LoL Brush Guide: Concealment Rules and How to Check a Bush

Brush isn't stealth, a ward beside a bush can't see into it, and walking in is the worst available way to check one. Here's how the grass actually works, and the five better ways to find out who's in there.

League of Legends Guide

Brush

How the Grass Works

There are 39 patches of brush on Summoner's Rift, and the Ocean rift grows more. Almost every ambush in the game happens in one of them, and most players only know one thing about how they work.

The useful version is a set of rules about what concealment actually protects you from, and about the five ways to check a bush that don't involve walking into it.

Not Stealth Why They Can't Click You What Gives You Away Vision Runs One Way Checking a Bush FAQ

Brush is not stealth, and the difference matters

Standing in grass puts you in the fog of war. It doesn't make you invisible. Anything that grants sight of that area reveals you instantly, and nobody needs a counterplay item to do it.

So your protection is entirely a question of what the enemy currently sees. A stealthed champion has to be detected. You just have to be looked at.

Knowing where you are doesn't help them

Targeted attacks and abilities need a target the enemy can see. While you're concealed they physically cannot input a command at you, however confident they are about which patch you're in.

That's the real value of the grass in a duel, and it's worth more than the surprise. It isn't that they don't know where you are. It's that knowing doesn't let them do anything about it until they walk in.

What gives you away

Attacking from concealment lights up a 300-unit circle around you for two full seconds, not just for the instant of the cast. Two seconds is long enough for somebody to walk out of range, or for their jungler to see exactly which patch you're standing in, which is why a botched ambush is worse than no ambush at all.

A few of the biggest wind-up animations in the game are hidden while their owner is in an unexposed patch, so the telegraph that normally warns you simply doesn't play. The champion who needs you not to see a long channel has a place to stand, and you walk past it every game.

Vision only works from inside out

A ward inside a bush reveals the bush and the ground around it. A ward beside a bush reveals the ground and nothing inside. The relationship does not run both ways, and this is the single most common warding mistake in the game: the ward you dropped next to the river bush is not watching the river bush.

Turn that around and you get the better way to think about warding. While a ward sits inside a patch, nobody can use that patch to hide from your team at all. It stops being cover and becomes ordinary ground, so you aren't buying vision of a place, you're taking a tool away from somebody.

Five ways to check a bush that aren't walking into it

• Ward it. One charge permanently removes the patch as a hiding spot for as long as the ward lives.
• Throw something non-targeted in. A hit sound, an effect landing on something, a stack appearing on your bar: any of those confirm somebody's home.
• Try a proximity-based ability. If the game lets you cast it while standing beside the patch, that permission is itself the answer.
• Watch the minions. Non-champion units only aggro onto something they can see, so a wave calmly ignoring an enemy in the grass tells you that grass isn't being revealed by anything.
• Look at what your team already has. Anything granting sight of the area reveals whoever is in it, no sweeper required.

Walking in is the option every one of those exists to replace. Entering a patch yourself does give you the information, at the exact moment it stops being useful to you.

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Frequently asked questions

Is brush the same as stealth?

No. Brush hides you in the fog of war, so any vision of the area reveals you. Stealth has to be detected.

Can enemies target me in a bush?

Not while you're concealed. Targeted spells and attacks need a visible target, so they have to see you first.

How long am I revealed after attacking from a bush?

Two seconds, in a 300-unit circle around you.

Does a ward next to a bush see inside it?

No. Vision only runs from inside the patch outward, which is why the ward has to go in the grass.

How many bushes are on Summoner's Rift?

39, and the Ocean rift adds two by the dragon pit while enlarging several others.

The short version

Concealment protects you from being clicked, not from being seen, and it ends the moment anybody has vision of the patch. Ward the grass rather than the ground next to it, and check bushes with an ability instead of your face.

For the wards themselves, our vision guide covers placement and trinket timers, and our ward locations list has the specific spots worth taking.

Which bush do you get caught in most? Let us know in the comments below.