Firstly we'd like to apologize. In our haste to remove money and XP farmers from the game, we penalized our Custom Difficulty goers way too harshly and bypassed the core concept of what custom was originally advertised as "Play your way".
In the long term, we will be rebalancing the entirety of Custom Difficulty's reward multipliers, to make sure that they are fairer, not overly rewarding when lower risk is taken, and stop cheesy tactics to farm easy rewards.
Today, we're removing the -60% reduction for Custom games, and adding the following until the rebalancing is finalized, early next year with 0.8.1:
Custom Reward Multipliers will now have a maximum cap of x15, displayed with the actual multiplier beside it in brackets.
Incorrectly identifying the ghost type will lower your multiplier to the next default difficulty (rounding down). E.g. 5x > 4x or 3.7x > 3x
Some Ouija board questions have had their sanity reductions increased, as they were much too powerful for the sanity trade-off
Ghost location – 50% (Previously 40%)
Bone location – 50% (Previously 20%)
The Haunted Mirror's sanity drain has been adjusted, so that you can't entirely avoid the sanity drain with a ~1-second peek and still reap the reward. This should also encourage slightly longer peers into the paranormal realm.
The Mirror will now drain a minimum of 20% sanity per use
Adjusted player freezing breath visuals so it will no longer block your view when walking too close to it
Smudge Sticks will now visually animate much more accurately with the timing of their gameplay effect
Improved Smudge Sticks' smoke effect
Adjusted several inconsistent text capitalizations in English
Rebaked Sunny Meadows
Removed several sky light leaks in the following locations:
Willow
Tanglewood
Edgefield
Ridgeview
Grafton
Sunny Meadows
The DOTS and death room ghost will no longer be the wrong ghost model
The reset save button will now work
Sanity will now stop draining when you are in a lit area
Snow will no longer fall inside the Bleasdale attic
Willow front room window fingerprints will now be photographable
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Tempest | Hotfix v0.8.0.2
This update has been temporarily reverted while we work on a fix for a memory leak.
We’ve made the decision to increase the rewards for custom difficulty by changing the reward reduction from 80% to 60%. We have plans to add harder official difficulties in future content updates to help balance the game progression.
We are aware of a bug causing the Holiday trophy to not be obtainable. We are looking into this however for now you will need to use a VPN. This is a top priority for us and we hope to have this fixed as soon as possible.
Added support for HTC Vive Focus 3 Controllers
All doors in Sunny Meadows now have hands in VR when grabbed
Added a Christmas tree to the lobby
The Intern badge now has a visible button to change the badge
Decreased the custom difficulty reward reduction from 80% to 60%
Keybinds will no longer reset after closing the game
Cameras will no longer be very dark
You can no longer place equipment on walls behind door frames
Interaction photos now work for radios and telephones
Having “smooth monitor view” set to off will no longer render a black screen on your monitor in VR
New players can now get past level 1 if you did not level up in the last game you played
Potential fix for getting “failed to load” if you fail to connect to the unity services server
Content page now displays the “Payments” section
DOTS no longer clips inside the surface it was placed on
The stats will no longer show a 15% sanity loss after dying in singleplayer
You can now pick up the brown suitcases in Sunny Meadows
You will now always get a burned crucifix evidence photo before an interaction photo
Crucifix interaction photos will no longer fail, if it was used by the ghost when placed
Haunted mirror camera no longer uses SSAO
The willow front window fingerprint will no longer be facing outside
Fixed Phantom and Oni flash rates during hunts
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Tempest | Hotfix v0.8.0.1
Reduced glossiness of one of the female ghosts
Slightly moved the cookie in the red tent in Camp Woodwind
House door frames now have collision for motion sensors, salt etc.
We now support monitors up to 360Hz (240Hz previously).
Reduced the amount of bloom in the photo camera photos
The ghost will no longer eat the cookies before they have all been collected
If your level was reset to level 1 but you still had equipment and money your level will now be back. If it is not, please contact our modmail on discord and we can help you there.
The ghost can now interact with small objects on the floor of Camp Woodwind
New players will no longer get stuck in an infinite loop
Rooms will no longer drop to freezing temperatures after the weather changes to Snow
Edgefield reflections will now be accurate
Sunny Meadows chapel wall scratches will no longer cast shadows
A dirt patch in Sunny Meadows will no longer have a white square around it
Sink particles should no longer go through the sink in Sunny Meadows
Grandfather clock’s hands now look correct
You can no longer place DOTS projectors inside several ceilings
A house in Tanglewood Drive is now facing the correct way
You can no longer place objects through wall mounted TVs
If you are dead and Santa eats the cookies, you will no longer transition to snowy weather (unless you revive), overriding the dead visuals
Reviving, will now correctly set any weather changes whilst you are dead
Rain and snow will no longer stop when exiting Bleasdale or Grafton houses
SMAA and MSAA quality settings now default to their proper values, and not “off”
You will no longer get “failed to load” on your player profiles if the Unity services server is blocking your IP. This means however that you will not be able to earn the Holiday event without a VPN.
SSAO is no longer being calculated on cameras, CCTV and video cameras (also boosting SSAO performance).
Glowsticks now stay at full brightness for 60 seconds instead of 10.
Some handprint textures are no longer surrounded by a black box
You can now take a crucifix photo when the ghost uses it without having to put it in your inventory first
You can no longer take multiple crucifix photos by taking it in and out of your inventory
The fuse box interaction photo on Prison and Highschool will now work
Prison will no longer have sunrise reflections throughout the map
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Tempest | Major Update v0.8.0.0
Welcome back, we’ve got an update for you.
With all of the recent paranormal interference, the weather around certain locations has become more hazardous and intense! Ghosts have been haunting locations longer and longer each night, with some disappearing just before the sun comes up. Will you brave these new conditions?
With this update comes a host of small features, improvements, and options! Additionally, there will also be another larger update in the near future (8.1) to add more features and surprises!
If you are currently forcing DirectX10, please disable it as that will possibly cause issues and crashes!
From now until Early January, you can take part in the Phasmophobia 2022 Holiday event!
Earn yourself a Unique Holiday Trophy for your collection as well as an exclusive Holiday ‘22 ID card and badge!
Find out more information by clicking the Holiday Sticker on the main menu
Custom Difficulty
With the addition of Custom Difficulty, we’ve seen so many exciting, unique and challenging games being created, but we’d like to redirect what the purpose of Custom games is, and there are several reasons why:
We’d like Custom Difficulty to be primarily used for fun and interesting games, with unique twists, similar to other games with a “Custom games” mode, without the worry of how much you’re getting out of it.
It’s very difficult to balance each option’s rewards to have a corresponding and fair reward multiplier. Because of this, it’s incredibly quick to create games that are potentially much easier or faster than their default difficulty counterparts but give the same or even more rewards, which makes the default modes redundant.
With our analytics and player data, we can see that the large majority of players still play Intermediate and Professional.
Having a set reward per custom option makes them very fragile and limits what we can change for the default difficulties, or any future difficulties we’d like to add to the game.
Lastly, with the large upcoming changes with Progression 2.0, we’d like experience and money to be gained fairly for every player, and try to avoid any cheesy reward tactics if we can.
Because of these reasons, we’re making the following changes to Custom’s rewards:
Custom Difficulty will now have an 80% reduction applied to the reward multiplier
We know this is a huge change, but this should separate custom games into a challenge and fun mode, and keep the default difficulties as the main route for character progression.
In the second part of this major update (coming soonTM), we’ll be adding something special for those wanting a regular, harder challenge than Nightmare and something super special!
Note: Current and future challenges (like the Apocalypse Challenge) will still be accessible in Custom and still grant trophies for your collection.
Investigation bonuses
To compensate for the above changes, we’re adding some additional rewards for playing well in the default difficulties, which will reward players who have the sharpest eye for ghost identification.
We’ll also be changing the rewards for secondary objectives, to encourage players to complete the primary objective each game instead of ignoring it.
Added “Payments” page to the journal
Investigation bonus
If you can identify the ghost correctly and escape alive, you will double the money and experience you earn for the primary and secondary objectives you complete during that contract!
Perfect Investigation bonus
If you manage to complete the above but additionally; collect the bone, and fill your journal with 3-star photos, you will gain an additional sum of money and experience on top of the Investigation bonus!
Secondary objectives have had their rewards reduced to make way for the Investigation bonuses
Note: Investigation bonuses are affected by the difficulty multiplier!
With every update, we like to look into which ghosts need some love. We found that some ghosts needed some buffs and some needed changes to help with low evidence runs!
All ghosts
Hunting ghosts’ model flickers are now synced across all players (which should also help hunt photo reliability)
When hunting, ghosts now affect lights at the same range as equipment, if on the same floor.
Raiju – 15m
All other ghosts - 10m
Wraith
Wraiths have been adjusted to match their journal description better
Wraith will never step in a salt pile
Updated journal weakness
Obake
Obake have finally remembered how to shapeshift!
During a hunt, Obake have a 6.66% chance each time it flickers to shapeshift into a different ghost’s form. They will then return back to their original form.
This is guaranteed to happen at least once per hunt, so keep your eyes peeled!
Revenant
The legendary Revenant has been left behind in the ranks of the new threatening ghosts. So, we’re finally returning some former glory to the speed beast, and adjusting how this ghost hunts, hopefully placing them back on the podium!
Instead of slowing down instantly after losing line of sight, Revenant will keep their increased speed until reaching your last known position
Their speed will now decrease gradually over 2.7 seconds (0.75m/s) instead of instantly
Goryo
As Goryo have a history of disobeying their roaming changes, we’ve finally put an end to the over-exploring ghost
Goryo can no longer change favorite room or roam long distances
Hantu
Hantu’s secret ability’s visuals have been adjusted
Hantu cold breath will now play in any room during hunts if the breaker is off
Hantu cold breath visuals have been improved
Yurei
Yurei can no longer use their ability when there is no door in its current room
The Unity rendering pipeline has been updated to URP, spreading some of the load to GPU usage, increasing CPU performance, and allowing us to access new features!
Fog has returned!
Fog will now only be where it makes sense and has received a visual overhaul
Locations will start at the same temperature as Clear weather (8-15°C)
Sunrise weather has been added
Locations will start with temperatures between 10-18°C
Weather effects have been completely recreated from the ground up
Rain and snow have received large performance increases and improved visuals
New graphics options have been added
Sky light – For enabling sun or moonlight in each location
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
Fog quality
FidelityFX 1.0 – AI upscaling for better performance
(Only compatible with AMD RX 400 GPUs and newer / Nvidia GTX 10 series GPUs and newer)
Anti-Aliasing options – You can now choose between FXAA, SMAA, and MSAA. VR players can only choose MSAA
You can now place crucifixes
When placing the crucifix, you can now see the range of its effect on the environment
All post-processing effects have been adjusted and improved
Added a text option for voice recognition. This will show UI for selecting what question to ask on the Spirit Box and Ouija Board
If you swap to a new PC or reinstall windows your save will now revert to your personal cloud backup
The Smudge Sticks’ burn effect has been improved
The Haunted Mirror’s effects and visibility have been improved
Improved glowstick model and effects
Transparent objects and effects will now receive shadows from lights
Resetting your save file will now wipe your cloud backup
Improved performance on campsite maps
Fingerprints have been moved on Willow doors to be more consistently placed
Radios are now interactable with the breaker off
All players must now be further than 5m from the Ouija board before it breaks, instead of just the person who activated it
The Ouija board will now auto-deactivate when walking outside the map.
Sanity pills no longer disappear when using them. Instead, they now drop on the floor and are no longer useable
Improved all candle wax effects when lit
Improved two hiding spots in Sunny Meadows; one by the restricted area door and in the one restricted wing
Small tent cloth is now translucent
The ‘average sanity’ objective will now complete at the same time for all players
The bone will no longer spawn inside other objects
Tripods no longer count as electronic equipment after removing a camcorder
Willow windows are now the correct way round
The weekly challenge timer will now reset at the same time as the challenges themselves.
The “Complete daily challenges” weekly challenge will now only trigger when a daily challenge completes, instead of when it progresses.
You can no longer scroll to another item while placing something
The ghost's room will now show on the board in the truck in training
The Deogen spirit box reply will now work if you are not crouched
The morgue door VR grab point is now in the correct position
Hitting the crouch button, then physically crouching in VR no longer pushes you enough into the floor that the ghost cannot kill you
Computer monitors in prison no longer turn on when the power is off
The "ghosts repelled" stat will now count if you are not the host
In Sunny Medows, the female hallway light switch will no longer toggle the utility room’s light
Journal on/off buttons are much clearer to understand
The EULA accept button will no longer be clickable until you scroll to the bottom
The objects moved stat will now correctly count poltergeist throws
Your inventory will no longer break if you grab more than one item before joining a game
Room reflections will now be accurate after turning a light on and off quickly
Russian and Ukrainian fonts will no longer have grey boxes around most characters
VR death room spawn position is now correct
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Steam Awards: Labor of Love
Welcome back ghost hunters, we've got some news for you.
The autumn sale has now begun with a 20% discount! During this sale you can nominate your favourite games for an award and we would really appreciate your vote for this years Labor of Love award!
While we don't have any new content for you just yet, we are well into the beta testing for the 0.8.0.0 update. We currently do not have an ETA however we hope to be able to give you one very soon!
We will soon have some development previews for you though so you can get a sneak peak into what the next update will have.
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Apocalypse | Update v0.7.3.0
Welcome back ghost hunters, we've got some news for you.
The 0.8.0.0 URP update is well under way and will soon enter beta testing. The update will be a major graphics overhaul and will improve the performance across all hardware, especially for the CPU.
Until then we will be releasing bug fix patches if there are any major bugs found so please keep reporting them.
The patch notes for this update are below. This includes a major change to how the save file was being backed up which should completely fix the issue where you needed to contact us for a new save file if your save file corrupted then reset.
Added a cloud backup for save files. If your save file corrupts it will now revert to this instead of a local file backup
The tripod will no longer count as an electronic if you place it
The money spent stat will no longer increase when you add equipment in the lobby
Ukrainian will now be abbreviated as UA instead of UK
The Banshee and Moroi ability used stat will now work
You can no longer kick the wrong player
House candles will now block an Onryo hunt and will blow out in heavy rain without having to put them into your inventory first
The haunted mirror will no longer count for the use cursed possessions challenge twice when using it
The Oni, Wraith and Yokai will now correctly change their activity based on their traits
The Goryo will now have half the chance to wander instead of double (for real this time)
The Moroi ability used stat will now count when other players are cursed
Other players equipment will now be removed from the lobby when they quit
The voodoo doll will no longer float when thrown
The bone will no longer spawn on the room above where it supposed to be
Light switch EMF photos will now be named correctly
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Apocalypse | Update v0.7.2.0
Welcome back ghost hunters, we've got some news for you.
The Halloween event has now ended! We hope everyone got their Halloween trophies in time.
Below are the patch notes which removes the Halloween event for this year.
Added a button in the journal to see the Unity privacy policy as well as a button to opt out of Analytics, opting out is permanent
Added Catalan language support for text and voice recognition
The bone will now spawn anywhere the ghost can walk to prevent it getting into unreachable locations
The Halloween event has now been removed and the trophy can no longer be completed
Player map icons now work in woodwind
When loading into a game, you will now be forced to the loading screen
Locker in Bleasdale will no longer always be blocked
If you fall out of the map in Camp Woodwind you will now always be teleported back into the map
The ghost writing book will no longer count as an electronic
Leaving training through the journal will no longer give you an error screen
The "Complete objectives in" text will now have a space between it and the map name
The “Cursed Possessions” journal title will no longer go on two lines in some languages
The animation of the alarm clock will now work correctly
The banshee will now set a new target after the target dies and when you draw a hanged man
Fuse box sounds no longer play twice when used
Fires should no longer fail when flickering
Post game tabs now highlight to show you which tab is currently open
Potential fix for save files corrupting when the game crashes
Banshees will no longer attempt to walk outside if their target is outside
Fixed an issue which caused the ghost to navigate too often outside of its favourite room as well as making the ghost orb spawn outside of the room
Fixed safe spots and areas you could get stuck across several maps
The haunted mirror will no longer turn on if your inventory is full and you attempt to grab it
VR players can now teleport onto the debris on Sunny Meadows with teleport locomotion
Fixed an issue where tall VR players would collide with an object near the main menu board
Fixed the floating talk button in VR
Grabbing the VR journal or VR walkie talkie with both hands at the same time will no longer make it very large
The VR UI pointer will no longer clip through the journal, when the shop tv is behind it
The VR walkie talkie will no longer stay on if you drop it while using it
Doors will no longer change size when grabbed by a VR player
VR Players will now drop all items when they die or disconnect
You can no longer grab VR players belt equipment
The ghost will no longer stop interacting if it tries to knock on a fallen down door
The washing machine animation now works more than once
The washing machine doors are now synced in multiplayer
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Halloween '22! | Hotfix v0.7.1.5
Welcome back, we've got some news for you.
As part of the Steam Scream Fest sale we have added an item bundle to the Steam Points shop so you can further customise your Steam profile.
During this sale Phasmophobia will also have a 20% discount!
Below is the current list of fixes we have ready for you, there are many other bugs still left to fix which we will be getting more patches out for soon while we work on 0.8.0.0 alongside these fixes.
Hantu will no longer get exponentially faster if they enter a room between 3 and 6 Celsius
Moved a candy bucket in the upstairs bathroom on Ridgeview so VR players can reach it
Objects will no longer desync when a player leaves the game
Players will now disappear when they leave the game
You no longer get more rewards when skipping the reward animation in some cases
The challenge “Complete objectives in” will now show the map name after the value has changed
After the reward screen, you will correctly see your new level and experience in the lobby
Leaving a lobby through the journal will now remove your equipment from the lobby
You can no longer light a smudge stick you aren’t holding, with an unlit lighter
Applying a server browser filter now resets your page back to 1
Weekly challenges will now display the progress correctly after a reset
After the next reset, the weekly challenge “Complete an objective in random” will no longer be able to select the “random” map
Photos are now much more accurate at detecting ghosts
The Mare light switch ability stat will now sync between all players
The volume will no longer spike when leaving a game
The training “Are You Sure?” UI will now disappear after clicking yes
The lobby radio voice will no longer spike in volume when joining a game
You can now light smudge sticks that you haven’t grabbed
Equipment will no longer spawn before everyone has loaded in if a player leaves or disconnects during loading
You can now light non-grabbed smudge sticks with a candle
VR players can now change other player volumes
VR players can now place sensors
The report button is now clickable in the VR Journal
The player cards in the VR journal will no longer clip into the journal
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Halloween '22! | Hotfix v0.7.1.4
The language filter now saves your previously selected language
Spirit is now selected in the journal by default
You can now sprint when dead, when sprinting is disabled
The distance walked and sprinted stat will no longer count movement when you are dead
Improved performance of the Anisotropic graphics setting
The bone will no longer spawn in an unreachable location if it spawns inside the large tents
When opening the Journal with a gamepad you will no longer navigate over to the main menu UI
Gamepads can now navigate the correct direction when selecting a right arrow in the journal
Gamepads will no longer lose the ability to navigate the journal after pressing most option buttons
The server browser page number now updates and displays correctly when applying filters
Ghosts can now kill you if you are hiding inside a drawer
You can no longer put on multiple head cameras if someone else was to return theirs
When someone else puts a head camera back in the truck, the head camera model now correctly disables
You can no longer hear any sound in the menu when your master volume is set to 0
The “Are you sure?” UI will now disappear if you exit the journal while on that page
The language selection when playing the game for the very first time will now correctly say “voice” and “text” for each option
Fixed an issue where the shop UI would remain on after un-focusing it
The abilities used stat will now increase when the Moroi curses someone
Moroi will now only curse with a parabolic microphone when hearing a ghost whisper
Moroi will now curse you when getting a response from the spirit box
Placing equipment after placing it back in the truck, will no longer cause the equipment to move after placement
The haunted mirror will now render all visible objects
Potential fix for the microphone being set incorrectly when you have multiple output devices in Windows
The sound sensor legs will no longer collide with the player
Prison exterior doors are now unlockable after hunts
You can now use the lighter in the lobby
Motion sensors, dots and sound sensors are no longer detected during a hunt, when in your hand
You will no longer hear footstep audio in the lobby when your volume is set to 0
The microwave interaction photo will now work
Fuse box sparks will now appear in Prison and School, when the difficulty settings are set to broken
Potential fix for ouija response challenge not working
UI arrows no longer appear for cabinets in some situations
UI arrows now fade in and out correctly
The photo evidence text will no longer overlap the stars in some languages
You can no longer right click to turn on the DOTS, motion sensor or sound sensor which makes the ghost track you during a hunt
Jack o' lanterns will now play the light sound effect on the correct floor and will change volume with the master volume
Vive Cosmos joystick input will now work
VR can now use all scrollbars and sliders
The VR Journal and Walkie Talkie will now reset their size when dropping them. A full fix for this bug will be coming soon
VR players will no longer get caught on sound sensors attached to the belt
The “Restricted Area” now has the correct room name instead of “Basement West Corridor”
The ghost can no longer do ghost events in the basement west corridor, restricted area, courtyard corridor, female wing and male wing
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Halloween '22! | Hotfix v0.7.1.3
The house fuse box switch now animates
If your save file corrupts and the backup fails to load it will now reset your save file
The ghost will no longer find non hosts if the host talked during a hunt
Significant CPU performance improvements
Player physics are now reverted back to before the last hotfix due to several issues
The private game screen will now correctly show “NA” instead of “US”
Cursed Possessions will now work for all players every game
The shop screen left loadout buttons will no longer be covered by the navigation arrows if you have a 4:3 aspect ratio
Fixed an issue causing severe physics lag which was affecting movement and screen rendering
Removing an item from your loadout will now save your loadout
FireSource.Update() will no longer spam in the player log, causing fps drops in some cases
Candles will no longer play smoke from both the base and the wick
Placing a candle will no longer jump forward in some cases
The ghost will no longer get stuck in several rooms
Steps will now render correctly
The bookshelf in the female day room is no longer invisible
If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia Thanks,