Phasmophobia -- Amateur ghosthunters unite!

I've seen you guys playing phasmophobia! How is there not a thread?!

You've seen those Ghosthunting shows on cable? Where the extremely hammy would be realty TV wanna-bees gather some electronic equipment, jump to some scientifically dubious conclusions to their electronics read outs and use it to hunt for ghosts in "haunted" (read: abandoned) buildings? Phasmophobia is a game that simulaties of that churned out schlock, but with the added twist of: ghosts are real, and they dont like you.

Your job is to gather your friends, and whatever knickknacks you raided out of radioshack before it closed, and enter a series of progressively spooky buildings tofigure out what is haunting it. What is that howling in the night? Is it a demon? A Poltergiest? A banshee? Or is it your friend losing his S#$% in the next room over at their own shadow

The ghosts become more agitated the longer you stay, and will kill if provoked! So gather your clues and hold onto your wits, and don't say the suspected ghosts name!

Okay who's playing this jazz, and who's interested in it? I recommend skipping the tutorial (its real bad), and learning from another play that can tell you all the caveats of this clunky, but fun game.

I was playing this the other night for a couple rounds with GWJ. I was in VR. Jesus Lord is it uncomfortable and terrifying! It's unlike any other game I've played in that you feel so scared and vulnerable that you instinctively stick with other players, hoping for safety in numbers. I am almost physically unable to force myself to head into the basement alone.

I'm a sure thing for grouping up to spend a couple hours ghost busting.

My wife was watching streams for Phasmophobia and is quite dejected that it is a PC exclusive. I was most intrigued myself. It looks to be an enjoyable co-op adventure.

I'm interested. Just need to figure out when to get games together.

Zebulon wrote:

I was playing this the other night for a couple rounds with GWJ. I was in VR. Jesus Lord is it uncomfortable and terrifying! It's unlike any other game I've played in that you feel so scared and vulnerable that you instinctively stick with other players, hoping for safety in numbers. I am almost physically unable to force myself to head into the basement alone.

I'm a sure thing for grouping up to spend a couple hours ghost busting.

Was a total delight to play with you, looking forward to playing it again!

Cool effect I noticed was that when you are in a cold spot, visible puffs of breath loosely correspond to when you are speaking.

Neat!

This is like one of those Travel Channel ghost shows if the studio exec said, "You know what we need to boost ratings? Murder!"

I wish I could play thisgame

Trying the solo missions is probably more terrifying than doing it with a group. Tried taking a camera and tripod into a house when somebody appeared right in front of me and slammed the front door. And this was about as far inside the house as I got when I dropped the tripod in fright:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/0mBTwOB.jpg)

And the 5 minute countdown hadn't expired yet!

I decided to pick this up during a weak moment and worked up the nerve to try it tonight. Once I got over the frustration of trying to place a camera, I was able to complete the tutorial. My attempts at convincing the wife and son to try it with me have failed, so I thought I might find some folks here to play with. I have a ton of people friended on Steam, so hit me up there if you're filling a team:

My Steam profile in in my sig.

I have NO IDEA how well I'll handle a horror game, but I'm ready to try

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/axbaqyf.jpg)

I imagine the house smelled like White Diamond. I asked the spirit box "How long did it take to get the Cleopatra makeup on?" to which she replied, "ADULT."

We got Joe Jackson. He didn't have any answers to "is she really going out with him?" He did have an Axe, though.

Last house I was in I placed the ghost book down in view of the video camera. In the truck I saw the book suddenly get kicked around so I went back in with the spirit box and said, "Hey, stop kicking my book around." Then I heard a woman's voice hum and saw the front door start to slam shut, so I booked it out of there, pun intended.

Finally got a photo of a ghost tonight:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/YqDRvGA.png)

Since it was operating just inside the front door of the two story, four bedroom house, I situated myself just inside. I started calling out its name and swearing at it and rather quickly the lights flickered and it manifested itself. As I was backing up out the front door, I snapped the picture just as the door was being slammed shut and thankfully I was outside when it closed.

Oh, and the pictures you take with the still camera appear in the Phasmophobia folder as .png files SavedScreen0 through SavedScreen5. They appear to be overwritten when you take additional pictures, so if you want to preserve a particular image for posterity, rename the file or copy and paste it elsewhere.

Rat Boy wrote:

Oh, and the pictures you take with the still camera appear in the Phasmophobia folder as .png files SavedScreen0 through SavedScreen5. They appear to be overwritten when you take additional pictures, so if you want to preserve a particular image for posterity, rename the file or copy and paste it elsewhere.

That's good to know. Have had a few I've wanted to save, but couldn't get them up.

Finally got killed by a ghost. I thought I figured out it was situated in a second floor hallway because of my freezing breath, but none of the other ways of getting evidence was working. Thinking that the cold air was spillover from one of the adjacent rooms, I went back in one more time to poke around when my flashlight started flickering. I thought it was just going to be a manifestation and not a full on attack since it wasn't making any noise, but the front door was locked. I tried heading towards the downstairs bathroom to hide when it got me about two steps from safety. Now I'm out ~$400 worth of equipment.

Edit: I realized the reason I didn't hear anything was because the ghost must have been a Wraith, which glides instead of walks.

I've tried a couple solo runs. While I suspect I was a coward before, now it has been confirmed

I did not expect to have such active ghosts in an amateur location. In the first house, I had a picture thrown by my head as soon as I opened the door. Later, it nibbled my earlobe as it slammed the nursery door shut as I left. Next, it turned out the hallway light as I tried to skip town ASAP. When I finally got back in the truck, I saw activity had hit 8 and my timer hadn't yet hit 3:00. I tried to set up a camera before I was told to put on lotion, but it kept shutting the door when I tried to open it. I think I wasted 30 seconds just playing tug of war with the thing.

Eventually, my evidence amounted to: no orbs, no voice, 4 on the EMF, no thermometer on hand, and an empty book with no time left and a front door slammed in my face when I tried to make a quick run to adjust the camera. I made a (wrong) guess, made a few salty comments at the closed door, and went back to the bus. Activity was at max and I wasn't staying.

At my next location, I blundered about for 4 minutes before I saw my breath and heard a grudge sound behind me in the scariest basement I've ever seen just as the power was cut and I was stuck without a flashlight because I was loaded with detection equipment. I stumbled out of the house in much the same way I'm sure I would in real life and again skipped town after making a (wrong) guess.

It was fun, but my lord that was an experience I both want to share and forget.

P.S. The first ghost was a poltergeist. The second was a demon. Will there be a third?

Poltergeists, Banshees, and Wraiths are the only three ghosts whose behaviors give you obvious clues as to their ID. The first you know because it tends to throw a lot of stuff around even at the beginning. Banshees and Wraiths tip their hands because they teleport even to just manifest, so at the beginning of the round they could appear all the way across the map from their location.

I've found three guides that give a lot of player learned information since launch, so use them if you don't want to discover things on your own:

Ghost Behavior (lots of details on the numbers involved)

Equipment and Items (including question guides for the Spirit Box and Ouija board)

Ghost details (strategies and such)

Sometimes the scariest thing you see isn't inside the haunted location. Or even at the site:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/GNMam6o.jpg)

As you can see, one of the daily objectives was to survive a hunting phase, except I never saw my flashlight flicker and the front door didn't shut and lock. What I think happened was the ghost entered the hunt phase while within range of one of the two crucifixes I dropped around where it was lurking and it immediately went passive. Somehow canceling a hunt qualifies as surviving one.

Phasmophobia spurred me to turn on the computer today. Rare indeed! Many updates and a few restarts later I fumbled around for specs. I've got 4 GB RAM. 8 GB RAM is the minimum requirement. Bah! I'll have to make do with these ghost stories for a while longer. (They're great, by the way. I love reading them.)

I had a social meet with my team last night and in the spirit of the season, someone suggested this game. Going with a full crew of people makes a huge difference. We knocked off objectives left and right, and though we had two deaths, it was otherwise very methodical. Even the deaths were in service to the mission as people taunted the ghosts to get that last bit of evidence. There may never be third solo run, but I think I'll be planning additional trips with a crew.

So I learned a trick watching YouTube last night. To save time during the setup phase, take whatever equipment you plan on using right away and place them just outside the front door before you open it. Every map save the Asylum has the truck parked a ways from the entrance, so can buy yourself some valuable time and/or sanity. So I did so at one of the houses and as soon as I entered, I heard stuff being thrown around. One candle ended up going outside and when I exited, I found this had happened:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Vv0jCtc.jpg)

One clue already solved for without having to take the EMF reader inside.

I really hate asylum. I end up getting bored long before I find the ghost. Bad design. Too much room for the current ghost AI/behavior. They need to modify either the map or the ghost spawning.

I feel like I spend half my time too far away from the ghost for it to effect me, and the other half tracking down my team mates that have a worse sense of direction then me: /

Late last night I found a Ouija board and took a crack at it. Finally got the ghost to tell me it was in the basement (which I already knew) and a split second later it went into hunt mode, forcing me to jump into the nearest bedroom to hide. For a moment I thought it was looking somewhere else in the house when I heard loud, thumping footsteps just outside. Once the hunt was over, I counted my blessings and left.

But today, though, I experimented with a new way of provoking ghosts. A couple days ago I saw a clip where someone blared a Blink-182 song into local chat and sure enough a ghost went into hunt mode after them. So I decided to do a little experimenting of my own. Thinking of songs that might annoy the dead, I started with "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. About halfway through, a ghost materialized in the adjoining hall, walked a couple steps away from me before turning its head towards me like it was saying, "Oh, you're causing all that racket." Because I was laughing so hard I failed to get a picture. I repeated the test with Pearl Jam's "Alive," which got the ghost to show up, but the door slammed in my face just I was snapping the picture.

At the next house, I tried Ray Parker, Jr's theme from "Ghostbusters," which only got the ghost to play around with the circuit breaker. Then there was no reaction from Michael Jackson's "Thriller." I suppose at that house I was too far away from the ghost to get a more direct reaction. Finally, at the third house, I started playing "The Monster Mash," which got the ghost to appear long enough for me to snap a photo:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/PL9O6Rd.png)

I may never yell obscenities at a ghost ever again.

Two weeks ago, I would have run for the front door hearing a Grudge sound behind me. Now I turn around and walk right up to the thing:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Nb0EMnu.png)

Edit: Aw, it's a baby ghost:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/zXbM856.png)

This was a fairly mobile Mare. She covered quite a bit of ground tonight at one of the farmhouses:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/55kuWDA.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/jaW1QmH.png)

Wasn't a hunt and I guarantee there was more than 3 meters between those two locations. Also, is it just me or do objects have a funny habit of teleporting from one room to another:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2SCLSnx.png)

This... dodgeball, I think, was at the bottom staircase of a house even though none of the bedroom doors had a straight shot to the stairs. Something similar happened with a toy bunny rabbit last night. It started in the baby's room, then it teleported across the house to the kitchen.

Today's update to the beta version introduced the brand new prison map:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/bnSfgmk.jpg)

What makes this place easier to learn than the Asylum in my opinion are distinctive rooms and hallways plus handy signage:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/JTOzQ58.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/NBPoHE8.jpg)

Since this is 2020, the prison has one of these in most rooms:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/4ZFdWMp.jpg)

While this is in beta, it seems ghosts are very active here. This little girl ghost kept manifesting itself repeatedly, including twice when I was trying to exit:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/7DXeKhc.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/JDr49JH.png)

Random thing I learned tonight: a question that doesn't receive a response on the Ouija board from a non-Demon knocks your sanity down 50%. Guess that's one way to get the zero sanity daily objective.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/TLEZqyQ.jpg)

This is Steven. He lives in a hallway, enjoys redecorating, has a skin condition, and is a huge fan of baseball. When I asked him if we could be friends, he turned the light off and on - a definite yes!

An entryway ghost. Good for saving you time trying to find its favorite room, but it makes trying to explore the rest of the place for bone evidence and/or the Ouija board treacherous.