Roccat Nyth Review

While there have been countless mice that cater to a specific gaming genre or another, no mouse can claim that they’d function well in every genre out there. That is, until the Nyth. True, the Nyth has issues, but it’s the closest thing we’ve seen to a mouse that plays well in every genre conceivable. With 5 fi xed buttons and 12 customizable buttons, the Nyth isn’t a normal mouse. That’s even more evident when you look at the specs of the device. While its 1,000Hz polling rate might make it similar to the Roccat Tyon, the Nyth’s 12,000DPI laser sensor is one of the most sensitive in the world, matched only by Logitech’s Proteus Core. Sadly, one of the drawbacks to the Nyth is that it is wired, which means if the cord gets damaged or malfunctions, cord replacement will not be possible. The biggest draw to the Nyth is its extreme button reconfiguration support.

Weirdly, as customizable as the Nyth is, it doesn’t offer weight customization. While you can offset that to a certain extent with what sidegrips and how many buttons you use, it’s still a noticeable omission. There’s a section on the mouse called the Modular Thumb Zone where you can swap in and out buttons to your heart’s content. The Roccat Nyth has twelve customizable sockets and unlike other mice, you can use any of the twelve sockets at once, none of them or a mixture of buttons to suit your play style. Playing an MMO and need a whole slew of shortcuts for the Hotbar? Plug in all 12 of the thumb zone buttons and never reach for your keyboard’s number keys again. Playing an FPS and need a streamline mouse without extra buttons? Remove all the thumb zone buttons and just use the basic integrated buttons instead. It’s up to you. By the default, the Nyth comes with four different thumb zone button types. Two of them function as buttons and you can mix and match both types. The other two types are simply covers you can use to close the unused sockets in the thumb zone.

On top of that, the Nyth also come with two different sidegrips. There’s a bigger one (with finger rest) for those who prefer larger mice and a slimmer one for those who want their mice small. Both attach securely via magnets and work great, though the bigger one (with the finger rest) does need some getting used to; we kept thinking the finger rest was a mouse button and tried pressing it by mistake. Roccat even offers the ability to buy more buttons or customize your own buttons via its 3D Library service. You can order extra buttons online but if you have a 3D printer, you can just download the plans from Roccat’s site and create them yourself. Sadly, the biggest issue with the Nyth is the buttons themselves. Rather, the buttons tend to get stuck even when released from their sockets. There’s a slider underneath the mouse you push to release all the thumbzone buttons, but most times, a couple of them will get stuck and you’ll have to pry them out.

Also, while the sockets will only accept buttons meant for that particular socket, sometimes getting the right button into the right socket can take some doing. Other than the thumb zone, the Nyth also comes with the Dorsal Fin button (placed right below the mouse wheel) that was last seen on the Roccat Tyon. Also like on the Tyon, we found the Dorsal Fin awkward to use and wished that Roccat had integrated the Tyon’s X-celerator paddle instead. The Nyth also has Roccat’s Easy Shift [+] functionality, which is a modifier button that lets you assign alternate functions to any of the available keys. While the Nyth isn’t exactly short on keys, the option to have more keys without taking up physical space is always welcomed and Easy Shift [+] performs as well on the Nyth as it does on any of Roccat’s previous products. All of the buttons on the Nyth are easily accessible (save for the Dorsal Fin mentioned earlier), though to fully appreciate the Nyth, one has to be a Palm grip user.

While Claw and Fingertip users can still use the mouse, they might find the thumb buttons a bit awkward to hit properly. Needless to say, with the modular thumbzone embedded on the left side of the mouse, the mouse isn’t built for left-handers. Releasing concurrently with the Nyth is the Swarm, Roccat’s newest customization utility which is compatible only with the Nyth now, though should support future products too. While the Swarm is new, setting up the Nyth and customizing it is easily done, thanks to the intuitive menus in the utility. If you’re familiar with other customization utilities like the Logitech Gaming Software or AlienFx, you’ll have no problems with the Swarm. There’s nothing like the Nyth in the market right now. If you’re serious about PC gaming, the Nyth is one of the best mice in the market right now. It’s not perfect, but with its ability to be customized in a boatload of ways, it comes closer than any other mouse has come before functionality-wise.