Blue Prince: Beginner’s Guide

beginners guide, Blue Prince

If there is one thing that the player has in common with Simon P. Jones, the player character in Blue Prince, it is that both have no idea what awaits them in the mysterious Mt. Holly Estate. Thankfully for you, we here at GSC have pulled together a Blue Prince: Beginner’s Guide for players as they begin to explore the mind-bending manor.

We are going to cover some of the fundamentals of Blue Prince, and hopefully, this will put players in good standing to deal with the mental machinations of Mt. Holly.

Rooms

The puzzle that Simon P. Jones’ grandfather left him in his will is the goal of Blue Prince: to navigate your way through the maze-like conditions of Mt. Holly Estate and find the elusive 46th Room. To do this, the player approaches a door leading out of the Room they are currently in, and chooses from a selection of three Room blueprints, of which one is behind the door. This is referred to in Blue Prince as the Draw. Be warned, once you have interacted with a door, you cannot back out and must make your choice, so be sure you are ready to proceed.

You can see what Room blueprints you get to pick from, and can pull up the current layout of the manor by pressing the R2 button/right trigger, to help you plan accordingly. Any doors that are not linked to another Room’s door will be blocked and become a dead end.

Some Rooms have special effects or details, such as what they contain, what effect they will have on the player, or the way the current run may play out. These details can be seen on the Room blueprints and can be checked by highlighting the Room on the layout by pressing R2/right trigger. Some Rooms can be very useful, such as the Billiard Room and Parlour, which both contain a puzzle you can complete to earn more resources for your current run. Others, like Bedrooms, give you more Steps to prolong your run, but be careful, not all Rooms have positive effects!

Rank

The Rank denotes the rows of the Mt. Holly blueprint, which go from 1 to 8, with the elusive 9th lying just out of reach, hiding the legendary 46th Room.

Steps

We mentioned the Steps in the Room section, so let’s quickly go over what they are. Steps are Blue Prince’s most important currency, as they denote how many Rooms you can enter during a run. One Step is spent when entering any Room, unless a Room has an effect to change that, and you start each run with 50 Steps.

You’ll want to be careful where you step, because returning to a Room you have already entered will still take a Step away from you. While we recommend visiting new Rooms when starting out, you’ll want to start paying attention to your Steps later on when trying to backtrack to other areas of Mt. Holly.

You can increase your Steps by finding or buying Food during a run, and there are also certain Items and Rooms that will reward you with more, like the Sleeping Mask and the Bedrooms.

Keys

Keys, unsurprisingly, unlock normal doors.

Coins (Money)

You will find gold coins lying about in Rooms and inside trunks. You can use Money to purchase things like Food, Gems, and Items from certain Rooms, like the Kitchen and the Commissary.

Gems

Gems, in their many variations, are another currency in Blue Prince that you can find in Rooms, trunks, and as rewards for solving puzzles like the dart board in the Billiard Room. They are used to unlock certain Room blueprints when picking what lies beyond a door. You will see it under the blueprint with the number of Gems required to access the Room. These Rooms are often special, so try to get some Gems to access them.

Food

Food can be found in a couple of different Rooms, and is one of the only ways to add more Steps during a run. There are certain Rooms that are guaranteed to have some Food to munch on, like the Pantry, but two Rooms in particular can come in very handy. These are the Kitchen, where you can spend Money to buy food from a menu, and the Dining Room, which will offer you a hearty meal as soon as you have reached Rank 8 on the Mt. Holly blueprint.

Items

There have been plenty of mentions of Items throughout this Blue Prince Beginner’s Guide, so it’s about time we covered them!

There are a lot of different special Items to find during your runs in Mt. Holly, and they all have unique benefits. Here is a gallery of all the items we have found so far:

Compass – Draft more Rooms with north-facing doors.
Coin Purse – Earn an extra Coin for every 3 you pick up.
Metal Detector – Improved chance of finding Keys and Coins.
Coupon Book – Save 1 Coin during every purchase on the Estate.
Sleep Mask – Earn 5 Steps every time you enter a Bedroom for the first time.
Upgrade Disk – Permanently upgrade 1 Room blueprint.
Key Card – Open electronically-powered security doors.
Shovel – Dig up dirt to find resources.
Sledgehammer – Break locks on trunks.
Running Shoes – Chance to not lose a Step when entering a Room.
Magnifying Glass – Zoom in when reading documents.
Silver Key – Used to unlock a door leading to a Room with many doors.
Lock Pick Kit – Chance to unlock normal doors.

Finding Items should be a priority on any run, especially as some are used to remove obstructions like security doors. Certain Rooms will always contain an Item, like the Closet, but they are randomised every run, so don’t assume you’ll find the shovel in the Courtyard.

One Room to keep in mind is the Coat Check, as you can check in Items here to save them for subsequent runs. So, for example, if you have the Key Card but know you won’t get the chance to use it on your current run, and you have found the Coat Check, you can check it in. On your next run, find the Coat Check again, and you can then check out the Key Card in the hopes of using it on the new run.