Silver Pines hides five Gold Stars, and they are not decorative. All five go into the Locked Ring Box on the bathroom counter at the Miner Diner, the box opens, and inside is one of the two gold rings required for the Rest ending.
The number is the part most guides get wrong. Five is the requirement; the box has a state for each star from zero to five, and there is no seventh star in the game.
Five stars, not seven
Several early guides claim the box needs seven stars. The game files say five, and the box's internal state runs from none to five.
If you are following a seven-star list, you are looking for two items that do not exist. Count your stars against the five locations below instead.
All five star locations
| # | Location | How to get it | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Rabbit Hole | On the bar table, first visit | None |
| 2 | Crimson Bear Bungalow 3 | Safe inside the room, code 6671 | Room keycard and the 58883 call |
| 3 | The Quiet Hour Cafe | Sit with the shot cowboy | Cemetery sequence completed |
| 4 | Thelend summit | Talk to the girl in the yellow raincoat | Reaching the mountain top |
| 5 | The digger's hole, Downtown | Take the shovel from the caravan and dig | All five cable-car bells |
Two of the five have real prerequisites, and both of those are where players get stuck.
Star 1: the Rabbit Hole
The first star is the easiest. It sits on the central table of the Rabbit Hole bar the first time you arrive, before the stage scene, and you can pick it up on your way through.
You also find the Locked Ring Box itself in this area — or rather, you find it in the Miner Diner bathroom and bring it here later, when the stage wall becomes relevant.
Star 2: Bungalow 3
The second star is inside the safe in Room 3, and the safe uses the same 6671 as the door and as the Gift Shop weapon locker.
The route is the one that catches people: the room keycard is at the top of the lighthouse, behind a wall you break with the Sledgehammer, and the card may not spawn until you have called 58883 and spoken to the woman in Room 3.
If the lighthouse is empty, make the call before you assume a bug. The Room 3 page walks through the full chain, including the ferry fuse you need to get back.
Star 3: the Quiet Hour Cafe
The third star is in Downtown, at the Quiet Hour Cafe, sitting beside the cowboy who has been shot. You can only reach this one after the cemetery sequence, which places it in the middle of the game rather than the start.
This is also the stop where players pick up the North Star shotgun nearby, which is the recommended weapon for the sewer boss. If you are already in the cafe, check the rest of the room before you leave.
Star 4: the Thelend summit
The fourth star is at the top of Mt. Siah Kopa, outside Thelend, and it comes from a conversation rather than a container. Talk to the girl in the yellow raincoat and the star follows.
You cannot reach this before the cable car runs, and the cable car needs all five bells. That makes star 4 and star 5 sequential: bells, mountain, then the dig.
Star 5: the digger's hole
The fifth star is in Downtown, in the hole the digger has been excavating. Once you have all five cable-car bells, take the shovel from the caravan and dig in the hole he started.
The digger's dialogue changes as you progress, and one guide recommends visiting him regularly because his lines hint at what he is looking for. The star only appears after the bells, so there is no point digging early.
What the stars unlock
Take all five to the Locked Ring Box on the bathroom counter at the Miner Diner. The box opens and gives you a gold ring.
That ring is half of the Rest ending. The other half is on Alice, in the water in Downtown, and only becomes available after you spare Eddie at the final prompt. Both rings go into the two ring-shaped indents on the Rabbit Hole stage wall.
Without the stars there is no ring, and without the ring there is no Rest ending. That is the whole chain: five stars, one box, two rings, one wall.
What the digger is looking for
The digger in Downtown keeps working the same hole through most of the game, and his dialogue changes as you progress. One guide recommends visiting him regularly because his lines hint at what he is after.
You cannot finish his hole for him until you have the shovel from the caravan, and the caravan only matters once the bells are collected. That is why star 5 is the last one most players find.
Do stars carry between endings?
Yes, within a save. The stars are items in your inventory, so reloading an earlier save rewinds them but reloading the final-room save keeps them.
That makes the order flexible. You can open the ring box before the final choice, carry the ring into the room, and still take the kill route first if you want the Leave ending.
Stars versus mementos
They look similar and they are not. Stars are five, they are not equippable, and their only purpose is opening one box. Mementos are 25, they take slots, and they change your stats.
The confusion comes from both being collectibles that gate an ending. Stars gate Rest; mementos gate Live. Neither affects the third ending.
What order should you collect them?
Follow the story. Star 1 is free, star 2 comes when you have the Sledgehammer and the phone call, star 3 arrives after the cemetery, and stars 4 and 5 both wait on the cable car.
That means a normal playthrough picks up four of the five without detours. The one that gets missed is star 2, because the lighthouse trip is easy to postpone and then forget.
If you are chasing the platinum as well, the trophy guide groups the stars with the mementos and maps, since all three collections run through the same districts. The endings page covers what happens after the box opens.