13 Days to Escape Solo Guide: Jobs, Cash, Tools and Your First Escape

Quick answer

Yes — 13 Days to Escape supports playing solo as well as teaming up with up to 3 friends. The route below is one a lone player can follow: work prison jobs for cash, buy tools from OJ's Deals at cell 13, then break out by sawing your window bars, unscrewing the toilet and drilling a tunnel.

• Peel potatoes at lunch and pick up yard litter in the daytime — an 8/8 litter round paid 20 cash in one observed run.
• The Saw costs 110 cash and the Screwdriver 25; a free Power Drill sits on a workbench in the workshop you can reach during LOCKDOWN.
• Your window to act is LOCKDOWN: once the RETURN TO CELLS countdown locks your cell, climb out through the sawed window and get moving.

Playing solo

13 Days to Escape supports playing solo as well as teaming up with up to 3 friends, so a lone player uses the ordinary game modes with no squad required. Everything below is one route a lone player can run. If you are weighing the two styles before committing, the solo vs multiplayer comparison lays out the trade-offs, and the play with friends guide covers adding company later.

The rhythm to internalize is day versus night: act normal by day, plan your escape by night. Daylight is for staying out of trouble — be ready for roll call, avoid guards and CCTV, and keep your suspicion low; the stealth guide and suspicion guide cover that side in detail. The daily prison routine and the day and night cycle explain the schedule itself.

The deadline is the dark part: something strange happens after lights out, when prisoners are taken behind the STAFF ONLY door and do not come back the same. Escape before it's your turn — that stakes the entire jobs-and-tools loop below. The STAFF ONLY door page follows that thread further. The game's own summary of the escape method is worth memorizing too: hide your tools, move the toilet, and dig your way out.

Earning cash: the starter jobs

Two jobs carry your early budget:

Keep peeling for as long as the lunch job period lasts — every finished round pays out.

The pacing is friendlier than it sounds: one session of potato peeling plus litter picking was enough to cover the Saw's 110-cash price tag, so a single active day can fund your first real tool. The prison jobs page surveys the other work available, and the money guide covers earning and spending more broadly.

OJ's Deals: your tool shop at cell 13

Cash turns into escape gear at OJ's shop. OJ is the prisoner in the orange jumpsuit at cell 13 in the cell block — press E on him to open 'OJ's DEALS' and buy tools, provided you have the cash for your pick. The OJ's Deals shop guide profiles the shop, and the cell 13 guide covers the corner it sits in.

The first-day shopping list looks like this:

On the observed first day, the Saw was a yard-time purchase. The Screwdriver came later, during recreation time — and buying it flipped the objective to 'Unscrew the toilet', the game pointing you at your next step. The Power Drill is free: the vehicle area behind the cell block leads to a workshop with yellow-black hazard markings, and during LOCKDOWN a free Power Drill sits on its workbench. The tools guide compares the kit in more depth.

Your first escape attempt, step by step

With the Saw and Screwdriver in hand and the free Drill located, the breakout runs through five stages:

Roadmap

1. 1

   Beat the RETURN TO CELLS countdown

   Be inside before the door locks, and saw the bars.

   • Return to your cell as soon as the RETURN TO CELLS alert appears — when the countdown ends, the door locks for LOCKDOWN.
   • Use the Saw on the window bars and keep at it until the 'Saw bars' progress bar fills and the bars come off.
2. 2

   Slip out during LOCKDOWN

   Reach the vehicle area behind the cell block.

   • Climb out through the sawed window.
   • Sneak into the vehicle area behind the cell block.
3. 3

   Grab cash and the free drill

   Pick up the Power Drill and any cash along the way.

   • Collect the cash stacks in the open prisoner transport.
   • Enter the workshop with the yellow-black hazard markings and take the free Power Drill from the workbench.
4. 4

   Open the toilet tunnel

   Reveal the vertical opening in your cell.

   • Return to your cell and crouch at the toilet base.
   • Use the Screwdriver to 'Unscrew' the bolts, then 'Move aside' the toilet.
5. 5

   Drill your way out

   Start digging the escape tunnel.

   • Jump into the tunnel opening with the Power Drill.
   • Hold the left mouse button to drill through the dirt walls.

Two details make stage one work. In the observed run, the player was back in the cell before the RETURN TO CELLS countdown ended, sawed the window bars, and the cell door then locked for LOCKDOWN. Go straight from re-entering the cell to work on the bars; the 'Saw bars' bar can finish before the door locks.

LOCKDOWN then flips from threat to opportunity. Your door is locked, but the window is not: climb out, sneak into the vehicle area, and work the two pickups — cash stacks in the open prisoner transport, then the Power Drill in the hazard-striped workshop — before returning to your cell.

The toilet is the last lock in the room. Crouch at its base, 'Unscrew' the bolts with the Screwdriver, and 'Move aside' the whole unit to reveal a vertical tunnel opening. Jump in with the Power Drill and hold the left mouse button to chew through the dirt walls. The move toilet guide details the bathroom surgery, the digging guide covers the drilling, and the tunnels guide follows the dark tunnels where the prison's secrets sit — exploring them is part of escaping, and the secrets guide collects what is known.

When the tunnel sequence ends, the screen cuts to black and a typewriter spells out 'Day 2'. You wake back into prison life, and the loop continues with the new days: ROLL CALL first, then sorting library books — deliveries like #043 and similar. Treat that as the schedule, not a setback: the plan from Day 1 still stands. Jobs fund tools, tools open the cell, and LOCKDOWN gives you the quiet window to use them. When you are ready to push past the first tunnel push, the full walkthrough carries the escape through to the end, and the escape plan guide pulls the whole route together.