Finding the anomaly star in MirrorMoon EP

This guide assumes you have finished side A and are familiar with navigating to different stars.

How to work with constellations is the main technique offered by this guide but it is also a more of a spoiler than the other information within. Don't read this guide if you want to solve this yourself. That said everything that does spoil revelation moments is in spoiler text.

It is possible to solve logically but also to find it by luck, educated trial and error or piggybacking someone naming the star something helpful like 'anomly'.

Cockpit Hints

Working out how to get the cockpit to do what you want is half the fun of exploring Mirrormoon. If you can work out the points below these can make navigation easier; the last two are vital in helping identify the anomaly star accurately:

• Stars you've seen (highlighted with main light on and starmap light on)
  
• The path you've travelled (highlighted with main light on and starmap light off)
  
• Time of travel (highlighted with main light on and coordinates light off)
  
• % of season explored (highlighted with main light on and track-side light off)
  
• Fuel to be consumed, (bar moving up and down fuel bar, adjusted by the 3 point rotating fuel consumption dial)
  
• Speed of travel (in parsecs/sec above the fuel consumption dial; more fuel = faster travel. Fuel will replenish with time but you also gain some for each completion orb touched so you can use some simple puzzle stars to refuel quickly, saving time for long journeys)
  
• Coordinates in space
  
• Refresh name of a star (Yes it is that button on its own in bottom right. It seems mainly useful if other people are exploring lots and you want to see if a name has changed since you first started looking at it - If you have any other idea what else this might do let me know)
  
• Rotate cockpit in space
  
• Move target of the starmap

What is that single star circled in the sky?

Finding a single star circled in the sky when exploring the surface of a star does not seem to be the anomaly star but it may be a nearby observatory star (I haven't been able to confirm this however)

• Locating this circled star with this information alone can be very difficult but not impossible, without first finding an observatory star (which has a star artefact on it that needs to be activated).
  
  
• On the surface of a star with a single circled star in the sky there will be a structure (a pillar with two tiny stars spinning at the tip) that is I presume circling the star for you. If you see one of these you should be able to find a circled star in the sky.

Finding an observatory

Locating an observatory star (one with a star artefact) is often luck initially. Some tips:

• Other players often name them 'observ' or 'artifk' or similar. Use this in a mature season (i.e. higher percentage complete) to get you started.
  
  
• Complete all the puzzles on a star. As stars can be finished without activating an artefact, some already named stars may still have an inactive observatory on them.
  
  
• Search systematically all the stars in one area, there are several observatories so you should find one sooner or later.
  
  
• Once a star artefact is activated, an observatory star should show the constellations as soon as you go to the surface.

Using constellations

Once an observatory is activated, study well the surrounding constellations and named stars that are near the circled star (use a screenshot or a fairly detailed sketch).

The circled star is the anomaly. You should have enough information from the previous sections to start working out where it is. Below is my method of identifying the anomaly accurately. Please note, working out the below is one of the best puzzle aspects of the game, only go here to compare notes or if you really cant take it any more.

Hover mouse here for spoiler technique

• This constellation information will directly translate to the starfield visible outside of the cockpit (use R mouse button to free look) when parked at the star with the respective observatory.
  
  
• Activating the switch underneath the starmap (availible once one active observatory star is found) can allow any star selected on the starmap to be circled on the starfield outside of the cockpit.
  
  
• Due to the way navigating the starmap works (3D movement of each star based on distance), stars highlighted on the starmap will be near to but not in the same position necessarily as the starfield relative to each other (unless two stars are very close together). To further disorientate the player, starmap positions of stars will move and distort with any cockpit rotation. The starfield is only altered when the ship travels in space so do don't travel until you are ready.
  
  
• Use the named stars in the constellations to help identify the constellation locations in the starfield (by hunting down highlighting the named stars via the starmap). This allows you to identify the constellations in the starfield.
  
  
• Once the constellation with the circled star is identified in the starfield, search around the starmap until you highlight the anomaly star in the starfield.
  
  
• If you don't see a highlighted star it is most likely behind your cockpit view - rotate the cockpit!

Still can't find the anomaly?

You probably picked the wrong star when reading the constellation with the method above. You could try a getting a selection of likely candidates that seem to fit (whilst parked at your observatory star) then visit each.

Alternative Methods

• If you find several observatories you could try to triangulate (in 3D) a search area for the anomaly using the named stars. (This should be possible although I haven't tried. It may be more effective than pure trial and error).
  
  
• Helpful players may have named the anomaly star 'anomly' or similar.
  
  
• Just enjoy the experience and keep exploring! You'll find it eventually as you know all the stars you have visited.
  
  
• You will know when you find the anomaly planet. You'll be greeted by a white screen with text.

Questions that don't fit elsewhere

1. I can't look with the mouse!
The controls only allow mouse freelook for the starfield (hold right mouse button in cockpit). Only WASD is used for movement on the surface of stars, with the mouse only rotating the moon if you find the triangle key. This is intended!

2. This game isn't co-op!
Although the experience is very much of a solo puzzle exploration, if you play online it's part MMO and generally a cooperative one. Clues between players are on discussion threads, on forums or simply via the star names. Seeing a season populated is quite an experience as each player explores further.

If you want a truly 'co-op' adventure with a friend only, you can start a private game and share the password (this also counts as the seed). You can have 'open comms' as you share exploring the same stars, racing to finish it together or split up on different stars and speak to each other across space and time. You could even roleplay and only speak when back in your ship or anything you like really. Evil corporations trying to charter all known space?

3. What is a season?
A season is a seed world of stars that all new players that season will share when online. A new season starts when the current season reaches 50%, but you don't transfer to a new season once a game has already been started under 50%. Reaching 100% for a season just means all the stars have been named, not that every one found the anomaly. You have to start a new game to start a new season, you can play old seasons as fresh seeds or in their current state through the other new game options. Private seeds are limited to 10 seasons but putting a password is also acts as a unique seed.

4. Side A says 95% why?
This is completion of the 'story'. Once you complete the anomaly star this will go to 100%. If you decide to do Side A again (say for achievements) you will need to complete the anomaly again to bring it back to 100%

5. Are there other mysteries?
I'm sure there are. There are easter eggs from other indie exploration games in the form of statues on stars, I can't see a collection of these documented anywhere. There is also supposed to be some overarching mysteries that cross seasons that I have no idea about. There is reportedly something of importance related to the star colours as well. Let me know if you have any answers to these!


6. What are the other two buttons on the lower left of the star map
The left one focuses on targeted star (travelling to) or last visited star if no destination set
The right one focuses on the ship.
This is rarely useful unless you are stopping mid travel to check some stars out relative to each other and get lost on the map.

7. It's artifact not artefact.
I know, it was something that came up writing this guide. As I understand there as some movement for British English to use the latter and as my spell checkers couldn't agree so I picked one. Apologies if it offends.

8. Why did you spend time writing this guide?
I really enjoyed the game but could not find much accurate or comprehensive information about solving it (you find very much my own method here). There were also enough small things I picked up trawling discussion threads and half done wiki's to merit sharing them with others that hadn't been said or collated clearly before. It was also small enough to write in a reasonable amount of time. I did think twice about making it, as the game is so good working it out on your own, but some hopeful words of encouragement goes a long way. Nothing I've written outside of spoiler boxes should affect you having the same experience. If you see anything inaccurate or simply wrong, or need advice about anything in this guide do leave me a comment.

Thanks for reading!

Solar

[Solar]

Hmm that is interesting!

[RiverNoodl]

Thank you, Solar! It took a few tries matching up the stars on the planet with the observatory. Turns out there's another thing I noticed - on the planet, all the stars are pretty thick dots, but on the ship navigation cockpit, only the stars that you can go to are thick dots - all the others become very thin, making a very annoying illusion that the stars are different!

[Solar]

Well done for navigating to it without the constellations RiverNoodl and thanks for checking in on my lonesome and only steam guide!

[RiverNoodl]

So I found the circled star in the sky without constellations, went to that exact star and lo and behold, it's the anomaly!! I am pretty sure the circled star, observatory or no, is the anomaly itself - the observatory just makes it easier to spot!

[Solar]

Hi Hybrid Being, You don't need to find the pillar with the orbs, afaik its just a clue to look for a circled star in the sky when on a star that without constellations active. In that situation the circled star is probably an observatory star. If you find a circled star, try to head to that direction of spae and search that area to find an observatory star (completing all puzzles on several stars in that area until you do). Really you can ignore the circled star until you activate an observatory star which can also be found by just exploring a number of stars. The coloured sticks are and other odd structures like the mountain, also shown above, are nods to indi games also developed/published around the same time as mirror moon, they don't do anything except add scenery unless someone knows otherwise.

[[HYBRID BEING]]

So, i located a planet with a circled star, but i can't seem to find a pillar with orbs and don't see any constellations. The only buildings i found are one with "mark placer" (one that places mark in front of you) and goal sphere. Also colored sticks (like in the last screenshot) that don't seem to react to touch or marks. There is no moon whatsoever. Is there supposed to be a puzzle to reveal the pillar?

[Solar]

You're welcome Jigsawn!

[Jigsawn]

Thanks for this very handy tips page, still relevant years after you wrote it!

[Solar]

No problem from me. This is a game of small steps and building on those to solve the navigation puzzle. My guide is my journey with that. Been some time for sure since I played it. I do remember trying to match constellations to the star map as tricky, not no where near impossible.

[Ketzerfreund]

Sorry for the ranty tone, I'm already uninstalling. For what little this game offers outside of pretty vistas (which get old quickly to me once I'm actually trying to progress), it devours far too much time.