Introduction

Short Link to this doc: https://bit.ly/406t1wH 

This document is a compilation of all the advice, tips, and tricks handed out on the project sekai server, with some extras from the project sekai subreddit. This is geared towards EN and does not include JP-only information.

This doc is managed by Ciry#9068 on Discord. I’m an ancient rhythm game player and a bandori expat. I started this document when I was new to Project Sekai, and it’s as much for my own reference as yours. If something doesn’t look right, if there’s a note from Ciry asking for clarification, or if there’s some new EN feature that you’d like to explain to beginners, shoot me a discord DM.

I generally try to credit the username of the first person to give the tip. Their name will appear in parentheses. If there’s no credit, it’s Ciry talking.

This document focuses on gameplay topics and does not cover things like account rerolling, bug fixes, or what to do if you lose your account. Someone else can make guides for those please, this one is long enough!

Don’t forget, Ctrl+F is your friend.

Changelog

  • 8-May-2023: Added a section to explain Encoring and how it works.
  • 3-Apr-2023: Updated a small detail in the mission pass section and added an encore team guide to other resources. Also adding info about the brand new gscorers!
  • 29-Mar-2023: Updated cheerful carnival section on healers (important change!!). Also added one more bullet point to the kizuna section.
  • 17-Mar-2023: Updated challenge live section with more information on why they’re good, and an infographic on how to minmax CL score. More changes are coming as well! I learned a lot from my white day run, lol.

Table of Contents:

  1. This is too long, I want quick getting-started type guides!
  2. How do I farm crystals efficiently?
  1. Crystal Farming Guides (external links)
  2. Gem Farming (internal link)
  1. What hardware do I need to play Project Sekai?
  1. How do I fix audio delay, lag, or dropped notes?
  1. I need definitions!
  1. Abbreviations/Terms (internal link)
  2. Item Teminology List (external link)
  1. Any strategy tips for flicks, improving my play skills, etc.?

  1. What are the differences between the different show types?
  2. What are the etiquette rules for co-op? Is it okay to play a song I can’t pass?
  3. My wrists hurt :(
  4. Everything About Cards:
  1. What do the colors & symbols on the tops of cards mean?
  2. How high can I level each card?
  3. Is there anything special about the card in the “leader” spot?
  4. How do I get the base 1* and 2* cards?
  5. Why do I care about the 1* and 2* cards? / How can I use them to get gems?
  6. What cards should I use wish pieces and wish gems on?
  7. How can I level up cards faster?
  8. What skill books are best for which card rarity?
  9. How does skill activation work?
  10. How can I make my max leveled cards stronger? (Skill Levels, Talent Bonus, Card Mastery, Area Decorations)

  1. The Gacha:
  1. “Is This a Good Card?”
  2. What’s the most efficient way to roll the gacha?
  3. What are dupes for? What’s the green room? Dupes can give me wish pieces?!
  4. What are the four different gacha types? What’s the best one to roll in?
  5. How can I improve my gacha luck?
  1. Are the Mission Passes worth my money?
  1. Mission Pass value calculator

  1. Events!
  1. What are event bonuses?
  2. What should I prioritize in the event shop?
  3. How fast do you get event points vs shop points?
  4. Should I read the event story? Is there a time limit on the event story?

  1. Tiering
  1. I want to tier! Any tiering tips?
  2. Any tiering-specific terminology I should know?
  1. What’s room order? / Why do people sometimes call numbers when I’m playing in a room?
  2. What is Encore?
  1. What are the two event types?
  1. Marathon Events
  2. Cheerful Carnival Events
  1. What’s the best/most efficient (meta) song choice when tiering?

  1. Other Game Areas:
  1. Challenge Lives
  2. Virtual Shows
  3. Kizuna / Trust Ranks
  1. Resource Management (or, I need:)
  1. Stamp Tickets
  2. Colored pieces/gems
  3. Song Cover tickets
  1. How do I customize my profile?

  1. I need an event/gacha list!
  1. PJSekai (external link)

Other Resources/Guides

  • This is a wonderful website that has a card and event database as well as song meta info.
  • Go to Settings > Server Region > English to set it for EN server!
  • Want to build the best encore team to give even more bang for your buck as a filler? Here’s some recs!

CPU Specs

  • For iPhone/iPad [use] iOS 11 or later. (blairaki) Narwhal reports, “iOS is the most optimized for mobile rhythm games in general so if you’re going for iOS then the SE 2 is a good starting point.”
  • For Android [use] 6.0 or later, Snapdragon 835 or higher (Snapdragon 600+ is somewhat okay) OpenGL ES 3.0 or higher, 2GB of RAM or higher ^ are recommended specs, not required but that's mostly the specs you need in order to run the game. (blairaki)
  • at least >Snapdragon 730G would be plenty (which already exists in a lot of current mid-range phone). (Maid)
  • Atmazzer reports that “Snapdragon 636 still runs alright … except when 3D live.”
  • keep in mind that you must be running the 64-bit version of Android (Narwhal).
  • Xiaomi devices are really bad when it comes to rhythm games or games in general so you need VM (virtual machine) to run the game well. (blairaki)
  • VividSquadMikuIsQueen reports, “I tried a VM on my Xiaomi Mi 8 to run the JP project sekai a while ago. It was very easy to setup and the performance (in terms of FPS and stability) was really good, however, the audio delay was too much and it made the songs unplayable.”
  • In rebuttal, Miyanoyay reports, “I've seen many complaints about Xiaomi phones and rhythm games, but there's a very easy way to fix this called ‘game turbo’ under the ‘security’ app. I had big lag issues on my poco f3 prior to enabling game turbo, but once enabled it entirely fixed the lag. It might depend on the phone though, but a VM isn't an absolute need to play Sekai on a Xiaomi.”

Abbreviations/Terms

  • Wish pieces and wish jewels, also called purple gems and kakera, are these:
    Pieces are the small ones, Jewels (Chords) are the big ones.
  • Dupe(s): A duplicate copy of a card. To learn more, click here.
  • OC: Original Character (the band/unit characters)
  • VS: Virtual Singer (the vocaloids)
  • In case you were curious, Virtual singer is the term crypton is using since they’re no longer developing voice banks for [Yamaha’s] vocaloid software. (Ylimegirl) It may also have to do with the new piapro engine. (ang)
  • FC: “Full Combo,” hitting every note in the song on time with a Perfect or Great rating. Nets the highest reasonable score.
  • AP: All Perfect (got only perfect on all notes). This gets you the highest score of all, but is so difficult that very few people can pull it off reliably. Also, APs are frowned upon in tiering rooms because the All Perfect animation takes more time than the Full Combo animation, slowing everyone down.
  • Card Type Abbreviations: see this section
  • Cans/batteries/flames: all various terms for the bonus energy item (see below). “Flame” is a holdover from bandori, where the bonus energy icon was a little fire.
  • Flameless/0flame/0can/0x/etc.: playing when you have no score/bonus multiplier. 

Tiering terminology:

  • RF: Can refresh/refuel (you’ve run out of cans and need to replenish them)
  • Otsu: Good job/good work today, short for otsukaresama. Meme variations are oats, oats curry, and curry. If you see an emoji that involves curry, or an emoji where a character is offering up a cup of tea, the player is saying otsu.
  • Ganba: Good luck/keep it up/hang in there/general encouragement, short for ganbare.
  • Dodging: when someone intentionally closes the game/disconnects because they don’t like the song selected by the roulette. This is rude, don’t do it!
  • SC: short for “scores” - indicates that the players in the room are going through the scores menuing and the room will be open very soon
  • OP: short for “open” - room is open/in the waiting room, can be joined immediately
  • DC: “disconnected” - had an issue and exited the room, aka “please let me know when I can rejoin!”
  • Boat (and all conjugations, e.g. “boated,” “boating,” etc.): When a player is being passed by other players and their rank is dropping. Comes from the idiom “missing the boat.”
  • SL: “Skill Level,” referring to what level your leader card’s skill is. For example, this card at SL1 gives a 100% score boost. At SL4 it gives a 120% score boost.
  • ISV: Internal Skill Value. This is written as [Leader Score]/[Full Team Score].

    For example, let’s say this is my team:

    1) The first card on the left (Len) is my leader, so the first number is 110.
    2) Add all 5 card strengths together to get the second number: 110+80+105+40+60 = 395.
    3) Final result: this team’s ISV is 110/395.
  • BP: Battle power. This is the team’s total strength. You can see this in the upper right hand corner above your cards:

    In this team’s case, its BP is 223616, or 223k for short.
  • Gorilla: a skilled player who can reliably all perfect every song they play. Sometimes shortened to “rilla.”
  • P1 through P5 - room order matters in high-level tiering rooms! If you see a room that’s calling these numbers, it means that each player in the room is assigned which spot in the room they will play in: player one (P1: first person in the room), player two (P2: second person,) etc. If your room is ordered, pay attention to what your assigned number is, and only join when your number is called! If you join early you can mess up the order and make everything take even longer. More info over here.
  • Pub(s) - a player who is not a member of a tiering server, someone who plays a pickup game when you open the room to anyone who wants to join. Pubs are generally understood to have less efficient teams and cannot be relied upon to FC. You may also hear the official project sekai discord server referred to as “pubcord,” because many people there play casually and don’t go hard on tiering meta.
  • Ebi/Envy: This is an abbreviation for “Hitorinbo Envy,” the most commonly played meta song in the game.
  • Shrimp Emojis: a pun–Ebi is an abbreviation for hitorinbo envy but it also means “shrimp” in Japanese. And, when you tier too much your back slouches just like a curled up shrimp. D: Remember to periodically fix your posture!
  • Doormat: This is a play method used by fillers to preserve their hands. While playing hitorinbo envy on easy, the filler plays normally through the end of Fever. After fever/super fever triggers, the filler stops playing and allows their HP to hit 0. Doing this won’t kick them out of the room or impact the runner, but it helps significantly in preventing carpal tunnel. Please note that you cannot doormat during cheerful carnival events - you will get booted from the room and slapped with time outs.

(Courtesy of shrimpy) These obvi aren’t all of them but they’re the ones ive seen/most common ones i see used :)

  • project sekai: prsk, puroseka, proseka, ps, (and as of today) jpsekai [or ensekai to differentiate japanese or english-speaking servers]
  • leo/need: leoni, l/n
  • more! more! jump!: mmj, momojan
  • vivid BAD SQUAD: vbs, vvd
  • wonderland x showtime: wondashow, wondershow, wandasho, wxs, ws
  • 25-ji, nightcord de/Nightcord at 25:00): 25ji, niigo
  • cheerful carnival: cc
  • festival gacha card: fes (e.g., fes kanade, fes ichika).
  • challenge live: cl
  • character rank: cr
  • master rank: mr
  • general songs ! a rule of thumb is that a lot of songs are shortened to just the first letter of the words (i.e.; glory steady go becomes gsg, world is mine becomes wim, etc) !! if any of the song name abbreviations confuse you, feel free to ask others and they'll be sure to tell you the full name ! it honestly happens to most songs, so there would be too many to list them all out. song abbreviations may depend on which titles sega palette decide to translate and which songs they decide to romanize ! not all songs follow this, i.e.; ifuudoudou/pomp and circumstance is [called ifdd, but may also be] shortened to pnc as 'n' sounds like 'and' !! (song portion lengthened via narwhal + peppy) Sometimes, just one word in the title is used; viva happy is known as “viva,” and “hitorinbo envy” is “envy”.
  • Item Teminology List: https://projectsekai.miraheze.org/wiki/List_of_items 

Gameplay

Technical (Settings, Hardware, Lag, etc.)

  • The game date changes over at 0400 PST. Time Zone Converter.
  • Here’s a visual guide to what different Show Setting Options like “Lane Transparency,” Cut-in Effect,” and “Mode Settings” mean: https://imgur.com/a/HRC0YSt
  • Bluetooth headphones add a lag to the audio that will ruin your accuracy. You can try to play with offset to remove the lag, but tbh wired headphones or playing with no headphones is easier.
  • With that said, lag calibration tips:
  • [Try] -2 or -1 [offset] then tweak it as u see fit. Auto set thing doesn’t work at all so you gotta do it manually. (Amai)
  • if you’re using wireless it’s best to turn sound effects off and…then calibrate. If calibration still has SE, instead of calibration you can play a song and get an idea of how much you want to turn down delay. In any case playing on anything wireless[/Bluetooth] will most likely be best with SE off in general. (Narwhal)
  • Make sure to turn on DND(Do Not Disturb) before [Co-op Shows] or you'll be kicked out in-game when [called] for dinner (blu)
  • If your phone is struggling (or if you’re having a hard time reading), you can turn 2D and 3D MVs off in Settings - just select “Lite.” You can also dim the MV and make your beatmap area more opaque.
  • Dropped Notes: If notes aren’t registering when you tap them, first check that you’re actually hitting the bar/tapping line where you’re supposed to hit. [Hitting below the tapping bar may also help; hitting above it almost never works.] Second, close sekai and restart your phone. (MrRaccoon98)
  • I also notice that dropped inputs increase when the battery is low, and after the phone is plugged in to charge. For best results (not perfect, sekai is notoriously buggy), plug your phone into the wall first before opening project sekai to play. If this still doesn’t help, your phone may play better unplugged/not charging. For example, I know my phone drops inputs like crazy until it gets to about 90% charge. At 90%-100% charge my phone will play fine, even when plugged into the wall. Your device may have similar idiosyncrasies, try to learn them!
  • If that still doesn’t work, restart your whole phone.
  • If you’re STILL having dropped inputs, the servers are just being horrible. There’s nothing that can be done except waiting it out.You gotta have patience with Sega, guys, they’re just a small indie company :(

Strategy

  • Listen to songs before playing to know the rhythm (helped me a lot). (Hourai03) You can find them on youtube or spotify/apple music/etc.
  • If there’s a particular song that you’re struggling with, watch youtube videos of someone playing it with a hand shot (essential!). This will teach you hand placement, show you what speed other people are using, and more. Here’s an example video of someone FCing Melt Master with a hand shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ8iibcSXK4
  • And here's an awesome channel with a lot of hand shot videos: https://youtube.com/@PokeVocaloid09
  • Hold Notes:
  • For big/long/wide notes that cover most of the lane, you just need one finger somewhere on the note for it to count. Use the time of wide held notes to reposition your hands, if necessary!
  • Similarly, if a held note has a weird shape, is jagged, or weaves back and forth, just put your finger in the middle and you won’t have to move it.
  • If there’s a weaving/jagged hold and a bunch of notes running alongside it, focus on keeping the hold and trust your other hand to take care of the single notes. Your peripheral vision is more powerful than you think!
  • I’ve found that keeping your eyes trained on the top of the lane/screen helps your reading comprehension, timing, and accuracy significantly. If you look too close to the bottom of the screen, you’re more likely to be overwhelmed. Reading at the top gives you more time to react to the notes. Practice it for a while and see!
  • Flicks:
  • When a tap and flick comes up at the same time, you can flick for both and it’ll still register as a tap. (poppy)
  • You can flick in any direction, including down! Most people find that side-flicks are easier for their fingers than the upward flicks suggested by the game, and lead to better consistency. Try different directions until you find what works for you.
  • In places where a flick and a regular note appear simultaneously, just swipe up on both of them. So like, instead of "tap-tap-(tap/swipe-up)", do "tap-tap-(double-swipe-up)." (Valkyrie)
  • Roki is good for practicing flicks according to Hikki Pie.
  • Hand Placement:
  • If you play on thumbs shake the screen so you would press the button easier, like tilt it to hit the button. (Kayo)
  • what i do when i play with thumbs is grip the back and sides of the phone with my whole hand aside thumbs (cloud)
  • i hold my two index fingers on the top corners of the phone, and the bottom of my phone sits on top of my two pinkies, and four ring/middle fingers on the back as support. (Kcenpai)
  • Indexes:
  • try to use your middle fingers as support for the two outer lanes (tenny)
  • Tips for getting that annoying piano trill at the end of Melt master:
  • I make my finger vibrate fast on the judgement line (I love 25ji Miku)
  • if youre talking about the part i’m thinking of, i alternate between two fingers (index and middle finger for me, idk abt thumb players tho :') (mello)
  • Note Speed modifiers are your friend! Increasing your note speed will “space out” the notes more, making it easier to read AND making it less likely to trigger the wrong notes by accident when tapping. Most serious players use ~9 to 11 note speed.
  • Getting used to playing on a high note speed also means you can make higher difficulty songs “easier” by slowing the note speed down. When playing on expert/master, playing on a slower note speed gives your eyes more time to read and your hands more time to react, which can help clear songs you were struggling with previously.
  • In general, for training purposes play as fast as you can, slowing the note speed down as needed as you increase the song’s difficulty.
  • Inversely, if you set the note speed too low, sometimes it won't register your taps. I don't know if this a bug but anything below [6] suffers this problem. (Lok Gor)
  • To emphasize a little more, faster speed requires quicker reaction time while slow speed requires you to not only be precise but you must also not get overwhelmed with the amount of notes being thrown to you at once. (Vinnie)

Training for Higher Difficulty Levels

  • Unlock a song’s Master difficulty by getting less than 7 goods on an Expert play.
  • To train for Expert, get used to Hard mode first. I would set up a standard, such as being able to FC in Hard as a sign that you can handle expert. … Then after that, start off with the lowest difficulty (tell your world) and work your way up, get used to the speed and patterns of the songs so that you feel adjusted to expert mode. (Mama Mary)
  • Also, pay attention to the level number regardless of difficulty level. Go from 21 to 22, 23... And so on. (Sagres)
  • To train for Master, challenge yourself with higher difficulties if you can clear them—higher difficulty experts such as Teo are helpful as well. Increasing your note speed can be helpful as long as you do it slowly (0.1-0.3 at a time). It could also be helpful to identify common patterns you have trouble with and work on those specifically (Bubbles)
  • Higher levels rely on basically reflex so the notes need to be spaced out enough to see them clearly for best performance. I’ve found that grinding out all perfects on the lower difficulties can also help you improve your muscle memory and accuracy, rather than playing above your skill level for extended periods of time. (Gemini (jay))
  • It isn't really a tip for practice and I'm not sure how much it'll help if you're a thumb player, but a tip for complicated holds is you can hold down with 2 fingers for everywhere the hold note covers inside of trying to stay inside the lines if that makes sense. you can kinda see it here at 1:20 https://youtu.be/BDIW2HlEg0A?t=80 besides that you really do just gotta get used to [harder levels] over time. (Beep Beep Honda)
  • Don’t rush! Play at your comfort level, work your way up to the easier difficulties (jishou is a good song to practice harder difficulty on), experiment with increasing note speed, since higher note speed = fewer notes on screen = easier to see the notes (corwyn)
  • For All Perfect (AP) training, perfect lock teams can help (luwunar tear)...but ultimately it just comes down to timing practice.
  • put perfect lockers on your team, figure out what note speed you perform best at, and practice. (Ylimegirl)
  • Start by APing easy songs first, then normal, hard, etc.
  • Skill activation/Gold notes: gold notes give double score, skills activate automatically (in solo play it’s random, in co-op it’s always the same order. You don’t have to do anything special). (rainbow egg) Skill activation is also called “proc”, i.e., “your skill will proc.”
  • In solo, the five skills in your team activate in random order, and your leader skill activates again for 6th skill (encore). In co-op, the player with the highest score activates for the 6th skill. ON FIRE in co-op is triggered by player combo I think. (Narwhal)
  • Super Fever: All members have to full combo the fever build up. (Mirai & corwyn) If anyone misses even one note, regular fever triggers instead. Super fever is nice because it gives more items, so please do your part to unlock it! However, it has no impact on score or Event Point gain, so don’t feel too bad if you mess it up either.

Show Types

  • Solo Shows are songs you play alone. They’re best for practicing - you can set your can usage to 0 so you can quit and retry without losing resources. They’re also good if you don’t want to deal with players disconnecting or lingering over menu screens. Also, this is the only gameplay type with Auto, which is essential if you don’t have time to play but still want to get your day’s rewards. However, you’re entirely dependent on your own cards when playing solo so it’s harder to get high scores.
  • When playing on Auto, your score is halved but you still get all the drop rewards you would normally get (like with that reduced score). (Narwhal)
  • 190-200k band power is enough to S rank some songs in Solo. if you have cracked skills it can take less. (Narwhal, PzTJ)
  • Challenge Shows open once a character leads 30 shows. They allow you to play with a team consisting of only one character's cards (in contrast to regular shows where you can't have more than one card of a character on a team). By scoring in challenge shows you get various materials, character rank-up points, and character score percentage bonuses! You can only do one a day, but if you purchase a monthly challenge pass, your challenge points double. (Ylimegirl) Make sure you do the challenge show daily! For more information on Challenge Shows, visit this section of the doc.
  • Co-Op Shows:
  • It’s pretty much always better to play Co-Op. You get much bigger item bonuses from Co-Op and you have a chance of ranking higher than you normally would on your own, which = more event points and tokens.
  • With that said, play in the Pro Room if you can afford to (Ctrl+F “Golden Rule” for more info). You have a greater chance of reaching S rank and getting better show rewards. Also, players are more likely to Super Fever, netting more rewards as well.
  • If you play on multi about 175k band power should be enough for S rank, on average. (PzTJ)
  • Co-Op Etiquette:
  • “What difficulty is polite to play?”
  • When tiering/playing in a private co-op room, play the highest level difficulty you can reliably Full Combo (FC). Higher difficulty songs net higher scores, but an FC score on Hard is higher than a non-FC score on expert. If you can’t FC a song on hard but you can FC it on normal, it’s okay to play it on normal until you’ve increased your personal skill level. Just do what you can.
  • With that said, if you’re not certain you can pass a song, it’s not polite to play it in Co-op. When you die you drag all of your teammates’ scores down with you. Save your practicing for Solo Shows.
  • If playing for fun/in a public room, it is okay to pick and play difficult songs that you’re just learning. It’s okay if you fail them. It’s just a game! Have fun!
  • Disconnecting during a song hurts your teammates. If you do it too much, you’ll get banned from Co-Op Rooms with a screen like this (see below). Phone calls and notifications are song killers. Make sure you have Do Not Disturb mode on!

Carpal Tunnel Management

As a person who suffers chronic carpal tunnel, I wanted to give tips on how to preserve hand/wrist health!

  • Before playing, warm up your hands with stretches and exercises. Here’s a good infographic: https://imgur.com/6Dm5Kg5 (full size)
  • I do the first five exercises before I start a prosekai session, 10 reps each.
  • Do them slowly; for example for the finger exercise I hold the fingers stretched apart for a count of five, then relax - repeat 10 times.
  • I hold the wrist stretches for a minimum of 20 seconds in each direction. Don’t push too hard, just until you feel a gentle little stretch in your forearm. It’s better to feel less stretch than more; stretching this too far, especially if it’s the first exercise you do, can actually pull your forearm muscles. Be gentle!
  • I’ve found that index finger playing is easier on the wrists than thumb playing. To play this way, lay your phone flat on a table and tap on it like a keyboard.
  • To prevent phone sliding, my friend cut some leftover cabinet liner into squares to rest a phone on. It works perfectly!
  • Wearing a wristwatch while playing worsens carpal tunnel. Take it off before you start!
  • The above infographic also shows proper ergonomic wrist position in the upper right hand corner. This is really important! Try to keep your wrist and the tops of your hands straight/aligned and neutral. Piano players do this, so here’s a good photo of what that should look like:
  • If you have serious carpal tunnel/RSI like me, you may have to accept that there are things in this game you will never be able to do. Tiering may be too much strain on your wrists. You may be unable to FC or even play master, expert, or even hard songs. Some days your wrists may be worse than others, and you may have to play on easier levels on those days. It’s okay to play within your limitations. If you don’t, you may have to stop playing prosekai entirely one day! Listen to your body and respect its limits.

Character Leveling

  • The five character attribute types are Cute (pink star), Cool (blue hexagram), Pure (green plant), Happy (orange heart), and Mysterious (purple moon). (KetherNoir)

    They don't have any significance to the characters themselves but they have a use in events (where u get more event points with matching characters/types). When you're Rank 25 u unlock shops in the Real World for map Decorations that boost raw Talent based on matching types. (Narwhal)
  • Level Caps: 1 star cards can only be leveled up to 20. 2 stars can get to 30, 3 stars can get to 50 (after upgrading), 4 stars can get to 60 (after upgrading). (corwyn)
  • The character in your leader spot has the following impact:
  • It lets you progress in their character rank because one of the achievements is using x character as leader
  • If you are playing solo, the leader's skill will trigger twice
  • If you are doing co-op, the leader's skill is the only one that gets triggered when playing. Also the player with the highest room score has their leader skill activate twice during the song. (Hikki Pie)
  • Allows you to grind that character's trust ranks
  • You can get all the 1* cards of each band and the 2* cards of their associated vocaloid by playing the story introduction of each unit. (Ylimegirl) You get the 1* vocaloid cards by playing a VS main story chapter for the first time (MachiKurada).
  • If you don't have a favorite character, spend your resources on everyone equally, you'll get more rewards that way. Also make sure to max the master ranks and skill levels of all 1* and 2* cards, to give a large boost to each character's rank [which means more gems]. (LyrisFEV)
  • If you’re playing on a non-event day/not trying to tier, try to grind out levels on as many cards as you can if you need gems. Even 1*s are very valuable for gem farming.
  • Max level as many cards as possible, unlock their Challenge Lives, and read their Card Stories. There’s so many crystals you can get that way. (cleo, Mama Mary)
  • If you're aiming to build fill teams for cheerful carnival events, don't level your cards though! For more info click here.
  • Character Ranks are [an] easy way to farm gems when u start!! To increase [Character Ranks], some of the easiest things to do are:
  • Buy stamps of them
  • Buy costumes for them
  • Read their card stories - It's best to start from 1* to 2* etc. since it'll be cheapest
  • Master rank their cards aka use wish pieces. Once more start from the lowest cards since it's cheapest and in terms of character ranks give the same boost.
  • Skill rank their cards…the notebooks are best saved for that (Beep Beep Honda)
  • clearing lives with that character as your leader or leveling up their challenge live level also helps! (Aiden)
  • In general, DO NOT SPEND WISH PIECES ON 4*. (Toastie) Use wish jewels instead and save the wish pieces for Card Mastering lower-rarity cards.
  • If you want to level up cards faster, use score sheets! Getting intermediate score sheets from the event shops help a lot. (Ylimegirl)
  • Do not use silver skill books on 1 or 2* cards, they need less experience than the book gives to max out their skills. Instead focus on using silver books to raise the skill levels of your 3* cards to give an additional boost to character ranks. Use bronze skill books (if you have any)...to raise low rarity skill levels instead. (LyrisFEV)
  • Skill Levels: 
  • You can use wish pieces and wish jewels to level up the skill of your cards (SL).
  • Bear in mind to use wish pieces/jewels efficiently. SL has a max of level 4 (SL4) and it improves/increases the skill of the cards (just an example, per say the card has provided bonus score of 110%, so increasing its SL might increase the percentage to 115% something like that).
  • Also, levelling up a card's MR and SL will raise your character rank (CR), which will greatly contribute to your BP of cards of that specific character. (Afmi39)
  • If you’re trying to minmax gems, it’s better to use wish gems/pieces for master ranks first, and Skill Levels second.
  • Talent Bonus:
  • The talent of individual characters and across whole bands can be boosted through area items aka decorations, and character rank also gives a small bonus. (corwyn)
  • Card Type Decorations (pure, cool, etc.) unlock at Rank 25 and require Miracle Seeds and coins.
  • Band and Character Decorations are always unlocked and require gems/pieces of a specific card type (cool, happy, etc.) and coins.
  • Titles can also give a very small talent bonus. (horacio) Higher talent = higher scores.
  • To strengthen your team, buying the area items in the SEKAIs help the most! Just buy whatever item that matches the character on the team. Generally teams with the same members help hit the super high numbers but it doesn't really matter if ur cards are all leveled up. There's also plants in both of the schools! But the miracle seeds are a pain to get. (full evillious set haver)

Master Ranks

  • This is Master Rank:  (mei).
  • Master Rank is a flat bonus to the card’s strength, based on how many stars they have. Some 4 stars will also have new outfit colors or hairstyles (limited cards). If you’re looking strictly at it from a card’s strength, it’s not much different, other than that leveling your card is essentially free by getting EXP from playing, while MR requires the dupe gems from duplicate cards.
  • Master Ranking now also gives you an increase to your event bonus as of the Scramble Fan Festa event.
  • ★4s [are good,] but an MR5 ★3 … meets the Talent level of an MR0 ★4. (Narwhal)
  • You can see what bonuses MR gives by tapping the white “mastery rank” button on the mastery page for a character. (Corwyn) The talent increase goes up by 150 each star; 1* gains 150 each level, 2* gets 300, 3* ets 450, and 4* gets 600 each level. (ledyba supplier cloud)
  • For 4 stars, you want to use the big [Wish Jewels], and not the small [Wish Pieces], since 1 wish jewel is equivalent to 2000 wish pieces (super inefficient). 3 stars and less, you will need [wish pieces], there is no other way to increase the MR. (JooNkeN)
  • Master Rank all your 1*s first, then your 2*s, etc. Master Rank also increases a card’s stats (Cleo) and unlock alternate colors for costumes if the card has them (Narwhal). They also give you points for character ranking, 5 in total if you max master level a character—2 more than what max skill leveling gives you for the same stones cost, so def worth it on lower rarity cards if you want to boost certain character levels (Ylimegirl).
  • To Master Rank a card, to go Training > the third option on the side in the training menu for master ranking. For skil levelling, use and the 4th option. (toastie)
  • Also save up your [wish jewels] (you get those by selling dupe 4 star cards) for when you’ll eventually get a limited card, two [jewels] will unlock two master ranks for the limited card and this means you’ll get their limited hairstyle (RUIEMU’S #1 DEFENDER). Master Ranking will get alternate costumes [at levels] 1, 3, and 5 as well. (bam)

Kizuna/Trust Ranks

  • Trust ranks, also called Kizuna from the original JP, are a way to farm wish wish pieces, crystals, cans, stylish titles, and even extra voice lines during show cut-ins!
  • You can find Trust Ranks by going to Characters > Character Rank > Trust Rank.
  • Click on a character to see their current kizuna level with every other character.
  • Currently, characters are only eligible to gain kizuna with their unit teammates as well as specific virtual singers. Miku is the only character who can gain kizuna with every other character in the game.
  • They will continue adding kizuna between more characters as the game goes on.
  • Your lead character gains kizuna with every other eligible card on their team. The lead card gains the most kizuna with the second card on the team. In this example, Akito and Toya gain the most kizuna, and Akito also gains less kizuna with every other character. Visual example.
  • Why do we care about kizuna? Mostly for the sweet banners!!!! Look how cool they are!!!

Events

  • Events start at 1500 PST and end at 2100 PST.
  • Courtesy of cloud: “i made an event guide for everyone who needs it, hopefully it explains things well!” (see infographic below)

Event Shop

  • ALWAYS get the event cards from the shop. (Pholi) First of all, they’re free 3*s and 2*s, which means free cards for your teams, and free gems! Secondly, these event cards are often not in the gacha and you cannot get them EXCEPT through the event. Don’t miss out on these cards!
  • It's up to you on what to prioritize for events, but for me personally, the priority should be: Crystals, 3* card, 2* card, skill books, stamp ticket (for character ranks with individual characters), rainbow gems (you need a lot of those), miracle seed (for type boost decorations - these are really hard to get any other way except through events), rainbow fabric/rainbow thread (for outfits and character ranks), live coins, and then whatever you need whether it be coins or gems. (Mama Mary)
  • Most people prioritize the event cards first.

Can/Battery Usage

  • There’s a lot of debate over whether it’s best to use 2 cans or 3 cans per play. With 2 cans you get the maximum possible bonus for rewards/XP. Anything higher than 2 boost cans earns you diminishing returns for the material multiplier and mission pass point count (Ylimegirl), but you still get the maximum bonus for event points/tokens at 3 cans. Playing with 2 cans also requires more plays and time than 3 cans. So what you ultimately choose depends on a lot of factors:
  • The health of your joints (e.g., I have carpal tunnel so I need to play as few songs as possible, which = 3 cans or more)
  • How much time you have (have more time = use 2 cans to minmax your rewards)
  • Time pressure (if it’s the end of the event and you’re fighting for every scrap of event points you can get, minimum 3 cans for sure)
  • There are times when tiering that it may be prudent to go for 5, 7, or even 10 can usage during events. Doing this is not efficient, as the multiplier for both event and rewards decreases over 3. But if you’re time crunched and, perhaps more importantly, have crystals and/or cash to blow, 5 or 10 can play may be ideal in specific situations; some of them are covered in the section on Events.
  • If you have no time and want to burn boosts, x10 is an option but I would opt for Auto [plays] on a lower multiplier. (Narwhal)
  • I'd add that if you're done playing for the day, spending all of [your cans by playing fewer songs on a higher multiplier] is also not a bad idea. (Sagres)

  • You earn 1 event token for every 10 event points (Ylimegirl).
  • Read the event stories as you get them! They give gems ONLY WHILE the event is ongoing. If you read the event stories after the event ends, they will only give music tickets.
  • If you missed it though, do read the stories post-event and get those tickets!

Event Bonus Management

  • Battle/base power (BP) and event bonus play a major role in how many event points and tokens you get. (Afmi39)
  • In theory, the more stars a card has = more power = higher event score. In reality, the character type and the card’s unit/group also matters during events. Matching the event type and unit with your cards gives them an event point bonus, which may be better than a 4* with no bonus.
  • When creating a team, you generally want to prioritize event bonus increase over getting into the Pro Room in Co-Op Lives. The Pro Room requires a team with a minimum 150,000 talent. Most people will have to sacrifice event bonus to reach that number.
  • Beginner’s Golden Rule: If you have to drop your event bonus by 50% or more to get into the Pro Room, stay in the General Room instead.
  • If removing your weaker, high event bonus cards drops your event bonus by 50% or more, keep your weaker cards and stay in the general room.
  • This guideline may stop applying as your card roster matures. Always feel free to double check the math yourself by running a few rounds with different team builds. But it’s good as a general rule for starting out.

Tiering (General Tips)

The following bullet points apply to all event types.

  • “Tiering” is when you try to place in the top XXX players on the server and get better event rewards as well as a swanky special event banner. E.g., “top 100, top 1000, top 10,” etc.
  • Generally the tiering strategy is to have 5 people sitting in one multi room, playing the game together for hours. (mmj defender tetra) If this sounds appealing to you, visit #co-op show and #co-op codes on the official project sekai discord server to find people to tier with! Otherwise, hardcore tiering may not be for you (and that’s okay!)
  • You’re also welcome to join the discord tiering server “Shin Sekai.” There’s more meta and info on tiering there, links to other discord servers that are targeting specific events, and a wonderful community of like-minded tiering people.
  • To track the event tiers and see what your point targets are, check sekai.best’s event tracker. Go to Settings > Server Region > English to set it for EN server!
  • General Tiering Tips from Xavi:
  • Save at least 25k for crystals [to use for can refills] just in case an event ends up being super woke for some reason. I’m sure you could do it with less, but this is playing it safe.
  • Lower rarity cards can still get you far. Make sure to play your best event bonus team, or if you are near pro room bp, sacrifice a card or two bonus to get in there as the scorers are much more consistent. [But keep in mind the 50% rule!]
  • Use tiering rooms. Pick meta songs, and menu fast. When a song finishes, tap on next fast, go into the room again fast, and pick song and difficulty quickly. This all saves a LOT of time.
  • Typically you get 5 people who want EP (event points), and you lobby together because of mutual gain. This is a pretty standard tiering setup, and in this situation you want to always try to get Fever or Super Fever (SF).
  • Fever looks like this:
  • Super Fever looks like this:
     (Ai0)
  • If everyone fills the gauge on the edges of the note highway to at least the “FEVER” marker during Fever Chance (their portrait lights up with “OK!” to show you who’s made it), then when the section ends Fever triggers, increasing the entire team’s score [gain by 50%] for a short time, indicated by the rainbow border on the outside of the screen. If everyone fills it to the “SUPER” marker, Super Fever triggers instead, giving the same 50% boost as well as an additional drop after the song, multiplied by your [can] bonus (MaxSalsa). To get super fever, everyone needs to FC the fever section (Ai0).
  • You can get Super Fever even if players disconnect, so do your best to FC the fever section! (Ai0)
  • Because of this, it is always best to pick the difficulty level you can Full Combo with, but at least consistently Super Fever with. If that’s hard, play hard. If that’s normal, play normal. Full Combo on a lower difficulty will almost always get you more EP than a broken combo on a higher difficulty. 
  • Team Room composition changes at the highest level of tiering meta. Instead of “five people working together for mutual gain,” Aschente explains: “If [a player] want[s] the fastest gains you get 1 player who wants EP and [1-]4 players who are willing to support them and do nothing else, depending on how many other players you can find. Those [1-4 other] players prioritize band power and having scorers on the team (in a marathon event) or, sometimes, having low band power to sandbag (in a cheerful carnival event), rather than a high event bonus %, because that will benefit the lone player more. [Supporting players are called fillers.] The tiering player will tier faster in exchange for the supporting players tiering slower. And those players will just play flameless [0 cans] (or with energy if they want, up to them I guess) and hold the lobby for the tiering player at all times.” A focused team like this doesn’t have to be 1 tier + 4 boost. “For example, it can be 2 boosters and 3 tierers. It’s basically like tiering as a team, but only one or two people get the rewards to show for it.”
  • This is how t10 people do it. They also tend to play for like 10+ hours a day, sometimes for periods longer than 24 or even 48 hours straight. It’s obviously hard to find people who are motivated and selfless enough to just be fully willing to help another player, rather than prioritize their own tiering. Usually, tierers take turns; one person tiers one event while the others support, and then next event they’ll switch places and support another player to tier.
  • You can still tier very high using this method, even if you’re a supporter. You just might not hit t10.
  • Tier responsibly! If you're tiering, make sure to stay hydrated and fed, rest your eyes sometimes, watch your posture, and get some rest! That title may be important but your health is most important. (Toastie)
  • Don’t forget to move around periodically and stretch while tiering, too. Staying still for too long can cause life-threatening blood clots, FYI!

Room Order

This is high level meta. Most players will never encounter this when playing, and if you’ve just started playing Project Sekai you should skip this section. However, there’s no such thing as bad knowledge, so let’s go! Thank you to Ai0 for his help with this section.

  • When players want absolutely optimal EP efficiency, they may use a room order.
  • Each player’s leader card skill procs (activates) at a set point during the song. Proc trigger order is always the same across all songs: player 2’s skill always triggers first, followed by player 1, etc.
  • The last proc is “encore.” When it’s time for the encore, the game looks at everyone’s current score. Whichever player has the highest score has their skill proc a second time.
  • Runners’ event teams have extremely high BP, so their score is extremely high. However, their ISV is usually lower than the fillers in the room with them. So when a runner’s team captures the encore, the point gain is not as high as it could be if a filler captured it instead.
  • To fix this, a filler may bring an encore team. An encore team must not only have good ISVs, but also a sky-high BP that’s even higher than the runners. This means the encore team usually has cards with MRs as well as leveled decorations, character ranks, etc. An encore team is usually a significant financial investment.
  • However, even a high BP may not be enough to capture encore. Therefore, a filler attempting to encore must also be able to reliably All Perfect or at least FC the chart on a higher difficulty than the runner. And even when all of these are met, sometimes the encore still cannot be properly captured.
  • As you can see, capturing encore is very challenging, and most players cannot do it. So, why encore matters to you: if a room manager tells you to go in an order that seems different from what you’d expect from this guide’s explanation, they’re trying to capture encore and just do what they tell you. And, if a player says they would like to try and encore for you, understand just how generous they’re being, because encore is hard!
  • In general, procs later in the song are more critical because they add to your combo bonus, which increases over the course of the song (assuming you FC). High combo bonus + high skill proc = good!
  • Because of this, we want the highest skill level score up cards to proc at the most optimal positions. If someone has a 140% score lead, we want that to proc where it will affect the most notes and combine with the highest score combo. If someone only has a 40% score lead, we want that to trigger when it has less impact on the score. Using a room order helps us make the most of every player’s card.
  • The proc locations are also influenced by each song’s beatmap. How good or bad each proc location is changes depending on each map: what notes are where, which types of notes are where, etc.
  • The community has averaged out what proc order, and therefore player order, is the most efficient across the most beatmaps. That’s the order we use for Cheerful Carnival events.
  • Because Hitorinbo Envy is the meta song for Marathon events, the community has also created a room order that specifically targets that beatmap's strengths.
  • For more information on how room order is calculated and what those orders actually are, read this doc I wrote about that stuff.
  • Room Ordering Etiquette:
  • Short version: pay attention to whoever is doing the room call and do what they tell you. If you’re confused, ask them what you should do rather than just jumping in and out of the room at random. Room ordering is hard, and when done badly can waste precious tiering time. Listen to the person ordering the room and stay calm, and you’ll do just fine.
  • Long version:
  • The one calling room order will ask everyone for their ISVs. (What’s an ISV?) This is why it can be helpful to leave your ISV listed in your name, as I have done in the below example.
  • When playing in an ordered room, look for your assignment (if you’re P1, P2, etc.) and listen for your number to be called. Here’s an example of a room manager’s ordering message:

    Let’s say     you’re player Bravo. They’re assigned P2. When you see someone type “P2” into the chat, it is your turn to enter the room. When you’ve entered the room and confirmed that you are the second player in the room, type “P3” into the chat to call the next player in.
  • You may encounter surprises. For example, you might join the room and there’s already a person in P2 spot - making you P3. Whenever you join the room and you end up in a different spot than you expected, alert the room manager so they can help fix it. When you’re safely shuffled into your assigned spot, only then call the next player in.
  • If you are P1, you may be asked to create a new room and everyone else will join you there. You may also be asked to join a room and wait while everyone else leaves and rejoins around you.
  • If a player disconnects and the room needs to be reordered, the room manager will usually tell specific players to step out of the room, and then call them back in one at a time.
  • I know this all sounds complicated. Room order is one of the most complicated things prsk players do, but it’s easier to understand once you’ve done it once or twice. A regular player does not have to think hard about this. Not all tiering rooms use room order, and those that do will have someone telling you exactly what to do. Just stay calm and listen to their instructions. If you have a question or aren’t sure what to do, just ask and they’ll explain. And, your reward will be even more tasty EP! You can do it!

Tiering Event Types

There are two event types: Marathon and Cheerful Carnival (cc).

Marathon Events

  • Marathon Song Choices:
  • Meta songs mean songs that are the most efficient for tiering. Generally you want songs that provide maximum notes/minute or song plays/hour. Shorter is better.
  • You’re either being [can] efficient or time efficient…[both] generally correspond to song length. (Narwhal)
  • Current time efficient meta songs are (in order) Hitorinbo Envy (on Expert), Jack Pot Sad Girl, Bless Your Breath, and Viva Happy. You’ll see them show up a lot in Co-Op Rooms. For a full meta song list and more info, check sekai.best (click on the “Event Point Rate” column; one click is most efficient for co-op/CL, two clicks is most efficient for solo).
  • Hitorinbo Envy is most efficient on EXPERT, not Master, because of the way skills proc during its beatmap. Also, it’s easier to FC reliably, which = higher score.
  • Fillers can play Hitorinbo Envy on easy and stop playing once the song gets past Super Fever. The amount of EP that you contribute by playing is nothing in comparison to the amount of EP your ISV team gives the runner, so take it easy and rest your hands!
  • Jack Pot Sad Girl isn’t recommended unless you can master or expert FC it consistently. (Xavi)
  • In Solo Play (especially auto plays), Melt is the most efficient because it has the most notes/gives the most EP. Melt is most [can] efficient (being the longest song). (Narwhal) Hatsune Creation Myth is 0.3 seconds longer and therefore even more efficient than Melt, but it’s harder, too. Melt on master is more efficient than Creation Myth on expert, if you can’t unlock Creation Myth mas.
  • Picking songs that have an easy Super Fever so that you can mutually get the highest scores possible makes sense. For this reason, many people in pub rooms like to pick Jackpot Sad Girl, which has good EP gain and an easy Fever section. (Xavi)

Cheerful Carnival (CC) Events

  • CC events split the entire server into two groups. Within those groups, players form teams of five, and go up against a team of five from the opposing group. Whichever team gets more points wins the match. The winner of the match gets 2 points for their group, and the loser gets 1 point. Whoever has the most points gets slightly more gems and 3 more free cans than the loser! (Or: winning or losing doesn’t really matter, except for vanity reasons/bragging rights)
  • Usually a tiering server will all pick a group ahead of time. It can be problematic when all the servers pick one group, because then there will be too many players in one group and no one to match up against in the other group! To combat this, often servers will share what group they’re going to pick so that the servers can evenly distribute themselves.
  • CC strategy is different from marathon strategy, and values underleveled cards.
  • Players going for high tiers will also have very powerful teams to support that goal. Because of that, a team of full tiering players will have such a high BP that they’ll never be able to match with anyone else in the server, except other tierers. This can lead to extremely long wait times that can tank a tiering run.
  • Because of this, ideal Cheerful Carnival event teams are made up of:
  • 1 or 2 tierers/runners
  • 2 sandbags, a player with the lowest BP possible and the highest ISV possible. Having lower BP lowers the full team average, so that you can match other players faster.
  • The best possible sandbag team is made up of five 4* cards at level 1 with the highest SL possible, and played on x0 cans so that those cards level as slowly as possible. However, different situations may call for specific target BPs. For example, I’ve brought mixed teams of underleveled 1*, 2*, and 3* cards to accommodate the needs of the runners. The best sandbag players have a wide variety of underleveled cards and a flexible, think-on-your-feet temperament.
  • In general, sandbags should be between 130-170k, the lower the better. Usually cheerful carnival rooms are gen rooms.
  • Playing sandbag can be a great opportunity to farm kizuna and leader lives. ;)
  • 1 healer lead, because you get more EP in CC events if you have full HP at the end of the song. 4* healer cards are preferred, especially if they’ve been skill leveled; if the runner is exhausted/struggling, they may request a birthday heal instead. This player may also bring a sandbag team if the team needs additional nerfing, or may be asked to bring a high power/high ISV team or even allowed to bring an event team if not.
  • If the runners are doing very well, 1 sandbag may be allowed to instead bring their regular event team. The runners may also call for a full power max BP/max ISV team when they need extra oomph. Again, playing in a CC room is all about being flexible!

Gacha

“Is this a good card?”

  • Courtesy of rainbow egg, for ppl who are new to this kind of game and are doing gacha for the first time right now and asking “is this a good card?”: 
  • Basically all cards in this game are good for different purposes. In general you want 3*s and 4*s because they have better skills and give you more talent power. but the main thing to think of when you pull in a gacha is
  • Are you playing casually?
  • Are you tiering?
  • Are you playing for the rhythm game?
  • Do you want high scores?
  • Different cards have different skills that you might find useful, there's a few main types - (this section expanded upon by Ciry)
  • Healers: regains HP when its skill triggers, and score boost. These are good if you want to try harder songs without dying. [ Example ]
  • Plockers or Lockers: turns all hit notes into perfects, and score boost. These turn combo breaks (or greats if its 2*) into perfect notes, which is good if you have bad accuracy but don't want to lose your combo, or if you're trying to full combo a song. However, they give the worst score boost of any card. These cards are best used when playing lives by yourself, not in co-op. [ Example ]
  • Scorers: no secondary effect, but gives highest score bonus. [ Example ]
  • Perfect scorers (aka pscorer): even higher score increase that it awards only for Perfect notes. These are good if you want high scores and have good accuracy. People are always happy when someone brings a Pscorer lead into a room! [ Example ]
  • Fes Life Scorer (aka lscorer): A colorful festival exclusive card that increases your score the more life you have. These are the second-best best cards in the game, highly sought after in rooms. [ Example ]
  • Unit Scorer (aka uscorer): Rare cards that increase score the more unit cards you have in your team. These are the best score cards in the game, both because they increase a whopping 150% score boost at SL4 and because they have no conditions - they’re just a flat boost. [ Example ]
  • Please note that gscorers boost only based on your own cards in your team. It does not look at other players’ leads. For the example above, Kaito is a WxS group scorer. Every additional WxS card in your team boosts his score up by 10%, to a max of 150% at SL4. If you cannot build a unit-focused team, these cards plummet in useability.
  • These cards are very powerful for encore teams.
  • Fes Accuracy/Lock/Plock Scorer (aka gorilla scorer/gscorer): A colorful festival exclusive card that increases your score as long as you’re hitting Perfects. The second you hit a Great or lower, your score boost plummets. Because this card is very punishing, other players cringe when you bring it as your lead into a room. Avoid using accuracy fes cards as much as possible, unless you’re a gorilla playing solo lives. [ Example ]
  • Another thing to keep in mind is upcoming events. If you want to play during a specific event, it’s good to have a team that has a high % event bonus so that you can get event rewards and/or rank in the event. Each event has different focus characters and specific attributes. So, in that way, every card can contribute something to you if you’re playing an event.
  • In general however most casual players tend to just pull for their favorite characters and favorite events. Also, in some cases, cards may be available only for a limited time. So keep these things in mind before pulling!! (rainbow egg)

  • If you’re trying to minmax/tier, Unit score up cards are best, then Fes/Life score up cards, then Perfect Score up cards, followed by Score up, Healer, and finally Perfect lock.
  • When playing in a Co-Op room, you’re trying to reach S rank for the best reward. Score Up cards give you the best chance of that.
  • Secondly, ensuring that people don’t die mid-song is the best way to get the highest room score. That’s where Healer cards come in.
  • Compared to these two, Perfect lock comes in last. Plock is good for people who do have poor accuracy when playing; however, if you’re tiering it’s assumed that everyone in your room has good accuracy, so these cards are least useful. (Ciry)
  • But there's also zero harm in just choosing your favorite character as the leader and ignoring that optimization :D (Hikki Pie)
  • you can make any character work with master ranks and character ranking and stuff, if you put a ton of investment into your fav they'll have strong cards and do well in challenge live and other places ^^ (Aiden)

Rolling Advice

  • It’s always better to do the 3,000-crystal 10-roll, which guarantees at least one 3* card or higher. Doing ten single 300-crystal pulls does not guarantee a 3* and you can end up with all 2*s!
  • However, the rate at getting a 4* doesn't change between the 3* or higher guaranteed pull in the 10pull versus a regular single pull, so if you reaalllllyyy want a four star and don't have enough for a single pull it might be worth it in that instance. (Ylimegirl)
  • Typical Gacha rates are 3% rate for a 4*. (corwyn)
  • Costumes: Each event has 2 cards that have rare costumes and one card that doesn't. [Occasionally, all three event cards will have costumes.] The gacha will tell you which is which. (Kamin)
  • Once you have a card costume, that character gets the costume for free. You can also craft their costumes to anyone else (girls+ mizuki or boys, males can’t have female costumes and vice versa). (Kamin)
  • Rolling the gacha gives you gacha seals. After you do 30 multi rolls (or 300 one-time rolls–90,000 gems), you’ll have enough seals to pick any 4* featured in the specific banner. (Hikki Pie) This mechanic is also known as “Sparking.” For more on gacha mechanics, visit Sekaipedia.
  • Gacha seals turn into wish pieces after the gacha is over.
  • You can convert seals into a ticket which essentially lets you carry over the seals for a future banner. You exchange 10 [stickers] for 1 ticket, and that 1 ticket can be exchanged to get 10 seals added to the counter for a future banner. The max amount of tickets you can use for a particular banner is also 10. So say you got 10 tickets, you'll just need to gather up enough for 20 multi pulls (or 60,000 gems) in any future banner you want [in order to spark]. (Hikki Pie)
  • Gacha stickers look like this:
     

Pink ones are limited banners and green ones are permanent banners. (MrRaccoon98)

Green Room

  • In this game, dupes…can give you wish pieces that you can [use to] master rank a character. (patrickgian) You can exchange 2* and 3* dupes for wish pieces and 4* dupes for wish jewels. (starry-kohi)
  • To get wish pieces, go to the Green Room and trade in your duplicate characters (dupes). It looks something like this (see below) (angelgliderpng). You can’t do anything else in the Green Room, and you also can’t do anything else with dupes, so turn them into rocks at will!
  • To get to the Green Room: Characters (bottom of main screen) > Characters (lower right corner of screen) > Green Room (top of screen).
  • Wish pieces are used to mastery train and level up the skills of other cards. And each level you Mastery train or level up a skill of a card means 1 more point -those little circles- in their character rank. Mastering cards complete characters’ rank missions and can level up their rank easily. If you Mastery rank all 1* and 2* cards you can get a lot of crystals easily. (s4kurauchi)
  • SAVE YOUR WISH PIECES. Do not use them for skills. Use them to Master Rank instead!! (Mama Mary)

Gacha Types

Permanent Gacha

  • Most new cards go into a permanent gacha pool. For example, if you roll in later events, you still have a chance to pull the Halloween Potato cards even though that event is over. Therefore, if you’re rolling for a favorite character, don’t feel pressured to go hard during that event’s gacha - they’re permanent and could surprise you in another gacha later.
  • Limited cards are different. They only show up during their limited gachas, and are NOT added to the permanent pool afterwards. These limited cards also often have better stats and abilities than permanent cards. Therefore, many people recommend saving your gems for limited cards of your faves. Permanent cards can come home during Limited gachas too. The best limited gacha to pull on is the one featuring your favorite.
  • There are 2 different types of limited cards. Just limited, where you won’t ever see them again, and Fes limited, which you will see every 3 months or so during a fes banner (6% rate), which will have new fes limited cards plus all the old fes lims. You can only ‘spark’ for the newest fes cards. (Narwhal)
  • A pull that uses paid crystals only will have a teal colored button. [For example,] birthday gachas … will have teal buttons. (Narwhal)
    Here’s an visual example:

ColorFes Gacha

  • Colorful Festival (ColorFes) gachas release a double 4* rate up banner (6%) every few months, analogous to bandori’s dreamfest; these also have Fes limited cards. If you're cost conscious, this is the best time to roll the gacha. (Hikki Pie) It’s hard to miss these gachas - they’re very clear that they contain limited characters! (Narwhal)
  • ColorFes gachas are always good due to having twice the chances of 4* but later they add very good limited units. Anniversary and some New year gachas often have 5 limited units on rate up on top of being ColorFes, so they are a very good investment.

Paid Gacha

  • Paid gachas usually show up one month before ColorFes (so March, June, September and December) plus during some milestones and celebrations. New players also get one as a limited time offer.
  • All paid gachas cost 3000 paid crystals for a one-time 10-pull.
  • Practically all paid gachas guarantee at least one permanent 4*. The pool does not include limited units and some of the most recent permanent cards. You have a 24% chance to receive two 4* or more.
  • There are roughly 4 types of paid gachas:
  • Basic paid gachas guarantee a completely random 4*, so only invest here if you are good with anything.
  • Select list gachas are the best imho. Before you pull, you select 10 4* you want to have in your gacha and any 4* you pull will be one of those 10.
  • Miracle ticket gachas have you pull a completely normal 10-roll (ie. Full permanent pool but no 4* guaranteed) before giving you a ticket to pick the 4* of your choice. Worse than select list but better than basic, ideal if there is one permanent card you absolutely want.
  • Costume paid gachas are basically costume packs with a gacha on top. The 6(!!) we got for the 1st anniversary do not guarantee any 4* but the one we got for New Year 2022 has a guaranteed random 4* . In any case, only pull if you really want the costume.

Birthday Gacha

  • the birthday card takes the place of ★4 in a banner but it's the only card; essentially the rate of one card is 3% compared to the usual 0.4% rate up. Birthday cards are also ★3.5 - unique!
  • ★4 Bday banners only need 100 pulls/stickers to spark compared to the 300 for a typical gacha ★4 (though tix cannot be used) and Bday banners only contain the specific character's ★2/★3s.
  • Bday cards only have one art (i.e. they cannot be trained/upgraded) but they already have their unlocked level cap at 60.
  • The dupe gem requirement to MR is 1000 (compared to 50 for ★3 and 2000 for ★4) so it's 5000 to MR5.
  • Likewise, the Skill EXP requirement is half of the ★4 so 5000 EXP to max skill level Bday dupes themselves give 300 dupe gems.
  • As for their skills, they are essentially super healer skills. (Narwhal)

Gem Farming

  • Gems are used for rolling in the gacha. You can use crystals to refill energy too, but you should only ever do that if you’re tiering (tryharding) on the events. (corwyn)

From Beep Beep Honda:

  • fc'ing hard difficulty gives 50, ex and mas difficulty gives 70 for each song
  • reaching s rank gives a total of 100 gems for each song
  • every 5 levels a character is upgraded you get 300 gems
  • read both card stories for 1 and 2* cards
  • read the first card story for every 3 and 4*
  • if you haven't read previous event stories i recommend reading them cause that will unlock that specific event area conversations and each one of those gives 10 gems
  • if you have an unplayed songs and an an unplayed character on the daily live challenges i suggest playing the unplayed song with the unplayed character cause that gives like 500 gems in total, daily log-ins, try to play as much as possible to complete the monthly prices (gems, and coins)
  • buy gems from the event shops...


From rainbow egg:

  • early game:
  • 1. Master rank and skill level your 1 star cards
  • 2. Read side stories 1+2 of your 1 star cards
  • 3. Do the same for 2 star cards if you have the resources
  • 4. Make sure to go to every event virtual live (or welcome live if you’re new) they give crystals and a sticker (stickers give one point towards character ranks)
  • 5. Try to get full combos on song difficulty levels hard/expert/master
  • 6. Read every area conversation, also read the unit stories that you unlock from ranking up groups
  • If you dc while watching an area conversation, it just adds those crystals along with another area convo later. (PzTJ)
  • later game:
  • 1. play characters’ challenge lives - probably best to wait until you have around 100k band power to get some crystals, or 180k+ (it could be more or less depending on skills) band power to get to 1m points (max crystal rewards). doing a challenge live is a good way to increase character rank bc increasing a characters stage gives you one point towards their CR.
  • 2. upgrade character ranks strategically - ie if you see a character is one step away from reaching a milestone like 10, 15, or 20, prioritize that character in your farming (milestones give 300 crystals)
  • 3. try to get at least 100k in most events, this will give you 250 crystals plus you can buy crystals with your event points in the event shop (plus more 2 star cards to level up/read)
  • 4. playing consistently also gives you points towards your player rank, and milestone ranks give you 500 crystals — it also gives you points towards your monthly mission pass which gives up to 500 crystals each month
  • 5. read the first side story of every card you have, it’s pretty cheap if you have been playing consistently and not overspending your resources
  • [F2P players] roughly get 30 gems daily, sometimes 100, and then there's also unread area convos, and quests. So it really depends on what you do to grind gems. (KML56)
  • From my experience you get around 9k gems monthly as a F2P. (Anzu)

Mission Pass

Courtesy of Ylimegirl:

  • Mission Pass: $15.99
    unlocks the premium track on monthly missions (has virtual coins, crystals, and monthly outfits)
  • This resets on the 1st of every month, so one can wait until the month is almost over and then decide whether or not to purchase it if the backlog of rewards is worth it

  • Colorful+ Basic: $4.99 (first purchase $1.99)
  • 560 paid crystals (+220 first purchase)
  • 500 free crystals (+340 first purchase)
  • 20 S boost cans
  • 50 free crystals/14 days
  • 3 intermediate score/14 days
  • bonus: paid daily pull twice
  • bonus: challenge points double
  • bonus: show points double

  • Colorful+ Standard: $9.99 (first purchase $4.99)
  • 1120 paid crystals (+560 first purchase)
  • 1000 free crystals (+560 first purchase)
  • 100 intermediate scores
  • 2 beginner skill ups
  • 3 S boost cans/14 days
  • bonus: paid daily pull twice
  • bonus: challenge points double
  • bonus: show points double
  • bonus: daily autoplay +10 (total: 20)

  • Colorful+ Deluxe: $29.99 (first purchase $14.99)
  • 3380 paid crystals (+1690 first purchase)
  • 3000 free crystals (+1690 first purchase)
  • 50 wish pieces
  • 10 L boost cans
  • 30 miracle gems
  • 5 beginner skill ups
  • 5 intermediate score/15 days
  • 5 attribute gems/14 days (5 gems of each attribute)
  • 10 attribute charms/14 days (10 charms of each attribute)
  • bonus: paid daily pull twice
  • bonus: challenge points double
  • bonus: show points double
  • bonus: daily autoplay +10 (total: 20)
  • bonus: max bonus energy +10 (total: 20)
  • You can purchase all three colorful+ options simultaneously and while the material rewards of crystals leveling up mats etc will stack, the bonus effects of extra auto plays challenge points etc will not. 
  • The first purchase bonus/discount is available until you purchase that pass for the first time. (Azufire)
  • The bonus of show points doubling with each of three colorful+ subscription options is one of the primary perks I believe, since it allows for easier completion of the show mission pass. Unlike the mission pass, the perks for colorful+ carry through for the full duration of a month from purchase rather than resetting on the 1st of each month (e.g. lasts from dec 8—>jan 8, can purchase again jan 9)
  • If you’re hoping for a part here where I tell you which colorful+ option(s) you should buy, that’s not something for me to determine for you. I will say that I wouldn’t want to and don’t plan to buy more than one colorful+ option at a time since the main draw for me is the bonus effects rather than the mat bonuses. You just kind of have to determine how much time you’re planning to put into this game and therefore which options give you your money’s worth
  • When it comes to the mission pass, since to my knowledge you can claim the backlog of rewards from whenever you purchase it I’d recommend waiting until the month is almost over to see if it’s worth it to you or not.

Challenge Lives

  • Challenge Lives are good because high scores provide lots of good rewards, including crystals! (Anzu)! The goal is to get each challenge live to 1 million points to clear out all of the rewards. (Narwhal, toya tenma)
  • To start, do challenge lives with whoever you have the best cards with first. This is for those [crystals received for high scores]. Once you're done, you can do the challenge live for the person you love, as it also has its own rewards. (Mama Mary)
  • For Challenge Lives, Hitorinbo Envy on Expert (not Master) is the meta song of choice; you have other options too if you can reliably FC/get near All Perfect level 27+ songs. (Narwhal) If you can’t play 27+ songs, play Envy. This is because since Envy is the shortest song, your score boost skills will cover almost all of the song, so you’re getting the maximum number of points. (This is the same logic that applies to marathon event meta.) (Yitsu69)
  • Courtesy of Rih, here is an infographic detailing how to minmax your challenge live points with various songs!

Virtual Shows

  • DO NOT SPEND ALL YOUR VIRTUAL COINS ON GIFTS TO A SPECIFIC UNIT. There's a title for every unit, and there are virtual lives where all units are featured. If you are doing it to get those titles, WAIT for [lives that cover multiple groups]. (Mama Mary) The best lives are the ones that feature every group, like anniversary lives.
  • With that said, assist once on every virtual live there is to get titles. (MrRaccoon98) And also to get wish pieces! 100 virtual coins = 1 wish piece. (Taida)
  • If you ever get disconnected from a virtual live (it'll tell you you got redirected to home) don't tap anything, just let the virtual live end, and afterwards you'll still get the crystals and stamp. (cleo)
  • If you’re short on time, leaving a virtual live before the show is over is ok - you’ll still get the rewards.
  • The “tap” buttons during a virtual live are just for fun and don’t have any meta impact. (pOtEtO, Hikki Pie)
  • This button lets you turn on English subtitles. (Anestia)
  • The Virtual Live Shop is in the virtual live lobby/waiting area, to the right of your character when you first arrive.

Resource Management

(or, how do I get stuff???)

  • You can get stamp tickets (see below) from character ranks and event shops.
  • You can get colored pieces and gems (cool, cute, mysterious, etc.) from just playing the game. Co-Op gets you more gems (the egg-shaped items) than Solo, and Pro Room gets you the most gems of all. However, if you need to farm pieces (the flat colored items) then you should use the Regular Room.

Song Covers

  • You can buy alternate song covers with song cover tickets. Earliest way to get one is to raise someone to character rank two. (Anon)
  • If you’ve bought an alternate song cover and want to change the vocals: before playing it (while in the option selection screen), a button to change vocals will appear next to the song's cover. (MrRaccoon98)
  • Normal song cover tickets look like this and are character-locked.
  • Cover tickets with a band symbol on it unlock any cover from that band. (This one is Nightcord at 25:00)
  • This rainbow song cover ticket works for any character!

Profile Customization

  • You can’t set your twitter on your profile if your age is set to under 16. (Narwhal)
  • This image guide for Proseka profiles comes courtesy of Adissa.

  • To make rectangles, here is a video created by mikukilledtheradiostar: https://youtu.be/9hbDRpfUX7E 
  • There are lots of great custom profile tutorial videos on YouTube, I recommend doing a search!
  • To change your name color, use the <a> html tag–but it doesn't show up everywhere and cuts your character limit. (Narwhal)

Gacha Luck

(this is jokes)

tips to get ★4 in gacha:

  • Blow on phone like you would blow on dice when summoning (hakashii)
  • Shout out at the top of your lungs the name of the 4* character you want, as if chanting an ancient spell if you have Facebook installed then Mark Zuckerberg might sell that data to some database that Sega might use and if you're really lucky, there'll be an epic AI that might put in a good word for you to the RNG and up your chances a bit. actually, all the kids these days have instagram installed or something, that's another Meta-made service; that's good enough (kohane fan official)
  • Tell who you want how much you love and appreciate them and play a song they sing (Mikuni)

Older Changelog Notes:

  • 22-Dec-2022: Clarified room order and super fever sections. Updated tenses/wording throughout to reflect additions to the game since this guide was started (birthday cards, anniversary gachas, gacha tickets, etc.)
  • 21-Dec-2022: Added cheerful carnival events for real, updated abbreviations/definitions, and finally adding kizuna/trust ranks! Updated meta song info to reflect that Hatsune Creation Myth is now in the game. Added another note about playing Hitorinbo Envy on easy when you’re filling.
  • 8-Jan-2022: Clarified co-op etiquette rules. Added video to “hand placement” section. Updated doc throughout to indicate that Hitorinbo Envy is now in the game. Added more to the table of contents.
  • 12-Jan-2022: Added small notes to “Technical” and “Strategy.”
  • 13-Feb-2022: Finally finished the table of contents, added a few definitions to the “Tiering” section of Abbreviations/Terms, added a few notes to Strategy, Tiering, and general typo/grammar cleanup. I’m gonna declare this done for now, but if more needs to be added just DM me!
  • 6-Nov-2022: Long time no update! I’m still working on this, but I’m finally adding Cheerful Carnival events to the guide as well as significantly expanding the definitions section, updating the section on dropped notes, and clearing up other outdated bits.