SideM Guide

This guide is currently a work in progress.

THE iDOLM@STER SideM is a social card collecting game hosted on the platform Mobage. Among English-speaking fans, it is commonly referred to as the 'original game', 'SideMobage', 'MobaM', or simply 'the Mobage'. Not to be confused with LIVE ON ST@GE, MobaM does not require download or have a rhythm game section; however, the games are quite similar in gameplay otherwise.

This guide is a simplified version of other gameplay related pages from the Wiki, which may have more text unsuited for a new player.

Intro
Making an Account=

Making an Account
Conveniently, SideMobage does not require download, and can be accessed in mobile web browsers here. You must make a Mobage account to play through the browser:


 * 1) Go to http://sp.mbga.jp/ on your mobile device and scroll down to the section labeled 無料会員登録 (Register for Free).
 * 2) Insert your email address into the line provided. You must use a Gmail email or a Japanese email provider.
 * 3) Hit the button labeled 送信 (Send). This will send a confirmation email to the address you put in with a link to continue the registration process. Find the email sent to you from Mobage. It may take a few minutes to send. Once you find it, click on the link contained in the email.
 * 4) Continue registration from the link provided by Mobage. Here are the things it'll ask you for:
 * 5) Your gender (性別). Your only options are Male (男性) or Female (女性).  Your birth date (生年月日). 年 is the year, 月 is the month, 日 is the day.  Note: Minors have limits on the amount of Mobacoins they can purchase in a set period. Keep this in mind when deciding whether to give your real birth date or not.
 * 6) Whether you want to have your birth date displayed publicly. する is yes, しない is no.
 * 7) Your blood type (血液型).
 * 8) Your location (地域). Only locations in Japan are listed, so just pick something at random or keep the default location.
 * 9) Press the blue button once done.

There is a standalone app for the game on the Japanese version of the App Store/Google Play. It isn't necessary to create an account if you play through the app, although it's best to as you can continue your progress across multiple devices.

Tutorial=

Tutorial
Upon entering the game, you'll go through a short story about Ken Yamamura introducing you to DRAMATIC STARS. You will be given the choice to receive the basic R card of one of the DRAMATIC STARS idols. Which idol you pick doesn't matter, as the cards can easily be obtained later on.

Producer Training Course=

Producer Training Course


The Producer Training Course is a set of beginner missions that you can complete at any time. There are three sets of these missions, and you unlock a new set once you've completed the one before it.

1st Training Sheet

 * Publish a feature in a magazine.
 * Scout 5 idols in the Scout Mission.
 * Look at one of the idols' resume (in Idol File).
 * Set up an ichioshi unit.
 * Give your group a name.
 * Change the leader idol.
 * Edit your Producer comment.
 * Listen to music in the Sound Studio.
 * Watch a TV commercial in the Movie Theater.

2nd Training Sheet

 * Collect music sales (in Notifications).
 * Release a new song (complete a stage in Business).
 * Win in an Audition Battle.
 * Organize a Live Unit.
 * Transfer (delete) an idol.
 * Move an idol to the Boys' Dorms.
 * Set a Producer Title.
 * Play SideMini.
 * Complete the Shimokitazawa (下北沢) location in Business.

3rd Training Sheet

 * Organize your Audition Battle Unit.
 * Start your own Audition Battle.
 * Add a coworker.
 * Maximize the trust of one idol.
 * Make a P Card.
 * Join a team.
 * Raise the skill level of one idol.
 * View past event stories in the event album.
 * Complete the Shibuya (渋谷) location in Business.

Menu
My Desk=

My Desk
Menu=

Menu
In the header, there are links to different parts of the game:

Extended Menu=
 * My Desk: The homepage of SideM.
 * Business: The 'main gameplay', where you can earn money and fans.
 * Lessons: View your idols and level them up, or Change! them.
 * Scout Gacha: Get new cards through scouting them in either paid or free gacha.
 * Event: The main way to get new cards for free.
 * Menu: Opens up into the extended menu when clicked.

Business
Basics=

TIP: You can set business to automatically proceed without tapping. To do this, go to the Settings and select the option called 営業自動進行設定. Then press the ON button and tap the blue button to confirm. Mini-Events=

Audition Battles
In the audition battle, 5 of your cards will go up against the cards of other players. If ⅗ of your cards are stronger, then you’ll win the battle. Audition battles don’t use any AP, so just go ahead and press the blue button, and the game will automatically select your strongest cards (unless you’ve set your own units in the Organize Unit section).

You can also start your own audition battle by pressing on the Audition Battle button in the extended menu. These battles use 20AP, but you can select from a random list of 5 people to play against.

Other
You might encounter these smaller events while going through business:


 * Scout a N card.
 * Gain trust points with cards.
 * Replenish stamina (blue background) or replenish AP (orange background).

Scout Mission=

Scout Mission


In the Scout Mission, you can scout for the R cards of all the idols once. Tap on the group that has the idol you want to scout. Then swipe left/right until you see that idol and press the big green button labeled 営業. As usual, you'll be taken to the business screen, and go through two levels of business until you scout the R card. Each idol's R can only be scouted once, but you can easily get them again through other ways of scouting.

Events
Basics= Events are the main way of getting new cards in SideMobage for free. If you play wisely (and often), you’ll easily be able to obtain the two R cards and if you save up your items (or pay for them) then ranking for SRs isn’t too difficult either. Be warned that the tiers in SideMobage are much more competitive than in LOS because only the top 1000 can receive the event SR, and only the top 100 can get two copies. In the Marathon event type, only the top 500 are guaranteed the SR. Because of this, you’ll only be able to rank a few events per year if you’re F2P, even if you save up items everyday. Also, popular characters like S.E.M and Touma are much harder to rank than unpopular characters like Soichiro and Shoma. So pick who you want to rank carefully.

There are currently five different event types in SideMobage: Live, Bingo, Marathon, Team, and Produce Live.

Panel Missions
Each day, there is a set of 6 missi mons that you can complete to get 315 Seals. The types of missions you have to complete will depend on what kind of event is currently going on. Panel missions reset each day at midnight Japan time, but only if you complete the missions from the day before. If you don't, they'll carry over to the next day.

You can access the panel mission by tapping on the first round button under the main event screen like so:



There, you'll be taken to a checklist of 6 different missions. Through doing these, you can get up to 20 315 Seals per day.

Exchanging Items
You can exchange 315 Seals for different items in the Panel Mission Exchange Room. Select how many of that item you want via the dropdown and press the blue button to confirm.

Live=

Live
Bingo=

Bingo
Marathon=

Marathon
Team=

Team
Produce Live=

Idols and Units
Affiliated Idols= SideMobage is primarily a collecting game in which the player collects Idol Cards. There are 46 Idols in 15 official Units. Idol Cards are split into three rarities: N, R, and SR. They are also split into three attributes, Physical, Intelligent, and Mental. The attributes don't affect anything other than the card's Skills. There are also EX cards, most of which are Ken Yamamura cards used for raising a card level (the others are special cards from campaigns).

The higher the rarity, the stronger the card. It's good to collect Rs until you're able to rank for a SR through events.

Transferring (Deleting) Cards
On the Affiliated Idols page, there is another tab that says 移籍. There, you can transfer (delete) any cards you no longer want in exchange for money. To do so, click on the idols you no longer want and press 移籍する. You'll be taken to a page to confirm the transfer, so press 移籍する again.

Lessons=

Lessons
Change!=

Change!
To ‘idolize’ your card, you can Change! it with two copies of the same card.

Select which card you want to Change! and click on the ﾁｪﾝｼﾞ!する button in the popup. Then you’ll be taken to another page to select the partner card. Click the ﾊﾟｰﾄﾅｰにする to combine the cards and Change! it.

You should maximize trust and level before you Change! a card. That will give the card stat bonuses.

Passion Change!
By collecting Extra Passion, you can Change! a card without needing two copies of it. Extra Passion can be obtained by ranking high in events (top 5000). You need 100 EP to Change! a SR and 10 EP to Change! a R.

Boys' Dorms=

Boys' Dorms
Units=

Units
You can organize your units in the Organize Unit section.

Live
Your live unit is the one that is used in Lives in Business and events. It consists of 10 cards. You can have up to four live units-- the first one is automatically chosen, so you can't edit it. The others, however, can be edited to add/remove any cards you want.

Audition Battle
Your Audition Battle unit is used in Audition Battles, so it has 5 cards. You will have four AB units, one that consists of your strongest cards and the others for Vocal/Dance/Visual focus. The easiest way of forming units is to auto complete the unit. Click on the drop-down box and select Vocal優先 (Vocal Preference) for Vocal units, or Dance優先 for Dance units and Visual優先 for Visual units. Then press 自動編成. This will automatically select your strongest cards of that type.

Ichioshi Unit
The cards you set in your Ichioshi unit will appear on your main page, as well as in your profile. Cards in this unit will increase trust quicker, as well as appear in SideMini more often. Click on a blank space to add a card to your unit.

Once a card has been added, you’ll see two buttons underneath it. はずす removes the card, while 入れ替え lets you replace it with another card.

Scout Gacha
Paid Gacha= There are multiple scout gacha in SideMobage. The most significant gacha are all paid only, so essentially half of SideM's cards are unavailable to F2P players unless you trade for them.

Event Gacha
This is the main gacha associated with the ongoing event. It’s paid only, so you have to buy Mobacoins to do it. The SR rate for the event gacha SR is extremely low (only 0.318% in most event types), so it’s honestly not a good choice to do it unless you have lots of cash to spend on it.

The Idols of Those Days Gacha
This is another paid gacha that releases one card a month, focusing on the idols when they were younger (previously, this gacha was called Idols' Day Off and had cards focusing on the idols in their free time). Note that you can do this gacha for free using Platinum Tickets (more information under Platinum Scout).

Scout Medals
When you scout in paid gacha, you'll get Scout Medals. Eventually, you can accumulate enough to scout one of the idols shown on the page.

Point/Ticket Gacha=

Point Gacha
In the point scout gacha, you can scout basic N and R cards, and there's also a very rare chance of obtaining one the basic DRAMATIC STARS or FRAME cards as well. You can do two free scouts per day. You can also scout with scouting points, which will accumulate very quickly when you play the game.

TIP: Since you'll get a lot of N cards from this scout that you won't need, it's recommended that you set it so that the N cards are automatically deleted in exchange for money. You can set this by scrolling down and finding the part labeled ｶﾞｼｬでの自動ﾚｯｽﾝ/自動移籍設定. Then you'll get to a page with three drop-down boxes. Here, set all of the attributes to 移籍 and press the blue button to confirm.

Event Scout
Through playing the event, you'll get event scout tickets. These give you a low chance of scouting the idols from the current event.

Below that, there's also the 2% scout ticket. This ticket, which you can get using P Emblems, gives you a 2% chance of scouting the current event SR idol. Since they're hard to come by, be sure to save it only for the idols you really want.

Platinum Scout
In the Platinum Scout, you can have a chance of scouting the Idols from Those Days Gacha without paying real money. You can get Platinum Tickets through playing. Since these tickets pretty much let you scout paid cards for free, you should definitely only save them for idols you really like.

Social
Coworkers=

Coworkers
SideMobage is, of course, a social game and so you can add other users as your friends.

On the Coworkers page, you'll be able to see three tabs:
 * List of Coworkers
 * Sent Requests
 * Received Requests

To add a user as your friend via ID, press the blue button labeled 同僚候補検索. Then press the tab labeled ID, and you can simply put in their ID number. You can also see your own ID number there, so you can share it if you want your friends to add you.

To add a user as your friend through their profile, click on the blue button labeled 同僚申請 underneath their Mobage picture. This will send out a friend request to them.

Gift=

Gift
Team=

Team
My Data=

My Data
In the My Data section, you can set up your profile that other users will see. Things that you can edit are:


 * P Card: See P Cards for more detailed information on editing your P Card.
 * Producer Titles: You can set up to two Producer Titles that will show on your profile. Normal P Titles can be obtained through max-trusting an idol, or getting them many times through SideMini. You can get SR titles through scouting them in gacha or ranking high for them. Note that if you get an event SR through chance (such as with a 2% ticket or through Event Reports), you get the P Title. Also, you won't get the P Title if you trade for that idol.
 * Leader Idol: You can choose one idol to be your leader, that will be displayed next to your Mobage icon.
 * Ichioshi Unit: Your ichioshi unit can also be edited from here.
 * Wishlist: You can select up to three idols to add to your wishlist, which is also displayed on your profile.
 * Comment: You can set a short comment to display on your profile.

Below that, there are links to your own profile to share with friends. You can even make a QR code!

Other
Items=
 * Item list here

You can collect items from your Present Box.

Office (SideMini)=

Office (SideMini)
Magazines= There are two types of magazines: normal (通常号) and special event (増刊号). You can read magazines using Memory Notes, which are obtained by scouting idols or max-trusting them.

To read magazines, tap on the magazine you want to read. There are individual chapters for each idol. In normal magazines, you can only read the chapter if you've scouted at least one of their cards. Normal magazines have four chapters for each idol, while special event magazines only have one chapter per idol per event (although some of the earlier events had two chapters for the SRs).

Since the magazines do consume items and give rewards, it's best to mainly read event magazines, as they use the least amount of items (1 Memory Note) and give out 2 AP Bars per chapter. You can read some of the translated magazines on this Wiki as well.