Escape rooms often involve a race against time. After all, if you’re not pushed then what motive do you have to escape?! The click will be ticking!
Escaping an escape room is about working well under pressure, rational and logical thinking, creativity, imagination, and teamwork. Needless to say, you’ll need a bit of everything to really smash an escape room and get out in the quickest time possible.
There are some strategies and techniques that you can employ, though. By planning, preparing, and psyching yourself up, you can maximise your chances of escaping fast!
Here are some tips on how to escape an escape room quickly.
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Relax!
Escape rooms are fun and exciting and whilst there can be a level of mystery, urgency, or even alarm, there is nothing to actually worry about. Excitement is well and good – we encourage that! – but don’t stress! Relaxation prior to an escape room experience will put you in the best headspace for focus. Relaxation brings about a level of mental clarity that helps you make decisions quicker and more efficiently.
Andrenaline will likely kick in at some point when time is getting tight or you’re having problems solving puzzles and that is fine – this should push you harder to find solutions when you need to urgently. But, in the beginning, you’ll see the bigger picture much easier if you just let yourself relax into things.
Think
Escape rooms are largely solved in the brain. This is why they’ve been scientifically proven to be so good for our thinking skills. Think about the plot, the props, the objects, your ultimate objective, and also your team. You won’t just have to think logically but creatively too. Not all puzzles will be about maths and letters and some will require abstract thinking
Use Teamwork
Where teamwork is required, it’s very important to focus on this clearly and constructively. Great communication is always necessary. Escape rooms are often used in team-building events as they efficiently improve and build communication between different team members with different personalities. Leaders are great at delegating roles, but they can often get tunnel vision, becoming fixated on the wrong solutions. Introspective individuals, on the other hand, are often the best at lateral thinking and it’s crucial that they get their ideas across and that others listen to them. Everyone’s opinion is valid when it comes to an escape room, young, old, it doesn’t matter – you have to work as a team!
Engage the Senses
Escape rooms are about mental alertness and awareness. Some things may be hidden deep in the room and its props and furniture. Others may be hidden right under your nose! To discover everything you need, you’ll have to be engaged. Sight, sound, smell and touch may all be needed. Look and feel your way around the escape room.
Don’t Give Up
It’s amazing how well we can come up with solutions when we think we’re on the cusp of giving up hope. It’s essential that you give it everything you’ve got. This also includes backtracking on previous puzzles and approaches if you later believe you were wrong. Don’t be afraid to concede past mistakes!
And Play More Escape Rooms!
Practice makes perfect! Learning how to escape an escape room quickly is about getting more escape room exposure. The more escape room exposure you get, the better you’ll be. This won’t just benefit your escape room experiences but also your mental and cognitive skills. We all know that getting out to escape rooms in public right now is hard.
There is a solution! Epic Escapes are a leading provider of escape-rooms-in-a-box that you can set up from your own home. Check out the Starter Pack that contains not one, or two, but three unique escape rooms!