Escape Room Tips & Tricks Guaranteed To Help You Get Out!

I first discovered escape rooms about 5 years ago at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and was instantly hooked. I’ve always enjoyed puzzles. But Escape rooms took that enjoyment to the next level for me. In fact, doing escape rooms has become a favorite date night for my husband and me.

Over the years I’ve experienced a number of different escape rooms across different companies and even states. But there are some tried and true tricks that have come in handy no matter the room I’ve tried to get out of. To help you maximize your fun in your next escape, I want to share with you what I’ve picked up over the years.

First, let’s start with the basics. Who should you play with? I’ve always found it helpful to play escape rooms with people I know because you tend to already communicate better with each other, but you can be successful in a room with other strangers.

When you show up early (yes, show up 15 minutes before your game time), don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with your fellow puzzlers and discuss some strategies. After all, you’re about to be locked in a room together for 60 minutes and the goal is to work together!

As for the number of people you play with, I would recommend about half of what the room specs says it can handle. If the escape room says it’s for up to 8 people, try to play with no more than 4-5. This will help ensure you won’t be physically crowded, that there will be enough things for everyone to work on, and you’ll have more opportunities for “aha!” moments. Unless you’re booking a private room, it can be hard to control this, but my husband and I like to sign up for games at the last minute to help ensure the room isn’t fully booked.

Next, be sure to listen closely to your game host or guide. They will not only tell you all the pertinent rules for the escape your about to undertake, but they may also drop some helpful hints about the room. After all, they’ve seen countless people go through the room already. They know what tends to trip groups up and they may just share a useful tidbit.

When you first get into a room, start searching right away and be sure to split up. You may even want to assign parts of the room to 1-2 people to ensure all areas get thoroughly searched while preventing some spots from getting overlooked completely. This method is not only the most efficient and thorough means, but it also helps mitigate potential time loss from a red herring. A red herring is a tactic used to distract or divert attention from the real goal. A red herring puzzle does not actually need to be solved to escape the room. Some game designers are okay with employing red herrings, but not all do so. So just keep your wits about you.

When searching the room, where should you not look? Well hopefully you paid attention to your game guide and know the out of bound areas. These likely include ceiling tiles, power outlets, and underneath the flooring if you have to rip up the carpet for example. Remember, nothing should be forced. If a picture is bolted to the wall or a piece of furniture is too large to be moved, don’t force these items. You should also not get tripped up by manufacturing or resale numbers. Does the bottom of a chair have a tag or a permanent marker digit? These items were put in place for the sale of the chair and aren’t a part of the game. Move on and keep looking. Where then should you pay special attention when looking? Be sure to check clothing pockets. Check books for hollowed out cavities or quick to notice details but don’t spend too much time flipping through every page hunting for minuscule details. Be sure to check both underneath objects and the underside of objects. And I mean everything. Under vases, under tables, under rugs; essentially don’t leave anything unturned.

If you find a written message be sure to pay attention to look for hidden messages. Look for words or letters that may be bolded. Look for words that have missing letters. Look for words that have capital letters where it may not make sense. And also pay attention to the first word or first letter of each word on the left of the page, moving down. You may just find a clue amongst the text.

The next tip is the one I often struggle with myself. And that’s to think simple. Remember, escape rooms were designed for the average person to have fun and be able to solve the room. Everything you need to unlock a puzzle is in the room somewhere. Outside knowledge is not needed. If your group is stuck on something and it feels like you’re missing something, chances are you haven’t found all the clues available in the room. Do another sweep and continue to work on other threads.

That being said, it doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with the locks and possible ciphers you may come across. Every escape room place I’ve been to has had locks in the lobby area for gamers to practice on before starting the room. Whether it’s a simple 4-6 number or letter combination, a directional arrow lock, or a dial lock that you probably remember from your high school locker. When testing out the locks be sure to understand how they work (remember on the dial locks how you have to turn a complete circle past your first number before going to the second number?), know how to reset them to try again (like clicking the padlock 3 times on a directional lock), or knowing whether you can freely attempt combos or if you’ll get locked out for 3 minutes after a failed attempt (beware of the lock boxes!).

There are number of ciphers you may want to be vaguely familiar with too. By familiar with, I don’t mean you need memorize how to decode them, just that you should be familiar with how they look so you can potentially identify that you’ve found a cipher that needs to be translated when you find one. If a cipher exists, the key to translating it should be somewhere in the room to find. If you find series of dots and dashes, that is likely Morse code. Groups of dots in 2 columns by 3 rows is Braille. The pigpen cipher replaces letters with symbols. Finally, if you find a string of various numbers from 1-26 then replace each number with it’s corresponding letter in the alphabet. For example, A=1, B=2, C=3 and so forth.

It’d be hard to pick just one piece of advice to give about escape rooms, but if pressed I would probably choose this next tip. And that’s to communicate. Clear communication with everyone in the escape room is crucial to success. So much so, that you may even want to pick an honorary project manager to coordinate communication. Did someone find a lock that needs a 4-digit password? Make sure everyone in the room knows to keep an eye out for that. Did someone find a key? Make sure everyone knows it exists and put it in a common area of clues or pieces that still need to be used or solved. The same goes for finding similar objects; like maybe vases with letters on the bottom or torn pieces of a letter. Group like with like to better spot patterns or see the larger picture. And most rooms have a one use policy on things like keys, so once they’ve been used or a lock box has been solved be sure to set them in “done” pile so they’re out of the way and people don’t waste time trying to solve something that’s already completed.

So things are going well for the group and you’re sailing smoothly until you aren’t and you seem to be stuck. What now? Well, first of all, don’t all group up on the stuck puzzle unless all of the below has been completed. You want to keep other pieces of the room moving while the stuck one is handled by a couple of people. If you’re stuck on a lock, cipher, or some other piece and believe you have all the necessary clues, be sure to let a second or third person try their hand. In the heat of the moment we get excited and maybe even nervous. It’s definitely possible the first person trying the lock accidentally entered the combination incorrectly.

If that isn’t the case, then stop and focus on what you are stuck on. What are the barriers to getting past this obstacle? Identify the inputs you need and work backwards from there. Maybe you have a door with a key padlock blocking your way. That means you need a key. Well, someone found a key but was unable to retrieve it from the bottom of a narrow area. That means you need a tool to recover the key -something with a hook or even a magnet maybe. Communicate that to the group and get people searching for a way to retrieve the key. And if you truly get stuck after doing these things, don’t be afraid to ask the game host for a clue. The point of the game is to have fun. If your group is stuck to the point of frustration creeping up, get a hint from the gamemaster. Trust me, your escape will still be just as fun and rewarding!

Remember, escape rooms are all about having fun in the end. Even if you don’t escape within the time limit, they can still be enjoyable experiences. When the game host debriefs the room afterwards, take mental notes to help you conquer the next escape you take on! If you have further escape room tips please share down below in the comments.