Every level has three stars, and all three are independent of each other. None of them stands in front of the next level.
Three goals
Path. Finish the level. That is all. How many moves it took, how often you undid, how often you were caught — none of it matters.
Master. Finish in the minimum number of moves. That number is not set by hand — it is the length of the shortest solution the game's own solver found, and it is written on screen as you enter the level. The counter measures your final, uncaught chain of moves; undos do not count, so you can find par by experimenting.
Trace. Meet the level's own bonus goal. Every level has a single bonus goal, shown with its icon at the level's entrance and in the pause menu. The goal is chosen from a closed list:
| Bonus goal | Condition |
|---|---|
| Collect the relic | Take the story object hidden in the level. |
| Take no one down | Finish the level without taking any enemy. |
| Take everyone down | Take every enemy in the level off the board. |
| Finish without throwing a stone | Reach the exit without using a bell stone. |
The moment the goal is met you get a mark and a sound; the win screen also writes why each star was earned or missed.
Stars accumulate
The three stars do not have to be earned in the same run. You can play a level once for Master and once for the bonus; both stay in your save. They cannot be earned in the same run anyway: the bonus route is deliberately longer than par, so combining the shortest solution and the bonus goal in a single run is not possible.
That distance has limits, and the level validator checks them:
- The bonus goal must be reachable by the solver.
- No shortest solution may meet the bonus goal by itself; that is, the bonus route is longer than par.
- But the bonus route does not exceed 1.4 times par (rounded down). The goal should teach a second solution, not be a load that cannot be finished.
Why Master is this hard
On purpose. The Master star is the game's reason to come back; if it were easy it would not be doing its job.
And its difficulty costs nothing: undo is unlimited and free, hints are free, and neither takes a star away. Looking for Master is nothing more than trying.
Why Trace pulls you off the path
Because every bonus teaches a second solution. You finished a level one way; now try the same board under a different rule — without touching anyone, or by taking everyone.
One of the bonus goals is collecting the story object. The things the caravan leader's sibling left behind along the way — a comb, a whistle, an evil-eye bead — are hidden in two levels per act, and the third star of those levels is collecting them. As you collect them the hidden levels open, the story gallery fills, and it is decided which version of the finale you will see. The details are on Setting and tone, and how the hidden levels open is on Hidden levels.
Collecting the relic costs between twenty and forty percent more moves than the level's minimum; the detour does not stay small, but it never becomes unfinishable either.
Why none of them lock anything
The game's core promise is that nothing blocks your progress. Getting stuck on a level does not mean you cannot finish the game, and neither does playing imperfectly. The stars are there for people who want them and invisible to people who just want to move on.
The wider version of this is on the There is no losing page.