Escape Room Tips shared by Tucson’s Ace of Escape

Here are some great tips for a successful escape room experiences compiled by Ace of Escape:

1) Don’t travel as a pack too much. It helps to break up into pairs and have different people working different parts of the room or different puzzles. It also helps to switch it up a bit and let other teammates work on puzzles you’re not getting. But when groups stay together as a large pack for much of the game, they often find themselves running out of time, or have several members of their group just standing around observing. (UltimateLockDown.com)

2) COMMUNICATE. COMMUNICATE A LOT. AND THEN COMMUNICATE MORE. You show me a group that doesn’t come close to escaping the room, and I’ll show you a group that had a hard time sharing with each other.

All the (real) clues are connected in some way. There are 10 of you, and all of you are (hopefully) finding different clues. If you don’t talk to each other, or share what you’ve found, or put them together, your quest will be hopeless. Talk and show, and let others talk to and show you. Talk out the problem, together. Tell them what you think, and listen to what they think. Ten heads ARE better than one. (PGAVdestinations.com)

3) Mood matters
Know what correlates with success in an escape room? Your attitude. Right now you’re thinking “Surely you mean intelligence”, or “This is some feel-good, fun-is-what-matters point.” No, and no.

I see intelligent teams come through all the time, and there’s no correlation with success. Most games are built without necessary prior knowledge, so your degree in cryptography or your Grand Master Chess skills are actually putting you in danger of overthinking the puzzles.

What absolutely does correlate positively is a fun, enthusiastic attitude. Teams that get excited, into the game, always finish faster (and have more fun). They feel a rush every time a mini puzzle is solved, and run to the next one.

The only thing that correlates more negatively than apathy is alcohol — and even that is moreso due to the sobering up effect that happens about 30-40 minutes in, resulting in even worse apathy. (Lifehacker.com/au)

4) Work Fast (and Ask for Clues) at the Beginning
An hour in an escape room seems like plenty of time, and that false sense of security encourages people to dawdle early on. Bryce says that’s probably the biggest threat to the team. By the time people realize what kind of trouble they’re in, it’s usually way too late and the unsolved clues have piled up. Bryce has seen enough teams to know that “it’s easy to work fast when you have five minutes left.” That’s why he suggests starting out with a real sense of urgency.

The same thing applies to hints. Often, people will refuse to ask for their hint because they think it feels like cheating. Asking for a hint with five minutes left is like asking for a raise while you’re getting fired: it’s not going to do you any good and you’re probably going to feel a little silly. Don’t let pride get the best of you. It’s natural to want to solve the room like a true Sherlock, but teams that win act more like Columbo: they ask questions. (Groupon.com)

5) Search carefully!

Some items are carefully hidden. Look under and around for hidden objects or information. (PortlandEscapeRooms)