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Distraction and Detection

Getting distracted is the core danger of the game. It happens in two separate stages, and understanding them is the difference between a good player and a captured one.

A distractor closing in
A distractor capturing a player in its line of sight.

Stage 1 — Detection & capture build-up

A distractor can only start capturing you while it can see you.

  • Line-of-sight is everything. The capture meter only fills while the distractor has an unobstructed view of you, within its Detection range (6–16 studs depending on the NPC). Duck behind a wall or around a corner and the build-up stops and drains away. (Note: once a distractor is chasing, that chase uses a 3D radius, but the meter that captures you only grows in line-of-sight.)
  • How long it takes is set by a formula comparing your Awareness to the distractor's Charisma:

capture time = 8 seconds, adjusted by ±5s. A higher player Awareness than the NPC's Charisma lengthens the window (up to +5s); a lower one shortens it (down to −5s). Range: ~3 to ~13 seconds.

Worked examples against average charisma 40: - Plain (awareness 40): gap 0 → 8.0s - Scholar (awareness 60): gap +20 → 10.5s - Dash (awareness 30): gap −10 → 6.75s

Against a max-charisma 60 distractor, even Plain is caught in just 5.5s.

  • What slows the meter down:
  • Meditation Focus stacks — each stack makes the meter fill 25% slower (3 stacks = four times slower).
  • Scholar mastery — slower build-up at Level 2, faster drain out of sight at Level 3.
  • Two distractors on you at once fill it faster, so don't get pinned between them.
  • Outdoor maps are more dangerous. On open-air maps (construction sites, the desert, the archery camp, the towers) distractors spot you from further away: ×2 Detection range on Easy, ×3 on Medium, ×4 on Hard. On Hard outdoor levels the meter also fills 20% faster.
  • Gadgets can fight back: a Blind Wall blocks a distractor's sight, and the Grenade, EMP Magnet and Shutdown Lever switch distractors off for a few seconds.

Stage 2 — The distraction hold

Once the meter fills, you're captured and taken to a distraction room. You're held for the distractor's Distract Time — 20 to 60 seconds — modified by:

  • Your Recovery stat — ×1.30 (worst) to ×0.70 (Locked-In). Higher Recovery = shorter hold.
  • Class Mastery bonuses on some classes.

If a distractor is stunned by a gadget while it is still walking you to the room, you go free on the spot. Once you are locked in, the hold ends early only if a teammate completes your rescue puzzle (or a Latch uses a key). Otherwise it expires.

Getting caught during a delivery skill-check (like the archery or fire-pole checks) closes the check straight away. You keep the items you were carrying. You can also hit RUN! to leave a skill-check yourself when a robot gets close.

A distracted player
😵 "You got distracted!" The capture succeeded: the player is pulled off to a distraction room. The countdown shows how long they'll be held unless a teammate frees them.

Multi-target holds

A distractor's Targets rating decides how many players it can hold at once: most hold 1, a few hold 2 (Channel Surfer, Tea Spiller, Streamer Hype, Midnight Fridge), and Vendy holds 3. It builds the meter on that many nearby, visible players at once, so don't cluster near multi-target distractors.

After you're freed

Right after a rescue or when a hold expires, you get a brief immunity window (a few seconds) where distractors can't re-capture you, enough to get clear before the meter can start again.

Takeaways

  • Use cover. Line-of-sight breaks reset capture: walls beat speed.
  • Know the charisma. High-charisma NPCs catch you fast; give them space.
  • Spread out near two- and three-target distractors.