Earthstar

Earthstar is the second premium plant unlocked in The Sanctuary’s level path C (more about level paths here) in Plants vs. Zombies: Lost World, after beating Level 6C. Earthstar is a shadow plant that fires shooting stars which explode on impact and leaves a temporary scorched tile on the tile their target was on (this scorched tile disappears after 25 seconds). This scorched tile works similarly to the ones in Magma Marshlands, so if a shooting star hit a tile that contained a non-flying, non-fire plant, that plant will be destroyed. Earthstar has a 15-second cooldown between attacks and can only target zombies that are at least 3 tiles away from them, so any zombies that are too close to Earthstar are ignored.
When powered, Earthstar's projectiles deal more damage and also have the ability to temporarily (lasting for 7.5 seconds) inflict a dizziness effect on zombies (this effect is also inflicted on zombies caught in splash damage from the shooting star), also known as "seeing stars". Dizzy zombies are a lot more vulnerable to all kinds of damaging attacks such that every attack they receive causes them to be briefly stunned for 0.375 seconds. The scorched tiles that Earthstar's shooting stars create when powered also act slightly differently, where the scorched tiles will start to change to a more indigo shade and be able to also support shadow plants on them (alongside flying and fire plants).
==Origins==
Earthstar is based on the family of fungi with the same common name (scientific name being Geastraceae). The common name was derived mainly from the shape of the fungus being star-like, which also references Earthstar's star-like patterning, their normal ability to fire shooting stars and their powered ability to inflict dizziness on zombies and cause them to "see stars".
==Almanac entry==
Earthstar
Sun cost: 300
Recharge: Mediocre
Fires shooting stars that explode on impact, doing heavy damage and leaving a scorched tile. Causes zombies to see stars if powered.
Special: Causes zombies to see stars and makes them dizzy when powered, causing them to get briefly stunned whenever they are attacked
Weakness: Can't target zombies too close to it
<tabber>Current entry=
As the zombie shuffles across the green landscape, he looks above in awe. It’s a shooting star! Make a wish! The zombie closes his eyes and puts his hands together. And then… wait, why is it getting louder? He opens his eyes again... only to see that the shooting star in the sky is growing bigger.
|-|Old entry=
“The secret to reaching the stars?” said Earthstar to her admirers and fans. “It’s simple. You just need to imagine yourself becoming one with the stars… and then DESTRUCTION! DEFEAT YOUR ENEMIES AND FOES WITH THE STARS! PAIN! SUFFERING! DEATH! UNLEASH ARMAGEDDON ON ALL OF THEM!!”
</tabber>
==Upgrades==
===Plant Food power===
When fed with Plant Food, Earthstar fires a large shooting star into the sky which then breaks down into smaller pieces, which all fall to cause a meteor shower which rains down onto the entire lawn, dealing random amounts of damage to all zombies (400 DPS - 1200 DPS), inflicting dizziness on them for a random amount of time (5 - 10 seconds) if Earthstar is powered.
===Stat tiers===
Stat 	Tier 1 	Tier 2 	Tier 3 	Tier 4	Tier 5
Strength* 	
Unpowered - 300 DPS
Powered - 400 DPS	
Unpowered - 500 DPS
Powered - 650 DPS	
Unpowered - 600 DPS
Powered - 800 DPS	
Unpowered - 700 DPS
Powered - 950 DPS
(Unlock cost: 1 Strength Token)	
Unpowered - 900 DPS
Powered - 1200 DPS
(Unlock cost: 2 Strength Tokens)
Toughness 	50 DPS 	200 DPS 	300 DPS 	
400 DPS
(Unlock cost: 1 Toughness Token)	
550 DPS
(Unlock cost: 2 Toughness Tokens)
Sun cost 	425 sun 	350 sun 	300 sun 	
250 sun
(Unlock cost: 1 Sun cost Token)	
175 sun
(Unlock cost: 2 Sun cost Tokens)
Recharge 	25 seconds	20 seconds	15 seconds	
10 seconds
(Unlock cost: 1 Recharge Token)	
5 seconds
(Unlock cost: 2 Recharge Tokens)
Firing rate	30 seconds	20 seconds	15 seconds	
10 seconds
(Unlock cost: 1 Firing rate Token)	
N/A
*Splash damage is always half the direct damage.
More about the upgrading system here.
==Strategies==
Earthstar on their own can deal a good amount of damage in a large area, but their main selling point is that they can also inflict a very potent status effect on zombies when they’re powered. Although this dizziness status effect only gives very brief stuns per hit, a defense more populous with offensive plants can cause these stuns to be triggered more often to the point that zombies can struggle a lot to try to move forward. This status effect can be effectively used by other plants with relatively quick firing rates or attacks like Bonk Choy (to trigger the status effect’s stuns more often and slow down individual zombies more), or plants with area-of-effect attacks like Dusk Lobber (to stun a larger amount of zombies and full-blown hordes at once).
However, it should be noted that Earthstar works best as a utility offensive plant rather than a solo or a main attacking plant. Their slow firing rate is one thing that already proves this. Another is that their dizziness status effect (when powered) lasts a shorter amount of time than the time it takes for Earthstar to cooldown, and the stuns that the effect gives are only very brief, demanding the use of other faster plants in order to make the most out of this status effect. Their range restriction plays an even bigger part of this role, as their “farsighted” aim makes Earthstar especially vulnerable to occasions whenever a zombie gets past your frontlines (one good example would be an Imp thrown by a Gargantuar). This makes it vital that both Earthstar and your other plants that make up your defense support each other just as equally in order to get the most out of them.
One other important factor to note when using Earthstar in your defense is how their attacks leave a scorched tile upon impact. One good thing to note is that, due to Earthstar’s restricted range, unless your defenses take up a wide space or if Earthstar is placed at the very back of your defenses, Earthstar will not leave any scorched tiles inside your defenses when a zombie gets past your frontlines since Earthstar wouldn’t be able to target them in the first place (which, of course, as discussed in the previous paragraph, is still a problem of its own that needs to be considered). But, however, in normal situations where zombies are outside of your defenses, even though they do help with dealing extra damage to zombies who walk over them, scorched tiles can make it somewhat trickier to utilise your single-use plants which are usually placed outside of your main defenses, making these tiles a sort of double-edged sword. Luckily, this disadvantage can be countered with shadow plant synergy in mind. When powered, the scorched tiles Earthstar creates are altered in such way that they can allow shadow plants to remain on said tiles, so utilising a shadow plant strategy and bringing single-use shadow plants like Shadow-shroom (from Plants vs. Zombies 2*) alongside Earthstar can somewhat negate the disadvantage scorched tiles come with. In other cases without shadow plant synergy, you could also resort to Potato Mine, since Potato Mine has a side ability to turn into a Hothead when they are planted on scorched tiles as was demonstrated in Magma Marshlands.
*Shadow-shroom is not a returning plant in Plants vs. Zombies: Lost World.
==Trivia==
*Earthstar is the only (if not one of the only) character made for Plants vs. Zombies: Lost World where the creator has made two almanac entries for them.
==Gallery==
Earthstar.png|Earthstar (HD)
Earthstar's costume.png|Costume
Earthstar's seed packet.png|Seed packet
Earthstar (powered form).png|Earthstar's powered form
Earthstar's projectile.png|Earthstar's projectile when unpowered
Earthstar's powered projectile.png|Earthstar's projectile when powered
Aftermath of Earthstar's attack (powered).png|The aftermath of an attack from Earthstar when they're powered (notice the glowing scorched tile and the dizziness effect inflicted on the Buckethead)
Earthstar idling.gif|Idling
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Category:Area of effect plants
Category:Offensive Plants
Category:Lobbed-Shot Plants
Category:Shadow Plants
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