Top 10 Tips For Escape An Escape Room 

Whether you’re an escape room veteran or you’re about to embark upon your first escape room adventure, these top tips on how to escape an escape room will help guide you to success!

1. Choose a Group That Will Work Well Together

Communication is key when it comes to solving escape room puzzles and this means that choosing the right group of people can make all the difference. The main goal of an escape room experience is to have fun and that’s why it’s always great to do an escape room with good friends or work colleagues. It is also worth considering what different skills people will bring to the table; a lot of escape rooms involve number puzzles, so it is always worth having someone who is good with numbers in your team. People will surprise you in an escape room though and you might just find out that you have a skill you didn’t even know you had!

2. Time Management

An hour can seem like a long time when you first enter the room, but if you don’t keep an eye on the clock, your time will quickly start slipping away. When you first enter the room, it is worth having a quick survey of the room, but it is also important to get stuck straight into looking for clues and collecting items from around the room. If you get stuck on a puzzle, don’t waste too much time on it. There is a chance that you might not have all of the information to solve it yet, so move on to something else and then you can either come back to it with more information or a fresh perspective.

3. Search the Room Thoroughly and Then Again

Escape room developers are sneaky and it is important that you search every single area of the room when you first enter. You should check every item in the room to see if it opens, whether that is a chest of drawers, cupboards, bricks in the wall, floor panels, check everything. There will be clues hidden all around the room, so it is hugely important that you check everywhere to make sure that you get everything. One thing that works particularly well is dividing up into pairs, or groups, depending on how large your team is and then switching around so that everyone searches every area of the room. People can often spot something which you have missed, so search and then search again!

4. Organise What You Find

The chances are that you will find plenty of objects and keys whilst searching around the room and you will need to organise these to make it quicker and easier when it comes to using them. You can organise these by any system which makes sense to you, whether that be type, colour, size or anything else that works for you. I’d recommend that you also have a discard pile for objects that you have used so that you are not going back over the same objects again and again. When it comes to keys, I would also recommend that you leave any keys you have used in the lock after you have used them. It is very rare that you will ever need to use a key multiple times, so once you have used it once, you should be able to leave it in the lock so that you don’t get confused with multiple keys.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for a Clue!

If you’re stuck, don’t be afraid to ask for a clue. There is nothing worse than wasting too much time on one puzzle with everyone getting frustrated. This will result in you not having enough time to complete the room or not fully enjoying your experience. The clues are there to help you and they will have been designed in such a way that each puzzle will have a number of different clues so that the first clue will not give too much away, but can give you a gentle nudge in the right direction.

6. Skip the Last Number or Letter on Puzzles

If you’re trying to solve a number puzzle or padlock code and you have all but one of the numbers solved, don’t waste your time solving the puzzle to try and get the last number, you can just cycle through the numbers to find it. The same is true for letter puzzles, if you have all but one of the letters, then you can probably deduce the final letter. For example, if you have the letters P-A-?-L-O-C-K, then you can work out that the final letter is D, without having to solve a puzzle. This will save you time and allow you to move through the game more quickly.

7. The Simplest Answer is Probably the Correct One

Escape rooms are an entertainment activity and at the end of the day, that means that it is meant to be fun. When it comes to solving puzzles, the simplest answer will probably be the correct one. Escape room creators love seeing customers have that moment when they realise that the answer was right in front of them all along. So if you are coming up with fanciful, extremely complex solutions, then chances are, you are probably heading in the wrong direction.

8. Divide and Conquer

It is important to split off into pairs, groups or on your own when you are trying to solve puzzles. You are wasting precious time if you have everyone grouped around one puzzle trying to solve it at the same time. Divide and conquer should be your main tactic in the room. Even if you are struggling to solve a puzzle, don’t bring everyone together to solve it, simply move on to a different puzzle and swap with a different person.

9. Say it Loud and Clear

It is extremely important to verbalise what you see in the rooms, especially at the start when everyone is discovering new things. It can get loud and hectic with everyone shouting out what they are seeing, but all of the information is feeding into the hive mind and it will help further down the line when it comes to solving puzzles. Make sure that you explain what you are seeing clearly and correctly and then it will be like everyone is seeing everything in the room.

10. Don’t Force Anything

When it comes to items and props in the room, the general rule is; if you have to force it, then you probably don’t need to move it. Escape rooms are built with plenty of things for your team to investigate and open, but if there’s something that won’t open, you probably won't need to force it open.

One final thing to mention is, above all else, have fun!

So there you have it, our top 10 tips on how to escape an escape room.If you think you've got what it takes to take on our Escape Rooms, head over to our booking page!