RatScanner: an external overlay that prices items in Escape from Tarkov

The design constraint: it never reads the game's memory

Rat Scanner is described as an open source tool for Escape from Tarkov, and the section called How it works is the part that explains everything else about it.

The tool is entirely external, which the README says means it is not accessing any memory of the game, like cheats do. Instead, when you want to scan an item, a screenshot is taken and image processing is applied to identify the clicked item. The item is then looked up in the database, and information is displayed in the window and with an overlaid tooltip.

That is a real architectural decision with a real cost, and the project is honest about the trade. Reading memory would give exact state, exact condition and exact modded item identity. Reading a screenshot gives you a picture, and everything that follows is the consequence of that.

The information itself does not come from the game either. It comes from a third-party API, which the README says takes the data directly from the game. So there are two external dependencies in the chain: the screen capture and image recognition on one side, and a community-maintained price database on the other. The project asks you to support it financially, to help finance the backend server as well as the API, and the README notes that the API is what provides the backend with data.

The project asks for support through Patreon and PayPal, and the homepage is ratscanner.com. The licence is one GitHub cannot classify, with a LICENSE file at the repository root, and the language is C# with a Visual Studio solution at the top level.

Two scan methods, and the accuracy each one gives up

The README documents two ways of identifying an item, and the difference between them explains the tool's behaviour better than any description of the image matching would.

Name scanning refers to scanning the inspection name of an item, and you simply left click the magnifier icon inside the inspect window. The limitations are stated as: uses and durability is always assumed at 100 percent, and weapons and other modable items will only show info of the base item.

Icon scanning refers to scanning the icon of an item, and you hold the modifier key down while left clicking on an item, with the modifier key changeable in the settings and Shift as the default. Its limitations are longer: it is unfortunately no longer possible to scan weapons, uses and durability is always assumed at 100 percent, items which share an icon with other items, especially keys, will result in an uncertain match, and there will be mismatches when scanning icons in the top left of the item stash since the bright light at the top centre of the screen interferes with it.

Read those together and you have the real constraint. Name scanning is more precise because you are reading text the game already rendered, but it only works for items you have inspected and it strips the modded state. Icon scanning works on anything visible in the stash, but it is a template match against an icon, so two items that share an icon are ambiguous, and a bright light in the region ruins the match.

Neither method can tell you the current condition or remaining durability of a used item, and both fall back to the base item for anything with attachments. For a trader deciding whether to buy a modded weapon at a given price, that is the difference between a useful number and a misleading one.

Using it: borderless mode, the settings screen, and the minimal UI

The How to use section starts with a requirement rather than a step: your game may need to be in either Borderless or Windowed mode for the overlay to work. That is a direct consequence of the screenshot approach, since the tool has to capture the game window and know where the mouse is in game coordinates.

Installation is deliberately minimal. You download the latest version, or choose a specific version from the releases list, and after you have downloaded the Zip-Archive, where you only need RatScanner.zip, you extract it anywhere on your PC and run RatScanner.exe.

There is one setting that catches people. Once it has launched, you go into the settings menu at the bottom right corner and check that your resolution is set properly, with FullHD as the default. Since identification is image matching against rendered icons, a wrong resolution means the template match is being run against the wrong image size, and the symptom is a wrong result rather than an error.

There is also a Minimal UI mode, switched by clicking the dedicated button inside the titlebar, and you get back to the standard view by double clicking anywhere inside the window. Background opacity as well as the data which is shown can be configured in the settings, so the tool can be reduced to a small strip when you want the game unobstructed.

For problems, the README points at the FAQ page and the Discord server, and it highlights a common issues section for the case where the tool does not seem to start. There is also a tutorial and demo video linked from the top of the README.

Building from source, and what the Data folder means

The development setup is two steps, and the second one is not obvious.

You clone the repository, and then you copy the Data folder from the latest release into RatScanner\Data\. The Data folder is not in the repository, which means the working copy has no icon templates and no data until you copy them in from a release. That makes sense if you think about what the Data folder contains, since the tool needs the item icon images it matches against, and those come from the game rather than from the source tree.

Compiling is done in Visual Studio: open the solution inside Visual Studio and click Build, then Build Solution. The repository has a RatScanner.sln file and a RatScanner.sln.DotSettings file, and there is a NuGet.Config at the root along with a .editorconfig and an examples directory.

The examples directory is worth a look for a different reason. It contains PNG files named for resolutions and item types, with names like 1440x1080_Item.png, FHD_Container.png, HDPlus_Item.png, UHD_Container.png, UHD_Item.png, UWFHD_Container.png, UWQHD_Item.png, WXGAPlus_Item.png and WXGA_Item.png. Those are the templates the matcher works from, and having them per resolution is a direct explanation of why the resolution setting in the app matters so much.

Publishing is a batch script. You run the publish.bat script which is inside the repository root, and the output will be located in a folder called publish on the same level as the publish script. The top-level entries also include a media directory holding the README images, a FAQ.md, and a CONTRIBUTING.md that the README asks you to read before contributing.

The release history shows a project in active use: v3.10.1, v3.10.2 and v3.10.3 in August and September 2026, with the last push on 2026-10-12.

The ban question, answered in the README's own terms

The README has a section headed Can I get banned for using Rat Scanner, and the answer is worth reading closely rather than paraphrasing.

It says that while Battlestate Games does not support nor is affiliated with this project, it has existed over 5 years with over 1.000 players using it every day in their games, and that so far there has not been a single instance in which RatScanner was proven to have caused any ban.

Two things are going on. The technical argument is the one from the How it works section, that the tool is entirely external and does not touch game memory, so it is not a cheat in the sense the anti-cheat systems target. The evidential argument is about a five-year record with no proven ban, which is a weaker form of argument but the honest kind, since no tool can promise an absence of bans.

The two things worth noting for a reader. First, the project is explicitly not supported by the publisher, so there is no permission here, only an absence of enforcement action. Second, the answer depends on the external design staying external. A future version that added memory reading would be a different tool with a different risk profile, and the guarantee in the README would not carry over.

There is a related repository linked in the README reference list, the EfTIcons repository under the RatScanner organisation, which is where the icon assets live separately from the application.

The project also states plainly that it needs financial support to finance the backend server and the API, which makes the price and durability data a service dependency rather than something baked into the binary.

Where RatScanner is the wrong tool

The first wrong-tool case is a trader who needs exact item state. The scan methods are documented to always assume uses and durability at 100 percent, and to show only base item information for weapons and other modable items. If the number you need is what a modded, worn or repaired item is actually worth, the tool is measuring the wrong thing, and the failure is silent because the output looks like a price.

The second is a player in a stash full of items that share icons. The README says items which share an icon with other items, especially keys, will result in an uncertain match. A tool that sometimes guesses cannot be used for decisions where a wrong guess costs real in-game currency.

The third is a game state the screenshot cannot capture. Icon scanning is affected by the bright light in the top centre of the screen when scanning the top left of the stash, which means the tool has a spatial blind spot in exactly the region where a dense stash puts the items you most want to price.

The fourth is a player whose game runs exclusively fullscreen. The requirement is Borderless or Windowed mode, so a fullscreen-only setup or a machine where the game mode cannot be changed is excluded.

The fifth is a user who wants offline or self-contained operation. The price data comes from a third-party API that the project itself depends on funding, and the source tree has no Data folder at all until you copy one in from a release. There is no offline mode described, and the backend is a third-party service you do not control.

The alternative worth naming is doing the lookup by hand in a community price site or a market tool, which is slower per item but has no accuracy ceiling from icon matching. For a trader who moves a few items an hour, that is often the better trade. For a player with a full stash, the overlay earns its keep on the volume.

Editorial conclusion

RatScanner fits a Tarkov player who wants item prices and slot values at a glance while trading, and who accepts that the tool is a screen reader rather than a game client. It is the wrong choice if you need exact condition, durability or modded-weapon data, since the scan methods are documented to assume full durability and to fall back to the base item. Before installing, read the FAQ page on common startup issues, set your resolution correctly in the settings on first launch, and decide whether you are comfortable with a tool that runs entirely from a screenshot of the game window.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Project website
3. RatScanner/RatScanner on GitHub
4. README
5. Releases