It’s a simple concept: you have 60 minutes to solve some riddles, puzzles, and games and get back out again. Yet simple is very different than easy. While all escape rooms aim to keep you locked in for the full hour, many go beyond that, priding themselves on low success rates and challenging puzzles.
The best way to be successful in an escape room? Do lots of them. Next to good ol’ fashioned genius, experience is one of the strongest determinants of success in escape rooms. The learning curve is pretty steep on escape rooms; the more you do, the more patterns you recognize, the more observant you are, and the more rooms you solve. Experienced escapers know what to concentrate on and, more importantly, what not to focus on. Seasoned vets will connect the dots while newbies don’t even see the dots.
While experience helps, first-time escapers can still solve escape rooms if they have a knack for puzzles and know what to look for. Having done a few escape rooms ourselves and watched thousands of teams try, succeed and fail at PuzzleWorks, we have come up with a few tips that can dramatically increase the likelihood of success in an escape room. Armed with these tips, even the most novice group can have a pretty good shot at getting out of the most difficult rooms.
A successful escape depends in large part on what you do when you get stuck. It’s inevitable: at some point in an escape room, you will feel stuck and at a loss for what to do with the information or materials you have. Depending on the room, you may be able to ask for a hint, or you may be offered a hint, which is undoubtedly the easiest and most straightforward way to move forward. However, you may have limited tips available, or taking a hint may affect your time in the room or score at the end. Before asking for help, try these techniques to see if you can’t get yourself unstuck and moving forward:
1) Keep your goals in mind
This is by far the one thing that separates successful, experienced, escapees from the rest. Even before you’ve reached the point of stalling, you should always be calling out the “stopping points” as you find them (usually different kinds of locks).
By letting everyone know there is a 5-number code lock on the door, or that you’ve solved everything except for a 3-letter combination to the desk drawer, you can remain focused on the goal of finding what potentially can give you 5 numbers or 3 letters. Reorienting yourself and your team to what you need in order to progress can help you move past distractions.
2) Re-search the room
If you know what you need, but it still seems like nothing is adding up, it may be that something is missing. Most often, it is something in the room that was overlooked or more cleverly hidden, so before giving up, return to the places you’ve already looked at. This issue is actually more common with experienced players than new players because experienced players are more likely to jump into solving puzzles right away when they find them.
However, new players find more success in the actual searching and finding the process itself. Regardless, if it seems like something is missing, it probably is; Take another look around to make sure you aren’t overlooking something that can help you move on.
3) Switch puzzles
Even if you feel like you have made some progress on a particular puzzle, if you aren’t getting any usable code or key from it, try having someone else look at it with fresh eyes. Different perspectives can see something you missed or maybe add information from another part of the room that you haven’t seen yet.
4) Hold a meeting
One of the most common features of a good group is their ability to communicate and regroup when they’re stuck. Instead of running in different directions or constantly making the same mistake on the same puzzle, take a second to discuss which puzzles have been solved, which clues have been used, which puzzles seem like they’re missing information along with what random objects in the room simply don’t make any sense.
Knowing what puzzles remain and what different players have tried will usually help a group get back on track.
5) Be curious
This skill helps in an escape room in general, not just when a group is stuck. If you are timid and don’t work on puzzles until everything is crystal clear, you won’t get very far. If you are stuck, look in drawers again, push some buttons, enter codes even if you don’t think they’re right, and inspect objects that don’t seem to be that important. Overlooking clues is the Achilles heel of many groups, and being curious is the best way to avoid this mistake.
Every escape room is different, but the team’s approach should always be the same. Good energy, good organization, and above all, good communication will help even the greenest of players at least get close to escaping. Follow these simple tips, and you’re well on your way to solving your next escape room. Good luck!