It’s about using your wits and strategy!
NOTE: This Guides and Tips post is no longer used, since LLSIF has already closed down its game servers since March 31, 2023. Read more for details.
This may be used for referential purposes.
Edited and updated since June 13, 2023.
Basically, I made this post just in order to help my friends out. It is somehow showing some tips on how to play through, as well as on how to survive and to win the LLSIF’s new event mode, the Live Arena.
The Live Arena
This was introduced last November 2020, and it was also featured in the Episode 19 of School Idol Festival Journal Log on IDS. It is somehow a dungeon-crawling or tower-climbing style of Event where you need to beat your rival School Idols to advance progressively! By playing that mode, you can win as much as many Love Gems, SSR Support and Skill Up members, Scouting Tickets, and many more!
Live Sessions
When you do Live Sessions, you can go one-on-one with an another player, and you can choose among with the selection of players given! Successfully completing a Live Show Session shall make your Tension Gauge increase. What is this about? Read the next one to find it out!
Tension Gauge
When you do live shows, and you successfully finish it, your Tension Gauge shall fill up. If your Tension Gauge has been filled up, it shall trigger an Event where a rival School Idol (NPC) shall appear, and you shall have to face her in order to advance through the next stage! This trigger event shall be called as ‘Special Session’, wherein you shall have to go one-on-one with that rival School Idol, and beat her current best score. If you win, you can get her item as a reward!
Tension Gauge can be filled up alternatively by doing normal Live Shows, Rhythmic Carnival plays, or even playing in Events! The game shall notify you if your Tension Gauge is already full.
Special and Dream Sessions
When your Tension Gauge has been maxed out, it shall trigger a Special Session live show match. Remember that doing Special Sessions on these rivals can allow you to progress higher in the event. At the same, it becomes progressively more difficult, so be careful! For every about 10 Special Sessions, it can promote you to a higher category (Novice, Advanced, Expert). Do note that reaching a higher category means more harder challenges, such as reaching the score requirement to clear a Special Session.
As of the current update, since Round 13 Live Arena (Pentas Festival), the number of Special Sessions needed in order to reach Royal Expert Category is now 50, previously from 10, when coming from Expert Category. Previously, when you reach 40 Special Sessions cleared, you can be promoted to Royal Expert Category. And then, with this new update (Season 3), you shall be needing to complete at least 80 Special Sessions to be promoted on that Category!
Round 13 Live Arena: Pentas Festival is a special Live Arena Event, which features collaboration event from an another video game series, called as “Persona Series”.
The current update now requires you to clear at least 50 Special Sessions in order to be promoted into Royal Expert category. When you reached Expert category by clearing at least 30 Special Sessions, you shall be needing at least 20 more in order to be promoted on that category or class!
Since Round 16 Live Arena (February 2022)
In some instances, a Dream Session may trigger in between your completed ‘Live Sessions’ in the Event at a given fixed chance. In Dream Sessions, you can face the higher R rarities (Saint Snow and A-RISE). Beat them to get some currency items in which you can use them to exchange items in the Live Arena Shop! Assuming that all of these Dream Session matches are of MASTER difficulty songs, you have to be better prepared! Arrange everything, including your team, your Live Arena SIS items, and include any Healer, if necessary! And finally, they have a limited time of 30 minutes. So challenge them before they disappear!
Aside from the things in the Dream Session, the Dream Session matches also restrict you from using Love Gems if you fail the live show, as well as only using a team consisting of either µ’s or Aqours (sometimes no duplicate characters are allowed)! Please do note of these perks, aside from your Dream Session opponent lowering your Skill Activation Chances and gradually damaging you overtime during the live show!
To Challenge or Not? Dream Session Matches are Skippable
【LoveLive! SIF】
— INORI DONZ | Inori-D Station (@InoriDONZ) March 7, 2022
＜Live Arena Update＞
You are now given option to skip a Dream Session live show if you have to.
* Notes: Your Cleared Dream Session count won’t be counted on this one.#lovelive #スクフェス #LLSIF pic.twitter.com/g5bfh01f4d
The game shall prompt you if you can skip the Dream Session match or not. You can always have an option to skip it, and return to your current Live Session. The thing is that it is not counted towards your total number of Dream Sessions cleared. It is basically just doing a Dream Session, but you just paused and quit.
Otherwise, you can always do your Dream Session Match, as usual.
Live Arena SIS Items
These new type of School Idol Skills can be only used exclusively in the Live Arena! Also, you can equip these in order to stand up a chance in other players, as well as some Special and Dream Session matches you make! Do note that your normal SIS items that your members are wearing right now has no effect in the Live Arena! You have to use and equip these LA SIS items to strengthen up! Those Skills, such as increasing your Score based on your Total Score made, total number of Stamina overflows, and Full Combo Finishes, are some examples!
There are at least seven (7) types of Live Arena SIS items that you can use. These are:
- Score: Total score gained based from your current score’s percentage.
- Stamina Score: Total score gained based on your current stamina. There are at least two types — One is when you get a full Stamina, and the other is when you reach at least 8 or more Stamina bar overflows. You can get a percentage of your current score when either of these two conditions are achieved (Depends on what kind of Stamina Score Arena skill is equipped).
- Formation Score: Gets a percentage of the Total Score made after a session play, if all of the School Idol members in a group are present. (i.e. μ’s and Aqours only respective groups, no duplicate members)
- Combo Score: Gets a percentage of the current score when a Full Combo Finish is achieved.
- Attribute Score: Total score gained by a percentage, and it depends whether your Team is of Smile, Pure, or Cool attribute. These respective three (3) Arena Skills under this type should be set and equipped on a team that has same attributes (i.e. If your team is all Smile attributes, use LA SIS items for Smile attribute only). Otherwise, if your team is mixed, these do not work.
- Perfect Score: Gets a percentage of your current score, if you achieved at least 50 or more Perfects.
- Combination: Same as Number 2 Skill. But it can only give you a very little score percentage, if you didn’t achieve the condition given at the Stamina Score description above.
How to get these Live Arena SIS items? In order to get them, you just need to do more Live Sessions and beat your rivals in order to get more Live Arena SIS! Also, you need to do scouting on some scouting boxes which give out Live Arena SIS items on some members that you had scouted! With this, you can utilize their LA SIS items for your teams to use! And finally, use the points that you had collected when you do Live Sessions in the Live Arena Shop!
The thing is that your Live Arena SIS items are upgradeable! Do you know on how to make and upgrade these items? Simple, just read the following below along with the pictures in it!
Let us find out on how to upgrade them! Take a look below for some example!
It is important to upgrade these Live Arena SIS items, and have them equipped in your team, in order to progress through properly and easily!
Also, your rivals in the Special and Dream Session matches are carrying some Live Arena items! Be sure to check out of what your rival is carrying! You can see there if she is carrying an item that can gradually damage you overtime during the live show. Sometimes, her other items are hidden from view, and those items like decreasing your Skill Activation Chances for a certain duration are something to watch out!
No matter what the odds are, be sure to equip and check your LA SIS items before beginning a Special or Dream Session match!
Some Tips on How to Survive and Win
There are tips of mine that you can use in order to win the Special Sessions in Live Arena! Though that some of them can be useful, here are some tips of mine in order to stand out a chance!
1. Open more Skill Slots of your URs!
More Skill slots are important in order for you to fit more Live Arena SIS items to your team! It is really recommended that today, you shall be needing a team with full URs, and having all of their Skill Slots fully opened. Just simply remove away your URs that you are no longer using in your team, but don’t remove any URs that don’t give out U Seals (i.e. URs that are obtained from Events, as well as some Promo URs)! But then, you can make use of your Event URs when you try!
You can use your extra U Seals to idolize your URs in your team, and just in order to fully open their Skill Slots for you to fit more Live Arena SIS items into them! If you are well experienced in landing a Tier 1 or Tier 2 in some Events, then you can get at least 1 U Seal from the Events that you had finished! Use them to open more Skill Slots for your URs!
2. Upgrade your Character Skills!
Somehow, your regular SIS items that your teams are equipping (i.e. Princess Charm) don’t work on Live Arena. But, their personal Skills, like Score Ups, Param Ups, etc., are still working. Just simply upgrade their personal Skills, most probably your Score Up type URs. Somehow, you might discover a new meta in Live Arena, wherein Score Up characters aren’t a meta to win anymore. But then, just in order to score more higher, always upgrade your UR’s personal skills!
【LoveLive! SIF】
— INORI DONZ | Inori-D Station (@InoriDONZ) December 18, 2021
What’s the new meta in Live Arena, in terms of LA SIS items? Definitely, it’s not the Orange ones (Dashes, Choruses, etc.) ?
Something that I must need to adapt and master…#lovelive #スクフェス #LLSIF pic.twitter.com/xEAGjaYQMK
3. Swap and Equip!
When you had reached into Expert (30 cleared Special Sessions or more) or Royal Expert (50 or more cleared Special Sessions) category, expect things to get harder. Especially when you had reached Expert category, the available difficulties for you to play are of Expert and Master difficulties only. Royal Expert category is really locking you only into Master difficulty.
When your score isn’t reaching your opponent’s best score, your only hope to win is by Live Arena SIS items equipped into your team! And that only activates when you completed the live show!
So how to be prepared when you go into Special Sessions? For example, if you are facing an opponent in a Special Session, and the song is of Cool attribute, you must somehow unequip your powerful Live Arena SIS items that are equipped from your other team. Then, you must equip them into your current team that you are using to go on against on an opponent which was mentioned on the second sentence of this paragraph!
Same goes when you go on a different attribute, and you just simply unequip and swap! You can also randomize your equip, just to make things easier! But then, if you have many powerful Live Arena SIS items, as time goes by, you may not need to unequip and swap those! But you can use this tip, if somehow you don’t have enough powerful items to plug in to your teams that you are using!
4. Upgrade Your Live Arena SIS Items!
Basically, it is just the previous one that is mentioned above on how to make and upgrade your Live Arena SIS items! If you forgot, then you may read this one again!
It is important to upgrade them in order to stand a chance. As time goes by, these Special Session opponents are getting more difficult than ever! So try making a habit of upgrading everything, given that if you had gathered enough of them to upgrade!
5. Do More Live Sessions!
So then, in order to upgrade your Live Arena SIS items, you must need to do more Live Sessions! You can get these Live Arena SIS items by doing more Live Sessions and be victorious! And aside from getting these LA SIS items upon victory, you could get some Points and you can exchange some items from the Live Arena Shop! Basically, you need these in order to get some powerful Live Arena SIS items, in which you need them in order to make and upgrade more of these in a higher Rank!
By equipping more higher ranked LA SIS items, you chances of winning is also high! Remember that!
If in case that if you don’t want to do Special Session with an opponent, and you wanted to do Live Session instead, you can do this tip! First, try to begin with a Special Session. When the live begins, try quitting the current Special Session live show. When you return, you can do a Live Session! Just take note that you can trigger a Special Session again once your Tension Gauge is full.
Also, your other option here is that when you are facing a Special Session opponent, wherein you shall be be proceeding to the next Stage when you defeated her, there is always an option to select lower Stages or lower Special Session opponents. And that is only available when you have previously completed and defeated them. And then, the selection of the lower Special Session opponents or Stages is only limited within your current Category or Class. If you are in Expert Category, for example, you cannot choose lower Special Session opponents or Stages anymore from the lower Category. Which means, if you are promoted to Royal Expert Category, then you cannot choose a lower Special Session opponent anymore from that said lower Category (Expert). In other words, you can choose lower Stages within your current Category or Class only, should your Tension Gauge has already maxed out.
BONUS: Autoplaying in Live Arena?
No problem! In fact, a lot of my fellows are already asking this same question, when they play at the Live Arena, notably in Live Session plays!
【LoveLive! SIF】
— INORI DONZ | Inori-D Station (@InoriDONZ) January 31, 2022
Autoplaying in Live Arena?
Simple! Just turn on your Performance Check option, namely the Show Results option.
Details in: https://t.co/7VfNTiXQZd#lovelive #スクフェス #LLSIF pic.twitter.com/xmpLaIGrJH
Simple! You just simply turn on your Performance Meter (Performance Check) option, notably your Show Results option! If you want to play that certain song within Live Arena, then you have to play that same song (also on same difficulty) in either of your Hits or B-Sides! When you completed your live show play with that song, with your Show Results setting on, you can finally have the Song Performance Data saved. When you successfully have that Song Data, you can go back to the Live Arena and try again! This time, you can do Autoplay option with that song!
Autoplay option is only available up to five (5) times total, only for Live Session plays. Once you have used up all of your Autoplays, you have to wait until midnight so that it could be reset and you can use them again.
As of Round 22 (Season 4), the Autoplay Count has been increased to 10, previously from 5.
Since July 31, 2022 patch update, and on this Round 22 onward. (Seen last August 2, 2022)
You are always given an option to purchase a Premium Pass (likely Live Support Pass) in order for you to get unlimited Autoplays in Live Sessions in Live Arena!
The End!
So far, these are the tips that I can give to you when you playthrough in this Live Arena mode! Though that some of them are useful, they can help you progress a lot when you do Special Sessions in order to increase your Rank Category! Just remember that always be patient, since these shall work around for at least almost one month, and you can have more time in completing all of the 100 Special Sessions!
Take note! Grinding in Live Arena is not easy. And it shall depend on how stronger your teams are, and also on your rhythm-playing skills.
And this ends my walkthrough or guide on how to survive and win the Live Arena mode! See you in the next topic, and cheers!
Updated since June 13, 2023.
