Dissatisfying.

[Poobah Gorg]

I've redone levels that I already knew how to solve (just to test), and it STILL gives me the least number of stars. Generally I'm just happy to have solved a level, but why give the stars it's all-but-impossible to get any but the minimum. I'm not even someone who cares so much about about achievements and in-game-only grades, but why even have them there if they're hopelessly stacked against us?

It makes the whole experience kind of grating.

[oldladygreybun]

uhhh, in general these puzzles aren't all-but-impossible, and most people seem to get the full set of stars for the puzzles without huge problems...
may be something technical, of course, that's bugging out for you, although devs have bugs fairly well under control by now
but it's not very easy to help you without some concrete examples with screenshots of stuff that doesn't seem to be working for you

maybe a stupid question from my end, but you have checked out the guides for the game (and DLC's), right?
they explain all the solves (all the stars) for all the puzzles, with full-colour screenshots, and some useful tips too
personally I'd recommend the one from TheAzureRavyn as a very good one:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2886159822

hope this may help :-)

[foffers]

I am new to the game but I thought the stars meant how many different solutions there are? So if there are 3 stars then that means there are 3 solutions.

[oldladygreybun]

Originally posted by foffers:

I am new to the game but I thought the stars meant how many different solutions there are? So if there are 3 stars then that means there are 3 solutions.

Yes, that's right, the number of stars shows the number of different solves there are for that puzzle.
Ah, is that OP's misunderstanding maybe ? thinking that the number of stars shows 'better' or 'worse' ways of solving a puzzle...?

[foffers]

I think so because I thought the same thing! No matter how I reset or quickly I was completing the puzzle I was only getting 1 star

[foffers]

That's what happens when you start on the DLC before the full game.

[oldladygreybun]

Originally posted by Poobah Gorg:

I've redone levels that I already knew how to solve (just to test), and it STILL gives me the least number of stars (...)

See the postings from me and @foffers above, I hope that this maybe just is a simple misunderstanding: The stars aren't for solving a puzzle 'better' or quicker. The stars only show puzzles where there are multiple solutions. You can take all the time you want or need and try out things in different ways.

Hope this is the answer to your problem - and that you can get back to enjoying the game again :-)

[Daniel @ Max Inferno]

Hi there!

Thanks for the feedback. We are aiming to clarify the meaning of stars more directly as part of some quality of life changes in the next update for the game but the other users in this thread are correct: it's 1 star per solution.

The multiple stars are just to show how many unique solutions you've found—so the first solve on a stage with multiple solutions will always be 1 star.

[robsonfz]

Of course having no info about what stars mean may be slightly frustrating, BUT I guess we naturally start getting their meaning when more than one solution becomes pretty obvious.

This is all about cognitive flexibility, thinking outside the box. It also helps understand life may have multiple valid ways of organising itself.

IMHO, this is a masterpiece towards empathy, and we need more of that.