Shining Song Starnova Idol Empire: Tips & Tricks for Beginners

General Hints & Tips

In this section I’ll give some hints and tips that I’ve discovered. Please be aware that these are just my observations and suggestions. You may find a better way to do things and that’s great. If you feel like sharing your thoughts and suggestions, leave a comment!

Make use of the Master Scheduler for your Idols. It will help you keep everyone busy and seriously cut down on micromanaging.

Automatic training can be useful in addition to the Master Scheduler, or by itself. If you only have a few Idols and just the basic facilities, it’s much easier to just set them on auto then to write an entire schedule. By the late game of a stage there may not be enough room in the Master Scheduler to have your Idols do everything. So you can then just set the basic training on automatic, which will free up some slots on the schedule. Do note, however, that automatic training only works if there’s idle time. If the girl is busy all day, she won’t have time to train anyway.

Don’t waste money on large rooms when you usually don’t need it. Stagger out your scheduling so your Idols aren’t all doing the same thing at once. Some stages are very restrictive on space so building smaller rooms is usually a plus either way.

Make sure you always have a Center set (from the Manage Idols screen). An Idols Center abilities are great passive buffs that can help you out in all stages of the game. You can switch Centers at any time so make sure you’re taking advantage of this feature.

Always have your Idols apply makeup before a Live. This helps with them popping the Look bubbles at the Live and can be extremely helpful.

Save before you schedule a Live. If you’re not selling enough tickets to sell out, reload and try a smaller venue. Also works if you sell out too fast, you can reload and select a larger venue.

Don’t put more Songs than your Idols can handle on the set list for Lives. If you’re running out of HP too quickly, reduce the amount or quality of songs. Raising your Idol’s stats higher will help pop bubbles faster and raising their HP will help them last longer during the Live.

You can use the Cafeteria up to 3 times per week if you schedule it right. You should space out the days your Idols eat and alternate what they eat. They shouldn’t get any Eating Disorders by doing it this way (sometimes you might pop one, just cure it and it shouldn’t reappear). A good schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Have Looks (diet greens) on Monday and Friday with HP (protein) on Wednesday (or vice-versa).

Control your Idol’s Infamy. While Infamy can be somewhat positive, as it does increase Popularity, overall it has many negative effects. High Infamy will cause more frequent Scandals and Fanquakes. You can reduce Infamy by sending your Idols on Vacation (it’s listed as a Job) or by having a PR Department set to Damage Control (it’s expensive though).

Control your Idol’s Pure. The Pure stat will directly influence Scandals and Fanquakes. Low Pure, combined with high Infamy can be devastating. Avoid sleazy jobs and when you need a boost, the Hospital Visit or Temple Visit jobs can help. Also, Sasami’s Center abilities generate Pure so she can be useful for everyone.

The unlockable decorations are all very useful. You should unlock them and use them as soon as possible. Once they’re unlocked you can use them in any stage. If you hover your mouse over the furniture you can see what conditions must be met to unlock it.

Money Making Tips

There’s several ways to make money, but the order to do things or the best times to do them might not be obvious. There’s no “best” or “easiest” way to make money, really, it’s just whatever method you prefer.

Early Game

Songs and Lives are probably your best bet in the early game. Your Idols (generally) have low stats to start with and they’ll often fail jobs because of that. There’s too much risk involved in that because of high Infamy and the resulting backlash due to that (Scandals, etc.). So Songs are a safer bet by far. Plus this method doesn’t really lose its usefulness and if you do it right, Songs and Lives can carry you through the entire game without touching Jobs.

To start, record your first three songs so you can begin performing Lives. The Song Quality in the beginning isn’t really a big deal, we just need to get some cash flowing in quickly.
While recording these three songs, start training your Sing/Dance stats. You can train Sing more often because without PVs (which you should avoid to start because of their cost), Sing is the more important stat. Once you start using PVs, Dance will also play a roll.
Once you’ve got your first 3 songs recorded, hold a Live. After the Live, train a bit and record another song aiming for the next level of quality. Don’t force the quality too high to start, or you’ll have difficulty performing those songs in the Lives.
So your loop after your first three songs will be: Hold a Live > Train > Record Song > Repeat.

You should pay attention to your timing of recording and scheduling Lives. For the Live House and the Outdoor Stage you can do a Guerilla Live which only gives you 20 hours to prepare instead of the normal 50. Doing that will severely limit your time to train. I’d avoid Guerilla Lives unless you need a quick influx of Popularity or KN.
You should aim for between 4-6 songs recorded at this point and you should have held about 3 Lives. The Live House and Outdoor Stage are fine to reuse. At this point, though, we should be getting enough popularity to head for the park.
As your Popularity increases and your cash allows, you should unlock the Tier 2 facilities and set up a Sales Department for more income.

Start with a simple Sales Department with just one salesman. After a couple lives you should easily be able to sell Pins on auto.
After a few Lives you can start selling T-Shirts and then finally Happi’s.
Take steps, don’t try selling everything at once. As your Pins consistently sellout, add T-Shirts. Wait a while then add Happi’s.
When your Popularity is high enough you can add even more salesmen to increase profit.

And with all that rolling, you’ve moved into the mid game…

Mid Game

The mid game, in my opinion, starts once you’ve got a Sales Department set up and you’re making decent KN from it. This is where Jobs can really shine as you should have trained your Idols a decent amount and thus they won’t fail Jobs as often, or at all.

You can keep the Song/Live loop going while you do this and just send out random Idols as you get jobs they like or that give high fame/money. Really whatever you prefer. I usually always keep the Songs/Live loop going because of the constant influx of cash and Popularity.
At this point you should hopefully be getting good job offers. Your Pure is going to matter more at this stage because of Scandals, so you should decline all jobs that have a Pure cost. As well as anything that has LOW rewards.
Cruise Entertainer, TV Drama, Movie Role are all great money makers. Spam them as much as possible. Obviously, make sure you’re sending girls that meet the stats requirement and don’t forget to use makeup for a Looks boost.
The better jobs also offer better rewards to Fame so this is also a great and extremely fast way to boost an Idols Popularity.
Note that at this point you can skip Jobs altogether and just keep spamming Lives, provided you’ve got a solid Sales Department and aren’t wasting money.

Once your Idols are averaging around 1,000 Popularity you can set up an Event Room and start making some extra cash there. This step is the milestone for progression into the late game and depending on your setup it may be essential.
Don’t schedule the Event Room too often or with too many Idols to start, you won’t have enough fans to keep them busy. This will just end up wasting training time.
Keep spamming Jobs and Lives to get that Popularity up and increased cashflow.

And with that, we’re moving into the late game…

Late Game

The late game, for me, is once I can continuously make money off the Event Room. Obviously that’s in addition to the Live/Job loop.

For the late game to work well and in your favor, your Popularity is a huge factor. We need to keep the merchandise sales rolling and the Event Room packed.
Pure and Infamy are also a big deal here as Scandals can seriously sap your income if they happen too frequently. You make need to take a cash hit and have your PR Department do some Damage Control, or lose an Idol on vacation.
If you haven’t already, upgrade your training rooms so training happens quicker. This makes your Song Quality go up, Jobs more successful and Lives easier to perform. All of which are going to improve your income.

At this point in the game you should be easily rolling in the KN. This is also when you’ll be able to sell out the Stadium, provided your Popularity is high enough.