IMPORTANT: The moment more than one player is looking at the bracken, he will immediately go into staredown mode (and both players are contributing to his anger meter which is why he will aggro so quick). Shoutout to @call_me_bread for finding this! IMPORTANT: The Bracken’s retreat phase will last 23 seconds the first two times, then it will last 11 seconds the third time. This will repeat throughout the game. IMPORTANT: If a Bracken is cornered or has nowhere else to go, this puts him in staredown mode. This is why he gets aggro'd so quickly if he's cornered.

You forgot to mention he cannot track player if he's jumping, Bracken only remembers your last position on floor.

The Bracken AI is more complex than it looks like

The AI is more insane then I thought, the fact they make sure you can't try to put them into phase 2 by changing direction in corners is something I never knew.

"There's a spy creeping around here" -me right before getting my neck snapped

Not a suprised zeekers made such a complex AI, he made It steals after all

THATS ME IM THEM IM ThAT PERSON ON THE BIG SCREEN also some smaller side notes: - The bracken can only drop the body early if he is ~5 paintings away from his faviroute spot - The stair room is a pure coincidence, there's no code for it (atleast that i could find). - The bracken does not get aggro'd if it is cornered, but it is possible it's getting stuck in a loop of avoiding the closest player, which DOES slightly raise anger. - the stare down chance stacks for every player looking at a bracken.

Following a retreating bracken usually helps you find loot rooms as they avoid dead ends and getting as far away from you as possible usually means going to the deepest point in the facility.

That stalking AI is really cool, the bracken is easily my favourite enemy in the game

The bracken feels alive compared to the other monsters, a completely different feel

Also when Bracken enters a place where he cannot retreat anymore, he directly attacks no matter what, it happend.

Before this one i saw SiniK's video on the Bracken. In it he discovered that the Bracken only reccords wherever the player last stand on the ground. If they jump (or stand on a shelf), the Bracken will freeze with no way of knowing where the player is. This also work during Agro mode so jumping around while being hunted helps put some space between you and the Bracken👌

Bracken explained for cavemen: Bracken is not the god of sea Stracken, however, he is very big and angry. If hear Bracken, turn around quick, quicker than running from angry thumper. If Bracken get seen by grok, he back up, you can look at him while he back up. However, if grok look at Bracken while Bracken stay still, just like statue that snake lady Agatha makes from human, then Bracken get angry like god of desert when desert gets no sacrfices.

loving the idea of someone walking into the company, finding a bracken, and just charging at it while talking about ai nodes and anger meters while the bracken is like "dude wtf your supposed to run away now"

6:57 I like how he's carrying a beehive when saying this.

Fun Fact: Bracken is most likely a reference to a monster from another game called "It Steals", the monster is called Legs. Both creep up behind you, both retreat after being seeing, both become angry and chase the player after being looked and both know where you are looking and try to go another way. Fun Fact 2: Both "It Steals" and "Lethal Company" are from the same creator :)

They behave like an actual animal. Cautious and not always aggressive This is the most likes I've ever gotten

5:57 Stuns do not cause Bracken to instantly become aggro, but it does instantly spike his anger level to 6/11, which often causes him to become aggro shortly after. Attacking him sets his anger to 11, then adds 0.1, which always causes it to become angered. EDIT: Did some more testing and reread the code. Stuns actually set his anger meter to 12 if the stun source is a Zap Gun or a Stun Grenade. Other stun sources instead set his anger meter to 2. However, he actually can't enter Behaviour State 2 (Angered) unless he is NOT stunned. It looks like it attempts to add 0 to his anger meter every update while stunned, plus one update after. However, the condition required for him to become angered is buried in a bunch of conditionals - his "angerCheckInterval" must also be above 1, but the stun functions don't handle this, so the anger state can be delayed a bit. The next time AddToAngerMeter is called, if he is stunned with a Zap Gun or Stun Grenade and the angerCheckInterval is high enough, he WILL become angered, since the chance for him becoming angered is 0.09 * Anger, or 108% (it's clamped to 99 though). The HitEnemy function sets his anger to 11, then adds 0.1 to it, and also increases the angerCheckInterval, which results in a 99% chance for him to become angered immediately. An important note is that any effect which "sets" his anger to a value *overrides* his current anger, meaning that if you were to stun him with the Flash command on a radar booster, it would reduce his anger to 2, if it was already above 2. Also, any effect which "sets" his anger explicitly cannot cause an anger check.

I always knew the Bracken AI was going to be interesting, but goddamn. It’s such a good way to have a stalker type horror enemy. The fact that actively calculates where you’re looking to hide is terrifying

So it turns out I was gaslit HARD with the Bracken. The info I heard before this was that 1) The weird Backrooms like Room is the Bracken’s room and he spawns and brings the bodies there. 2) He has the same low chance of spawning on every single moon (I just thought I had bad luck everytime I went to Vow) 3) To get rid of him you have to look at him but if you look at him for more than 3 seconds he will get angry.

I swear to god, no matter how long I played the game, this thing scares the living crap out of me. Like it doesn't even have to appear behind me, just popping out of a corner like 8 meters away is enough to make something come out of me for a second, even though it's realistically one of the more benign creatures, unless you're dealing with a nutcracker or a coil head at the same time. Just glance behind yourself every 10 seconds and you're safe.

some small things i found while digging the code: its retreat time isn’t actually 23 always, it will only retreat for that long on certain intervals, repeating after three ti es being triggered (otherwise it’s 11), also, when the bracken reaches the furthest node from main entrance with a body, it will set its time to 3 seconds. It’s first phase AI is really simple, it sets its destination to a spot slightly behind you and paths there, freezing when LOS intersects all possible paths. Also, if the bracken is retreating and cannot find a path to the furthest point from you without intersecting LOS, it will add to its anger rapidly Edit: ((timesFoundSneaking % 3 != 0) ? 11f : 24f) this is the equation for the time sneaking away without a body, but i have noticed a bug in the code: the timesFoundSneaking variable is never actually changed so the time is actually always 24 seconds, but this may be patched soon, so this is still relevant Note: ((!(Vector3.Distance(base.transform.position, favoriteSpot.position) > 8f)) ? 3f : 24f) this is the equation for if it is carrying a body (24 seconds away from its favorite spot, 3 when it gets close) More Note: About dropping the players body when seen holding it, this only happens when it is less than 6 unity units from its favorite spot More more note: stunning the bracken will add 12 anger (over the threshold for 100% anger mode) IF it is done by a player (e.g. not radar booster iirc), if no player is found as the perpetrator, only 2 anger will be added More more more note: the anger meter is only shared between players when the bracken enters its anger phase, otherwise it is seperate So many notes: when in anger, with no player in the facility, the bracken will wait around Main This is probably the end of this, i'm sorry for the wrong info, I didn't notice the bug the first time i checked the code, but now it should be correct.

0:07 i jumped bro

bracken is the best creature in this game, awesome video

It’s great that these videos are to the point and don’t include any random stuff that you don’t need to know, they’re quick simple guides that help out a ton while playing the game

we'll all turn into pros hitting 10k quotas when alter ego uploads the final video on the ai behind the final monster

I’m glad I figured this all out on my own by watching my friends die on the monitors. I did notice that they really like to back up far and would try trapping them. But otherwise I do tell players to keep moving if the red dot following them is stalking rather than chasing.

“It’s Bracken Time.” - The Bracken

1:11 I love this bit so much, not only is it a great way to explain his behavior in those circumstances but it feels like you're studying the bracken like its a lab experiment💀💀💀

the emergent gameplay is some of the coolest i have ever seen. these creatures feel like they each have their own personalities and the way they move and think is more complex than almost anything else ive ever seen

3:49 say what???

Bracken just like me for real. Making eyecontact with me sends me to retreat mode and trying to constantly make eyecontact with me makes me displeased with you. I only occasionally snap people's necks tho, so that part is slightly different.

These are the monsters im mostly scared about bc he doesnt make any sounds when sneaks up so he can be behind you anytime without you knowing it. This makes me so paranoid

The worst experience ive ever had with a bracken was on Offense, i has used the inverse-teleporter and i was trapped in a room with a hydraulic door, little did i know A BRACKEN WAS IN THE ROOM WITH ME. I hid in the corner right next to the door only looking at the btacken when it got too close, the door finally opened and i ran for my life, the bracken had also left the room. It targeted a differwnt teamate that was closer and he backed into a landmine by the main entrance, i was unaware of the bracken at main entrance until i ran into it and died :(

we’ve been in the same shoes as the bracken tryna get something your parents dont want you to touch and then getting up pretending nothing happened and knowing damn well youve been caught

I love watching how people exains ai behinds enemies in games because when game creators really wants, they can made a really complex monster. Bracken literally feels like a real life animal but with a bit of omnipotency and is super cool. I had a hard time learning making games but if i find someone who will teach me to make games, ai for monsters wpuld be one of mine priorities

when i glance at the bracken he chases after me. when i want him to chase me i literally run after him through the whole building. finally, some answers.

YOUR tik Tok brought me to YOUR channel. It's an amazing tool and I wouldn't have found this well made video without it.

Ur vids r so professional and informational i love it keep it up man!

I’m pretty sure the anger meter is highly quickened in multi player. Single player (solo), he doesn’t get angry that easily, as shown in the video. But when playing with a group, if you stare him down for like 5 seconds, he immediately gets pissed. Also same with his retreat. It feels incredibly short but longer in solo

I was once stuck in a room with a bracken, a body, and a cookie pan. He did *not* leave me alone every time I looked at him. Was just a game of cat and mouse as I tried to get the pan and the body. Despite lasting a few minutes, I of course did not win.

bracken ai so complex it drops my frames the moment i look at him

I usually get pretty numb to horror games pretty quickly, but the bracken never ceases to freak me out despite my 200+ hours in the game. It is the sole creature keeping me on edge when I play as I’m always paranoid and constantly checking my back which inevitably ends up with me getting the ghost girl first without fail 😂.

i love brackens, Best and most source of fun i had in this game, be either getting my neck snapped or being terrorized by the very knowledge hes around

So how does playing with multiple people affect things? 2 players looking at the Bracken increases anger twice? It just seems that it's a lot more likely to aggro in multiplayer

I saw your Snareflea and Lootbug video I like your explanation a lot and I was waiting for the bracken to come out and here we are! thank you

one note with the retreat AI: Every third time he retreats, he's programmed to come back after only 11 seconds instead of the full 23

i love how spotting the bracken before he can snap your neck increases his anger meter, almost as if he's going "damn! foiled again!"

The fact one man coded all this crap is insane! Zeekers is truly an amazing dev!

I used to explain Bracken's AI to new players. It's great the fact that someone actually made a video, it's pretty good buddy, you are really good at this

After the Thumper could you do Masked or ghost girl, masked mainly because since it’s newer not many people understand how it works or ghost girl and you could explain the paranoia meter and stuff

you forgot to mention bracken's "kill your fps" move where if you see him your fps goes down to 5

Have you been stalking me

lethal company ai's are just... unbeliveable

Thank you, I’ve been looking for a video like this for ages, I was always confused why he’d go away when I looked at him sometimes and just Ran at me at other times, also your first two videos were helpful too, I thought you had to bargain with the hoarding bug, but your just giving it more reasons to attack you

you are my favourite lethal company creator fr

why is the bracken actually smart, I thought he just quietly approaches you from behind.

Its crazy how the bracken is most common on a tier 1 moon

I watch these videos partially to try to calm myself while playing the game and not be as scared but after watching this video I went from not minding brackens to being terrified of them.

All the AI in this game is extremely well made, like the dev used the souls of real people and he forced them to haunt the enemy code

This was the best car video I have ever watched thank you!

i had no way to know when you are not looking at him he moves on all fours, but now that i do know it makes the bracken much creepier

I had a heart attack when I saw the bracken 😂

Preventing kids from saying first Also keep up the good work

Like many otger horror games, this game gas so many misconceptions that spread like wildfire. Even moreso because it is multiplayer. Me and surely many other people used to think that Brakken were just the opposite of coilheads, and that you needed to look away from them no matter what.

Thank you for the super detailed video, I was always confused on how exactly the Bracken works so it makes a lot more sense now!

creating horror tension through engaging ai design

Just realized that the braken has another phase when he is dragging a player when he kills someone by going as far away from the entrance as possible then will go pack to phase 1

It really disturbs me how the Bracken moves around, it almost feels like an actual player with the small movements that he does as if tapping the WASD keys

I misread the thumbnail thinking a Bracken was gonna explain how AI worked. :(

i love how complex some monsters are

I feel like the bracken, is made to encourage more team play, and if you keep looking behind you, you lose more sanity, so it really balances the game

this is interesting! edit: especially the fact you can _tell_ when you've set it into aggro mode by the way it turns away and back towards you

This video has made me even more paranoid about the bracken because he could have been there before in games and I might’ve not noticed😬 It is super cool how the developers made this complex AI tho, pretty insane

An important detail is the fact that if you want to hunt for nurcrackers on places like rend you need to kill the bracken as he takes up a huge amount of space in the limited indoor power level and nutckackers wont spawn

Amazing video, thank you very much! Some extra observations from what I've seen with brackens in multiplayer with more than one survivor - I'd really love if you could confirm whether these seem accurate or not? 1) if multiple people look at the bracken it seems to add to his anger meter faster than if just one person looks at him. While he's in staredown mode mainly... but also I wonder if that initial transition from phase 1 to phase 2 triggers the "add a little anger" extra times if multiple people all turn and spot the bracken? I'd assume not, since he's already in phase 2 by the time a second person looks at him? but I'm still not sure. Or maybe multiple people spotting the bracken will increase the number of time's he's been spotted more quickly so that he adds more anger faster on future spots? 2) When the bracken goes into phase 3 and charges because he was being looked at in staredown mode, he does not always target the person who was actually staring at him, I've seen him run off and kill a different player who was around a corner but was technically closer to the bracken, I'm suspecting the bracken picks the closest player when he goes into phase 3? 3) I'm really not sure about this, but it really feels like it sometimes... Does the bracken default to waiting near a random entrance, or can he tell where you're coming in from before you even enter? Sometimes it really feels like it already knows what entrance you'll be coming from when the facility is empty - and it feels like he pre-moves to be near to an entrance that a player outside the facility is moving towards. I suspect this one is most likely a myth and just some unlucky coincidences though? 4) If the bracken is stalking you and you know it is but haven't triggered his retreat phase yet, he does not seem to be able to switch stalking targets. (I'm not actually sure, can he switch targets after he retreats? That seems to be the only time he switches in my experience?) It felt this way at least when testing - we had a facility with a bracken in it, we cleared the facility for a while, I went into main to be "bracken bait", and I just posted up in a corner where I could see all doors, so that he wouldn't try to enter my room. I caught a glimpse of his edge peeking around a door so I knew he was trying to sneak up to me, but he hadn't counted as being spotted. My friend then went into fire escape to collect some extra loot, and the bracken never seemed to leave me for him. (I wonder if we tried this same setup but if he'd gone through main and was much closer to the bracken whether it could've swapped targets then? or if this is actually a limitation that we can rely on when playing around the bracken) --to be clear, I know how quickly rumors start and spread in this game, and I'm not confident in any of these four, but they're things that I've observed that I'd love to have more solid confirmations (or debunkings) for. And these generally can't be investigated by a single player easily, as all but #3 involve multiple players. EDIT: I just saw Agmass's comment with some extra info - it seems like #1 in my post is false when it comes to actually adding to the anger meter, but multiple players does make it more likely that he triggers phase 3 from staring down off the same anger at least? Also I thought about #3 more and it wouldn't surprise me if he just followed us to the exit rooms when we last left the facility and then he was still waiting nearby when we re-entered?

Imagine if the bracken could scare players into dead ends when in agro.

now I wonder if there is or will be some mod that could allow you to see a bracken's anger meter. it'd probably have to be tied to the actual bracken in some way (maybe a visible meter could be added on top of the model or something or maybe something that shows up when you scan it) since multiple can spawn in.

so what you're saying is as long as you see the bracken, he won't hug you

I love the goofy way everything in this game moves

I feel like every time I look for more than a second he goes for the kill

I always thought it was programmed to actually pick good hiding spots. Crazy to see it's true. It hiding on the stairs is way too intelligent

good to know the retreating phase is that long, nice vid my boy

Bracken: "Hello Spy, from Team Fortress 2~" Spy: "Hello Bracken, from Lethal Company~" *Both get spotted* Bracken: HISSSSSSS Spy: NONNNNNN.... I'll be seeing you~ Hohohoho *snort snort*

Bracken is always the one that scared the ever living shit out of me. because i'm ALWAYS the one who gets snaped first.

I wonder which enemy in Lethal Company is the smartest Aka which one has the most complex AI Brackens are pretty complex Ghost Girl is pretty complex Giants are surprisingly complex but not as complex as the first two

So your telling me, they will hide from you, waiting to attack you THE MOMENT YOU ENTER THE ROOM?

I don't play the game, but those videos where you analyse the AI behind mobs are pretty interesting

And they said TF2 skills are untransferrable...All my hours training against wallhacking spy mains make me immune to these guys

not even 10sec in the vid and my soul almost yeet from my body

Dude this series is making your channel grow fast!

Ok so I'm correcting his tips for handling them, step 1- constantly scan your surroundings regardless if there's a broken, there is no step 2, falling this simple step I have never died to a braken, literally just have spatial awareness

So Brackens suffer from average tf2 spy main syndrome. They even get angry when you randomly turn around and spot them.

1:00 "...it's a good idea to constantly keep checking your back..." Ghost girl says hi

apparently the brackens i get in game have anger issues cus they get mad the moment i see a single atom in their skin

By yourself hearing a door open behind you that you just closed is terrifying

While I already had more intimate knowledge than most players due to constantly playing Solo games, I appreciate videos like this mostly for showing me how to handle a Bracken shovel kill.

man and i thought it was just 'look behind you and he'll run away'

Also for those people who hear a random laugh, there is a rumor this laugh is a bracken, it is in fact not a bracken, its just ambient noise

An interesting and terrifying think happens if you corner a Bracken I think while it’s holding a body, even if you’re behind a closed door, if you’re looking at it for too long, it’ll start shrieking and immediately agro, pretty horrifying sound