Yes, I know it is now half a year past the prime month for spooky games but ghost sleuthing sim Phasmophobia has not let that stop its continual updates. So I will not let it stop me from talking about them either. As of a beta branch update last weekend, Phasmo’s ghosts are, once again, much harder, better, faster, and stronger than before. Yes, all four. I will prove it to you to justify my tortured, dated reference.
As I’ve been banging on about for months, Phasmophobia was one of the best games of 2020 and the best way to play it is on the beta branch where things are always changing. What’s changed this week is that ghosts are smarter, specifically in ways that are designed to torture me personally.
Here, I’ll break down the highlights for you in lyrical order instead of importance:
- Harder: The ghost now has a 50% chance to remember where it last saw you during the last hunt and will search that area in the next hunt.
- Better (for me): Furniture will now block the line of sight between you and the ghost. This means that there are now a lot more places you can hide in all maps rather than just closets and lockers.
- Faster: All ghosts except Revenants will now move increasingly faster over time if they see you during a hunt. The speed will only drop if they can’t see you after they have checked your last known location.
- Stronger: If you keep talking inside a locker or closet and the ghost knows you are in there it will now fully open both of the closet or locker doors on its second attempt even if you are grabbing them.
Also of importance is that “The ghost now has a chance to slightly open both closet doors at the same time during a hunt.” Ghosts opening closet doors while you’re hiding in them is bad enough, a thing I have cried about at length, but being able to open both doors at once? Just murder me now, thanks.
Ghosts increasing in speed as they chase you is horrifying as well. They’ll slow down if they lose your trail, but I fully expect that this means getting chased down a long hallway on the highschool, asylum, and prison maps will be deadly.
On the bright side, furniture providing cover is a very forgiving change. Getting stuck in a farmouse attic won’t be a death sentence. There’s always enough clutter up there to hide behind.
The best part of Phasmophobia updates for me is knowing that even after reading the patch notes, the ghosts will manage to surprise me. I’ll have missed or forgotten some key change. Or the ghosts will behave strangely because sometimes they just do that. No measure of forewarning can prevent me being spooked and I think it’s grand.
You can catch the rest of the patch notes from the weekend right here. These changes are all now on Phasmophobia’s beta branch which you can, and totally should, opt in to through your game’s Steam settings.