Phasmophobia is just as much fun as it is downright terrifying. Phasmophobia is an online co-op paranormal horror game that’s been pitting players up against assorted ghosts since 2020; if you love going toe-to-toe with terrifying ghouls and ghosts, then you definitely need to consider picking up a copy of Phasmophobia (if you haven’t already).
Ghost hunting is usually just as much fun as it sounds, but not when you fail to complete the objective. If you just can’t seem to keep yourself alive long enough to complete your investigations in Phasmophobia, then you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading to discover the best strategy to use for success in Phasmophobia!
Best Strategy for Success in Phasmophobia
Succeeding in Phasmophobia can sometimes seem impossible, especially if you’re playing solo or are new to the game (or both). Thankfully, there are a few tricks that can help you become a true ghost-hunting machine! Here are the strategic building blocks for success in Phasmophobia:
Keep the Difficulty Possible
One of the biggest mistakes that beginners make in Phasmophobia is jumping headfirst into the harder difficulties right off the bat. While the harsher difficulties are manageable for seasoned players, they can be absolutely merciless to those who are more inexperienced. If you want to succeed in Phasmophobia, make sure to stay humble with your game’s difficulty.
There’s nothing wrong with playing the game on a higher difficulty, and it can even be beneficial for those looking to earn some extra in-game cash, but you won’t be earning anything but your death if it’s too difficult for you.
Make sure to work your way up to the harder difficulties so that you can get a better feel for the maps, ghost types, and equipment first. That way, you’ll not only have mastered the game on the easier difficulties, but you’ll also have a way better understanding of how to succeed in the game’s harder difficulties. Here’s a list of the game’s available difficulties, excluding Custom:
- Amateur
- Intermediate
- Professional
- Nightmare
- Insanity
It’s recommended that you try mastering the game on Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional before moving on to the harder difficulties. If you want to tailor the game’s difficulty to specifically meet your needs, then you can always try fooling around with the game’s Custom difficulty settings as well!
Bring Quality Equipment
Even if you were the best Phasmophobia player in the world, none of your skills would make a difference if you didn’t bring the right equipment. Quality equipment is essential to the success of any investigation in Phasmophobia. If you’re still exclusively using the basic starter equipment given to you at the start of investigations, then that could be the reason why you’re struggling.
There’s nothing wrong with the starter items that the game gives you; in fact, many of the starter items continue to be beneficial to even the most seasoned Phasmophobia veterans. However, progressing through the game’s harder difficulties is nearly impossible with only the starting equipment. It’s important to include optional equipment in your investigations, too.
For example, the Thermometer is an essential component of any seasoned Phasmophobia player’s equipment set, though it’s definitely not included in the starter equipment. If you’re struggling to collect evidence and identify ghosts in your investigations, then it may be time to upgrade some of your gear! Here’s some optional equipment that you should consider adding to your personal set in Phasmophobia:
- Crucifix – Prevents the ghost from hunting in a certain radius.
- Sanity Pills – Restores a portion of the player’s Sanity.
- The amount of Sanity restored by the Sanity Pills is determined by the game’s difficulty.
- Salt Shaker – Used to place salt piles that ghosts can interact with to leave footprints, which can be used as evidence.
- Smudge Sticks – Can be used to prevent ghosts from hunting players for a brief period of time.
- Thermometer – Allows players to read the temperature in any area of a haunted location. Can be used to capture Freezing Temperatures, which can be used as evidence.
Phone a Friend
If you’re struggling to find success in Phasmophobia in single-player, then it may be time to call in some of your buddies for help. It’s definitely possible to succeed in Phasmophobia in single-player, but it’s so much easier to get the job done in multiplayer.
Completing investigations in multiplayer not only makes the investigations more fun, but also makes collecting evidence incredibly easy, makes the investigations go quicker, and increases the probability of success. Also, not to be morbid, but if someone gets killed during an investigation in multiplayer, it isn’t a game over.
Death doesn’t mean failure in multiplayer like it does in single-player; if a player dies in multiplayer, then the rest of the players can still finish out the investigation. In fact, taking a picture of your dead friend’s corpse with the Photo Camera can even get you extra rewards!
Even if you start playing with only one other person, you’ll definitely notice a big difference. In addition to this, by completing more investigations with your friends in multiplayer, you’ll have a better understanding of how to delegate certain tasks for yourself to ensure success in solo runs.
Make Your Questions Count
Communicating with the ghost is one of the best ways to properly identify it. The best tool to help you do this is the Spirit Box, which helps you communicate directly with the ghost through your microphone. Simply talking to the ghost won’t do you much good, however; you’ll need to be asking the right questions at the right times if you ever want to succeed.
By asking the right questions, you can obtain valuable evidence that can help you complete your investigations a lot faster. Always make sure to ask straightforward questions like “Are you here?”, “Where are you?”, “What do you want?”, etc. In addition to questions, you can also make statements and commands to help you identify the ghost.
Saying things like “Give me a sign.”, “Show yourself.”, “Speak to me.”, etc., should also help you collect evidence and figure out what kind of ghost you’re dealing with. Keep in mind that not all ghosts will respond to the spirit box, but honestly, even a lack of ghostly response would help you narrow down the type of ghost.
Remember to Have Fun!
Phasmophobia can get stressful at times, but at the end of the day, it’s just another horror game. If you let your failures get to you and keep going into your investigations all tense and angry, then your probability of success is guaranteed to go way down.
No matter how many times you lose in Phasmophobia, just remember to relax and have fun! The more relaxed you are while playing, the easier the game will be, I promise. The best way to achieve success in Phasmophobia is to stay as relaxed as you can and always persevere! It’s really not that deep, bro.
Related: How To Fix Phasmophobia Custom Authentication Failed
It’s a good thing that Phasmophobia is multiplayer, or a lot more people would think twice about buying it if it wasn’t. If you like horror games but are a little squeamish about playing them by yourself, then check out Gamer Journalist’s guides on The Quarry and Sons of the Forest, which are two very popular multiplayer horror games.
Checking out Gamer Journalist’s list of jumpscare-less horror games is also a good idea if you’re nervous about scary games! Games are all about having fun; if you’re not having fun while playing them, then what’s the point? Be sure to check out Gamer Journalist’s endless supply of other gaming guides for all of your video game needs!
