Hiding

Every rule around getting into, staying in, and being found inside a hiding spot.

What counts as a hiding spot

Certain furniture can be hidden in or under: some lockers, desks, teacher desks, cabinets, toy boxes, reading tables, pianos, bleachers, vaulting boxes, cafeteria tables, serving counters, kitchen counters, fridges, storage crates, bathroom stalls, nurse cots, Lost & Found bins, staff couches, a round table, and a few playground props. See Rooms & The School for exactly which furniture, in which room. Each hiding prop is flagged either under (you crouch under it — a desk, a piano, bleachers) or as an enclosed container (a locker, a crate, a cabinet), which changes your eye height and posture while hidden.

Entering and leaving

• Getting in takes a 0.7-second hold on E (or the "Hide" secondary option shown alongside a search prompt, on R), and only emits a small noise: 0.18 (versus 0.5 for a normal footstep).
• While hidden, your only actions are Get out (a 0.45-second hold) and, if you're in a locker with duct tape in your bag, Tape the door shut (see below).
• Leaving makes a slightly bigger noise, 0.3, as the game steps you out to a free spot roughly 0.85–1.6 units in front of the container.
• Your fear rate drops by 3 per second while hidden, on top of whatever the room's light level is already doing to it.

Peeking

Hold the right mouse button while hidden to lean your eye out to the edge of the container (offset ~0.45 units toward its front) without actually leaving — useful for checking whether it's safe to come out, at the cost of being visible again while you do it.

Taping a locker shut

If you're hidden in a locker specifically and have duct tape in your bag, a secondary R option appears: "Tape the door shut." It consumes the tape and makes that locker un-openable by anything for 30 seconds — a hard, guaranteed block, not a probability. Once it wears off you can exit normally again.

How Bob checks hiding spots

• He personally watched you get in, within the last 1.6 seconds: he goes straight to that exact spot and opens it — a guaranteed, 100% find. There is no way to out-luck a spot Bob directly witnessed.
• He's investigating a noise (didn't see you get in): he heads for the nearest unchecked hiding spot to the noise, and his chance of actually finding whoever's inside is clamp(0.18 + night × 0.025, 0.18, 0.42) — about 18% on night 1, rising to a capped 42% around night 10, further multiplied by 1.6 on an Overtime night. If he doesn't find you, that specific spot is marked "checked" and won't be re-checked during that same investigation, so hiding somewhere he already searched (in the same alarm) is briefly safer.
• Every hiding spot in the school has its "checked" flag reset the moment any new noise triggers an investigation, so a spot he cleared five minutes ago is fair game again on the next alarm.

How Grump handles hiding spots (once turned)

Grump doesn't roll a find chance the way Bob does. If he ends up within about 4.2 units of someone hidden while hunting, he stops and camps right outside that hiding spot's door, breathing, for 7–12 seconds. Coming out early (within ~2.8 units of him) gets you caught; staying hidden until he gives up is completely safe — he then avoids camping that same person again for 8 seconds and moves off toward a dark room. See Events & Encounters and Grump for the full sequence.

Hiding to avoid Jerry

If Jerry is running at you for a gym class and you manage to hide before he reaches you, he gives up and heads back to the gym, with the line "I know you're in there! Next time, champ!" — one of the few uses for a hiding spot that has nothing to do with Bob or Grump. See Jerry.

The "Hide and seek" job

One of Mrs. Honeywell's job templates simply asks you to hide in 3 places that day — any hiding spot counts, and it's tracked by the same event as an actual hide (getting in), regardless of whether anything was hunting you at the time. See Mrs. Honeywell's Jobs.