Overview
There are a lot of people out there who are completely new The Escapsists and believe that the game is extremely hard because they can’t escape the first, and easiest prison, Center Perks. This guide aims to give you everything you need to escape from Center Perks, so that you can move on and see what’s in store for you next.
Center Perks VS other prisons
Center Perks may seem hard at first, but you’ve gotta consider what’s stopping you from escaping. Taking a closer look, all that holds you back from freedom is a fence and the prison building. Looking closely at this, you will need a way out of the building at night, and something to get through the fence with. Let’s compare this to other prisons.
The hardest prison in the game, San Pancho, contains:
- A prison building
- A group of 20 high strength, very violent inmates
- An electric fence
- A minefield
- A jeep patrol around the edge of the outer wall
- A double layered outer wall
Compare that to Center Perks, where you have this:
- A prison building
- An outer fence
Jungle block contains:
- An electric fence
- One very well placed contraband detector that screws up most escapists badly
- An outer wall beyond the fence
- One way out, a checkpoint that requires signed ID papers and a dsiguise to get through
How to escape from Center Perks, with spoilers
Here is a 110% perfect plan to escape from Center Perks every time.
Firstly, I decided to put this whole section into video form. You can find the video here. Beware that I’m not in much of a condition the record gameplay so the video will be bad, and drop below 30 frames, but still, it demonstrates how to escape the prison within two days.
What you’ll need:
- Guard Outfit x1
- 8 plastic forks (these are not used in the actual escape, just to set up the escape)
- Bed dummy x1
- 4 plastic knives, or 1 file and 1 plastic knife, or 1 set of cutting floss, or 2 files.
- One poster
- (Optional) Some food.
Where to get the items that you need:
- For the guard outfit, it’s recommended that you do as I did in the video. Enter the laundry room and wash one guard outfit. Once it’s washed, put it on and walk through the detector. Since the outfit is worn on your person rather than just carried in your inventory, you won’t trip the contraband detector at the door of the laundry room.
- The plastic tools, forks and knives, can be found in the blue tray in the canteen. Focus your attention more on forks as they’re more important to a fast escape. If you can’t get enough tools for one day, sleep and save. The blue tray will respawn the next day with new items, and usually enough tools for you to escape with.
- The bed dummy can be made by crafting two pillows and one bed sheet. You can then place it on your bed by left clicking on the bed while it’s selected in your inventory.
- The knives can be acquired the same way you get the forks. Simply check back in the blue tray repeatedly, however, the knives are inefficient when escaping. I recommend keeping a look out for a file, or buying one whenever you can. Search desks for them too. If you can find one file, you’ll escape faster. One file and one plastic knife is enough to get through the fence. Yet again, if you can find dental floss, you can craft three pieces of it together to make cutting floss, which means that you don’t need any other tools except the cutting floss to get through the fence.
- The poster is the hardest item to acquire. If you can’t get any duct tape or magazines before the day of your escape you will need to take a risk. The poster is used to cover the hole in your cell wall so the guards won’t see it out of place. If you cannot get a poster by the end of day 2, I recommend just using the wall block that you got from breaking the wall to cover the hole. Make sure that you’ve got all your escape tools with you before you place the wall block down though.
- You can get some food to speed up the escape. 9 times of 10, you won’t need it, but if you happen to attempt an escape with high fatigue, you should bring some with you.
To get ready to escape, all you will need is two holes in the walls. As you can see in the video, I put on hole in the wall in the back of my cell. I NEED to cover this with a poster, as guards will see it opened. Once I’ve busted into the maintenance tunnel behind it, I break through the next wall to the right of the orange locked door. This hole will never be discovered unless your purposely lead a guard to it, and so, you can leave it open. This is where you’ll need the 8 plastic forks. If you can get through both walls by day 1, you’re ready to escape on your first day, if not, you’ll need to go through day 2. Once both holes are dug, you’re ready to escape. Also, it’s a wise idea to use the maintenance tunnel to hide your contraband.
Once you’ve gotten the tools above, you’ll need to attend the nighttime rollcall, and then head back to your cell. Place the bed dummy on your bed and grab your cutting tools. Grab an item of food if you got some of it earlier, and then the guard outfit. Then proceed to head out of the prison via the holes you dug in your cell wall. Once you’re outside, walk up around the guards building and directly to the right until you hit the fence, then walk downwards to where the fence corner is. From there, proceed to cut through the fence with your cutting tools.
The only catch with this plan is that a guard will ocassionally walk over to you while you’re cutting, as you can see in the video. If this happens, simply stop cutting and wait for him to leave. As long as you’re wearing your guard outfit, he won’t cause any trouble. Once he leaves, keep cutting. Beware that you can see him coming far before he can see you. If you see a flashlight beam coming from above you, it means that he’s coming and you should stop, although you’ll still have a second or two before he actually makes it onto the screen and sees you.
Once you’ve cut the fence down, run! The edge of the map is only one tile away from you so book it out of there and move on.
The poor quality bandicam footage I made for you guys explains half of this guide. I recommend watching it if you’re still confused about what to do after reading the wall of text above.
How to escape Center Perks your own way
This section of the guide will set you up to escape Center Perks with your plan, incase you didn’t want to just follow a video. This section is here so that you can learn how to make your own plan. A plan that works.
Firstly, take into account what’s in the way of freedom?
In Center Perks, it’s the prison building and one outer fence.
Then consider how to get past the prison building and the outer fence.
They both have weaknesses. The prison building can be escaped from via the roof, the walls or even by digging underneath the walls. You’ll need to pick one method of getting out of the prison building.
Then consider what tools and access you’ll need to get past the prison building and fence.
The prison walls are weak to plastic forks. The prison floor can be dug through with spoons or a shovel. The roof can be accessed via the vents. The fence is weak to any kind of cutting tool really.
Once you’ve taken all of that into account, you’re ready to escape and you can put your plan to action!
Just remember, you’ll need a bed dummy and a guard outfit to escape. The bed dummy prevents the guards from noticing you’re out of your cell and the guard outfit will prevent them from causing you any trouble or busting you if you come accross a guard whilst out of your cell.