Stars used to be just a score. Since the arena arrived, they're also something you spend, on chests that give you heroes. And the leaderboard doesn't count stars anymore, it counts trophies. So this post got a full rewrite.
Here's how it all fits together now, nothing left out.
Every difference is scored on its own
The game doesn't just look at how long the whole level took you. It records the moment you found each difference, counted from the start of the level.
For each difference, we keep the times of recent players who found that exact difference, and take the median. That's the value in the middle: half of the players were faster, half were slower. We use the median instead of the average because of the people who open a level, go make dinner, and come back an hour later. A single one of those would ruin an average. The median doesn't care.
If your time for a difference is at or below the median, that find counts as fast. When a level is brand new and there's no data yet, every find counts as fast. So being one of the first players on a new level pays off.
A difference you found with a hint never counts as fast. The hint did the finding, after all.
One to three stars per level
At the end of a level, the game counts how many of your finds were fast:
| Your finds | Level rating |
|---|---|
| All of them fast | 3 stars |
| More than half fast | 2 stars |
| Everything else | 1 star |
Since hinted finds are never fast, three stars means you solved the level on your own. If every single difference was fast, the level is also marked gold in your pack progress.
This is also why being faster overall doesn't always help. If you lose time on the differences most people find quickly, your rating drops, even when your total time looks good. The game compares you difference by difference, not level by level.
What you actually get
The rating is the base. On top of it come a few multipliers. Your heroes add a bonus in percent, a higher league multiplies the result, and the Star Club doubles it. The results screen lists every factor, so you can see where your stars came from.
Fractions aren't lost. If a level works out to 3.4 stars, you get 3 now, and the 0.4 waits for the next level.
There are two exceptions. Levels in your own packs give no stars, otherwise everyone would build a pack of very easy levels for themselves. And stars from community packs are capped per day. Official packs have no cap.
Stars in the arena
In arena matches, stars depend on how you placed. A win in a duel pays a lot more than a loss, and in four player matches every place pays something. Your first win of the day counts double.
Private matches against friends pay half the stars and don't change your trophies.
What stars are for
Stars are a currency now. You spend them on chests in the hero menu. Every chest holds a hero, from common to mythic, and every hero you collect or level up raises your star bonus. So the stars you earn today make tomorrow's stars bigger. There's also a free chest every day.
"Faster than X% of players"
This one compares your total time for the level with the completion times of recent players on the same level. "Faster than 70%" means 70 out of 100 recent players needed longer than you. Only people who finished count, and because it's based on recent games, the number shifts a little as more people play.
When you play with friends, you're compared with other teams of the same size instead.
What counts as time
Only active play time. If you switch to another app or browser tab, the clock stops and starts again when you're back. So if someone calls you in the middle of a level, go ahead and answer.
Wrong taps don't cost stars directly. They cost time, though, and time is what everything is based on. Tapping randomly all over the picture is almost always slower than just looking properly.
You have one hint, and once you use it, it comes back after five minutes. A hint shows you where one difference is, but the clock keeps running until you tap it. In the Star Club you hold three hints, and they come back every two minutes.
Every level pays once
Once you've finished a level, it doesn't pay stars again. So you can't farm the same easy level over and over, which is kind of the point.
Within a pack, levels unlock one after another. Most packs start with easier levels and get harder, and unlocking in order keeps that curve intact.
Trophies, leagues and the leaderboard
Trophies only come from ranked matches in the arena. Wins earn them. In the lower leagues a loss doesn't cost you anything, higher up losses start to cost trophies.
Your trophies decide your league: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Master. Each league below Master is split into three steps, so you can see how close the next one is. Higher leagues also pay more stars, for matches and for solo levels.
The leaderboard ranks players by trophies. You need to be signed in to show up. Guests can play the arena, but they're not on the list. It shows your username, which you can change in your profile.
A few rules keep it fair. Leaving a match early ranks you last. If your partner leaves a 2 vs 2 match, you lose no trophies. And if you keep meeting the same opponent, only the first few ranked matches against them each day count. After that, a match counts like a private one.
If you want more stars
Take a relaxed look at the whole picture first and grab the obvious differences. Those are the ones where beating the median is easiest. After that, search in zones instead of jumping around. And when one difference takes forever, don't stress about it. It only affects that one find.
We collected more of these habits in 10 ways to get better at spot the difference. And if something about scoring is still unclear, just email us. The address is in the imprint.