Microchip
Spoilers Ahead
This page contains spoilers for Blackbridge Grotto. View at your own discretion.
Microchips are special items in Blue Prince. There are three microchips, each obtained in different ways and treated as entirely separate items, as they each have a different size. Microchips are key items used to open a door.
How to obtain
The smallest microchip is found in the microchip holder in Blackbridge Grotto.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for obtaining middle-sized microchip.
For how to derive that something is hidden in this location, see A New Clue/Analysis#Vase Puzzle.
The middle-sized microchip is found sealed in the vases in the Entrance Hall on the west side, i.e. on the right while looking outwards towards the Grounds. A Sledge Hammer or equivalent is needed to smash the vase. Unlike most breakable objects, hovering over the vase momentarily is required to smash it. The microchip is then found on the floor. The second jar contains nothing.
Smashing a vase is permanent. If this microchip is lost without being placed, it reappears on the table right beside the broken vase the next day.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for obtaining largest microchip.
For how to derive that something is hidden in this location, see A New Clue/Analysis#Corner Cases Puzzle.
The largest microchip is found buried on the West Path, just right of the bridge. A Shovel or equivalent is needed to dig up the microchip, which is collected immediately alongside a glass jar that presumably contained it. Unlike most dig spots, hovering over the spot momentarily is required to excavate it.
Digging at this particular spot is permanent. If this microchip is lost without being placed, it reappears on the end post of the bridge alongside the glass jar that originally contained it the next day.
If a microchip is placed in the microchip holder in Blackbridge Grotto, the microchip remains there permanently across days and does not respawn in its original location. (If the microchip is taken out of the holder and then lost some other way, it does respawn in its original location.)
Usage
Microchips can be placed in the holder in Blackbridge Grotto. They can also be taken out freely, returning the Microchip to the inventory. Inserting a microchip lights up the respective portion of the large door at the back of the room.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for reward for having all three.
Once all three microchips are placed inside, a cutscene plays and a door to Orindian Ruins opens.
The door is only open while all three microchips are inside (and during the animation period shortly after taking one out); the cutscene does not play again.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for another use.
After solving the A New Clue/Analysis#Sign Puzzle, a second microchip holder opens in the Apple Orchard's sundial. This holder acts like the one in Blackbridge Grotto, with microchips remaining in whichever holder they are left in at the end of the day.
Placing all three microchips inside this holder plays a cutscene, unlocking the Satelite Dish. There is no known benefit to keeping the microchips inside once the unlock is obtained.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for another use.
The Crate Tunnel includes another microchip door as the 7th door in sequence, with a microchip holder in front of the door. Placing all three microchips inside opens the door without fanfare.
Unlike the other microchip holders, microchips left in this microchip holder spawn inside the Blackbridge Grotto microchip holder the next day rather than this one.
Interactions
[Outer Room: Trading Post] The Microchip can be traded away in the Trading Post as a tier 2 item.
Additional information
- [Mail Room Experiment Spoiler] Microchips are the topic of Randolph's fifteenth letter to the Mail Room, where he explains that they are used to open the door in Blackbridge Grotto. He also suggests that finding the two microchips not found in the grotto by default would require a new clue.