Escape Academy Double Sided Safe Guide: Rival Room Puzzle Solutions
Beat the Escape Academy double sided safe with a full box-by-box walkthrough of the Rival Room chain, medal rewards, marble funnel order, and card slots.
Why the Escape Academy Double Sided Safe Feels So Brutal
The Escape Academy double sided safe is the final gate in the Rival Room — the mission the game calls "To the Finish" — and it is not really one lock at all. It is a chain of nine interlocking puzzle boxes, where every solution hands you the tool, clue, or currency required by the next one. That is exactly why the Escape Academy double sided safe trips up so many players: misread a single note, and the whole sequence stalls while Gillian's progress indicator creeps across the wall.
The good news is that nothing here is random. Every box telegraphs its answer, and once you know the order to work through, the chain falls apart in about five minutes. This walkthrough breaks down the full Rival Room, then goes deep on each step of the safe itself.
Rival Room at a Glance
| # | Challenge | Skill Tested | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Gears | Spatial reasoning | Easy |
| 2 | "Which 3 can you both see?" | Perspective / lateral thinking | Easy |
| 3 | Weights and scales | Basic arithmetic | Medium |
| 4 | Spinning rings: colors and shapes | Memory + sequencing | Hard |
| 5 | Double-sided safe | Logic, deduction, pattern matching | Hardest |
Community reports suggest Gillian rarely wins outright — the actual failure state is the mission timer running dry, not your rival crossing the finish line. Treat the safe like a calm math problem, and the pressure evaporates.
Rival Room Warm-Up: The Four Puzzles Before the Safe
You cannot reach the Escape Academy double sided safe without clearing four earlier rooms, so here is the fast version of each.
1. The Gears
- Grab the Large Gear from the orange crate to the left of the board.
- Grab the Medium Gear from the orange crate on the right.
- Grab the Small Gear from the wardrobe on the far left.
- Slot the Large Gear on the bottom-left peg, the Small Gear on the center peg between the two fixed gears, and the Medium Gear on the far-right peg.
- Pull the handle on the left wall to open the door.
2. "Which 3 Can You Both See?"
A dozen named busts of famous escapologists line the room, and the names on the glass divider are mirrored from your side of the wall. The answer is TIMMY, WYATT, and MAX — the only three names that still read correctly when reversed. Push those busts onto the red floor panels.
3. Weights and Scales
Balance the five weights first, then enter the values on the green wall screen.
| Weight Color | Mass |
|---|---|
| Red | 1 kg |
| Blue | 2 kg |
| Orange | 4 kg |
| Green | 3 kg |
| White | 5 kg |
Then load all three seesaws at once. Pegs multiply a weight's mass, so a 5 kg weight on the x3 peg adds 15 kg.
| Target | Placement |
|---|---|
| 7 kg | White (5 kg) on x1 + Red (1 kg) on x2 |
| 9 kg | Green (3 kg) on x3 |
| 14 kg | Orange (4 kg) on x3 + Blue (2 kg) on x1 |
4. Spinning Rings
Follow this exact order — deviation resets your progress:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Left purple button |
| 2 | Left green button |
| 3 | Ring: Circle |
| 4 | Left orange button |
| 5 | Left orange button again |
| 6 | Ring: Spade, then Club |
| 7 | Right green button |
| 8 | Right purple button |
| 9 | Ring: Triangle |
| 10 | Left green button |
| 11 | Ring: Square |
| 12 | Right green button |
| 13 | Ring: Diamond, then Heart |
Escape Academy Double Sided Safe: Box-by-Box Solutions
The double-sided safe is a wall-mounted frame surrounded by nine puzzle boxes. Each one pops open the moment its condition is met, so you never need to guess whether a step worked. Here is the full chain in order.
| Box | Clue You Receive | What to Do | What You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (START) | Tile pattern around the safe rim | Press tiles until they go black: center, all four corners, and both ends | Cabinet Key |
| 2 | Cabinet Key | Unlock the box | Note reading "Ring The Bells My Dear" with G, E, A, E, D underlined |
| 3 | Bell note | Ring bells in the order G – E – A – E – D | Bronze Medal + "when pigs fly" note |
| 4 | "When pigs fly" | Set the head and legs dials to a pig, set the center dial to a winged figure | Arrow pattern card |
| 5 | Arrow card | Input up, right, up, left, down | 1¢, 5¢, and 10¢ coins |
| 6 | Three coins | Place coins in the slots so each line hits its printed total | Four playing cards |
| 7 | Playing cards | Use them on the next face of the safe | Letter dial access |
| 8 | Letter dial | Spin the dials to spell BANE | Box of marbles |
| 9 | Marbles | Route marbles into matching cups (see below) | Gold Medal |
Worth noting: some published walkthroughs label the letter-dial box as "8" and skip a number, so if your guide seems to jump from 6 to 8, you are not missing a puzzle — the numbering is just inconsistent between versions.
The Two Boxes People Get Stuck On
Box 4 (the pig). The note is not a riddle, it is an instruction. Head dial = pig, legs dial = pig, center dial = wings. That is the "when pigs fly" joke landing, and the box opens immediately on the third dial click.
Box 6 (the coins). Read the engraved totals on the housing, then fill the slots left to right, top row first:
| Row | Left Slot | Middle Slot | Right Slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | 1 Cent | 5 Cents | 10 Cents |
| Bottom | 1 Cent | 10 Cents | 1 Cent |
If the box refuses to open, you have almost certainly placed a coin in the wrong row — pull them all out and rebuild from the top-left.
The Marble Funnel, the Medals, and the Final Turn-In
Box 9 is the only step in the Escape Academy double sided safe that punishes button-mashing. Drop a marble and it flips a lever inside the funnel rig, permanently altering the path of the next marble. You must therefore release them in a fixed order so every ball lands in a cup of its own color.
| Drop Order | Marble Color |
|---|---|
| 1 | Yellow |
| 2 | Yellow |
| 3 | Orange |
| 4 | Yellow |
| 5 | Orange |
| 6 | Orange |
Clear the funnels and the box spits out the Gold Medal. Now collect all three medals — Bronze from the bell box, Silver from the card box chain, and Gold from the marbles — and set them into the three matching recesses on the double-sided safe itself.
The safe swings open, the trophy is yours, and the Rival Room ends. If a medal slot will not accept a piece, check that you are interacting with the recessed outline on the safe and not the storage box you pulled it from.
Tips for Outrunning Gillian and Avoiding Rookie Mistakes
- Ignore the progress bar. Gillian's lead is scripted theater. Panic causes misclicks, and misclicks cost more time than thinking does.
- Write the bell order down. G – E – A – E – D is easy to fumble under pressure; repeat it out loud before you touch a bell.
- Reset the tile box freely. Box 1 allows infinite re-presses. There is no penalty for wiping the board and starting over.
- Do the seesaws last. They stay solvable after the door unlocks, so clear the memory-heavy puzzles first while your focus is sharp.
- Explore every surface. The Escape Academy double sided safe is genuinely two-sided — spin the housing if a clue looks incomplete, because arrow cards and totals are printed on faces you might not be facing.
FAQ
Is the Escape Academy double sided safe required to finish the Rival Room? Yes. Opening the safe and retrieving the trophy is the win condition for "To the Finish," so you must complete all nine boxes and turn in the three medals.
How long does the Escape Academy double sided safe usually take? First-time players typically spend 8–12 minutes on the safe alone, with the tile pattern and marble funnel eating most of that. With this guide in hand, the whole chain runs closer to four or five minutes.
Can Gillian actually beat me to the trophy? Player experience suggests she cannot win the level for you — the mission only fails when the timer expires. Her visible lead is designed to create tension, not to end the run.
What is the marble order for box 9? Yellow, yellow, orange, yellow, orange, orange. Any other sequence reroutes the funnels and forces a restart of the puzzle.
What do I get for solving the safe? The Rival Room trophy, mission completion, and progress toward the game's later story beats. The three medals themselves stay with the safe once inserted.
Final Thoughts
The Escape Academy double sided safe looks intimidating because it asks you to juggle a tile pattern, a bell melody, a winged pig, a set of coins, a five-arrow code, and a marble routing puzzle in one sitting. In reality, each box is a single logical hop from the last. Follow the chain in order, read every note twice, and keep your hands off the marble dispensers until you know the sequence — and you will walk out of the Rival Room with the trophy while Gillian is still squinting at the bells. For broader context on the game itself, see the official Escape Academy page on Steam.
By Escape Academy Wiki TeamUpdated
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