YOUR BIGGEST ENEMY IN ESCAPE ROOMS
TLDR: Don’t guess in an escape room. It’s an enormous waste of time (and really not very fun).
No, your biggest enemy in an escape room isn’t the clock. Your biggest enemy is “just trying something.”
“Giving something a shot.”
Predicting. Speculating. There’s a lot of ways to wrap the word 'GUESSING,’ but no matter how you spell it, it means trouble in the escape room.
Why is guessing such a bad idea? It’s not against the rules, so how could it hurt to just… try something?
While it’s possible to open a lock or find a hidden passageway with this tactic, the probability you will be successful is about 1 in 10,000. In short, it would require more time than you have to cycle through even a reasonable amount of possibilities. Ultimately, after many unsuccessful attempts at guessing, you will have to settle in and solve the puzzle before you. This is more fun, infinitely more satisfying, and it will help you complete the room faster!
That, combined with the fact that professional escape room puzzles are designed specifically to prevent guessing, means you’re better off identifying puzzles and trying to work them out with your brain, rather than grabbing a prop and rubbing it on everything to see what it might do.
Here’s the 3 Step Process we would recommend for your best chance at success in an ESCAPE! Alaska escape room.
IDENTIFY THE PUZZLE
Once you find something that needs to be solved, try to discover the process for solving it. A well-designed escape room will provide the answers to those who pay attention. For example, we have seen players reach over an item they had not even looked at to ask for help, when the answer was on the item.
WORK ON SOLVING THE PUZZLE
Remember, you have to solve a puzzle in your brain before you can do it in the real world. If you’re trying to physically manipulate something in the room and you couldn’t quickly explain why that appears to be the answer, you’re probably guessing.
A player may discover what needs to be done, but be unable to complete the puzzle on their own. Bring in another team member and show them what you’ve learned so far. If you complete as much of a puzzle as appears to be possible and it’s still not giving you anything, move on! You may need to discover another element later in the game to complete that puzzle.
COMPLETE THE PUZZLE
Following through on the process for solving a puzzle should lead you to its answer. If you and your teammates still find a particular puzzle too challenging, this is where it would be good to ask for help. We all want to do as much as possible on our own, of course, but there is no shame in asking for a little nudge in the right direction. Fewer than 4% of teams complete THE TOMB with no hints, and that number is much smaller in our NOIR escape room.
We completely understand wanting to “try something” when playing an escape room, being guilty ourselves, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t spend too much time guessing because… that clock is ticking.