The concept of escape rooms has been a popular choice for entertainment, team building, birthday celebrations, social gatherings, and adrenaline adventures. However, have you been constantly failing to pass? Or are you afraid to try, fearing a blow to your ego?
We bring you 10 proverbs to remember so you increase your chances of a successful escape. That way your potential fiasco won't be the elephant in the room at the next gathering where the team plans their next escape room adventure.
1. Be all ears!
Even if you're an experienced player and know how to play escape room games, listen carefully to the game master and the story they will tell you. Well-designed rooms connect the theme with the mechanism or solution of the puzzle, so remember where you are, what your goal is, and what kind of character you need to embody. Also, pay attention to specific prohibitions and instructions for locks that the game master will tell you because they often reveal where players commonly make mistakes or waste the most time.
2. Organization is half the battle
We recommend designating two places in the room:
a place to store items you have used
a place for items that have been found but not yet used
The first pile will be the most useful to you because in most rooms, all items in puzzles are used only once. A place for found and unused items is useful so that other players who may have a better idea of what to do with them have the opportunity to examine them. Also, we recommend that when you find something, announce it clearly and concisely before placing it on the pile.
3. Try to find a needle in a haystack
One of the first and main tasks for any team is to thoroughly search the room. Open everything you can, look into hidden corners, but don't waste time on the forbidden places. For example, if the game master told you not to move pieces of furniture or search above your head, trust their words and save time. In addition to searching for puzzles, try to identify all locks and keys so that you have a mental picture of what codes and keys you will need to apply that logic to solving puzzles.
4. Brains are better than brawn
Remember that everything in the escape room is designed to be accessible to most people. So, disregard ideas for solving puzzles that involve great force or excessive fatigue. If you get five numbers, you certainly don't need to enter all their permutations into the lock to reveal the code; you need to discover the sequence of the numbers received.
5. Where there's smoke, there's fire
Since escape rooms are like sets and performances in which you are the main characters, remember Chekhov's famous saying: Never place a loaded gun on stage if it won't shoot. In other words, almost every item will be part of the puzzle. For example, if you find an unusually long pencil in a locked drawer, you probably don't just need it to write, but you may also use it to reach something inaccessible. However, with that said, we come to the next tip.
Never place a loaded gun on stage if it won't shoot.
6. All that glitters is not gold
To prevent the game from being too easy and to make the space as realistic as possible, the room probably contains many decorations, and not everything you see is part of the puzzle. Examine the item carefully, and if you conclude based on intuition or experience that it is not part of the puzzle, leave it alone or discard it in the pile designated for used or irrelevant items. Besides decorations, there may also be so-called red herrings in the room, or items intentionally designed to look like part of the puzzle but aren't. To detect such items, remember the first tip and the story you're in!
7. Too many cooks spoil the broth
We know you want to experience all aspects of the room and be the main hero in solving all the puzzles, but if your teammate is a math doctor and you usually struggle with the bill at the café, let them solve the more challenging mathematical puzzles. During that time, try to find a new puzzle that may be tailored just for you! Of course, this advice applies if the room is not linear and there are multiple puzzles to solve at the same time. If you're interested in the room type, feel free to ask the game master before the game.
8. Haste makes waste
You have limited time, but certainly enough to solve all the puzzles. So, for example, when you enter a new hidden room, even if you want to escape as quickly as possible fueled by new adrenaline, don't give in to panic and lose morale, but gather yourself and continue solving puzzles as before!
9. Measure twice, cut once
Keep in mind that digital locks you may encounter in rooms often have a lockout after several incorrect code entries. So, when entering a code that seems crucial, try to be sure of your attempt. Of course, don't let that discourage you from trying codes, but you probably don't need to enter every number you find into the keyboard that seems very likely to open the next room.
10. What goes around, comes around
One of the keys is hidden in an extremely narrow opening, and it's impossible for anyone to reach it without assistance. But you're lucky to have a friend known for her extremely slim and long fingers, and she also has joint hypermobility, so she managed to reach the key herself. Maybe it seems like a great coincidence to you then, but chances are you've ruined the game for yourself or at least a good part of it. Escape room puzzles are often sequential, and if you deliberately skip something, you'll easily get lost and may look for a solution to something you've already solved. Well-designed rooms should minimize this, but if you don't want to spoil the experience, don't intentionally try to "cheat" the room.
BONUS PROVERB
A healthy mind in a healthy body!
Try to play the escape room when you're rested, full of enthusiasm, and will. If you're known as a party animal on Saturday nights, maybe reserving an escape room on Sunday morning isn't the best idea. However, an escape room can be a great warm-up before going out on Saturday.
In the end, it's not always about winning but having fun, so you can leave these proverbs in (un)read books and write your new victories or defeats in our escape room on Ribnjak, which will bring Zagreb and Croatia of the 70s to life for you.