Phasmophobia

Phasmophobia is a 4 player online co-op psychological horror. Paranormal activity is on the rise and it’s up to you and your team to use all the ghost-hunting equipment at your disposal in order to gather as much evidence as you can. There is ghosts that have unique abilities like leaving handprints on doors. Phasmophobia is a paranormal horror game by British indie game studio Kinetic Games. The game became available in early access for Microsoft Windows with virtual reality support in September 2020. Phasmophobia rose in popularity after many Twitch streamers and YouTubers played it during October 2020, becoming the sixth-most popular game on Twitch of that month and the best selling game on Steam globally for several weeks from October to November 2020. It earned positive reviews from critics, who praised its innovativeness.

Players create or join a lobby where preparation for the contracts is done. Phasmophobia gives players the option to customize their appearance by picking between eight different paranormal investigators to distinguish between group members. Located at two corkboards in the lobby, a contract location is voted on between players, while the difficulty is set by the host. All equipment is purchased and upgraded at a computer in the lobby and selected to be loaded into a van from which the group will operate upon arriving at the site. Players who survive and have completed their objectives (or wish to give up) must return to the Van to leave.

There are 24 different types of ghosts in Phasmophobia- Banshee, Demon, Deogen, Goryo, Hantu, Jinn, Mare, Moroi, Myling, Obake, Oni, Onryo, Phantom, Poltergeist, Raiju, Revenant, Shade, Spirit, Thaye, The Mimic, The Twins, Wraith, Yurei, Yokai and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as Evidence they will leave behind.

Your main mission in Phasmophobia is to identify what type of Ghost is haunting the location you are in. Each Ghost is linked to three types of Evidence - EMF Level 5, Fingerprints, Freezing Temperatures, Ghost Orb, Ghost Writing, D.O.T.S Projector and Spirit Box - and these are key to figuring out which Ghost is present.

As of February 2025, there are fourteen sites of various sizes: small, medium, and large. The small maps include four suburban-style houses, two farmhouses with reworks planned for the near future and a small campsite. The medium maps are a campsite, a prison, and a restricted variant of the larger asylum map. The large maps are a high school and a mental institution. Potential future maps located at an apartment building, mansion, and hospital have been hinted at, with a new map that the Kinetic Games developers have recently released, called Point Hope, a unique lighthouse where each room encompasses a full floor. This new destination is inspired from the Alaskan location of the same name in real life.

Cursed Possessions, also called "Cursed Items" or "Cursed Objects", are a group of items in Phasmophobia that allow players to directly interact with the ghost itself. Some abilities of the Cursed Possessions include the ability to make the ghost appear, force a hunt, ask the ghost questions, or even kill the player. As of May 2024, there are a total of seven cursed possessions in Phasmophobia. They include the Ouija Board, Music Box, Haunted Mirror, Tarot Cards, Summoning Circle, Voodoo Doll, and the Monkey Paw. Each item offers a distinct way of interacting with the ghost. Each cursed item has a 1 in 7 chance to spawn on each map, with different spawn locations for each item. Only one cursed possession will spawn on the map unless set otherwise via custom difficulty.

The new planned update is in 2025. This update will revamp the way players record evidence. A new Media tab will replace the current Photos tab in the journal and will house new Video and Sound evidence, ontop of the already existing Photo evidence, obtained through the use of Video Cameras and a new Sound Recorder.

In 2026

The Horror 2.0 update is planned to be the full release of the game and the end of its early access. It will mainly focus on existing mechanics related to the ghost such as hunts, ghost events, interactions, and will include new ghost models and hallucinations.

More adjustments to the progression rate and to the equipment tiers are planned:

The Equipment Tier unlocks will be less linear with multiple tiers unlocked at once instead of only one.

The cost for some upgrades will be increased.

For each new prestige, players will be able to choose either a sum of extra starting money, or a small XP boost.

The T3 Motion Sensor will have its icon in the van changed.

The photo-taking speed of the T2 Photo Camera will be increased.