Though skins aren't really too important for standard play, having a good skin makes playing EZ mod a lot easier. There are really only 2 essential things that are needed to be able play EZ mod optimally. That is easy to read numbers and contrasting combo colours.

By far the most important feature is easy to read numbers. Though it is possible to play EZ without numbers, it is just a million times harder. Not only are numbers needed, but having a clear and easy to read font is necessary as well to ensure quick counting without having to decipher heiroglyphs.

Having contrasting combo colours is also a necessity especially since you are usually given multiple different combos at the same time. If you had no colours or no differing colours, you will find it almost impossible to read especially at higher levels. What you should aim to do is memorize your combo colour order though if you are lazy like me, it isn't too much of a problem if you don't but it just makes things easier. To change the combo colours of your skin, locate the "skin.ini" file located in your skin's folder and find the combo colour part and change the colours like so. Personally, I play with 100% dim so I like to use bright colours. These are the colours I use:

255,110,110 | 86,255,86 | 170,170,255 | 255,103,255 | 255,255,117

In terms of other skinning, I would highly recommend hiding 300s because this just adds to the clustering and have a basic spinner without much graphics to make circles after spinners easier. Also remove anything likely to distract you like combo bursts because distractions tend to cause combo breaks (at least for me anyway). To remove or hide these things, just put in a blank image (found here) and rename it to what the element is called. For example, to hide the 300 element, just rename the blank to "hit300" and add it to your skin folder and do this for all elements you would like to hide/remove. I will not bother linking the skin I use because my skin is apparently really bad for EZ mod according to Happyjon anyway. If you are looking for a good skin to start off with I made a basic one here. And that is pretty much it for skinning I think.

Here is an example of a bad skin vs a good skin.

Though you may think I will be linking a bunch of maps for you all to play, that will not be the case because everyone starts EZ mod at differing levels. Personally, I was able to get into the easy "insanes" off the bat but I know many players who had to start off by playing hards. I would recommend playing maps that are low bpm to start off with. Higher bpm maps tend to be harder to read. Just experiment with maps that you have and just play things that you feel aren't too difficult to read and be patient because getting frustrated will only make you play worse. Be wary that star rating is not a good way of determining the difficulty of a map with EZ as maps that maps with lots of streams tend to be over rated and likewise, maps that are difficult to read are under rated. Just remember that memorizing things is not always a bad things as well. Also, playing off hit circles is generally the way to go because it is easy to mistime things. Probably the biggest thing you should do when playing EZ is having a good focus.

The question that I always had when I started EZ was "what am I supposed to be doing with my eyes?" What I do with my eyes, is I look directly at the next circle I am supposed to hit and look at everything else through my periphery. The reason I do this is because I noticed that I generally tend to miss if I don't look at the circle directly or let my eyes wander. Even though the circle size is really large, I find it is easy to get distracted by other circles and miss (which is something you see even at higher ARs). Periphery-wise, I tend not to concentrate on memorizing circles as they appear but it all happens automatically. As you improve at EZ, you will find it a lot easier to process the information in your periphery and you will eventually be able to read even high density overlaps which you would think would require memorization.

So in this part of the guide, I will detail what I do for: singles in a line, squares and other geometric shapes, stars and streams.

Singles in a line is not a pattern that most people tend to think of as difficult. Even at high ARs, many newer players find it difficult to play these sequences. Though what I do for singles in a line is not any different from how I believe they should be done in standard play. It is important to look at each individual circle and move your cursor and tap appropriately. These require particular attention especially in EZ as it is easy to 'skip' circles entirely.

Ah.. squares, by far my favourite pattern. Squares are a pattern that many players consider as difficult. EZ mod is actually pretty good at teaching how to play squares simply by improving your reading of them. To play squares in EZ (and also in standard play) is to look at each circle individually and imagine it is just straight lines rather than a square. There is a guide for this you can find here. This goes for other geometric shapes.

Stars are not really a difficult pattern in standard play and can be a lot harder in EZ because of the higher density and sometimes overlaps. These just require practice and improvement in peripheral reading.

Finally we get streams. Streams may look really daunting, but they are pretty easy to play on EZ because it is so much easier to aim. Though they are easier to aim, they are also easier to break on if you get distracted. Personally, I read them by following the part of the stream I am going to be playing. Compared to other patterns that you can get in EZ, streams are probably the easiest.

Playing EZ with other mods is a great way to spice things up a bit. Here I will cover HD, DT and HT.

Hidden is extremely difficult with EZ mod and I do not recommend playing it until you are more comfortable with EZ. The way I play it is by focusing between followpoints of where I am going to hit. That's is all I can give you about this topic.

EZ with DT is a pretty good way to start especially if you aren't very good with the AR. AR8 and 9 maps with EZ and DT ends up with an AR a bit higher than 7 so it makes transitioning to the AR smoother. Just make sure you play low bpm maps if you do this otherwise it will be too hard.

HT is a pretty decent mod for learning new maps or playing maps that are too fast for your fingers. HT makes reading a bit easier by giving you more time to process the patterns.