Live shows are the main gameplay element of the game. Live shows involve you tapping on notes when they line up with the cards that have formed a U shape around the edge of the screen. If you've played other rhythm games in the past, this idea will be pretty familiar with you. Certain notes require you to simply tap it, while other notes require you to tap and hold the note. Live shows can range in difficulty with "Easy" being the easiest difficulty and "Master" being the most difficult.
Live Show Menu
Pressing the "Live Show" button at the bottom of the screen will take you to the screen below. There may be lots of things in the live show menu, but trust me, this menu is not as complex as you think. This menu lists the songs you are able to play. All the songs in the game are made by μ's and Aqours. Some of these songs have been featured in Love Live School Idol Project or Love Live Sunshine. Hovering over a song will let you be able to hear it before you start playing it. A switch at the top left of the screen can change you between the menu for μ's songs and the menu for Aqours songs. There are two main sections of the live show menu as well. There's "Hits" and there's the "B-Sides". Hits has the songs that you unlock throughout the story and B-Sides has certain songs that will only be available for a certain amount of time. Stuff such as the master songs are available on the B-Sides. The image of the menu below has been numbered so you can read a description of each menu item.
1. μ's/Aqours Switch: This button lets you switch between browsing μ's songs and Aqours songs.
2. Hits/B-Sides Switch: This button lets you switch between the hits and B-Sides section of the live show menu.
3. Difficulty Buttons: Pressing these buttons will switch the difficulty of the song you are playing on. If you're on the B-Sides menu, you'll see a "master" difficulty along with the other difficulties.
4. Song Goal Trophies: These trophy icons will appear above the album art of the songs you you have played. These trophies can be either have a C rating, a B rating, an A rating, and an S rating. One of the trophies is for getting a certain score on a song, one is for getting a certain combo on a song, and one is for playing the song a certain amount of times.
5. Album Art: Pressing on the album art of a song will let you continue on with playing that song you selected.
6. Ranking Button: Pressing this button will show the top 10 scores ever obtained on the song that is highlighted.
7. Star Difficulty: Along with a having a difficulty such as easy, medium, hard, etc., songs also having a star rating ranging from 1 start to 12 stars. The stars the song's difficulty has, the more difficult it is.
8. Song Attribute: Every song has one of three different attributes. The three attributes are known as smile, pure, and cool. Anything with a smile attribute will be represented with a pink sun. Anything with a cool attribute will be represented with a blue crescent moon. Anything with a pure attribute will be represented with a yellow diamond-esqe shape.
9. Song Name: The name of the song highlighted is right here. In this case, the song name is "Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE".
10. LP Multiplier: Using this button will allow you to multiply the amount of LP you want to use. Using the LP multiplier will also multiply the amount of EXP you earn as well. For example, using twice as much LP on an expert song (meaning you're using 50 LP instead of the usual 25 LP) will earn you twice the amount of EXP from that song.
11. Song Goals Button: Pressing this button will let you see what you need to do to get each song goal to an S rating.
12. Navigation Arrows: Using these arrows will let you look around at the different songs you have unlocked.
2. Hits/B-Sides Switch: This button lets you switch between the hits and B-Sides section of the live show menu.
3. Difficulty Buttons: Pressing these buttons will switch the difficulty of the song you are playing on. If you're on the B-Sides menu, you'll see a "master" difficulty along with the other difficulties.
4. Song Goal Trophies: These trophy icons will appear above the album art of the songs you you have played. These trophies can be either have a C rating, a B rating, an A rating, and an S rating. One of the trophies is for getting a certain score on a song, one is for getting a certain combo on a song, and one is for playing the song a certain amount of times.
5. Album Art: Pressing on the album art of a song will let you continue on with playing that song you selected.
6. Ranking Button: Pressing this button will show the top 10 scores ever obtained on the song that is highlighted.
7. Star Difficulty: Along with a having a difficulty such as easy, medium, hard, etc., songs also having a star rating ranging from 1 start to 12 stars. The stars the song's difficulty has, the more difficult it is.
8. Song Attribute: Every song has one of three different attributes. The three attributes are known as smile, pure, and cool. Anything with a smile attribute will be represented with a pink sun. Anything with a cool attribute will be represented with a blue crescent moon. Anything with a pure attribute will be represented with a yellow diamond-esqe shape.
9. Song Name: The name of the song highlighted is right here. In this case, the song name is "Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE".
10. LP Multiplier: Using this button will allow you to multiply the amount of LP you want to use. Using the LP multiplier will also multiply the amount of EXP you earn as well. For example, using twice as much LP on an expert song (meaning you're using 50 LP instead of the usual 25 LP) will earn you twice the amount of EXP from that song.
11. Song Goals Button: Pressing this button will let you see what you need to do to get each song goal to an S rating.
12. Navigation Arrows: Using these arrows will let you look around at the different songs you have unlocked.
LP
To play a live show, you need to have a certain amount of LP. More difficult songs require LP (but in return give you more EXP and gold). An easy song will cost 5 LP, a normal song will cost 10 LP, a hard song will cost 15 LP, and expert and master songs cost 25 LP. To see how much LP you have, look at the LP bar at the top of the screen. It'll be under the same section that your rank, your amount of gold and love gems, and your EXP bar is. You'll see a bar that's labeled "LP". LP regenerates naturally over time at a rate of 1 LP every 6 minutes or 10 LP every hour. That means, to generate enough LP for an expert song (25 LP), it'll take two and a half hours. You can also refill your LP bar for 1 love gem by pressing the "restore LP" button, but many players advise not doing this except for certain circumstances.
Starting a Live Show
Okay, you've selected a song you want to play, and you have enough LP to play the song. You'll come across two more screens before you can play the live show. One of these will be selecting a guest to assist you with earning more points in a live show. The person doesn't actually play with you, but the card they have set for their center card will help you. The effect that their card will have on the live show will be listed near their name. After you select a guest, you'll be asked to select a team. Select the team you want to use, and press the okay button to start the live show. A slideshow will be below showing both screens.
Playing the Live Show
Okay, you've chosen what song you want to play, who your guest is going to be, what team you want to use, and now you're probably sitting on the loading screen excited to actually play the game. Once the screen loads, you'll be greeted to the screen below and notes will start flying at you from the middle of the screen. There are several different types of notes that you will have encounter. All these notes act very similar to each other. The green bar at the top left of the screen is your stamina bar. Missing notes will deplete your stamina bar. Certain cards are able to give stamina in certain circumstances if the bar has been depleted a bit. If you run out of stamina before the song ends, you'll fail the live show and receive no rewards. If your stamina bar does go to zero and you fail the song, it is possible to refill your stamina bar and continue on with the song for the price of one love gems, but players will tell you to never do this as there are smarter ways to spend love gems than with continuing songs you have failed.
You will also be able to make a combo if you hit notes in a row. Hitting notes within a certain amount of time will give you certain ratings. These can range from "perfect", "great", "good", "bad", and "miss". To keep a combo, you'll need to continually hit notes with a "perfect" or "great" rating. If you don't, your combo will be reset back to zero.
You will also be able to make a combo if you hit notes in a row. Hitting notes within a certain amount of time will give you certain ratings. These can range from "perfect", "great", "good", "bad", and "miss". To keep a combo, you'll need to continually hit notes with a "perfect" or "great" rating. If you don't, your combo will be reset back to zero.
Types of Notes
The slideshow below will showcase all the different types of notes and how they should be dealt with.
Skill Activations
Sometimes, you'll notice that one of the image of one of the cards will pop up on your screen. This is what happens when a card's skill activates. The image of card that is activating its skill is shown along with what kind of skill it is. If you would prefer to not have the images of your cards pop up everytime their skill activates, you can actually turn this off in the settings. Go to the "other" menu. Hit "options". Then go to the "live show" tab. Then you can set up pop ups to either mini or off.
After the Live Show
If you are able to complete the live show, you will receive your rewards. You'll come across multiple different screens giving you different things. The screens you will see are shown below.
Is there a video I can watch of all of this?
Yes there is! There are many videos of playing live shows in SIF on YouTube. Below is a video of me playing a live show. The song I'm playing is Shiranai Love * Oshiete Love on Master difficulty. For copyright reasons, I can't have the actual music play during the video, but trust me when I say that music will play when you play a live show (it was just playing in my headphones). I didn't do a perfect job playing this song, but it shows you what to expect during a live show. I'm playing this on my Taiwanese account, but the process of selecting and playing a live show is pretty much the exact same way on the English version of the game. The only difference being that the English version of the game will have nice, English text, while the Taiwanese version has Traditional Chinese text.
Can I see a list of all the songs somewhere?
Yes you can! There's a Love Live SIF wiki that has a lot of information about the game. One of the pages on the site lists every single song in the game. Things such as what attribute each song is, and how many notes a song has are all included on this site. If you want to learn more about a song, just click it's cover image. Click the button below to be taken to the full list of songs.