5 Tips for Beating an Escape Room

If you spend one minute scrolling through your social media feed, you’ll probably come across an image of a group of friends holding up signs. This is telltale evidence that your friends have recently attempted to beat an escape room.

Why aren’t you in the picture?
 
  With more than 14,000 rooms worldwide, it’s time to give this contemporary pastime a try and hoist a “winner” sign for yourself!

We’ve created this guide to offer newbies five tried and true escape room strategies. Read on to learn what to keep in mind before attempting your first escape!

1. Don’t Be Precious

When you step into an escape room, you’re walking into a giant puzzle. The rules of the mundane world no longer apply. If you want to succeed, you’ll need to shift into game mode, which means letting go of your propriety and “breaking the rules.”

Remember that you can touch everything. Don’t be afraid to roll up carpets, dump out the contents of drawers, read “private” notes, and dig in the trash!

2. Use Your Clues

Don’t be a hero! When you start a new escape room game, the gamemaster will often let you know how many “clues” your team can receive. These clues are part of the game, which means you’re supposed to use them!

If something seems off, or you’ve been working on the same puzzle for too long, reach out and get help. It can often be the difference between a win and a loss.

3. Choose Your Team (and Game) Wisely

Before committing to an escape room, determine how many players each room allows. From there, ensure you have the best team for the job.

Before you start, you might want to discuss strengths and weaknesses so everyone knows their role. Who will handle math, verbal, and visual-spacial puzzles? Who is good at keeping track of keys and physical clues?

This delegation is crucial if you have children as part of your team. Furthermore, you might want to ask about the age ratings for each game. Some escape rooms are more family-friendly than others. Kid-friendly puzzles give kids more to do, so they’ll feel successful (and won’t interfere with the adults’ good time).

4. Don’t Watch the Clock

There’s a reason why the phrase “a ticking clock” describes high-stakes situations. They create an exaggerated sense of pressure. Remember that the best escape rooms are puzzles and that someone has carefully designed them to be solvable in a given period.

Don’t obsess over the clock until you’re down to the wire. You’ll make silly mistakes and miss out on obvious clues. Focus on the environment instead.

5. Be Willing to Lose

You’re playing an escape game to have fun with your friends. If you’re dead set on winning, you won’t be as present in the moment, which might mean missing obvious clues or solutions. Flexibility is more critical to success than rigidity, so you’re more likely to win if you’re open to a loss!

You Can Beat An Escape Room

The most important rule when completing an escape room for the first time is to have fun and enjoy the experience! You’ll learn a lot about how to play from experience. Relax, observe, try your best, and if you don’t escape the first one, you’ll have the second one in the bag!

What else do you want to accomplish? Browse the rest of the blog for more informative how-tos about everything from gameplay to DIYs.