Difficulty naming

The purpose of difficulty naming is to inform players how difficult a map is. This article lists common conventions as well as other alternatives that have been gathered throughout the years. However, as long as the set of difficulty names is descriptive and clearly indicates progression of difficulty, you may use any desired kind of scheme.

Default

These difficulty names are the most commonly used for each game mode.

Note: The special difficulty name Marathon historically allowed mappers to submit maps of longer songs, and thus became popular for single-difficulty mapsets. Today, the name has no special meaning and is typically only used for very long songs or song compilations.

osu!

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Insane
• Expert

osu!taiko

• Kantan
• Futsuu
• Muzukashii
• Oni
• Inner Oni / Ura Oni

osu!catch

• Cup
• Salad
• Platter
• Rain
• Overdose

osu!mania

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Insane
• Expert

Widely accepted alternatives

• Beginner: Below Easy
• Shokyuu: Below Kantan
• Advanced: Between Normal and Hard
• Hyper: Between Hard and Insane
• Extra: Alternative to Expert
• Extreme: Above Expert
• Hell Oni: Above Inner Oni / Ura Oni
• Deluge: Above Overdose

Difficulty naming schemes from other games

Mapsets of songs that originated from other games often borrow that game's difficulty naming scheme. Usage of these difficulty names is acceptable for any song. Some of the common naming schemes that made their way into osu! are listed here:

Beatmania IIDX

• Beginner
• Normal
• Hyper
• Another
• Black Another
• Leggendaria

DanceDanceRevolution

• Beginner
• Basic
• Difficult
• Expert
• Challenge

DJMAX

• EZ
• NM
• HD
• MX
• SC

EZ2DJ, EZ2AC

• EZ
• NM
• HD
• SHD
• EX

In The Groove

• Novice
• Easy
• Medium
• Hard
• Expert

Pop'n Music

• Easy
• Normal
• Hyper
• EX

SOUND VOLTEX

Note: Large mapsets of SOUND VOLTEX songs often use difficulty names from multiple versions of the game, even if the song does not appear in all of them.

• BASIC / BSC
• NOVICE / NOV
• ADVANCED / ADV
• EXHAUST / EXH

SOUND VOLTEX II -infinite infection-

• INFINITE / INF

SOUND VOLTEX III GRAVITY WARS

• GRAVITY / GRV

SOUND VOLTEX IV HEAVENLY HAVEN

• MAXIMUM / MXM
• HEAVENLY / HVN

SOUND VOLTEX VIVID WAVE

• MAXIMUM / MXM
• VIVID / VVD

SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR

• MAXIMUM / MXM
• ULTIMATE / ULT
• EXCEED / XCD

Arcaea

• Past
• Present
• Future
• Eternal
• Beyond

Lanota

• Whisper
• Acoustic
• Ultra
• Master

maimai, CHUNITHM, Ongeki

• EASY
• BASIC
• ADVANCED
• EXPERT
• MASTER

maimai

• Re:MASTER

CHUNITHM

• ULTIMA / WORLD'S END

Ongeki

• LUNATIC

Cytus, Deemo, VOEZ

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Insane

Cytus

• Chaos
• Glitch / Crash

Deemo

• Extra

VOEZ

• Special

Touhou Project

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Lunatic
• Extra / Extra Stage / Phantasm