What Kinds of Puzzles Can You Find in an Escape Room?

Escape rooms are extremely popular these days and if you haven’t tried them yet you definitely should! And don’t worry about being the first time comer to the game. The rules of the game are extremely easy — do whatever it takes to get out of the room. Believe in the impossible, think out of the box, and question everything you see.

But if you still worry about not getting what to do in your first escape room, or wondering what kind of puzzles will you find there, or if you are generally interested in how those things work from the inside, we’ve created a short guide on what kinds of puzzles in an escape room you should expect to find.

So here are some types of puzzles you need to solve in the real life escape rooms. Hope you will use it right and really take an advantage of knowing few of those puzzle ideas. Enjoy!

Hidden objects

So the first kind of puzzles you’ll encounter in your play will definitely be the hidden objects. The first challenge you need to overcome is to learn how to observe things critically and use your imagination to the fullest extent. Simply because everything important for the game will be well hidden.

It can be an object glued to the table from the underneath or secretly hidden button that should reveal the whole puzzle for you. What we are trying to say here — explore every centimeter of the gaming space. Hidden objects are everywhere.

Design (visualities)

One more extremely common type of clues your team can find are those which are hidden in the decor. In other words, escape rooms using the full potential of their space and objects. All of the objects in the room, like images on the wall, decor items ( flower pots, statues, rugs), etc. might have the second meaning. Or they may give you a hint for the next puzzle.

For instance, the number of the frog images in the room might play a greater deal later on. Or the portrait of the person, in fact, can be a symbol connected to the puzzle you are trying to solve at the moment.

Riddles (labyrinth, puzzles)

No properly made escape room can be made without actual riddles. Such things like mazes, Sudoku, crosswords. etc. are essential for the real-life escape games. So what you should expect from the game is finding some riddles patiently waiting for you in every corner. The other thing is that you might be given the map for going through the maze or the key to the box with the riddle. And that’s when you will need to work hard.

Light & Sound

Probably creators of the escape room decided that the visual hints are «too easy to spot» kind of thing. It is so much more interesting when your team cannot see the hint that can be noticed only in the blacklight. All the sparkling messages on the wall, the UV-paint, etc. make a great contribution to the game.

Sounds also matter during the course of the play. For instance:

1. Those can be the Morse code.
2. The songs that hide the message in the lyrics.
3. The melody tune that you will have to repeat on that mini piano they put in the corner.
4. This can actually be the record which says where to go next, but it says just parts of it in different rooms simultaneously. So your teammates will have to spread out.

One way or another, don’t miss anything you hear!

Numbers & Texts

Don’t start panicking here. No one will expect you to do the hardcore math but most likely you will have to deal with simple numbers. This stuff is very much appreciated in the escape rooms.

Another thing is texts. You should question all the text content you see there and read it really carefully. Actually, not read it but initially look for the clues between the lines.

Mirrors are also widely used for that particular reasons. Quite commonly there is no way to read the text if it is not read in the mirror reflection. Or the text is actually written on the mirror surface but you need to breathe on it in order to see.

Puzzles involving physical activity

Another funny type of puzzles in an escape room is that when you are asked to move. Literally. And most often quite energetically. It can be hand-eye coordination challenges, for instance, when you need:

1. to hit the target with something, like a ball or a water gun;
2. to find a creative way to get to the clue;
3. to break the lock;
4. to make some knots.

In addition, there can be even electrical darts game where you need to hit the specific number. So yes, that can be a bit of a challenge. But that is literally the funniest part of the play!

Long game puzzles (set, combinations)

Finally, one more very popular type of the puzzle is to use assemblies, sets or combination of different subjects. For instance, the room might have two objects that so clearly make an assembly. So when you connect them you will have a reward, like a hint of the next secret place or something.

Sets are also a great way to make the game harder to pass. Those can be a group of similar objects, or the pieces of the hint written on different sheets and hidden everywhere in the room. Or the order might be less chaotic and they are hidden in particular positions.

Wrapping up

We hope this short guide of ours has cleared some things for you. Those were just a few major types of puzzles that we managed to cover in one piece. The world of the escape games is huge, unique and constantly developing, take a chance to experience it on your own! Try to play escape room game, explore it and have fun!