All Star Tower Defense: How to Get and Level Up the Star Pass Fast

The Star Pass is All Star Tower Defense’s tiered reward track, handing out units, gems, gold, Stardust, capsules, and EXP items as you climb toward Tier 100. Getting the premium half of it is a summon problem. Filling the tier bar is a farming problem. The two are solved in completely different places, and most players stall because they only solve one.

Quick answer: Pull the Star Pass unit from the 6-star slot on the special banner (or evolve 1 Mysterious Key with 20 Current Capsules), unlock it from your inventory, then grind tier XP through Star Pass Quests found under Tasks > Event > View Challenges.

All Star Tower Defense lobby view where the Star Pass progression track is accessed — The Star Pass track runs to Tier 100 and pays out on both a free and an Ultra line. Image: Top Down Games

Free track vs Star Pass Ultra rewards

Every player progresses the free track automatically. The second reward column, Star Pass Ultra, stays greyed out until you own and unlock the Star Pass unit. Both tracks pay out at the same tiers, so the Ultra line effectively doubles what a season is worth to you.

Typical rewards across a season include 75 Gems, 100 Gold, 3 Stardust, Sand Globe capsules, EXP IV items, tickets, and unit rewards at milestone tiers. Tier 100 is where the headline evolution items sit.

How to get the Star Pass unit

There are four routes to the unit that switches on the Ultra track. Summoning is free but random. The evolution route is deterministic if you have the materials.

Route	What it takes
Banner summon	Hit the 6-star slot on the special banner. It has sat on Banner Z in World 2, and has also appeared as Premium Pass on Banner S, so check the top rarity slot on the current season’s banners.
Evolution	1 Mysterious Key plus 20 Current Capsules, combined in your inventory.
Robux purchase	799 Robux for Star Pass Ultra, with a buy-for-friend option that is tradable.
Trading	Only Robux-purchased passes are tradable. Passes summoned from the banner before 7/1/22 also remain tradable.

Head to the summoning area in the lobby and open the banner menu. Scroll to the special banner and check the 6-star slot for the Star Pass or Premium Pass unit before spending any gems.

Summon until it drops, or open your inventory and check whether you are holding a Mysterious Key and 20 Current Capsules for the evolution instead.

Open your inventory, select the Star Pass unit, and unlock it. This is the step people miss. A locked Star Pass sitting in your inventory does nothing, and the Ultra column stays inactive until you unlock it.

ASTD hub with Summon, Inventory, Tasks, Orbs and Star Pass buttons on screen — The lobby side buttons hold Summon, Inventory, Tasks, Orbs, and the Star Pass menu. Image: Top Down Games

Reopen the Star Pass menu. If it worked, the second reward column lights up and every tier you have already passed shows a claimable Ultra reward.

Note: if you accidentally fed a Star Pass unit to another unit, open the settings gear and run /restore to get it back.

Where to find Star Pass Quests

Generic daily missions are no longer the engine behind tier progress. Star Pass Quests are, and they live in a different menu than most players expect.

Click the Tasks button on the left side of the lobby screen.

Switch from the Daily Tasks tab to the Event tab, then press View Challenges. That list is your Star Pass Quest board.

Tasks tab open in ASTD showing quest progress bars and Claim buttons — The Tasks menu tracks quest progress and turns each finished objective into a Claim button. Image: Top Down Games

Work through the objectives. They tend to be specific and repeatable, such as EVOLVE OKRA, EVOLVE POLICE GIRL, and EVOLVE SAMURAI, or clearing Wave 60 in Infinite mode on Extreme.

Fastest ways to earn Star Pass tier XP

Difficulty is the multiplier that matters. Extreme runs award roughly triple the EXP of lower settings, so a short Extreme clear beats a long normal-difficulty one almost every time.

Method	Rough payout and notes
Star Pass Quests	The largest single chunks. The Wave 60 Infinite quest on Extreme is worth about 1.5 to 2 tiers on its own.
Story Mode on Extreme	About half a tier per run. Pick the fastest stage you can clear, such as Namuk World Extreme or Beginner Saga stage 4, and repeat it.
Infinite Mode on Extreme	Strong per-run value, but you need real wave progress. Deliberately losing on Wave 1 registers no tier progress at all.
Purchase +10 Tiers	499 Robux. Only worth considering late in a season when there is not enough time left to farm the remaining tiers.

Speed comes from your loadout, not from picking a harder map. One overtuned unit that solo-clears a short stage is the whole strategy. Jenos (Overdrive) handles World 1 stages, while Springy or Bobblehead paired with the Prey Eye Orb covers World 2. Place the unit on a strong spot, upgrade it twice, and let the waves feed themselves into it at 3x game speed.

Banner unit selection screen in ASTD with the roster and Confirm Selection button — Lock in your speedrun unit on the unit selection screen before confirming. Image: Top Down Games

PC players sometimes automate the loop with third-party macro recorders such as TinyTask or GS Auto Clicker, replaying the same place-upgrade-replay clicks on an easy Extreme stage. These are outside programs rather than game features. On mobile and console, the practical equivalent is simply clearing the daily Star Pass Quests every single day, which is enough to reach the top tiers over a full season.

When to claim Star Pass Quest rewards

Claiming is optional timing, not a deadline you must hit immediately. Star Pass Quest rewards include account EXP, and account levels get progressively more expensive. If you are under level 50, leaving finished quests unclaimed and cashing them in later converts the same rewards into far more meaningful progress.

That matters more than it used to, because low-level Story Mode stages no longer award account level XP at all, even on Extreme. Early stages still feed the Star Pass tier bar, but they will not move your account level, so quest rewards become the reliable source.

Why your Star Pass is not leveling up

If the tier bar refuses to move, the cause is almost always one of a short list of things.

The Star Pass unit is in your inventory but still locked, so only the free track is progressing.
You are losing Infinite runs too early. Dying on the opening waves registers no tier progress, so you need to reach a meaningful wave or finish the run.
You are farming on a lower difficulty. Extreme carries the EXP multiplier that makes short runs worthwhile.
You are checking the wrong menu. Star Pass Quests sit under the Event tab, not Daily Tasks.

Star Pass tier rewards laid out across the free and Ultra reward tracks — Tier rewards stack across both tracks, so the Ultra line pays out retroactively once unlocked. Image: Top Down Games

A season gives you plenty of runway, which is why the 499 Robux tier bundle rarely makes sense early on. Unlock the Ultra track once, set a short Extreme stage as your default farm, clear the Event quests daily, and Tier 100 arrives without any spending at all.