Guide: Registering New Account & ID for Prime

For those who do not know how to enable the usage of USB into the PIU Prime machine, here's a guide for how to register for an account and enable the USB to play with your game ID.

Now that Prime is online, it's never the same like registering your USB by plugging directly into the machine to auto registering. Now you can't auto register your ID from the machine, you MUST register in PIU official website. I will show the complete step to register for new account below.

Some of you might wonder if you can bring forward your ID from Fiesta 2 or before to convert into Prime ID. Unfortunately I couldn't find this method in their official website. I guess we can only wait until Andamiro produce the official notes on how to convert Fiesta 2 ID to Prime, or we can't use the Fiesta 2 ID anymore despite how much level we are in Fiesta 2.

I guess it's not surprising if we can't use the Fiesta 2 ID anymore, this is just my assumption anyway. Now the system is totally different. It's really easy to level up now compare to last time. I can level up to 15 within two days with average of 10 games for song level 15 to 17 for each day, without repeating playing songs that I play before. Back to Fiesta 2, level up to 15 take me 2 to 3 months depending how much new songs I'm playing.

Furthermore, there are lots of new features that I guess we can only access through the official sites. This includes the record of our scoring system which is directly recorded online right after we finish playing, provided that your machine is online. We no longer need to use Pumbi to update our score before our level and score is uploaded to the world ranking. As well as many more features like music train, favorites, item shop that are under preparation. I guess we will depending on the official site instead of Pumbi later. So our game ID will be using a total new concept, and it will totally different from before.

Okay, here's the guide to register the new account and enable the use of USB. Do follow each step carefully as all of them are compulsory and (unfortunately) you can't skip any of it.

Step by step Account & ID Creation

1. Access PIU Official Website. Select your country to access the main page



2. Click on "Registration" button under login panel



3. Check on the two agreement check boxes below, and click on “Member Join” button.



4. Fill in the Registration Form

Not all fields are compulsory, so you can skip some of them if you want. The compulsory fields are as below:
  • E-mail (Must provide valid e-mail account for verification purpose later)
  • Password
  • Confirm Password
  • Gender
  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Zipcode
  • State/Province
  • Auto register prevention numbers
When all mandatory fields are filled in, click on “Joining a member” to continue.


5. E-mail verification

A confirmation message will be displayed and inform that a verification e-mail had been sent to the e-mail you provided in the registration form above. Now you need to login with your provided e-mail account above, and look for an e-mail sent by PIU GAME with the similar content below that require you to click on “Mail Certification” button.


6. Complete verification and Login

A new window/tab will be created to inform you that your account is now authenticated, so you can login with your newly registered PIU account in the main page login panel.


7. Activate Prime Access Code

Upon successful login. You will see a big blue button below stated "Receiving Prime Access Code". Click on it.


8. Creating the New ID

You are now in a page where you can see three ID slot and the first top empty ID slot require you to register an ID. This ID will be used as your in-game display name when you plug into PIU machine. It is default to be capitalized, only allow alphabets & numbers, and maximum 8 characters. Click on the “To register” button and it will check if your desire ID can be used.


9. Complete ID creation

Upon successful ID creation. You will be able to see the screen below. Click on the “Download” button and you will be downloading a file name “prime.bin”. The file consist of your ID info which will be used to determine your ID when you plug into the machine.


10. Move "prime.bin" into your thumb drive. Done

Copy or move the downloaded “prime.bin” file which contain your ID info into your thumb drive, then plug into the PIU machine to enjoy playing with your registered account. Note: Some of the files in the thumb drive might affect your prime.bin to became unreadable, so try not to have too many other files in the thumb drive or best to have only prime.bin file in it.

USB FAQ

Q: When I plugin my USB into the machine, a pink panel message stated "No access code found. To get PIU Access Code please visit piugame.com. Press the Center Step."
The machine couldn't find any prime.bin file in your thumb drive. Please ensure your prime.bin is inside the thumb drive. If you sure that the prime.bin is inside the thumb drive, ensure the prime.bin is not inside any of the folder, and try to remove any other files inside the thumb drive. Leave only prime.bin in it.

Q: When I plugin my USB into the machine, a pink panel message stated "Unregistered Access Code. Press the center step."
The machine couldn't read your prime.bin for some reasons. It's best to remove all files inside the thumb drive, format it, and let your prime.bin file alone in it.

Q: I have only prime.bin in the thumb drive, formatted, but still showing the pink panel message above
Some thumb drive might not be compatible or readable by the machine. Try using a different thumb drive.

Q: What should I do if I lost my thumb drive with the prime.bin in it?
No worries. Just login in the official website and download the prime.bin again. Your playing score and records are all safe and updated in their website every time you finish playing.

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PIU Prime: Rank Mode

Rank Mode is one of the great new feature of PIU Prime. It's a never-exist-before feature that allow you to compete around the world for a song and submit your score over the internet to determine how good you are.

To read more about Rank Mode in the official website, you can go to http://www.piugame.com. After selecting your desire country or language, go to the main menu to click on the menu item "PRIME", and then click on "Rank mode". I can't share the link here because the link would redirect you back to the main page to select your country or language.

In order to enable Rank Mode, you must use USB because it require your account to play in Rank Mode. When you plugin your USB, open the command window and look for the "RANK" item on the left side of "SPEED" item. Once you step on the yellow button, Rank Mode will be enabled. You can switch on and off Rank Mode anytime you want. You can play all songs in Rank Mode, or you can choose to play any round of song with Rank Mode. To switch back to Full Mode, just open the command window again, go to "RANK" item again and step on the yellow button.

The songs available in Rank Mode is orginal, K-Pop, and world music songs. When you switch on Rank Mode, you can't play other songs like remix, full song, music train, shortcut, or other category.

All the stepcharts are still the same, there is no changes in the stepchart. Just that all stepchart under level 13 will be hidden. So you can only compete on songs for level 13 and above. This applies to both single and double. And single performance and double performance stepchart will be hidden as well.

The hardest thing about Rank Mode is the three default setting below that you can't change:
  1. BGA On. You won't be able to find "BGA Off" in the "DISPLAY" item in the command window. So all songs will have BGA On.
  2. VJ. Super hard accuracy judgement. Much harder than HJ. You won't be able to see "JUDGE" item in the command window. Having this mode make it really hard to get gold S or SS. Not only the accuracy for perfect, great and good are affected, if your step is slightly off, you might get bad and miss even if you feel that you step correctly.
  3. Break ON. Now you are forced to play songs that you are confident that your HP bar won't drop to zero.
With VJ mode on, the songs that you used to getting FC might not able to get FC now, and the songs that you able to SS might make you further from getting SS. But it depends on how good your accuracy is while playing in VJ. If you used to play in HJ, it might be better for you.

As for the score after playing in Rank Mode, you would notice the score will be quite high because it's different than normal mode. I'm not sure how the score is being calculated. Let's say you play a song in Rank Mode but you are unable to get FC, you can still beat the same song high score that has FC in the machine. So playing in Rank Mode is a new way to beat high score too.

As for the best thing in Rank Mode, is to be able to bring your accuracy and steps to the next level through this Rank Mode challenge. You can't challenge difficult songs with break ON, but you can train your accuracy at the moment to get much better steps and score result.
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Missing or Removed Songs in PIU Prime 2015

Many players probably already realize a lot of songs are missing when you check back the version from Fiesta 2 to the first version.

Some of the old songs that you used to play a lot are now no more to be found once you upgraded to PIU Prime. I don't find any official notes about the reason of the missing songs. Only Andamiro has the answer. Hope we will be able to get notice on why so many missing songs in PIU Prime sooner or later.

For now we can only assume that probably Andamiro trying to eliminate old songs that are not so popular or demanding. Since many people focus on playing newer songs, and there are many low level songs that people no longer interested with.

I'm not saying that I agree on removing the songs. Andamiro has their own reason for doing so. I believe they don't remove such long list of songs just because they feel like doing so because it's going to take months of effort to figure what songs are not so demanding and too old that people don't interested in. I can only assume it this way because you still get to play lots of challenging and great songs in the older version, not like they randomly removing songs as they want.

Or perhaps, such songs are not actually "removed", they are just currently hidden. Maybe you will be able to get them from the item shop later. It could be false hope but, we can only wait and see.

List of Missing/Removed Songs

The missing/removed song list below is referred to this link:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/vincent-kim/pump-it-up-prime-v100-removals/792632307461082

Song Name Single Level Double Level
Fiesta 2
Hands Up (East4A Mix) S3, S5, S8, S15, SP3 D5, D15, DP4
Fiesta EX
Magic S1, S4, S8, S13, SP3 D3, D14, DP4
Hot Issue S3, S7, S10, S16, SP4 D5, D13, D15, DP5
Magic Girl S4, S7, S11, S15, SP3 D5, D13, D16, D21, DP4
Shock S3, S5, S8, S14, S16 D4, D15, DP5
Last Farewell S2, S5, S8, S13, S17, SP3 D6, D14, DP5
Energy S4, S8, S13, S15, SP4 D9, D14, DP5
Mother S1, S4, S7, S13, SP2 D9, D14, DP5
Energy S4, S8, S13, S15, SP4 D9, D14, DP5
Fiesta
Good Life S2, S4, S15, SP2 D5, D16, DP3
Betrayer -act 2- S4, S6, S10, SP3 D15, DP3
Big Beat S5, S13, S15, SP3 D6, D14, DP5
Exciting S2, S3, S14, SP5 D14
By Chance S2, S4, S5, S15, SP2 D6, D16, DP4
To The Sky S1, S3, S5, S12, S15, SP3 D6, D14, DP6
The angel who lost wings S1, S4, S6, S13, SP2 D6, D16, DP3
Innocent S3, S5, S11, S14 D6, D15
Enjoy! Enjoy! S3, S6, S11, S14, SP4 D6, D15, DP5
Fire S3, S5, S8, S15, S16, SP3 D4, D11, D14, DP4
Wanna S2, S4, S9, S16, SP2 D3, D12, D17, DP5
No Rhyme No Reason S2, S5, S8, S15, SP2 D20
80s Pop S2, S5, S8, S12, S16, SP3 D6, D17, DP4
Do It Reggae Style S13, SP4 D15, DP5
Mission Possible -Blow Back- S18, SP3 D17, DP5
Pumping Jumping S1, S3, S5, S13, S15, S17, S19, SP4 D6, D17, DP5, DP6
NXA
La la la S1, S3, S5, S10, SP2 D13, DP5
Adios S1, S3, S6, S14, SP2 D16, DP4
Slightly S4, S14, SP1 D12, D14, DP5
Forward S2, S4, S5, S13, SP2 D13, DP5
Uprock S5, S17, SP2 D14, DP4
Crazy S2, S4, S5, S8, S15, SP2 D19, DP3, DP6
Pump Breakers S5, S17, SP2 D15, DP4
Change Myself S1, S4, S5, S10, SP1 D9, DP5
Do It! S6, S15, SP2 D18, DP4
NX & NX2
Fly S1, S3, S6, S14, SP3 D16, DP4
One Night S5, S13, SP2 D14, DP4
2006 Love Song S3, S10, S12, S15 D13, DP5
Haley S4, S9, SP2 D11, DP4
Hybs S4, S11, SP2 D13, DP4
We Goin' Fly Remix S5, S15, SP3 D19, DP6
Money S10, S14, SP4 D12, D16
Very Old Couples S6, S13, SP2 D15, DP6
Guitar Man S3, S9, S13, S18 D10, D13, D19
Jam O Beat S7, S14, SP2 D14, DP6
Chopstix S5, S13, SP2 D15, DP2
Groovin' Motion S6, S9, SP3 D11, DP6
Exceed - Zero
My Friend S1, S3, S6, S12, SP3 D14, DP5, DP6
Mr. Fire Fighter S4, S7, S13 D8, D15
Enter the Dragon S1, S4, S5, S8, S14, SP2 D17, DP5
Storm S5, S12, SP3 D13, DP4
Go S3, S7, S12 D13, DP3
Rebirth - PREX 3
Empire of the Sun S6, S11, SP1 D13, DP4
Get Your Groove On S4, S6, S13 D9
Miss's Story S5, S18, SP3 D19, DP5
Mission Possible S5, S7, S13, S19 D8
Street Show Down S7, S15, SP4 D13, DP6
Top City S4, S6, S8, S15 D7, D12
We Will Meet Again S3, S8, S13, S14 D8
D Gang S4, S6, S9, S18 D7, D15
Hello S7, S16 D9, D16
S.E - Extra
Pump Jump S4, S15, SP2 D17, DP4
N S5, S16, SP2 D16, DP5
Oh! Rosa S7, S13 D7
First Love S4, S9, SP1 D14, DP4
Betrayer S1, S5, S8, S13, SP2 D8, D13
RUN! S4, S8, S15 D8, D17
1ST - 3RD
Close Your Eye S4, SP2 DP3
Free Style S13, SP1 D15, DP3
A Nightmare S1, S4 D13, DP5
She Likes Pizza S8, S9 D9, D16
Pumping Up S4, S12 -
Hatred S6, S13 D7, D16, DP7

List of Missing/Removed Remix

Song Name Level Version
K-Pop Girl Group RMX S14, D15 Fiesta EX
Msgoon RMX pt. 5 S17, D17, SP3, DP4 Fiesta
Msgoon RMX pt. 7 S17, DP4 Fiesta
History: We Are the ZEST SP6, DP5 Fiesta
K-Pop Mix (Old and New) S7, S13 Fiesta
Pro POP Mix S17 Fiesta
PUMP IT UP with YOU S17, D17 Fiesta
45RPM & Eun Ji Won Mix S11, D14, DP5 NXA
Novasonic Mix ver.3 S6, S17, D19 NXA
Turkey Virus S8, S15, D11 NXA
Msgoon RMX pt.1 S7, S17, D17 NXA
Msgoon RMX pt.3 S6, S17, D11, D20 NXA
Money Fingers S8, S16, D9, D17 NX & NX2
NOVARASH REMIX S11, S17, D12 Exceed - Zero

List of Missing/Removed Full Song

Song Name Level Version
Magic Girl S12 Fiesta EX
Shock S17, D15 Fiesta EX
Hot Issue S9, S14, D16 Fiesta EX
Energy S15 Fiesta EX
La la la S4, S14 NXA
Slightly S5, S17 NXA
Forward S4, S15, D5 NXA
Enter The Dragon S17, D18, DP3 NXA
Fly S10, S15, D16, D17 NX & NX2
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Pump It Up PRIME 2015: Begin

Before looking at wall of texts, let's not get enough with this PIU Prime 2015 opening.



Yup it's cool not matter how many time we re-watch the opening, despite we can just play it right now (if your place have one).

PIU Prime in Malaysia

Prime had been released in Malaysia since 14th December 2014. Many players from different area are invited to this event and we are proud to be there for this soft launch event where we able to witness the first ever PIU Prime being setup, installed, and loaded here in Malaysia. A great thanks for the two Andamiro Korean representatives (Sorry couldn't remember their name) to travel places to places to bring us this great joy, and of course thanks to the relevant arcade center or amusement center that put efforts into installing and maintaining this great gift.
Now in Malaysia, not all arcade center has PIU Prime because there are only several places that had high demand and usually a group of people will be there to play. We are unsure if other area or states that have low demand will switch to Prime or not. We can only wait and see. At least, now people get to play PIU Prime in several locations, namely Berjaya Times Square, The Mines, Wangsa Walk Mall, and Seremban AEON Supermarket.

New Experience

Let's talk more about the insight of PIU Prime feature and gameplay. Apart of approximately 30 new and challenging songs included as Prime version, the biggest changes in Prime version, comparing with the past upgrade, is the online game play where we are finally able to make PIU online.
Our song scores not only stored inside the machine, we are now connecting to the internet so our song score submission into Andamiro's world score database is now working! But well, that's what we've been hearing all this time. We need more time to observe and figure out how all these works because the arcade center complete setup the internet about one or two weeks ago, and the thumb drive usage only available few days ago.... So still a long way for us to experience by ourselves and find out more.
of course, there are lots more features and new stuff that I'm going to make some other posts to talk about it because there are too many to describe. But this definitely something that is different from the past upgrade like from Fiesta EX to Fiesta 2. Although I wasn't there to witness the upgrade but from my experience in Fiesta EX and Fiesta 2, there isn't too much differences, comparing with the upgrade from Fiesta 2 to Prime.

Still under Preparation

Despite having some new things now, there are definitely more things that Andamiro still working on it because this changes is really huge, and we shouldn't expect that they are launching PIU Prime means everything should be completed.
If you visit http://www.piugame.com now, you can see a new interface with great design. That is perhaps the most completed one so far. Clicking on many of the links in the top menu will get a message stated "In preparation". Well, clear enough.
Here are something that we will be looking forward to. Some of them are existing things from Fiesta 2, but now all these are probably going to be quite different so it's not available in Prime at the moment. While many of the info is still consider as "rumors". You can read through but keep in mind that these are not an official list so you probably see something different when the official release are there.

1. Favorite - Favorite songs used to be stored in your own thumb drive. But now our data is online, so probably can set our favorite song in PIU main site.

2. Music Train - Same as above.

3. Song Ranking - The list that contain ranking of all songs in terms of high score around the world, popularity, and so on.

4. Item Shop - We will be able to purchase or unlock songs, stepchart, and item as we play and accumulate points so that we can use it in item shop later.

5. User Custom Step (UCS) - Probably some new features in StepLite? Definitely more songs can be included into UCS making from Prime.

6. Level/World Ranking - The list that shows level and ranking of all registered players around the world just like the previous one.

7. Mission Zone - Hopefully more exciting and challenging missions will be back.

8. Skill Up Zone - Same as above. We are happy to have some new experience in it, and we are definitely looking forward for Andamiro to release more features as time goes by. Let's wish Andamiro well and great work so all the hard efforts for PIU Prime 2015.
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Crashday S23 - B

Due to another challenge from my friend, I had set my target to get A for this song. But it seems getting A is still too early for me although I think if I get around 60 misses, I should be able to get A. I do know that getting A with around 60 misses is really too much and it's pointless because most of the part I still get hell lots of misses and can't play really well.

Good thing about this S23 song is that it give me lots of chances to accumulate combo. Compare to other S23 song, I won't be able to play like this one. The only killing part is the stair in the middle and run+drill part before the stair. As for me, another hard part is the drilling in the beginning and ending part. That's make me miss too much.

I'm going to try a little bit more and try to get A for this one, and then I'm not going to play this level until I feel more stable at songs above level 20.
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Unique D16 - A (1 miss)

I actually had full combo on this song quite some time ago but didn't thought of taking pic of the result that time. Now I'm trying to get full combo again but mess up a few parts in the middle of the song, and this time I mess up on the last quick twist part.

Not really a tough song in overall but just need to be careful of a few parts throughout the song. It's quite easy to miss if not concentrating enough.
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Lucid D20 - A

Due to my friend's challenge me on this, I gave it a tried last few weeks ago. I had a terrible result that time because I just recover from fever and the best result I can get is B. Now I'm manage to do so much better in many parts especially the drill and run as I feel more energetic to deal with those notes.

Still, the drill are really killing me since my drill is really bad. And there are several parts that make me drill really fast and drill a lot. Those parts make me miss so much that I might not get A for this one. The only fun part drilling part is the continuous middle blue keys for around 10 seconds. At least I'm still can manage in the beginning.

As expected, this song is really great because it consist of twist, run, drill, a bit of triple, and a few stair in the middle and end of the song. One song that consist of all five skills. I can see that my drill and stair is really bad for such level. I won't play this for some time until I get much better in my drill.
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Easy Entry level: Every level has a few easy song

Last Updated: 23th October 2014

After experiencing many different level and songs, you probably know a few songs that is quite easy in a certain level. Sometimes when you finish with a song, you might think to yourself: “Is this **** level? This is so easy!”. You probably played a song that is really easy in that level.

The songs are just there. We don’t know how the stepchart difficulty is being rated and determined. There is no surprise that you can play well on a song of a particular level, but can’t play another song in the same difficulty. It’s just the stepchart complication and overall difficulty of the songs that do the talk, unless you put aside the level and experience the real difficulty on your own.

Regardless, there are quite a few songs that are quite easy in each level. The good thing about these type of songs, are for people who want to enter into a new level to train and adapt to its difficulty. Although this type of easy entry level can’t guarantee that you definitely able to play songs with higher difficulty in the same level, but it can give you a good start on that level. At the very least, all easy entry songs in each level require you to have a certain level of stamina and skill in order to play and pass. If you can pass the song but couldn’t do really well, you can keep training with the same song to build up your skill, then get ready for another harder chart for that level. But if you couldn’t play well on the easy entry level songs, you probably need to reduce your level and train on lower level songs.

As usual, the song list below are based on my own experience and it’s not depending on any vote. I label the songs below as easy entry level by comparing the songs with other stepchart in the same level and analyze on the difficulty depending on the comparison. The songs below are easier to get A, and the overall stepchart difficulty is not that complicated compare to others.

Level 15
Heart Breaker (Fiesta 2) A little bit of twist that you can find in level 10, or even much easier than level 10, in a few part of the song is not any big thing. The main thing through out the song is the triple notes and triple hold before the last part. Basically if you are fine with twist in level 10 and triple notes, then this one will be easy.
Nobody(Fiesta 2) The only difficulty for this song is the freeze that is entirely based on the beat of the song. It might takes some time to get used to the beat but it's not a big deal. And then the last part will require you to twist a little fast to end the song.
Unique (Fiesta 2) The only challenge in this song is the fast drilling notes. There are a bit of twists in the song but it's not that complicated and not really fast. So your main focus is the fast drilling throughout the song and the last part.
Fire (Fiesta) Same like Nobody S15, you need to step according to the beat but this one is slightly easier. The only problem is the hidden notes that seems like you only need to step once, but the beats telling you that you need to step exactly according to it.
Good Life (Fiesta) Since twist is a common skill in most songs, this one consists of many twists that allow you to test if your twist is good enough for higher level. The only tricky part is the middle part that make the speed really slow and you can only see a lump of notes all stick together. You need to read the notes properly and step fast, but not too extremely fast.


Level 16
Emperor (Rebirth - PREX3) It's all about triple notes for a single mode. Usually you just need to deal with a long note with one leg, and deal with double notes with another leg. When you get used to it's pattern, you won't feel anything after playing this level 16 song. Just that the song is quite weird if you listen to the lyric.
Dr. M(Rebirth - PREX3) It's about drilling from the beginning until the end. Just a little bit of fast twist in the middle and end of the song. This is good to train the basic drill that is required for level 16 and higher. Beware of the last drilling part, it's repeating for a long time (not that long, maybe 15 seconds) but it's fun to play and train.
Fire (Fiesta) You are require to run for a little while in the beginning, and also minor twist and drill throughout the song. It can be a little tiring. The main thing is the flashing notes in the chorus that you need to read really fast when the notes suddenly jump up and you need to learn how to catch properly.
No.3 (Fiesta EX) This one is a stamina killer. The overall stepchart is not so complicated, just some minor twist here and there. The problem is its forcing you to jump in various parts, and then make you run in the last part before you make a hard twist and end the song. It's a good song to train stamina and breath thou.
Pop the Track (Fiesta 2) Several running parts in the song can worn you out a little, or maybe more. The part that could make your combo break is the drilling part in the chorus, unless you are good with those drills. it's not really a stamina killing song, but this one test more on your skills.


Level 17
Elise (Fiesta 2) As long as you are good with basic twist, you can accumulate quite a lot of combo and can easily lead you for an A. The bigger problem is the drilling notes appear several time in the song and also some run in the middle & last part of the song.
Unique (Fiesta 2) The drilling notes in several parts of the song can make your leg tired and break combo. The running part with some drills is the challenge here. And also beware of sudden twist in the last part before the end of the song. Other than that, the overall stepchart complication is quite low.
Baroque Virus(Fiesta 2) It's all about drilling (again). This song test a bit on your basic twist in the beginning, and then the last part is running that turns into twist drill which can be quite tough. But in overall, you just need to make sure you are good with the drilling notes.
Crashday (Fiesta EX) This running with a bit of drilling notes during the run is not that tough in the beginning. The only challenge is the stair and fast twist in the middle of the song, and the long chain of drilling notes in the end of the song.
Toccata (NXA) This one test a lot in your twist skill. It can be quite fun when you know the proper way to twist. The twisting is not that fast, but not really slow. So you need to maintain the similar stamina when you play throughout the song, which is good as you can maintain and train your stamina, but can be a little tiring after your finishing it.


Level 18
Cleaner (Fiesta EX) The only level 18 song that you can accumulate all combo before the half of the songs if you put in a bit more effort. With the front and middle part more like a level 12 song, the probability of not getting A even if you play really bad in the last part is very low. It's fun to play once in awhile, but I recommend you to play to train seriously on the last part when you ready for it.
Xenesis (Fiesta) The good thing (or could be bad) about this one is the sudden twist for you to train. The lots-of-combo long notes can help you easier in getting A. The only thing to beware is the running notes and fast twist in the end of the song.
Love is a Danger Zone (Cranky Mix)[Fiesta 2] Lots of twisting with long notes is the fun part here, and they give you a good number of perfects and combo. The thing that can worn you out is the sudden and quick twist throughout the song and also some drilling notes before the last part.


Level 19
Ignis Fatuus This is one hell of fast twist song in most of the part, and then some hell of drilling notes in a few parts. Oh, and also a few hell of triple notes. In this song, playing well on the twisting part is the key to get A because most of the twists are in long notes, so missing most of them can be disaster.
Accident A slightly complicated twists in the middle of the song is the best part to accumulate combo and get enough perfects to ensure you can get A. You just need to listen to the music and twist according to the notes. Other than this, the front part can be a little tough but you shouldn't miss too much. As for the last part, that's truly some type of typical level 19 difficulty. Just try to step as much as you can.
Elise Apart of more drilling notes that you can find in its level 17, you also need to twist harder and faster for this level. The challenging part is the middle, extremely fast twist-drill-twist-drill and also the last running and twisting part before the end of the songs. The overall difficulty is more like a level 19 style, but at least most of the notes are still readable and you can keep training on it to build up your skill for other level 19.


Level 20
The Devil Same pattern with the S9 & S12, the speed eventually get faster and faster. Since this one is level 20, the stepchart difficulty is higher. But at least the front and middle part are manageable if you really ready for level 20.
Lucid It's a fun combination of run, twist, and drill song. You just need to beware of the sudden twist, it's not that complicated but your combo might break if you lose your concentration. The drilling is just fine if you listen carefully to the music, just make sure not to miss to many of them. As for the running, just go according to the song but stay calm. In overall, this one test a lot in your skill and how well you can listen to the beat. The skill requirement isn't that high so you will be able to pass this one as long as you have sufficient amount of stamina.
Passacaglia Other than the hard and quick twist in many parts of the song, and also the hard drilling parts, one of the challenges is that, this song can easily make your leg tired, and then you felt harder to step before the end of the songs. But in overall, you need to accumulate more combo in the front part where the running, drilling and twisting part to increase your chance to get A. Before the last part, there are some easy long notes for you to rest and accumulate combo, follow by the hard drill with twist in it. As long as you do well in those part, getting an A might be hard, but shouldn't be too much hard.


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Playing with Barefoot

Many people prefer to play with barefoot. Well, the biggest advantage is obviously feeling free for running around the game pad instead of feeling like you are tied to a few grams of burden. Additionally, you can perform all the skills much better compare to wearing shoes in most case. Like able to run really quick when you need it, twist while reducing the risk that one of your leg might kick the other leg, able to drill quickly when your leg has no burden, and able to feel and step on triple notes better. That doesn't eliminate the need of playing with shoe anyway.

I used to be a barefoot player when I was just started. When I tried playing with sport shoe, not only that I don't feel comfortable, I felt like my legs heavier by a few kilograms and unable to step properly. I keep on playing with barefoot until one day, my foot begin to have callus and it torture me for nearly a month, to the extend that every step kind of like killing me when I walk. When it was gone, then it appear around two weeks later. This cycle goes on for a few session, then I decided to play with shoes. It was the same, uncomfortable and bounded feeling at first, I can't perform at my best. But everything is about being used to it and eventually I'm back and able to improve steadily.

You might wonder, what's the good thing about wearing shoes other than preventing Callus or any other type of injury. First of all, it's not a good idea to get the skin under your foot expose too much on dirt and dust (unless you are playing at home and you clean your game pad all the time), the skin under your foot is very sensitive and thin. You can try to tickle it and see if you feel anything from that. In the long run, your might get some type of skin disease. It became worst if the skin got injured in the middle of playing and that particular area is full of dirt and dust.

But whatever mention above doesn't absolutely stated that playing with barefoot is a bad idea and you shouldn't do that. Just that you need extra careful when you play and you need to know how to take good care of your foot frequently. Some of the ways to treat your foot, as well as your leg, well is to have hot spa at home to relax and rejuvenate your leg muscle because barefoot playing apply lots of pressure directly to the leg. Massage is also another good method and natural way to treat your leg well. Just make sure you set up a schedule, don't get lazy and make sure you do what's good for your leg.

If you are too used to playing with barefoot, but you also want to participate in competition, especially international competition, it's better to train with shoes because the proper way of PIU is to compete and prove yourself NOT in a barefoot manner. You can still train with barefoot, but do remember that you need to balance up your skill between barefoot and non-barefoot at the same time.
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'Push Yourself Harder' - How Hard?

There are always time when we want more & more, we can't ask enough. In PIU, we want to improve more, we want to be able to play like any top player in this world, we want to play really difficult songs that we currently can't play at all. So we push our self harder. We all do. Sometimes you might wonder, or you don't think about it all, but it's worth to consider this if you haven't: how hard should you push yourself?

"Everything that is too much or too little, is not good for you". That's the theory of balance. We want improvement, we want to be able to play really extreme songs that make us felt like we are superior like the others. Unfortunately, pushing yourself as hard as you could is definitely not the answer. You might be still trying or you sure that it's the right and only way because that's how you work it out so far. Even if you think that pushing yourself as hard as you can is the only way, I still insist on the theory of balance: Everything that is too much or too little, is not good for you.

If you used to push yourself so hard that you feel worn out after PIU session and experience something related to muscle soreness, minor injury/bleeding, feeling difficult to breath, feeling nausea or dizziness, cramp, feeling pain or sore in the muscle when you walk, and other negative impact that affect your daily life, that's what I'm talking about. Sure, you can get those even if you play easier song or play for fun, but the harder you push yourself, you get yourself expose to the chances of negative result.

Some people consider that they feeling totally worn out or really tired consider as improvement. Well, that's mostly correct. But you have to make sure that always pushing yourself at your limit is not the ideal improving method. Rest is a crucial key for improvement because it helps you to recover and replenish yourself with more energy for your workout next time.

I seen many people keep on challenging really difficult songs that they can't get A, or can't even get C. As far as I seen, that's what they do all the time. They only choose songs that they can't play at all. It's a belief that slowly building up their skill from highly difficult songs and as they receive more tough training by playing all these songs, they will eventually improve and manage to play those songs properly in the future. I won't say that this wouldn't work at all. Just that I haven't see anyone work that out. Rather, I always seen people got totally exhausted after the difficult songs and that's it, they can't play anymore.

So back to the question, how hard you suppose to push yourself? You need to push yourself not too little in the sense that you did sweats out, but couldn't feel any improvement at all in the long run; and you can't get yourself totally worn out every time and no matter how many years passed by, you still in remain the same level and difficulty. This is really hard to measure but the basic idea is: "Train hard to the extend where you felt it's hard, and stop before you really FEEL hell". When you felt like your throat can't breath in any more oxygen, stop playing at once. If you risk it and in case you damage your throat or respiratory system, it can cause serious issue for life. In the end of the PIU session, you feel tired but not really that exhausted, you might feel a bit of sore or a little pain but you are not injured badly, that's how you call training.

The more you practice in this way, the more you are going to improve. If you feel like it's okay to go a little more, make sure it's only a little more. Do bear in mind that having a strong urge to improve as soon as possible doesn't mean it's okay to force yourself to your limit all the time. Our body are only flesh and it has its own system that we need to follow.

Some people might take longer to achieve certain level, while some people take shorter time to achieve that level. Unfortunately, playing or training as much as you could, or as hard as you can is not the right way. Play or train in the right way is the key. That's talk about how you set up your training plan and how well you follow it, how often you train and rest, and other method to ensure that you are improving slowly but steadily.
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