Basic Newbie Guide

## Guide Overview

This is a quick and simple newbies guide, designed for brand new players.

There are a few other Newbies Guides, each tailored to different preferences around spending money, or dealing with blockchain and cryptocurrency.

## Necessities for getting started

In order to play the game, you will need:

* A Hive account and wallet
* The Hive Keychain Browser extension

Because Rising Star is a blockchain game / web3 enabled, creating an account and configuring the keychain are slightly more complex than you might be used to.

### Setting up a Hive account and wallet

There are dozens of websites that can do this for you, but not all of them are free, nor easy to navigate! Rising Star currently recommends using Ecency to set up the account. Here is the RS referral link (signing up via this link helps support the game!): https://ecency.com/signup?referral=risingstargame

When you create a Hive account, a wallet is also created. Your wallet address is the same as your username.

Other Hive account creation options:

* Go to https://signup.hive.io/ and browse for free or paid options.
* Buy a Splinterlands account. For a flat $10 USD via PayPal, Splinterlands will create your Hive account and you'll have access to another amazing Hive game (one of the biggest blockchain games in the world, currently).

You may encounter some confusing language around "choosing a wallet." When you make an account, a basic wallet already exists for you. These extra choices are all ways for you to view your wallet's contents in different ways.

### ⚠️ Secure your Hive keys ⚠️

Hive accounts do not use regular passwords. There is no "password recovery" system for Hive.

Instead, you are given a set of keys that look like long, random strings of characters.

Whoever has access to these private keys controls your account—full stop. You must store and protect these keys very safely (e.g. print them out, use secure password software). If you lose them or someone else takes them, there is almost nothing you can do to recover them.

### Download and set up the Hive Keychain

Once your account is set up and your keys are secure, head to https://hive-keychain.com/

Follow this helpful guide to understand the nuances of configuring the keychain.

## Early game: what to focus on

Simple answers:

1. If you are able to purchase Cards, you will want to begin developing your card buying strategy.
2. If you can't or don't want to spend on Cards, you should grind and spend time learning and finding Giveaways
3. If you're open to participating in web3 stuff, you can spend time and effort trying to earn Hive crypto to spend on Rising Star (or whatever else you want)

### Early game milestones

In the early game you won't be able to do much except for completing the first few Missions and slowly accumulating STARBITS and XP. Life is tough for the lowly busker!

Your first big milestone will be to reach Level 10 or Level 15.

* At Level 10, Music Lessons unlock, giving you access to permanent Skill
* At Level 15, you will need to start Managing Ego

This will take some time, especially if you do not have any or many Cards.

### Early game card strategies

Let's assume you're willing and able to get your hands on some Cards.

#### Energy-related cards

The most recommended starter Cards are related to Energy management. Most can be purchased as singles from official Rising Star accounts. They include:

* Energy Boost Card, known as the all powerful Pizza slice. Usually listed at 10,000 STARBITS
* Pizza Box Card. Usually listed at 7,500 STARBITS
* Coffee Cup Card. Usually listed at 5,000 STARBITS

These cards essentially let you play more Missions per day. More Missions per day means you level up faster and earn more STARBITS.

#### Stat-efficient singles

While you don't need to worry about Managing Ego until Level 15, it's still a good idea to balance your number of Fans and level of Skill.

When you buy cards off the Market, look for cards that:

* Offer the most cost efficient Main Stats (i.e. how much currency are you paying per Skill, Luck or Fans?)
* Can help balance your Fans:Skill ratio. For example, if you current have 300 Fans and only 100 Skill, you'll want to look for cards that have much more Skill than Fans to help bring the Fans:Skill ratio closer to 1.

Based on the current pricing landscape, Rare cards appear to be the best value for buying singles.

#### Gamble with opening packs

Let's face it: opening booster packs is *fun.*

Most of the time, you'll receive the standard one Rare and two Commons. These will still help, and you may get lucky and be able to sell your pack cards for more than what you paid.

But if you get very lucky and pull an Epic (or insanely lucky and find a Legendary), then that can really change how your whole game works, especially in the lower levels.