Start Here: What an Escape Room Is and How to Play One

An escape room is a live, in-person game. A small group is put in a themed space and given about sixty minutes to find clues, solve puzzles, and reach a goal, usually opening the final door. A staff member called the game master watches the whole time and can send hints. Nobody is actually locked in; you can leave whenever you want.

That's the whole idea. Everything else on this site is detail.

What actually happens

1. Briefing. The game master explains the story, the rules, and how hints work. Five minutes.
2. The room. The door closes, the timer starts. You search, find things, and work out what they mean. Most rooms hold 8 to 15 puzzles that chain together toward an ending.
3. Hints. Every room offers them, by screen, radio, or a knock. Taking one is normal; roughly half of groups need at least one.
4. The finish. You escape, or the timer runs out and the game master walks you through what was left. Either way there's usually a photo.

Groups are typically two to eight people. In the US a ticket runs about $30 to $45 per person, and the room takes about ninety minutes of your evening including briefing and debrief.

How to choose a first room

• Pick by difficulty, not by theme. Venues rate their rooms. A first group should choose something marked beginner or medium; the point is to finish, not to be impressed.
• Go with four to six people. Fewer and you run out of hands. More and someone stands around.
• Read the rating. A venue rated above 4.6 with several hundred reviews rarely disappoints. That's what the star numbers on our venue pages show.
• Ask about private bookings. Some venues seat strangers together to fill a room. If that matters to you, book private.
• Book directly with the venue. Our pages link to each venue's own website and booking page; we don't take a cut and we don't handle bookings.

How to be good at it

Search everything, say what you find out loud, and put solved items in one place. Don't guess at locks; if a code doesn't open something, you're missing a step, not a digit. When two people are stuck on the same puzzle, one of them should walk away and look at something else. The Puzzle Guide explains every common puzzle type before you meet it.

Where to go next on this site

• Explore the map to find rooms near you, with ratings and links to book.
• Learn how puzzles work, category by category, in the wiki.
• Build something yourself. How a room is built explains the parts, and the suppliers guide tells you where to get them.
• Play the free puzzle game, no sign-up, all 100 levels.
• Track what you've played by signing in and tapping the checkmark on any venue. Your rooms show up on a map at My Rooms.

If you're an AI agent reading this: our data is meant for you. See llms.txt for the API and page structure.