The first step in any escape room is to search the room. Search it thoroughly and find everything you can but just finding something isn’t enough, you have to communicate with your teammates. “You don’t know how many times I’ve seen groups where one person is trying to solve a puzzle someone else has already solved,” Expedition Guide Morgan tells us.

It seems obvious, but groups who vocally communicate and work together as a group have the highest chance of success. The important thing to keep in mind is that communicating begins the moment the clock starts ticking down.

When you enter the escape room, you go into sensory overload. There are so many clues, props, and gadgets to play with. To avoid becoming overwhelmed, Morgan recommends exploring the escape room and yelling out to each other what you find: “Here’s a number lock!” “I found some puzzle pieces!” “Here’s a key!” Share information with everyone to minimize the chances of any miscommunication.

Our Expedition Guides suggest putting all the physical objects you find in one centralized location inside the room so you can easily access all your clues.

“It’s easy to forget a clue you haven’t solved yet,” Expedition Guide C’Mone explains, “because there’s so much in the room.”

A clue you can’t solve now might become important later on in your game, so save your team some time by placing the clue in an obvious, conspicuous place.

You and other teammates will be able to come back to this location as the game progresses but don’t forget to take clues with you from room to room. Something may mean nothing to you at the time but a teammate could find a clue of their own that cracks the puzzle your team needed to progress.

We asked our Expedition Guides the age-old question: When should you ask for hints? Players are sometimes hesitant to ask for a hint because they want to complete their mission and beat their escape room on their own. But since you’re allowed to ask for as many hints as you’d like, our Expedition Guides suggest asking for a hint sooner rather than later.

A good rule of thumb to follow: If you’re all standing around and doing nothing, ask for a hint, no matter how early or late you are in the game. Game time spent standing around is time being wasted. Standing around for even a few minutes could be the difference between escaping and not. Many groups escape with only seconds to spare!

So, you know to ask for a hint when you need it but a hint is no good unless you listen and act upon it.

Expedition Guides spend hours and hours training to become experts on escape rooms. These adventure experts are on your side. When you ask for help mid-game, the hint you’re given is strategically created to help you at that exact moment in the game. Maybe this hint will help you solve a puzzle to open up a new section of the room, or maybe you need to crack this puzzle in order to find more clues to get out of the escape room. In the end, always trust your Expedition Guide!