Foundry VTT Seek Bug: Unlocking Hidden Walls & Loot Results

Are you a Pathfinder 2e Game Master or player using Foundry Virtual Tabletop and finding yourself scratching your head when trying to reveal hidden secrets? You're not alone! Many GMs have encountered a peculiar bug where the "Open Seek Results" button seemingly fails when only hidden walls and loot are present in the target area. This can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you're trying to streamline your game and provide a smooth experience for your players. We're going to dive deep into this specific issue, explore why it happens, and discuss temporary workarounds to keep your adventures moving forward.

Unraveling the "Seek" Action in Pathfinder 2e with Foundry VTT

In the exciting world of Pathfinder 2e, the Seek action is a fundamental tool for adventurers. It allows characters to actively search for hidden objects, secret passages, concealed enemies, or precious loot that might be expertly tucked away. Imagine your party entering an ancient ruin; a vigilant rogue might use Seek to uncover a cleverly disguised tripwire or a hidden door leading to a forgotten treasure chamber. It's a crucial action that adds depth and mystery to exploration, rewarding players who pay close attention and meticulously search their surroundings. Typically, a successful Perception check against a secret's DC reveals its presence. Foundry Virtual Tabletop, combined with powerful modules like Visioner, aims to automate and enhance this process, making it easier for GMs to manage the hidden elements of their maps and for players to execute their actions seamlessly. Ideally, when a player performs a Seek action within a specified area, the system should identify all relevant hidden items and present them in a clear, interactive dialogue box. This dialogue box, often labeled "Open Seek Results," is where a GM can confirm what was found, perhaps adjust discovery statuses, or simply review the results before revealing them to the players. It’s designed to be a central hub for managing the outcomes of a search, ensuring that hidden walls and loot are handled with the appropriate level of GM oversight. The expectation is that if a character is actively seeking in an area, and there's something to be found, the results interface should always pop up, allowing for review and modification. This system is crucial for managing the flow of information, deciding what to reveal and when, and ensuring that players feel their actions have tangible consequences. It's about bringing the rules of the game to life visually and interactively within the digital space, making the GM's job easier and the players' experience more immersive. When this process doesn't work as intended, it can disrupt the narrative and create unnecessary hurdles, transforming a smooth reveal into a puzzling technical glitch, especially when the only things hiding are those tantalizing hidden walls and loot that every adventurer dreams of finding. This reliance on VTT automation makes any deviation from expected behavior a notable concern for the overall gameplay experience.

The Frustrating "No Valid Seek Targets Found" Bug

Now, let's talk about the specific head-scratcher that many GMs have been encountering: the "No valid Seek targets found" warning, even when hidden walls and loot are definitely lurking in the target area. This particular bug manifests under a very specific condition: when the only objects identified in the Seek area are hidden walls and loot. You trigger the Seek action, meticulously define your area, and eagerly click the "Open Seek Results" button, expecting a glorious list of discovered secrets. Instead, you're met with that discouraging warning, and the much-needed results dialog simply refuses to appear. This is incredibly frustrating because, from a logical standpoint, if there are hidden items, they are valid targets! The core issue seems to stem from how the system categorizes or prioritizes targets when generating the results dialog. It appears to require at least one "normal token" – essentially, any character or NPC token that isn't the seeker itself – within the search area to properly populate and display the results. This creates a peculiar blind spot in the system's target detection, specifically for hidden walls and loot, which are often the primary focus of a Seek action in exploration-heavy scenarios. The irony is that, despite the warning and the non-appearance of the dialog, subsequent testing has shown that hitting apply changes after getting that warning still seems to affect the relevant walls and loot correctly. So, the underlying mechanics do process the discovery, but the interface for reviewing and customizing those results is inexplicably blocked. This means GMs are left flying blind; they can't verify what was found, adjust the level of detail revealed, or make any on-the-fly decisions that the Seek results dialog typically affords. It's like baking a cake that turns out perfectly, but you never get to see it come out of the oven! This bug was specifically observed with PF2e system version 7.7.1 in Foundry VTT v13.350, utilizing the popular Visioner module version 4.5.3. This combination of versions, tested across both the Electron app and Firefox, consistently reproduces the issue, highlighting a specific interaction problem within these established components. The impact on gameplay is significant; GMs have to either guess at what was discovered or resort to manual checks, breaking the immersion and slowing down the game. Players, too, miss out on the satisfying reveal of their successful Perception checks when the results are automatically applied without a visual confirmation. It transforms a moment of triumphant discovery into a potentially confusing technical hiccup, diminishing the overall Foundry VTT experience for everyone involved, especially when dealing with those crucial hidden walls and loot that make dungeons and mysteries so compelling.

Clever Workarounds and Temporary Solutions

Facing a bug like this can be a real drag, especially when you're trying to keep the game flowing smoothly for your players. Thankfully, there are a few clever workarounds and temporary solutions you can employ to navigate this Foundry VTT Seek bug until a permanent fix is implemented. The most reliable workaround, as discovered by diligent GMs, is surprisingly simple: if the only objects targeted in your Seek area are hidden walls and loot, simply add any normal token to that area that isn't the seeker. This could be a friendly NPC, a mundane object represented by a token, or even just a temporary placeholder token you drop onto the map. As soon as a