1) Although I cannot prove this, here is my theory for how stars are earned:

a) You always get at least one star.

a) Get an additional star for finding all the coins in a level (including those dropped by popped bubbles and enemies).

b) Get an additional star for finding all the "friends" in a level and either delivering them to one of the houses or the ending whirlpool. If you shield yourself around an enemy, it may run from you, which may inadvertently cause it to be eaten by another enemy. This could impact the number of friends you can collect so try not to shield yourself around enemies especially when they are grouped.

c) Get an additional star for destroying all the enemies in a level (including bubbles and red bone fish). Electric eels and jellyfish cannot be killed.

If you keep getting only 2 out of 4 stars, this usually means you missed an enemy because that would count against you in both missing all the friends and missing all the enemies.

You can get 4 stars on the Darter race level just by beating him.

2) Neither speed, nor death, nor total points, nor power-up fruit can separate you from the love of God - uh - I mean from your stars, so don't worry about that.

3) The game will actually tell you where friends, coins, and enemies are. Friends will glow blue on the border. Darter will help you locate coins by making the border glow yellow, and Scout will make enemies grow red on the border. Upgrade them to their fullest for maximum effect and then go back and do the levels you are having trouble with.

4) Darter is so indisputably the best chum for anything but heavy combat that it's a bit sad. His coin-collection ability is incredibly useful for trying to get four stars.

5) Sometimes certain actions trigger enemies to appear. Make sure to discover all of these to get all 4 stars.

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