Kinetic Games struck gold with Phasmophobia, a multiplayer ghost hunting game that has continuously ranked on the Steam charts for the past two years. Earlier this month, the dev team released an updated roadmap for the title into 2023, with the first planned update to be coming in September. The promised Apocalypse update is live right now, and is bringing with it plenty of new content and fixes that will have players coming back just in time for Halloween.
The v0.7.0.0 update introduces the custom difficulty option, allowing players to create their own challenges by tweaking their game settings. These could include things like whether or not you lose items after being killed, how aggressive the ghosts are, and more. Each of these custom options is also bound to a reward multiplier, so players can still earn XP and money depending on the options they choose.
Players may notice that ghosts will behave a bit differently, and will have the ability to throw objects more forcefully. Basically, every scare will be even scarier.
The Sunny Meadows Mental Institution map has been revamped, and a Restricted version allows players to vote to play in a smaller section of the map itself. A small version of Maple Lodge Campsite called Camp Woodwind has also been added, featuring a new layout and fewer rooms.
Check out the trailer for the update below.
The roadmap also promises a large update coming sometime before the end of the year, which will add a weather effects overhaul, upgraded lighting, new equipment, new player models and animations, a new leveling system, and upgradeable equipment. According to Kinetic, the “largest programming and art overhaul that Phasmophobia will ever receive” will come in 2023. These updates will be staggered throughout the year to avoid any major game downtime and to keep players from having to wait unnecessarily.
Phasmophobia was first released in early access on Steam in September 2020. The title is available to play with or without a VR headset. (We admire anyone with the guts to do the latter.)
Check out the complete patch notes below.
Apocalypse
With Custom Difficulty we’d like to invite you to participate in the Apocalypse Challenge v2 (thanks to our extra testers yesterday).
The event will start in the coming days, keep your eyes peeled for an announcement on discord.
Earn yourself 3 unique trophies for your collectible cabinet, just by playing the game!
To earn the trophies, simply do the following:
- In Single-player, complete all 4 objectives and get a ghost photo in Sunny Meadows Mental Institution with the following Custom difficulty multipliers
- 15x or more: bronze
- 20x or more: silver
- 24x or more: gold
- Show off your trophies in your display cabinet!
Custom Difficulty
A new difficulty where you can create your own games!
Modify existing difficulties or create your own, come up with crazy challenges or just have fun.
Each option is tied to a reward multiplier, so you can still earn money and XP from your Custom games.
Player
- Sanity Pill restoration amount
- Starting sanity
- Sanity drain speed multiplier
- Sprinting use allowance
- Sprint recharge time
- Sprint duration
- Flashlights being broken
- Losing Items on death toggle
- Player speed multiplier
Ghost
- Number of evidence given
- Chance of changing favorite Room
- Interaction amount
- Event frequency
- Hunt duration
- Grace period duration
- Fingerprint chance
- Fingerprint duration
- Disable hunts
- Kills extending hunts
- Roaming frequency
- Ghost speed multiplier
Contract
- Setup time
- Weather
- Number of doors starting open
- Amount of hiding places
- Sanity monitor state
- Activity monitor state
- Fuse box map visibility
- Fuse box starting state
- Cursed Possessions quantity
- Cursed Possession choice(s)
You can save up to 3 Custom Difficulty presets in the main menu
New Locations
Sunny Meadows Mental Institution
The Asylum has been completely recreated from the ground up, featuring more distinctive room designs, a morgue, hospital wing, courtyard, and experimental area.
Sunny Meadows Mental Institution – RESTRICTED
Sunny Meadows is not only a large location but five small locations in one. The new location selection board allows you to vote to play a smaller, more restricted version of the asylum. Each time you enter, you will be given a random section to investigate, with the other sections blocked off or locked.
Camp Woodwind
A small version of Maple Lodge Campsite, featuring a brand new layout and much fewer rooms. Perfect for those looking for a quick outdoor retreat.
Ghost Types
With the current system, often when a ghost interacts or throws an object, it barely moves. To remedy this, we’ve reworked how a ghost’s throw works to make sure it’s impactful, noticeable, and more exciting each time. Some ghosts have had their abilities and traits tweaked too.
All ghosts
- All hunting and event sound effects volume will now drop to 0% when at least 20m away, instead of just being quiet.
Note: This should also make the Myling strength more noticeable - The singing sound caused by the music box playing will now drop to 0% volume when over 20m away
- Throws now have a minimum ‘Throw Power’, to avoid small throws
- 1 – 3 Power (previously 0.1 – 2.5 Power)
- Objects are now thrown higher, resulting in much more consistent throws
- During hunts, objects are thrown more often
- 50% chance to throw an object in range, every 0.5 seconds
- Poltergeist – 100% chance to throw an object in range, every 0.5 seconds
Poltergeist
- The Oni super throw has been moved to Poltergeist, as it is more thematical
- 2 – 6 power (previously 0 – 5 power)
Oni
- Oni has received additional traits:
- Oni will now drain double the sanity of a normal ghost during ghost events
- Oni can now be seen for longer periods when flickering during hunts
Demon
- Demon’s rare ability to hunt above 70% will now happen more reliably
Jinn
Jinn’s sanity drain ability has received adjustments
- The ability will now trigger if you’re in the same room, or within 3m of the ghost
- The ability will now create EMF at the fuse box if any player is drained, not just the host
Reporting Players
Through the in-game journal, players can now report others who they believe are breaking our terms of service.
- Player reports will be reviewed by our team and punished accordingly, depending on the offense
- Bans are progressive and increase in duration for multiple offenses, some offenses may start further in the chain than others
- 2 days
- 7 days
- 30 days
- Permanent
- You may also be banned from abusing the reporting system, e.g. spam reporting players
- To report a player, open the new ‘Recent players’ tab in the journal, and click the report icon next to that player’s name
- If banned, you will still be able to play single-player games
New
- Due to paranormal entities appearing in our base of operations, Ghost Huntin’ Distribution has moved everyone into a new office! A warehouse has been converted with a shop, new investigation boards, access to the truck, and a staff room (coming soon)
- Player ID cards have been added
- A ‘Detailed Statistics’ page has been added to the post-game screen
- A long-term stat tracking page has been added to the journal for various player and ghost stats
- You will now connect to the last region you were in instead of connecting to your best ping region
- The journal is now usable in the Main Menu room
- Steam users can now view and add friends through the new ‘Recent players’ journal tab
- Weekly challenges have been added
More will be added with the Progression Update - Shortcut buttons have been added to jump between the Location Selection, Main Menu, and Shop screens, additionally you can use the keyboard arrow keys for navigation
- The whiteboard in the Truck has been replaced with a progressively updating Investigation Board
- New collectible cabinets have been added to the lobby, try to fill them both!
- The first time you use a Cursed Possession, it will be added to your collection
- Collecting each type of bone will add it to your collection, some need to be collected twice!
More collectibles will be added, closer to the full release of the game
- The shop has been moved to a separate computer in the lobby
- Players can now create loadouts for their equipment
Additional loadouts will be added with the Progression Update - You can now view Daily and Weekly challenges in the Truck
- Equipment items are now placeable back onto the truck’s equipment wall
- You can now take photos of new interactions to gain extra rewards
- D.O.T.S. ghost
- Used Crucifix (1 or 2 uses)
- The salt pile (when a ghost steps in it)
- Ghost Writing will now display as ‘Ghost Writing’ instead of ‘Interaction’
- When the ghost attempts to hunt but is blocked by a crucifix, it will now create an EMF 2 reading
- Added a house candle to Grafton
- Arabic now has text and voice recognition support
- VR players will now see a loading screen to help with loading jitters
- Save files will now create a backup and automatically restore if they corrupt
Changes
- Controls for equipment have changed to become consistent
- If an object is placeable, it will always use the secondary button (default: F)
- If an object is usable, it will always use the primary button (default: Right Mouse)
Note: This means that smudge sticks are now used with Right Mouse! Don’t forget it!
- Collecting the bone will now grant more rewards when playing on larger maps
- Large – $30
- Medium – $20
- Small – $10
- The photo ‘point’ system has been removed, instead, players will receive a set amount of money and XP per photo they take. This also allowed us to even out the rewards for photos, so that getting a certain ghost type won’t become a “feels bad” moment for what photos you can take
- $5 – 3 star / $2 – 2 star / $1 – 1 star
- Dead body
- Interaction
- Fingerprints
- Footsteps
- Cursed possessions
- Salt pile stepped in
- DOTS ghost
- Ghost writing
- $10 – 3 star / $5 – 2 star / $2 – 1 star
- Used crucifix
- Dirty water
- Bone
- $20 – 3 star / $10 – 2 star / $5 – 1 star
- Ghost
- $5 – 3 star / $2 – 2 star / $1 – 1 star
Note: Photos are no longer affected by the difficulty multiplier, but with these changes, you’ll be getting more money than before!
- The photo priority system has been improved
- Items are “scored” by distance and how close they are to the middle of the photo. The top “scoring” item will give rewards
- Ghosts will always take priority over other items
- The reliability of the system has been improved
Note: This also means that you will always get interaction photos before fingerprint photos, get those UV lights back out!
- The placement highlight mechanic has been reworked
- You will only see the highlight when holding down your designated placement key (PC: default ‘F’ / VR: Trigger) and release to place
- Moving the mouse left/right whilst the F key is held, will rotate the highlight object
- You can now place and rotate the tripod
- Various equipment’s placeable areas have been adjusted
- The fuse box has received a new design, when in-house and farmhouse locations
- Sanity drain for “Hide and seek” is now 0%
- The key in the truck has been moved to hang next to the door keypad, instead of on the desk
- Increased rewards for all Daily Challenges
- Rewards for playing on medium and large maps have been increased
- You can now view 10 photos in the lobby room (increased from 6), from your previous game
- To improve performance, objects will no longer render when behind closed doors
- Adjusted the visuals for skyboxes, for each weather, so that they are more realistic
- Improved the heavy rain and snow effects and performance
- The main menu options screen has been removed, and is now accessible only in the Journal
- Some locations have been renamed
- When dead, players can now see doors, but walk through them
- The volume of the guitar being played and camping stove toggle, has been lowered
- Ghosts will no longer see you through the trees by the cabin in Maple Lodge Campsite
- Ghosts can no longer set these rooms as its favorite in Maple Lodge Campsite:
- Entrance
- Central path
- North path
- North East path
- Picnic area
- Rebaked occlusion in Maple Lodge Campsite which may improve performance
- The Journal default button on a gamepad is now “select” instead of D-Pad up
- Room names for the Sound Sensors will now be in the room they are placed in, instead of the room you were standing in when you placed it
- Candles will now extinguish when placed into your inventory
- Ghosts now use the sprinting footstep sound when hunting on dirt floors
- Reduced RAM usage for fonts, this is significant in languages with many characters
- Adjusted several lights bloom values
- Adjusted campfire particles and bloom
Fixes
- Fixed long-distance roams, chance is now:
- High – 30% when wandering
- Medium – 20% when wandering
- Low – 10% when wandering
- Fixed ghost changing favorite room’s chance, for example:
- If a ghost long roams and ends up in a new room, do a chance check
- Low – 33%
- Medium – 66%
- High – 100%
- Then do a check based on insanity (e.g., 30% sanity = 70%)
- If successful for both chances, change favorite room
- Goryo will now have half the chance of other ghosts to long-roam instead of double
- Myling will now decrease the audible range of its hunt audio, instead of only footsteps.
- If you have less than 16% sanity when lighting the last Summoning Circle, the ghost will now hunt instantly after being summoned
- When the summoning circle is lit, the ghost’s position will now sync faster for non-hosts
- Fingerprints on camping lamps will now be the correct size
- You can no longer place objects on the truck ceiling
- Fixed a rare issue where the voice recognition would not work due to an empty voice models file
- Picking up a tripod with a camcorder attached by someone else, will no longer break the camcorder
- You are no longer unkillable when hiding under stairs or similar objects in some locations
- The hiding spot next to the cabin will no longer get you killed
- Grafton’s upstairs locker can now be blocked
- Bleasdale’s workshop locker can now be blocked
- Having ALT as your push-to-talk button will no longer keep your voice active after alt-tabbing
- The toilets upstairs in Edgefield now flush
- Ghosts will no longer affect the living room collider when standing on the basement stairs in Tanglewood
- You can no longer glitch behind the small tents to access safe spots
- The Mare will no longer stop attempting to do its light switch ability after you use the light switch several times
- Doors will no longer spin when closing for a hunt
