12 Tips to Win an Escape Room
Published by and copyright, Bryan Sloan @ Legacy Escape Box
Communication – When you enter an escape room and the clock is ticking, you’re senses are burning. You’re looking around, frantically searching (try to keep the frantic mode on low mode), and basically losing your mind. Where am I and what’s the point!?!? – - Try to focus on this really important thing: communication. – Remember that you’re not the only one in the room, and neither are your teammates. You will either win together or lose together. – Try and remember to let your teammates know what you’ve found. This will save a lot of time and frustration if you share information. Did someone find the missing link you need? Did you find the last piece to a puzzle someone else needs? Talk! Share! Communicate! 😊
Organization – Put clues and locks in one area so everyone sees what you have. There’s nothing worse in an escape room than being disorganized. When you find clues, keep them in one area. Try and find a tabletop where you can put important clues and papers. This will make sure everyone comes together to communicate (See Tip #1) and to have an obvious place to put clues together into something representing order.
Planning – If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail. YES! What a great saying. Not sure who came up with that one, but it’s important to go into an escape room with a plan. You could walk into the escape room and divide and conquer. But we all know that working together is better. So make sure that everyone has somewhat of an idea of things they can do. Split up the searches into different areas. Put clues in one area. Talk out loud and tell others EVERY TIME you open a lock or finding something big. – Have you ever been talking to someone on the phone and someone tries to tell you something? You don’t hear what they’re saying. It’s the same thing here. When you are focusing on one thing, you miss everything else. So come up with a plan and stick to it.
Searching – Divide and conquer. You don’t want to miss something obvious that holds everything up. Find the clues and then piece them together. This is Escape Room 101. You can’t put puzzles together when you’re missing the pieces. Look everywhere. Remember your prepositions: above, below, under, next to, etc…
Bottle necks – Sometimes things are going just swimmingly and then you get stuck. At this point, you may need to come together and focus on the one thing holding you back. You might even have a new room or a new box to open and one little thing is keeping you out from the new treasure chest of information. Usually, you’ll want to divide and conquer, but it may be worth the attention of more people if it’s a big bottleneck that could push you all forward. Stop what you’re doing, figure it out, then go back to life as normal.
Coming back to it – Especially in the beginning, you may need to come back to something that is stopping you. If you don’t have everything you need for a puzzle, leave it and come back to it in a couple minutes or when you find a new piece. Don’t waste time without all of the information you’ll need. This is more common when you’re still in search mode or in the first half of the escape room.
Perspective - Find a new perspective by another player (roles). Let’s face it: we’re all built differently. Math-type people are different than word-type people. You can’t really put everyone in a box, as everyone has different gifts, talents, and the way they view things, so get a different person’s perspective on a puzzle. What is difficult to you might be easy for someone else, and vice versa.
Keep it simple - Don’t complicate things. Don’t try and figure out the first letter of the color of eyes of everyone in a photo when you just needed to know the number of sides of the photo they appear in. Sometimes a number is just a number, and not the square root of a square root of something else.
Matching – Sometimes, things go together in a puzzle. If you see a wall, you might need to find matching colors, numbers, letters, shapes, or something else. Sometimes when you find 2 or 3 things in a box, they go together. In a well-designed escape room, there’s a reason those things are together. Try and find that connection.
Don’t quit – Keep forging ahead. Sometimes you’ll have 8 minutes left in the escape room and you don’t think everything will come together. Focus on what’s in front of you, work together, and don’t quit. You can do this.
Listen - Listen to your handler and utilize them. What is a handler? A handler is your moderator. When they tell you the rules, please listen. Take all of the information and utilize it. They might even give you a hint or two as you begin. If you get stuck, you can ask a question. Listen to what they say. They know things.
Positivity - You’ll need a positive mindset. This is really important because when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Escape Rooms typically require the work of several good minds. Stay positive. Don’t yell at each other, keep bickering to a minimum, and remember to forge ahead. Leave the “I told you so” in the cupboard for a different day. Escape Room day is a positive day that you’ll really enjoy.
