Mechanics of the Escape Rooms

If you’re a frequent escapee, then you know for sure that there are specific common tactics escape room creators use to make the quests worth your time. Creative minds can produce more puzzle setups, but it’s hard to entirely separate the experience from what you’ll get in the best escape quests.

Of course, this also means that people who know the basic mechanics of escape quests can advance faster than those who are clueless. Do you think it’s not fair? Or maybe you want to check your knowledge and perceptiveness? Then you’ll find our list of escape room mechanics useful!

Ordinary Mechanics of Real-life Escape Quests

If you want to escape the room, the solution might seem obvious: open the door, and you’ll become the winner! But to be able to do so, you’ll need to pass many obstacles. Maybe, in the end, you’ll even find out that the door you tried so hard to open is not relevant to the exit at all!

This is a classic escape room puzzle involving a map, placeholders and a special light. If the room weren't so dark, the riddle would be impossible to solve

Here are the most famous escape room mechanics that can catch new players off-guard:

  • Key distraction. The tactic is simple: players get a bunch of keys, but there’s only a single available lock (or maybe a couple of them). If there’s a bold member in your team, this may present a problem, as he or she might want to try all the keys to find the right one. Because it will be faster than looking for clues and solving additional puzzles, right? It’s basically like hacking the system. Wrong. You’ll lose time on this. Drop the keys and better look for a way to determine the right one: it’ll be much quicker in the long play.
  • Miniature labyrinth. Escape rooms are not large enough for a full-size labyrinth mechanic, but mini-versions of the world-famous puzzle are extremely popular. It is not that hard to pass a labyrinth if you can see all the walls, so the problems in escape quests often combine mini-labyrinth with some different mechanics. You might need a particular object to move walls, or maybe you’ll need to turn a key to making the final layer accessible.
  • Teamwork puzzles. Mechanics of escape quests often feature teamwork elements, so don’t ever try to go solo for the whole thing. If you find something new, make it known immediately, loud and clear. The solution to some of the riddles is centered on using objects from different locations and puzzles in the correct order.

As you see, we didn’t share any deep secrets here. That’s because we want you to try and solve the hardest puzzles entirely by yourself! Always happy to see you at Quest Factor lobby, play our newest escape quests!