The skill ‘detect hidden’ is used both passively and actively to detect hidden boxes, hidden traps, hidden people, and for those engaged in Virtue vs Vice, hidden sigils.
Until publish 105, June 2019, Detect hidden, together with lockpicking, was also a qualifying requirement for training the skill ‘remove trap’. This requirement no longer applies.
Finding Hidden People
- The radius of detection is based on your “Detect Hidden” skill.
- Your chances of finding a hidden player depend on the relationship between your Detect Hidden skill and their Hiding skill. You can expect to be totally unable to find a grandmaster hider if you are just a neophyte in the skill.
- House owners are able to instantly reveal anyone hidden in their house, regardless of skill level, on the grounds that they know their house better than any stranger. You cannot gain skill by using Detect Hidden inside your own house.
- Having a high Detect Hidden skill helps to automatically reveal people that stealth in your vicinity; The passive Detect Hidden range against a character using Stealth is a 4 tile radius.
- The Detect Hidden skill also helps you when you are using the Tracking skill and when you use the Reveal spell.
- All human characters have Jack of all Trades of 20 Detect Hidden
- All elven characters have a racial bonus increased chance to passively Detect Hidden.
- Passive Detect Hidden is not active in “Abyss” rulesets.
Finding Hidden Containers
Exodus Dungeon and the sands around the wreck of the BMV Ararat have hidden containers which can be found using the detect hidden skill. As you stealth around the dungeon, if your skill is high enough, you will passively detect the boxes, receiving the message ‘your keen senses detect something hidden in the area’. You must then use the skill actively to locate and reveal the container. Both container types have 2 traps, poison and explosion.
The training aid ‘Crystal Ball of Knowledge’ (obtained from Ortlem the Mystic’s quest) is particularly useful, the difficulty of the skill being related to the distance from the target. It is possible to use the crystal ball’s messages in a way similar to the ‘hotter/colder’ children’s game.
Dungeon Traps
Most traps in the oldest dungeons are no longer hidden, passive detection of other floor traps will only occur if a player has at least 75 detecting hidden skill.
Trapped Containers
- Spawning or Static Boxes, Chests, Crates, Barrels and Kegs are almost always trapped. Most will have all three of the trap types.
- Crafted, lockable containers can be trapped by a tinker. These include
- Wooden box
- All 3 sizes of crate
- Wooden chest
- Plain wooden chest
- Ornate wooden chest
- Gilded wooden chest
- Wooden footlocker
- Finished wooden chest
- To see if a container is trapped place it on the floor and use the Detect Hidden skill on the container or on the floor next to it. If the container is trapped and the skill is successful the word “[trapped]” will appear over it.
- In the classic client only the 3 types of container traps are displayed with a color when detected.
- Purple for explosion traps
- Blue for dart traps or dart & explosion traps
- Green for poison traps, poison & dart traps, poison & explosion traps or poison & dart & explosion traps
- Tip: Use Detect Hidden several times on a container to really make sure it is not trapped, you may miss the trap in the first tries.
Virtue vs Vice Sigils & Traps
- A passive detecting hidden check will alert the player when they are near the sigil with a message that, “Their keen senses detect something hidden in the area” if a player has at least 80.0% detecting hidden skill.
- Players must use detecting hidden and have at least 100.0% stealing to reveal and steal the sigil.
- Traps can be passively detected with a detecting hidden skill of at least 80.0%.
- Traps can only be revealed by using the detecting hidden skill actively.