either I think they're stupid or annoying to grind for, or I only care about S-ranks/FCs.
Maybe 1-2* maps - I only care to SS the easier difficulties, whether no-mod or with any combination up to 4-mod. Trying to SS anything higher is more trouble than it's worth.
Only my favorites - If I really really like the song, or have a really good feel for the rhythm of the song, I'll go for an SS. Otherwise, I won't bother.
Sometimes - I'll try to get an SS every so often, but only occasionally. I might even get lucky with one, but I'm not actively attempting them
Usually - I try to go for SS's about 50-60% of the time.
Frequently - I always at least attempt to SS songs whenever I play or grind them. However, I can settle for having some A/S ranks if I'm just not able to get that perfect accuracy.
Whenever I can - I always go for SS ranks, but unlike SS or nothing I'm okay with having non-SS ranks in my top plays (or plays in general)
SS or Nothing - Every play must be an attempt at an SS play, and I will not complete a song unless I get an SS. If I accidentally complete a song without an SS, I will attempt to make it an SS play whenever possible/when my skill catches up to the difficulty.


As a couple of follow-up questions:
1.) Why did you pick the option you did?
2.) Which option would you recommend to other players, whether they're veterans or complete newbies?


for me:
1.) I see the best possible play on any one song as an SS (or Silver SS, technically), so I want to strive for that whenever possible. I do sometimes accidentally let songs finish without 100% accuracy (usually when I don't spot the ending coming in time to quick restart or hit escape), but I always work toward SS-ing that song so I keep 100% accuracy. It just makes logical sense to me that you should be aiming for this rank whenever possibl.

Although, I also understand that when you're improving you can't always reach that rank at your current skill and have to reach a higher difficulty rating before coming back to an easier rating to SS those. I personally just want to go for SS's only so my skill is kinda capped at what I can SS.

2.) I would honestly not recommend complete newbies (whether to rhythm games in general or Osu in particular) go for SS ranks at the start. What's more important at that stage is getting a feel for the game, enjoying playing along to songs you like, and learning the fundamentals of the game. I already have a decade of playing rhythm games before Osu (Guitar Hero/Rock Band), so even when I first started I had enough experience to start going for SS's right away, but not everyone is the same way. I'd say if they're playing in the mid to upper 2* range, I'd suggest going for SS ranks.

For people who can competently play between about the 4*-7* range (regardless of what mods you use, if any), I know it's kinda your personal preference as to whether or not you go for SS's or S's or just high acc plays, but it just makes more sense to aim for the highest accuracy possible. It's a rhythm game. YOu're kinda supposed to go for what denotes the best possible adherence to the game's highest-rated accuracy metric: For Stepmania, it's Marvelous; for GH/RB, it's 100% FCs; and for Osu, it's 100% accuracy SS ranks. This applies to any mod combination or using no mods at all, although personally I completely understand if nobody wants to go for SS ranks with the FL mod.

Once you start getting into upper 7* ranks and higher where some songs don't even have FC's yet, then I understand not going super hard for SS ranks. You kinda need to have FC's first as a stepping stone (unless you're rrtyui playing The Big Black, then you skip that step entirely and go straight to an SS rank), maybe just to prove the song is FC-able in the first place. I mean, maybe if the best 100-200 plays of a song at this level have S-rank FCs, then there could maybe be some push to go for an SS rank, but that's about it.

im a mania player, but most things i say here should be applicable to std too. please take this with a grain of salt:

Why did you pick the option you did?

i picked "frequently" for a couple of reasons; for one, lately i have had very little time to pursue the game physically, because of school and tiredness atributed to school. because of this, i've been playing acc much more often because it decreases the physicallity needed (acc needs a lot of physicallity but not as much warmup for me). i also play acc for warmup sometimes, and also when i just generally want to improve this skillset

Which option would you recommend to other players, whether they're veterans or complete newbies?

you should have a balance between playing for acc and pushing out of your physical comfort zone in your play. it depends on what you want to achieve in the game; if you're happy with your physical level but unhappy with your acc than you should play more acc than anything else imo, but you still need to keep a good balance. i didn't keep this balance and was as a result not able to improve whatsoever for the past 6 months due to me ignoring stamina/speed etc to pursue acc

pretty easy to explain why I choose to FC songs "I really like/have a good feel for".

Voidedosu wrote:

Why did you pick the option you did?

Idk, I have never thought about actually setting goals for SS'ing maps at my skill level. I think it's the most reasonable and healthy rationale to have if you want to set SS ranks.

Voidedosu wrote:

Which option would you recommend to other players, whether they're veterans or complete newbies?

Easily the response I vouched for because it is the easiest to accommodate your goals around regardless of your skill level or commitment to this game. Having a favourite map is enough of a justification to SS it & it doesn't hurt to get perfect accuracy on a map you 100% have a feel for.

Voted Never,
but not with your interpretation of it, i'm not considering SSing annoying or stupid,
i just don't care about getting SS or not, but that don't mean i'll not try to get good acc.
My SS are unintentional.

i dont really aim for an SS on maps i play, they usually just happen

I always want to go for an SS

but it never happened so...

I usually just aim for normal S ranks (or silver if I'm playing FL), SS ranks for me usually happen randomly, but if I really like a song I'll try and go for an SS
And besides every time I go for SS ranks I usually get random 100s
But I really do love players like sleepteiner and SS or Quit, crazy players who honestly are underrated

I chose “Whenever I can” because one of my favorite things to do is go for silver ss ranks on 4 and 5* maps. I think it’s super satisfying to get an ss.

Juuuuuuuuul wrote:

Voted Never,
but not with your interpretation of it, i'm not considering SSing annoying or stupid,
i just don't care about getting SS or not, but that don't mean i'll not try to get good acc.
My SS are unintentional.

That is another interpretation, yeah. Forgot about that.

MrSparklepants wrote:

I usually just aim for normal S ranks (or silver if I'm playing FL), SS ranks for me usually happen randomly, but if I really like a song I'll try and go for an SS
And besides every time I go for SS ranks I usually get random 100s
But I really do love players like sleepteiner and SS or Quit, crazy players who honestly are underrated

Random-ass 100's have been my bane this entire time (lookin' at you, Alfakyun's KING)

I wasn't aware there was someone as gung-ho about SS's as SS or Quit, but I will say I adopted the SS or nothing mindset before I heard about SSoQ. Knowing others exist is kind of a good boost to staying with that.

nature wrote:

I chose “Whenever I can” because one of my favorite things to do is go for silver ss ranks on 4 and 5* maps. I think it’s super satisfying to get an ss.

Agreed. The nerves and the annoying slips and 100s and over/undershots are annoying, but seeing that SS (or silver SS) often makes up for it.

Really depends on your goals but I think going for SS is kind of a waste of time if you're trying to improve at the game.

Almost wrote:

Really depends on your goals but I think going for SS is kind of a waste of time if you're trying to improve at the game.

I'm actually rather curious as to what the arguments are for that line of thinking. I've understood that you are probably better off just going for S-ranks or so in the long run, especially if you want to get up to playing even 6*+ maps, but I'm not aware of any distinct points in that regard. Or even for arguing that it'd be a waste.

Voidedosu wrote:

Almost wrote:

Really depends on your goals but I think going for SS is kind of a waste of time if you're trying to improve at the game.

I'm actually rather curious as to what the arguments are for that line of thinking. I've understood that you are probably better off just going for S-ranks or so in the long run, especially if you want to get up to playing even 6*+ maps, but I'm not aware of any distinct points in that regard. Or even for arguing that it'd be a waste.

When you go for SS, it's going to be on maps you can FC easily or at least relatively easily for a start (unless you're a complete psychopath that is) so that means most of the time you're going to be playing maps that aren't really challenging for you. To top that off, the accuracy component is generally not going to be that challenging either since you're really only getting a couple random 100s here and there on those same maps with a lot of those being caused by nerves. Though I have personally gone for SS on maps that I have started with 97%ish accuracy but those are usually rare and are a particular type of map that requires you to play it multiple times to learn for high accuracy.

An old top player who had the best accuracy of his time (thelewa) even mentioned that going for SS won't maximize your accuracy training too since you're better off just finding maps that are more difficult to get accuracy on. You can also look at the leaderboards, how many of the top players are actually going for SS? Very few. And even the top players who have a lot of SS scores have significantly more S scores. This isn't even mentioning that most of those SS scores are probably on maps that didn't even challenge them.

Your polls has too many options

As an example, I did this so I never had to play the map again (until 3 mod becomes doable)

Almost wrote:

Voidedosu wrote:

Almost wrote:

Really depends on your goals but I think going for SS is kind of a waste of time if you're trying to improve at the game.

I'm actually rather curious as to what the arguments are for that line of thinking. I've understood that you are probably better off just going for S-ranks or so in the long run, especially if you want to get up to playing even 6*+ maps, but I'm not aware of any distinct points in that regard. Or even for arguing that it'd be a waste.

When you go for SS, it's going to be on maps you can FC easily or at least relatively easily for a start (unless you're a complete psychopath that is) so that means most of the time you're going to be playing maps that aren't really challenging for you. To top that off, the accuracy component is generally not going to be that challenging either since you're really only getting a couple random 100s here and there on those same maps with a lot of those being caused by nerves. Though I have personally gone for SS on maps that I have started with 97%ish accuracy but those are usually rare and are a particular type of map that requires you to play it multiple times to learn for high accuracy.

An old top player who had the best accuracy of his time (thelewa) even mentioned that going for SS won't maximize your accuracy training too since you're better off just finding maps that are more difficult to get accuracy on. You can also look at the leaderboards, how many of the top players are actually going for SS? Very few. And even the top players who have a lot of SS scores have significantly more S scores. This isn't even mentioning that most of those SS scores are probably on maps that didn't even challenge them.

I must be slightly psychotic then because my skill level is around 3.3-3.4* yet I do tend to play maps at least .2 above that rating. ANd unless I have absolutely no idea what is going on or it's genuinely too out of my skill range to be done, I only have troubles with random 100's/sliderbreaks/missed slider ends.

Honestly, even with what I said initially, I generally figured that most high-level players just didn't want to grind further than a S-rank/FC. Then again, I'm more like a weirdo to you guys because I'd rather move slowly with lots of SS's than move quickly with very few. I've considered something like playing above my level to be better and then SS-ing them later on as my skill improves, but then I think about not having 100% accuracy and I kinda don't like losing that novelty.

Again, I'm a weirdo compared to the general Osu population. Most of the time even I would advise people to not obsess (for lack of a better word) over that.

J_8579 wrote:

Your polls has too many options

And "Do you want to/like to SS? Y/N" is nowhere near enough imo. Some people like SS's but don't go for them all the time and some do.