After spending countless hours navigating the ever-shifting corridors of Mt. Holly Estate, I finally understand why Blue Prince earned Eurogamer’s Game of the Year for 2025. This isn’t just another puzzle game — it’s a roguelike mansion exploration experience where every door you open reshapes reality itself. If you’re feeling lost in the drafting mechanics, struggling with dead ends, or wondering how anyone reaches the mythical Room 46, you’re in the right place.

Table of Contents

Quick Answer

  • Goal: Reach the hidden Room 46 to claim your inheritance from Mt. Holly Estate
  • Key mechanic: Draft rooms by choosing from 3 random floor plans whenever you open a door
  • Main resource: Steps (you start with 50 per day — when depleted, you must restart)
  • Progression: Knowledge, permanent upgrades, and notes carry over between runs
  • Biggest beginner mistake: Wasting keys/gems early instead of saving for higher ranks

What Is Blue Prince?

Blue Prince puts you in the shoes of Simon P. Jones, who has inherited the mysterious Mt. Holly Estate from his deceased great uncle Herbert S. Sinclair. There’s one catch: to secure the inheritance, you must locate a hidden 46th room within a mansion that completely rearranges itself every night.

Developed over eight years by solo developer Tonda Ros and published by Raw Fury, Blue Prince blends roguelike progression with intricate puzzle-solving. The game was inspired by Christopher Manson’s legendary puzzle book Maze: Solve the World’s Most Challenging Puzzle and tabletop games featuring card drafting mechanics.

Each run takes you through a mansion represented as a 9×5 grid (45 possible room slots). Only two rooms stay fixed: the Entrance Hall where you start, and the Antechamber leading to Room 46 on the opposite side. Everything else? You build it yourself through drafting.

Core Mechanics Explained

The Drafting System

When you open a door, you’re presented with three random room options from your draft pool. You must choose one to place in that grid slot. Here’s what to know:

  • Room doors don’t always align — if your placed room’s doors don’t match existing rooms, those doors become sealed
  • Each room appears only once per run — once drafted, it can’t appear again that day
  • Higher ranks (rows) have harder puzzles but better rewards
  • Some rooms cost gems — these typically have more favorable layouts or better rewards

Steps and Resources

You begin each day with 50 steps. Moving into any room (or section of the outdoor area) costs one step. Once your steps hit zero, you’re forced to end the day and abandon all collected items.

Step recovery: Eat food items or enter bedrooms to replenish steps.
Keys: Unlock locked doors.
Gems: Purchase premium draft options.
Coins: Buy food and tools.

What Carries Over

Items don’t transfer between runs, but knowledge does. Puzzles you’ve partially solved remain in that state. Certain permanent upgrades grant you bonus starting resources. Most importantly, your notes and understanding of the mansion’s secrets persist.

Drafting Strategy for Beginners

Plan Before You Open Doors

Don’t rush into opening doors. Start each run by opening all three doors from the Entrance Hall and examining your draft options. This lets you plan your entire run based on what rooms you draw.

Press R2/RT to bring up the Blueprint Map on the side of your screen. Use it to visualize which direction you need to go and plan your room placements accordingly.

Draft Bad Rooms Early

This is counterintuitive but essential: place dead-end rooms early in your run, even if it’s not convenient. Why? Once drafted, a room can’t appear again. If you draft dead ends into low-stakes positions early, they won’t block your path when you’re deep in the mansion with limited options.

Placing a few dead ends along one path early lets you grab extra supplies while ensuring your main route stays open.

Prioritize Unknown Rooms

If you’re stuck and can’t progress further, draft a room you haven’t seen before. New rooms always provide something you haven’t encountered — be it a puzzle clue, a permanent upgrade opportunity, or a new mechanic to learn. Items from stuck runs won’t help you anyway, but knowledge persists forever.

Save Keys and Gems for Higher Ranks

Higher ranks of the mansion have more locked doors and challenging draft options. Burning through keys and gems in the first few rows will leave you stranded when you need them most. When presented with a mediocre draft in lower ranks, take the hit and save your resources.

Step Management Tips

Step management separates successful runs from failed ones. Every room entered costs one step — even backtracking through rooms you’ve already visited.

Use Stroll Mode

Hold L2/LT to move faster (called “Stroll”). You can also tap it once to toggle faster movement permanently until you tap again. This doesn’t save steps, but it saves your real-world time during the many trips back and forth.

Move Horizontally Before Vertically

Fill out the first rank (row) before building upward. This creates multiple path options and gathers more resources before you commit to your route through higher ranks. Think of it like building a strong foundation.

Plan Backtracking Carefully

Sometimes you need to backtrack — to interact with something in a previous room or because you hit a dead end. Before you do, plan your route. Don’t wander aimlessly. Know exactly where you’re going and why.

Example: The Garage can only be opened by interacting with the breaker box in the Utility Closet. Know this before burning steps on random exploration.

Most Important Rooms to Find

Security Room

The Security Room is one of the most valuable early discoveries. Its terminal lets you adjust how frequently keycard doors appear throughout the mansion.

  • No keycard? Set security to LOW to reduce keycard doors
  • Found a keycard? Set security to HIGH — you’ll breeze through doors others can’t

The terminal also shows an estate inventory — revealing if you’ve missed items like the shovel, running shoes, or fruit that aren’t marked on floor plans. You won’t know which room holds them, but you’ll know to keep looking.

Bedrooms

Bedrooms restore steps. Knowing where bedrooms appear in your drafted layout lets you plan longer runs by strategically recovering mid-exploration.

Hallways Marked “Always Unlocked”

Some hallway rooms specify they’re always unlocked. When you absolutely must progress forward and can’t risk a locked door blocking you, these are your safest bet.

Puzzle Approach

Take Physical Notes

This cannot be overstated: take notes. Blue Prince doesn’t have an in-game journal for puzzle clues. Grab a notebook or use your phone to record everything suspicious — safe codes, painting pairs, symbols, color patterns, anything that seems deliberate.

Information scattered across multiple rooms often connects. A clue found in the Billiard Room might solve a puzzle in the Study. Without notes, you’ll forget details between runs.

Stuck? Come Back Later

Some puzzles require hints you haven’t found yet. If you’re stuck on something, don’t brute-force it — you probably haven’t discovered all the clues. The mansion will reveal answers in time. Note what you know, move on, and return when you have more information.

Question Everything

Colors, symbols, placement of objects, even seemingly decorative choices — almost nothing in Blue Prince is accidental. Develop your inner Conspiracy Charlie. Why did the designers put these specific items in this room? Why these colors? Trust that everything has meaning.

Permanent Upgrades That Help

As you play, you’ll unlock permanent upgrades that make future runs easier:

  • Extra starting steps — More exploration before running dry
  • Starting gems/coins — Flexibility from the first door
  • New rooms added to draft pool — More options and puzzle opportunities
  • Upgraded room versions — Better rewards from familiar rooms

Don’t feel like you’re failing if early runs don’t reach Room 46. Each run teaches you something and often unlocks advantages for the next attempt.

Pro Tips

  • Check outside the mansion — The grounds surrounding Mt. Holly contain clues and items that aren’t in the main building
  • Room descriptions show contents — Before drafting, check what items (keys, gems, coins, tools) are marked on each floor plan
  • Dead ends at dead ends — If a grid position only has one adjacent opening, it’s the perfect spot to place a dead-end room
  • Finish your run before closing — Save and exit ends your current day. Complete your run first, then save from the summary screen
  • Running shoes exist — Find them to move faster, saving real-world time on long runs
  • The Antechamber has levers — Finding all lever locations across the mansion is key to reaching Room 46
  • Console rest mode preserves runs — If you need a break mid-run, rest mode keeps your progress (but updates may reset it)

FAQ

How long does it take to reach Room 46?

Most players reach Room 46 after 10-20 hours, but the game continues with additional mysteries and challenges beyond that initial goal. Some players report 50+ hours for full completion.

Is Blue Prince available on Game Pass?

Yes, Blue Prince launched on Xbox Game Pass alongside its release on PS5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on April 10, 2025. A macOS version followed in September 2025.

Can I softlock myself?

Not permanently. If you run out of steps or get completely blocked by dead ends, the day simply ends. You lose collected items but wake up the next day with a fresh mansion layout and can try again.

Should I look up puzzle solutions?

The joy of Blue Prince comes from discovery. Looking up solutions works against the design. If you’re stuck, take notes on what you know, explore more rooms, and trust the game will provide the missing pieces. Only use guides as a last resort.

What happens after reaching Room 46?

Reaching Room 46 is just the beginning. The game unlocks challenges, trophies to collect, and deeper mysteries about the estate’s history, including the story of children’s author Marion Marigold and the secrets of Castle Orindia.

Summary

Blue Prince rewards patience, observation, and strategic thinking. Plan your drafting before opening doors, save resources for higher ranks, take physical notes on everything suspicious, and embrace “failed” runs as learning opportunities. The mansion will reveal its secrets in time — your job is to be ready when it does.

Most importantly, resist the urge to spoil the experience by looking up solutions. Blue Prince is a rare puzzle game where the journey genuinely matters more than the destination. Trust the process, explore methodically, and enjoy unraveling the mysteries of Mt. Holly Estate.