5 Tips For Doing Escape Rooms Without Locks

Traditionally, Escape Rooms are filled with all kinds of locks to open. The first step many players take is to look around the room to see how many and which types of locks they must open.

I must admit, this is the first thing I do as well. We need a 4 digit combo, a 3 digit combo, a 4 letter word, etc. Also, a directional lock in a room shows you to look for something that would indicate a direction.

But what do you do in escape rooms without locks in the room?

First A Bit Of History

Before I answer this question let me give you a bit of a rundown on the evolution of the escape room industry.

When escape rooms were first being developed all over the world, there was very little if any electronics designed into the rooms. Today we term an escape room of this sort, without any electronic puzzles, as a Gen 1 escape room.

As escape rooms became more and more popular, designers started integrating electronics into their puzzle designs. Instead of opening a traditional padlock, players now have to do something within the room which would magically open something somewhere or do something else.

Most rooms today will incorporate a combination of traditional padlocks and electronics. We term an escape room of this sort, combination of padlocks and electronics, as a Gen 2 escape room.

There are some escape rooms today that incorporate all electronics and have eliminated padlocks all together. At Time Lapse Escape Rooms, we have one room like this called ” The Warlock’s Curse”. You will not see one traditional padlock of any sort in this room. Check It Out Here   We term this type of escape room, no padlocks, and all electronics, as a Gen 3 escape room. These are the escape rooms without locks.

Escape Rooms Without locks – What Do You Do

A Gen 3 escape room, escape rooms without locks, will generally be the most difficult type of escape room to play. This is because you have no starting point as previously mentioned above. You have no idea of how many of or type of something you must find or discover. It can be very difficult, especially for new escape room players.

A Gen 3 escape room can also be the most exciting as well as the most challenging type of escape room experience. This is because you never know what will happen next. Read on to find out how to get the most out of your Gen 3 escape room experience.

Look High And Low And All-Around

Yes, without traditional padlocks, you must be very thorough to look everywhere for clues to get you started. There may be something lying around or there may even be an open container of some sort. Look for anything you can find to get you started.

Whatever you can find easily like this will generally be your starting point. Look for ways you can use whatever you find at the start. Their use may not be obvious at first, but as you look further at the walls, etc. you may find clues as to how to use what you have found.

This tip is probably the most important one of all. If you miss something at this stage, it can make your gameplay much more difficult. Eventually, you will have to find all that is left for you to discover.

Listen And Look For All That Changes

As you progress and start working through the room, you may have actually solved something without even realizing it. For instance, something may have opened up or something else may have happened such as a light of some sort turning on.

It is very important to keep an eye out for all that may have changed. Instead of using traditional padlocks, Gen 3 rooms will use what we call maglocks (magnetic locks) which will hold something closed until a puzzle is solved. When these maglocks open, there will sometimes be a small popping sound when they open. Listen carefully for any small sound that seems different.

Look For Anything Where You Can Enter Something

All Gen 3 escape rooms will have some form of input device for you to enter your code into or place objects into etc. An example may be a keypad on the wall or some form of computer terminal.

Other less obvious forms of inputs can be reed switches or RFID readers which can be placed almost anywhere. The object with these inputs is to hold something close to a certain area to activate the input device.

You may need to place something in an opening or some other place that makes sense to the instructions.

Examine all Objects Carefully

The variations of the inputs with reed switches and RFID readers are designed to be unique to the room and could be difficult to find as they are very small. Also, magnets and RFID tags can be built right into objects and cannot always be detected easily. You must examine all objects carefully.

If not sure what to do with an object, sometimes just holding it up to something that the story seems to be telling you, could result in something happening within the room. Even doing the most bizarre things could result in you progressing in the room. Try everything no matter how strange it may seem. You never know.

Listen Carefully To Everything You Hear

Clues for progressing in the room can sometimes be hidden in a room soundtrack or some other audio source. It is important to listen very carefully to whatever sound is being fed into the room or coming from a particular device within the room.

You never know where the room designer is going to place the clues. Audio clues are becoming much more common and missing these can make your experience much more difficult and frustrating. Be aware of all you see and hear.

Future Of Escape Rooms

The Escape Room industry is continually developing. As new technology becomes available for developers, you will see many new variations and possibly even something totally different from what has been mentioned above.

It is exciting for both the developers and players to see how the use of future technology will keep improving the experiences of future escape room challenges. Only time will tell what the next generation of escape rooms may look like. Almost certainly though, they will be escape rooms without locks.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the above and that it will help you in the enjoyment of many future escape room experiences. Remember, the most important thing is to always have fun in whatever escape room experience you choose to tackle. We look forward to seeing you in the future at Time Lapse Escape Rooms.