Unofficial fan guide. Not affiliated with Thekla, Inc. or Arc Games.

ORDER OF THE
SINKING STARGet the Game

How long to beat it

Checked 14 October 2026. Two sourced figures, not one blended number. You do not need every puzzle to finish.

What I checked

I split the sentences on purpose. The official FAQ says more than 500 hours for dedicated solvers. Wikipedia attributes up to 250 hours at a normal pace, and 500 or more for a full clear, to Jonathan Blow. I did not time a personal run.

Original fan illustration of adventurers and wooden crates on a stone grid; not a game screenshotOriginal fan illustration of a river, lily pads and a boat; not a game screenshot
Original fan illustrations, not game screenshots or solution-board evidence.

The numbers, with owners

Official FAQ: more than 500 hours, and more than 1,000 interconnected puzzles. Wikipedia, citing Blow: up to 250 hours at a normal pace for a normal play, 500 or more for everything, and 1,400 or more puzzles. The PlayStation Blog said 900 or more levels in its July hands-on. Those counts are not interchangeable.

Multiple endings exist, and you do not have to solve every puzzle to finish. That is in Wikipedia and matches the non-linear four-world structure.

ClaimSourceFigure
Dedicated playOfficial FAQMore than 500 hours
Normal clearWikipedia, citing BlowUp to 250 hours at a normal pace
Full clearWikipedia, citing Blow500 or more hours
Puzzle countOfficial FAQ / Blow via Wikipedia1,000+ / 1,400+
Level countPlayStation Blog, July 2026900+

Demo and per-world times

No official demo completion-hour estimate or world/platform time split was verified. The demo's published puzzle counts do not establish an hour count. The 250-hour figure is a reported developer estimate, not a HowLongToBeat player median, a measured main-story average or a promise to every player.

An ending and solving every puzzle are different goals. No crowd-sourced HLTB sample size or platform-specific timing dataset was captured in this audit, so none is presented as measured evidence.

Questions

How long is the game?

Up to 250 hours at a normal pace for a normal clear, according to the figure Wikipedia attributes to Blow. The official FAQ highlights 500 or more hours.

Do I need every puzzle?

No. Sources say there are multiple endings and that a finish does not require every board.

Keep reading

Demo lengthNo official demo duration.CompletionThe rare endgame ids.

Sources

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