General Escape Room Tips to Help Solve Most Escape Rooms

Solving an escape room is like any other skill. It takes ample knowledge and continuous practice to get good at it. While there is no secret formula or guarantees to escaping, knowing some proven techniques will help you better prepare and experience better results. Here in this guide, you’ll find twelve useful tips for solving most escape rooms.

Whatever tips you try and abide by, remember that escape rooms are meant to be an immersive, fun and challenging experience. Consider each solved puzzle, riddle, or task an achievement, and remember that there’s always a next time! Whether you escape or not, you should feel a sense of accomplishment and pride that you and your team worked together towards a shared goal. 

Now let’s get into some tips for best solving escape rooms. 

12 Tips for Solving Escape Rooms

Tip #1 Listen to Your Escape Room Guide 

It’s essential to listen to your game guide as they break down the rules, objectives and storyline for your game. You don’t want to enter the room and be confused about what your team is trying to accomplish. You’ll want to understand the characters, their story and the mission at hand. Listen closely; they could even be dropping secret clues! 

Tip #2 Know Your Goals 

After meeting with your experience guide, clearly define your goals and objectives within your team. Does everyone understand the rules and what’s happening? Is it a puzzle-based experience or a riddle-based game? Get inside your character’s mindset. Thinking ahead and preparation are the keys to a successful escape room strategy plan. 

Tip #3 Talk With Your Team 

You’ll want to talk with your team before entering the escape room. Make sure you know everyone’s name and ensure everyone paid close attention to your experience guide’s breakdown of the rules. You can even assign a team lead, a mediator or different roles within the group. 

Tip #4 Communicate With Your Teammates 

Escaping an escape room is a team effort. You’ve got to be willing to listen to your teammate’s ideas and tactics – yes, even the ones that seem crazy! Collaboration is the key in this situation and you need to ensure that everyone is in harmony with each other. 

Tip #5 Announce When You’ve Found Something

Many times clues, riddles and puzzles come in the form of twos. Meaning if you have a lock, one of your teammates probably has the key. Or you could have the missing puzzle piece in your hand, but your entire team is unaware. Overshare as much information as you can to reduce your chances of miscommunication. You don’t want to be sitting around in your own world when your team needs you! 

Tip #6 Ask For Help 

If you’ve been stuck on a puzzle, riddle, or clue for some time, it’s best to either ask for help or delegate it to another team member! A fresh set of eyes could be just the thing your team needs to crack the code. It might take a few people to figure it out, and that’s perfectly fine. Better than you draining all your energy on one task and ending up nowhere. 

Tip #7 Search the Entire Room Thoroughly 

Your first step is to perform an extensive search. Before the timer even starts, visually scan the room, making a mental map and looking for hidden areas. Then put all your efforts into finding clues and objects right after the timer goes off. Knowing that you’ve already searched the place top to bottom will save your team headaches down the road as you’re putting clues together. 

Make sure you look at even the most obscure places, such as 

• Coat pockets.
• Inside a book or folder.
• Nestled in a piece of furniture.
• Underneath a prop. 
• Handing from the wall or object. 

Tip #8 Keep Clues and Objects Organized 

Escape rooms can often be high-stress, fast-paced environments. To give your team the best chance of success, keep all your clues and objects organized as best you can. Keep keys inside locks and stack objects neatly, placing all related clues next to each other. Additionally, make a discard pile of used clues or objects that are no longer in play. 

• Keep related items next to each other.
• Clear away a table or small area to place clues on.
• Ensure you have enough space and ample lighting to examine clusters of objects closely
• Make a discard pile of used clues. 

Tip #9 Split up the Search

When searching your escape room, have each member go to a different area to find clues. This will help you save time and ensure that each part of the room is thoroughly covered. If you find something during your search, speak up and let your team know. 

Tip #10 Thoroughly Look at the Clue or Lock 

Once you find a certain clue, lock, or piece of the puzzle, don’t just start hammering out just any idea or code that comes to mind. Take your time and look for clues, brainstorm ideas, get inside your character’s head, and come to a conclusion that you think best fits. You may not be right the first time, but you will definitely be closer than just taking a random guess! Escape rooms are all about problem-solving and thinking about what would make sense for your room theme and scenario. 

Tip #11 Use Your Given Hints 

In most cases, you can ask for hints during your escape room experience. If you feel extremely stuck, frustrated, or need additional information, get creative and ask your game guide for a clue. This can usually be done by waving, talking to the camera, or pushing a button. Don’t think of this as a form of weakness, sometimes hints are necessary to keep the game moving forward! 

Tip #12 Try it Twice

Does your code not work the first time you try it? Maybe you don’t think the lock fits into the key. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, you enter a code wrong even though you swear you entered it right, and same with inserting locks. Take a deep breath and spend extra time ensuring you are entering the information or lock correctly, even asking a team member to double check. When in doubt, try it two to three times! 

In Summary 

Overall, if you are new to the escape room world or just want to up your game play, keep these essentials tips in mind: 

• Make sure you know the rules.
• Get into character.
• Communicate and listen to your team members.
• Remain as organized and calm as possible. 
• Be thorough in everything you do. 
• Enjoy the experience!

We hope these tips were helpful and made you more comfortable with solving escape rooms! If  you still have questions about escape rooms, check out our guide to everything escape rooms or frequently asked questions page to learn more! 

The Escape Revolution Los Angeles 

Want to test these tips in action? Book an experience at The Escape Revolution in the heart of Los Angeles! No matter your skill level or previous experience with escape rooms, we offer three thrilling rooms (plus a new escape room coming in Spring 2023), all with unique themes and a totally immersive experience. It’s not a game. It’s a revolution. 

To read more about our selection of escape room experiences click here.