Windmill

Despite the intimidating 246 BPM on paper, "Windmill" is at heart a melodic piano number. It arrived in Pump It Up 2013 FIESTA 2 with the 1.40 update and, judging by its title and mood, is generally taken to be a successor to EZ2DJ AEIC's "Wind Tales." Its BGA, animated by Coffee milk, tells a small love story: a dog falls for a cat resting on a drum, is rebuffed several times, and finally wins her over with a date at a windmill. Coffee milk's charming, lovingly drawn animation made the BGA a fan favorite, and the couple's names, Wonder & World, were later revealed through the XX avatars.

S8 is defined by a slow but firm siderun in its middle section; though the high BPM looks scary, the chart leans on freeze notes and plays easier than expected, with that side twist being the main obstacle to a break-on. S13 is built almost entirely from eighth-note drills with simple patterns, feeling closer to an 11 or 12 and serving as good stamina practice. S17 is where twists first appear in earnest, at very high BPM but with deliberately moderate intensity. S21 is the standout: its twist run in twelfths works out to roughly 184 BPM in sixteenths and fully earns its rating. Charter EXC has cited Windmill S21 as an example of a well-crafted high-level chart.

D14 expands S13 into Double, adding weight shifting on top of the simple patterns, while D18 mixes crab-legs and drills and sits at the low end of its level. D23 is the famous one: its break-on stretch (1:20-1:32), clearable with a doublestep trill, pioneered a pattern type that became common across many charts after Prime 2, to the point that players call it "the Windmill section." Up through Prime 2 it was rated 24, considered one of the easiest 24s alongside Passacaglia. Two special charts also exist: a quest-zone D24 added in Prime 2 2.03 that swaps the doublestep for a sixteenth-note run, and a mission-zone S23 from XX 2.00.0 by EXC, a branching chart that gives either a drill version or a run version depending on the first note.