Updated 2026-11-02
Punch Walls To Escape beginner guide
The short version. Start by redeeming the free codes, then work through this. Prices for every tool are on the tools page.
1. Do the tutorial, then buy Two Hands
The tutorial has you punch a wall five times and sell the rubble that drops. Rubble is your money: grab it, carry it to the grinder, sell it, then spend the cash on upgrades. One player's first buys were Two Hands, then Collect Speed for $0.75 to grab rubble faster, then a Bag upgrade for $1 so each trip carries more. On PC the upgrade menu opens with Tab, and early on only a couple of upgrades are available at a time.
2. Watch your step at the grinder
You can fall into the grinder while you're depositing rubble. It kills you, but it doesn't look like you lose anything, so don't panic if it happens.
3. Escape all five floors, then go for time
Each run is five floors, and Chapter 1 is the easy one to start with. Find rare blocks and smash vaults on the way for gems. Once you've escaped, the goal is beating your best time. You can play solo or bring up to four friends; the Big Party pass lets the host run 5 and 6 player games in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.
4. Tools change everything
Your fists only get you so far. The store's own descriptions: the Sledgehammer cracks hard walls, TNT blows open any wall including the hard core, and the Vacuum sucks rubble up from a distance so you stop walking back and forth. You can rent a tool for one run or own it forever; the tools page has both prices and how many runs it takes before forever is cheaper.
5. Chapter 3 is in orbit
After the prison chapters you get abducted by aliens. The orbit runs have their own tools: the Dissector, the Abductor and Shock Fists. The prison tools are listed for prison runs, so check which map a tool is for before you buy it forever.
6. Classes and pets
You can equip a class, and the Second Class Slot pass lets you run two at once with both perks on. Classes are rolled, not picked: in one creator's walkthrough a roll costs 40 gems, which is a big reason gems matter so much early. Pets come from the Mystery Pet Egg (or codes like SPACEBEE): Voxel Bee, Clockwork Crab, Cyber Mouse, Mining Mole and the legendary Volt Tortoise. A duplicate pet gives you 250 gems back.
What nobody has published yet
- What each class does: classes are rolled (one creator's video shows 40 gems a roll), but nobody has published the list of classes and their perks yet.
- What each pet does: the five pets are known by name, but their bonuses and the egg's odds aren't published.
- Upgrade costs past the first few: we only have the early prices one player wrote down (Collect Speed $0.75, Bag $1).
- Floor-by-floor details: the game has five floors per run and three chapters, but no one has mapped what changes on each floor.
Official Punch Walls To Escape artwork.