How to get 3 stars in Dumpling Dash

Three gold stars on the win card feel great. In many games the rule behind them is a mystery, so players guess. In Dumpling Dash the rule is short, and once you know it you can plan for it from the first gate.

This guide shows how to get 3 stars in Dumpling Dash: exactly how stars are counted, why they matter, and the steps that get you three on every level you clear. If you are new to the game, read our beginner's guide first.

How stars are counted

When the fortress falls, the game looks at three things.

• Did you use a continue? If yes, the level gives 1 star, no matter how well the rest went.
• How big is your crowd? If more than 40 dumplings are still in play when the fortress comes down, you get 3 stars. A MEGA BAO counts as the eight dumplings it was made from.
• What was your best combo? If your best combo for the level is above 20, you also get 3 stars.

If you won without a continue but missed both targets, you get 2 stars. You only need one of the two targets, not both. That is the most useful thing to know: on a level where your crowd is small, a long combo can still save the third star, and the other way round.

The win card shows your stars, your win streak and your best combo for the level, so you can see which target you hit.

Why stars are worth chasing

Stars fill the Dumpling Pass. Every 3 stars move you up one tier, and each tier on the pass has a reward to claim. A three-star win is a whole tier in one go, while a one-star rescue is only a third of one.

Keep one more thing in mind: you play forward along the level path, and a cleared level does not come back to replay. Your best chance at three stars on a level is the first time you beat it. That is why the habits below matter more than any single lucky run.

Target one: a big crowd at the end

Having over 40 dumplings left when the fortress breaks is the steadier of the two targets. Every dumpling that hits the fortress is used up, and chopstick soldiers squish dumplings too, so you need a crowd that is big enough to spend some and still have plenty left over.

Here is how to arrive with a crowd that size:

1. Line up with the best blue gate early. Multiply gates do the heavy lifting. A ×2 or ×3 on a big crowd beats a small + gate. Our gate guide shows how to do the quick maths.
2. Move in small, slow drags. A tight crowd goes through a gate together instead of splitting between a good gate and a red one. The crowd-tight guide has five habits for this.
3. Keep holding the screen. Letting go stops the steamer. Holding near the end means new dumplings keep joining while the fortress takes hits, which keeps your count up at the moment it falls.
4. Make MEGA BAOs. Eight dumplings close together squish into one MEGA BAO. It hits the fortress much harder, so the fortress falls sooner and you spend fewer dumplings on it. See the MEGA BAO guide for every merge rule.
5. Skip risky pickups. A wasabi bomb knocks out part of your crowd and a tiny spoon shrinks your dumplings. If a pickup is not clearly good, steer past it.

Target two: a long combo

The combo counts how many things you squish in a quick burst. Each chopstick soldier you flatten adds 1, each MEGA BAO merge adds 3, and knocking down a boss adds 5. If nothing new happens for a short moment (under two seconds), the combo drops back to zero and starts again.

So a combo above 20 does not come from squishing soldiers one at a time. It comes from meeting a wave of soldiers with a thick stream, so they fall one after another with no gap.

1. Meet soldier waves head on. Point your stream straight at the group rather than at the edge of it, so the hits come close together.
2. Steam steadily while they come. A dense line of dumplings flattens soldiers back to back. A gap in your stream is a gap in your combo.
3. Let merges join the chain. A MEGA BAO forming in the middle of a fight adds 3 at once, and the big bao then flattens soldiers quickly.
4. Save your best moment for bosses. On every 10th level a boss such as the Giant Fork guards the fortress. Squishing soldiers just before the boss goes down, then the boss itself, can push one burst well past 20.

Continue or retry?

When a run goes wrong you see the "So close!" card. It tells you what took you down and how much of the fortress was left, then offers Continue, Retry and Home.

Continue is an optional short video that lets you carry on from where you were. It is a handy way to get past a level that has stopped you several times. But a level won after a continue gives only 1 star, so if three stars is your goal, Retry is the better choice. Coins you picked up during the lost run are still added to your total either way, and your win streak resets after any loss.

A simple way to decide:

1. First try or second try? Retry. You now know where the gates and soldiers are.
2. Stuck on the same spot many times? Continue is fine. One star still moves you forward and fills a little of the pass.
3. Hard or boss level? Spend coins on upgrades first, then retry.

Get a stronger start before a level

From level 4, a "Boost this level" sheet appears before most levels and offers two boosts at a time.

• +20% crowd gives you more dumplings at the start, which makes the 40-dumpling target easier.
• Giant start makes your dumplings GIANT for the first few seconds.
• Instant Bao starts you with a MEGA BAO already on the street.
• Lucky box makes the mystery box always a good one.

Upgrades help every level after you buy them. Start crowd adds dumplings at the beginning, fire rate steams them out faster for a denser stream (good for both targets), and squish power makes each dumpling hit harder, so soldiers and the fortress fall faster.