8 beginner’s tips to know before starting Blue Prince

Pencil rube? No… Runic bleep? No… it must be Blue Prince, the genre-defying puzzler with twists and turns winding through an entire mansion.

Anagrams are just one of the dozens of puzzles you’ll have to worry about as you try to find Room 46 and collect your inheritance in Blue Prince. You might be thinking that it was easier than you thought, but that is just the tip of the Mt. Holly iceberg. You’ll need to balance the randomness of the rooms, the roguelike elements of each day, and the puzzles hidden in between.

Things surely get complicated in Blue Prince and you’ll definitely reach an impassable wall, but there are a few ways to make your days easier. Below, we’ve listed eight beginner’s tips for Blue Prince.

Prioritize new rooms

There’s a set number of in the Mount Holly estate at one time — 46 to be specific — but there are more than 46 rooms you can draft overall. It’s easy to pick the best room available to climb the ranks of the house in hopes of reaching Room 46 and claiming your inheritance, but every room has something to offer. If you’re stuck on progression, draft a new room as they’ll always provide you with something you’re seeing for the first time.

Save your keys and gems for later ranks

More often than not, you’ll find yourself in the higher ranks with no keys or gems, and you can’t open a door or draft a room because you used them all in the earlier ranks. In the higher ranks, doors are more likely to be locked, which might force you to take a few less-than-optimal turns or end your day outright. Additionally, there will be moments when your drawn rooms don’t go in your favor. You’ll receive basic options that don’t have enough doors or turn in the wrong direction, but the rooms that cost gems will have everything you need. Hold onto your gems for a rainy day — or wrong turn.

Take notes

To fully remember every bit of information you’ve seen in Blue Prince all but requires perfect photographic and spatial memory. Save yourself some time and take notes of every bit of information and where you found it. You never know when it might come in handy, and you won’t enjoy trying to backtrack to a specific room in the estate.

Dead ends are your friends

It is safe to say that too many dead ends will force you to call it a day, but they’re valuable in their own way. Once a room is drafted, it can no longer be drawn when you open a door. If you ever find yourself drafting a room in a position that has no connecting doors, it’s the perfect place to put a dead end and prevent it from ending your run in the higher ranks.

Stuck on a puzzle? Come back later!

Beyond the puzzles you can solve in isolation of a single room, many puzzles in Blue Prince, like the darts puzzle or breaker box, have a variety of hints that are scattered around the estate. You can solve them off of sheer will power and mental fortitude, but sometimes you just haven’t found the hint you need. There will be symbols you haven’t seen and words you don’t understand, but the house will have all the answers you need.

Fill out the ranks

Just like a real building, no house can last without a strong foundation. Rather than building straight up to Room 46, fill out the first rank and work your way up to gather as many resources as you can and set up as many paths as possible to the top. Also, save yourself some steps and proceed through the house horizontally rather than vertically.

Drafting will get easier

Room with a dead end, room with no connecting doors, and room with no resources — could your drawn rooms get any unluckier?! Honestly, yes, but things do get easier the more you play! The Mount Holly estate is ever-changing, but there are a a plentiful amount of permanent changes and additions. You can upgrade your rooms, add more rooms to your drawing pool, and start your day with more resources.

Be paranoid

46 rooms in the estate and hints can be fairly difficult to find, but sometimes, you just have to bring out your inner Conspiracy Charlie to progress. Start to question everything you see, and I mean everything. From the colors to the symbols to the words, there are so many intentional details that are staring at you — watching you walk through the entire estate — but you aren’t looking back. Why did the architects and designers of these rooms decide to put these items in this room or use these colors?

Almost everything is more than what it seems to be! Stylistic choices had to be made, just like this guide’s initial tip number nine.

For more Blue Prince guides, check out our full walkthrough on how to reach Room 46, learn how to solve the breaker box and darts puzzles, read how to open the Garage door, Orchard Gate, and West Gate, and see where to find all sheet music pages and Antechamber levers.