Tips for playing Blue Prince
I just love Blue Prince. You can read my review to find out why, but I just can’t pull myself away from it. It’s such a unique, clever idea, and it’s the sort of thing that can keep you engaged for hours on end — even if you are essentially doing the same thing again and again. When you do discover something, it’s such a good feeling.
But how do you discover something? What’s the best way to play Blue Prince? In this guide, I provide you with some helpful tips for playing Blue Prince, without spoiling anything. You’ll find other guides to help you solve the game, but here, I’m simply providing you pointers in the right direction. This is a game best played by discovering everything yourself, going in knowing as little as possible.
Give these tips a read first, and if you need more help, then delve into more of our Blue Prince guides.
1. Early on, focus on seeing as many different rooms as you can
Some rooms are exactly what they say, while others hold key secrets. It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with as many rooms as possible just to see what they are. It’ll give you a better idea of what rooms you need later on.
Read more: Blue Prince room guide
2. Try to fill each rank/row of the blueprint before moving on
Don’t be too eager to keep building north. Try to fill in as much of the east and west of each rank of the blueprint before you move forward.
3. Don’t be afraid of dead ends in the early ranks
Dead ends can be a pain, but try to use them strategically, especially in the early ranks. Remember, each room can only be placed in your house once, so using up all the dead ends early on will mean you’re more likely to get rooms with multiple doors later on, when you need them most.
4. Explore, explore, explore
Not everything in every room can be interacted with, but some rooms have some interactive elements, and many of them will have useful items littered around. Read every letter, hunt for keys, gems and coins, and make sure you’ve pored over every corner before you move on to the next room.
5. Use a notebook
Blue Prince is a game you’re going to need a notebook for, so of all the tips I can give you, the most important one is use a notebook! Jot down everything that might be useful: rooms that have locked doors, potential puzzles, rooms that you need to try and unlock, rooms with locked boxes in you haven’t opened yet. It makes a huge difference to have a written record of your playthrough.
6. Try and get the garage and the utility closet as quickly as possible
Okay, this is a slight spoiler, but I think it’s worth mentioning. You can only unlock the garage in the west wing of the house, but it’s a very useful room. If you have the utility closet, with the breaker box, as well, you can send power to the garage, which will allow you to unlock the garage door. Walking outside the garage door into the house’s grounds will allow you to discover the outer room, and permanently unlock a gate near the front of the house. The outer room is very useful, and having instant access on every run can make all the difference.
7. Always solve the puzzles in the Parlor and Billiard Room
Both the Parlor and Billiard Room have puzzles in them. They get trickier as you progress through the house, but they’re absolutely worth trying to solve. The Parlor puzzle grants you gems, while the Billiard Room puzzle grants you keys — both very useful resources when playing Blue Prince.
8. Stockpile as many gems and keys as possible
Every time there’s an opportunity to get gems and keys, take it. Try to avoid using them too much early on, as they’ll be much more valuable as you climb the ranks of the house. Besides, the higher up you get, the more locked doors you’ll come across.
9. Electronic doors can be your friend
There are two ways to open electronic doors, which start appearing after the first few ranks. As you might suspect, you can find a keycard that allows you to open them. Another way involves the utility closet and the security room. If you are able to get through them, pay a visit to the security room and increase the security rank to ‘high’: This will make more security doors appear, which in turn means you need less keys to get around later on.
Read more: How to open electronic security doors in Blue Prince
10. Items can be the key to solving Blue Prince’s puzzles
Items are a wonderful resource in Blue Prince. Not all of them will be game-changing, but many of them are useful: a Coupon Book can make everything cheaper in shops, for example. But certain tools, like the magnifying glass and the sledgehammer, can help you find key secrets and bits of information. I recommend getting as many items as you can every time you play.
