Since our last post you may have planned your very first visit to one of our eight locations, or maybe you’ve been bitten by the escape room bug and have a few visits under your belt and in the pipeline.  Regardless of your experience level, these experiences are designed to be fun and varied challenges.  Even for the most seasoned escape room player, some puzzles can be a little bit daunting at first glance.  Often, the most difficult part is knowing exactly where to begin!  In this blog, I’ll be treating you to some helpful hints and pointers towards tackling any escape room, Trapp’d or otherwise.

Ease yourself in!

Start easy, if you’ve never done an escape room before try to stick to the “easier” rooms such as 2 star or 3 star difficulty ratings.  With our rooms, always check the escape rate percentage to give yourself a good picture as to how achievable escaping might be for you and your crew.  Remember: you’re a beginner, don’t overcomplicate things! You want to enjoy yourself, not overpower yourself.

Read up about your room!

A few groups visited our Northampton branch last week confused the escape rate percentage with another company’s scale of difficulty, choosing The Temple of Yumiko over End of the Line (or EOTL).  Whilst both rooms are fun and accessible, Yumiko has a 30% escape rate compared with EOTL’s 67%.  As they were new to escape rooms, they thought that Yumiko was easier and mistook the 30% escape rate as only 30% difficulty.  At Trapp’d, our percentages relate to how many people have completed the room within the allotted time and our star ratings represent the difficulty of the room itself.  Every company differs with how they communicate the trickiness of their rooms, so make sure you totally understand which rooms are more simplistic and which rooms are a bit devilish before you book!  If you are unsure or confused at all, please feel free to ring us with any questions you might have or alternatively email us at [email protected].

How many are in your group?

Contrary to popular belief, sometimes size really does matter.  The minimum of people you can have in a group is 2 and the maximum is 6, but the number of people in your group can be the key to your success.  Having only 2 can make it harder to spot certain things as there aren’t enough eyes to really take in everything you might need to consider.  Keeping your team small though is a good idea, particularly if it’s your first visit.  I would say an ideal group size is probably 3-4 players; there’s less chance of miscommunication and missing important clues!  Any more teammates and your thought process might be overwhelmed.  Too many cooks really can spoil the broth, and who wants to come to an escape room and make a manky broth?

Take note of your surroundings

Before you start trying to solve anything, first have a look around.  What do you see?  Is everything as it seems?  Is there anything in the room that might relate to other items or padlocks?  You might see furniture, but it could be marked specifically with a relevant clue.  Maybe even try turning some bits upside down and looking for anything hidden!  Remember what locks you have.  Make sure you read everything and inspect thoroughly!  Once you’ve had a really good look round you can start putting 2 and 2 together more easily.

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Communicate!  Talk to your team.  If you find something, tell the group!  If you can’t work a lock or understand something, swap out and let someone else try; a second pair of eyes can work wonders.  If a teammate makes a suggestion, try not to immediately disregard it; they may be onto something and even if they’re not, what they’re thinking might be relevant later.  Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and some players might be better suited to solve certain puzzles.

Use your friendly neighbourhood Games Master!

Don’t ever be afraid to ask your Games Master for help.  If you’re going down the wrong path, we are more than happy to place you firmly back on track.  Our job is to make sure you’re having fun and not feeling horribly frustrated whilst completing your room.  In fact, we might sometimes ask you if you’d like a hint, which is our very polite way of suggesting you may be a little far away from the answers you’re looking for.  If you’d rather not have any clues, you can make us aware of this before or during your game, but pride doesn’t mean prizes at Trapp’d: if you’re stuck, really just ask! We’re to help not to hinder.

Listen carefully to your G.M.

Once you’re ready and you’ve popped your belongings into our secure lockers, your Games Master will give you a brief as to what types of padlock you will be unlocking and what things may distract you from your game. Distractions include but are not limited to padlocks that we use to reset each room and certain props that may only be relevant at the very end.  Certain parts of your brief may be specific to the room you’re about to play, so please pay attention to these details as they will help you become more efficient.  An hour passes by surprisingly quickly, so wasting time on unnecessary tasks can be costly!

Fancy testing these handy hints out in one of our 19 rooms?  Then book today!  Don’t forget to always look at our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok for any offers and information.  We hope to see you soon!