Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 - How to Earn and Use Stars

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 gives players a variety of ways to unlock unique features. While coins have made a return as the standard in-game currency, players can also earn stars to access specific items. This guide will show you how to earn stars and will explain the different ways stars can be used.

Stars are primarily used to access or unlock specific items and locations throughout the Backyard Battleground. If you’d like to know more about this personal hub area, check out our Backyard Battleground Guide for details on the Flag of Power, mini-games, and other fun activities that can be found throughout the neighborhood.

How to Earn Stars

While coins are relatively easy to accumulate, it takes a bit more effort to obtain and collect stars. To earn stars, start by accessing the Quest Board in the Backyard Battleground. This is the board found directly in front of the stat rooms on each side of the backyard. Though both plant and zombie sides have their own Quest Boards, the quests on the boards will remain the same, and will refresh daily.

The daily quests break down into three main categories: Plants, Zombies, and Multiplayer. Each quest has different rewards for their completion, which are listed on the Quest Info page on the righthand side. The rewards mainly consist of stars, coins, and XP multipliers.

To earn stars, you will need to select and complete quests that have stars as their reward. The star rewards range between 3-10 stars, depending on the difficulty of the quest. Quests marked as Epic tend to be more challenging than regular quests, and are marked by a yellow exclamation point. Epic quests often grant no coins, but increase the star reward to 10 stars. Multiplayer quests usually do not offer star rewards. Make sure to accept quests that are from either the Plants or Zombies quest categories that list stars in the reward.

After completing a quest, you can check how many stars you have by accessing the menu. Your stars are listed in the upper right corner of the display, beside your coin total. Quests refresh each day, so keep an eye on the timer in the lower left corner of the Quest Board to ensure you have enough time to complete the quests you want.

Also, keep in mind that you must accept quests and add them to your Active Quests list in order to have your progress count toward the quests. There’s nothing worse than working hard to complete a quest only to find that it wasn't active and didn’t count your progress. Once a quest has been added to the Active Quests lists, it will remain there until it is completed or removed. Check the Quest Board regularly and prioritize your quest objectives to ensure a steady flow of stars, coins, and XP.

Where to Spend Stars

We have listed some of the primary ways stars can be utilized in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. Keep in mind that this game is full of surprises, so you may find new uses for stars as you progress through the game.

Clearing Debris

On both the Treehouse and Mansion sides of the backyard, there are piles of debris or rubble that can only be cleared using stars. After spending a few stars to clean up a pile of debris, you can then select a nice statue or shrub to put in its place. You will have several statues and shrubs already unlocked early on, and you can obtain more designs by unlocking them in sticker packs. Once debris has been cleared in a specific spot, you can swap between the different designs to change your statue or shrub for that spot without having to spend any more stars.

Chests

If you have spent some time exploring the Backyard Battleground, you likely have stumbled upon a number of glowing chests throughout the neighborhood. Each chest has a large star carved on the front, which is a pretty obvious indicator of what you need to unlock each one.

When you approach a chest, an icon will appear that indicates the number of stars needed to unlock that particular chest. Some chests cost only 3 stars, while more expensive chests cost 7 or more stars. We won’t spoil the contents of the chests. It’s up to you to decide which chests you want to unlock for yourself.

Crazy Targets Range

The Crazy Targets Range is a new mini-game that can be found within the sewers in the Backyard Battleground. The Crazy Targets Range is indicated by a large door in the sewers marked with a huge gnome and star on the front.

Unlocking this door costs five stars, so you will only need to complete two regular star quests to earn enough for the mini-game. There are also multiple star chests throughout the sewers, which tend to cost about seven stars. We recommend unlocking the Crazy Targets Range first before opening these chests, but you can use your stars how you wish.

Enchant Gardens or Tombstones

Each Ops game mode begins by planting or erecting a garden or tombstone that will serve as your primary base that you must defend for the duration of the match. In Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2, you can now spend a star to Enchant a garden or tombstone in the Ops game modes.

An enchanted base will grant you additional coins and XP after each successfully defended wave, similar to the Flag of Power. If you’ve got stars to spare, consider Enchanting a garden or tombstone in Solo Ops or another Ops mode to enhance your reward.