Advice for New Escape Room Players:

Since I have played over 100 different escape rooms, many people ask my advice on having a successful first game. Here it is.

• Have fun! That is the number one piece of advice while playing in escape room. It is the most important thing.
• Try to get a group of friends together to book an escape room. It will help to have more people playing on your first game, not to mention it will be more fun. It will also help offset the cost of a buyout room. If the escape room you’re booking is not a buyout try to get enough people to fill the escape room so that you aren’t working with strangers. Not everyone will agree with me on this, but I always preferred to play with people I know…not strangers. Many rooms will combine groups if you do not book out the entire escape room with your friends.
• Communicate. I don’t just mean yell out everything you see in the room, but listen to each other. Make sure the person you’re talking to understands you and hears you correctly especially if you’re telling them a code to a combination lock.
• No idea is stupid. If somebody has an idea try it, you never know if they’re right and if they’re wrong it’s no big deal. (OK some ideas are really stupid but try them anyway.)
• If you think you have the right combination and the lock isn’t opening then have someone else try inputting the combination. If it still doesn’t work and you are 100% sure you have the right combination, ask the game master. (Sometimes the lock combination could be correct and human error is causing the lock not to open, but the lock could also be broken…or you have the wrong combo.)
• Find a central spots to place puzzles. Usually a table or a spot on the floor that’s out-of-the-way is a great place to work on puzzles.
• Don’t RE-lock any combination lock that you’ve already solved, it will just confuse everyone.
• 99% of the time you will not have to use force, so don’t.
• If you do not understand how to solve a puzzle there is no shame in asking your team for help that’s the point of teamwork. There’s a good chance that someone else in your group might understand the puzzle if you give them the opportunity. So be sure to share puzzles and if you’re stumped ask for fresh eyes on what you’re working on.
• If there is a black light and there probably will be: shine it’s in the most logical places first and then shine it everywhere else.
• Searching. Don’t forget to look behind doors, on ceilings, on the floor, inside boxes, books, drawers, coat pockets, clocks and anything that opens. Remember just because you saw someone else look there doesn’t mean they looked they’re completely doublecheck everything.
• And last but not least…I strongly believe that if you want to get out of the room and you need a hint, you should use that hint to help you get out of the room instead of being stubborn and being stuck.