Boss file · Lower Maple Falls, Fall-2-B

Starcone Master

Commands summoned Starcones and an expanding orbiting shield.

Greedy Astrologer

I pray at the bottom of the waterfall

Lore

Starcone Master guards a place of prayer in the caves below Maple Lake and treats visiting plants as intruders on sacred ground. Orbiting devices and solemn titles lend the meeting a ritual air. While the team is still learning the landscape, this inhabitant has already defined it through belief.

In the Master's own account, losing the starcones years ago brought despair. A gift from the sage of Maple Lake restored them with greater strength. The gift is understood as an answer to sincerity, and passing on the technique as spreading a blessing. That is the speaker's interpretation, not necessarily the visitors'.

Searching for a legendary cave and waiting for a response reveal anxiety beneath the imposing words. Dependence on the giver remains audible in the prayer. The moving starcones make the devotion visible, but the first encounter does not explain all of the lake's history.

Mechanics

Role

Area miniboss · Starcone summons and orbiting shield

Summons Starcone Zombies; when too many are on the field, he stops summoning more.
Floats between different field regions; explosions can knock him rapidly in the opposite direction.
The orbiting shield expands and retracts, changing where Starcones intersect projectiles; Cherry Bomb checks its two blasts separately.
At several health thresholds, he gains additional Starcones. Starcones deal continuous damage when touching plants, but Wall-nut takes reduced damage.

Summoning, floating, and the orbiting shield depend on field count, position, and HP thresholds. Timing uses centiseconds: 100 cs = 1 second.

Summon interval and population limit

After an opening delay, the summon timer runs independently of movement. From Easy to Unbalanced, attempts occur roughly every 1700, 1400, 1100, 800, or 500 cs. Each attempt places one Starcone Zombie in a lane permitted by spawn rules and mower protection.

An attempt is skipped when the on-field zombie count exceeds four. The check counts zombies, not only Starcone Zombies; passing it does not bypass lane eligibility.

T_{\text{summon}}\in\{17,14,11,8,5\}\text{s},\quad N_{\text{zombies}}>4\Rightarrow\text{skip summon}

Passing the population check does not bypass spawn restrictions.

Floating and blast displacement

Each floating movement lasts about 1000 cs, followed by a pause and another region choice. The next region differs from the current one. Left-side visits have additional scheduling constraints: a recent visit excludes an immediate return, while prolonged absence eventually forces a return.

An explosion pushes Starcone Master away from its center. Displacement decreases with difficulty; the blast position determines the push direction.

R_{k+1}\ne R_k,\qquad \vec v_{\text{blast push}}\parallel -(P_{\text{blast}}-P_{\text{boss}})

The push points away from the explosion center.

Orbit radius and action transitions

The shield starts with a pause of about 200 cs, then expands and retracts over about 1000 cs. Orbit radius rises from roughly 200 px to 1200 px and returns to 200 px. This measures the orbit, not a fixed damage boundary.

Afterward, floating resumes and a new shield countdown is drawn. Adding a Starcone at an HP threshold also resets that countdown to a long value. Expansion changes where Starcones intersect straight projectiles; Cherry Bomb still checks each blast separately.

r(t):200\rightarrow1200\rightarrow200\text{ px},\qquad T_{\text{shield}}\approx10\text{s}

Expansion does not guarantee that both Cherry Bomb blasts hit.

Additional Starcones and contact damage

A red Starcone is added at cumulative HP losses of approximately 1000, 6000, 10000, 12000, 14000, and 16000. Thresholds beyond the current difficulty’s maximum HP are never reached.

With n red Starcones, ordinary plants take 5n contact damage every 10 cs. Wall-nut uses a separate, much lower contact-damage rule; the ordinary-plant formula does not apply to it.

H_{\text{lost}}\in\{1000,6000,10000,12000,14000,16000\}\Rightarrow n\leftarrow n+1,\qquad D_{0.1\text{s}}=5n

Later thresholds may be unreachable at the current maximum HP.

Interactions & counters

Starcone Zombie
Summons Starcone Zombies as the main pressure source.
Cherry Bomb
Explosions push Starcone Master away from the blast center; Cherry Bomb checks each blast separately.
Wall-nut
Astrolabes damage plants on contact, but Wall-nut takes reduced damage.