Pokemon GO Star Piece is a special item added in patch 0.85.1 and discovered in the APK by GO Hub. Star Piece is a purchasable store item that boosts Stardust gain for a fixed duration of time. Star Piece increases Stardust gain by 50% for 30 minutes.
Star Piece info table
Icon | ![]() |
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Item | Star Piece | |
Item Category | Stardust boost | |
In-game description | A small shard of a beautiful gem. Earns 50% more Stardust for 30 minutes. | |
Buff power | 50% more Stardust | |
Buff duration | 30 minutes | |
Description | A new item that boosts Stardust gain. At this point we know it will be available as an in-game shop SKU and that it influences Stardust gain via a multiplier | |
Available from | In-game shop |
What does the code say about Star Piece?
After analyzing the code, we found several interesting tidbits of information about Star Piece. Without particular order, here are our observations:
- Star Piece is the first item in a new item category: Stardust Boost
ITEM_CATEGORY_STARDUST_BOOST
- Star Piece can’t stack, only one Stardust Boost buff can be active at once and there are additional error handlers in place, similar to how Lucky Eggs are treated in the code base
.ITEM_STARDUST_BOOST_LOCATION_UNSET .ITEM_STARDUST_BOOST_NO_ITEMS_REMAINING .ITEM_STARDUST_BOOST_ALREADY_ACTIVE .ITEM_STARDUST_BOOST_ERROR
- Star Piece utilizes a multiplier to produce additional Stardust. The multiplier is set by the game’s server, not by the client app. A clever way to prevent cheating!
.StardustBoostAttributesProto .get_StardustMultiplier .set_StardustMultiplier
Our thoughts on Star Piece
When we initially discovered Star Piece assets in the 0.85.1 APK, we were quite frankly confused. For one, we did not expect that Niantic would go ahead and offer a solution for the growing Stardust deficiency problem. Secondly, we did not expect to see such an elegant solution as offering a timed booster.
Are we salty that it’s a store item? No, not really. The new weather system will give free-to-play players a mechanism to gain increased Stardust, while items like Star Piece are an interesting addition for players willing to spend real money.