13 Days to Escape is a RoDark Studios prison game on Roblox, now playable in alpha. You act like a model inmate during the day and work on your escape at night. Day 01 teaches you the loop. You follow a timed schedule, earn cash from prison jobs, keep the guards relaxed, and get back into your cell before lockdown. Miss that last deadline and the run ends on the spot, no matter how well the rest of the day went.
Quick answer: Follow each period’s timer, earn cash from jobs, and stay away from alerted guards. When “RETURN TO CELLS” appears, be inside your cell within 15 seconds or suspicion jumps to 100% and the day fails.
How 13 Days to Escape works in the alpha
You start in Cell 13. The story setup is simple and unsettling: after lights out, prisoners get taken behind a door marked STAFF ONLY, and they come back changed. Your job is to get out before your turn comes. You can launch it from the 13 Days to Escape page on Roblox. Servers hold up to 30 players, and you can play solo or in a team with up to three friends.
The game runs on two halves that feed into each other:
- By day, you show up for roll call, work prison jobs for cash, and keep your suspicion low around guards and CCTV.
- You spend that cash on tools at OJ’s Deals, run by an inmate vendor named OJ.
- By night, you hide those tools, move the toilet, and dig into dark tunnels under the prison.
Day 01 covers the daytime half. Everything you do here exists to get money into your pocket without drawing attention, so you can afford the tools you need later.
Day 01 starting state and objectives
You spawn in your cell during Roll Call with the doors open. You have $0 and 0% suspicion. Every inmate, you included, wears the same orange jumpsuit with “INMATE” printed on the back. The Objective panel on your HUD lists two goals: “Don’t get suspicious” and “Buy a screwdriver from OJ.”
OJ is easy to pick out because he has a money bill icon floating over his head. Talk to him and you open OJ’s Deals, which includes a “Browse all items” option for seeing his full stock. The screwdriver is the first tool the game points you toward. You start broke, though, so the rest of the day is about earning enough to buy it.
Roll Call puts you among other inmates with a guard watching. Standing where you are expected to stand is part of acting normal, and leaving your cell area early is not worth the risk at this point.
The Day 01 prison schedule and timers
The day is split into fixed periods. Each one is announced in large text at the top of the screen, and most come with a countdown. When a timer runs out, the schedule moves on and the other inmates walk to the next location. Follow the crowd unless you have a good reason not to.
| Period | Timer | Location | Main activities |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROLL CALL | — | Your cell | Meet OJ |
| LIBRARY | 01:30 | Library | Book delivery job |
| LUNCH | 02:00 | Cafeteria, kitchen | Food tray, potato peeling |
| YARD TIME | — | Fenced yard | Litter, weights, hit contracts |
| RECREATION TIME | 01:00 | Indoors | Table dice |
| RETURN TO CELLS | 15s | Your cell | Get inside before lock-in |
The timers are short. Lunch is the longest window at two minutes, so you rarely have time to do everything a period offers. Choose one earning activity per period and finish it instead of starting three.
How the suspicion meter works
Suspicion is the number that actually ends runs. It starts at 0%, and when it reaches 100% your day is over. Guards react to you visibly. When one notices you, orange exclamation bubbles (“!!”) appear above their head and your meter starts rising. Loitering near guards or doing something they read as out of place both push it up.
The meter does not need a single big mistake to climb. It can creep up to 65% over one Yard Time from small moments of standing in the wrong spot. CCTV cameras also count as watchers, so a room with no guards in it is not automatically safe.
One event fills the meter instantly. If you are outside your cell when the lockdown deadline passes, suspicion jumps straight to 100% regardless of where it was before.
Prison jobs and cash sources on Day 01
You interact with almost everything by pressing E at a prompt ring. These are the ways to earn money or pass time across the Day 01 schedule:
| Activity | Period | Prompt | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deliver book | Library | E Deliver book | $13 (per request) |
| Peel potatoes | Lunch | E Peel potatoes | $5 per potato |
| Litter pickup | Yard Time | E Pick up | Trash counter |
| Hit contract | Yard Time | Accept hit | $35 |
| Table dice | Recreation Time | E Sit & play | Cash stakes |
Potatoes are the most dependable pay. A full session is five potatoes, which works out to $25. The book job pays more per delivery but depends on finding the right shelf in time. The hit contract pays the most, but it involves attacking an inmate in the open, which conflicts with the “Don’t get suspicious” objective. Each period is covered in more detail below.
Working through each Day 01 period
Library: deliver requested books
When Library starts, you have a minute and a half. Inmates walk through the corridor into a room full of bookshelves, with a guard sitting at a desk. OJ moves with the crowd, so you can still find him here.
The guard at the desk asks for one specific book by its number, such as “Library book #110,” and pays $13 for it. Every book on the shelves has its own call number, so you need to read the spines until you find the exact match. Press E at “Take” to grab a book, then bring it back to the desk and use “Deliver book.” Grabbing the wrong one, like Book #065 when the request was #110, does not complete the job.
If you already have cash, the Library is also a quiet place to get to OJ, since everyone is spread out among the shelves rather than packed in a line.
Lunch: eat, then peel potatoes
The cafeteria period lasts two minutes. Take a tray from the serving line, then sit at a table with the inmates. Like any other item, the tray uses an inventory slot, and eating with the group is the expected activity during this period.
The kitchen has a potato-prep counter where the “E Peel potatoes” prompt appears, labeled at $5 per potato. Starting it opens a mini-game where you peel with the mouse while a counter tracks your progress out of five.
You hold a potato and peeler over a chopping board and drag the peel off. Each finished potato moves the counter forward (“Peel potatoes 1/5,” then “2/5,” and so on) and adds $5 to your cash. Press Q at “Leave” whenever you want to quit.
The schedule keeps moving while you peel. If Yard Time starts while you are still at the board, everyone else heads outside without you, so keep an eye on the period banner.
Yard Time: litter, weights and hit contracts
Yard Time moves everyone into a fenced recreation yard. There are three things to do here. You can pick up litter, use the weight bench (“Bench press”), or deal with other inmates directly. Aiming at an inmate can bring up an “E Lure” prompt.
Litter is scattered across the yard. Walk up to each piece and press E at “Pick up.” A “Trash collected” counter in the corner tracks how many you have gathered.
The yard is also where guards are most likely to spot you, because it is open ground with few places to hide. If orange “!!” bubbles show up over a guard, stop what you are doing and move away.
Hit contracts can pop up during this period. The window, marked “KILL,” offers $35 to take out a named inmate before a countdown runs out (1:25 on one Day 01 contract). Choosing “Accept hit” puts a red diamond marker above the target. It is the biggest single payout of the day, but you will be weighing $35 against how much suspicion an open attack brings.
Recreation Time: table dice
Recreation Time lasts one minute and brings inmates back indoors. That makes it the shortest timed period of the day, so do not start anything you cannot finish quickly.
Indoors, the crowd makes it easier to blend in. That also makes it a reasonable moment to close the distance to OJ if you have enough cash for the screwdriver.
A cafeteria table hosts a dice game, with cash and dice laid out on top. Press E at “Sit & play” to join. Keep the clock in mind, because Return to Cells follows right after this period.
Return to Cells: beating the 15-second lockdown
This is the last check of the day, and the one most likely to end a run. A lockdown announcement appears with the text “GET INSIDE · LOCKING IN 15s,” and every inmate has 15 seconds to be inside their own assigned cell.
You will know immediately if you were too late. The screen shows “SUSPICION REACHED 100%” along with the reason “Outside your cell after the lockdown deadline,” and the day ends. If no message appears and the doors lock with you inside, you have survived the day and the game moves on to the night.
Solo players have one more thing working in their favor. The escape menu notes “Your solo run saves,” so progress made alone carries over between sessions. Day 01 is about learning the timers and building up enough cash for OJ’s screwdriver. The digging, the moved toilet, and the tunnels behind Cell 13 all depend on getting through the daytime routine first.
