You’ve been wandering around Mt. Holly for hours. Maybe days. Your pockets are heavy with keys, your "steps" counter is ticking down dangerously close to zero, and then you draft it: the Drawing Room. At first glance, it’s just another blue-tiled room filled with dusty sketches and a slightly pretentious vibe. But if you’re looking for that Red Letter—the one marked "six"—or just a fat ruby to boost your run, you’ve come to the right place.
The blue prince drawing room is a classic Tonda Ros head-scratcher. It doesn't rely on the "moon phase" logic of the observatory or the brute force of the workshop. It’s a wordplay puzzle. Specifically, a pun that makes most players want to throw their controller across the room once they finally realize the answer was staring them in the face.
The Secret Behind the Easel
When you walk into the room, you’ll see a massive, unfinished portrait of Herbert Sinclair sitting on an easel. It’s tempting to just loot the cabinets and move on, but wait. Look at the painting. Now look at the real fireplace mantle in the room.
Notice anything weird?
The candelabra in the painting has one arm bent downward at an awkward angle. If you go to the actual fireplace and interact with the physical candelabra, you can mimic that bend. This isn't just flavor text; it’s the trigger. The wall paneling slides up to reveal a hidden safe.
Now, here is where everyone gets stuck. The safe needs a four-digit code. Most people start looking for dates on the paintings or counting the number of horses. You're close, but you're probably looking at the wrong thing.
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Understanding the Small Gaits Pun
In the Study (another room you've likely drafted), there is a massive clue that reads: "If We Count Small Gates, Eight Dates Crack Eight Safes." In the context of the blue prince drawing room, the word "Gates" is a homophone. It’s actually referring to Gaits—as in, the way a person walks. Every single sketch on the walls of this room depicts people (and animals) in motion. Some are taking huge, lunging strides. Others are taking tiny, mincing steps.
To crack the safe, you need to count the people with the "small gaits."
- The Women: Look for the sketches of women in long skirts. There are exactly 4 of them taking those tiny, measured steps.
- The Old Men: Scan for the sketches of the elderly man with an umbrella. You’ll find 15 of them with that specific short stride.
Combine those, and you get your date-formatted code.
The Solution and What’s Inside
The code for the Drawing Room safe is 0415.
(Note: The game is usually pretty chill with the formatting here. Some players have reported that 1504 works too, depending on which region your save file thinks you're in, but 0415 is the standard intended answer.)
Inside, you’ll find a Ruby (standard gem fare) and Red Letter Six. This letter is a big deal for the lore nerds. It’s a message from Herbert Sinclair to Mary Jones. It mentions a "final destination in the east," which is one of the biggest breadcrumbs for finding the true ending and understanding why the Sinclair family essentially turned their basement into a giant, shifting Rubik's Cube.
Why You Should Always Draft This Room
Honestly, even if you’ve already cracked the safe, you should still draft the Drawing Room whenever it pops up in your floor plan selection. Why? Because of its drafting effect.
The Drawing Room allows you to redraw your floor plans once per draft. In a game like Blue Prince, where a bad RNG roll can leave you trapped in a hallway with no way out, having a "mulligan" is life-saving. If you can pair this with the Mirror Room later in your run, you basically become the architect of your own destiny.
It’s one of the few "Common" rarity rooms that actually remains useful in the late game.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Run
- Don't waste steps: If you're low on energy, don't bother counting the paintings manually. Just remember 0415 and head straight for the candelabra.
- Permanent Unlocks: Once you open the safe once, it stays open in future runs. You can come back and grab a fresh gem every single time you draft the room, making it a reliable "bank" for purchasing upgrades from the shop.
- Check the Walls: If you have the Magnifying Glass item, take a closer look at the sketches. Tonda Ros hid some tiny, non-puzzle-related sketches of the development team in the background of the larger portraits.
The Drawing Room isn't the hardest puzzle in Mt. Holly—that honor probably goes to the Laboratory—but it's the one that teaches you how the game thinks. It wants you to listen to the words, not just look at the pictures.