- You must not silence both slider ticks and slider slides together. Low volume or blending sound samples are similarly discouraged when inaudible.
- Do not use keysounds without hitnormal support. If sounds blend perfectly with the song, feedback for hitting notes is minimal.
- Sliderends of extended sliders are to be snapped according to the song's beat structure. If the song is using a straight beat, 1/4 or 1/8 or 1/16 are to be used. If the song is using a swing beat, 1/6 or 1/12 are to be used. If the song has a beat in a different position from what was recommended, snapping to an actual beat always takes priority.
- Difficulty should be appropriately expressed to represent the intensities of different sections in the music. More complex/denser rhythms and more complex/quicker movements should be appropriately used to produce feedback through difficulty.
- Avoid major composition differences in similar sections of a song. The basic spacing and rhythm should be similar, while patterning can vary. This ensures that rhythm and intensity in all similar sections reflect a song similarly.
- Sliders should begin on stronger beats and end on equal or weaker sounds. Stressing important sounds through clicking is more natural to play than stressing unimportant sounds.
- Avoid extended sliders which pass through important sounds. If an extended slider tail lands on silence and passes through a loud sound, players may have trouble interpreting rhythm. In these cases, it is better to place the slider tail on an audible beat.
- Jumps should be used to highlight certain sounds in the music. Because playing a jump pattern puts more pressure on the player, they naturally fit better for highlighting certain sounds.
- Make sure that your spinners are not unreasonably long. Aim for a maximum spinning time of about 5-7 seconds; any longer can cause the player's wrist to get sore. If your spinner must be longer, be sure that the music suggests this.
- Spinners should be used when they fit the music. This is to ensure score differences among perfect plays on the leaderboard. They usually fit during held notes, changes in intensity, or transitions between sections.
- When including a slider velocity change, there should be a discernible change in the song's pacing. Otherwise the velocity change would feel unsupported by the music.
- Avoid following multiple layers of the song if it is unclear what rhythm is prioritizing. Players should be able to discern what part of the song is being followed.
- Try to spread your hit object placement evenly across the playfield. Cluttering hit objects in one section of the screen for no reason will make them stand out unnecessarily.
- Avoid rhythms which are in no way predictable. Rhythm can be made intuitive through the usage of consistent timeline gaps bridging between different snappings, time-distance equality, or slider reverses/ends snapped to irregular beats.
- Sliderends of extended sliders should be snapped according to the song's beat structure. If the song is using a straight beat, 1/4 or 1/8 are recommended. If the song is using a swing beat, 1/6 or 1/12 are recommended. If the song has a beat in a different position from what was recommended, snapping to an actual beat always takes priority.
- Avoid keysounding without hitnormal support. If hit sounds blend perfectly with the song, feedback is minimal.
- Slider body colour and slider border colour together must not blend in with a beatmap's background or video. At that point, they make slider paths unclear or ambiguous to read. Just one of these settings blending in with the background or video of a map while the other one does not might be acceptable.