THE iDOLM@STER 2 Gameplay Thread

[Sparkle Pipsi]

Yeah I have to say I thought Hyper would be waaay worse than it was... xD;; That said, I ended up giving up trying to get a revival and finished with all but one S... >.<;; I got an "A" for only getting to #2 on the charts, sob, haha. But oh well, probably still not bad for my first hyper mode playthru! I'm guessing I could have pushed for perfect but I was getting tired of resetting (one can only take so much Shiny Smile...) and just wanted to get my burger hands already... xD

It's kinda lame that such a large part of the game relies on an extreeeeemely low chance to trigger a status... I guess if I had scored better earlier on I might not have had the problem, but still ^^;;. At least I got a lot of practice at getting perfect scores on songs from all those resets, hah!

[mariokirby]

This may be off-topic but... Okay, I am at week 6 and I have a couple of questions...

1.  On Week 6, you are suppose to do a National Audition, but on the Schedule Screen, how can I tell if the Audition is an Area or a National?

2.  Out curiosity, I tried to do a Festival on Week 5, but the rival I was facing scored about 33,000 points and my Idols can only score up to 8000 points with almost perfect appeals.  I think festival might have been a really high difficulty one, but still that is quite a big gap in the score between the Rival and my Idols.  Is there something that I am missing?

[JNiles]

National auditions have a different color.  You can't miss 'em.

[Funkies]

2.  Out curiosity, I tried to do a Festival on Week 5, but the rival I was facing scored about 33,000 points and my Idols can only score up to 8000 points with almost perfect appeals.  I think festival might have been a really high difficulty one, but still that is quite a big gap in the score between the Rival and my Idols.  Is there something that I am missing?

Festivals are really out of the question early on.  At the beginning you really don't have enough Memory Appeals to stack up against most opponents.  If they have more appeals they'll gain Voltage far quicker than you can.  When you're out and they have plenty left, you'll more than likely be shut out of a Burst Appeal for the rest of the performance.  You can do likewise to the opponent later on when you have high enough stats and plenty of Memory Appeals.  Also Burst Appeals are few and the scores are rubbish until later, and they really add up later on.

RK at FUJISAN ROCK is usually the first Festival you'll actively participate in, even if it's a story-related event.  I'm sure if one were to push Lessons/Promotions exclusively they could stack up earlier but that's up to the player.

[Daverost]

You pretty much need two games through for all the high-end gear to be able to tackle festivals near the beginning. Otherwise your stats just won't be high enough at that point.

[mariokirby]

National auditions have a different color.  You can't miss 'em.

I'm sorry, but what does it mean by different color?  Are National Auditions suppose to be a different color?  How am I suppose to tell if the Audition I am choosing is a National one?

[Cael K.]

I'm sorry, but what does it mean by different color?  Are National Auditions suppose to be a different color?  How am I suppose to tell if the Audition I am choosing is a National one?

Can't remember what color they were, but they increase your fans in every area whereas area auditions don't, right? Remember the icon on the map (or in the description) and its color when you select the audition, and see what happens after you pass.

National auditions... probably have 全国 in the name. That's from memory, though.

[TheTanStar]

The colour of the icon is a bronze/brown. The number of fans indicated is also lower due to the gain being spread over all the regions.

[mariokirby]

Okay.  So I want to do the Two Stat Strategy.  I want the main stat to be Vocal since Chihaya seems to be very good at it.  So what should the secondary stat be if the main one is Vocal?

[Sparkle Pipsi]

Okay.  So I want to do the Two Stat Strategy.  I want the main stat to be Vocal since Chihaya seems to be very good at it.  So what should the secondary stat be if the main one is Vocal?

For a Vocal team you'll want Visual as your secondary stat. Appeal to Visual to raise your Vocal multiplier, then appeal Vocal. Rinse, repeat. =)

[mariokirby]

Okay, so if I use Visual Appeals, the Vocal Appeal will increase.  But then how do I recover the Visual Appeals?  Do I use the Dance appeals even though my two stats are Vocal and Visual?

[Naryoril]

You recover the visual multiplier by using burst appeals, but only later in the game. Early in the game you actually loose points by bursting (though you should always burst on the very last appeal "slot" of a song). And no, you don't use dance appeals.

[mariokirby]

I have a few questions...

1.  Okay. so basically I should keep on using the Visual Appeal, and then once the Vocal appeal multiplier becomes large enough, I should switch to Vocal appeal.  So my question is when should I switch to Vocal Appeals? Do I switch once the multiplier becomes x1.50?

2.  I did the National Audition on week 6, afterwards the idols were outside.  They said something and then I was given two choices.  What is that decision all about?  Is it shopping?

3.  For some reason, during the evening on Week 6, after I have done the National Audition and the shopping, the idols came back to the office looking pretty sad.  I don't get it.  I got in first place in the Audition.  I am always nice to Chihaya, so how come they looked sad and even sound sad when they return back to the office?

[Naryoril]

I have a few questions...

1.  Okay. so basically I should keep on using the Visual Appeal, and then once the Vocal appeal multiplier becomes large enough, I should switch to Vocal appeal.  So my question is when should I switch to Vocal Appeals? Do I switch once the multiplier becomes x1.50?

2.  I did the National Audition on week 6, afterwards the idols were outside.  They said something and then I was given two choices.  What is that decision all about?  Is it shopping?

3.  For some reason, during the evening on Week 6, after I have done the National Audition and the shopping, the idols came back to the office looking pretty sad.  I don't get it.  I got in first place in the Audition.  I am always nice to Chihaya, so how come they looked sad and even sound sad when they return back to the office?

1) Afaik there are 2 common methods:
a) Bring your main appeal multiplier to 1.50 and then keep spamming this appeal until you burst, rinse and repeat. The advantage of this method is that you use your main appeal (and thus the highest stat) as much as possible. It's also the easier one to perform.
b) Bring your main appeal multiplier to 1.50 and try to keep it there. If and when you decide to burst, just repeat the process. The advantage of this method is it also works without any problems on songs with a lot of appeals even if you only burst on the very last appeal. And it keeps your main multiplier very high which is useful when you burst, especially if you don't have a 2/2/6 burst pattern, you hardly loose any points even with a 2/4/4 burst pattern.

Personally i use a simplified version of b). Every 6th (iirc, i admit, i haven't played in a while) appeal i make is from my secondary stat and brings my main stat multiplier back to 1.50. It's simplified because i waste a bit of multiplier gain. Optimally you'd use the secondary appeal at the moment where the main multiplier would go as high as possible without going over 1.50 (in theory), but that may like 7th appeal, 6th appeal, 6th appeal, 7th appeal, 7th appeal and so on (i never really tried it). If you do it on every 6th you don't waste much and you can get into a nice rythm. And this method is good enough to win everything in the game.

2) Yes, if you choose the "right" answer you get the opportunity to buy the charm of this area. you only get the this choice if you don't have the charm of that area yet.

3) Maybe you neglected the other Idols by focussing too much on Chihaya. What's the unit status? See here if you don't know what i mean

[Daverost]

1) Which you use should be based on how far along you are in the game and if you have decay rate amulets. Early game, if you have an amulet, your focus should be on your main stat. Trying to maintain a 1.50x multiplier means using your weak secondary appeal and costs you points. It's better at that point to hit 1.50x and just use your main until a burst. Actually, if you have an amulet, you probably just shouldn't burst at all since bursting early game costs you points, too.

If you don't have an amulet, it's trickier. I guess you can try to maintain your multiplier, but that's not easy to do. Honestly, for your first game, through, I'd recommend balancing all stats and picking up the three decay rate amulets. This minimizes point loss until you can focus on two stats, which you should do from every game after that. If you're balancing all three, just appeal in order. I wouldn't bother bursting for a while.

I can't really remember when bursting becomes useful. Maybe around the halfway point (after the second forced festival)?

2) As stated, it's for amulets. I wouldn't bother with these until the second half, when your schedule tends to be a lot more open since you don't have lessons to worry about. You'll probably be running a lot of performances for money at that point anyway, so just look out for the ones that have the amulets you need. (You'll want the three decay rate amulets and at least one of the two voltage increasing amulets, if not both.)

3) I'm not sure if it is, but if it's an issue of treatment, do your best to spread your focus. Honestly, I've had zero trouble even when I make my main idol do jobs before anyone else and always pick them for janken at night when given the option. The key is in the morning communications. Always make the two support idols happy (which means always picking your main idol), even if it means ticking off your main idol. Even if you only focus on them indirectly in the morning, their affection will eventually be high enough for them to start participating in the nightly conversations before they leave.