Have you played escape rooms before and gotten stuck? Or maybe you’ve never played one before and you’re nervous about how well your team will do? Perhaps your company is doing their next corporate event at an escape room and you want to look smart in front of your co-workers, or maybe you want to make sure your next birthday party idea is a smashing success? If you’re nervous about escaping, keep an eye out for these common mistakes to make sure your next escape room is a perfect experience!

5. Not Looking for Clues

We often observe people parking themselves in front of locks and trying random codes for a significant portion of the hour in the room. You’ll never need to guess theme-related words or combinations to open any lock – instead, look around to find clues! When you do find those locks, take mental notes of what types of combinations you need (or write them down), then think back on your locks when you think you’ve solved a puzzle. You will never escape by just guessing.

4. Not Taking Inventory

Groups often get stuck when they find a lock whose combination they’d found much earlier, but had since forgotten. A similar problem happens when groups find an object that needs a second puzzle piece that was found much earlier, but also forgotten. These problems can be avoided if you take inventory! A common way to do this is to create two piles in the room – a pile of all the objects that are not yet used, and a pile of objects that have been used. A system like this can help when you get stuck – you can go back through the pile of useful things instead of wandering around the room trying to remember what you’ve done. We also provide whiteboards in all of our rooms, so make sure you’re writing things down! If you found something that might be a code but you’re not sure, and you’ve written it down, you’ll actually remember to try it on that lock you find fifteen minutes later.

3. Not Asking for Help

A big ego is a huge reason people don’t escape. If you’ve spent more than ten minutes with no good leads on a puzzle, you might need a little help to make sure you’re not missing something. Despite how you may feel, there’s no shame in asking for help – it’s far better to escape by asking for clues than to not escape without asking for clues, and we do not penalize groups for using clues. Also, if everyone on your team wants to use a clue except for you, don’t ruin your friend’s fun birthday party idea by being that one person who refuses to ask for help. It’s okay to admit you need help and ask for advice. It doesn’t mean you’re not smart, it usually just means you’re missing something small, and you only need a small poke in the right direction to get the momentum going.

2. Over-complicating

The simplest solutions are often the best. If we do require a complicated solution, there will be generous clues in the room to guide you along the way. If you’ve found a series of numbers, rather than translate those into letters for a letter code, try using them on a number lock. If you have an object with a lot of useful letters or numbers on it, try reading from left to right. You won’t need to do complicated things like find page numbers in books if there’s no clue telling you to do that. Also, you won’t need to do any complicated math if there are no clues telling you to do so. Think simpler.

1. Not Communicating

This is by far the biggest mistake teams can make. When you find something, make sure you tell everyone what you found and where you found it! Don’t just put items back where you found them, or others won’t know it’s been found. Also, be sure to talk through your thought process about solving a puzzle! Even if you’re worried that you’re wrong or you’ll look dumb, your thoughts may be what helps one of your teammates have a break-through moment and solve the puzzle. Communication also includes listening, so make sure you pay attention! Don’t disregard ideas because you think they’re wrong or too far-fetched, because there’s no such thing in an escape room! Also, your younger team members are often full of correct ideas, so make sure you’re listening to them, too!

And there you have it! Have you found yourself making these mistakes before? The next time you have a fun team building event or a birthday party at the best escape room in Arlington, just avoid these mistakes and you’ll be successful!