New Upgrading System (In-Depth Info)
Hey all, just thought I'd hop on here and talk about the new SSWO upgrading system as it's brand new and really exciting in general. Some may hate it, but by all accounts it's a better system than we previously had, with much lower RP costs per upgrade, and a forgiving system that allows you to have a smaller inventory space than previous iterations. (Hence why inventory space is actually more expensive this game to balance that). Pair that with a clear % number of what success rate you have and you have an all around improved and transparent system.
So let's talk about rates using R Grade as the standard and break down how the new system improved on the old. (SS Vets stay with me here as I'll be explaining things some of you may already know.) The upgrade rates have stayed exactly the same from SuperStar Version 2.2 (Chart at the bottom) but the RP cost has been significantly reduced from 2,400 to 1,000 from the previous title Superstar STAYC which is roughly 58% cheaper. Over the long run that'll stack quite a bit and save you a huge number of RP in upgrades. Especially since we no longer need to use duplicates to upgrade grades. (As of Dec. 5th 2024, there has been no event or indication that this cheaper upgrade cost is temporary).
The controversial change, is the addition of upgrade cards. When you max a card at any grade, you no longer need a maxed out duplicate to increase the grade. Now you use upgrade cards instead:
C-->B = 1 Upgrade Card
B-->A = 2 Upgrade Card
A-->S = 3 Upgrade Card
S-->R = 4 Upgrade Card
Each card costs 300 Diamonds in the store, and they don't take up inventory space. However since their cost is in premium currency you can't really upgrade every and any card you get otherwise you won't be able to max your favorite set before you run out of upgrade cards. Right now the launch events and the Music Diary are our main sources of upgrade cards that we can get for free. For now they've been pretty generous with the amount they're throwing out so it's not too problematic, but I imagine that'll slow down and our upgrade card economy will start to get tight. So be as smart as you can with it.
A huge improvement to the system is the addition of improved rates using duplicates of the same card. And it increases its rates and values the higher the grade. A B1 duplicate even beating out a B5 (as seen below). And it begins to exponentially increase and beat out a fully upgraded S card by a lot. An A1 duplicate is even more valuable than an S1. So while we can no longer upgrade cards to a new grade using copies, their use has now been transformed to help you level your R grade cards more cost efficiently RP wise. This is actually a better system overall as the end game of SuperStar tends to just be upgrading your R levels so any system that improves that quality of life is good in my book.
Removing the need to have duplicates of a card to upgrade the grade, has lowered our overall RP usage, and with the lower upgrade costs I find myself having a ton of RP to spare. Meanwhile having duplicates of a card has become more valuable because it saves you the cost of having to upgrade a B1 to B5 to get improved rates post R40 (as that was the previous meta). On top of that it saves you inventory space because you don't have to horde cards nearly as much with this new system. Luckily for us the sell cost of cards has been kept the same so selling 2 B cards will net you 1200 RP and pay for the upgrade cost of an R card. Something we couldn't even dream of doing in previous games.
Here is the previous spreadsheet with all of the rates for reference:
(The 5 headphones cap is still the worst thing ever though. How do we go from a 20 Cap in STAYC to a 5 cap in Wakeone? Bruh talk about a downgrade. Otherwise I love the new UI/UX.)