Rules you should know
Starry Land becomes available once you clear either Land of Oddities or Land of Delicacies. Ideally, you’ve taken a look at both worlds, enough to learn all the rules there. Here are the rules that make a reappearance here:
Fear (from Land of Oddities 6-12)
Mimic (from Land of Oddities 16-23)
Without (from Land of Delicacies A-D, 6-8)
Stuck elsewhere? Navigate using the following pictures:
Starry Land
On the left side (the green levels) you’ll learn about Below and Above. Then on the right (the orange levels) you’ll find out what Nudge does.
It’s the smallest world in the game, but that doesn’t make it easy. I personally found this the hardest world to clear. There are 14 levels total, including extras, but you need to beat 7 of them, and almost none of them are easy. Remember you only need to clear 5 of 7 worlds. If you’re struggling here, make this one of the worlds you don’t clear. However, these are the easiest seven:
1: Harmful Presence
2: Under Lock and Key
3: Forage
4: Harvest Party
6: Set the Stage
8: Sun Boulevard
X1: Destructive Presence
Reminder: Bold text refers to rules themselves. Italics refer to the objects affected by rules - every one of them in the level. Regular text only refers to specific instances of those objects. “Quoted text” refers to the actual noun, property, and connecting word text you can interact with on the level. All hints are invisible until you highlight text.
Starry-1: Harmful Presence
Difficulty: *
About the Level
New stuff:
Infix Condition Above
Walk Baba to the left. After a while, something happens. Why does Baba stop moving? What happened to the rule Baba is You? What does this mean about Above?
Hints
Gentle Nudge: If you could break up only one rule in this level, which would it be?
Starry-2: Under Lock and Key
Difficulty: **
About the Level
New stuff:
Infix Condition Below
Do you think Below works similar to Above? I mean, why not?
Hints
Gentle Nudge: How many Doors do you need to open? How many Keys do you have?
Bigger Nudge: Is there any way you can write a rule which separates one Key from the rest?
Starry-3: Forage
Difficulty: ****
Hints
Gentle Nudge: You start with one Fofo and two Fungus. Does something seem off about that?
Bigger Nudge: What sentence would transform only one out of many objects? What other sentence is required to make that happen?
Another, Bigger Nudge: Once you do that, what sentence would allow you to push something through the narrow passage?
Starry-4: Harvest Party
Difficulty: ****
About the Level
Did you learn about Fear and Mimic from the Land of Oddities? You’re gonna need to know them here.
Hints
First Wrinkle: Think of how you will push "Is" over to the right to form "Flag is Win". Is there a way to have Jiji move autonomously without the Move property?
Second Wrinkle: If you've done that, you'll see why this solution ultimately won't work. Is there a rule that would make Jiji's movement conditional?
Third Wrinkle: If you have envisioned that, you'll realize you are lacking a second "Jiji" text. Is there an object you haven't used yet, something that may have a property that can make up for the lack of Text?
Starry-5: Outreach
Difficulty: ***
About the Level
New stuff:
Nouns Plane and Car
Hints
Gentle Nudge: What is the flight path the Car can take to get to you?
Bigger Nudge: You are going to need more than one Plane. Is there a way to have only some of the Planes move, and all at different distances?
Starry-6: Set The Stage
Difficulty: ****
About the Level
New stuff:
Property Nudge
Once you get to the Nudge levels, things ramp up considerably. You’ve been warned. Try making a sentence using Nudge and see what happens as you continue. What does this tell you about Nudge?
Hints
Gentle Nudge: What are the sentences you can create below the Dust? What is the final set of sentences you can and should create?
Bigger Nudge: Are you going to do a lot of prep for one automated solution or will you make progress in smaller steps?
Specific Hint: The Belts can do two things to the Text as they are Nudged up. What are they? What order should you do those things in?
Starry-7: Shiny Ladder
Difficulty: *****
About the Level
Okay no, this is the worst level.
Hints
Gentle Nudge: Who is going to climb the ladder of Dust? What rule or rules do you think would need to be in place to make the climb possible?
Bigger Nudge: Why do you have three Robots? Is that too many Robots?
Specific Hint: Something needs to alternate back and forth to climb the ladder of Dust... but something else needs to alternate at the same time to change back and forth between two rules. What are those rules, where are they located, and who is moving them?
Starry-8: Sun Boulevard
Difficulty: ****
Hints
Gentle Nudge: What object(s) are you going to use to get rid of the Dust?
Bigger Nudge: How are you going to produce those pieces and where will you put them when you get them?
Specific Hint: If you didn't have the clump of Suns at the top left, you could solve this level without the use of one of the rules. Which one? How can you then use that rule to achieve the same goal?
Starry-9: Skygate
Difficulty: ****
About the Level
Gah, I don’t want to complain too much but I have to say this level really doesn’t feel Baba is You to me. One of the features I love about the game is the lack of “Red Herrings” in puzzles. Not this level - sorry to give the game away, but I cannot figure out why some elements of this level exist except to put you on the wrong trail.
Gentle Nudge: It's clear that you will form Ice is Empty and Dust is Cloud at the end. But is that the only thing you can do in the right side of the level?
Bigger Nudge: Where will the Rocket go once you finish your setup? Which direction will it face?
Specific Hint: Think of the pieces you need to bring with you into the right side of the level. What pieces are left over? Can they make any useful rules? What else are they useful for?
Starry-10: Rapid Growth
Difficulty: *****
Hints
Gentle Nudge: How many things will you need to Sink into Water in order to reach Me?
Bigger Nudge: Have you noticed how you never need to turn to the left after crossing the Flowers?
Specific Hint: What's a mega-rule or set of rules that will be useful here? Is there a piece of Text that doesn't seem to have any use after the setup? Why is that?
Starry-Extra 1: Destructive Presence
Difficulty: *
Hints
Gentle Nudge: What exactly changed here? Does that change your solution or just add some steps?
Starry-Extra 2: Milky Way
Difficulty: *****
Hints
Gentle Nudge: Think how you removed the Dust in the first version of this level. Is it even possible to do something like that again? What's another way past the Dust?
Bigger Nudge: Have you noticed that there's a little cutaway two spaces below and one to the left of "Bird"? Is that just decoration or could there be a use for that?
Specific Hint: You need some kind of automation to create a rule and then break that same rule. Where can that be done?
Did You Forget: If you managed to get the Bird to the far right, did you remember to make a rule that would get rid of the Robot?
Starry-Extra 3: Spaceport
Difficulty: *****
Hints
Literally What: How did you solve the first version of this level? Has anything changed as far as what your approach should be?
I Don't Get It: No really, what's changed here? The approach is exactly the same. You just have to tweak where you put certain objects.
I'm Trying to be Professional Here: Seriously, I don't understand what is happening in these levels. These feel so chaotic and inelegant. Is Hempuli going to tweak these at any point?
Starry-4: Sturdy Flowers
Difficulty: ***
Hints
Gentle Nudge: Is there any way "over" the Water, so to speak? If not, are there pieces of Text that can be safely Sunk once you have the proper setup?
Specific Hint: If you sacrificed the correct pieces, you now can only create one particular set of rules in one arrangement. What is it and where should it go?
World Complete!
Once you finish Starry Land, you gain access to both Land of Vehicles and Land Land Land if you haven’t already unlocked them, and Levels 12-18 on the Hubworld. I’d suggest hitting Land of Vehicles next.
In the meantime, do these hints work? Any hints too spoilery? Too vague? Let me know. Or, if you’ve though of better hints or alternate solutions, you can reach out to me. Don’t comment anything spoilery below. You can find me @keyofw on pretty much everything, like Twitter or Reddit. DM me anytime.