The Path to All S Rank on Hyper
A rough strategy for beating the PS3 version at Hyper difficulty with all S ranks and getting the true end.
Sauce: http://www44.atwiki.jp/idolmasterim2/pages/104.html
Conditions to Get S Rank
(This wasn’t on the original page but I find it useful for information’s sake)
| Idol Image Level | LV16 |
| High Score | 65,000 |
| Total Song Sales | 5,500,000 (or more?) |
| Highest Chart Position | 1 |
| Retries | 0 |
| IA Awards | All awards (Win the Utahime-Utaōji Festival in each area after getting 150,000 fans in the respective area. The main award you will automatically get if the above conditions are met.) |
Prerequisites
| Prerequisite | Skill |
| Funds | Allow for at least 300,000 |
| Amulets | Sugamo (スガモ), Awanko (あわんこ), Ringamo (リンガモ), Nikuwan (にくワン) Aside from Sugamo, match with your specialisation |
| Costumes | If possible, a complete set (best to have clothes with high power) |
| Accessories | High point items (hoshi or mikazuki series, white cat, etc.) |
| Lessons | Perfect lessons are the absolute minimum requirement but getting the bonus is better. |
| Important Point | This strategy does not rely on reporters, but if you get one, consider it lucky. |
| Important Point 2 | Ignoring the fan count in the Capital Area is assumed. |
From preparing your 1st song up to selecting your 2nd
Recommended reporters: Koshiba(小柴), Yamahara(山原), Ariake(有明)
| Target activity period | Weeks 1 to 10 |
| Number of days where you get a choice | 6 |
| Compulsory events | Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 10: RISING MOON Festival (vs Ryuugu Komachi) |
Model Schedule
| Timing | Activity to carry out | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | *Normal Business + Vocal Lesson | Leader Selection |
| Week 2 | *Super Dance Lesson + Visual Lesson | Member Selection |
| Week 3 | *THE DEBUT National Audition | 1st Song Selection |
| Week 4 | ||
| Week 5 | ||
| Week 6 | National Audition | 1st Song Release |
| Week 7 | ||
| Week 8 | ||
| Week 9 | ||
| Week 10 | *RISING MOON Festival (vs Ryuugu Komachi) |
- First of all, put together your unit. Bursts scores are low at the start, so choose a song with high BPM.
- Score doesn’t matter at the first audition.
- After the first audition, Paid Promotion + Lesson for two weeks. On release week (week 6), go for a National Audition (difficulty 8 or above.)
- Try to get 32,500 points or above at this audition to put the song in the top 50 in the second week of release (week 7.)
- After this, spend the rest of the time until selecting the 2nd release repeating Paid Promotion + Lesson.
- On week 10 you battle Ryuugu Komachi and lose. After this the atmosphere is a bit strained but don’t worry because (unlike the Xbox version) when the next comes, everyone is back to normal.
From preparing your 2nd song up to selecting your 3rd
Recommended reporters: Koshiba(小柴), Yamahara(山原), Ariake(有明)
| Target activity period | Weeks 11 to 18 |
| Number of days where you get a choice | 8 |
| Compulsory events | None |
Model Schedule
| Timing | Activity to carry out | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Week 11 | Paid Promotion + Lesson | 2nd Song Selection |
| Week 12 | Paid Promotion + Lesson | |
| Week 13 | Paid Promotion + Lesson | |
| Week 14 | National Audition | 2nd Song Release |
| Week 15 | Live | Aim for a Keep |
| Week 16 | ||
| Week 17 | ||
| Week 18 | (afterwards) After Communication with the leader (story-related) 1 |
- Immediately announce your new song on week 11
- It doesn’t make much difference from the above schedule but if you see reporter Koshiba(小柴) then it might be good to take an audition or other event in his area.
- If it doesn’t look like he’s going to come, do a Paid Promotion + Lesson for 3 weeks and on release week, take a National Audition (consider it lucky if there is a reporter there.)
- After the release, continue to repeat Paid Promotion + Lessons.
- If you’re aiming to get your 2nd song into the top 20, a high score of 47,000 or above will apparently ensure this.
- If that score seems impossible for you, go for a Live the next week and try for a high score of 43,000 or above.
- Aim for a Keep. If you get it, the song will enter the top 20 on the 3rd week of release.
- Even if it doesn’t, don’t worry. Let’s put our hopes on the 3rd release.
From preparing your 3rd song up to selecting your 4th
Recommended reporters: Yamahara(山原), Ariake(有明), Ataka(安宅)
| Target activity period | Weeks 19 to 26 |
| Number of days where you get a choice | 7 |
| Compulsory events | Week 21: FUJISAN ROCK Festival (vs Ryuugu Komachi) |
Model Schedule
| Timing | Activity to carry out | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Week 19 | 3rd Song Selection | |
| Week 20 | National Audition | |
| Week 21 | *FUJISAN ROCK Festival (vs Ryuugu Komachi) Central Area | (afterwards) After Communication with the leader (story-related) 2 |
| Week 22 | National Audition | 3rd Song Release |
| Week 23 | Live | Aim for a Keep |
| Week 24 | Live | Aim for a Keep |
| Week 25 | (afterwards) Ritsuko comes to talk with you. No After Communication. | |
| Week 26 |
- If your 2nd single did not make the top 20, from here you will move to get into the top 20.
- Go with a personal song of one of your idols.
- Proactively go for festivals or auditions (etc.) which will greatly increase the fan numbers.
- In order to increase sales, it is a good idea to take a National Audition 2 weeks before release (making it two in a row.)
- A week after the release, aim for a Keep by going to a Live (somewhere other than the Capital Area.)
- Once you enter the top 20, start with Paid Promotion + Lesson.
- In Hyper difficulty, Paid Promotion gives you over 40,000 fans so it is highly recommended.
From preparing your 4th song up to selecting your 5th
Recommended reporters: Yamahara(山原), Ariake(有明), Ataka(安宅)
| Target activity period | Weeks 27 to 34 |
| Number of days where you get a choice | 7 |
| Compulsory events | Week 32: ODYSSEY Festival (vs Amagase Touma) |
Model Schedule
| Timing | Activity to carry out | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Week 27 | 4th Song Selection | |
| Week 28 | ||
| Week 29 | ||
| Week 30 | National Audition | 4th Song Release |
| Week 31 | ||
| Week 32 | *ODYSSEY Festival (vs Amagase Touma) West Area | |
| Week 33 | ||
| Week 34 |
- From here on, devote yourself solely to increasing the fan count.
- Of course, go with a personal song of one of your idols again here.
- Taking jobs which add 40,000 or more fans makes this easier.
- If you’re aiming for a Super Break, holding a Quintet Live is good, but difficult. Quintet Lives with a large fan increase have a difficulty of 11 to 12. If you can get a high score of over 50,000 then by all means, challenge some.
- On release week, take a National Audition. On the week after, hold a Live.
- If you get reporter Ataka(安宅) and win a Festival using Sugamo equipment, fan numbers will greatly increase.
- At this point in time there will be areas with a fan count over 150,000, and if reporter Ataka(安宅) is present, take the Utahime-Utaōji Festival.
From preparing your 5th song up to Idol Academy
Recommended reporters: Yamahara(山原), Ataka(安宅), Koshiba(小柴)
| Target activity period | Weeks 35 to 55 |
| Number of days where you get a choice | 18 |
| Compulsory events | Week 41: IA Awards Nomination Announcement Ceremony Week 54: FIRE BALL Festival (vs Jupiter) Week 55: IA Awards Grand Finale ※Week 40: IA Final Selection Audition (for the losers) is not taken into account. |
Model Schedule
| Timing | Activity to carry out | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Week 35 | 5th Song Selection | |
| Week 36 | (night) Fated Ranking Announcement Day | |
| Week 37 | ||
| Week 38 | National Audition | 5th Song Release |
| Week 39 | ||
| Week 40 | (afterwards) After Communication with the leader (story-related) 3 | |
| Week 41 | *IA Awards Nomination Announcement Ceremony | |
| Week 42 | ||
| Week 43 | ||
| Week 44 | ||
| Week 45 | (afterwards) After Communication with the leader (story-related) 4 | |
| Week 46 | ||
| Week 47 | ||
| Week 48 | Festival | Aim for a Break |
| Week 49 | ||
| Week 50 | ||
| Week 51 | ||
| Week 52 | ||
| Week 53 | (afterwards) After Communication with the leader (story-related) 5 | |
| Week 54 | *FIRE BALL Festival (vs Jupiter) | |
| Week 55 | *IA Awards Grand Finale |
- Now we make a move to get over 150,000 fans in all areas except the Capital Area.
- When you arrive at this point, don’t forget to take Utahime-Utaōji Festivals
- Most likely, assuming you don’t get a Super Break, at this point Jupiter or Ryuugu Komachi’s new song will be taking up 1st and 2nd positions on the chart.
- If you do well, even after beating all Utahime-Utaōji Festivals there will still be 7 weeks remaining.
- Aim for 1st place sales (Most likely, even if you achieve a Keep, if you don’t reach about 1,900,000 sales you won’t make it.)
- As for lessons, get your Image Level to 16.
- Next, 10 weeks after your 5th release, in order to get a Break, challenge Festivals.
- It is recommended to do this in an area where reporters Yamahara(山原) or Ataka(安宅) are present.
- It might be good to go for a Revival of your 4th song, but Ryuugu Komachi’s total sales are 2,900,000 so there is a chance you won’t make it. (Ryuugu Komachi’s new song comes out on week 45 so if you do the Revival in weeks 43-44, you can get to number 1 before them.)
- If the 5th song gets a Break you will easily exceed 4,000,000 sales and easily get number 1.
- It may be trouble, but if it hadn’t made it by week 52 there isn’t enough time, so in that case, reload the game.
- Week 52 is the showdown with Jupiter so up until week 53, keep doing Auditions and Lives and the like, and aim for a high score of 65,000. To get an S Rank in Hyper difficulty you need a high score of over 65,000, so don’t forget this.
- The type of player who plays Hyper difficulty can get quite a high score so if you have already made it, feel free to do lessons (consider it preparation for when there will not be any time to take any)
- If you’ve come this far, Jupiter will be small fry, so even without using Sugamo you should be able to win easily. But to be absolutely sure you won’t lose, use Sugamo.
- With this, after accepting all awards at IA, the Producer Assessment will be All S Rank
Summing Up
- In the end, this is just one way to do it. I’m sure there are many other ways. Take this guide to be just one method.
- Finally, I will append my own data at time of getting the All S using this method:
- Idols: Leader Chihaya, Takane, Hibiki
- Image Level: 16
- Total Song Sales: 8,600,774
- Top Sales for Single Song: 4,426,627
- High Score: 72,236 Pts
- Retries: 0
- Division Awards, IA Awards: All Won
- Convenient to remember:
- Week 10 - 1st Festival with Ryuugu Komachi
- Week 21 - 2nd Festival with Ryuugu Komachi
- Week 32 - Festival with Touma
- Week 41 - IA Nomination Event
- Week 54 - Festival with Jupiter
- Week 55 - IA Grand Finale