There are several ways to get stars in the game. Each visit to the Observatory adds +1 star, as does ending the day in the Planetarium, which nets you +2 stars. Certain items even grant a bonus, such as the Morning Star from the Armory.

However, if you really want to get a lot of stars in Blue Prince, you need to make use of experiments in the Laboratory. This process involves collecting all Microchips so you can place them in the Sundial. This lets you download a data packet that contains new Laboratory experiment causes/triggers and effects. Naturally, you want to pick the effect that grants +1 star.

As for the causes/triggers, there are two options that are viable in many situations:

• “Every time dig up trash” – This is good if you have a Shovel, and even better if you drafted the Root Cellar as an outer room.
• “Every time you unlock or bypass security doors” – This is great if you have a Keycard or if you’ve disabled the metal doors via the Utility Closet. You may also change the Security setting to “high” to increase the number of metal doors in the manor.

Lastly, there’s a third option that’s quite amazing that it’s almost like an exploit in and of itself. For this one, you need to get the Nursery: Nurse’s Station upgrade via an Upgrade Disk. If you enter the room when you have 10 steps or fewer steps, the Nurse’s Station sets your number of steps back to 20.

Next, you need to combine this with the “whenever you open your map, lose 10 steps” cause/trigger. Basically, you just keep opening your map and reentering the Nurse’s Station to regain your steps. If you play it right, you can amass a ridiculous number of stars indefinitely.