Pokemon GO Star Piece

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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
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.

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Zeroghan
Zeroghanhttps://pokemongohub.net/
Zeroghan started the Hub in July 2016 and hasn't had much sleep since. A lover of all things Pokémon, web development, and writing.

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