Once you've mastered the basics in Ancient Egypt using my beginner's guide, you'll be ready to move on to the Pirate Seas. But before you can, you're going to need to earn a ton of stars. In Plants vs Zombies 2 stars are a critical commodity for unlocking content you need to beat the toughest levels. Read on for details on how earn stars and what they are used for.
Plants vs Zombies 2 Stars: What are they and how do I earn them?
Although you can earn a few stars from behind locked gates and for completing certain levels for the first time, the bulk of the stars only show up after you've cleared all the levels in an era. At this point, many of the levels you've already completed will have stars available.
To earn these stars, you have to clear the levels you've beaten before, but this time with special restrictions or goals. These goals can be challenging, so I have put together tips and tricks for meeting these goals and earning each of the stars in Plants vs Zombies 2.
Plants vs Zombies 2 Stars: Goals and Restrictions
The goals and restrictions to earn Plants vs Zombies 2 stars are always shown to you before the level begins. Additionally, you can pause the game at any time and see them again. Each level has a different combination of requirements, so what I'm going to do is go over them in general, and tell you what you need to do to meet them. With this information, you should be able to get any star, no matter how tricky it seems at first!
PvZ2 Star: Don't Lose Any Lawnmowers
This is a requirement for every star in the game that I've seen so far. The "Lawnmowers" are the things along the left hand side of your lawn. If a zombie is about to make it to your house and eat your brains, the lawnmower is the last line of defense. It will activate and take down all zombies in the row. Once it's used, though, it's gone for that level.
In order to earn any star that has this requirement (pretty much all of them!) you can't let any zombies make it all the way to the left side of the screen. That's all there is to it!
Pro Tip If you're having issues with this, try starting with my beginner's guide, because I cover a lot of basic strategies that should ensure your lawn is safe and zombie-free.
PvZ2 Star: Defeat X Zombies in Y Seconds
For this goal, you need to kill zombies. Well, kill zombies kind of rapidly. At some point during the level, you're going to have to dispatch a whole set of zombies in a short period of time. Whenever this is a goal, you'll have a little icon near the top of your screen of a zombie with a red X on it. Next to that, there is a little meter that shows how close you are to meeting this goal.
Pro Tip This is pretty easy to do during the "Massive Wave of Zombies is Approaching!" segments of the level. In fact, I'd suggest going for this during the "Final Wave!" since this is usually when the most zombies are on the screen. Plant Food can help here, so try to save a Plant Food and use it once there are a bunch of zombies on the screen at the same time. Using it on a Cabbage-Pult will hit all enemies on the screen, and probably make this easier to get.
PvZ2 Star: Don't Lose More Than X Plants
Losing plants is always a bad thing, but for this star you need to play defensively in order to avoid losing nearly any at all! The other bummer about this is that digging up plants and using consumable plants like the Iceberg Lettuce also count as "losing a plant."
Pro Tip Wall-Nuts are critical for this. You can use Plant Food on a Wall-Nut that is heavily injured and it will fully heal, plus give it a hard, metal shell. If you time it right, you can get a lot of life out of a single Wall-Nut this way. Avoid single-use and more risky plants like Bonk Choy and Iceberg Lettuce, since they're easy to lose.
PvZ2 Star: Don't Plant On Dave's Mold Colonies
For some reason Crazy Dave has decided to use the two columns of lawn nearest the house to plant some sort of funky green mold. This means you can't plant on these two columns if you want to win the star. And you do want to win the star. That's why you're reading a Plants vs Zombies 2 stars guide, right? Right.
Pro Tip This goal puts a lot of pressure on your defenses - especially when grave markers are blocking spaces in the further right columns. You may have to get creative with your sunflower planting for this one. You're also going to have to be on the ball about dropping Iceberg Lettuce or Wall-Nuts, since you've got less room to play with.
PvZ2 Star: Never Have More Than X Plants
This star goal imposes a "plant cap" on you, meaning you've got to make every plant count! Since Plants vs Zombies 2 is a game about planting... plants, this is a tricky requirement to have. The number of plants you can still plant is always shown at the top of the screen during these rounds.
Pro Tip You will probably need to plant cheap, weak plants in the early going in order to prevent the first few zombies from overrunning you while you build up your sun supply. You can dig these up later in the round to fit more expensive, offensive plants though. I try to have at least one plant left that I could build in case of a panic where I need something planted now.
Tricky! This one is tricky if paired with the "Don't Lose More Than X Plants" requirement, since you can't dig up your old plants. You're going to have to work with weaker plants, so focus on conserving your Plant Food for emergencies.
PvZ2 Star: Don't Let the Zombies Trample the Flowers
Innocent flowers have popped up in your lawn, and they are oblivious to the impending zombie apocalypse. They must be protected at all costs! Or, to put it another way, there's a line across the lawn that the zombies can't cross or you lose the star.
Pro Tip Wall-o-Wall-Nuts is what you want here. They're the best defensive plant that money can buy. Don't forget to feed them if things are looking bad! You can also freeze zombies with Iceberg Lettuce if things are looking bad. In fact, if a zombie is attacking your Wall-Nut, you can drop the Iceberg Lettuce right on top of them to stop them from chowing down for a short time while your attack plants do their thing.
PvZ2 Star: Don't Spend Any Sun for X Seconds
All this means is that you've got to have some amount of time during the round where you don't plant any new plants. The amount of time varies, and can be minutes in harder levels.
Pro Tip If you set yourself up early to produce a lot of sun, and get your plants set up to where they can more or less take care of themselves, you can just coast through the space between massive waves and get this one pretty easily. The challenge for me tends to be skipping Wall-Nuts, since I tend to build them whenever the Wall-Nut timer recharges.
PvZ2 Star: Spend No More Than X Sun
This one is somewhat harder than having a maximum number of plants, since with this one you can't replace plants you lose without using additional sun. It's close in difficulty to the "Never Have More than X Plants" and "Don't Lose More Than X Plants" combo.
Pro Tip It pays to plan out your plant costs ahead of time, so that you know what you can afford. For instance, building a column of Sunflowers will run you 250 sun. A column of Pea Shooters or Cabbage-Pults will run you 500 sun. Bloomerangs and Repeaters will run you 875 and 1000 sun per column respectively. Then you've got Wall-Nuts at 50 each, or 250 if you want one for every row. You may not have enough to fully upgrade your defenses in every row!
PvZ2 Star: Produce At Least X Sun
Hey, finally, a goal that isn't contrary to the way you're supposed to play the game, right? Except that the amount of sun you need is typically more than you'd usually produce, even with a whole column of Sunflowers cranking out sun the whole round. Considering that, and that usually this is paired with other restrictions, you've got a recipe for a challenge.
Pro Tip Sun is earned over time, and there's a fixed amount of time between zombies arriving, so delaying them won't really give you more time to earn more sun. Of course, planting more Sunflowers helps, but on some levels even that's not enough. You can also use Plant Food on Sunflowers for a quick sun boost.
Pro Tip My suggestion is to get to the final wave, and wipe out all the zombies except for one or maybe two in one row. Then, remove your attack plants and stick Wall-Nuts in instead. Freeze them when you can to slow them down further, and use Plant Food on the Wall-Nuts to keep them healthy. Once you've met the requirements, add some attack plants to finish the last zombie(s) off and win.
Tricky! If you've also got to limit the number of plants you can lose, be careful about deleting your plants so that you can hold off the zombies at the end of the round. Remember, digging up a plant counts against plants lost! You may have enough plant removals left to take out the attack plants, but leave a spot open to put one back before you add in the Wall-Nuts.
Plants vs Zombies 2 Stars Guide: Conclusion
Hopefully with the tips I've presented here, you can get all the Plants vs Zombies 2 stars possible, and with these stars you can move on to the next episode without having to spend your hard-earned cash.