Top 7 Things To Do When You are Stuck Inside An Escape Room.

by ClueIQ Team | Feb 24, 2022 | Escape Room

There are plenty of things to do when you are stuck inside an escape room.

If you’ve played enough escape games, you’ll get stuck eventually. We’ve all been there! Staring aimlessly as the timer counts down, pulling on locked doors, and hoping for a miracle. However, when nothing seems to be helping, it pays to get your mind straight and fight your way back.

While escape rooms are thrilling, things can quickly take a U-turn when the situation stops going your way. Whether you’re a first-timer or a pro, you’re bound to get stuck at some point. And that can be highly frustrating. However, there are several things that you can do to get unstuck. Here’s the list.

What to do When You’re Stuck in an Escape Room?

Follow these seven steps if you’re stuck in an escape room.

Work Together

This might seem like a no-brainer since teamwork is the essence of every escape game. However, most people tend to deviate from the basics in the face of adversity. The trick is to regain your confidence and get back on track.

Communication is critical when working with a team. If you find a new puzzle or a clue, inform your teammates, so they don’t keep searching for the same props. This saves valuable time and increases your chances of beating the clock.

If you’re stuck with no respite in sight, take a few moments and revisit the progress made so far. Your teammates can often lend interesting insights to complex problems. So, ask for help or switch a puzzle with a teammate.

Maybe the clue you were seeking was just five feet away, and you needed a new perspective to recognize it. Sometimes you just another person to tell you how to do things. And that’s what your teammates are for. Working together will make things easier for everybody.

Take a Break to Gather Your Wits

Escape games are designed to test your memory, observational skills, dedication, and deductive reasoning. But maintaining composure every time isn’t easy, and you’re bound to lose patience at some point.

When the situation arises, it’s essential to take a break. A breather isn’t a sign of weakness or giving up. Just because a puzzle was designed to give you a hard time doesn’t mean you must suffer endlessly.

Learning to take a break is an important life lesson imparted at advanced escape rooms. You can either spend a minute in silence or walk over and see what your teammates are doing to clear your head.

Once you’re away from it all for a while, return to your puzzle with renewed energy. If you work with a clear head, at some point, you’re bound to figure out the problem staring you in the face. So, don’t quit!

Search the Room Again

Good escape room habits include thoroughly searching every corner of the room at the first attempt. However, amateur players often miss the intricate nooks and crannies. If you’re stuck on a particular problem, sift through the room once again, this time making sure that you look through every shelf, under rugs, behind frames, and everything in between.

It’s easy to miss a spot the first time you look at a room, even if you’re a pro. So, retrace your steps till you find the missing parts of the puzzle. Who knows, you could uncover new clues or make the connection between existing puzzles.

Maybe there’s a hidden section in the drawer that you missed during the initial assessment, or a part of a wall swings open. Look out for weird shapes, patterns, colors, sounds, or smells, as they could all be hidden clues.

Look around the room, under the table, chairs, or sofa, every piece of décor, and maybe you’ll find something important required to connect the dots. The easiest clues are often the hardest to find as they hide in plain sight.

Revisit the Plot

Rewind to the time when you entered the room and pay attention to the plot. Think about the storyline, the main characters, the props, and how they fit into the frame. Focus on the characters when you first entered the room and their role at present.

Is there a specific historical event or place that relates to the plot? You may find that overanalyzing a storyline often reveals interesting secrets that may have been overlooked the first time.

Piecing together the key details not only reveals the codes or clues to a particular puzzle but also explains why you need to escape the room. Remember this tip at the beginning of the game to avoid revisiting the plot later. But if the need arises, you know exactly what to do as walking around aimlessly isn’t going to help.

Shortlist Unused Clues

If you’re sitting on a pile of unused clues, shortlist them so that they’re easy to access. Take a minute to think about how they might fit together, what locks they might open, or under what circumstances you came across the clues.

Designate a good area in the middle of the room for gathering unused hints and ask your teammates to follow suit. You can keep reciting the clues to your teammates to memorize the list and recollect when the time comes.

Try rearranging the code if you’re struggling with a tricky combination padlock. Have you considered the possibility that you’re using the wrong set of clues to solve a particular problem? That’s where the new clues come in handy. Sift through the pile and try something else.

Ask for a Hint

There’s no shame in asking the gamemaster for help every once in a while. After all, their primary task is ensuring that everyone’s having a great time. You don’t want to go home thinking about the countdown clock ticking away. So, seize the opportunity.

A hint simply guides your ideas in the right direction and keeps a smile on your face. So, if your team is having a hard time coping with a problem, it’s time to ask your gamemaster for help.

Every escape room has at least a couple of complimentary hints. So, don’t worry about breaking protocol. If you’re well behaved, maybe the gamemaster will give you a little nudge every now and then for free.

Stay Positive

At the end of the day, you’re at an escape room to have fun. Never forget that! As frustration and stress kick in, remember that’s precisely what you’re trying to overcome. If you can solve the first few problems without a hitch, you’re well on your way to escaping the room.

Remember, communication and teamwork are the keys to beating every challenge. A little positivity goes a long way in re-energizing the team and motivating players to work towards a common goal.

Are You Ready for Your Next Escape Room Escapade?

Escape rooms are fun weekend activities. If you’ve never played an escape game before, let’s change that on the coming weekend.

If you’re near Frederick, looking for the best “escape room near me,” visit Clue IQ for an unforgettable experience. We specialize in crafting bespoke experiences, so drop by with your friends, family, or colleagues today!

Find a room that you like and book your slots today. We have several exciting challenges that’ll keep you busy for hours. We also accept group bookings for corporate parties, birthday parties, and other events.

If you enjoyed this blog and would love to read more, check out our blogs section. We have several exciting posts about the top local attractions. For queries, get in touch. And don’t forget to share your feedback via the comments below.

10 Reasons Escape Rooms are Great Team Building Activity

by ClueIQ Team | Feb 19, 2022 | Team Building

10 Reasons Escape Rooms are Great Team Building Activity.

Corporate team-building events are traditionally hosted outdoors or at convenient public locations. However, conventional ice breakers and get-to-know-me questions don’t cut it anymore.

Modern leaders need virtual team-building solutions for their remote workforce. And as a team leader, you must often wonder how to keep your team motivated and foster a collaborative spirit.

When you’re dealing with a group of professionals, you tend to notice the stress that people undergo every day. A foolproof way to help your employees recover is harboring the feeling of solidarity at the workplace.

Since escape rooms are more demanding than other team-building activities, they’re perfect for corporate events.

The Benefits of Hosting Corporate Parties at an Escape Room

Here are the top ten benefits of hosting your next team-building event at an escape room.

Affordable

Booking a venue arranging for accommodation and food for a weekend-long corporate event is expensive. Escape rooms are surprisingly affordable in comparison. You save a significant sum by avoiding hefty hotel charges while achieving the same results.

Escape rooms fulfill all your team-building expectations at a fraction of the costs of hosting a weekend excursion. It’s an affordable way of bringing your workforce together and harboring feelings of camaraderie.

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Plenty of Options

Escape rooms come in various shapes and sizes. So, pick a theme that you fancy. Put your heads together, decide on a plot everyone likes, and make a reservation. For instance, if your teammates determine that they’re excited about investigating the paranormal Crane Manor, then that’s what you’re doing.

You should also shortlist the skills you want to cultivate in your team. For instance, mystery-themed puzzles are excellent for nurturing a keen eye for detail. While detective-themed games are perfect for racking your brain cells.

Choose Between In-Person and VR Experiences

In-person escape rooms are perfect for hands-on interaction without distractions. But if your employees are located in different regions, arranging an in-person experience isn’t an option. This is where virtual escape rooms enter the frame.

Hosting a virtual escape room comes with a unique set of challenges. For starters, the communication barrier is difficult to overcome. However, virtual escape rooms are just as efficient for team bonding once you get past the initial problems.

Highlights Strengths and Weaknesses

Escape rooms force players to step up to the challenge. Thus, exposing people’s strengths and weaknesses. The one you took for a natural leader might not excel at taking charge, while the quiet guy might be a natural.

Escape rooms bring out the best and worst traits in every player. You will be surprised by the sheer number of skills that an escape game brushes. We recommend booking a session once a month. It’s an excellent way to reveal a player’s hidden talents.

Promotes Camaraderie

A single person can’t solve an escape room within the timeframe as they’re designed to be a group activity. Teamwork is crucial if you’re to escape the room before the clock stops ticking, and that’s a significant motivation for the players to put their heads together and work towards a common goal.

Everyone plays their part inside the room. Whether you’re finding new puzzles or solving existing riddles, no one remains uninvolved. Escape rooms promote camaraderie and boost team performance by motivating players to work together.

Think Outside the Box

Escape rooms force players to encounter unexpected challenges and develop a solution within a deadline. Players aren’t used to being under such pressure in everyday life and are forced to think outside the box. Culminating this habit has several benefits in your personal and professional lives.

If a team is used to getting things done in a certain way, escape rooms help break the shackles of the comfort zone by forcing players to think on their feet. Looking at a problem from a different angle has its perks. It helps build perspective and develop new skills to tackle the issue.

Manifest Leadership Skills

To cover more ground within a short span, a leader must split the group into small teams, delegate tasks, and help them spread out in every direction. However, effective communication is crucial for seamless performance and timely results, and the leader is responsible for bridging communication gaps.

Since not all groups work like well-oiled machines, individuals with natural leadership instincts are forced to step up their game. This highlights people with natural leadership qualities, and the talent can then be honed for real-world applications.

Improves Time Management Skills

Most escape games are designed to be played within an hour. Due to the time crunch, players must make the most of every minute. Since wasting time isn’t an option, players are forced to work in unison and accomplish tasks as quickly as possible.

Players can’t afford to sit around as they must hustle to make sense of the clues and puzzles scattered within the room. Splitting up and working in a synchronized manner is the best display of time management skills. It empowers players to count on themselves, generates confidence, and saves a lot of time for everybody.

Promotes Creative Thinking

No matter how many escape games you play, you’ll never be fully prepared for a new escape room. Players must tackle new problems on their feet as there is no way to prepare in advance. You can have a brief insight on what to expect inside the room, but that’s about it.

Escape rooms present the perfect opportunity to solve problems in a low-stakes environment. Put your heads together and get creative to solve the puzzles within the deadline and survive the challenge.

Improves Communication

Does your team interact socially outside of office hours? If not, do they know each other well enough for complete trust? Escape rooms can generate trust by promoting communication outside of work.

Once the clock starts ticking, players have no choice but to interact with one another if they’re to escape the room in time. No matter how silly your idea might sound, no one will judge you for it. This helps shed the initial inhibitions while nurturing creative ideas, which is necessary for complex scenarios at work.

Have Your Booked Your Next Escape Room Experience?

Escape rooms are excellent team-building activities and are great fun for the entire group. If you’ve never played an escape game before, we highly recommend you try one. If you’re near Frederick, searching for an “escape room near me,” visit Clue IQ, the best escape room in Maryland.

Check out our extensive escape game collection and pick a room you like. Our escape room experiences are exclusively crafted for delivering immersive entertainment. So, get ready to create exciting memories for a lifetime!

What are you waiting for? Book your slots now!

We accept group bookings for corporate events, birthday parties, and other occasions. So, get your team together for 60-minutes of uninterrupted excitement.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out our blogs page for more exciting content. And don’t forget to share your views in the comments section below. For queries, get in touch today.