Grind your way up to become a pop star, in the slow-paced browser game on HIVE, that has a special heart for the community: By integrating them as NFTs in the their game. This concept is so charming that is has created a strong followship and adding the cool music to the mix a surprisingly entertaining experience. Here is our in-depth look at it.
What Is Rising Star?
Rising Star is a browser-based music career simulator reminiscent of the old flashplayer glory days. Built on the Hive blockchain with community integration in mind, players start out as a lowly Busker tryin' to earn a livin' playin' tunes wherever they can. As you improve your skills, build a fanbase, and acquire better gear and instruments, you'll eventually start a band, go on tours, and prove you're every bit the rising star you were meant to be!
Interestingly enough, the developer for Rising Star is also responsible for creating the Atom Collector Records community, a hang out where both musicians and fans can earn crypto by sharing their passion for music.
Everything Until Now
Launched in early 2020, Rising Star quickly shifted from a fledgling alpha state into a well-connected beta featuring play2earn paths to other Hive tokens such as BATTLE and BEER. It didn't stop there, as support was added for players to create song mixes based on their band compositions.
Oh, and in case that wasn't enough, Rising Star heard that you like music, so it put music in your music game so you can play songs while you play songs. TL;DR - Rising Star features actual music NFT's available for purchase from independent musicians that you can listen to while playing the game or download to listen to elsewhere.
Equally impressive is their presence in the community, as they participated in both the Blockchain Gaming virtual panel and HIVEfest (in AltspaceVR) to help validate Hive as one of the most popular platforms for blockchain gaming.
Tokens
STARBITS represent the primary in-game currency earned by completing missions. It's used to enter higher-level missions, purchase cards/packs, craft instruments, stake for Record NFT profit-sharing, and bid on STARPRO token payouts via the Music Promoter mechanic.
STARPRO is a secondary currency earned by bidding STARBITS in the Music Promoter system. Successful bids burn STARBITS to earn STARPRO. Once acquired, it can be used to purchase Runners that can instantly complete a particular mission once every 24 hours or start Festival Tour missions.
NFT Cards
People serve as the main source of stats for your Busker, as they are the only cards that can provide bonuses to all four stats other than Vehicles. These cards come in four rarities: Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary (as do Instruments and Vehicles)
Instruments provide Luck which determines the number of Drunk Fans you can gain and the maximum Skill gained from lessons of the matching type. Thus, guitars boost guitar lessons, drums boost drum lessons, etc.
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Vehicles are also capable of providing bonuses to all four stats, but they are less likely to do so than People and are required in order to enter the County Tour zone.
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Boosters primarily come in two forms: Containers that store boosters found during missions and single-use boosters that provide the bonus shown on the card.
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| Stores Coffee | Stores Pizza | Stores Drunk Fans |
Coffee reduces the time it takes to recover energy for an hour, Pizza completely refills your energy bar, and Drunk Fans provide a temporary boost to both Ego and STARBITS rewards.
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Boost cards provide a permanent bonus to the stat indicated by the card when consumed, ranging from 1 to 100.
Other NFT's serve as specific progression requirements for missions or zones such as a "Can of Petrol" required to fuel your vehicle. In total, these are:
- Can of Petrol
- Cheap Rehearsal Room
- First Rehearsal Room
- Shipping Container
- Storage Trailer
- Storage Warehouse
- BACKSTAGE PASS
- STARBITS Millionaire (gained for holding 1m STARBITS in your wallet)
Crafted Instruments are gained by spending STARBITS to enter crafting missions until you've acquired enough parts to assemble a particular Instrument.
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The four-digit number shown in the "name" for each Instrument indicates which version of the four parts are required to craft it. For example, the guitar would require:
- part 1 variation 2 ("guitarbody2")
- part 2 variation 1 ("goldmachinehead")
- part 3 variation 2 ("blackpickups")
- part 4 variation 1 ("goldstrings")
The lower each number, the harder it is to find and thus the more valuable it is in terms of determining the final Luck value of the Instrument.
Records represent the music NFT's mentioned earlier that can be purchased through Rising Star from independent musicians. They can be played during the game or downloaded for external use.
What's Happenin'?
With Christmas and New Year's Eve behind us, many players will be getting back to the daily STARBIT grind! This includes working towards new NFT cards added on the 1st as part of a monthly card update.
You can obtain the latest cards by buying packs—currently around $3—with Hive, WAX and various other Hive tokens! (Even BUDS!) Who knows, if you're lucky, you may even get one of our Cartel operator, SilentxNecrosis', personal NFT's!
To prepare for life as an operator, SilentxNecrosis' withdrew all but 471 STARBITS from his account (withdrawals can only be done in multiples of 1000).
He'll report next week on missions completed and STARBITS earned, all the while trying different strategies and combinations of missions to see what gives the over-all best results. The goal will be to figure out ways to earn more of those precious STARBITS and help other players become the best Buskers possible!
Looking Forward
The developer, Jux, stated in an early AMA that they're "not one to have a detailed plan as . . . nothing ever goes as you expect." He intends to develop Rising Star with the community using ideas and feedback from the players. This philosophy is plain to see, as many legendary cards are representations of actual players built into the game:
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The best way to stay informed is by following their Hive posts, joining the community, and lurking on their Discord.
Where Do I Signup?
Before your epic jam session can begin, you'll need the Hive Keychain extension installed on your browser of choice. In case you bump into any issues, Rising Star has provided a guide for completing the process. Once connected, you can play directly through your browser or on a mobile device by setting up your mobile link (click "PLAY ON MOBILE").
(Note: Links in this section will appear broken until you've signed into your Rising Stars account.)
Missions
Clicking "START A MISSION" brings you to the main activity screen where the majority of your time will be spent. On the left, you'll you'll find your starting Busker, his stats, and a map showing the starting zone for Buskeria: "Home Town".
At first, all you'll have to worry about is your energy as you complete missions to gain drunk fans until you can complete more rewarding missions. While the other zones begin locked, you can gain access to them by completing certain missions or obtaining certain cards:
| Zone | Req. Mission | Req. Card(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Local Gig Circuit | Saturday Headline | i6 Mid Range Acoustic Guitar |
| County Tour | Band Auditions | 4 Band Members, 1 Vehicle |
| Country Tour | Manager Audition | 1 Manager |
Boosters
As you undertake missions, you'll frequently find Coffee, Pizza and Drunk Fans that are worth obtaining a few Booster containers (Coffee Cup, Pizza Box, and Risky Whisky) to store them in. Each container can hold one Booster for later use. Since Coffee only lasts for one hour, Pizza provides 100% energy (which is often wasted), and Drunk Fans forget who you are after roughly 12 hours, Booster containers let you plan these bonuses around when you're actively playing.
Ego
Eventually, either when you've reached 1000 fans or level 15, a new bar will appear to the left of your energy bar. This represents your Busker's Ego as determined by the number of missions after unlocking Ego, your total Skill, and your total current Fans (including drunks!).
The greater your Ego, the less rewarding missions will be until eventually you can only receive the minimum number of STARBITS each mission. Worse yet, each time you repeat a mission during the same day cycle, you gain exponentially more Ego. This is to encourage you to do a variety of missions each day in order to keep your Ego in check.
For example, Illegal Busking only requires 10 Fans, L1, and 15% Energy to get 1-11 STARBITS, 10 XP and 1 Ego. It doesn't take long to complete (5 minutes), but spamming it would eventually reduce the yield to a maximum STARBITS payout of 1 despite the Ego increase ballooning wildly out of control. It takes 300 Fans, L20, and 100% Energy to start Saturday Headline, so your first goal as a Busker is to reach 300 permanent Fans before L20 in order to provide a smooth progression and have access to all missions in the Home Town zone.
Music Lessons
To help you prevent your Busker from becoming a rock diva beyond reason, Music Lessons exist for the sole purpose of raising your Skill above that of your Ego. Basic Singing Lessons require 10 Fans, L10 and 40% Energy which means you can start building Skill before Ego is activated to get a headstart on the grind. Also, you gain significantly more XP from lessons for the Energy spent, so it's highly recommended that you prioritize them if you've purchased enough cards to reach 300 Fans long before you've progressed to L20.
Like normal missions, each lesson can have different requirements and Skill rewards. This means certain instruments will help you raise your Skill more quickly at lower levels before transitioning to other instrument types to stay ahead of your Busker's Ego.
Play2Earn
If it isn't already clear, the first P2E cycle is the basic process of earning STARBITS from missions. You can technically withdraw them in multiples of 1000 to swap on Hive-Engine for Hive, but this probably isn't the most effective way to build value in Rising Star as a new player. Instead, there are multiple options ahead of you depending on whether you've committed fully to an F2P approach or various levels of purchasing power.
Regardless of your preferred approach, Rising Star offers a curation trail that you can follow to gain passive curation rewards by mirroring their upvotes. This is a simple option for anyone not wanting to babysit their Hive voting manually.
Custom Shop
Whether you choose to work towards earning multiples of 1000 STARBITS in a day or saving up a stash over the course of several days before a dedicated "crafting" day, you need 1000 STARBITS to start each crafting mission. At minimum, it will cost 4000 STARBITS to "farm" the four different components necessary to craft an instrument, but it's more realistic that you'll find yourself in the 5k-10k STARBITS price range or greater.
Since a pack of cards is 10k STARBITS (8.3k if you buy 12 at once), you'll need to decide for yourself whether there's more value available in packs or in crafting if your collection is well-rounded.
Currently, you can craft Guitar, Production and Drum instruments, and it's recommended that you focus on them in that order given Drum Lessons require 2500 Fans and L50 while Guitar Lessons are available starting at 10 Fans and L10.
Record Staking
If you reach a point where you'd rather park your STARBITS somewhere than fuss with crafting, you have the option of staking STARBITS (again, multiples of 1000) in the Record NFT's independent musicians are selling through Rising Star.
Depending on what portion of the total STARBITS pool you've contributed, you'll earn additional STARBITS whenever an NFT of the Record you're staking sells:
Special Missions
If you're more interesting in acquiring other Hive tokens than STARBITS, Rising Star occasionally has special event missions where the rewards provide external tokens like BATTLE or BEER.
Music Promoter
As an alternative to Record Staking (the passive route), a more active player can burn STARBITS by bidding on certain missions as a "promoter". If that mission is completed by another player while you're the highest bidder, you'll earn part of the daily STARPRO pool payout.
Runners
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Once you've acquired enough STARPRO, you can purchase a Runner capable of immediately finishing a mission you've started of a particular type once every 24 hours. Examples include five-minute missions, crafting missions, singing lessons, and guitar lessons.
Festival and Blending
Alternatively, you can spend 1 STARPRO to start a Festival Tour mission to obtain a Wristband matching the country the tour is currently in. Each festival lasts for a week, and there are four areas to collect wristbands from.
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Once you've obtained enough wristbands, you can click the "Blend" button found in your card collection to "merge" them into the corresponding Festival Band Member by burning them. If you manage to collect all four, you'll receive an EPIC "Festival Band" card. Note: Seasonal cards are also available for blending, but they have different requirements handled by Special Missions.
Buying In
If you're looking to pick up card packs, you have multiple purchasing options:
- 1 Pack for 10,000 STARBITS (12 for 100k)
- 1 Pack for 2 Hive
- 12 for 20 Hive (receive free Chopin card)
- 24 for 40 Hive (receive free Brahms card)
- 1 Pack for $3 of WAX (12 for $30)
Sometimes packs can even be found for Avalanche, Binance, Polygon, or Solana. Alternatively, you can buy specific cards directly through the in-game marketplace or Rising Star's NFTMart page.
If you have questions we didn't cover, Rising Star has an FAQ with additional information. You can also reach out through their social platforms and/or join their welcoming community:
- PeakD: https://peakd.com/@risingstargame
- Hive.Blog: https://hive.blog/trending/hive-195370
- Discord: https://discord.gg/dbB6Jc7
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/risingstargame/
This article was written by @thercek (SilentxNecrosis) and @entrepidus, edited and proofread by @francis.melville and cover graphic by @flauwy.
Our Cartel operator for Rising Star is @thercek.
What's The Gameplan For The Cartel?
Heading into a new year, @thercek will be following all of Rising Stars posts and announcements to make sure nothing is missed! He'll also be covering his various strategies used and report his STARBITS earnings for the week.
The format will evolve and adapt to suit the needs of the community and cartel, so feel free to provide your feedback below with comments. If you want to become a part of the cartel, check out @flauwy's latest update!
In the meantime: Game On!
