Punch Walls to Escape

Guide

Chapter 1: VX Laboratories

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Chapter 1 drops your squad into VX Laboratories, where you clear 5 consecutive floors displayed on the top HUD bar from L1 to L5. Your immediate goal is breaking five wall blocks to establish seed cash at the grinder station before buying punch and bag upgrades. Breaking rare blocks and cracking vaults along the way yields gems before you escape into the next chapter.

What Chapter 1 asks of you

VX Laboratories serves as the opening chapter of Punch Walls To Escape. Review how to play if you need a refresh on the basic bag and grinder mechanics.

Chapter metric Recorded value UI evidence
Setting name VX Laboratories Chapter card and lobby registration sheet
Floor structure 5 floors total Top HUD displays markers L1 through L5 (checked 13 Nov 2026)
Starting task PUNCH THE WALL 0/5 First mission prompt in room 1 (checked 13 Nov 2026)
Exit reward Lab Rat No More badge Awarded upon clearing the chapter (checked 13 Nov 2026)

Careful. The opening objective reads PUNCH THE WALL 0/5, which requires destroying five individual wall blocks rather than demolishing five entire rooms. Target exposed single voxels until the counter clears.

Floor by floor

Individual floor names are not recorded in the game UI. You track progress through the L1 to L5 indicators located along the top of your screen. Clear floors 1 and 2 using this sequence:

  1. Break the starter voxels on floor 1 to complete the 0/5 prompt.
  2. Fill your 150-capacity bag with loose rubble and run it to the grinder depot (checked 13 Nov 2026).
  3. Buy early punch power or bag expansions as soon as cash registers in your wallet.
  4. Push past the cleared partition into floor 2 once the passageway opens.
  5. Upgrade gear repeatedly because wall block durability increases on subsequent floors.

Balance your clearing pattern against common mistakes:

  • Good move: Shuttling back to the grinder as soon as your bag fills so every swing yields sellable rubble.
  • Bad move: Pushing into floors 3 and 4 with base fists. Wall toughness scales up, and swinging without power upgrades slows your progress.
  • Good move: Checking upgrade costs on your own monitor. FISTS POWER cost $0.15 to $0.30 in early runs and climbed to $3.50 in later runs (checked 13 Nov 2026).
  • Bad move: Trusting fixed price charts. Prices scale dynamically between saves, so never treat any tier as having a permanent low price or guaranteed return.

The lab's training room. The tool you are holding decides how much of a wall comes down per swing, so this is where the upgrade cash goes first.

Two subjects in a VX Laboratories training room, one holding a sledgehammer, punching bags on the wall behind

Gems before the exit

Reaching the exit requires cash, but permanent account progression relies on gems. Chapter 1 contains two separate gem sources covered in vaults and gems.

Gem source How it works Confirmation status
Rare blocks Special sparkling voxels embedded in walls Confirmed by in-game loading tip; full list in Index
Vaults Reinforced lockboxes scattered in chambers Confirmed by official game description and run summary cards

In one documented laboratory run, the final scoreboard logged 62,206 blocks smashed, $1,431.25 earned, 7 gems collected, and 0 vaults cracked (checked 13 Nov 2026). The end-of-run card lists gems and vaults as separate line items, proving that smashing vaults is an independent bonus rather than standard block mining.

Careful. The grinder is purely the sell depot for rubble. It does not accept vaults, and it is never a punching tool. Smash vaults directly where they sit.

Leaving the lab

Punching through the final wall on floor 5 opens the laboratory exit and triggers the escape summary screen. Complete your escape by executing three final actions:

  1. Break the remaining barrier voxels on floor 5 to unlock the exit portal.
  2. Step through the doorway to load the ESCAPED summary screen.
  3. Confirm your award for the badge Lab Rat No More, which has been earned by 518,260 players (checked 13 Nov 2026).

Official badge text confirms your next stop: "You smashed your way out of the lab. They never should have locked you in. Ironhold Prison is next."

Careful. Chapter 1 contains exactly 5 floors per the official listing (checked 13 Nov 2026), but whether chapters 2 and 3 also contain 5 floors is not confirmed in the game UI or developer notes. Vacuum and TNT show UNLOCKS ON MEDIUM in the tool catalog (checked 13 Nov 2026), while Sledgehammer unlock conditions remain unconfirmed. Prepare your character before taking on Chapter 2: Ironhold.