Here is my weekly status and giveaway. I also talk about an OST track that I like. Please make sure to read the rules to qualify for the giveaway. I chose a track from a game that I played in the past.
Ernst
I chose Ernst as this week's track because this was another busy week, and I wanted something a little more epic this week. This track plays in Ys 6 against one of the bosses Ernst. This was an interesting fight, and I liked the banter that Ernst had before the fight. It made him stand out a bit, and he works well as an antagonist. He stands out as one of the best antagonists in the Ys series so far for me. In a way, Ys 6 helped end the storyline that continued from Ys 1/2, and I like how his backstory is also lived to Celceta from Ys 4. Overall, a great boss fight with lots of story mixed in from the entire series so far. There are two versions of this track, the one from the game and the alternative saga version. I prefer the original version over the alternative saga, but both are great.
I think about Ernst when I hear this track. As I said earlier, he is one of the major antagonists in Ys 6. As a character linked to so many elements in other games, I think he works well as a character, and his focus on power is so apparent. He wouldn't even hesitate to fight against his brother, and he even left some of his power over to him when you defeated him. I didn't remember the words exactly, but I was reminded when I saw "Finally it is mine! The power to create miracles, once possessed only by the gods! The black wings of omnipotence! Take up your sword, Adol the Red!" in the youtube comments. It is a fitting end to the Eldeen storyline that started in Ys 1/2. Also, to note, he starts off as a vice-commander in the Romun army, so you never expect him to have that much of a backstory. The image comes from the wiki for Ernst.
Do you like any of these tracks? If so, why?
Giveaway
The giveaway item is a musician. It has 135 fans, 70 skill, 3 luck, and 2 IM. Musicians are good for everyone because they increase your stats and help you in the rankings.
Rules
In order to participate:
- Leave a comment with the name of the card
- Include your username in your comment
This time if you do not leave your username, I will not include you in the draw. I want to reward the people who follow the rules. This giveaway is weekly so there is one week's worth of time for you to enter.
Results of the Last Giveaway
The winner is 
Thank you to the rest of the valid participants who did not win but might be interested in the next giveaway: Other participants: 
Current Status
I gained 33k STARBITS over the past week. I am not sure how well I did my starbit millionaire mission, but the costs of packs has also increased to 20k each. I had no luck in my packs this week, and it looks like things have gotten harder. I'll have to make sure to do more missions to earn enough starbits, and it looks like starbits are removed from the ingame amount rather than the Hive Engine one now. Also, it looks like the costs of music lessons are doubled now.
Current Ranking
My rank went down by 3. They have been making a few changes to the rankings, so I expect to stay where I am for now, but I may drop a bit depending on what happens in the next few updates.
If you want to join Rising Star, feel free to use my referral link.
Tips (source)
I think the tips are something every new player should know about. It will help people progress in the game and it hasn't really been shared since surya1adiga stopped his giveaways.
- Take music lessons when possible to raise skill and reduce ego.
- Having lesson specific instruments helps in receiving more skill from that lesson.
- Have pizza box to store any pizza received during mission to reuse later.
- Buy cold pizza slice if possible. This gives 1 refill every 24hours. Comes very handy when you are low on energy.
- If you have enough of cold pizza slice and pizza box, you will never run out of energy.
- If you have more fans than skill and you won't reduce the ego , you can use a storage trailer to store unnecessary cards. Or you can list the card in market for an unreasonably high price.
- Ego received for a particular mission increases every time you play it. The ego is reset to base level the next day. So, try to play different missions to control the ego gained.
Keep track of your achievements to unlock in game rewards- Buy storage trailer (only if necessary) to keep the cards that might have a negative effect. Like a card with high fan count resulting in ego.
- When earning skill points through music lessons, you can earn more points per lesson if you hold more of specific instrument cards. There seems to be base skill which is rewarded irrespective of the card count and then the skill increases depending on the number of the lesson specific card one has.
- Try taking up many smaller missions to fill up pizza boxes and have extra energy to play more rewarding missions. But you need to have pizza boxes for this to work.