The Path to Perfect Domination of Idol Academy

A guide to becoming a great producer in one play-through, getting the Good End

Producers who end up getting the Bad End might wonder what they did wrong. It will not be the case that you didn't understand fundamental system in the game manual. Rather, in most cases, your high score is simply not high enough.

High scores are the most important component of the equation that determines CD sales, so even if your fan counts are low, if your score is high, you can achieve just enough sales to enter the Top 10.

The value of an additional 10,000 points of high score is comparable to the value of an additional 84,000 ~ 100,000 fans.

Also, by getting into the Top 50 and Top 20, the grade of work you will be offered will increase and it will become easier to gain more fans.

Including the week where you select the song during morning greetings, on the night of the 4th week, you can see the results of the CD release. During those four weeks, it is necessary to pursue high scores.

To summarise, what you should remember is, after you have decided on the song to release, for those four weeks, take auditions and lives and aim for a high score.

The value of increasing your score

Your position in the sales rankings will increase
Your highest score itself is also a factor in your producer evaluation
Even if your unit is low level, you can still succeed at high difficulty stages
Battles at festival events will become easy

If you can increase your score, this resolves most problems. Thinking about how you can do this might be the most definite means of progress in Idolmaster 2.

What to do to increase your score

Research tactics for getting higher scores on stage
Become able to get consecutive perfect appeals
- Search for and memorise the songs which you find easy to do
Gather costumes, accessories, amulets and money, which all persist across games
Take lessons

The most basic components of those above are researching tactics and improving technique.

Search for tactics and songs which suit you, purchase equipment which match and decide on a policy for training your unit.

For example, for high level players trying to drive up high scores, high BPM songs, "MEGARE!", "キラメキラリ", "GO MY WAY!!" are good, but other than challenging difficult songs and making some mistakes, it is also the case that players who search for songs they find easy and practice them can get high scores.

Trying out songs which many people regarded as "easy to hit" in the previous games such as "relations" is another way.

Depending on the kind of stage tactics you use, the effective amulets will change.

Aside from strictly pursuing high scores, it is also important to find a simple means of earning points.

Personally, I think that motivation to constantly continue to improve your high score makes things easy.

(Please also refer to Stage Performance Tactics.)

Scheduling early in the game

Note: this section contains Xbox 360-specific information. It is still useful as a guide, but various tips do not apply to the PS3 version.

Well, let's put up a practical schedule for use in the opening game.

This schedule has a high sense of stability, and is one of the patterns suitable for any purpose.

Week 3: debut national audition (1st release announcement)
Week 4: paid promotion + lesson
Week 5: paid promotion + lesson
Week 6: area audition (1st release)

If you don't have enough money, switch out the paid promotion for a super lesson or regular promotion. It doesn't matter if you replace the audition on week 6 with a live, but if you can, it's probably a good idea to choose the area you chose for the paid promotion in week 4.

If you manage to get a score of around 29,000 before the audition on week 6, it is possible to get the first single into the Top 20.

High level players can get a score of around 33,000 on the debut audition on week 3, but aim to get a high score by training as much as possible until week 6.

By inserting two paid promotions between the two auditions, the required score to enter the top 20 decreases to around 27,000. On top of that, even if you can only achieve a score of around 25,000, by holding a live on week 7 and achieving a keep, it is still possible to reach the Top 20.

As for difficulty level, if you have enough skill to get a song into the Top 20 at this point, it is roughly the same difficulty to get an S rank for high score in the final evaluation.

If you have the confidence to reliably get into the top 20 then on week 6, rather than taking an area audition, it is possible to take a national audition instead. Auditions which can be taken at this stage in the game will vanish once your position in the charts increases, so you might as well use them up while you can.

Note: scheduling-wise, even if you fail to make the Top 50, it's possible to reload and try again.
Note: for costume and accessories, you should choose items with a high bonus. Amulets depend on preference, but decay rate down amulets are recommended.
Note: during the audition, try to get all PERFECT to gain a higher chain bonus.

Using the score as a reference to how you are likely to finish up:

1st single in the Top 20: All S evaluation
1st single in the Top 50: All IA area awards
2nd single in the Top 50: IA Grand Prix plus all IA area awards

If you just can't get high scores, you should, for the time being, use the IA Grand Prix as an objective, aiming for a score which will just get you into the Top 10. Once you have enough skill to get some later release into the Top 10, you should not feel any difficulty getting your first single into the Top 50.

In addition, you should narrow down the areas in which you perform activities and aim to win as many area awards as possible.

In the case of aiming to win all IA area awards, one target is to shorten the schedule by using journalists wisely. If you reach the point where you're able to earn better scores on-stage, the additional freedom will show effects in your schedule as well.

Below is a sample schedule up to week 10:

Week 7: Live (aim for a keep, get reporter Koshiba)
Week 8: Lesson + Super Lesson
Week 9: Lesson + Super Lesson
Week 10: vs. Ryuugu Komachi (Koshiba leaves)

Assuming that you were able to get a score close to 30,000 points by week 6, on the night of week 8, the sales total should be high enough to get you into the Top 20.

But if at this point in time you are still not even in the Top 50, it doesn't make much difference.

Week 11 is the week of the second release, but the mood of the unit will be strained (TL note: not in the PS3 version.) With restoring their enthusiasm as a top priority, put together a schedule to allow getting a high score on week 14.

If you have no confidence that you can escape from the low enthusiasm, it might be okay to put the release off for a bit.

At this point, if you want to take an audition for the sake of recovering their enthusiasm, the increased difficulty due to being in the Top 20 can make it a close game, so some care is necessary.

If you cannot maintain fans or their attention

Perhaps you find yourself doing activities all over the place?

6 areas with 50,000 fans and attention rate in the pink and 3 areas with 100,000 fans and attention rate in the pink are equivalent, so it becomes easier if you narrow activities down to 2 or 3 areas.

To put it simply, until you're preparing to raise the fan count in order to clear the festival for that area, it is no problem if you ignore all the other areas completely. It's fine even if the attention rate turns blue. The decrease in sales and fan count for areas with a fan count of 300 or so is not so large.

If the attention rate falls in areas with a large fan count, you should take a national audition to quickly recover the attention rate.