Spoiler warning: this page names the late-game areas and says how each ending is reached. It leaves out the story. If you haven’t reached the Antipode yet, how to progress is the spoiler-free starting point.
Order of the Sinking Star has three endings, one at the end of each stage. The first is the Endgame in the Antipode, opened by the Gold Room teleporters. The second is Endgame High, at the top of Antipode High, the layer you ascend to after the first ending. The third and final one is Endgame Low, at the bottom of Antipode Low, the layer you descend to after the second. Jonathan Blow told Gamereactor that all three are good endings, so you can’t get a bad one, and that after the first you “could consider yourself reasonably satisfied as having completed the game”.
All three endings at a glance
| # | Ending | Steam achievement (unlock rate, 2026-10-14) | What you need first | Puzzles | Solutions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Endgame (The Antipode) | Endgame, “Complete the Endgame” (2.4%) | At least 4 of the 6 Gold Room teleporters active | 1 overworld + 15 | The Antipode |
| 2 | Endgame High | Endgame High, “Complete the Second Endgame” (0.2%) | The first ending, then the climb to Crossroads High and the four High parts | 2 overworld + 27, plus 2 bonus rooms | How to ascend → Antipode High → Endgame High |
| 3 | Endgame Low | Endgame Low, “Complete the Final Endgame” (0.1%) | The second ending, then the elevator to Crossroads Low and the six Low signs | 35 | How to descend → Antipode Low → How to reach Endgame Low → Endgame Low |
The unlock rates are Steam’s global figures from the achievement list, six days after launch.
Ending 1: the Endgame in the Antipode
How to unlock it: the Antipode is reached through teleporters in the six Gold Rooms, one per pair of worlds. Postmode reports that each teleporter needs seven lectern seals before it works; his last one for the MxS teleporter came from the final big star puzzle in Mirrors and Stones. Activating a teleporter unlocks its achievement (Antipode HxM, MxS, HxB, SxB, HxS or MxB).
How many teleporters: four. The Flying Chungus notes on screen that the Antipode’s overworld puzzle can be started once at least four teleporters are active, and 塞德莎 starts it after finishing four crossover areas. You don’t need all six.
What it is: one overworld puzzle opens the big star, then a central platform sends you into 15 short rooms that bring the four worlds together, one at a time, in pairs, in threes and finally all four. Finishing the last room unlocks Endgame. Full solutions: The Antipode, all 15 puzzles.
After it: a sign below unlocks The Exit. Leaving through it closes the game on purpose. Load the save again and you are back on the tile just before the exit; return to the main map by the purple beam and the elevator (details).
Ending 2: Endgame High
How to unlock it:
- Ascend. Finishing the Endgame unlocks the red signs around the Crossroads and the four worlds. With them you bring a lily pad, the purple beam, three red stones and a vertical mirror into place, so the mirror bounces the purple beam straight up. Ride it to Crossroads High; Steam’s hidden Ascend achievement marks the climb. See how to ascend, which also solves the hub’s 8 puzzles.
- The four High parts. Each side of Crossroads High opens one world’s High part, and a sign counts its puzzles: High Heroes (14 stars, 12 needed), High Mirrors (7, 6 needed), High Skipping Stones (7, 6 needed) and High Beamcasters (12, 10 needed), as 塞德莎 reads the signs.
- The star. Endgame High is the big star at the end of Antipode High. 塞德莎 goes there straight after the four High parts; his video doesn’t say whether all four are required.
What it is: 27 rooms and 2 overworld puzzles, plus 2 optional bonus rooms after the ending that the in-game sign calls hard and unrewarded. Finishing it unlocks Endgame High. Full solutions: Endgame High.
How the Endgame High rooms work (spoiler)
The rules turn round: instead of solving levels, you place pieces (a crystal, goblins, walls, mirrors, lily pads, beam colours, heroes or the goal itself) so that a level becomes solvable, then play it. The trick in almost every room is to plan the route first, because any tile the hero has to walk through can’t hold the new piece.
Ending 3: Endgame Low (the final ending)
How to unlock it:
- Descend. After Endgame High, push the West gem to a gem holder on Antipode High. That switches on a yellow and a multicoloured beam across Crossroads High; where they cross, things are blasted apart. Bring an ordinary stone from the North, a crystal from the East and a skipping stone from the South and blast all three, and an elevator in the middle of Crossroads High opens and takes you down to Crossroads Low. Steam’s hidden Descend achievement marks the trip. See how to descend.
- The six signs. Crossroads Low has one sign per pair of worlds. 塞德莎 reads them as NE 8 (7 needed), SE 7 (6), NW 9 (8), SW 12 (10), N–S 6 (5) and E–W 8 (7). Their rooms are on Low Heroes, Low Mirrors, Low Skipping Stones and Low Beamcasters.
- The red door. Each cleared sign unlocks a teleporter. Using them, a red beam has to travel from the top-left corner of Crossroads Low, round all four corners, through a room of goblins and mirrors and into the red door at the Antipode Low star. See how to reach Endgame Low.
What it is: 35 puzzles in six themes (Reading the Level, Implementing Ideas, Robustness, Clarity, Idea Flow and Aesthetics) and a last room that combines them. Finishing it unlocks Endgame Low. Full solutions: Endgame Low.
How the Endgame Low rooms work (spoiler)
You become the level designer. A hologram asks where a piece should start so that the level is not just solvable but interesting, and comments on every spot you try: it rejects impossible or trivial ones, accepts reasonable ones and praises the best. You don’t need the best answer to pass a room, but 塞德莎 recommends looking for it.
After all three endings
- Completionist. The game’s counter shows levels, not puzzles. 塞德莎’s stands at 920 when he finishes every overworld puzzle, which unlocks the Steam achievement Completionist (“Finish every puzzle in the overworld”). You don’t need it for any ending.
- Developer rooms and a hidden recording. After the third ending, a cage in the Prologue frees a cart so the purple beam there carries on upward, to a garden of developer-commentary rooms. Finishing the third ending is also the unlock condition for a hidden recording in the underground. Both are on Developer levels and the hidden recording, which has major story spoilers.
If an ending room looks impossible (a lily pad missing, a hero you can’t switch to), it may be a launch bug rather than your solution: see known bugs and fixes. For how long the whole run takes, and how many puzzles each stage holds, see how long to beat.