Superstar SMtown Game Guide (updated 2-28-15, added amber, some revisions)

CURRENT EVENT:

2/28 Amber event: Free R, S, and A (you can only collect once on your acc, but the exp for the messages is two days)

PSA, messages expire, just open them whenever you get a new one. All events are in Korea’s time zone (kst), please take note of this.

Past noteworthy events: http://choiceswag.tumblr.com/post/104030450729/event-post

Click on my guide tag if you would like to see other guides I have written about the game :) also check out the superstar smtown reddit for more resources/discussion about the game.

What is Superstar SMtown? It’s a rhythm game with SM songs and idol cards you can collect for more points on your songs. You goal is to rank the highest and collect the highest grade of cards. Similar to Tapsonic but with better mechanics/controls.

This guide is written under a non-iap aka free player perspective, but I included info about how to spend money at the end of the guide.

Tumblr Username List: http://choiceswag.tumblr.com/post/105187846244/superstar-smtown-tumblr-username-list

Line group: Send me an ask, must know korean alphabet and must be a follower (I follow back) Currently 40+ members

Idols that play this game:

Chanyeol’s id: real_pcy

Taeyeon’s id: ggtaeyeon39

Jonghyun’s id: 존횬이양

(If you are not a beginner/playing this game already, you can ignore the If This is Your First Time Playing part)

my id is G드래곤 if you happen to see me on your weekly player chart :)

Android Download using Qooapp: http://download.qoo-app.com/apk/release/jpapps/com.qooapp.jpapps-10302.apk Install and open Qooapp, you should be able to find Superstar SMtown once you open, otherwise search for it under Korea. Use Qooapp to update the app when needed.

iOS:

New Features:

gifting: You have the option to gift when you buy a normal or premium packs or headphone/rp purchases. Choose the packs and gift your friends or gift yourself :)

how to gift packs to yourself aka reroll: http://choiceswag.tumblr.com/post/108695647789/how-to-reroll-by-me-it-shows-me-deleting-an-acc

Terms (+technical information):

rhythm points: in game currency you get for completing songs. Do not waste diamonds on this. rp for short

cards: the things with the idols pic on them. The grades range from C to Royal. The two stats are Score (how many points per beat), and Energy (which is how much rave/energy boost you get from hitting a beat). Stat distribution appears to be random, some cards can be inferior/superior in one or both stats even if the exact same card theme/grade/member/star level.

Royal is best grade, 5* is the max powerup. Two 5* same grade cards of the same member can be upgraded to one higher grade card. (example: two 5star B Tao cards, can be different themes-> 1star A Tao card). If someone leaves SM and is no longer in the game (ex: Luhan or Jessica in the future), a random replacement card will be in your inventory with the same grade and stars as the removed card.

Normal cardpacks can give out S cards, but it is extremely rare. It is less then 1% (my estimate is 0.1%). Getting an A card is about ~1% chance in a 5 pack. Usually you get one B/4Cs ratio unless you are lucky. It does not matter which normal pack you get. Premium guaranteed at least 1 S.

diamonds: premium currency. Can get with $$$, by placing in the top 3 in your weekly player chart, through events, or some maintenence or app updates. Use diamonds only on premium cardpacks. Very wise to save diamonds, only use them on premium cardpacks.

headphones: 1 headphone for each song play, you get a headphone every 5 minutes. If you move up/down a place, you get a headphone.

challenge mode: after you beat all the songs in easy/normal/hard, you unlock challenge mode. challenges are based off your high score for that song (up to 10,000 more than your high score) and you have up to 3 tries. If you win, you get a C card, 1 headphone, and 2500-5000+ rp. Challenges reappear after 4-6 song plays. In the most recent patch, failed attempts will yield normal rp amount.

rank: You start off at Bronze I, highest is Platinum III. You move up a rank by placing in the top 5 during the week. 16th-20th place drops a rank. Middle places get rp, the rp and diamonds given becomes higher as your rank gets higher. Strategically get a bad place to lose a rank if you are having problems getting diamonds.

Snipers: some people who keep their scores low on purpose or are really competitive and then take top 3 last minute. They are more common in the higher ranks. Very annoying, but effective strategy.

Reroll: creating new accounts to either gift yourself packs or to make new alt accs. Very effective strategy that is faster than grinding songs. See my other guides/watch my video. You later sell cards for rp or use cards for powerup fodder/upgrades.

Card rotation-Each card and its usage per song is randomized each play. Some positions are better than others and can yield significantly better scores (example in Twinkle, the card played third has the highest scoring potential/highest exposure to beats so you want your highest grade card to be played 3rd).

There is no way to manipulate rotation, the best strategy is to keep playing the same song over and over until you find the ideal scoring rotation and hit a high score. Each song varies in ideal rotation because of different beatmaps.

iap: in-app purchase. non-iap: free player whale: heavy spender

If this is your first time playing/new account:

-If there is a current event with a free R/S card message, make sure you start out with a 3 card group like R card TTS or BoA. Check the tier list at the end of this guide.

-Go to My info/click on your username, Register your account so you get a 5 card premium pack. This should contain a S card. I would start with a 3 card group (check the tier list at the end of the guide, pick a bolded group)

-Complete Easy mode first, don’t try to play perfectly. A trick to 3 star all easy mode songs and still get a terrible score is to use all four fingers and tap very quickly and continuously (you will get mostly goods, but still pass the song with 3 stars). Unlock challenge mode and grind it for rhythm points.

-Challenge Mode is based off your last high score, therefore score low, then when it’s challenge mode, no pressure.

-If you can handle Hard mode, I would aim to complete all of Hard mode first. I would not attempt Hard mode unless you are good at this game already or you have significant amount of B/A/S fx/shinee/dbsk/suju cards.

-Hard mode does seem really fast at first, but your eyes and fingers adjust eventually. Once you complete hard mode, grind hard/challenge mode, save up rhythm points until you get more card packs.

-Weekly ranking judged by your top 5 song plays from your top five GROUPS. Exo-K/M are considered separate groups.

Tips:

DO NOT SELL ANY OF YOUR A/S/R CARDS.

Turn off group card sorting for powerups, if you don’t know how to do that, read the in game faq. Faq has good basic info, but is very limited.

Once you have a good supply of cards, start powerups.

Powerups/upgrades should be opportune aka when attempting challenge mode. If you set a high score too high, some powerups can do the trick. About 10,000-50,000 for every extra *, upgrade from B to A can lead to up to 100,000+ more.

You build themes based on your R/S/A cards, upgrading is a good way to get the themes that you want for your group. Keeping at least one A/B card for every theme for that group member is a good rule of thumb until you decide what theme you want

Advanced play: (mechanics and strategy)

Scoring

There is super perfect, perfect, good, and miss (super perfect=2x perfect (yellow) =1x, Good=1/2x, lowers rave). Make sure you adjust your timing every so often, sometimes your reaction speed/beat hearing can change as you play the game. Make sure you play enough to get good card rotation.

Super perfect (sp) is affected by how well you hit the precise center of the white circle, if you can hit the center of the beat consistently (once you find the ideal position for hitting sp), it will help in getting more sp.

All songs have the same scoring potential, you want a good grinding/easy song.

How to powerup cards:

R81+: Use R

R71+: Use 5 star S until R81?

R51+: Use 5 star A or S until R71?

R21+: Use B5star or 5starA until you get to a high level until R51

R11-21: Use 5 star B

R1-11: use 1 star C (40%) or 5 star B (60%)

S 3star and above: Use B 1 star.

S to 3 star: Use 1 star C until S is 3 star. Sometimes you can get to S4 with Cs.

A and below: Use 1 star C

DO NOT sell RARE A/S/ROYAL DUPES. Use them for R powerups later on

Upgrading costs 5,000 rp from C to B, 10,000 from B to A, 20,000 A to S. S to royal upgrade: two 5 star same member S cards, rp cost is free.

Cards:

Focus on three card groups with S/R cards. All songs have a potential to reach 3,000,000+ with all R1. S cards can have 90-99 for their final stats. It is random how each S card’s stat’s will end up in the end. Keep all extra S cards and get them to 5 star to see if there are any beneficial stat changes.

Card stats> theme. For example, you just got A card Kai, but it throws off your entire group theme (you have a B card Kai right now). Replace your B card, always replace with a higher grade card if that is one of your top 5 groups. Themes contribute about ~100,000 max, but having stronger cards affects your score much more.

Scoring stat is the most vital stat if you have no problem beating songs.

Strategy once you beat the game:

Always play hard mode, but make sure you beat all the normal/easy songs so you can get those C cards.

Have a song or two you can repeatedly play for rp. This song should be in a 3 card group (ex: BoA), be easy for you to complete perfectly, and have your strongest grade cards (preferably all S).

Have the same 5 songs you know you can beat easily/perfect for your ranking. These songs should be from 5 groups with the highest grade cards and should be ones you like bc you will use these songs to grind rp before challenge mode. This way you only have five high score to worry about for challenge mode instead of 100+.

Focus on powerup/upgrading your top 5 groups only.

Save minimum 20,000 rp in case of a challenge that you can’t beat bc you accidentally scored too much or it’s one of your top 5 songs. Use your saved rp for powerups to beat the challenge easier.

Strategy to get more headphones/diamonds/rp:

Save up diamonds to buy the bulk 30 pack bc it is much cheaper this way. Diamonds should be bought in bulk and on sale if you plan on spending money. Diamonds should only be used to buy premium cardpacks for early game (before Gold III). Premium packs guarantee 1 S per 5 cards.

If you have trouble placing in the top 3, drop a rank by neglecting to play the game for a week, or by playing only one song, completing random challenges, and hoping that others in the same rank overtake you so that you end up in the bottom 5 places.

It can actually be difficult to drop a rank if you play daily, so not playing for a few days is the best option. Dropping ranks, then taking 1st the next week takes twice as long to get diamonds, but it is a good option if you are struggling.

Headphones, the best way to get them is to snipe imo.

RP allocation/priority should be your number 1 group. You should work on getting one group to R asap. The base rp for hard is about 530-600, so getting at least 900 rp consistently will help your progress considerably as well as provide good scores for ranking.

Challenge Mode Strategy: (still in progress)

Focus only on your top 5 groups (5 songs only) and do not waste rp on other groups. Score as low as possible without failing on new songs and unequip all cards in that group unless the song is on a high difficulty. Swapping out and unequipping cards will help set your scores low. If you get a challenge that happens to be a top 5 song of yours, powerup/upgrade that group and the challenge should be beatable.

What is Hidden Track aka Hitchhiker’s 11?

The hardest song in the game, it shows up randomly after a challenge (whether you pass or fail the challenge, it does not seem to matter). It shows up 0.13% after a challenge.

If you beat it, it is NOT unlocked permanently and there is no special reward currently. It is essentially a bonus stage where you get 500-600 rp after the song clear and you can brag about clearing the hardest song in the game. Very rare to appear and it is currently unknown how to collect Hitchhiker cards.

Group Tiers (best to worst):

SMtown, Amber = 1 theme only

Kyuhyun/Jonghyun/Zhoumi - two theme 3 card groups

BoA/TTS/Henry/Taemin (3 card groups, 3 themes)

f(x)

TVXQ

Shinee

Red Velvet

Exo-M

Exo-K

Super Junior-M

SNSD

Super Junior

The tiers are based on amount of cards in group, song difficulty, song list, difficulty to collect a single theme, and misc factors.

Why is Shinee/fx/tvxq higher up than Red Velvet? Those groups tend to have harder song difficulties. If you have no problem with hard songs, Red Velvet is just below TVXQ in terms of potential.

Tiers r 4 queers aka you should play this game for fun and you should build up your cards/groups based on the S/A cards you got. It is easier to build up card grade/theme for 3 card groups to get higher scores so I suggest that at least three of your top5 groups should be 3 card groups.

Though if you want to save rp and time in the long run, investing in all 3 card groups is really important.

Hardest songs to beat (this is personal preference, but from my experience): hitchhiker 11, fx airplane, shinee ring ding dong, fx step, shinee lucifer, tvxq dream, suju knockout, fx sweet witches, suju bonamana, rest of songs.

Best way to beat hard song missions is to powerup your cards for that group so your health stat goes up and practice/listen to those songs you are stuck on or watch someone play the song on youtube.

Videos:

Airplane Hard clears:

index/multiple fingers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3WJzRp4dfY

One hand- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYDmWKZtIk

Thumbs only- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYDmWKZtIk

If you search 슈스엠 on youtube, you can find many more perfect song clears. Use videos as a reference to improve your play and figure out how to pass/3star a song.

Glitches:

http://choiceswag.tumblr.com/post/108618244224/superstar-smtown-troubleshooting-and-technical-faq



If you hit pause and exit the app when playing a song in challenge mode, you will not lose the # of attempts to beat the challenge. However, this uses up a headphone. I use this glitch strategically for accidental mistakes or lag.

If the app suddenly shuts down after you just beat a song, but you were not able to get to the score screen, you lose a challenge attempt/no regular rp given. Very rare, but it’s happened to me twice.

Not a true glitch, but if your phone is running too many apps/is hot, I would recommend exiting all the apps, letting your phone cool down. It affects performance in hitting beats.

How to spend money:

If you do not live in korea, you need to buy Korean iTunes cards/google play credit (I have never spent money on any mobile games so not 100% sure if region locked or not for this game) Most regions been confirmed to work with credit card (make sure you don’t get charged fees for international purchases). Feel free to spend whenever there is an event diamond sale (last sales were halloween and xmas).

Buy only premium packs, nothing else is worth $$$. Buy diamonds in bulk/when on sale.Don’t fall for $50 or $100 R cards

Purchases using US dollar are affected by the exchange rate, make sure the dollar is strong :)

(this guide will be edited periodically, if there are any errors let me know. I will answer any asks that cannot be answered through this guide or discussion about the game in general such as translation requests.)