Welcome to part 2 of our comprehensive guide! If you’ve missed the first five features of our ‘Perplexing Escape Room Puzzles’ list, be sure to check out part 1 now!

Let’s continue where we left off and round things up with our final set of five…

1. Hidden Clues Behind Pictures of Paintings

A common motif in the popular heist movie genre, this classic feature is a great way for players to genuinely feel like they’re participating in a real-life smash-n-grab! There’s no better feeling than pulling back a seemingly innocuous painting only to reveal a secret cubbyhole or hidden message!

Disclaimer: this inclusion requires players to physically touch and tug at the room’s hanging décor. Only do so if specifically stated by your game master! ☺

2. Miniature Clues!

There are times when certain puzzles go hand-in-hand with a specific theme, and miniature clues and puzzles are the perfect inclusion for detective-themed rooms! Imagine this: a group of adults prowling the room with a magnifying glass in hand, resembling a real-life Sherlock Holmes caricature! They’re great for getting players to truly interact with their surroundings, and the use of props is always a bonus!

3. Secret or Trap Doors

Escape newbies often wrongly assume that escape rooms contain only one self-contained room, which is definitely understandable when you consider the premise. It makes the inclusion of this feature all the more brilliant when a secret door suddenly swings open to reveal an entirely separate room, containing even more puzzles and goodies inside! The latch can be hidden in a bookshelf, disguised as a wall-mounted candle and much, much more…

4. Arithmetic Puzzles…

Okay, okay… we’re well aware that maths and arithmetic – basically anything involving numbers and equations – is FAR from everyone’s cup of tea, but this is why the more the merrier when it comes to organizing your escape room group! The law of averages suggests that someone is bound to get excited… Arithmetic puzzles can involve anything from basic algebra to advanced trigonometry – who knows what you’ll encounter!

5. Code-Based Puzzles 

Codes and ciphers are puzzles that can only be cracked using nuance and skill, and are an extremely common feature; so it would be a good idea to brush up on your code-based knowledge before paying your nearest escape room a visit! The most popular codes that you’re most likely to encounter at least once are any of the following: braille, indexing, binary, pigpen and of course, Morse code!