Five Rounds of Progressive Difficulty
In this type of Event of LoveLive! School Idol Festival (LLSIF) rhythm game, it is definitely one of the Events in which it was considered to be the easiest to grind and to progress. So then, what is this Challenge Festival in LLSIF that am I talking about? In this guides and tips post, I am going to show to you some info, as well as on how to play and progress in this Event! Alright, let’s start!
CONTENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- DIFFICULTY COURSES
- SONG ROUNDS
- LIVE SHOW BUFFS
- GAINING AND CLAIMING REWARDS
- LIVE SHOW BUFFS (COMBINATION)
- CHALLENGE FESTIVAL TIPS!
WHAT’S “CHALLENGE FESTIVAL” IN LLSIF?
Challenge Festival in LLSIF rhythm game is one of the types of Events to be encountered, usually, at around the 5th and the 20th days of every months.
The first Challenge Festival Event has been made in the game since March 5, 2016, and has lasted until March 15, 2016, at 3:00 pm JST. The first round (Round 1) has featured the first SR rarity reward, who is Maki Nishikino (Easter Series).
The main objective of this Event is by playing and completing five (5) rounds of songs in a course or series. Once the player has completed all of the songs in a difficulty course, he or she can receive some rewards, such as EXP, G’s, and some Bronze to Gold Tier prizes (Like R-rarity members, Scout Tickets, and Support Skill Up Cards). As the player has successfully completed the song in the first round, the difficulty of the next succeeding songs in the course are progressively becoming more harder and difficult. Especially, if the player is at most Rounds 4 or 5, the difficulty spikes of these songs may occur occasionally. And as usual, the harder songs are at the final rounds of every difficulty courses. And a lot and more better rewards can be obtained upon completing the final round.
But then, the player can be opted to continue or not when he or she has completed the first round. He or she can always collect the rewards at anytime, if they can seem to not complete the next song round in a given difficulty. The player cannot receive anything, if he or she didn’t complete the live show on the very first round, or they can only receive the half Event Points, G’s, and EXP acquisitions (also no Bronze to Gold Tier Rewards upon failure), if they should fail on the Round 2 onwards.
This kind of Event can last up to 8 days, when it is started on the 20th day of the months (Occurs on February, except leap years), and the longest one is at least 11 days (If falling on the months that has 31 days). It also lasts on at least 10 days, if it is started on every 5th day of the months, and on the 20th day of every months (If falling on every months that has only 30 days).
DIFFICULTY COURSES
In Challenge Festival Event, the player can start playing by selecting or choosing a difficulty course. The difficulty courses are classified and categorized according to the difficulty of songs that are featured. Basically, different difficulty courses got a different lineup of songs featured, and they can be changed when an another round of Challenge Festival has occured from time to time, occasionally.
To highlight each course, they can be identified below in this table:
| Difficulty Course | Song Level Bracket | Song Difficulties |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | ★1 ~ ★6 | EASY/NORMAL |
| Intermediate | ★4 ~ ★8 | NORMAL/HARD |
| Advanced | ★6 ~ ★10 | HARD (★6 ~ ★8) / EXPERT (★9 ~ ★10) |
| Extreme | ★9 ~ ★11 | EXPERT only (RANDOM * or DAILY **) |
| Legend *** | ★10 ~ ★12 | EXPERT (RANDOM or DAILY) / MASTER (Round 2 or More) |
| Ultimate *** | ★11 ~ ★12 | MASTER only (includes DAILY **) |
** Daily Songs can be played on your B-Sides per School Idol Group (ex. Mermaid Festa vol. 2 ~Passionate~)
*** Legend and Ultimate Difficulty Courses were introduced since Round 23 Challenge Festival (June 20, 2020)
SONG ROUNDS
Upon beginning a Challenge Festival play, after the Difficulty Course selection, you shall be given a random song set per play (From Round 1 until 5).
On your first round, you shall be having a random song to be played. Then, random character support buffs shall be appearing on your screen. While at least one character may appear per round, up to three characters can appear on every round.
Each character has their own support buffs that can aid you in your Challenge Festival play. They can either allow you to gain more Event Points, gives you a Perfect Support buff (Turns any GOOD or BAD notes into PERFECT notes), or even they can allow you to gain additional EXP and Gs! The rest of them are up to you to discover!
On that screen, you can adjust your LP usage multiplier (Higher LP usage multiplier means more Event Points gain!), as well as viewing the descriptive effects of these character support buffs (By tapping the Bonus Effects button)! The Current Rewards section can allow you to view your current rewards gained during your Challenge Festival playthrough (which include your EXP, G’s, and some Bronze to Gold Tier Item Rewards).
And as mentioned from the intro above:
The player cannot receive anything, if he or she didn't complete the live show on the very first round, or they can only receive the half Event Points, G's, and EXP acquisitions (also no Bronze to Gold Tier Rewards upon failure), if they should fail on the Round 2 onwards.Once you have things ready, you can always hit the START button to start.
LIVE SHOW BUFFS
Upon confirming to play that song round, you shall have to choose any team that you currently have and formed. And then, you shall be brought into the screen in which you can setup before beginning a live show play. These are called as the Live Show Buffs (Live Show Special Effects).
It is just similar to Medley Festival, only it uses some few buffs, in which it can aid you greatly in your scoring output, and in your current progress in the Event.
Once everything is ready, you can tap the start button to begin the live show.
GAINING AND CLAIMING REWARDS
When you successfully completed a live show, you can gain rewards based on your performance. The amount of Event Points gained is influenced through the Score and Combo Ranks that you made in that song, and the usage of your Live Show Buffs (Event Points Up buff and the character buffs that appear at the current round screen). Also, the Yell/Cheer Members that you have used and set can also influence the acquisition of your Event Points gained. And then, the Bronze to Gold-Tier Rewards can be acquired. They are remained hidden as rewards until you finish your current Challenge Festival play, or by hitting the Collect and Quit button to end it.
Meanwhile, EXP and G’s gained can be gained also when you played. Only the Kizuna/Bond Points acquisition can be gained at anytime at every rounds of Challenge Festival plays.
And all of these rewards (except Kizuna/Bond Points) can be acquired when you have successfully cleared all of the Five Rounds of Challenge Festival. Or, you can also get them early by tapping the Collect and Quit button.
LIVE SHOW BUFFS (COMBINATION)
To continue the part from the Song Rounds, let’s talk about the buff combinations in which you can encounter while playing and before you begin your current Challenge Festival song round! In fact, this is the most exciting part of this Event!
To give you some idea, you can get some live show buff combinations, depending on what type of characters (at least three of them) shall be appearing at the Song Round screen. This can depend on their matching costumes, as well as some of their corresponding Student Year Level and their School Idol Sub-Unit name!
When you get a matching costume live show buff combination, you are given an objective to achieve Score Rank S in order to award yourself with that reward! While I am not revealing all of the buff combinations when their costumes match, the above cover picture shows that you can gain additional 10% EXP upon completing the Song Round, and you have achieved Score Rank S.
While it gave you a challenge that you should achieve Score Rank S when you receive that buff combination, how about when it finally gives you a challenge that you should land a Full Combo Finish or have a Full Stamina when you have completed a Song Round?
To answer that question above, you can look at this picture slideshow below (2 pictures), or even looking at the featured image of this post!
These combinations of the live show buffs are way better, and can provide better benefits than the previous one, in which you must need to land a Score Rank S (In which it was way too easy to achieve).
If the live show buff combination is a Student Year Level, you must achieve Full Stamina when the live show ends. But, if it is a School Idol Sub-Unit, then you must achieve a FULL COMBO Finish.
In this table below, if I could memorize them properly, you can identify what are the effects of these combinations, should you encounter them:
| Live Show Buff Combination (Year or Sub-Unit) | Full Stamina or Full Combo | Buff Description | Character Combinations (No particular order) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Year | Full Stamina | LP + 20 | Rin, Maki, and Hanayo (μ’s) Yoshiko, Hanamaru, and Ruby (Aqours) |
| 2nd Year | Full Stamina | EXP + 20% | Honoka, Kotori, and Umi (μ’s) Chika, Riko, and You (Aqours) |
| 3rd Year | Full Stamina | Event Points + 20% | Eli, Nozomi, and Nico (μ’s) Kanan, Dia, and Mari (Aqours) |
| Printemps / CYaRon! | Full Combo | Event Points + 30% | Honoka, Kotori, and Hanayo (Printemps) Chika, You, and Ruby (CYaRon!) |
| Lily White / Guilty Kiss | Full Combo | LP + 30 | Umi, Rin, and Nozomi (Lily White) Riko, Yoshiko, and Mari (Guilty Kiss) |
| BiBi / AZALEA | Full Combo | EXP + 30% | Eli, Maki, and Nico (BiBi) Kanan, Dia, and Hanamaru (AZALEA) |
From time to time, you can encounter these live show buff combinations as you play! Sometimes, not only you can encounter a buff combination when their costumes matched. You can also encounter a buff combination when these character matched, according to their sub-units or year levels! And sometimes, you can have both of them at the same time!
Try to take advantage of these combinations, especially, if you are really eager in grinding more Event Points in this Event, just in order to stay at the top of the Event Points Rank standings!
CHALLENGE FESTIVAL TIPS!
Now that you have read everything above about Challenge Festival, let us go to the tips on how to play on it, as well as on how to grind in the Event efficiently! These points below are some tips! You can read them for reference, but not necessarily that you could follow on what it is being said in every tips of mine! But then, these can somehow aid you in your Event grinding quest until it ends its duration run!
1. Always use your highest LP consumption (LP Usage x 4)
Remember to always use the LP x 4 usage in every Challenge Festival Event Song Rounds, whenever you can. This could consume at least 25 LP per round, and at least 100 LP when you use the LP x 4 usage! Basically, the good benefits of it can allow you to earn more Event Points, especially if you are going to play on higher and harder difficulty courses.Just remember to always watch out for your LP recovery items, and avoid using too much Love Gems to recover your LP, if you have to.
Basically, the recommended base LP that you need in order to grind properly is at least 250 LP (I totally forgot on how many Base Player Ranks that you must achieve in order to reach that maximum base LP, sorry). If you got lower than 200 base max LP, you just have to stack in your current LP, by making your current LP at near full (ex. 171/180 LP), and then using an LP recovery item (100% LP recovery like Sugar Pots, or even a Love Gem). With this method, you can play continuously until your LP runs out. And then, you can repeat this strategy again, by making your current LP at near full, and then making it full again by using a Full LP recovery item again (i.e. Sugar Pots or Love Gems).
And finally, as mentioned from the last sentence in a paragraph, avoid using your Love Gems excessively, especially when grinding higher ranks in this Event. The usage of the LP recovery items, other than Love Gems, are a must here. In order to be prepared in shelling out more LP recoveries than you should, you must do them before at the start of the Event. You must indeed stack up more LP recovery items, and you can always get them by doing your Daily Missions, clearing certain special limited-timed goals, or even purchasing them through from the Rhythmic Carnival Point Shop. Also, doing your daily ranking grind in the Live Arena can allow you to receive some LP recovery items.
2. Choose a Difficulty Course that is easy for you to finish
For the second tip, please do read carefully!
For newbies, it is always recommended to play on a lower difficulty course, if they seem to find it difficult to survive when playing and clearing some harder songs. But then, the newbies can able to play at higher difficulties, when they are able to clear the lower ones without any further difficulties.
Experienced players like me would recommend the new players to play on the Extreme Difficulty Course (All EXPERT difficulty songs). That could be a practicing ground, especially, if the players are attempting to land an FC finish to some EXPERT difficulty songs that they haven’t landed an FC finish yet on their Hits sides. Also, they can able to practice some parts of the rhythm notes formation, wherein they do still have weaknesses with those parts in a song!
While the God/Legend and Ultimate difficulty courses do consume the same LP as in Extreme difficulty course, their distribution of Event Points are far different from each other. In other words, playing on a harder difficulty course can allow you to earn more Event Points, than in Extreme and Legend difficulty courses!
The Legend and Ultimate difficulty courses can allow you to earn almost the same amount of Event Points, during the first until the third rounds of your Challenge Festival play. However, the Ultimate difficulty course can allow you to get tremendous Event Points, when you are in the Rounds 4 and 5! Basically, they can give you around 10-12k points on Round 4, and around 14 up to over 20k Event Points on Round 5! And to compare, the Legend difficulty course can give you around at most 42k points when you completed it, and at least 50k points when you completed the Ultimate difficulty course! Just remember to rest your fingers and thumbs, or go and step down one difficulty, if you can’t seem to finish nor landing some higher up to Full Combo finishes already. And finally, you can always end your Challenge Festival in between, if you can’t handle it, or you can always choose to leave it and continue it later on your next play or login.
3. Take advantage of the Live Show Buffs and Combinations!
There are two things that you should know, when you are taking advantages with these buffs!
First one is your score output of your current teams that you are using in order to place yourself higher in the Score Rankings of Challenge Festival. Remember to always set all of the buffs on (If you have tremendous amount of G’s available) if you have to. For my playing experience, I always set all of them, except the increased Gold Achievement Rewards buff. You must also take advantage of them in order to score higher with your current meta song. The buffs, such as the Perfect Tap Score Up and the Skill Chance Up can really aid you greatly in your scoring capability output. And these can greatly influence your team’s Perfect Tap Score and their Skill Activation Rate chance to trigger their personal skills!
Lastly, the second one to take advantage from is that use those buffs in order to grind more Event Points efficiently! And not only that, it can also allow you to grind more EXP when you try to raise your current Base Player Rank. And also, you can able to use them, just in order to lessen your consumption of your LP recovery items (By landing an FC finish due to the Guilty Kiss buff combination that gives you 30 LP)!
4. Aim for Higher Score Rank!
And this final tip of mine can be optional to do! You just need to score higher in order to stay at the higher ranks in the Event Score Rankings of every Challenge Festival Events! Basically, higher ranks can allow you to gain more and better achievement rewards, when the Challenge Festival ends on its Event duration run!
As I had said before from the last tip above, you should take advantage of the Live Show Buffs that you are encountering, as well as using all of the essential buffs (like Perfect Tap Score Ups and Skill Chance Ups).
And to place higher in the Event Score Rankings, you must play the current meta songs that appear in the featured Challenge Festival Event. These meta songs can appear mostly in the Rounds 4 and 5 of the Ultimate difficulty course! Since these songs are varying from one Round of Challenge Festival to another, it is up to you on which songs that appear should you take on to sustain higher Event Score Ranks!
And as of now, achieving higher Event Score Ranks are a lot more difficult now, given that you should only play the hardest MASTER difficulty song in order to achieve it. And that can be a disadvantage to some newbie fans, who were new in playing in this Event.
THE END!
And that’s it for this post today! I hope that you have learned something, aside from reading it and understanding it!
Just remember to participate in this Event, so that you could have some rewards, and other awesome items, that are relevant to your account’s strength, as well as the strengths of your current team builds!
Cheers and thank you for reading! See you next time in the next topic!
