Dogubomb’s Blue Prince is a unique strategy puzzle adventure game that uses RNG (Random Number Generator) mechanics to create a gameplay loop unlike any other. We play as the heir of Mr. Holly, a mysterious manor with interchanging rooms. As the heir, we are tasked with locating Room 46 by drafting new rooms from our blueprints, which reset at the end of each day. We start Blue Prince in the entrance hall which has three doors leading straight ahead, left and right. Clicking on a door draws up three room plans that we must choose to draft from. Once the plans are brought up, we cannot exit this menu – so you are stuck with the rooms that have been drawn.
How do we reach Room 46 and what’s inside? Well, we can help with some starting tips with the first question to help you feel better prepared when starting this complex journey.
1. Use your resources wisely
In Blue Prince we have four main resources to keep an eye on: keys, gems, steps and coins. Keys are used to unlock locked doors, which are more frequent the further North you travel. Gems can be used to purchase special rooms and coins are used to purchase items from stores. You also have a limited number of footsteps per day, which get used up as you travel between rooms.
As you may have gathered, these resources are vital for getting to Room 46, as to do so you need to reach the antechamber at the far North of the map. If you run out of keys, you won’t be able to unlock any doors to progress towards the antechamber and you will likely have to call it a day if you can’t find any more. If you run out of gems, then you won’t be able to purchase special rooms, which could be quite punishing if you happen to draw a rare room that you haven’t drafted before and now you can’t afford it, or you need to move in a certain direction and the only room that isn’t a dead end happens to be one with a gem cost. If you run into a complete dead end with no way to draft more rooms then you’ll, again, need to call it a day. While coins aren’t essential for reaching the antechamber, they will give you access to tools and other resources that may well do. Running out of footsteps means that you’ll automatically call it a day, so plan your journey wisely.
2. The main tools and what they do
Tools are vital for not only making manoeuvring around the mansion easier, but also for taking the pressure off your resources by offering alternative ways to open doors and chests. Here’s a summary of the main tools and what their uses are:
- Shovel – Used for digging up dirt mounds found around the mansion, this gives you more vital resources such as keys, coins, gems and food for extra steps
- Sledge hammer – Used for hitting the locks off chests which offer up more resources without having to use a key
- Metal detector – Used for detecting metal objects around the manor, particularly keys and coins which may be hidden in the rooms, thus increasing your chances of picking these up
- Amateur lock picking set – Used for unlocking some locked doors without having to use a key
- Magnifying glass – Does what it says on the tin, which is essential for solving certain puzzles
- Running shoes – Help to reduce the number of footsteps used when moving between rooms
- Coin purse – Adds interest onto collected coins so that you save more
- Watering can – When sprinkled in a green room, you receive a gem
- Sleeping mask – Entering bedrooms adds extra steps
- Salt shaker – Adds extra steps when consuming food
- Data disc – When inserted into any computer, this allows you to permanently upgrade a randomly selected room which is extremley valuable in allowing you to collect more resources as you progress in the game and later game items become more expensive
- Compass – With this item, rooms pointing North will more commonly appear in your drawn floor plans
3. Key rooms to look out for
Certain rooms will become a staple for most days in Blue Prince. Below, I’ve compiled a list of the most notable ones to keep an eye out for in the early game:
- The observatory – Every time you draft this room, you gain a star, and the more star systems you discover the more perks you get, so adding this is a must for progressively building on how many perks you receive from this room – which also helps you grow as you move through the game and late game items grow more expensive
- Commissary – While a lot of tools will spontaneously spawn in random rooms, it’s worth drafting the commissary to see what’s available to buy rather than leaving it to chance
- Swimming pool – Drafting this room gives you access to draft specific rooms
- Office – Using the terminal in this room distributes a large amount of coins across the mansion
- The Vault – Similarily, you can get 40 coins just by drafting this room
- Locksmith – You can purchase keys in this room
- Cloakroom – This room is essential later on in the game when you may want to carry certain puzzle items over to the next day
- Kitchen – You can purchase food in this room for extra steps, this is worth drafting as a back up in case you do end up running out of steps as this forces you to end the day
- Secret passageway – This room lets you pick the colour of the room that you will draft next, which is really handy if you’re trying to draft a specific room as it increases your chances of having it as an option
4. A direct route is not the answer
Your first idea when starting Blue Prince may be to draft a straight line towards the antechamber. This is absolutely not the way to approach the game as locked doors become more common the further North you travel and you will also come across more floor plans that require gems – once you’ve opened up that drafting page you cannot exit it until you’ve selected a room! Because of this, your best chance of reaching the antechamber includes making use of all the room spaces available on the map to prepare yourself with resources for the journey. By travelling directly North you simply run the risk of not having enough resources to travel further and having to waste steps returning to draft further rooms.
5. Rooms can only be drafted once
Another problem with the direct line method is that, unless you have a certain perk applied, you can usually only draft a room once. This means that any rooms drafted early on may not appear as you travel North, it’s worth considering that you may want to save certain shaped rooms for when you get closer to the antechamber so you can lay these down to have a better path. You may also want to draft some pesky red rooms earlier on to ensure they don’t appear further North when you’re less likely to have an abundance of resources to spare when hit with their negative effects.
6. Always draft a new room
If you see a new room in your floor plans that you haven’t seen before, it’s definitely worth drafting even if it’s description doesn’t mention any perks that will be of use to you; this room very may well contain a clue for a puzzle or even a puzzle itself.
7. Explore every nook and cranny
As mentioned before, some resources are randomly scattered throughout each room. So if you think you’ve hit a dead end because you’ve ran out of keys, fear not! Take another look through the rooms to see if any are hidden anywhere. This is where the metal detector comes in handy because some of these will be really hard to spot. Another reason why exploration is a good idea is because it’s not just inside the mansion that you need to explore; there are things to discover on the mansion’s grounds too.
8. Take notes and screenshots
Blue Prince encourages thorough note-taking, but I also recommend taking screenshots as there’s no in-game journal of any sorts. Take screenshots or photos of every piece of literature or image that you see just in case you realise it’s relevant later on! The reason why this is so important is because some of these clues may have been found in rooms that will be hard to draft again, so to avoid wasting time trying to find that specific room, simply look back on your screenshots.
9. Do not fear starting over
One thing to remember about Blue Prince is that, not including rare permanent changes you can make, any progress you have made will be simply reset the following day and all your items will be lost. This will be the case no matter how far you’ve gotten. What will carry over is your knowledge of the clues and information you’ve gathered on that run, and so long as you have that then no day is a wasted one.
10. Put aside some time!
Without spoiling too much, Blue Prince is not just any indie puzzle game, most of which are usually no longer than ten hours long. This is a whopper, so put aside plenty of time to play it.
Do you have any burning questions before starting your Blue Prince journey? Let us know in the comments!
