Blindsight

Blindsight is a precise nonvisual sense (or a combination of senses; see page 260) that functions as a more potent version of blindsense. Blindsight operates out to a range specified in the creature’s description.

A creature with blindsight typically perceives using a specific sense, which is indicated in parentheses after the blindsight entry in the creature’s statistics. If the indicated sense somehow becomes unusable—say, for example, if a creature that uses scent to perceive through its blindsight loses its sense of smell—the creature loses access entirely to its blindsight. The typical senses through which creatures with blindsight can perceive are emotion, life, scent, sound, thought, and vibration.

If you have blindsight and succeed at a Perception check to notice a hidden creature, you are observing the creature. Blindsight negates concealment, displacement, invisibility, magical darkness, and similar effects, though a creature with blindsight still can’t perceive ethereal creatures (see the ethereal jaunt spell on page 354). A creature with blindsight cannot be blinded (see page 273) and is not subject to gaze attacks (see the Starfinder Alien Archive).

Blindsight is still limited in many ways compared to normal vision. Blindsight never allows a creature to distinguish color or visual contrast, though it might be able to make out other features depending on the sense. A creature cannot read written text with blindsight, though it could still use tactile communication. Blindsight works underwater and in fog or smoke, but it typically does not work in a vacuum (although this depends on the nature of the sense; for instance, emotion-based blindsight would work in a vacuum).