Escape Room Tips & Tricks from an experienced player
The day has come. You and your team are finally going to play an escape room! I'm a true lover of escape rooms, and DarkPark asked me to share my escape room tips & tricks with you. Of course I want to do that: with pleasure, even!
I hope this makes you enjoy the game even more and that you get everything out of it. There are so many great elements in escape rooms; you have to experience it for yourself.
Tip 1: Play to each other's strengths
In an escape room you'll find different kinds of puzzles. (Stating the obvious, I know, but it needs saying.) Riddles, math puzzles, reading puzzles, logical reasoning, search-and-find pictures, communication puzzles, old-fashioned jigsaws. I've come across all of them. That also means there's a suitable puzzle for every player. Something for everyone!
In an escape room you can also just happen to discover talents you didn't know you had. I always thought math puzzles weren't for me, but under time pressure it turns out I'm suddenly good at them. In short, find each other's strengths and make use of them.
By the way, even after playing more than a hundred rooms, escape room builders keep surprising me with puzzles I've never seen before.
Tip 2: Keep it simple
The maker of an escape room would love for you to see every room and so reach the end. The host also wants you to have a great time. In other words: puzzles are designed so that most teams can solve them. So don't overthink a task. Keep it simple. Don't lose yourself in all kinds of illogical reasoning. Check your reasoning with your teammates: do they think it's too far-fetched? Then it probably is. Oh, but do make sure you've tried your own reasoning first! Sometimes you're simply right and you just need a bit of confidence.
Tip 3: Make someone responsible for collecting items, or agree on a collection point
In an escape room you often come across items you need to solve things. Maybe you have to collect several objects to get a cabinet open, or you find a small key in a drawer that you won't need until much later in the game. So make one team member responsible for collecting important objects. In my team, that's me. Everything my teammates find that matters gets pressed into my hands for safekeeping. Don't want to, or can't, put someone in charge? Then agree on a collection point where you keep all the items together until you need them (think of a desk or a table).
Tip 4: Say everything you see
This is the best tip I can give you. Communication is the key to success. Talk about what you come across. If you share what you've seen on one side of the room, your teammate might just be able to solve the puzzle on the other side of the room. That saves you time (and so leaves more room to enjoy everything happening around you, but I'll come back to that later).
It's also very handy to say what you need to get something open. Have you spotted a number code? Are you looking for letters instead? Or a small key? Let your teammates know, so they know what to look for too. It gives direction, and that makes things easier.
Tip 5: Stuck? Let someone else take a look
Stuck? It happens to everyone now and then. But that's the great thing about escape rooms: you're not alone. Let someone else take a look. Your fellow player has fresh eyes and may well have a different angle. Talking about the puzzle together helps too. What one person says can suddenly be the key for the other to solving the puzzle. And what a great feeling that is!
Bonus tip: enjoy it!
You know what it is? The puzzles in escape rooms are obviously an important part of the game, but you only start enjoying it for real when you take the time to take in the whole experience. At DarkPark especially, I've noticed that trying to set a fast time is actually a waste. There is so much to enjoy there: the set, the music, the light effects and the technology. In some rooms at DarkPark, let's not forget: the actors. Escape rooms with actors bring a whole different set of challenges with them, by the way. Either way: stop for a moment, look around you and let yourself be amazed. That makes the experience even better.
