The Robotomy Grind
Posted on: March 20, 2024, at 12:56:48am

Coming out of hiatus, which was a forced one due to circumstances out of my control, I came back to the game, and for some reason unknown to me, I decided to start grinding out Robotomy. I wasn't able to get a new PB on the chart on this night's session (3/19/2024), but I was able to learn a few things.

One key thing I noticed with Robotomy was how technical it is. Not really surprising since it's a 102, so naturally it's going to be insanely difficult. But I found something interesting in it: In my opinion, I feel like it's a good file to learn pattern manipulation. I know. Crazy, right? But there's method to this.

The second key thing about Robotomy that I discovered is burst control. In a five minute song with a little over 4100 notes, plus insanely dense bursts that are next to impossible to hit, plus a few easy parts in between as small breaks, it can be overwhelming. One thing to note is that these two things are fairly fundamental on their own. Most charts will require either one or the other, but rarely will a chart require both. Of course, the higher the difficulty of the chart, the more common that combination is, and it's fairly apparent with Robotomy.

The first burst in the chart isn't too bad. It can be a bit tricky to hit, but it you space it right, you can hit it pretty easily. The second burst is extremely dense and hard to read. The timing on it is also pretty strict, and the burst control required is next to super-human. There are a number of bursts like this in the chart, but they're spaced out in a way where you can kind of guess what they're gonna be like. (Sight reads excluded unless you're STUPIDLY good at this game.)

I think I counted maybe ten or so of these bursts throughout the chart, one of which is a wall that CAN be hit, but requires very tricky manipulation to land. All in all, I think this chart, despite how bad people initially thought it was when it was first released years ago, is good for learning these two fundamental skills when it comes to this game.

1. 1: ositzxz369
   Posted at 11:52pm on March 20th, 2024

   ManipIsSkill