PP farming is the practice of systematically playing osu! maps in a way that maximizes the performance points you earn per hour of play. Done well, it accelerates rank climbing dramatically. Done poorly, it wastes time on plays that never appear in your top 100 or that give far less PP than you could earn with a better approach.

This guide covers the full process: identifying target maps, mod selection, accuracy optimization, and the habits that separate effective PP farmers from players who plateau.

Understanding Your Current PP Floor

Before you can farm PP effectively, you need to know what you are working with. Your PP floor is the PP value of your current lowest-ranked play in your top 100. Any play that would give less PP than this floor, when weighted by its position, does not improve your total.

As a starting point, estimate your PP floor at roughly 30–40% of your best single play's PP value. If your best play is 300pp, your floor is probably around 90–120pp. This is the minimum a new play needs to beat to add to your total.

Map Selection — The Most Important Decision

Choosing which maps to grind is the highest-leverage decision in PP farming. The ideal PP farm map has these characteristics:

• You can achieve 96–98% accuracy on it. Below 95%, accuracy PP collapses significantly. Above 98%, you are playing well enough that the map may be slightly too easy for maximum PP.
• You can full combo it, or come very close. Single misses can cost 10–15% of potential PP. Maps where you frequently full combo will give consistently high PP plays.
• The star rating is 0.5–1.0 stars above your comfortable level. You want enough difficulty to generate meaningful PP without so much that accuracy collapses.
• The map has a high object count. Maps with 1,500–2,500 hit objects give a length bonus that increases PP above what a shorter map of the same star rating would give.

Mod Strategy for PP Farming

The optimal mod progression for PP farming, in order of priority:

1. No Mod (NM) first. Establish your NM ceiling on a target map before adding mods. Know what accuracy and combo you can realistically achieve.

2. Hidden (HD) — add this first. Hidden's 1.06× multiplier is the easiest to obtain. Most players can reach within 1–2% of their NM accuracy with HD after a week of practice on appropriate maps. The multiplier pays off almost immediately.

3. Double Time (DT) — develop in parallel. DT gives 1.12× and is the most impactful single mod. However, it takes longer to develop than HD. Practice DT on maps 1.5–2 stars below your NM level while continuing HD practice at your main level.

4. HDDT — combine when ready. Once you can sustain 95%+ accuracy with HD at your target star rating and 93%+ with DT, attempt HDDT. The 1.187× combined multiplier makes HDDT the most efficient mod combination for the majority of players in the top 5k–100k range.

Accuracy Optimization

Accuracy has a disproportionate effect on PP at the high end. Consider these numbers for a 5★ FC with OD8:

• 92% accuracy: approximately 90pp
• 95% accuracy: approximately 135pp
• 97% accuracy: approximately 155pp
• 99% accuracy: approximately 170pp
• 100% accuracy: approximately 178pp

Going from 92% to 97% accuracy on the same map nearly doubles the PP. This is why playing harder maps with lower accuracy is often less efficient than playing slightly easier maps with much higher accuracy.

The "PP if FC" Strategy

Before grinding any map, use our calculator's "PP if FC" feature. Enter the map's star rating, your expected accuracy, and your mod choice. The calculator will show you both your current projected PP and the ceiling if you achieve a full combo.

If the "PP if FC" value is lower than your current PP floor (your weakest top-100 play), the map will not improve your total even with a perfect run. Move on and find a more valuable target.

Common PP Farming Mistakes

• Grinding one map hundreds of times. After about 20–30 attempts on the same map, your marginal gains from that specific map diminish rapidly. Variety across similar maps gives better skill development and prevents staleness.
• Playing with mods before mastering the map NM. If you cannot FC a map at 95%+ NM, adding HD or DT will reduce your performance further, not boost it. Master the map first.
• Ignoring the weighting system. Playing easy maps that would rank outside your top 100 wastes time. Every practice session should target plays that would appear meaningfully in your weighted total.
• Chasing star ratings instead of accuracy. A 97% FC on a 6★ map is almost always better than a 91% FC on a 7★ map. Star rating matters, but accuracy scaling is severe.
• Not tracking your PP floor. Without knowing your floor, you cannot know whether a potential play is worth grinding. Check your profile before each farming session.

Structuring a PP Farming Session

An effective farming session has a clear structure:

1. Check your current PP floor and identify 3–5 target maps that could improve your total.
2. Warm up on easy maps for 10–15 minutes to get your timing dialed in.
3. Attempt your primary target map 10–20 times, focusing on accuracy and combo rather than brute-force retrying.
4. If progress stalls, switch to a secondary target to maintain engagement and avoid frustration.
5. End with a comfort map to finish on a positive experience.