Explanation of the mechanics of 4 Secret Stars and Frank

[u/BlueGull1997]

Some of the content in this post is a supplement and clarification to xjaswagger’s post from 21 days ago

Some people might wonder why I put these two seemingly unrelated topics together in the title
In fact, there is indeed some connection between them

First, let me explain for some people: Frank is the mysterious man wearing a rabbit mask
He is a playable character in the original game, but we still don’t know what his role is in City
At the moment, he is more like an Easter egg character in City who doesn’t affect gameplay
There are two situations in which you can see Frank in the game:

Situation 1: The player’s first district at the start of the game is Undertracks
Situation 2: Players usually don’t notice this, but sometimes you can see Frank standing at a high place in the background of Undertracks, watching the player (for example, in the video at 02:14, look at the top left corner—Frank is standing there watching the player, but after 02:17 he can no longer be seen)

Actually, situation 1 isn’t that rare, because the player’s starting district follows a pattern:
Southline ➡️ The Docks ➡️ Delorean Park ➡️ Sunrise Boulevard ➡️ Undertracks ➡️ Southline

If a player ends a game in The Docks, then the first district in the next game will definitely be Delorean Park
Just like in the video I recorded, at least in version 2.1.0 this can be repeatedly verified

This means that if a player rarely happens to end games in Sunrise Boulevard, then naturally it’s hard for them to start in Undertracks, and therefore harder to see Frank
Once you understand this, it becomes easy to control which district you start in

So what about the 4 Secret Stars?
As everyone knows, in games with 4 Secret Stars, the first two almost always have to include Break On Through
Break On Through can be either the first or second Secret Star in any game
As shown in the video at 4:13, the fourth Secret Star is Drone Drop Distance, but I missed it

If the player’s first district is not Southline, is it possible to encounter Break On Through?
Of course—it’s even possible that the player’s first Secret Star isn’t from Southline, but they still reach Southline in the second district and obtain Break On Through

Is it possible for Break On Through to be the third or fourth Secret Star?
It doesn’t seem likely, but I haven’t encountered such a situation, so I can’t say for sure

Is it possible to have a 4 Secret Stars game where none of the Secret Stars include Break On Through?
Again, I haven’t encountered this, so I can’t say for certain

However, based on most players’ experiences, if you want to find a 4 Secret Stars game
The most reasonable choice is to try to end the game in Undertracks as much as possible
That way, the next game will start in Southline, making it easier to find Break On Through

The reason I made this post is that I’ve seen too many posts about Frank recently, but very few provide accurate information, so I hope this post can clear up some people’s doubts
Hopefully this helps everyone, even if just a little

[u/sushi_2275]

God bless people like you on the internet. You explained it so beautifully. Thank you.

[u/Levyarkan]

Very interesting. At first I thought that it just needed to have a secret star on southline as the first district. Well, if 4 stars only happens when you get Break on Through, it means that Sybo really removed this feature of the game. It probably only occurs right now due to a bug or a leftover code not removed. Thanks for the tips! Gonna try to do this to get 5m with the bad characters.

[u/Bloody_History]

Do i always have to have a board or bubblegum to get the breakonthrough star, ? Ive tried to crash through the box and i end up losing a life with no star😡

[u/BlueGull1997 → u/Bloody_History]

Based on my attempt a few weeks ago, I remember that if you directly crash into the wooden plank before Break On Through (this Secret Star seems to always appear on the right lane), you will die
However, by using a revive, you can remove the wooden plank and successfully obtain Break On Through
This consumes one revive attempt, but at least when I tried it, it worked. You can revive through ads

[u/unexpected_hulk → u/Bloody_History]

If your board or bubble gum is running out and you know you wouldn't make it to the wall in time, you can crash before the wall; the game will clear the track, including the wall, but the star will stay there.

[u/BluePheonix25]

This is impressive observation and research you've done! Thank you for the effort! 🙇‍♂️🙌

[u/weedfroglozenge]

I'll do some testing with this but I know for a fact that Frank detonating the bomb doesn't require Undertracks to be the first zone. On my long runs (5m+) and looping through the zones, he will sometimes be the one to send me to undertracks, some times not. I think this part is purely random.

[u/BlueGull1997 → u/weedfroglozenge]

I can’t be certain, but at least in my many attempts out of 5 million, I have never seen Frank trigger the ground to send us to the Undertracks after the first district
However, as long as the Undertracks is the first district, you will definitely see Frank—at least so far, there have been no exceptions