Starfruit

Starfruit is a plant unlocked after completing Level 4-6 in Plants vs. Zombies and a premium plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. It attacks by projecting stars in five different directions: one to the left, one going up, one going down, one going to the upper right (gradient of 1/2), and the last going lower right (gradient of -1/2). Each star deals one damage. The Starfruit begins to fire anytime a zombie enters a lane within its range, so planting multiple Starfruits a distance from the intended target and overlapping their lanes of fire is a good strategy. If a zombie is exactly in front of the plant, with or without eating it, it will be damaged by two of the five sides of the Starfruit.

This plant clearly based on the Averrhoa carambola, a species of woody plant in the family Oxalidaceae.

Plants vs. Zombies
Starfruit

Starfruits shoot stars in five directions.

Damage: normal Range: five directions

"Aw, man," says Starfruit. "I went to the dentist the other day and he said that I have four cavities. I've got --count it-- ONE tooth! Four cavities in one tooth? How does this happen?"

Cost: 125

Recharge: fast

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time
Sun cost: 150

DAMAGE: Normal RANGE: 5 Way RECHARGE: Fast

Starfruits shoot stars in 5 directions.

Range Details: fires in five directions

Just a small town fruit that travelled to the big city and found his way to the future. His favorite modes of transportation: conveyor belts, hoverboards, and rockets. WEEEE!

Plant Food
Shoots ten giant stars in five directions when fed Plant Food. Each giant star deals four damage.

Level upgrade

 * Level 2
 * Combat Training: Starfruit has 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
 * ???: Starfruit gets a 40% of chance to shoot a piercing dart that can penetrate two zombies.
 * Level 3
 * ???: Starfruit's dart can now penetrate three zombies plus its attack.
 * Cell Activation: Starfruit has another 50% attack power and health (200% of initial).
 * Level 4
 * Ability Awaken: Starfruit can be boosted sometimes when planted.

Costumed
Plant Food ability increases its spinning duration. Starfruit can also last longer.

Standard Levels
Starfruits tend to do their best when zombies are slowed down in other lanes. With their five-way projectiles, 125 sun cost is very cheap compared to the Threepeater (325 sun cost for 3-way projectiles). The real power of the Starfuit is when they are arranged vertically (fill a column) or horizontally (fill a lane or two). It's better to use them horizontally while Garlic is planted in front of them because their straight-up and straight-down projectiles are not useless. But if there are Gargantuars, Zombonis, or Catapult Zombies, you should use the vertical formation because the Garlic is useless, as they will smash or crush them. The Starfruit can also be an alternative plant for Digger Zombies, but you are probably better off using Split Peas or Magnet-shrooms if you are only dealing with them. If you don't need range, two or three Gloom-shrooms combined with Garlic should do, instead. It is also worth noting that when there is a zombie next to a Starfruit, both forward-pointing stars hit it. When a player plants lots of Starfruits in a level, it will be easy for them to win.

A lawn full of Starfruits is good against Octo Zombies as Starfruit's rapid, multi-directional attack can quickly destroy octopi.

Seeing Stars mini-game
You do not have any choice here, you have to plant Starfruit wherever there is a Starfruit outline - no other plants can be planted there (except the Pumpkin, Imitater Pumpkin and Imitater Starfruit). In order to win the game, you have to plant one Starfruit in each outline. Just build up a regular defense with a column of Sunflowers in back, with a column or two of Peashooters and Snow Peas, to protect the house as you set up the Starfruit. For the third lane, plant a Garlic on the right-most row.

You do not have to choose Starfruit in that level, but it is required to win the game. But you do have to choose the Starfruit on iPhone and Android versions, since the seed packet is chosen and locked; even if you managed to get the 50,000 coins needed to unlock this mini-game after unlocking More Ways to Play in level 2-1. The Starfruit will not appear in the seed selection, but will still be chosen and locked. On the iPad version, the seed packet will still be chosen and locked, even though Adventure mode must be completed in order to unlock the mini-game.

General

 * Starfruit, Marigold, Bonk Choy, Tile Turnip, the Potato Mine in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, and Cattail are the only plants with one tooth.
 * Starfruit, the Winter Melon, the Melon-pult, the Cherry Bomb, the Coconut Cannon, the Citron, the E.M.Peach, the Heavenly Peach, the Guacodile, and the Banana Launcher are the only plants that are fruits.
 * Although Winter Melon's name is a reference to a vegetable, its appearance resembles a fruit.
 * When it shoots, it should go in the shape of a star, but it is misaligned at the top so it would shoot directly above it.
 * The stars it shoots are actually its seeds.
 * There is a blue variant of the Starfruit in Plants vs. Zombies: Great Wall Edition that shoots blue stars.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * If a zombie gets close enough in a Starfruit's lane to it, the Starfruit will shoot at it even though it does not normally shoot there. In fact, if an Imp is in the lane of the said Starfruit, it will be killed without the Starfruit needing assistance from other plants (but only in Puzzle Mode).
 * Starfruit does not try to harm a Bungee Zombie that is stealing it. But if a zombie is in the Starfruit's range and a Bungee Zombie is trying to steal another plant, all five stars will shoot at the Bungee Zombie until the zombie is out of the Starfruit's range.
 * Starfruit can be hit by the Peashooter Zombie and Gatling Pea Zombie's peas, despite it being flat.
 * Starfruit is the only plant that can shoot five projectiles simultaneously. This means that the plant can shoot the second most projectiles simultaneously (five), with the Gloom-shroom coming first (eight).
 * Starfruit, Gloom-shroom, Cattail, Cob Cannon, and Threepeater are the only plants that can fire outside the lane they're planted in.
 * In some instances, a zombie which is not in the Starfruit's range will still be hit by the plant if another zombie on another lane is on its range.
 * Starfruit, Wall-nut, and Cob Cannon are the only plants with mini-games featuring themselves.
 * Stars shot by the Starfruit actually come from its middle.
 * Starfruit and Threepeater are the only plants that have a different cost and, at the same time, a slower recharge time in Versus Mode.
 * In DS and DSi versions, sometimes a zombie is within its range, but the star projectile will just bypass the zombie instead of hitting it. This most likely occurs if the zombie is in a lane above the Starfruit, regardless of position.
 * Stars from the Starfruit spin around slowly.
 * Starfruit and the left-facing Repeater in Vasebreaker are the only attacking plants that cannot shoot straight ahead.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time

 * Starfruit now has leaves underneath it. Also, it does not have scleras now and its mouth is open.
 * Its Almanac Entry states that one of its favorite modes of transportation is a conveyor-belt. This alludes to that Starfruit was the most common plant the player would get on the conveyor belt in Level 4-10 from the original game.
 * It is the plant that the player has to protect in the second Far Future Save Our Seeds level, Day 20.
 * This is also the first time the player is allowed to access premium plants for free (outside of Pinata Partys).
 * So far, it is one of the four premium plants to be available in normal gameplay (other than Piñata Party); the other four are Hypno-shroom, Pea-nut, Chomper, and Hurrikale.
 * Its sun cost was increased by 25.
 * It can hit Prospector Zombies in mid-air, despite not shooting into the air.
 * When shooting, it now glows brightly.
 * The spinning animation it uses when fed Plant Food looks similar to the one Imitater uses while transforming.
 * In some ads and the store, it is called Star Fruit.
 * For some reason, in the Chinese version advertisment of its Plant Food upgrade the first picture shows the Starfruit with both its International costume (afro and mustache) and its Chinese costume (antennae) on the same Starfruit. It does not have the afro and mustache costume in the Chinese version.
 * Like Grave Buster, Spikeweed, and Tangle Kelp, Starfruit went under a major design change.