Experienced duo's escape room in Hongdae: Towering at Cube Escape

There was a time when I was totally into escape rooms and went around all the famous escape room cafés, but at some point I just forgot about them. Then I went to the Hermès escape room pop-up recently, and it was so much fun that I wanted to do a proper escape room again!

I happened to be meeting a friend who loves escape rooms in Hongdae, so I searched for escape room cafés there and decided to try Cube Escape Hongdae Branch!

Cube Escape Hongdae Branch location and parking

Cube Escape Hongdae Branch is on the 4th floor of a building with Harmony Mart on the ground floor, right about halfway between Hongdae and Hapjeong. Sadly, there is no parking.

We walked from Hapjeong Station and it took about 15 minutes, I think. Just look for Harmony Mart on the 1st floor! The entrance is to the right of Harmony Mart.

Cube Escape Hongdae is on the 4th floor!

What is the waiting area at Cube Escape Hongdae Branch like?

There is a briefing before each game, so you need to arrive 10 minutes before your booking time. The waiting area has lots of tables and plenty of room, so it felt clean and comfortable.

We booked for 2:30 and arrived a little early :) The walls were covered in celebrity autographs, and Gaeko and MOMOLAND had been here too! Haha

My first impression: clean and comfortable! Some escape room cafés have really cramped waiting areas, but Cube Escape Hongdae has lots of tables and plenty of space, which I loved.

The restrooms were clean and separated for men and women, and there was a water purifier and simple instant coffee mix too.

There are also a charging station and slippers. They'd be handy if you showed up in something a bit uncomfortable or your phone battery is low!

Cube Escape Hongdae Branch price for 2 and discounts

The price for 2 people at Cube Escape Hongdae Branch was ₩45,000 (₩22,500 per person). The more people in your group, the cheaper it gets per person, and there is also a ₩4,000 discount event if you leave a Naver review.

There are other discounts too: a weekday daytime happy hour at ₩15,000 per person, an early-morning discount and a last-slot event. I recommend booking ahead and grabbing those discounts! 😉

Cube Escape Hongdae Branch themes and why we picked Towering

Cube Escape Hongdae Branch has 8 themes in total, divided mainly by difficulty and fear level. It helps to check the theme selection guide when you decide.

The one we chose was Towering, a disaster theme! The concept is that you're trapped in an elevator in a skyscraper and have to escape. We don't like horror, and we like a difficulty that's neither too easy nor too hard, so we picked Towering: medium difficulty (level 4) with no fear factor.

Escape prizes by number of hints used

The prize for escaping at Cube Escape Hongdae Branch depends on how many hints you use. The maximum is 4 hints!

• Escape with no hints: Polaroid + discount coupon + yakgwa (honey cookie)
• 1 hint used: discount coupon + yakgwa
• 2 hints used: yakgwa
• 3 or more hints: oatmeal cookie

Pre-game briefing and how to use the hint phone

Once you're ready, you first watch an instruction video via a QR code,

and then you get a quick explanation of how to use the locks and the electronic notepad.

You really should understand how the hints work before going in, right? Cube Escape Hongdae has a dedicated hint phone in every room. Enter the 4-digit problem code that each puzzle has, then choose a hint level, and you can see the hint!

After that, staff guide you to store your belongings in a locker. Your phone has to be on silent at this point.

How hard is Towering for 2 players?

Towering was a perfect theme for two people at the level of me and my friend, who've done about 15 escape rooms. We used 2 hints and escaped comfortably with 20 minutes left! Haha

We went further inside and, following the staff's instructions, entered with our eyes closed, and the game began! We're not total beginners, since we've done about 15 escape rooms, and for two people at our level this was just the right theme. Escape room difficulty depends on the number and complexity of the puzzles, and in Towering you can roughly guess how many puzzles there are, so time isn't tight at all. If you use hints too early it can feel like a waste, so it's fine to think a bit longer before using one.

With one hint I thought, "Ahh!!! What a waste, that was the answer?!" T_T The other one was more like, "Hmm... yeah, we did need that one, fair enough" haha, so no big regrets (?).. haha We walked out with a small, cute yakgwa as our prize 🤣

Anyway, it was so much fun to do an escape room in Hongdae after so long. I was torn between Hansel and Gretel and Towering and went with Towering, but Hansel and Gretel looks cute and fun too, so I might book that next time, haha