Enter The Thresher and you’ll see Jeb rushing to fix a leaky pipe, start the challenge and prepare for some high-pressure puzzles!
Escape Academy: The Thresher - “Under Pressure” Guide
First floor
Interact with the room and you’ll eventually have 5 minutes to get out of the room as water rushes up. Open the case in the corner of the room to get a small key, then use that on the padlock underneath the lightning bolt box on the wall. Flip the switch inside to turn the lights off. You can flip it again if you can’t see at any point. Next, in the back corner is a hand print. Press on it to open a crack in the wall with some tools inside. You can use these to wrench the nails off the board on the wall back in the main room. Underneath the board, it says “FEAR”. To open the grate door, press “def” twice, then “abc”, then “pqr”.
Second Floor
At the top of the ladder, interact with the wire and use the clippers from your inventory to get the blue valve handle. Red is double yellow, no valve should be set to 5, yellow is odd, blue is more than yellow but less than red. Put the blue valve handle in the middle then work out the number puzzle. You need to set each spinner from 1 to 6. If yellow is odd then it could be 1, 3 or 5. We know it can’t be 5, so that leaves 1 and 3. If yellow was 1, then red would have to be 2, but that would mean blue couldn’t be more than yellow but less than red. Therefore, yellow is 3, red is 6 and blue is 4. Inside, mash the spin button on the crank until the key raises enough to grab it. Then use the rusty key on the padlocked wire to get the handicam. Now attach the handicam to the hook where you got the rusty key and spin the crank again. The answer is WILL as you can see on the screen outside. Press “vwx”, “ghi”, then “jkl” twice.
Third floor
In amongst the junk, pick up the acrylic sheet from the couch, then another one from the cardboard box nearby. Now go to the pin boards next to the ladder you climbed and grab the last sheet. Pin them to each of the three boards to make a number and you get 510. This opens the lightning bolt box next to the exit. To get to the handle, go to the safe behind the boxes of junk in the middle of the room, the method to open it is inside the toilet seat next to the pin boards. The code moves back every model, so the combination is: Circle, circle, square, spin the wheel, square. This illuminates a W next to the numbers on the pin board wall. The combination 510 with an added “W” makes “510W” or “SLOW”.
Fourth Floor
As soon as you climb the ladder, use your screwdriver to open the panels for water pressure and wetness on your left. Do the same for water depth in front of you and all of the other panels around the room. Pick up the “strange devices” from the worktable in the corner. On the walls, you see 2 cryptic messages. Pick up the cypher sheet from the pillar next to the work table and use the code to figure them out:
A-N, B-O, C-P, D-Q, E-R, F-S, G-T, H-U, I-V, J-W, K-X, L-Y, M-Z
HAQRE CERFFHER makes UNDER PRESSURE while BIRE JRVTUG makes OVER WEIGHT. Place the strange devices in the Under slot in Water Pressure and Over slot in Water Weight gets you the code “YOUR”.
Fifth Floor
From the top of the ladder, take a left and open the lightning bolt box in front of you to reveal a switch. Flip it and it sends power to a nearby conduit next to the ladder you came up. To make sense of the letters, use your hammer on the fragile box next to the exit ladder to get the code sheet. Your goal is to light up all of the boxes with the yellow tags in the corner, then use the code sheet to know which letter to take from them. The first by the ladder is MOVE, which you take the “M” from. Next is BEND, which you take the “D” from. Next is FIRE, which you take the “I” from. Then finally there’s KIND, which you take the “N” from to make “MIND”. The moral of the story is: FEAR WILL SLOW YOUR MIND. This completes the Under Pressure lesson and earns the Pressure Badge for your troubles.
Escape Academy Walkthrough: Prologue - Introductions guide Escape Academy: Headmaster’s Office - “The Entrance Exam” Guide Escape Academy: The Hall of Escapists - “Escape Artist” Guide Escape Academy: The Thresher - “Under Pressure” Guide
