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Finesse?

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Total Posts
7
aceats
2 posts
Joined August 2025
Topic Starter
aceats
o/ hello osu forum people

This is my first post, so I apologize if this question has already been answered.

I'm wondering, aside from hitting the circles on time and on the beat, is there such a thing as "finesse" in osu? Specifically, I mean the idea of tapping the minimum number of keypresses needed for any given beatmap.

I notice with more complex rhythm maps I tend to mash my keys and pray to god, so I thought it would be interesting to hear what you all think. Do you think mashing more keys than needed is fine as long as you hit the notes on time? Do you think top players subconsciously practice finesse? Do you think finesse is important? What are your strategies if you do (or dont) practice finesse?

Just some thoughts I wanted to put out there, I would be interested to know what you all think!!!
Last edited by aceats , edited 1 time in total.
yellowbadbeast
184 posts
Joined April 2021
yellowbadbeast
No, not really. If you're mashing, you're unlikely to get good accuracy anyways, so finesse as a metric would be kind of redundant.
Pasi_
292 posts
Joined July 2020
Pasi_

aceats wrote:

I'm wondering, aside from hitting the circles on time and on the beat, is there such a thing as "finesse" in osu? Specifically, I mean the idea of tapping the minimum number of keypresses needed for any given beatmap.
[...]
Do you think finesse is important?
"finesse" isn't an actual game mechanic in osu, but mashing will still lower your accuracy and make you less consistent, so yes i do think it's important.

aceats wrote:

Do you think mashing more keys than needed is fine as long as you hit the notes on time?
i think it's a bad habit, not just because it lowers your acc, but primarily because it allows you to somewhat bypass reading the map and turning it into the correct finger movements, which is kind of what the game revolves around, so i feel like it'd be harmful in the long run.
Last edited by Pasi_ , edited 1 time in total.
aceats
2 posts
Joined August 2025
Topic Starter
aceats

Pasi_ wrote:

"finesse" isn't an actual game mechanic in osu, but mashing will still lower your accuracy and make you less consistent, so yes i do think it's important.
Yes, "finesse" is a term I took from Tetris. It refers to the ability reduce your keypresses per piece placed. Basically what I said in my original post about tapping the minimum number of keypresses needed for any given beatmap. This is outside G&R, but thinking about it, wouldn't be kinda cool for osu to implement and show "finesse errors" as a metric? It could show at which points in the map you were mashing more than you needed to, helping overcome the issues with mashing you replied with.

Pasi_ wrote:

i think it's a bad habit, not just because it lowers your acc, but primarily because it allows you to somewhat bypass reading the map and turning it into the correct finger movements, which is kind of what the game revolves around, so i feel like it'd be harmful in the long run.
Definitely agree, mashing is a bad habit I sometimes face and I thought of finesse as a solution to approach that. (we've come back full circle). I'm still wondering how to stop mashing though... Any tips and tricks from anyone reading? Would be appreciated!
Mugenq
251 posts
Joined January 2023
Mugenq
there's aim finesse for sure, and then maybe tapping finesse as in.... how clean you tap? hard to say because almost any play style is viable, but I guess ninerik's or maybe some finger control goat tapping? cookieze for example is very good at finger control
Naiad
1,105 posts
Joined May 2019
Naiad
I get so many extra presses, often at the end of streams ending in a slider etc, but I don't think it limits me in any way. I don't think too many people care about their keypress count either, if they do it's that they want them to be perfectly equal (to confirm that they're full alting).

I think that generally good players only get extra presses on certain patterns, and generally pretty consistently there and nowhere else. A lot of them don't get a significant number ever unless they're playing a map significantly above their skillcap.
Mugenq
251 posts
Joined January 2023
Mugenq
i think there's a meme video of whitecat getting random taps between really fast jumps just slightly before the jumps, almost looks like he is galloping each note on 1-2 jumps
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