This guide is no longer actively being maintained. If you'd like charting advice, I highly recommend visiting the official Spin Rhythm XD Discord, or the SpinShare Discord. Cheers.

As the charting scene has evolved, many have noticed some patterns that tend to be in a number of charts, intentional or not. We’ve taken to nicknaming some of these patterns, but as the amount of patterns grows, it can get a bit hard to keep track of these patterns. Heck, even we still end up asking what the different patterns are from time to time.

As such, we thought it would be helpful to make a guide that outlines the various patterns of Spin Rhythm XD, as well as offering some insight as to how to use them effectively, as well as the backstories behind how some of the names became as ridiculous as they did.

This is not intended to be a guide to charting. That's a whole other ball game - this is more a breakdown and explanation of the various patterns in Speen charting.

In addition, given the amount of charts created for XD difficulty compared to any other difficulty, this guide focuses on XD patterns. Not to say that they can't be used in a lower difficulty, but they may be a bit out of place given their inherent skill floor & skill ceilings.

Throughout this guide, we'll be using various terms to help me with my explanations. Here's a quick crash course of the most important ones:

• Lane: In the editor, a tap on the furthest lane to the left is considered to be on Lane "0". Every subsequent movement to the right determines the Lane which that tap is on. 1 to the right from the leftmost lane is "Lane 1", 3 to the right from the leftmost lane is "Lane 2", and so on.
  
  • More often than not, charters drop the "Lane" entirely and opt simply for the lane numbers themselves. For example, if we were to refer to Lanes 1, 5 and 3, we'd shorten it to 153. We will use this type of notation throughout the guide.
• Slider End / Hold End: These two terms refer to the note type that allows you to manipulate the shape of the slider. Since only the final Slider End is where the slider actually ends, the term can be a little bit confusing at first, but you should be able to pick up on context clues quickly.
  
• Freewheel: The default keyboard & mouse control scheme for Spin Rhythm XD.
  
• CTM: Abbreviation for "Click-To-Move", a keyboard & mouse control scheme for Spin Rhythm XD. Due to the nature of this control scheme, there are a number of patterns which become significantly harder to perform on CTM compared to freewheel.
  
• Movement Into Tap: Movement into tap is a somewhat finnicky concept to explain. Essentially, movement into tap is what it sounds like on the tin - a pattern in which the movement leads into a tap, instead of a typical pattern in which the wheel is 'lined up' for the tap.
  
  • This concept exists due to the CTM and Turntable playstyles. Since the input needs to be held in order to move on these playstyles, patterns with movement into tap effectively have more required inputs, or tighter timing windows than on Freewheel.
    
  • As for what constitutes movement into tap, it's complicated. The general rule of thumb is that tap > tap movement is acceptable, while match > tap movement is not.
• Mirroring: Mirroring is the idea of placing notes on the opposite lane (i.e. lane 1 to lane 5 and vice versa). For the most part, patterns play the exact same when mirrored - so oftentimes the screenshot may be of a mirrored variant of the pattern, because we weren't too concerned with taking screenshots of the specific variant we described.

NOTE: This section is a work in progress. The rest of the guide's contents have not yet been updated to reflect this notation method.

Thanks to the user HighCaliberTree, a notation system for describing patterns has been created.

Notation:
L - Lane
T - Tap
H - Hold/Sliders
M - Match
B - Beat
Bh - Beat Hold
S - Spin
Sc - Scratch

/ - Color swap

Stacks would be in parentheses ex. (T1 B)

So instead of writing
Tap 1 > Match 5 > Tap 1 (Colour Swap) > Match 5 > Tap 1 (Colour Swap)
It would be
T1 M5 / T1 M5 / …

If the note type doesn't change, no need to include the letter in front of the number
Streams would be written as
M1 2 3 4 5 ...

We'll start this guide off with a simple but highly versatile pattern, the 151. It's such a simple pattern that its name is quite literally what the pattern is - a note on Lane 1, a note on Lane 5, followed by a note on Lane 1. 151s can consist of any types of notes, really: 151 matches, 151 taps, etc. For example, here's a set of 151 taps:
Appears in:

• Far too many to name. Any chart above XD is bound to have at least one of these.

Variation: Zick Triangle
The Zick Triangle is a type of 151, consisting of Tap 1 > Match 5 > Tap 1. Used often early on in charting, the pattern has fallen out of use due to its inherent movement into tap.
Appears in:

• Religion (Far Too Loud Remix) - Zick407

Subvariation: Extended Zick Triangle
The extended Zick Triangle is the Zick triangle, but with a gap between the Match 5 and the second tap 1. In essence, Tap 1 > Match 5 > [empty] > Tap 1. This gap alleviates some of the issues involving the movement into tap of a Zick Triangle.
The gap can also be filled in with a beat, due to the idea that "beat implies movement": Tap 1 > Match 5 > Beat > Tap 1.
Appears in:

• Λ 02 — Daybreak - juch.
  
• ΛII 01 — Canal - PickPig
  
• Shiny Days - imfallin

The stack consists of a beat and a tap on the same note. Here's an example of multiple stacks in quick succession:
Appears in:

• Again, far too many to name. Stacks are fairly common practice in XD charting - although the example is a bit egregious, to be honest.

The beat tap consists of alternating beat / taps in quick succession.
Appears in:

• Tempestissimo (Uncut) - Stride & Kali
  
• Scattered & Lost - PickPig

The staircase consists of ascending Tap 1 > Match 5 > Tap 1 (Colour Swap) > Match 5 > Tap 1 (Colour Swap)...
Multiple staircases can be chained together - although two Tap 1 > Match 5 patterns is the generally accepted minimum.
Appears in:

• Title - g4
  
• Nanairo Symphony - Stride & imfallin

Alternate Name: Reversal
The reversal swap consists of a movement from lane 1 to lane 5, before a colour swap on lane 5 and reverting back to lane 5. For example, here's a Tap 1 > Match 5 > Match 5 (Colour Swap) > Match 1
Appears in:

• Party in the HOLLOWOOD - Stride
  
• Nemesis - Zick407

The mid swap consists of notes that go 1 > 3 > 3 (Colour Swap) > 5. These can be matches or taps; although taps are the most generally used form of this pattern.
Appears in:

• Ugoku, Ugoku - Stride & imfallin (Tap Variant)
  
• Tropicala - rewardadrawer (Match Variant)

Matchstreams are a broad term used for multiple consecutive matches. These can generally take any form - here's one such example of one.
Appears in:

• Given their loosely defined nature and frequent use in XD charts, far too many to name. While less common than patterns like the 151 or stacks, they absolutely appear regularly in a number of charts and often in vastly different appearances from one chart to another.

Variation: Stride Strings
The Stride string, named after the charter Stride is a ma-I can't really describe it. Just look at it.
Appears in:

• The Blade Chose Me - Kali & juch.
  
• Paradisus-Paradoxum - Stride & imfallin

The Neppy Spin, named after the charter Neppy, consists of multiple consecutive spinners in one direction.
Appears in:

• Unstoppable - Neppy5000
  
• Ghost Family Living In Graveyard - Kali

Henry
Appears in:

• Henry - Henry
  
• Henry - Henry

The Zick spin consists of multiple spinners going in the same direction - interrupted by a movement in the opposite direction. This movement can consist of either matches or sliders (pictured).
Appears in:

• Nemesis - Zick407
  
• Overkill - juch.
  
• Twisted Drop Party - Snepped

The triangle consists of a Tap 1 > Match 3 > Match 5 > Match 1.
Appears In:

• Crab Rave - Slival
  
• Elevatia - dinx
  
• Checkpoint VII: Megadimension Checkpointia VII - PickPig

The inverted triangle consists of a Tap 1 > Match 5 > Match 3 > Match 1; the reason that it's "inverted" is because while the flick occurs at the end of the regular triangle, in this pattern, the flick occurs at the start of the triangle.

Appears In:

• Checkpoint VII: Megadimension Checkpointia - PickPig
  
• Crab Rave - Slival
  
• Down The Road - Banda

Alternate Names: Barrel of a Gun
Rifles are a pattern of linear match movement with a colour swap. It's easier to show rather than tell:

Named after the chart "Barrel of a Gun". There are some tongue-in-cheek names for barrels depending on their length, such as "sawed off" or "Kolibri" but these names are seldom used.
Appears In:

• Barrel Of A Gun - Darnoc
  
• Bad Apple!! - PickPig
  
• YWSS [01] - Say It - kaddalaug & smb

The Ice Cream Sandwich consists of a beat hold with a tap in the middle. No other notes exist within the beat hold - the beat hold encompasses only the tap.
Appears in:

• BUBBLES - PickPig
  
• Scattered & Lost - PickPig

Alternate Names: Showdowns
The sidechain consists of the default slider type from lane 1 to lane 5, before a 90 degree turn back to lane 1.

Appears in:

• Showdown - Daverwob
  
• Fugitive - g4
  
• Manifest - TheWay123

With possibly the most ridiculous and lacking context name of any of the Speen patterns, the Cheeseburger is a versatile and widely used slider pattern.

As for its name? Well, that's a long story. The gist of the story is that one day, the charting community began watching videos of L.A. Beast and his journey in eating canned cheeseburgers. We then learned these canned cheeseburgers were created in Germany, and began to bombard German player and charter TreXDer with requests to eat a canned cheeseburger.

At the same time however, TreXDer was working on a chart and began to use a pattern slowly rising in use but hadn't really been named at the time. He referred to the pattern as a cheeseburger - and the name just stuck.

This pattern consists of curve ins alternating from one side to the other repeatedly. Note that I say side and not any specific lanes, because a common variant to this pattern includes placing the sliders on the outer lanes. The typical version of a cheeseburger is pictured here.

Appears in:

• Renai Circulation - imfallin
  
• p4 - Dance! - Stride
  
• Six Feet Thunder - Programmatic

Alternate Name: Bounce, Bouncy Slider
Ah, the boing. Originally referred to as a bounce, and accidentally renamed after fallin used the term in a dumb meme that caught on, the boing is a simple pattern: it's a slider that curves in to the opposite lane then curves out, ending at the lane it started.

Appears in:

• Bye Bye Yesterday - imfallin
  
• Ugoku, Ugoku - Stride & imfallin
  
• Nanairo Symphony - Stride & imfallin

Alternate Name: Reverse Boing, Reverse Bounce
The Gniob is a silly pattern. Identified and named shortly after the Boing was, and also referred to as a "reverse boing", the Gniob is the opposite of what a Boing is. Where the boing is a curve in into a curve out, the Gniob is a curve out into a curve in.
Appears in:

• Ugoku, Ugoku - Stride & imfallin
  
• Renai Circulation - imfallin

The juch. Swap, named after the charter juch., consists of a tap followed immediately by a colour swap match on the same lane. In other words, the colour swap happens right after the tap.
Appears in:

• Checkpoint v2 - juch.
  
• Connect - imfallin & juch.
  
• Party in the HOLLOWood - Stride

The Stride Swap, named after the charter Stride, consists of a set of matches moving from lane 1 to 5, with a colour swap match in lane 5, followed by a tap. In other words, the colour swap happens right before the tap. Not the best description, but again: pictures tell way more than words.

Appears in:

• Party in the HOLLOWood - Stride
  
• Tempestissimo (Uncut) - Stride & Kali
  
• Nanairo Symphony - Stride & imfallin

The Darnoc Spin is a pattern that's certainly caused quite a bit of discussion. A unique variant of the backwards spin, the Darnoc Spin is a backwards spin but masks itself by telegraphing itself correctly.

Not the best choice of words for what I call a guide that anyone can get into, but pictures are worth a thousand words:



Let's break it down. There's 3 parts to this pattern - the movement right, the tap left, followed by the spin right. Notice how once the right movement stops, you don't need to move the wheel to hit the taps on the left. However, the taps being on the left in the first place indicates to the player they should prepare for a right movement - and the spinner moves right.

Appears in:

• Barrel Of A Gun - Darnoc
  
• PlyPhon - azure
  
• Nerds Trying To Dance - Darnoc

The inverse of a Darnoc is known as a Conrad, or reverse Darnoc. These are few and far between, but they function opposite a Darnoc: where a Darnoc is a backwards spin telegraphed properly, a Conrad is a normal spin telegraphed improperly.