Three strategies to get you out of an escape room

Before going into an escape room, it’s crucial you know some basic information and strategies before you step into your first escape room. An Escape room is a team-based challenge where you work together with a group of people to get out of a space in a limited amount of time. If it’s your first time going, these rooms can be extremely challenging. Fortunately, we have provided you with three strategies to get you out of there like a pro.

Focus on Stops

As your team is starting to make sense of the room, laser focus on what is stopping you from moving forward. You’re going to feel overwhelmed in the beginning. However, as you solve one thing, everything else starts to fall into place. To help with this, work backward from the thing that is stopping you. Identify the inputs that puzzle needs. For example, if you see a lock and the key is close, but you need a hanger to fish it out. Then, you notice a cabinet that has a lock on it as well that probably contains that hanger. At this point, you can focus on the clues for all the locks instead of getting distracted by red herrings.

A red herring is something that has been put in the room that does not influence the game. It can be something simple, or some escape rooms even have red herring puzzles that lead to nothing. So, by working backward and focusing on the inputs needed, you will avoid wasting time on red herring clues.

Utilize Team Roles

Poor communication is the primary reason why teams fail. There are eight different kinds of roles you can assign to your friends to help keep things structured within the room. For example, the project manager is one of the most critical roles for completing the escape room. The project manager helps avoid poor communication between the team members.

The project manager shouldn’t get sucked into puzzles. Instead, they should be the person other people report to and say there is a four-digit combination lock over there. Then the project manager will call that out and let everyone know that we are looking for four-digits. Another person may come up and say there is a five-letter word lock. Therefore, the project manager would let everyone know we are looking for five letters. The project manager keeps track of the active tasks and what needs to be done, who is working on what, and keep the game flow going. However, they want to keep themselves from getting buried in puzzles so they can keep scan what is continuously happening in the escape room.

Focus on Lock Types

You should be familiar with the most common locks and their inputs. Once again, if you work back from what is stopping you, and you know a lock requires three letters, then everyone can focus on finding those three letters. A normal key lock is the most obvious. Then, a combination lock where you’re looking for four numbers in a specific order. You may also find a lock where it’s a combination of letters and numbers, but five in total. You also have your classic dial lock where you need three numbers total, and start spinning clockwise.

Then, you will have your directional lock, which is a little trickier because it can have anywhere from two to 30 inputs. Lastly, you will have a lockbox that can be tricky because they have anywhere from two to ten inputs. Furthermore, it’s good to know that a lockbox can only use each number once, and the order doesn’t matter.

A critical tip to locks is that if you’re pretty sure you have the right code, but it’s not opening. Have someone else try the code before you move one. With the pressure of the game, this tip can save you. Finally, you don’t have to worry about the last digit if you know all the rest of them by using trial and error.

In Conclusion

Once you have finished the room, now what will happen? First, never be upset whether you completed it or not. An escape room experience is meant to be enjoyed for everyone involved, regardless of the result. LockBusters takes everything that makes an escape game awesome and dials it up by a hundred. You need to recognize that the puzzles in escape rooms are meant to be hard, so enjoy the experience. After you have finished, talk with your friends about the experience you all shared and what could have gone better. Reflecting on the experience is guaranteed to give you all something to laugh about in the future.