Short answer: Order of the Sinking Star takes dozens of hours to reach the first ending and hundreds to see everything. No one has published a measured average yet, but reviewers who played for dozens of hours were still far from the end. Gameswelt’s reviewer had 100 hours in and was “about halfway”, and Jonathan Blow told TheGamer that fully completing everything takes around 500 hours. Below: what each source says, and how many puzzles each part of the game holds, counted from our solution pages.
How long it takes, by source
| Source | What they say |
|---|---|
| Jonathan Blow (to TheGamer, 2025-12-11) | About 500 hours if you want to be a completionist and 100% everything |
| Steam store page | “Hundreds of hours of unique gameplay” and “more than one thousand hand-crafted puzzles” |
| Gameswelt review (2026-10-07) | 100 hours played, and only about halfway through |
| Push Square review (2026-10-07) | “Dozens of hours” and hundreds of puzzles in, with another 50–100 hours of puzzles still ahead |
| GameTyrant review (2026-10-07) | “Dozens if not 100+ hours” |
| Jonathan Blow (to Gamereactor, 2026-05-20) | Three endgames; after the first you can consider yourself reasonably satisfied as having completed the game |
How long you take depends on where you stop. The game has three endings, one at the end of each stage, and you can stop after the first. If you get stuck, switching to another world costs nothing, so a slow puzzle doesn’t block the run (how to progress).
How many puzzles: every area counted
These are the puzzle rooms on our solution pages, which follow a complete narrated walkthrough area by area. Several pages also list overworld puzzles between the rooms (29 on Low Beamcasters, for example); those are not included here.
First stage (to the first ending)
| Area | Puzzles | Solutions |
|---|---|---|
| North: Heroes of Hauling, Heroes 2: Monsters, Heroes 3: Bard, Druid | 22 + 30 + 24 = 76 | Heroes 1 · Heroes 2 · Heroes 3 |
| East: Mirror Isles, Mirrorable Mirrors | 27 + 10 = 37 | Mirror Isles · Mirrorable Mirrors |
| South: Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes (South 1, 2 and 4) | 17 | Skipping Stones |
| West: Vault of the Beamcasters, Cart, Rod, Torc, Alter Beam | 39 + 6 + 4 + 37 = 86 | Vault · Cart, Rod · Torc · Alter Beam |
| Gold Rooms | 6 | Gold Rooms |
| Crossover areas (14 areas, from Heroes and Light at 54 to Beams, Mirrorably at 5) | 321 | Crossovers |
| The Antipode (the first Endgame) | 15 | The Antipode |
| First stage total | 558 |
The 14 crossover areas: Heroes and Light 54, Mirrors and Stones 49, Heroes and Water 40, Heroes and Mirrors 34, Stones Illuminated 26, Reflected Beams 25, Heroes and Stones, West 20, Heroes and Stones, East 14, Heroes and Light, Advanced 13, Heroes and Artifacts 12, Squeeze, Dragon 10, Heroes, Duplicated 10, Beams Reflected 9 and Beams, Mirrorably 5.
Second stage: Antipode High (spoilers)
| Area | Puzzles | Solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Crossroads High | 8 | How to ascend |
| High Heroes | 66 | High Heroes |
| High Mirrors | 45 | High Mirrors |
| High Skipping Stones | 27 | High Skipping Stones |
| High Beamcasters | 58 | High Beamcasters |
| Endgame High (plus 2 optional bonus rooms) | 27 | Endgame High |
| Second stage total | 231 |
Third stage: Antipode Low (spoilers)
| Area | Puzzles | Solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Crossroads Low | 1 | How to descend |
| Low Heroes | 21 | Low Heroes |
| Low Mirrors | 38 | Low Mirrors |
| Low Skipping Stones | 19 | Low Skipping Stones |
| Low Beamcasters | 103 | Low Beamcasters |
| Endgame Low | 35 | Endgame Low |
| Third stage total | 217 |
All three stages: 1,006 puzzle rooms, in line with Steam’s “more than one thousand”.
Why other counts differ: the game’s own counter shows levels, not puzzles, and stands at 920 when every overworld puzzle is done, because many levels hold several puzzles. 塞德莎, whose walkthrough our pages follow, counts 697 puzzles for the first two stages (699 with the two Endgame High bonus rooms); our pages split some of his big levels into separate rooms. Use the table to see how big each area is relative to the others, not as an official count.
How far players have got
Steam’s global achievement rates six days after launch (2026-10-14) show how long the game is for most people. The full list is on all 32 achievements.
| Milestone | Players who have it |
|---|---|
| Heroes initial campaign (North) | 40.8% |
| Mirror Isles initial campaign (East) | 37.5% |
| Beamcasters initial campaign (West) | 23.5% |
| Skipping Stones initial campaign (South) | 15.9% |
| Endgame (first ending) | 2.4% |
| Endgame High (second ending) | 0.2% |
| Endgame Low (final ending) | 0.1% |
| Completionist (every overworld puzzle) | 0.1% |
0.1% is the lowest value Steam’s page shows, so the real share for the last two may be lower.
You don’t have to solve everything
- The first ending needs four teleporters, not six. At least four of the six Gold Room teleporters open the Antipode (details).
- Signs leave a little slack. On Crossroads High the signs ask for 12 of 14, 6 of 7, 6 of 7 and 10 of 12 puzzles; on Crossroads Low most ask for all but one (how to ascend, how to descend).
- Bonus rooms are optional. The two rooms after Endgame High give no reward, according to the in-game sign.