Tip #1. Don’t try to take on the Red Lock Escape Room puzzles solo!
If you’ve been stuck on a puzzle for too long and can’t figure out the solution,appoint a fellow team member to help or take over on the puzzle. This way, other unsolved aspects of the escape room don’t get overlooked and that there is enough time to solve each puzzle. If you’ve all been stuck on one puzzle and can’t figure it out or complete it – normally that means you need more information (or hint!).
Tip #2. Listen to your team
Escape rooms function more smoothly when the team works together, coordinates as a group, and they try everything. One of your teammates might have an “out of the box” but reasonable idea that you might not think would work, encourage, and listen to them. Try it with them! It might just be that thing you needed that gets you closer to the final solution. Either way, it will be fun!
Tip #3. Shout what you find
If you’re working on a puzzle and figure it out, don’t be quiet about it. So often you will have found all the clues for the next step of the escape room, but half the team don’t know it yet. Shouting solutions as you go keeps everyone up to date and might be the thing that a person in your team needs to solve a puzzle they are stuck on. Escape room games are won and lost based on how quickly teammates who find related items can match them together. This includes things like a code and a key, a key and a lock, or 2 numbers that appear that need to be combined.
Tip #4. Work on what other people aren’t working on
This helps spread apart your team and have each team member be as effective as possible. There’s a tendency to dismiss or skip over some puzzles that are “too hard” to do at first glance. This leaves some puzzles forgotten and undone until someone realizes that they’re needed later on in the escape room.
Tip #5. Don’t “clump” around the same puzzle
Be a contributor to a puzzle and not a spectator. It’s too easy to be a spectator when interesting progress is being made on a puzzle, but people are more effective when they’re spread out and working on what needs to be done! If there’s only one puzzle left however, by all means let the whole team brainstorm!
Tip #6. Keep used keys in their lock
A key is almost never used twice. Leave it in the lock so you don’t get confused! This will help prevent the key from being used again, prevent someone else from trying out another key on the lock, and prevent you from accidentally locking the object again. In very rare cases, a key may be used more than once, so keep that in mind too as a last resort option.
Tip #7. Make a “used pile”
Separate objects in the game into a “used” pile and an “unused” pile. This helps prevent team members from examining the same object again and again. This also helps you connect certain “unused” items by placing them in physical proximity! Note that in some escape rooms, objects may be “used” more than once.
Tip #8. Search the room thoroughly
Be very thorough when looking and touching everywhere, as if you were painting the room rather than as if you were just looking for where you put your phone. Sometimes key objects can be in the most exotic (or non-exotic) of places.
Tip #9. Listen to your Red Lock game master
Listen to the intro and rules by your game master – your game master might slip some helpful hints at the beginning that will save you a lot of time. This applies to the hints that they give in-game too. All of the staff in-game will try to nudge you in the right direction.
Tip #10. Don’t use excessive force
Breaking things is both bad for the escape games and the players – for everything including game functionality, player safety, and important game sequences. Avoid forcing open any doors or detaching anything from the walls that don’t easily come off. Avoid climbing on furniture, or touching the ceiling. The game masters will run through the game rules beforehand on what things you should and shouldn’t do.
Tip #11. Don’t be afraid or upset to lose
The game is a lot more fun when you solve puzzles genuinely and don’t rush chaotically to finish the game. These games can be hard, but are also simultaneously fun and immensely satisfying. Enjoy yourselves, and embrace the game and your friends, not the outcome, and you will have lots of fun!
