Tarkov AI Vision Explained: How Scavs, PMC Bots and Bosses Spot You, and How to Stay Unseen

A Tarkov bot spots you once its meter fills, and only Killa, Tagilla, cultists and close-range Wedge see behind them. So you can flank most bots, and past 5 m a bush slows their spotting. Every number below comes from a November 10 video by Jbobyh, a Russian YouTuber who takes Tarkov's bot logic apart.

Closer, bushes stop hiding you

5 m

Killa, Tagilla, cultists

360°

Slower to spot you prone

2.1x

How does a Tarkov bot spot you?

Jbobyh films it in a debug view, an overlay that draws each bot's rays and view distance.

A bot fires up to 6 rays at you: head, body, both arms, both legs. Up close it checks 10 times a second.

The rays aim at points on your torso, not at your actual limbs. So an arm or leg sticking out of cover is invisible to it.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 1:52. Pink lines are the bot's rays.

Your head is a small sphere, and the rays hit random points on it. Peek with anything you like, but keep the center of your head behind cover.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 2:05. The yellow ball is the head the rays look for.

A ray that reaches you fills that body part's spotting meter, a bar from 0 to 1. A ray that misses lets it drain. One full bar and the bot attacks and calls your position to its group.

Range changes what the bot looks for:

Scavs are the exception: they look for your head only within 90 m.

How far can Scavs and PMC bots see?

In the debug view, daytime Scavs see 96 to 129 m and PMC bots 100 to 127 m. Weather and time of day change it.

A ray has to pass three checks: the bot's view cone, its view distance and a clear line of sight. Walls stop it. Bushes and trees only slow it down.

Each bot's max distance shows in the debug view. Zryachiy read 290 m, Birdeye 201 m, Shturman 141 m.

Reshala read 119 m, Killa 118 m, a daytime Scav 115 m. On night Factory, Scavs dropped to 35 m.

Do Tarkov bosses have 360 vision?

Not all of them. Only cultists, Tagilla and Killa see a full 360°, so sneaking up behind them never works.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 1:21. The circle around Killa is his view.

Wedge, the Black Division boss of Icebreaker, sees 360° only within 20 m. Past that he has a normal cone.

Everyone else, Scavs and PMC bots included, has a blind side behind them. Jbobyh would cut this 360° view, because it makes flanking these bosses pointless.

BSG's patch notes give Zryachiy and the Goons a wider cone than other bots. The video doesn't show them with 360°.

What speeds up Tarkov AI detection?

Distance and angle slow the meter. The farther you are from the bot, or from the center of its view, the slower it fills.

BSG's patch notes confirm that distance, angle, stance and weather matter, and that prone is slowest. The multipliers come from the video only.

Your stance multiplies the speed. Going prone means bots spot you 2.1x slower than standing.

Prone is highlighted because it's the hardest stance to spot.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 4:07. Prone at 115 m, the bar fills slowly.

Two more things change the speed:

• You fire a shot: the meter fills 8x faster for 1.5 seconds. Don't shoot unless you mean to fight.
• Fog or rain outside: bots spot you slower and see less far. Indoors, weather doesn't matter.

So cross open ground in fog or rain, and hold your fire until you commit.

Can Tarkov AI see flashlights and lasers?

Yes, but only when a bot's view is already short, like at night. Your flashlight or laser adds about 45 m to a bot's range.

That means under 40 m for Scavs and under 90 m for other bots. Night Factory Scavs see 35 m. With your light on, they see you at about 80 m.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 5:46. The player's light gives him away at 78 m.

In clear daylight your light changes nothing.

In Jbobyh's tests, the light level from lamps or the sky didn't change spotting speed. So shooting out bulbs only makes the room darker for you.

Bots' own gear changes their view too:

• Bot with night vision on: range locks at 105 m and its view angle is set to 240°.
• Bot with its flashlight on: its view angle becomes 120° and its range shrinks.

A bot with its light on sees a narrower slice, so circle wide around it.

Can Tarkov AI see through bushes?

A bush hides you, but not up close and not from every boss. Under 5 m, every bot sees you through any amount of leaves.

BSG's patch notes confirm that bushes fail up close and that Zryachiy and Birdeye ignore them. The 5 m figure, Shturman and the priest come from the video.

For the game, a bush is a ball and a tree is a stack of balls. The deeper a ray goes into the ball, the slower the meter fills.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 5:54. Each yellow ball is what bots treat as foliage.

A bot standing fully inside a bush sees almost nothing. The game blocks its vision on purpose. That doesn't hold for every bot or every range.

Zryachiy, Shturman, Birdeye and the cultist priest ignore bushes at any range they can see. Don't hide in foliage from them.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 6:51. All three bosses see the player inside the bush.

The bush bug: shooting hides you

Shooting from a bush should make it more see-through. The formula is broken, so it does the opposite.

Fire from inside a bush and bots can lose you, even ones already looking at you. Each shot keeps that effect for 1.5 seconds, so firing that often keeps them from shooting back.

The four bosses above aren't fooled. Wedge and Reshala react in opposite ways:

• Deep inside the bush: Wedge sees you, Reshala loses you.
• At the edge of the bush: Reshala sees you, Wedge loses you.
• Shooting from it: both lose you.

Frame from Jbobyh's video, 7:24. At the edge, Reshala spots the player and Wedge doesn't.

How do you stay unseen by Tarkov AI?

Give the rays less to hit and the meter less time to fill. Here's what that means in six common spots:

• Peeking a corner: arms and legs sticking out don't count, but any visible part of your head can. Keep the center of your head behind cover.
• Crossing open ground: go prone. The meter fills 2.1x slower than standing.
• Flanking a Scav or PMC bot: come from behind, they have a blind side. Never try it on Killa, Tagilla or cultists.
• Night raid: keep your flashlight and laser off. On night Factory they more than double a Scav's view.
• Hiding in a bush: stay deep and farther than 5 m. Skip bushes near Zryachiy, Shturman, Birdeye or the cultist priest.
• Fighting Wedge from a bush: stay at its edge. Against Reshala, sit deep instead.

So keep the meter empty: go prone, lights off, and know who ignores bushes.

FAQ

Does shooting out lights blind Tarkov bots?

Not in Jbobyh's tests. Lamp light didn't change how fast bots spotted him.

Are these numbers official?

No. BSG hasn't published the numbers.

Its patch notes confirm the main rules: gradual spotting, prone being slowest, weather, and bushes failing up close. The values come from Jbobyh's debug view, so the next patch can change them.

The next big patch is Season 2, planned for December.

Watch the full breakdown

The video is in Russian. It runs 8:35 and shows every test above.