Cheapest Way to Start Playing osu! (Free Setup)

One of the best things about osu! is that the barrier to entry is basically zero. The game is free, the account is free, and thousands of maps are free to download and keep forever. You do not need a tablet, a gaming mouse, a mechanical keyboard, or a supporter tag to start playing and improving. This guide is the honest free-setup path: what you actually need, what you can ignore, and the handful of things worth money later - only if you are hooked.

The genuinely free starter kit

• The game - osu! is a free download from the official site. Both the classic (stable) client and the newer lazer client are free; either works to start.
• An account - free to register, needed to save scores and appear on leaderboards. One account covers all four game modes.
• Maps - download ranked maps free from the listing, or grab a starter difficulty pack to fill your song folder in one go (see the beatmap packs guide).
• A skin - optional and free; the default skin is perfectly playable, and custom .osk skins cost nothing (see the skinning guide).
• Hardware you already own - any mouse and keyboard, or a laptop trackpad in a pinch, will get you started. Do not buy anything yet.

That is the whole setup. A player on a five-year-old laptop with the stock mouse can reach a respectable rank purely on practice. The people at the very top mostly play tablet, but that is a ceiling concern, not a starting concern - and the tablet-vs-mouse guide explains why it matters only much later.

Free settings that punch above their weight

Before you spend a cent on gear, spend ten free minutes in the options menu. A couple of settings changes do more for a new player than any hardware upgrade, and they cost nothing.

• Raw input - turn it on so your cursor movement is not shaped by the OS mouse acceleration. This is the single most important free setting for aim consistency.
• A sensitivity you keep - pick a mouse sensitivity, or a tablet area, that lets you cross the playfield comfortably, then stop changing it. Consistency beats the "perfect" number.
• Frame limiter and fps - set a stable frame limit your machine can hold; the input lag and fps guide covers this in depth.
• Audio offset - if your hits feel consistently early or late, calibrate the offset once. The offset guide walks through it.

What is worth money - later, and only maybe

Everything above stays free forever. If you get hooked and want to invest, there is a sensible order, and none of it is required to climb. Spend on the thing that is actually holding you back, not the thing that looks cool.

• osu!supporter - a paid tag that adds download convenience, extra searching and filtering, friend leaderboards, and cosmetics. It does not make you better; the supporter guide covers whether it is worth it for you.
• A drawing tablet - the biggest hardware step for aim ceiling, and the one thing pros near-universally use. Painful to switch to, worth it only once you are committed - see the tablet guide.
• A low-latency mouse or keyboard - marginal gains over decent gear you already own. The keyboard and tablet-area guides cover what actually matters.

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Nobody was ever held back from a good rank by a cheap mouse. They were held back by not practising. Spend the free hours before you spend the money.

Once you are set up, the best beginner maps and easiest pp maps guides are the natural next stops - free maps, at your level, that teach rhythm and pay a little pp while you learn. The cheapest way to get good at osu! is the same as the cheapest way to start: download it, and play.