Bots

**Bots**, also known as **Player AI**, are characters in-game played by a computer program rather than a human player.

Any custom match can be filled with Bots of various skill levels to practice with.

A match with Bots will occur after a certain amount of losses in any kind of Rank or Quick Match when you are ranked betwen Tier I and Tier III;

* Tier I (Bee/Spider) = 3 losses
* Tier 2 (Hound/Cobra) = 4 losses
* Tier 3 (Elk/Crocodile) = 5 losses

If you are in a team, friends will play in the bot match with you. This will not occur if your friend is not in the same tier as you and you are playing a rank match.

## Appearances

### Bot Behavior Details

You can tell if you have bots in your match, mainly by their behavior:

* In a bot match, the wait time will always read as 59 seconds and be an instant match, but not all instant matches with a 59 second wait time are bot matches.
* Bots will press ready instantly at the same time, but one bot will not press ready unless either the time runs out or the player presses ready first. This is true regardless of what faction the player chooses.
	+ If the player changes characters, the last bot will also change characters.
		- This is so the team is relatively balanced no matter who the player chooses.
* In general, Bots have more jagged behavior than regular players, and will 'ready up' immediately.
	+ Bot hunters will follow very closely behind the survivor they are chasing without attacking unless the survivor takes a sharp turn.
		- Bot hunters cannot be hidden from, but they are easy to stun with pallets.
	+ Bot survivors will always run away from the hunter, but may get stuck in a loop of trying to run to a cipher machine/rocket chair->seeing hunter->running away->then trying to return to cipher machine/rocket chair and repeat.
* Some Bot Hunters will not use their unique abilities (such as Photographer's camera) or their secondary traits like Teleport or Excitement.
* Some Bot Survivors will not use their items, and will not have Persona talents such as Tide Turner or Borrowed Time.
	+ Bot survivors will decode, rescue teammates from chairs, heal injured/downed teammates, as well as drop pallets and vault windows.
	+ As they won't stop moving while in between tasks, an injured bot is very difficult to heal.
	+ to heal an injured bot, you can follow them around until they find a cipher. when they miss a calibration, they will stay idle and stop decoding for a while, when that happens, you can use the chance to heal them. Also, when all 5 ciphers have been decoded, go to the exit gate before the injured bot does. When you are opening the gate, bots will stand around the gate. During this time, you can heal the bot.
	+ Bot hunters cannot fix rocket chairs, and will head towards the basement if all chairs on the map are broken using a toolbox.
* After being rescued with the trait Tide Turner, some bots may glitch out but will return to normal once Tide Turner runs out.
* After the bot update, bots can now locate and escape via dungeons.
* Sometimes, if you kite for long enough, a bot Hunter may give up and chase someone else.
* If you are decoding and the Hunter comes to the opposite side of the cipher machine, it may start hitting the cipher machine.
* A bot may have 'ordinary' player names. For example, in the Chinese server, their names will always include several Chinese characters and one English letter.

### Potential Bot Characters

The following are characters that Bots will start the match with. *The \* denotes original Bot characters before it was updated.*

#### *Survivors*

* Gardener\*
* Doctor\* (Bot can use item and rescue)
* Thief\*
* Lawyer\*
* Magician (Bot can use item and rescue)
* Embalmer
* Priestess
* Mercenary (Bot can use item and rescue)
* Coordinator (Bot can use item and rescue)
* The Minds Eye (Bot can use item and rescue)
* Perfumer (Bot can use item and rescue)
* Female Dancer
* Seer (Bot can use item and rescue)
* Postman (Bot can use item and rescue)
* Grave Keeper (Bot can use item and rescue)
* "Prisoner" (Bot can use item and rescue)
* "Psychologist" (Bot can use item and rescue)

#### *Hunters*

* Hell Ember\*
* Smiley Face\*
* Photographer
* Gamekeeper
* Bloody Queen (Bot can use skill in Nightmare Mode)
* The Feaster (Bot can use skill in Nightmare Mode)
* Wu Chang (Bot can use skill in Nightmare Mode)
* "Nightmare" (Bot can use skill in Unending Nightmare Event and Nightmare Mode)
* Geisha (Bot can use skill in Nightmare Mode)

### Costumes

Originally, Bots did not have any special costumes. They will still most often be wearing their default costume, but they can also appear in B-tier, A-tier or S-Tier costumes, most notably Event Store costumes. They can have seasonal, essence-exclusive cosmetics, but will never wear limited or crossover costumes.

## Trivia

* As of September 16, 2020 there was an update that "If a survivor is matched to an AI match, there's a chance that they'll be matched with other Survivors that are also matched to an AI match."
* After 27/05/2021 Update, Bots can use skills (like Owl, Flare Gun, Syringe, ...) but can't use Persona talents until some updates later.