The Starborn Return Walkthrough: 6 Endings, Zero’s Quiz Answers, Star Power Table and 30 HCG Unlocks

The Starborn Return is an 18+ title that bolts a tower defense battler onto a harem romance ADV. You play Sid, a Guide carrying a grudge, travelling with Elphy, the Astral Princess sealed inside his bracelet, from the underground empire of Baldona all the way to the far edge of the stars. The main story runs six chapters plus an epilogue, and six romanceable heroines join the party along the way. You fight for stars, spend them on upgrades, unlock character CGs through upgrade minigames, then decide who you spend the rest of your life with once the final battle is over

For the story setup, the official profiles of the six heroines and release details, start with the The Starborn Return launch article

Combat is a tower defense skeleton, collection means 30 HCGs, and the emotional payoff sits in six separate heroine endings. Two things matter if you want everything: the upgrade minigames are tied to Steam achievements, and which ending you get comes down to a single choice before the credits

What kind of game is this

• Genre: tower defense battler plus romance raising ADV (adult, H content included)
• Voice acting: fully voiced throughout, with both Japanese and English voice tracks to choose from
• Core loop: clear stages for stars → spend star power in the character index to level heroines → each level up triggers a minigame that unlocks a CG → push the story, recruit new girls
• Romanceable characters: six (Lophina, Sekhmet, Zero, Moophiis, Aurora, plus Elphy the Astral Princess)
• Volume: six main chapters, five stages each (stage five is the boss), roughly 30 combat stages total
• Collectibles: 30 HCGs (five per heroine), obtained from the upgrade minigames win or lose, winning only matters for achievements
• Endings: six, decided by one choice after the final battle
• Leaning: story and collection in equal measure, low mechanical barrier, built around the characters and a harem-flavored emotional finish

Story background

Baldona started out as a small mining nation buried underground, never seeing daylight, scraping by between the great powers on rare diamond ore. One day a meteor punched through the rock layer and brought with it an otherworldly force called star power. The underground nation finally saw the sky, and the seeds of everything that goes wrong later were planted at the same time. Sid, the protagonist, is a “Guide” able to wield star power, and travelling with him is Elphy, the Astral Princess who lost her physical body and now lives inside his bracelet

The main story follows Sid and company on the road: out of the empire, through the misty sea of trees, on to the neutral city states and the water capital that the empire has yet to swallow, and finally deep into the rift in the sky known as the Star Abyss for a head-on confrontation with the one behind it all. Each chapter introduces a heroine, moving from enemy to rescued to fighting at your side, and the party fills out from there

Late game truth (spoilers)

The empire was never the real enemy. The real enemy is the “Queen”, the rampaging half of Elphy that has been absorbing star stones, and Fal, the traitor pulling the strings behind her. During the final battle the Queen’s greed for every star stone tears her apart, which is what breaks the seal on the true Elphy. The two Elphys clash head on with black and white guns, and after that fight star power vanishes from the continent, the empire collapses with it, and the world settles back into an ordinary order with no star power in it. Sid wakes up after the battle, faces everyone who stayed by his side, and makes his final choice

Cast

Five romanceable heroines plus Elphy the Astral Princess, all viewable in the character index along with their art, stats and upgrade status

Lophina

A cheerful senior out of the imperial army and the first companion to travel with Sid. Sunny, emotionally open, and terrible at exactly one thing, which is cooking. In combat she is the hero unit that applies burn to enemies. Joins in chapter one

Sekhmet

A girl the empire had been controlling as a test subject, who joins after Sid rescues her. Naturally upbeat and easy to be around, and she calls Sid “boss”. Joins after the chapter two boss fight

Zero

A proud, fiercely loyal mechanical girl who first shows up as an enemy and submits after losing to Sid’s party, calling him “master” from then on. Her ultimate applies paralysis, and at level 5 it gains an instant kill effect, which makes her the key to handling high HP enemies late in the game. Joins after the chapter three boss fight

Moophiis

A troublemaker girl born out of star power sediment, who joins after the party surrounds her and she begs her way out. She teases Sid by calling him the guy who feeds her. Joins after the chapter four boss fight

Aurora

Someone important from Sid’s past who has been placed under enemy control, and who returns to the party once that control breaks in chapter five. She is also one of the hero units available for combat later on. During the chapter five boss fight against the controlled version of her, burn and paralysis both do nothing, so you have to grind her down with ultimates. Joins after the chapter five boss fight

Elphy

The Astral Princess, who loses her physical body in the opening and takes up residence in Sid’s bracelet, serving as guide and information source for the whole run. Her body’s seal breaks during the chapter six final battle, and she has an ending of her own. Her five CGs are scattered across the main story climaxes and the recollection room rather than coming from upgrade minigames

Core systems and gameplay

The core loop is clear a stage → collect stars → level up → unlock → push forward. Combat is a lane based tower defense fought left against right: you spend hero currency to summon minions and heroes to advance, you need to raise your currency cap before you can afford the strong heroes, and you fire hero ultimates at the right moments

Combat (tower defense battles)

The goal is to grind the enemy base HP down to zero. When enemy base HP hits certain thresholds (commonly 70%, 60%, 50% and 20%) it spawns reinforced enemies or boss class units, so before those points you want currency banked for a strong hero summon and ultimate energy in reserve. Do not burn everything early. Lophina’s burn and Zero’s paralysis are your main crowd control, and once Zero hits level 5 her instant kill ultimate is the core answer to late game HP sponges. Some late game Starwing enemies ignore burn and paralysis entirely, so you hit them with ultimates directly or lean on other minions for damage

A few things that matter in practice:

• Upgrade hero currency first. Currency upgrades raise both generation speed and the currency cap, which scales your summoning and upgrade tempo for the entire match, so dumping early resources into currency pays better than rushing units out
• Open with only a few units. Depending on the stage, one or two minions to hold the line is enough, keep the rest of your currency for upgrades instead of flooding the lane immediately
• Watch for counterattack stages. Some stages have enemies that only start fighting back after they have taken a certain amount of damage, so do not relax when the early game feels easy. Build currency and upgrades first so you can handle the turn
• Control your clear tempo. When to save and when to push depends on the enemy base HP thresholds and where your currency is. Upgrading before you push is steadier than muscling through the whole way

Small touch: firing a hero ultimate plays a short chibi windup animation first

Team building and the slime rush build

You arrange your heroes and minions before deploying. For a rush build the slime line is the minion pick: they cost little gold to summon and recover fast, so you can flood the lane with bodies and push quickly. The downside is that once enemies get stronger a wall of slimes is still fragile on its own, and you need heroes and ultimates for the damage. In testing, this setup clears every stage in chapters one through three at three stars

Progression (star power upgrades)

The overall goal is to collect as many stars as possible from clears and spend them strengthening the heroines. Clearing a stage awards stars based on performance (three per stage maximum), and stars are the star power resource used to level characters. Back in the character index you spend accumulated stars to level a character, up to level 5 max. The total star power ceiling is 162 (a perfect three star run of every stage). The more stars you bank, the stronger you can push the heroines you actually use, and the easier late game stages and bosses become

Stars required for each level per character (these are total accumulated star thresholds, the star pool is shared and is not consumed). The pattern is +6 stars per level from LV.2 through LV.4, then a +12 jump for the last step from LV.4 to LV.MAX, and each character’s starting value is +27 stars above the previous one in join order

Swipe sideways to see the whole table

Upgrade minigames and CG unlocks

Levelling a specific character drops you into an interactive minigame that belongs to her, and the five heroines each have a different one (see the minigame section below). Two things to keep straight about winning and losing:

• CGs do not care whether you win. Win or lose, you see and collect that scene’s CG. There is no separate win version and lose version, and losing costs you no CGs at all
• Achievements need at least one win. Each heroine’s minigame is tied to a Steam achievement, and that achievement only unlocks if you clear the minigame successfully at least once. So if you care about achievements, save before the level up that triggers the minigame, and reload and retry on a failure until you win once

Recollection room (gallery)

The gallery collects every HCG and chibi illustration in one place, and unlock status is global rather than tied to a single save file. Some of Elphy’s CGs get filled in through the gallery as recollections

Read this before you start

• The ending is chosen after the final battle: once you beat the chapter six boss and watch the epilogue, one final choice appears that decides which heroine’s ending you get. No matter who you pick, every ending CG unlocks once you clear the game, so go with the heroine you most want to see and catch the other endings’ story scenes later in the gallery
• Do not worry about losing a minigame and missing a CG, you get the scene CG either way. What actually matters is the achievement, since the minigames are tied to Steam achievements and need one win. If you care about achievements, save before levelling up, then reload and retry after a failure. Zero’s minigame is a quiz, answers are below
• Concentrate your star power: collect as many stars as you can and pour them into the heroines you use. When resources are tight, get Zero to level 5 first (instant kill ultimate) and late game stages and bosses get a lot easier
• Upgrade hero currency first in combat: currency upgrades raise both generation speed and the cap, so opening with one or two minions to hold the line while you invest in currency beats flooding the lane. Also, some stages only fight back once the enemy has taken enough damage, so do not let an easy opening fool you
• The gallery unlocks globally, so you do not need multiple saves to collect art. The endings work the same way, all six ending CGs open up after the clear, so there is no need to keep a save from before the choice
• Hidden achievement easter egg: when you create your character on a new game, name the protagonist by his canon name, Sid, and you unlock a hidden Steam achievement. This is very hard to figure out without a walkthrough, so set it at the start if you want every achievement

Full walkthrough

The main story is linear, five stages per chapter with stage five as the boss. Below are each chapter’s location, stages and highlights, and the general combat approach is in the boss section

Chapter 1: Night of the Fallen Starry Sky (Baldona)

The prologue lays out the empire’s background and the arrival of star power, with Lophina along for the ride. Clear 1-1 through 1-4 to bank stars and run your first level up (which triggers Lophina’s first minigame). After the 1-5 boss, Sid collapses from overusing star power and the party heads for the misty sea of trees

Chapter 2: The Wandering Sea of Trees

The investigation team pushes into the forest and finds mutated creatures under experimental control. Clear 2-1 through 2-4, then beat the 2-5 boss and rescue Sekhmet, who joins, after which the party arrives at a deserted city (it is a trap)

Chapter 3: Dawn of the Lightning City

You head for a neutral city state on harsh terrain that the empire has not invaded yet. Clear 3-1 through 3-4, then beat the proud Zero at the 3-5 boss fight, she submits and joins, and the party sails for the water capital

Chapter 4: Awakened Sediment

You reach the water capital Orbis (奧比斯), resolve the local crisis, rescue John’s (約翰) sister Mina (米娜) and push into the sewers. Clear 4-1 through 4-4, beat the Slime Queen at the 4-5 boss fight, and take in Moophiis, born from star power sediment

Chapter 5: Bonds of the Sky

Clear 5-1 through 5-4, then break the control over Aurora at the 5-5 boss fight and she returns to Sid’s side and joins. Sid declares here that he is done chasing revenge

Chapter 6: Graveyard of the Stars

The party enters the rift in the sky, the Star Abyss, a void space wrapped in starlight. Clear 6-1 through 6-4, and 6-5 is the final battle: defeat the rampaging Queen Elphy who absorbed the star stones along with the traitor Fal, then the true Elphy breaks her seal, appears, and finishes the Queen herself. Star power disappears after the battle

Final chapter: epilogue and ending choice

Sid wakes after the battle and the world returns to normal. Everyone regroups at a new base and Elphy comes back to join them. Late that night the final choice of who to be with appears, and it decides which of the six endings you get. Pick whoever you most want to see, the other ending CGs unlock anyway once you clear

Major events and branches

The main story runs on a single track and there is only one real branch, the ending choice in the final chapter. Everything else called a branch is just a CG variation from winning or losing a minigame, and it does not change where the story goes

Swipe sideways to see the whole table

Boss guide

Every chapter boss is a reinforced fight under the same tower defense rules, so the general approach below applies and you adapt on the fly around the HP thresholds

• Open with minions like rock throwers and star blowdart shooters to hold the line while you bank hero currency
• Before enemy base HP hits a threshold (70%, 60%, 50%, 20%), cut back on summoning and keep currency and ultimate energy in reserve, then focus down the reinforced enemies or boss unit when they appear
• Use Lophina’s burn and Zero’s paralysis for crowd control. Once Zero is level 5 her instant kill ultimate should go to the beefiest boss class units, like giant slimes and Star Abyss spirits
• Late game Starwing chargers, Starwing shooters and Aurora ignore burn and paralysis, so hit them with ultimates directly or let your minions on the field cover the damage
• Summoning Zero costs a lot of hero currency (up to 170 late game), so on stages where you need her, raise your currency cap to 200 first

The opponent in the final battle (6-5) is the “Queen”, the rampaging half of Elphy who appears after absorbing the star stones. Beating the Queen and the traitor Fal moves straight into the story with no hidden defeat branch, so what matters is not wasting resources earlier and making sure you can last into the boss phase

Endings guide

There are six reachable endings, all of which split off from the same partner choice in the final chapter, each matched to a heroine and her own ending CG. Whoever you choose, all six ending CGs open up in the gallery once you clear the game, so go with the heroine you most want to see and catch the other choices’ scenes in the gallery afterwards

Ending 1: Lophina

Pick Lophina at the final chapter’s partner choice to enter her ending

Ending 2: Sekhmet

Pick Sekhmet at the final chapter’s partner choice to enter her ending

Ending 3: Zero

Pick Zero at the final chapter’s partner choice to enter her ending

Ending 4: Moophiis

Pick Moophiis at the final chapter’s partner choice to enter her ending

Ending 5: Aurora

Pick Aurora at the final chapter’s partner choice to enter her ending

Ending 6: Elphy

Pick Elphy (the Astral Princess) at the final chapter’s partner choice to enter her ending

After the clear you get a closing thank you screen, and every HCG including the six ending CGs is unlocked together in the gallery

Key progression and minigames

There is no traditional item shop here, and the resource that matters most is star power (stars) and character upgrades. Winning or losing an upgrade minigame only affects the Steam achievement, and the five heroines’ minigame types and clear tips are collected below

Swipe sideways to see the whole table

All five minigame screens (all of them very cute):

Zero’s quiz minigame answers

Zero’s upgrade minigame is a quiz, two rounds of four questions, with the answers below (if you want the achievement, save before answering and reload on a wrong answer). Option wording below is translated; the in-game English text may differ slightly

Round 1

1. What did Baldona once live on? Answer: mineral ore
2. Which of these is the name of Sekhmet’s special move? Answer: Fang of the Night’s Sin
3. What is the name of the person who took Sid in? Answer: Aurora
4. What is the full name of the “Titan” robot in the imperial army’s underground training room? Answer: Titan Lion X Modified

Round 2

1. What kind of cooking is Lophina worst at? Answer: she is bad at all of it
2. Where is Elphy from? Answer: the Star Abyss
3. Among the people listed here, who has the least hair? Answer: Berrick (貝里克)
4. What is your current master’s real name? Answer: none of the above

H and CG collection guide

There are 30 HCGs in the game, five per heroine (the first four are event CGs, the last one is the ending CG). The gallery unlocks globally. Unlock methods per character are below (CGs from upgrade minigames are obtained whether you win or lose, there is no win version or lose version)

Swipe sideways to see the whole table

Impressions and who this is for

This suits players who want light gameplay with a harem to collect: the tower defense barrier is low and the point is collecting the CGs and endings for all six heroines. Each character gets a basic emotional arc from enemy to rescued to ally, and the Aurora and Elphy routes in particular carry a note of sacrifice and reunion, with the final chapter’s partner choice as the emotional landing point of the whole game

If you want a real challenge, you can pick the hard difficulty mode. If you are a story-first player like me who just wants to push ahead, normal mode is all you need. This lands as a story and collection piece more than a gameplay piece. A clear takes about 4 hours, plus a little extra if you want to go through every CG and all six endings in the gallery

Extra thoughts

This one took me about 4 hours to clear, but the Live 2D work is genuinely gorgeous and I personally found it pretty, uh, practical (?). There are not that many lewd tower defense games around, and the minigames are adorable too, from cooking to balancing to the quiz show to food bombs to catching characters, the presentation is unbelievably cute

Pushing through the late game gets a bit rough, and thank god there is a built in 2x speed key, otherwise I might have quietly lost it, since the pacing is slow. You can pause while pushing too, though I never actually used it

If I could make one wish, I would want that main menu art. I want to use it as a wallpaper, the whole thing is just beautiful, with a bit of that Guilty Crown kind of aesthetic to it

Game screens

Game Information

Where to buy The Starborn Return

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