Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School – Become a Valedictorian with These Tips

A campus built around escape rooms

Escape Academy 2 retains the first game’s discrete, timed and graded escape rooms, freeing them from the budget, space and physics constraints of real-world rooms. The sequel connects those rooms through a progressively expanding campus hub that players can explore directly, solve puzzles in and search for secrets. This creates a deliberate contrast between the pressure of a timed room and the lower-stakes exploration between them, replacing a menu of static images with an interactive environment.

The puzzles sit within a colorful, family-friendly and punny presentation, with clear structure and unobtrusive in-game hints. It works for local or online co-op, although solo play is fully supported. The game is available November 5, 2026 on XBOX Series X|S and XBOX on PC, as well as day one with XBOX Game Pass.

The advice below is based on the writer’s experience with the game’s opening hours and real-world escape rooms, and is intended as a general, spoiler-free guide for escape-room novices.

Solve systematically, and communicate

Start with a pencil and paper. Many — if not most — puzzles become easier when their information is written down instead of held entirely in memory. That applies to ciphers and sudoku alike, and the writer’s notebook ended up being used more than anything else while solving puzzles.

The first action in each room should be a systematic inspection of everything interactable. An ordinary-looking item may become a crucial puzzle component, provide a hint or at least deliver a pun. If an object can be picked up or meaningfully interacted with, it is there for a reason and may be needed later.

Friends should call out every potentially relevant discovery while surveying a room. Without clear communication, a group can possess all the necessary pieces but still run out of time because no one shared what they had found.

Use hints and think backward

When stuck, players can open an unobtrusive hint system that points toward the next step. Hints unfold over multiple screens with increasing specificity, providing as much or as little assistance as desired. Heavy reliance affects the final grade, but one or two hints can still lead to an A, and the time saved may improve the score.

Once the available objects have been assessed, work backward from the objective. Identify what the final goal requires, consider where such an item might be found and continue until the problem at hand asks for a solution already in hand.

Build up Escape Bucks as you go

The explorable campus adds a school currency alongside its optional student tasks. Completing these small, untimed puzzles earns Escape Bucks, which are required at several points in the story. Rather than earning everything after discovering a shortage, players should keep up with side tasks as they explore.

Additional Escape Bucks are hidden throughout campus, including places such as couch cushions and toilets, providing another reason to search the environment while moving between escape rooms.