| Ranked Score: | 235,705,367,405 | |
| Play Count: | 103,268 | |
| Play Time: | 2,542h | |
| Max Combo: | 32,767x | |
| Total Hits: | 36,500,562 | |
| Hits x Play: | 353 | |
| Replays Watched: | 10,976 |
SS+
1,124
SS
1,006
S+
2,166
S
1,058
A
5,771
History
About
Welcome to my profile!
I've been learning 4 Key for 3+ months and its been great. I'm not switching back to 2 Key.
📓 Thoughts on 4 Key 📓
I switched to playing with 4 keys around the middle of February 2026, so as of the time of writing this, I've been playing 4 Key for around 3 months, and I've learned a lot during that time. I'm not the best 4 Key player and most 4 Key players have been playing it for longer than I have, but I've had a lot of my own personal thoughts about 4 Key that I want to put down somewhere so that if anyone is curious, I have somewhere to point them to.
The benefits of 4 Key
If you've looked into 4 Key at all, you probably already know that the main benefit of 4 Key is massively increased speed and stamina as a result of distributing the tapping strain across 4 fingers instead of only 2. Personally, I can attest to this as even though I would say that I was a decently fast player with 2 keys, I easily surpassed my peak 2 Key speed and stamina on 4 Key within 1-2 months. If I'm being completely honest, I don't think I would've been able to achieve the same level of speed and stamina I have on 4 Key using only 2 keys.
Another huge benefit of 4 Key is that pushing speed and stamina doesn't really cause any physical strain in the same way that playing on 2 Key does. When pushing those skillsets on 2 Key, it can be normal for your forearm or hand to strain and burn, but this has never happened to me on 4 Key, even when playing BPMs in excess of 300. For example, a BPM like 300 is only really 150 BPM streaming, just across 4 keys instead of 2, and because of this, each individual finger isn't moving fast enough to cause any real physical strain. In the same way a 2 Key player probably wouldn't feel any physical strain playing 175 BPM, a 4 Key player probably wouldn't feel any physical strain playing 350 BPM. Personally, this makes pushing speed and stamina much more enjoyable on 4 Key than on 2 Key.
The drawbacks of 4 Key
4 Key players have to deal with a mechanic called Keylock. Basically, osu! standard actually only has two distinct inputs for tapping, which are K1 and K2. If you play 4 Key, this means that 2 of your keys will be bound to K1 and 2 of your keys will be bound to K2. In my case, I have A and D bound to K1 and S and Space bound to K2. If I am holding down A and try to press D, it will do nothing because I am still technically holding down K1. The same is true vice versa and S and Space also suffer from the same issue. This makes 4 Key considerably harder and requires you to release your keys almost immediately, especially when playing high BPM.
In my experience, getting good accuracy with 4 Key is dramatically harder than 2 Key. A BPM like 180 on 2 Key feels like 90 BPM on 4 Key, which is extremely difficult to play with good accuracy. Even high BPM is harder to acc on 4 Key because finger control in general is much harder as well. For every pattern, you have 4 potential starting fingers and certain patterns like repeating triples and doubles are especially brutal on 4 Key. I don't think it is impossible to play low BPM or get good accuracy on 4 Key by any means, but it almost certainly will take more time to develop the necessary finger control on 4 Key than on 2 Key.
Is 4 Key generally viable?
While there are some skillsets like low BPM streams that are substantially harder on 4 Key than on 2 Key, I do genuinely believe that 4 Key is a viable playstyle and isn't just a gimmick. A lot of it isn't explored yet since the number of 4 Key players is so small, and it's also an instance of selection bias since most people who switch to 4 Key are interested in speed and stamina so they end up neglecting other skillsets. However, I absolutely think high accuracy plays on low BPM streams and other difficult skillsets are possible on 4 Key given enough practice.
Do I think learning 4 Key was worth it?
I'm only 3 months into learning 4 Key, but I've already decided that I will stick with it going forward and that I am permanently done with 2 Key. While it does have drawbacks, there's no reason to believe that they aren't surmountable with enough time and practice. Keylock is much less of an issue for me than it was when I was just starting out, and my accuracy has also improved a lot as well. The benefits of 4 Key are very real and my newfound speed and stamina has given me so much motivation to play the game and see how far I can push 4 Key. The first week or two was definitely hard, but now, the game is so much more fun on 4 Key than if I was still playing 2 Key.
Who should switch to 4 Key?
4 Key definitely isn't for everyone so here's some criteria I would recommend. First, you need to be committed to the game and be willing to play actively for at least 6-12 months. If you play very little or only play the game on-and-off, it will be hard for you to learn 4 Key because it requires a lot of playtime and practice. You should also expect that it will take several months to return to your prior skill level and that you will have to play easier maps for a while. Second, I think you should be interested in playing speed and stamina if you want to learn 4 Key. Learning 4 Key just to not play any speed or stamina is a bit of a waste and in that case, I would recommend sticking with 2 Key. Third, the less speed and stamina you have on 2 Key, the more I would recommend learning 4 Key. If you're someone who is "speedcapped" and can't tap very fast, you have the most to gain from learning 4 Key and I would recommend it a lot. If you're already satisfied with your current speed and stamina on 2 Key, then it might not be worth it. That being said, even if you're already fast, 4 Key is still potentially an option if you want even more speed.
Useful 4 Key tips
On 4 Key, I found it very helpful to have my Rapid Trigger Release set to very sensitive settings, because it causes you to release your keys faster, which helps a lot with mitigating Keylock. In case you don't know, using DKS, Snap Tap, or a macro to bypass Keylock is bannable so don't do it.
Every time I play, I have a custom KeyOverlay made by mojobojo open on my second monitor which shows when you tap out of order or Keylock and which keys are causing that to happen. It's extremely useful to see if you're Keylocking and if so, which keys are causing it so that you can adjust your technique to try to prevent it from happening. If you don't have a second monitor, you can use 120-cell's 4 Key Mistake Watcher that logs and optionally makes a sound when you tap out of order or Keylock. You can find both of these in #tools-and-resources in the 4 Key Discord Server (linked above).
Should 4 Key be allowed?
Multi-key streaming and 3/4 Key have always been allowed and this has been confirmed by peppy on multiple occasions. 4 Key itself has native support on osu!lazer without any third-party tools, and if you're still on osu!stable, you can use AutoHotkey to achieve the same thing without getting banned. I think many of the people who think 4 Key shouldn't be allowed are unaware of how difficult it is and don't know about its significant drawbacks. Some people say that the game was designed with 2 inputs in mind, but the KeyOverlay on osu!stable has always had K1, K2, M1, and M2 since 2013. That being said, the game still only allows 2 distinct inputs, and 4 Key players abide by this restriction and have to deal with Keylock as a result. I think 4 Key is actually very balanced in the grand scheme of things, as while it can boost your speed and stamina, finger control and accuracy are dramatically harder.
Banning 4 Key isn't even practical either, since depending on the AutoHotkey script or if the play was set on osu!lazer, replays don't have the information that makes it possible to detect if a play was set using 4 Key, as the KeyOverlay looks indistinguishable from 2 Key. There are many people who have been playing 4 Key for years at this point, and banning it now would be throwing away years of their playtime and effort trying to make a niche playstyle work. A ban on 4 Key would make players scared to experiment with playstyles as why would you spend years learning a niche playstyle if it can just get banned at a moment's notice? The vast majority of players would never take that chance, and I think that would be very unhealthy for the game.
The benefits of 4 Key
If you've looked into 4 Key at all, you probably already know that the main benefit of 4 Key is massively increased speed and stamina as a result of distributing the tapping strain across 4 fingers instead of only 2. Personally, I can attest to this as even though I would say that I was a decently fast player with 2 keys, I easily surpassed my peak 2 Key speed and stamina on 4 Key within 1-2 months. If I'm being completely honest, I don't think I would've been able to achieve the same level of speed and stamina I have on 4 Key using only 2 keys.
Another huge benefit of 4 Key is that pushing speed and stamina doesn't really cause any physical strain in the same way that playing on 2 Key does. When pushing those skillsets on 2 Key, it can be normal for your forearm or hand to strain and burn, but this has never happened to me on 4 Key, even when playing BPMs in excess of 300. For example, a BPM like 300 is only really 150 BPM streaming, just across 4 keys instead of 2, and because of this, each individual finger isn't moving fast enough to cause any real physical strain. In the same way a 2 Key player probably wouldn't feel any physical strain playing 175 BPM, a 4 Key player probably wouldn't feel any physical strain playing 350 BPM. Personally, this makes pushing speed and stamina much more enjoyable on 4 Key than on 2 Key.
The drawbacks of 4 Key
4 Key players have to deal with a mechanic called Keylock. Basically, osu! standard actually only has two distinct inputs for tapping, which are K1 and K2. If you play 4 Key, this means that 2 of your keys will be bound to K1 and 2 of your keys will be bound to K2. In my case, I have A and D bound to K1 and S and Space bound to K2. If I am holding down A and try to press D, it will do nothing because I am still technically holding down K1. The same is true vice versa and S and Space also suffer from the same issue. This makes 4 Key considerably harder and requires you to release your keys almost immediately, especially when playing high BPM.
In my experience, getting good accuracy with 4 Key is dramatically harder than 2 Key. A BPM like 180 on 2 Key feels like 90 BPM on 4 Key, which is extremely difficult to play with good accuracy. Even high BPM is harder to acc on 4 Key because finger control in general is much harder as well. For every pattern, you have 4 potential starting fingers and certain patterns like repeating triples and doubles are especially brutal on 4 Key. I don't think it is impossible to play low BPM or get good accuracy on 4 Key by any means, but it almost certainly will take more time to develop the necessary finger control on 4 Key than on 2 Key.
Is 4 Key generally viable?
While there are some skillsets like low BPM streams that are substantially harder on 4 Key than on 2 Key, I do genuinely believe that 4 Key is a viable playstyle and isn't just a gimmick. A lot of it isn't explored yet since the number of 4 Key players is so small, and it's also an instance of selection bias since most people who switch to 4 Key are interested in speed and stamina so they end up neglecting other skillsets. However, I absolutely think high accuracy plays on low BPM streams and other difficult skillsets are possible on 4 Key given enough practice.
Do I think learning 4 Key was worth it?
I'm only 3 months into learning 4 Key, but I've already decided that I will stick with it going forward and that I am permanently done with 2 Key. While it does have drawbacks, there's no reason to believe that they aren't surmountable with enough time and practice. Keylock is much less of an issue for me than it was when I was just starting out, and my accuracy has also improved a lot as well. The benefits of 4 Key are very real and my newfound speed and stamina has given me so much motivation to play the game and see how far I can push 4 Key. The first week or two was definitely hard, but now, the game is so much more fun on 4 Key than if I was still playing 2 Key.
Who should switch to 4 Key?
4 Key definitely isn't for everyone so here's some criteria I would recommend. First, you need to be committed to the game and be willing to play actively for at least 6-12 months. If you play very little or only play the game on-and-off, it will be hard for you to learn 4 Key because it requires a lot of playtime and practice. You should also expect that it will take several months to return to your prior skill level and that you will have to play easier maps for a while. Second, I think you should be interested in playing speed and stamina if you want to learn 4 Key. Learning 4 Key just to not play any speed or stamina is a bit of a waste and in that case, I would recommend sticking with 2 Key. Third, the less speed and stamina you have on 2 Key, the more I would recommend learning 4 Key. If you're someone who is "speedcapped" and can't tap very fast, you have the most to gain from learning 4 Key and I would recommend it a lot. If you're already satisfied with your current speed and stamina on 2 Key, then it might not be worth it. That being said, even if you're already fast, 4 Key is still potentially an option if you want even more speed.
Useful 4 Key tips
On 4 Key, I found it very helpful to have my Rapid Trigger Release set to very sensitive settings, because it causes you to release your keys faster, which helps a lot with mitigating Keylock. In case you don't know, using DKS, Snap Tap, or a macro to bypass Keylock is bannable so don't do it.
Every time I play, I have a custom KeyOverlay made by mojobojo open on my second monitor which shows when you tap out of order or Keylock and which keys are causing that to happen. It's extremely useful to see if you're Keylocking and if so, which keys are causing it so that you can adjust your technique to try to prevent it from happening. If you don't have a second monitor, you can use 120-cell's 4 Key Mistake Watcher that logs and optionally makes a sound when you tap out of order or Keylock. You can find both of these in #tools-and-resources in the 4 Key Discord Server (linked above).
Should 4 Key be allowed?
Multi-key streaming and 3/4 Key have always been allowed and this has been confirmed by peppy on multiple occasions. 4 Key itself has native support on osu!lazer without any third-party tools, and if you're still on osu!stable, you can use AutoHotkey to achieve the same thing without getting banned. I think many of the people who think 4 Key shouldn't be allowed are unaware of how difficult it is and don't know about its significant drawbacks. Some people say that the game was designed with 2 inputs in mind, but the KeyOverlay on osu!stable has always had K1, K2, M1, and M2 since 2013. That being said, the game still only allows 2 distinct inputs, and 4 Key players abide by this restriction and have to deal with Keylock as a result. I think 4 Key is actually very balanced in the grand scheme of things, as while it can boost your speed and stamina, finger control and accuracy are dramatically harder.
Banning 4 Key isn't even practical either, since depending on the AutoHotkey script or if the play was set on osu!lazer, replays don't have the information that makes it possible to detect if a play was set using 4 Key, as the KeyOverlay looks indistinguishable from 2 Key. There are many people who have been playing 4 Key for years at this point, and banning it now would be throwing away years of their playtime and effort trying to make a niche playstyle work. A ban on 4 Key would make players scared to experiment with playstyles as why would you spend years learning a niche playstyle if it can just get banned at a moment's notice? The vast majority of players would never take that chance, and I think that would be very unhealthy for the game.
🖥️ Playstyle 🖥️
Peripherals
Keyboard - EPOMAKER HE68 Lite (1/16/2026)
Tablet - Wacom CTL-470
Monitor - Dell U2722D 27″ 1440p 60hz
Skins
NM Skin
DT Skin
Miscellaneous
Resolution - 1536x864 (2560x1440 with 60% gameplay scaling)
Tapping Style - 4 Key Full Alt (Ring/Middle/Index/Thumb, 2/15/2026)
Actuation Point - 0.1mm
Rapid Trigger Sensitivity - 0.005mm
Tablet Area - 50x37.5mm (mapped to 1536x864)
Tablet Filters - AbstractQbit's Radial Follow Smoothing (Calculator with less lag)
Keyboard - EPOMAKER HE68 Lite (1/16/2026)
Tablet - Wacom CTL-470
Monitor - Dell U2722D 27″ 1440p 60hz
Skins
NM Skin
DT Skin
Miscellaneous
Resolution - 1536x864 (2560x1440 with 60% gameplay scaling)
Tapping Style - 4 Key Full Alt (Ring/Middle/Index/Thumb, 2/15/2026)
Actuation Point - 0.1mm
Rapid Trigger Sensitivity - 0.005mm
Tablet Area - 50x37.5mm (mapped to 1536x864)
Tablet Filters - AbstractQbit's Radial Follow Smoothing (Calculator with less lag)
🌟 osu! Supporter Tags 🌟
Thanks g00burr for the 1 month of supporter! (5/7/2017 - 6/7/2017)
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Thanks Tritium for the 1 month of supporter! (10/13/2022 - 11/13/2022)
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Thanks _spica_ for the 1 month of supporter! (4/13/2023 - 5/13/2023)
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Year
Summary
Scores
Collections
Most Played
Beatmaps
Medals
Recent Medals
Rarest Medal (0.00%)
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314 / 352
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Beatmap Challenge Packs
7 / 7
Beatmap Packs
80 / 80
Beatmap Spotlights
22 / 22
Hush-Hush
67 / 70
Hush-Hush (Expert)
54 / 64
Mod Introduction
13 / 13
Skill & Dedication
71 / 96
