You might think that a simplistic game like Osu doesn’t allow for much customization at all.

Well, you’re wrong.

There are a ton of available skins you can download and use to upgrade your Osu! game. It’s a common consensus among Osu players today, that if you want to beat the hardest beatmaps, then you need to get rid of the default skin.

Ideally, you should get change it for a custom skin as fast as possible, to get used to the new look and feel of the skin you choose. Ofcourse you can choose to change this as you progress through difficulty levels and get better, or maybe you decide to focus your efforts on a different game modifier.

Why Should You Go For A Custom Osu Skin?

As we said above, the main reason you want a custom osu skin instead of the default one, is because most of the hard beatmaps are just too difficult to complete with the default skin.

Skins will improve your Osu! game drastically through it’s brigher visual effects, hitsound changes, hitcircles, spinners and the approach circles.

Choosing The Best Custom Osu Skin For You

Choosing the best Osu skin ultimately comes down to what you want from it. Is your only goal to increase performance, or do you want a mix of both visual aesthetics AND performance? Do you value the visual look of the skin higher than min-maxing for performance to beat those ultra-hard beatmaps?

In the end, it all comes down to your personal preference. The type of game modifier you play, your difficulty level, and your valuation of performance and aesthetic.

For this article, I am adding a performance and aesthetics number to each skin.

The performance number is a reflection of my own experience with each Osu! skin, and the consensus from various osu! forums.

The aesthetic number is based entirely on my preference. This may also vary, and it depends on whether you like simple skins, bright skins, or skins that just have more graphical details.

Yugen

Yugen is a clean, popular Osu! skin. It’s usually seen recommended on various Osu user-forums such as reddit and the official osu forum

It’s an ideal skin for those looking to min-max performance while having limited visual distractions

Performance: 10/10

Aesthetics: 8/10

Where To Download: https://osuskins.net/skin/wEaMJGb

Rafis

Rafis skin is another great skin. Rafis Osu! skin is usually praised for its background dimming and white hitcircles. The contrast and brightness this generates is what makes Rafis skin such a dealbreaker for many Osu players.

The visual aesthetics is less praised, however. Rafis skin is pretty simple in it looks, but if you’re just looking to optimize for performance, then this skin could be a good choice for you.

Performance: 10/10

Aesthetics: 3/10

Where To Download: https://gist.github.com/vistafan12/c131048fa696f651a4deb998b77dfe95

Whitecat

Whitecat is another popular Osu! skin among Osu players, and is regularly praised for it’s usefulness in HDDT/HDHR specifically. The skin is pretty simple, but the graphics are pleasant and easy to look at while not getting in the way of performance.

Performance: 8/10

Aesthetics: 8/10

See the famous white cursor whitecat skin in action below. The video also includes a download link in the description.

Vaxei

Vaxei is a well-regarded skinner in the Osu! community. He’s also famous for breaking records and being a top player. The most popular Vaxei skin is the Bacon Boi 1.0, but there are several other variations to choose from, depending on the color you prefer and your game modifier.

Performance: 10/10

Aesthetic: 6/10

A collection of Vaxeis skins can be downloaded here: https://skins.osuck.net/index.php?do=tags&tag=Vaxei

Kamui

Kamui dates back to around 2013 and was for a long time the go-to skin for Osu players. As new skins emerged, Kamui fell a bit to the background but is still a great skin if you’re opting for an old-school Osu vibe.

Over the years the Kamui skin has been updated a few times. The recent update saw an improvement to stuff like:

• Higher resolution
• Slider end cycle removed
• Less distracting elements

Performance: 7/10

Aesthetic: 6/10

Where To Download: https://www.reddit.com/r/OsuSkins/comments/k5qsfy/kamui_improved/

Rekk

Rekk Osu skins also come in different game modifier versions. It’s quite similar to Rafis skin visually, but has a distinctive, hilarious “applause” sound effect added to it.

Performance: 7/10

Aesthetic: 6/10

Where To Download: https://skins.osuck.net/index.php?do=tags&tag=mReKk