Can You Do an Escape Room with Two People?

As you grip your partner’s hand tightly, thin rivulets of blood run between your fingers and onto the floor. In the dark, you can only assume it’s blood by the sweet iron scent and the throbbing pain in your palm. The pact was signed and sealed before either had time to argue or contest, and god only knows what would have happened had you refused. A bond formed that cannot break, a challenge accepted without protest: beat this escape room, or die trying. Can you do an escape room with two people? Is that even possible?

Keen-eared observers might notice the pattern of your dripping blood on the concrete. Is that…

-.. ..-. / -.– — ..- / .- .-. . / -… .-. .- …- . / . -. — ..- –. …. –..– / .. ..-. / -.– — ..- / .- .-. . / -.-. .-.. . …- . .-. / . -. — ..- –. …. .-.-.-

The Puzzling Divide

You can absolutely do an escape room with two people! In fact, here at The Basement: A Live Escape Room Experience, we have the perfect for 2 person to 4 person escape room. The Elevator Shaft is the perfect escape game for a date night, a double date, or if you’re just looking for some harmless fun with your closest friends. If by harmless fun you mean having to play for your life, desperately solving puzzles to avoid being crushed to death by a 12 ton steel elevator, then sure! That’s fun, right?

Every escape room is different, having different needs from its players. Our rooms, of course, require a blood sacrifice and a death pact, but nevertheless help you escape from the horrors of everyday life. No matter the size of your team, there is something for everyone at The Basement and we nothing like other experiences. We consider other experiences to be “quest rooms” that don’t create a sense of urgency and thrill like our puzzles!

Escape Rooms Vary – So Should Your Team!

When approaching an escape room, it’s important to gauge the level of difficulty, the size of the room, and the challenge you want to impose upon yourselves. Depending on the escape room, your group size can drastically change your chance of escape. No matter how many games you’ve played before, it’s always important to read up on the escape room you’re looking to play next.

Generally speaking, most escape rooms are designed with 4-6 players in mind. The room will be packed with enough puzzles to keep that many participants busy for the time allotted, unlike other experiences such as Escape Room Twin Falls. A game designed for four people, theoretically, could be easily beat with eight. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s likely to affect your experience.

Small Group VS Large Group

There are Pros and Cons to different team sizes:

Big Group Pros

• Larger groups are able to easily divide and conquer, especially in non-linear escape rooms. The ability to split attention and work on different puzzles simultaneously has many benefits and will serve you well!

• More People = More Brains = More Creative Solutions. Playing escape rooms require out-of-the-box thinking. Maybe your team members will see things differently! As you play together, you will find your team members’ individual strengths.

• The more the merrier! Surrounding yourself with friends and family, working together to solve your way out of an escape room: Sounds like a pretty great time to me!

Big Group Cons

• Clear Communication Issues: Big groups can have trouble effectively communicating. If dividing and conquering, it’s possible without proper communication, that team members might waste time on a completed puzzle, or looking for found items.

• Too many people can lead to players feeling left out or useless. This shouldn’t be the case in well-designed escape rooms, but if there aren’t enough puzzles for your team size (or when groups have an occasionally overbearing leader) it’s possible less active players will feel left behind during the game.

• General overcrowding inside escape games can occur if the physical space isn’t large enough. This is typically only an issue when exceeding the recommended player size for an escape room. If you have any questions about the best room for your team, feel free to ask questions!

Small Group Pros

• Smaller groups have the distinct advantage of effective communication. It’s a lot easier to communicate to a single partner than it is to a team of seven other people. Being on the same page is hugely important to effective puzzle solving. Be sure to listen intently to your escape room accomplices; hear them out!

• Challenge Rating: Escape room enthusiasts looking for a more difficult experience may find that playing with only two people can really up the intensity of their game. To complete more puzzles per person within the same time limit of a “standard team game,” creates a super exciting win! Not to mention, an escape room for 2 can be a wonderful bonding experience that can maintain the spark in a relationship.

• With a two person escape room, escaping becomes more personal. Of course it’s gratifying to win in a larger team too, but when it’s just you and your partner, you personally solved way more puzzles than you might have otherwise. Win or Lose, it’s entirely up to you!

Small Group Cons

• It’s fun to solve everything on your own (at least when you’re a perfectionist control freak like me) but some escape rooms just have too many puzzles for two people to solve in the given time. Suddenly you’re playing in a huge rush and have little time to enjoy the games themselves. Some of the most memorable games are the ones played without looking at the clock.

• You have to be SURE that you chose the right partner. With only two people, you rely on each other for accurate information, collaborative puzzle solving, everything. It’s important that you work well together and can survive being trapped in a tight space without killing each other. (As an example, just ask any Basement Staff Member / Game Master which experience is nicknamed “The Break-Up Room!”)

• A larger group may have an advantage over two-person groups when it comes to idea generation. Two great minds thinking alike may get stuck trying to find a specific answer. Solving a puzzle can come easier when more friends join in.

Come Out and Plaaaaaay

No matter your favorite way to attempt escape, The Basement has the perfect room for your team. There are pros and cons to every escape room group, go with what feels right! Or, well, whoever you can get to tag along. Schedules are hard. Best of luck, have fun, and try not to die!

Thank you so much for reading. Check us out on Instagram @thebasementescaperoom and on Twitter @thebasementER for updates, contests, and fun messages from our favorite cloaked weirdo, Toby.