game-library/data/sources/101 Best Escape Room Puzzle Ideas – Nowescape.txt

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Fred Pedersen (https://nowescape.com/blog/author/fred/) - March 18, 2016 -
Puzzles (https://nowescape.com/blog/category/puzzles/) -
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Seriously! When escape room players love you and hate you at the same time,
you’re doing something right!
To run a truly great escape room, your puzzles must be challenging, unique . . .
and FUN!
To help you get started, NowEscape has compiled the following list of 101
escape room puzzle ideas, based on the most common escape-game puzzle
types around the world.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
This list is by no means all-encompassing. There are hundreds more room-
escape puzzle ideas out there that you can explore, adapt, and use.
These ideas are provided to spark your imagination – to give you the “a-ha!”
you need to design your own unique puzzles.
Will copying these ideas as described wow your customers and make your
brand a household name?
Probably not.
Veteran escape room players are looking for puzzles that surprise them.
You want your escape rooms to be the standard by which new players judge all
other games going forward.
Take these ideas and craft them into something your customers – and your
competition – have never seen before.
Are you up for the challenge?
Let’s get started.
The puzzle types and percentages discussed in this article are based
Hidden Objects
Hiding physical objects throughout a room is the most common puzzle used by
escape room designers.
That doesn’t mean you should avoid using hidden objects – you just need to get
creative in how you do it.
Idea 1: Hide a clear glass ball in a container of water.
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Idea 2: Hide money or documents in a book.
Money, photographs, documents and more can be hidden in a hollowed-out book.
Idea 3: Hide a key in a ower pot.
Idea 4: Hide a key on a wall where it’s only visible when illuminated by black
light.
Hidden objects are used in 78% of escape rooms worldwide.
Team Communication
One of Nowescape’s favorite puzzle categories involves tasks that can only be
completed if several people work together.
These puzzles are not only challenging, they require players to exercise team-
building and communication skills.
Many corporate groups looking for team-building exercises for their
employees seek out rooms that require this type of problem solving.
Idea 5: Require one player to perform a task in one room with no view, while a
teammate who can see the results provides directions from another room.
Idea 6: Chain or tie players to one another, restricting their movement until
they nd a key to release themselves.
Chaining players together results in teamwork …
whether they like it or not!
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Idea 7: Connect the electricity that powers a puzzle to a stationary bicycle.
Require one player to pedal continuously while another solves the puzzle. For
an added challenge, if the player operating the bicycle stops pedaling, reset the
puzzle.
Team communication is used in 58% of escape rooms worldwide.
Light
There are numerous ways to use light in an escape room.
Light can be used as a tool to reveal or hide clues. It can also be used to create
atmosphere, supporting your theme and helping immerse your players in the
environment you’ve created.
When considering the types of lights and light effects you’d like to use in your
escape room, keep your theme in mind. A black light may t into your nightclub
or biolab theme perfectly but may seem out of place in a pirate ship or a castle
dungeon.
Idea 8: Place a code on a spinning fan so that it can only be read using a
stroboscope in the dark.
[Tip: Make sure you warn players in advance if using any kind of strobe light
effect; strobe lights can cause customers with epilepsy to have seizures.]
FFrreeeezziinngg aa ffaann wwiitthh ssttrroobboossccooppee
Idea 9: Create clues that glow in the dark.
Idea 10: Require players to navigate a completely dark environment. 

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Idea 11: Write clues or messages with UV-paint (transparent or otherwise).
Idea 12: Use a lamp and a sundial to reveal a hidden door.
Idea 13: Create a three- to four-character sequence out of Christmas lights on
the ceiling, then surround it with additional lights. Design a switch that shuts
off the additional lights, leaving only your code lit up. Require players to nd
and gure out how to use the switch in order to read the code.
Light is used as a puzzle element in 54% of escape rooms worldwide.
Counting
Although complex mathematical puzzles are often not recommended, since
you cannot predict your customers’ education level and math ability (see the
section on algebra and mathematics below), it is generally safe to assume
players are able to count.
Idea 14: Hide objects that are clearly related throughout the room and require
players to nd them all and use the total number to solve another puzzle.
Counting is used as a puzzle element in 53% of escape rooms worldwide.
Noticing Something “Obvious” in the Room
Often, players are so busy looking for hidden objects and obscure clues they
miss what’s right in front of them.
Rather than hiding all your clues, try putting some of them out in the open and
see how long it takes your players to realize they are there!
Secret doors are common features in escape rooms.
Idea 15: Require players to step into a set of footprints printed on the oor in
order to open a door. 

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Idea 16: Place a set of scales in the room and require players to balance or
weigh a set of objects.
Idea 17: Reveal a clue if a player sits on a piece of furniture, such as a sofa or a
bed.
Idea 18: Hide the entry to the next room under a bed, beneath a rug, or behind
a ventilation cover.
Noticing something obvious in the room is used by 49% of escape rooms worldwide.
Symbol Substitution with a Key
Symbol substitution is generally a simple task of comparing provided symbols
to a key and matching them up to the letters or numbers they correspond to.
While a fairly easy puzzle to solve, something like this at the beginning of a
game can give players an early win and the condence and motivation to tackle
more difcult puzzles later.
To make a symbol substitution puzzle more challenging, you can place the
symbols in one room and the key in another, thus requiring players in separate
rooms to work together to solve it.
Code a message in an ancient language and let players decipher it.
Idea 19: Substitute Morse code signals, braille, or hieroglyphics with letters.
Idea 20: Substitute letters for numbers, or vice versa.
Symbol substitution with a provided key is used by 47% of escape rooms worldwide.
Using Something in an Unusual Way
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Objects don’t always have to be used for their original or most common
purpose.
Providing objects that look like set decoration but that can be manipulated in
unusual ways to accomplish goals is a great way to challenge players to think
outside of the box.
If players need a hint on how to use something, you can incorporate the hint
into part of another escape room puzzle.
Idea 21: Provide a dial phone that can be used as a calculator, or vice versa.
Idea 22: Provide a plastic card that players can slide between a door jam and a
latch to open a locked door or a door with no handle.
Idea 23: Require players to use a heavy object in the room to apply weight to a
platform or a switch.
Idea 24: Hide a magnet inside an object, such as an eraser, that can be used to
lift a key out of a oor crack or operate a magnet-activated switch.
Idea 25: Provide a loose screw that can be removed and used to pull out a
drawer that’s missing a handle.
This kind of out-of-the-box thinking is used by 47% of escape rooms worldwide.
Searching for objects in images
Depending on your theme, you may have paintings, diagrams, photographs,
posters, and other decorations on the walls (or in frames on shelves or desks)
around the room.
Why not add some puzzles to your set decoration?
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A map can contain key coordinates, hidden messages, and more!
Idea 26: Encode clues or messages in a map.
Idea 27: Require players to recognize a famous person and use that
information elsewhere in the game.
Images with clues hidden in them are used by 43% of escape rooms worldwide.
Assembly of a Physical object
Many rooms include objects that obviously (or perhaps not so obviously) go
together and require players to combine them to either create a new object or
to activate a switch.
Idea 28: Require players to insert money into a money-counting machine.
Idea 29: Require players to run a credit card through a credit card reader.
Idea 30: Reward players with a clue if they put beer in a fridge.
Idea 31: Activate a switch if players attach a prop to a statue, such as inserting
a shing rod into a sherman statue’s hand.
Idea 32: Require players to place a model car on a map.
Idea 33: Require players to place a book on a shelf.
Idea 34: Activate a switch if coins are deposited in an old public phone.
Idea 35: Dispense a clue if coins are deposited in a vending machine.
Idea 36: Reveal a clue if players set a laptop on a table.
Idea 37: Give players a jigsaw puzzle to assemble. Include one extra piece,
which can be used as a clue or a tool elsewhere in the room. We have seen this
puzzle at one of the Manchester’s escape rooms
(https://www.nowescape.com/manchester-uk-escape-rooms).
Object assembly is used by 40% of escape rooms worldwide.
Algebra and other Mathematics
There is some debate among escape room operators regarding the use of
algebra and mathematics (as opposed to counting or simple calculation) in
escape games.
Some feel that escape game players expect challenges they may not be
prepared for and understand that they can request hints if they get stumped.
Others believe that all the knowledge required to solve the puzzles in a room


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should be either extremely basic or specically provided in a prop or another
puzzle.
A solution that may satisfy both sides of the debate would be to include
mathematical puzzles but also provide alternative ways to solve them (such as
a mathematics book on a bookshelf containing the answer) if players lack the
skills to solve them on their own.
Idea 38: Provide an algebraic formula and require players to calculate the
answer.
Algebra and mathematical equations are used by 39% of escape rooms worldwide.
Pattern identication
According to the German gestalt theory, our brains naturally create patterns
from or connections between stimuli in our surroundings.
Give your players an opportunity to recognize and combine related items to
create messages or clues that aren’t immediately obvious.
Idea 39: Provide a set of dots within which a shape or code can be found.
Idea 40: Give players a set of symbols that can be combined to create a word or
a number.
Idea 41: Attach items to a wire board and require players to connect those that
create a pattern.
Pattern identication is used by 38% of escape rooms worldwide.
Riddles
Riddles have been challenging minds for thousands of years. They typically
require players to consider alternate meanings of words or to make leaps in
logic.
In ancient Greece, the ability to solve riddles was considered a sign of keen
intelligence. In fact, Greek mythology brought us the famous story of the
Sphinx, who allowed entry to Thebes only to those who could answer her
riddle.
BrainDen.com (http://brainden.com/logic-riddles.htm) offers a collection of
riddles you could use in your escape game puzzles.
Idea 42: Make the answer to a riddle a clue that players need to complete a
task.
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Riddles are used by 37% of escape rooms worldwide.
Ciphers without a Key
Unlike the symbol substitution with a key discussed earlier, this type of puzzle
requires critical thinking and logic rather than matching.
A cipher wheel
Idea 43: Let players re-create a cipher key from some known information and
apply the key to an encrypted code.
[Tip: If you choose to use ciphers in your rooms without providing a key, make
sure you provide players enough information to recognize that they need to
develop the key themselves. Players can become discouraged and less
motivated to keep playing if they spend too long looking for a key that isn’t
available.]
Players are required to develop their own cipher keys in 35% of escape rooms
worldwide.
Sound
Many escape game puzzles rely upon players’ sense of sight. But there’s no
reason to neglect the other ve senses!
Using sound as a puzzle element can be an interesting way to mix things up a
little and give players some diversity.
Like light, sound can also be used to reinforce your theme and immerse your
customers in the world you’ve created. You can also use sudden, loud noises to
distract or frighten players, if it’s appropriate for your theme.
Idea 44: Play a melody that players must repeat using a mini-piano.
Idea 45: Give players a message in Morse code.
Idea 46: Play a sequence of sounds (animal sounds, rhythms, tones) and require
recognition of the sequence to solve another puzzle. 

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Idea 47: Use a well-known music track to provide a clue that involves the band
name, the song name, or something related to the song. For example, a Beach
Boys song could represent the need to use a shell or a bottle of sand for some
purpose.
Idea 48: Play parts of the same message in different rooms so that teammates
have to spread out and listen simultaneously to get the full message.
Idea 49: Play a loud distracting sound to indicate that a player has pushed the
wrong button or ipped the wrong switch.
Idea 50: Record clues on cassette tapes and provide a tape player to listen to
them.
Idea 51: Transmit clues or messages over a radio; require players to nd the
batteries and the right frequency.
Sound is used as a puzzle element in 26% of escape rooms worldwide.
Mirrors
Mirrors can be used by players as tools to solve puzzles.
Idea 52: Create a message or a map that can only be read using a mirror.
Messages written backwards are easier to read if reected in a mirror.
Idea 53: Require players to hit a target using a laser and mirrors.
Idea 54: Write a hidden message on a mirror that is only revealed if a player
breathes on it.
[Tip: Here are instructions for writing hidden messages on mirrors
(http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-message-in-mirror-prank/).]


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Message is revealed when condensation is applied.
You can also create tricky visual illusions when incorporating mirrors into the
puzzles themselves.
Item 55: Use a mirror to make it appear as if a clue is within arm’s reach. When
players reach for it, they’ll nd only empty space.
Mirrors are used as puzzle elements by 26% of escape rooms worldwide.
Abstract logic
Some puzzles aren’t challenging because they’re hidden; with some puzzles,
the trick is simply guring out how to arrive at the right answer.
Idea 56: Hide clues in nished Sudoku or similar puzzles. We’ve see it at one of
the London escape rooms (https://www.nowescape.com/london-uk-escape-
rooms).
Idea 57: Make the answer to an IQ test question the secret to solving another
puzzle.
Abstract logic is used by 22% of escape rooms worldwide.
Research using information sources
Providing reference materials (hard copies or via digital interface) can open up
numerous possibilities, since they allow you to design puzzles that require
outside knowledge to solve.
For those players who know the answers, such puzzles can be solved more
quickly, but for everyone else, the opportunity is still available to quickly nd
the answer and move forward.
Idea 58: Include an almanac of facts among the books on a bookcase that
contains a crucial but obscure fact, number, year or other piece of trivia.
Idea 59: If players have access to the Internet, create a dedicated website
based on your theme containing a clue or message in its images or text.


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Idea 60: Provide access to an encyclopedia (or the Internet) as a backup for
nding solutions to trivia, math, or other puzzles most people (but not all) are
familiar with.
Research skills are required of players in 20% of escape rooms worldwide.
Strategic thinking
While some might argue that escape games require strategic thinking
throughout, this category refers specically to puzzles that require players to
think ahead and predict outcomes.
Idea 61: Create a sequence of puzzles that must be solved in the correct order
to reach a desired outcome.
Idea 62: Give players a Chess problem to solve.
Puzzle sequences and other challenges that rely upon strategic thinking are used in
20% of escape rooms worldwide.
Hand-eye Coordination
Hand-eye coordination tasks increase the energy in a room, and they’re a great
way to give team members with different strengths an opportunity to
contribute.
Idea 63: Require players to hit the bullseye on an electronic dart board from a
distance.
Idea 64: Give players a water gun and reveal a message or clue if they can hit a
target with a steady stream of water.
Hand-eye coordination is used in only 17% of escape rooms worldwide.
Ropes or chains
Depending on your theme, there may be a great opportunity to use ropes or
chains as props. But don’t discount the opportunity to use them as puzzles as
well!
Idea 65: Tie something up and make the knot difcult to untie; for an extra
challenge, require the use of another tool found elsewhere in the room to
release the knot.
[Tip: Make sure players don’t have access to anything sharp enough to cut the
rope and ruin your prop!]
Idea 66: Chain players to each other or to something in the room at the

beginning of the game and challenge them to get free.

--- PAGE 14 ---
Puzzles using ropes or chains are used by only 16% of escape rooms worldwide.
Traditional Word Puzzles
Word puzzles, like algebra and mathematics puzzles, often require outside
knowledge that some players may not possess.
Consider making sure alternate methods of solving word puzzles are provided,
especially if you frequently have tourists who are not native speakers of your
country’s language.
Idea 67: Here is an online crossword puzzle maker
(http://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/make-your-own/crossword/).
Word puzzles like crosswords or word searches are used by 14% of escape rooms
worldwide.
Mazes
Mazes can come in all shapes and sizes. You can build a life-sized maze for
players to navigate or give them smaller mazes to complete using hand-eye
coordination and teamwork.
Idea 68: Activate a switch when a labyrinth puzzle is completed.
Idea 69: Require players to navigate a hidden maze with a radio-controlled car
using a camera feed or a teammate’s directions.
Idea 70: Place a key in a covered maze and require players to use a magnet to
move it through the maze to an opening where it can be retrieved.
Idea 71: Give players a map that reveals the exact path through a maze and
hide a code in the path pattern.
Mazes are featured in only 14% of escape rooms worldwide.
Physical Agility
One of the best ways to immerse players in your ctional world is to create
physical obstacles they must overcome, especially if your theme involves
horror, science ction, or heist elements.
Whether they have to crawl out of a serial killer’s basement or climb over
debris to make repairs to a damaged escape pod, giving players a chance to
interact physically with the space considerably heightens the level of realism.
[Tip: Not all players are physically able to perform tasks that require crawling,
climbing, or navigating obstacles. Make sure you specify the level of physical

activity required in your room description, so customers can plan

--- PAGE 15 ---
appropriately.]
Idea 72: Full-sized secret doors aren’t the only way to hide a secret room.
Consider providing access via a trapdoor set into the oor.
Idea 73: Require players to navigate a laser maze; reset the puzzle and make
them start over again if they touch a beam.
Anyone who has seen a spy thriller or a heist movie will know what to do if faced with a laser maze.
Idea 74: Hide something at the end of a tunnel or an HVAC vent that’s just big
enough for a person to crawl through.
Players are required to get physical in only 13% of escape rooms around the world.
Touch
Back to the ve senses. You can use texture and temperature to add to the
atmosphere of a room, but you can also create puzzles that require touch.
Idea 75: Place an object in a sealed box with a hole in it and require players to
identify it solely with their hands.
Idea 76: Set up a switch that requires simultaneous pressure on multiple items
or spots around the room so that multiple team members must work together.
Add to the challenge by requiring the pressure points to be tapped in a certain
sequence.
The sense of touch is used to solve puzzles in only 12% of escape rooms worldwide.
Knowledge of facts not provided in the room
As mentioned previously, many escape room operators and players consider it
bad form to require outside knowledge (with the exception of commonly
known facts) to complete a game.
Idea 77: Require players to know the street address of the room.
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Only 11% of escape rooms around the world require players to use information not
provided in the room to solve a puzzle.
Shape manipulation
Shape manipulation can be combined with pattern identication, although it
doesn’t have to be.
Idea 78: Give players a matchstick puzzle to complete.
Shape manipulation puzzles are used in 11% of escape rooms worldwide.
How are you doing? Is your head lled with ideas yet?
Now let’s move on to some extremely rare escape room puzzles categories.
Liquids
Liquids are rarely used in escape room puzzles.
In order to successfully use liquids in your escape game, you’ll need to consider
several factors, such as how easily you can reset the room if you need to dry off
props or furnishings and what you will do if players spill or drink the liquids
(and thus make the puzzles unsolvable)
Mysterious bottles of liquid can be used for set decoration or as elements in puzzles.
Idea 79: Place a key or object in the bottom of a container that is too narrow
for a player’s hand; require players to pour liquid into the container to raise the
oating item.
Idea 80: Provide a hose or a water gun that produces a strong stream or jet of
water that players must use to push an object or a button from a distance.
Idea 81: Provide liquids of different colors and require players to mix them to
create a new color that is needed in another puzzle. 

--- PAGE 17 ---
Only 9% of escape rooms worldwide use puzzles that involve liquids.
Social engagement with actors
Some escape rooms use actors to great effect (as evidenced by the popularity
of the “Trapped in a Room with a Zombie” theme) while others interact with
players only through their hint systems.
Using actors in your escape room can come with additional operations
challenges, such as increased payroll, costuming expenses, and contingency
plans if actors calls in sick or fail to show up for work.
That said, talented actors can signicantly increase the realism of a theme.
Actors add a sense of realism to a room that props and set decoration alone cannot match.
Idea 82: The prisoner in the next cell keeps whispering and muttering
nonsense (or is it?) throughout the game.
Idea 83: The psychopath drags a group member (actor) from the room; screams
can be heard in the next room for most of the hour . . . then, as the clock ticks
down . . . silence.
Idea 84: As players frantically search for clues, a mental patient on the other
side of the door randomly pounds on it and shouts to be let in.
Social interaction with actors is used by only 7% of escape rooms worldwide.
Physical engagement with actors
Some escape games create a complete interactive experience
(https://www.paradisoescape.com/) for their guests with actors and entire

houses or buildings to explore. These venues begin to blur the line between

--- PAGE 18 ---
escape room and immersive theater or performance art.
There are currently few facilities offering this type of experience. Operators
who are considering entering this space are pioneers in an exciting new form of
entertainment.
Idea 85: A physician gives a player a physical, discovers something that terries
him, and bolts from the room. Seconds later, alarms go off and the facility is
locked down.
Idea 86: A guide takes players hands and leads them through the dark into
their one-hour reality.
Idea 87: Non-player characters (NPCs) provide hints or messages to players
throughout the game.
Currently, only 4% of escape rooms worldwide feature physical interaction with
actors.
Smell
The sense of smell can be powerful. It can create a sense of nostalgia . . . or it
can result in a disgust or fear. If you can nd air freshener that matches your
theme, you can use scents to add realism to the experience.
Idea 88: Apply scents to color- or letter-coded containers (or add letters to jars
containing scented votive candles); then require recognition of the scent
pattern to decipher a coded message.
Idea 89: Add scents to blank jigsaw puzzle pieces. Give players the nal
“picture” (i.e., arrangement of scented items) and require them to assemble the
blank puzzle based on the scents on the pieces.
Idea 90: Let players know that two objects must be combined by making them
smell the same.
Only 3% of escape rooms worldwide include puzzles that incorporate the sense of
smell.
Taste
Not surprisingly, the sense of taste is rarely used in escape room puzzles. Many
people respond negatively (or throw up!) when they taste something they do
not like, and even the fear of unpleasant tastes can be enough to impact a
player’s enjoyment of the game.
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--- PAGE 19 ---
Additionally, because they respect the props and furnishings around them,
many players will assume they are not meant to put objects they nd in an
escape room in their mouths.
If you choose to use the sense of taste in your room, you’ll need to nd a subtle
way to let players know a) that they are allowed to put items that look edible in
their mouths and b) that they will not be forced to taste anything that will make
them sick..
Idea 91: Give players a cinnamon candy and require them to apply this
knowledge in the next puzzle.
Idea 92: Scatter white powder (salt, sugar, baking soda, our) on a surface and
make it critical that players nd out what it is.
Idea 93:Require players to use chewing gum to connect two things together.
Idea 94: Give players a cup of a clear beverage; tasting it is the only way to
determine which nearby container (lemon-lime soda, club soda, water)
contains the next clue.
Only 1% of escape rooms worldwide require players to taste something.
Temperature
Obviously, you want to set the environment temperature according to your
theme. So if your players are in a morgue, make sure it is cold; if they’re in a
crematorium, make sure it is hot.
In rooms in which the ambient temperature isn’t extreme either way, some
objects and substances will display different properties depending on their
temperature.
Temperature is a fun and unusual way to hide or reveal clues or messages in an
escape room.
Idea 95: Write a message or draw a map on a surface with thermochromic
paint. Provide an icepack or rely on a player’s body heat to reveal the hidden
message.
[Tip: Paint with Pearl (https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop-custom-
paint/temperature-changing-paint/) sells thermochromic paint online.]


--- PAGE 20 ---
The effect of thermochromic paint when it’s heated
Idea 96: Write a letter in “invisible ink” which must be warmed up to reveal the
secret message
[Tip: You can make invisible ink (https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Invisible-
Ink-Message) yourself with common household products.]
Idea 97: Provide a thermometer and an enclosed space or an object for which
the temperature must be measured to complete a code or solve another
puzzle. We have seen in one of the Tallinn escape rooms
(https://www.nowescape.com/tallinn-estonia-escape-rooms)
Idea 98: Create a puzzle that requires conversion of Fahrenheit to Celsius or
vice versa; provide a thermometer to assist those who don’t know the
conversion calculation.
Idea 99: Place a temperature sensor on the wall and activate a switch or reveal
a clue when the sensor is heated to a certain temperature. Depending on your
theme, players may have access to a tool that will produce heat, or they may
have to rely on the warmth of their hands.
Idea 100: Write something on the inside bottom of a bowl. Cover it with an
opaque (non-transparent) liquid which must be heated and evaporated to
reveal the secret message.
Idea 101: Cover a code made of metal wire with wax which must be melted off
in order to see the code underneath.
Fewer than 1% of escape rooms worldwide contain temperature-related puzzles.
So, there you go! 101 escape room puzzle ideas to help you get started.
Many of the ideas referenced in this article were generously contributed by
escape room business owners around the world. To avoid accidental spoilers,
I’ve listed them in no particular order.
My gratitude goes out to:
