When you get caught with contraband in your desk, or you forget to cover up a tile you started digging through, or even you failed to escape in time when they called in a role call, you'll be sent to solitary confinement for a few days. This hurts the stats you built up before getting into solitary, removes any contraband in your posession, and fills up any holes you previously tried digging through. You can always try again, but your progress towards escaping has been reduced to before.

In trying to make an escape, you'll make friends, foes, and if you're not careful, a trail so guards can send you to solitary. Now you can be caught a number of ways. Here's a list of ways you'll end up in solitary.

How you can get into Solitary

• Taking a guard's key off them
  
• Leaving dirt around the prison
  
• Leaving a tunnel exposed
  
• Leaving a hole in a wall
  
• Leaving a vent without a cover
  
• Failing to KO every guard during a prison takeover
  
• Having contraband in your desk during a cell search
  
• Leaving your cell at night
  
• Being near a patrol car
  
• Attempting to flush contraband in a toilet

You can still do all these things, but they only count against you if someone sees it.
This is not however a list of things you can get in trouble for that can result gaining heat, a guard attacking you, and in extreme cases sniper fire. Heres the list of less harmful actions.

How to get heat and attacked by the prison

• Assulting other prisoners
  
• Assulting guards
  
• Possessing contraband while going through a contraband detector
  
• Taking things off a KO'd person
  
• Not being where you should be
  
• Being in a staff area like the roof
  
• Wearing a guard or staff outfit
  
• Standing on tables and desks
  
• Carrying a person
  
• Openly chipping a wall

Knowing what will get you in trouble will help in knowing what you can do to not upset guards or other prisoers. Assuming they're watching. If not, and if you're not leaving evidence of an escape attempt then you're good.

In prison, it would be ideal to make friends, especially if you share a cell with them.

You have a number of prisoners you can interact with, they'll sell you goods, give favors for cash, and if they like you enough, a hand in beating someone. To make someone like you, give them useful contraband or foods. You can turn the abundance of combs in the prison into shivs.

You can also make them upset at you by beating them, stealing from their desks in front of them, and refusing favors.

Guards won't care if you have friends following you. But they will care if you attack them with some. They have opinion but it won't affect you as much as prisoner opinion would.

If a friend of yours sees you trying to break out, they'll keep their trap shut without calling over a guard. This is great when you're making a tunnel or taking apart walls in prisons that force you to share cells. Just don't expect them to be ok with stealing their stuff ether.

You can make a collective group of friends and begin a prison takeover. In small prisons, or prisons with a closed roof, you can take out all guards and walk out the front door. This however can go crazy if you don't have enough friends or good enough stats to make it though.

During a takeover snipers will shoot on sight, you'll be a high priority target, and other prisoners will head to their cells for lockdown. Snipers will only shoot on sight until the warden says that you're free to go. Any locked doors between you and the exit will be unlocked.

Its advised to wear armor, or a guard outfit during a takeover for protection, get physical stats higher than guards, and use a weapon of at least 3/5.

You'll have a limited amount of time before backup arrives to stop the rebellion, though as long as you take out all guards and leave quickly, you'll be good.

Guards aren't really your friends, but its better to have them happy than upset at you. Sure if you get their opinion down by beating them in a fight, stealing their clothes and baton, they won't attack you on sight randomly like prisoners would. But what they will do is be rougher on prisoners via dialogue and actions.

If you lower a guard's opinion enough, they'll forbid placing bed sheets as curtans. They'll tear them down and walk on as normal until they see another cell with privacy sheets. They'll also pick up any non-contraband items like knives and chocolates. Doesn't matter what, if its there they'll take it.

Guards aren't really able to interact with, as you can only talk to them and look at their stats. Bring a guard's opinion high enough and they'll ignore items (except contraband) on the floor and neglect making prison hell for you. You could talk to the guards at role call and any that pass by, but you won't notice any large effect from it unless the game is updated so you can benefit from being a guard's pet.

Guards will usually pick up contraband on the floor, beat up prisoners who fight anyone, watch prisoners in schedueled activities, protect the space provided to prisoners, unclog toilets, catch escapists, take down devients, confiscate contraband, and issue role call. The guards who watch you will always be the same as the ones that issue role call. This is useful for isolating guards.

Knocking out a guard will cause them to attack you the next time they see you without warning. They'll hunt you down and beat you unless you ether beat them again or run away. Retaliating with violens will result in other nearby guards to also retailiate with violence. Running away will cause guards on patrol to increase your heat but will ignore the guard chaisng you. If you do knock out a guard its best to releive them of their baton and uniform. Even if you don't need them it will make them hurt less when they attack again as well as a good opinion to anyone you give them to.

Every map has contraband detectors, carrying contraband in your inventory will cause it to go off and force your heat to 99%. When this happens all guards that see you will become hostile and snipers that can see you will target you. This lasts until your heat lowers to 89% and after which you only need to hide from guards to survive.

Lots of maps have cameras. They can see you inside someone else's cells, in restricted areas, or anywhere else you shouldn't be. If you do something such as attack someone in their veiw or carry an object around you'll gain heat. Cameras can be simply disabled by using duct tape, shaving cream, or tooth paste.

Fences can be really simple and easy to cut. As easy as using only some floss, self made cutters, or stolen knives from the kitchen, but if you don't watch out, you'll be in for a shock. Literally. A way around this is to ether dig under the fence, or to shut off the generator.

The generator can be disabled temporarily turn off contraband detectors, cameras, and electric fences. It will turn on after a while so move quickly to store contraband past detectors and to cut through electric fences while escaping. It will restart itself after about a minuet so be sure the blue fence is cut quickly.

Air ducts which can be found in every cell, room, and hall, if the prison is an indoors prison. You can simply take out a vent with covering a shaft with any cutting tool, but you will need to replace it with a fake vent cover. You can take the cover instead of destroying it by using a screwdriver. If you feel its taking too long you can turn the screwdriver into a powered screwdriver using a wire and a battery. Placing the vent cover will cause it to be screwed into place as before, but you'll need to unscrew it again a bit to get it back.

Inside air ducts will be Slats, they can easily be cut to walk around the ducts freely and do not need to be replaced under the threat of solitary. When you drop down from vents, you need to make sure they don't find the vent open, there are ladders that can lead to the roof from the vents so you don't need to replace them.

Some Air ducts can't be reached, and require a step ladder to access. Step ladders are contraband, but can be bought off prisonesr whom are selling them for a price.

Vents are not able to be a direct path to freedom, but can bring you to another area that can bring you a step closer. You can keep contraband in them though.

In prison, almost every door is locked. Well, at night EVERY door is locked, but that won't be an issue if you simply unlock them with keys. You'll find the keys for each door on a guard. The first 5 guards carry keys in the order: Cell, Utility, Enterance, Staff, Work. All other guards only have clothes and batons.

To knock out a guard, simply attack them with a good weapon, and high enough stats to beat them 1 on 1. Armor is optional.

If you just take the key and run, guards will flush you out and take it back. Though, if you get talcium powder and toothpaste, you can make puddy. With the puddy you can create a mold of the key and put it back without incident. Using the mold, you can melt a comb or toothbrush to make molten plastic, with said plastic you can make a plastic key. The key in posession will be able to walk through doors that match the color. Be sure you don't get stuck on the other side, a key lets you unlock a door 10 times.

On a side note, as "The Escapists" is not complete, an idea being worked on is the ability to use paperclips as lockpicks, but currently is not possible.

Using anything from spoons, trowels, and self made shovels, you can break out of a handful of places just by digging around walls and doors. But its not as easy as you'd think.

When diggging you'll find random stones you have to chip through, you might find renforced concrete, and eventually landmines. Landmines are only an issue if you touch them, and stones aren't always found.

To start digging, find a spot on the floor you could start making a hole through. Make sure its a secure spot nobody will find while you dig through. After that, try going towards an edge on the map. You'll need LOTS of timber for support beams. Two timber logs every 2 spaces, though you'll only need to do this when going a large distance of unsupported ground and your character will tell you when to place one. You can just steal them from the supply room in mass quantities since prisoners don't always sell them. You can always cover up a hole by placing dirt on it, but you'll need to dig it to uncover it again.

Leaving dirt lying around can lead them to finding your tunnl and will land you in solitary.

Tunnles are great for hiding contraband in, as well as an escape route.

You can go through walls like you can go through dirt. Except you don't have to place timber every other space. When you remove a piece of wall you get it in your inventory, but leave a gap. You can place the block back but you'll have to chip it again.

You can simply remove and replace wall blocks at whim if you use a poster or a fake wall block. A poster is highly reccomended as it can never break, and is made with duct tape and a magazine.

You can chip through walls with forks, picks, crowbars, and if needed, shovels. You can also chip through stones, as well as dig with a pickaxe, but its faster to dig with a shovel.

Breaking walls can be done to get into small access tunnles to store contraband and access other rooms you want to access.

Every prison is different. You'll want to inspect each prison's strengths and weaknesses. Some could be just simply dig around the enterance or a complex plan that takes a long time just to gather the right materials required to leave the prison alive. Remember to be patient when making a plan to escape. You'd rather want to have a multi-tool than an inventory full of spoons.

Have fun! And please rate to help other players find this guide.