Types of Escape Room Puzzles

If you are looking for a fun and engaging activity to participate in with your family then escape rooms are something you might be interested in. Escape rooms are basically rooms that you need to escape from by solving logic puzzles placed into the room. There are many types of escape room puzzles that you can encounter in the process of trying to make your escape, so here are a few that you will commonly come across.

Types of Escape Room Puzzles — What You’re Trying to Solve

Escape rooms are more about applying logic to solve puzzles than they are about puzzles that require prior knowledge on a subject. Puzzles usually involve reasoning things out based on knowledge found in the room. The decryption clue may only supply enough information to solve the specific puzzle message.

Hidden Puzzle Objects in the Room

Many escape room puzzles require a specific object to solve them. This object will usually be hidden in the room somewhere and will need to be found before the puzzle can be completed. Hard to spot nooks and crannies are one way that objects are hidden, but they may also be hidden in plain sight by integrating them with other objects in a way that indicates their proper use but also misdirects you into not noticing them. A great escape room tips to remember is that these objects will typically look slightly out of place on whatever larger object they have been integrated into.

Numbers, Equations, and Text Puzzles

Numbers are often used in combination with lock puzzles and math puzzles that require a simple equation to be solved. The numbers may be in plain sight or they may be integrated into common objects in the room, such as books and posters. Equations may require an operator to find the correct answer, so a plus, minus, or other operator symbol may be hidden in the room in a way that connects it to the equation that needs solving. Text is often used in a similar way, both for combination puzzles and for providing additional information that can be merged with other text in the room to reveal a clue. A common way of ensuring that you know that text, numbers, and math symbols are part of the same clue is to use the same unique font for all the characters in the clue.

Practical Puzzles

Puzzles that require physical interaction are common in escape rooms. These might include complex knots that need untying to release a key, levers that need to be slid along a pattern of slots to open something or release the lever for use elsewhere, plugs that need to be removed from a hole in the wall and used in a different place, and anything else that requires you to get hands-on with it.

Light and Sound Puzzles

Light and the absence of it is often used to highlight areas of a room where clues can be found. A light shining on an object in a dark room will draw attention to that object and indicate that it is worth investigating. In a well lit room any unlit portions of the room may be where the clues are hiding. Light may also be used to distract from areas where the real clue is hiding.

Sound can also provide information. A repeating sound in the room may give a directional clue to the location of a puzzle or puzzle item. A repeating audio pattern such as a song, a speech, or a coded signal may provide a clue to unlock another puzzle, or it may be a puzzle that requires additional clues to solve.

To Summarize

These are just a small example of the many different types of escape room puzzles that you might be presented with when trying to find your way out of a room. There are a wide variety of ways to structure a puzzle and the more imagination used the more fun the puzzle usually is to solve. Apply logic and reason and you should be able to beat the room and make your grand escape.