A* (pronounced 'A-star') is the gold standard pathfinding algorithm in games. It finds the shortest path between two points on a graph by combining the actual cost of the path so far with a heuristic estimate of the remaining distance. It is smarter than Dijkstra's algorithm because the heuristic lets it explore promising directions first instead of blindly checking every possibility. Most games use A* on top of a navigation mesh (navmesh) -- a simplified walkable surface that tells the algorithm where NPCs can and cannot go. Variations like Hierarchical A* and Jump Point Search optimize it for large maps.