Osu has become a very popular game among gamers from all different types of genres.
Although this is a musical focused game it is popular among First Person Shooter and Third Person Shooter players in games such as CS:GO or Fortnite.
Osu is an extremely intensive game which attracts a lot of viewers to players that are incredibly skilled. So is Osu a good aim trainer?
Some players use a touch tablet for better control but you can use a mouse and keyboard as well.
Since playing Osu with a mouse is quite difficult it can definitely improve some aspects of your aim.
Most of these benefits can be attributed to the games high skill cap. Osu is not just a musical game, it demands perfect hand eye coordination and lightning fast reaction time.
Just because this game is 2D and doesn’t look like a normal FPS world, doesn’t mean it can’t improve your aim.
Table of Contents
What Is Osu?
Osu is a 2D musical anime game where players have to click circles that appear to the beat of a chosen music track.
Different music has different speeds which the circles appear and some parts of music require different actions like a ball to be dragged back and forth.
The game also allows users to create their own maps dedicated to their favorite songs and share it with their friends.
Players that really get into Osu usually have a touch pad and a touch pen to tap the circles faster and easier. However, most players just use a regular computer mouse.
Osu is very centered around anime and you will often see anime characters in the background or hear anime voices while you are playing. A big slice of Osu’s popularity can be largely attributed to catering to this audience.
Osu can be a good aim trainer, but there are better options, Read my article on a comparison between the two most popular aim trainers: Aimlab and Kovaak’s here.
What Is Aiming?
First of all, what is aiming, what are the fundamentals and how can it be broken down?
Aiming is the moving of the computer mouse to move a crosshair onto a target within a game.
Every inch that you move your mouse directly correlates to a certain amount of movement within the game, this depends on your sensitivity, DPI and windows sensitivity.
The higher you have any of these three settings, the more your in game character will look in a certain direction in correlation to the moving of the mouse.
The lower you have any of these settings, the lesser your character will look around in a certain direction.
What Are The Fundamental Skills Of Aiming?
Target switching: This is the ability to recognise a target and then adjust the crosshair onto the target’s head from any place on the screen. First your body has to recognise the target.
Then you have to move your mouse the exact distance on the mousepad to correlate perfectly in game and land on the opponent’s head.
Tracking: Tracking is essentially keeping the crosshair on a target accurately while it is moving or while you are moving.
Targets are not always still, in this case you have to first recognize the target, move your crosshair onto the target and finally track the moving target across your screen.
This will require you to move the mouse the correct distance at the correct speed to correlate with the moving target in game.
Flicking: This is the skill required to see a target on your screen, quickly react and flick your crosshair from it’s initial position on the screen to the target as fast as possible and with complete accuracy.
Spraying: The ability to control the recoil of a weapon spray pattern and manipulate it onto a target accurately.
Crosshair placement: This is when you correctly place the crosshair to ensure the target will step into it.
This can either be placing your crosshair next to a corner where an enemy will appear or placing it beside a strafing enemy and cause them to move back into your crosshair.
If you want to train these skills, read this article
All of these skills combine together to aim at different targets in different situations.
There are macro and micro adjustments which are big or small adjustments of the crosshair onto a target.
Different lengths of mouse movement will require you to switch between your wrist or arm aiming.
Wrist aiming is only having the base of your palm pivoting while arm aiming is pivoting from your elbow or shoulder.
Is Osu A Good Aim Trainer then?
Target recognition speed: Osu is a great tool for target recognition speed which is the core element of which all aiming stems from.
This is because the main objective of Osu is to click circles that randomly appear within a certain amount of time otherwise you lose points.
This directly translates into the initial point of aiming in any game.
Reaction time: With more difficulty levels of Osu comes faster music and lower amounts of time to react.
When circles are appearing consecutively and quickly disappearing you have to react fast to catch them all.
This will improve your reaction time. Reaction time has been proven to be trained as a skill.
Eye tracking: This skill is extremely crucial to having effective aiming. Aiming is not only moving the mouse onto a target, but it is also tracking the target sufficiently with your eyes to be able to make those correct adjustments.
Osu will force you to track multiple circles that are speeding across your screen.
Wrist control: To have good aim requires good control of the wrist and all the tendons to make micro adjustments to targets.
Pixel precision is required in aim and skill based games, so it is imperative that you train your ability to control your wrist and pivot onto different targets.
Focus: This factor is what drives target recognition speed and reaction time.
If you are focused on the game you will recognise and react to targets faster which can mean all the difference in your aim.
If you react slower than your opponent you won’t get to use your aim. Good aim is also made up of speed.
The faster your aim is the more efficient it can be especially if you have precision mixed with speed.
All of these benefits presented make a good argument that Osu is a great warmup tool for any game and can be an aim trainer that fills in the gaps of other aim trainers.
Osu focuses more on the cognitive building blocks of aim rather than the mechanical ones which can make all the difference.
Why It Doesn’t Translate Mechanically
It is important to take into consideration that mechanical aspects of Osu can’t directly translate to other games because of one particular reason.Osu is 2D while most games are 3D.
This is one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to translating aiming skill across games. Since Osu is in 2D it is impossible to directly translate the exact sensitivity over to a 3D game.
Osu has been used as a warmup tool by many professional valorant gamers such as Tenz when he’s livestreaming on Twitch.
He frequently plays this musical game before he plays FPS games, it is important to note that he uses Osu as an addition to other aim trainers.
It has also been mentioned by NInja in his book Get Good: My Ultimate Guide to Gaming
There have been several professional gamers that play Osu such as “Effect” from Korea and Mongraal who plays Fortnite.
How To Get Osu, Set It Up And Play
Step 1: Go to Osu’s official website to download the game for Free. https://osu.ppy.sh/home/download
Then open the installer.
Step 2: Next create an account within the game.
The game comes with a few demo beat maps that you can play through without an account. If you want to play more beatmaps you have to create an account.
Step 3: download more beatmaps if you like.
The link to the beatmaps listing page on the official website can be found here: https://osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets
There are also beatmap packs
You can download and open beatmap files with Osu.
Conclusion
Finally, is Osu a good aim trainer really?
Perhaps it can be more of an aim trainer assistant than an aim trainer itself.
Osu makes a great warmup game to play before playing any competitive games, especially shooters.
Over time Osu can increase cognitive skills that are required for aiming in most games. If used as a warmup tool, Osu will increase your focus and because of it’s fast pace it will make normal games feel slow.
Although this is a 2D game there are many areas that it can help with in regards to your aim. This is because aim is not just made up of mechanical skill but
Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful day, also don’t forget to check out my gaming gear list to see my favorite equipment that has helped me improve my aim.
