My take on the RNG after 65+ hours and 10/16 trophies

[Naecabon]

I see a lot of people make posts complaining about the RNG in Blue Prince.

I read what they have to say, consider their arguments and realize that, most of the time, sadly, they simply do not understand what Blue Prince is or what it's trying to do.

The common complaint: RNG is too sharp, as the player you feel like you do not have much agency in "winning," too many things go wrong to prevent you from "the goal".

Why this complaint is a fallacy: The "Goal" you think you're chasing, isn't actually the goal at all.

RNG is mitigated in this game heavily by many many permanent upgrades. If you play it enough and solve enough secrets, you'll be starting every day with tons in your favor. I have 100+ coins to start every single day, for example. It's quite powerful. I have borderline infinite room rerolls if and when I want them. I can manipulate the map to give me the tile colors I want, when I want. At the point I am at now, I feel like a god of the estate. It's very rewarding to reach this point.

And even now, I still have so, so much to do.

The fallacy in thinking Blue Prince expects you to reach Room 46 is why so many people are struggling with understanding why the RNG is the way it is - if you knew just how many working pieces were operating around you, if you realized how many of the tiles you take for granted are part of a greater scheme in several multi-faceted meta puzzles, you'd understand that reaching Room 46 is just the first step of like a hundred. And instead of freaking out over the "RNG" of reaching Room 46, what you should INSTEAD be doing while playing Blue Prince is taking what the game gives you in each run and making the best of it - finding the secrets embedded in those tiles, and making effort to find permanent upgrades where able. Room 46 will happen naturally when it's ready to; there's honestly not much reason to rush it.

Endgame players barely care about 46, it's not even on the radar of importance for my last 30-40 hours of play. It's essentially the tutorial. You will be going down five different rabbit holes with ten open ended major puzzles each run and solving one will spawn two more - I don't even notice RNG any more because almost no matter what is going on around me, Im either making puzzle meta progress or actual permanent character progress one way or another.

It's sad, in that I think the heavy emphasis on reaching Room 46 has disillusioned new players in to thinking it is ultimately "the goal" and that anything hardlocking them out of reaching it in a run is "punishing RNG" that shouldn't exist. I realize you can't expect everyone to spend the time to reach a point where they truly understand what a gem of design this game really is, but I do urge anyone struggling with RNG blues to try and see a better perspective beyond just struggling with 46 as a finish line.

Reaching Room 46 is maybe 2% of the content in the game, genuinely.

[ricky1981]

95% agree with you and I absolutely love the game but there are definitely times when I felt like I was rolling RNG to get one of a handful of outcomes I needed to pursue a lead.

Some quality of life tweaks would go a long way, things like not having to re-enter safe codes for example.

Still my favorite game of recent times and I'm far from finished!

[Bees?]

i just wish pump room and boiler room were a little more common i keep wanting to do puzzles that involve those rooms but they are so rare.

[Naecabon]

Publicado originalmente por Bees?:

i just wish pump room and boiler room were a little more common i keep wanting to do puzzles that involve those rooms but they are so rare.

There is an item that you can acquire that makes this incredibly easy, keep digging!

[Naecabon]

Publicado originalmente por ricky1981:

95% agree with you and I absolutely love the game but there are definitely times when I felt like I was rolling RNG to get one of a handful of outcomes I needed to pursue a lead.

Some quality of life tweaks would go a long way, things like not having to re-enter safe codes for example.

Still my favorite game of recent times and I'm far from finished!

I use my star reserve for this. I keep it at around 70-90 at all times and just dump extras when I need a forced reroll.

[Dr. Dry]

I totally agree with this. Tunnel visioning on 46 misleads a lot of players. I also think people are just not as good at managing the map tiles as they think. By the time I had the mine, outer room, orchard and a few coins a day allowance (i think around day 15?) I was getting to 46 or at least able to if I wanted probably about 75% of the time. Filling out the bottom, maximizing resources and using up dead ends effectively early on etc. makes it decently likely that you're able to reach the end even with minimal permanent unlocks.

But when you don't understand the rules or strategy yet are are trying to brute force it to 46 right away it FEELS a lot more random than it is.

[Naecabon]

Publicado originalmente por Dr. Dry:

I totally agree with this. Tunnel visioning on 46 misleads a lot of players. I also think people are just not as good at managing the map tiles as they think. By the time I had the mine, outer room, orchard and a few coins a day allowance (i think around day 15?) I was getting to 46 or at least able to if I wanted probably about 75% of the time. Filling out the bottom, maximizing resources and using up dead ends effectively early on etc. makes it decently likely that you're able to reach the end even with minimal permanent unlocks.

But when you don't understand the rules or strategy yet are are trying to brute force it to 46 right away it FEELS a lot more random than it is.

I had moments of RNG-woes in maybe my first... three hours. When I had the epiphany of, oh wait - why do I care about reaching 46 SO MUCH when there's so many other micro goals around me? I should just be focusing on what the game gives me each run and making progress out of it every time - that I really started enjoying the game for what it actually is.

People mistakenly think the RNG is a detriment, a rougelite trying to punish you with "bad" runs without realizing what it ACTUALLY is is an ever-changing mega puzzle that allows you to put pieces in specific configurations to solve ever-evolving layers of puzzle. The puzzles designed in this wouldn't be possible in a game that lacked the RNG daily system, and that's why it works and is a brilliant model. It's just hard to see that initially.

[Dr. Dry]

Publicado originalmente por ricky1981:

95% agree with you and I absolutely love the game but there are definitely times when I felt like I was rolling RNG to get one of a handful of outcomes I needed to pursue a lead.

Some quality of life tweaks would go a long way, things like not having to re-enter safe codes for example.

Still my favorite game of recent times and I'm far from finished!

Yeah if anything i think rng is worse problem in the mid to end game when you have a couple specific things you are trying to accomplish. Like it took me close to a dozen runs to get both a book store and a good money run in the same run. But it's no that serious I still made some sort of progress in other areas like vaults/ permanent updgades/ as I was shooting for that.

Yeah if I had one major fault with the game it's the slow pace that some of the interactions take. Like having to fiddle with security terminal everytime I find it and having to do all the safes over and over again everytime I find them or the too slow run speed. Like some QOL improvements there could speed up the tedious elements of mid-late game runs.

[NeverLucky]

so if im reading the post correctly the game is a bunch of meta puzzles and i wont get to play them properly until i have grinded the rng enough to amass enough resources and scraps of clues to brute force the rng

Also that the game is really bad at pointing the player in the right direction because i have no idea what these micro goals you speak of outside of the instruction of finding room 46, unless its stuff like look for a shovel for free items, or RNG into rooms with notes that will give hints on how to unlock things

[Naecabon]

Publicado originalmente por NeverLucky:

so if im reading the post correctly the game is a bunch of meta puzzles and i wont get to play them properly until i have grinded the rng enough to amass enough resources and scraps of clues to brute force the rng

Also that the game is really bad at pointing the player in the right direction because i have no idea what these micro goals you speak of outside of the instruction of finding room 46, unless its stuff like look for a shovel for free items, or RNG into rooms with notes that will give hints on how to unlock things

TLDR: No you did not read it correctly

[Frankie Bag o' Tricks]

Publicado originalmente por NeverLucky:

so if im reading the post correctly the game is a bunch of meta puzzles and i wont get to play them properly until i have grinded the rng enough to amass enough resources and scraps of clues to brute force the rng

It's the opposite of brute force. You let the game work for you instead of trying to work against the game.

[PersonalC0ffee]

OP, you me friends, now.

[PersonalC0ffee]

This is what I was trying to say in my thread. People just don't get it. Hopefully, they will wander along to this thread and see the forest from the trees.

[NeverLucky]

okay so i did not read it correctly, explain what im missing. I want you to explain how its not brute forcing rng to get the clues to get your permanent upgrades from the rng rooms. At my stage of "play" im literally just spamming doors to try to find new rooms to try to get clues or items but nothing new is showing up. I dont understand how this is not RNG gate keeping the game you are describing away from me.

[NothanUmber]

It is nice that you have all these options now. But please be mindful with those who still don't have them. And might be unlucky enough to not get them for a long time.
On Steam there are currently 15% who got the "Inheritance Trophy" - so 85% are still struggling with this "2% milestone" you mention. And might never reach it before they are fed up with the game long before it.
As I read it, you, with these capabilities to control RNG unlocked enjoy the game much more now that you have them? Why not give some of the elemental ones to everybody from the start? Why these unnecessary roadblocks that neither require skill nor add any depth. The game would perfectly work without them, with all these riddles to unveil.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Room 46 is not the goal.