Phasmophobia Issues Major Update Just in Time for Halloween

Kinetic Games has certainly been busy recently.

The developer behind Phasmophobia recently shipped a brand new, massive, game-changing update earlier today, Monday, Oct. 25. In it, players will find a new map, expansive changes to difficulties, items, and ghost behavior.

Here's what you need to know about the latest update to Phasmophobia.

Phasmophobia Nightmare | Update v0.4.0 Patch Note Details

New Map: Maple Lodge Campsite

"We’ve had reports of paranormal activity near an old campsite," the notes read, "We need you to investigate as soon as possible to find out the cause of these ghostly sightings."

Maple Lodge Campsite is a medium that has "picnic areas, games, multiple tents, a log cabin and a haunted lake." It features several new items with higher quality graphics than any other map currently present in the game—though this will be remedied at a later date.

New Difficulty: Nightmare

According to the patch notes, players can expect the following challenges while playing on Nightmare difficulty:

• Ghosts will not reveal one type of evidence
• The ghost will sometimes change its preferred room after moving
• No setup time
• Shortest hunt grace period
• Long hunt duration
• Kills extend the current hunt’s duration
• Sanity pills restore much less sanity
• Fuse box starts off
• Almost no hiding places
• Paranormal interference has damaged some of your monitoring equipment

New Ghosts and Ghost Behavior

Four new ghosts have been spotted:

• Onryo
• The Twins
• Obake
• Raiju

Additionally, ghosts have been behaving particularly strange within this update. Here are some of the new recorded behaviors:

• Ghosts will now disrupt electronic equipment whenever they are visible
• Ghosts can now blow out lighters similar to candles
• Using the walkie-talkie will now attract the ghost during hunts
• The walkie-talkie will now only play static sounds when near the ghost
• The ghost can now interact with several showers in certain locations

Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional Difficulty Reworks

Amateur players can expect the following experiences:

• Long setup time
• Long hunt grace period
• Short hunt duration
• Sanity pills restore a lot of sanity
• Regain half of your lost equipment's value if you die

Intermediate players will be engaging under these conditions:

• Average setup time
• Average hunt grace period
• Average hunt duration
• Sanity pills restore some sanity
• Fuse box starts off
• Fewer places to hide
• Regain some of your lost equipment’s value if you die

Professional players will have to make it through:

• The ghost can very rarely change its preferred room after moving
• No setup time
• Short hunt grace period
• Long hunt duration
• Sanity pills restore little sanity
• Fuse box starts off
• Much fewer hiding places

Notable Changes and Bug Fixes

Every new contract will have a random weather condition. There are six in total, including clear skies, snow, strong winds, light and heavy rain, and fog.

The Ouija Board item has been reworked to were players can trade Sanity for information. While this isn't guaranteed to work every time, players won't loose as much Sanity if the spirits choose to remain silent. This has also been reflected in the behavior of demons in-game.

Otherwise, here are the most notable game changes and bug fixes shipped with this update:

• All ghost’s base speed and acceleration when chasing a player has been slightly increased
• Fingerprints now disappear after 60 seconds
• The average sanity will now be accurate instead of being random
• Attic and basement ghosts will now only roam to the next floor and not the other side of the map
• The contract difficulty will now default to the difficulty you played last
• Ghost footsteps can now only be heard when the ghost is moving and will fade out instead of abruptly stopping
• You can now place sound and motion sensors on floors
• Freezing Temperatures evidence has been changed to account for the new weather, requiring a lower reading on the thermometer. Breath has been unchanged
• Ghosts can now blow out candles when the lights are turned on
• When crouching, the players collider now shrinks to match the player model
• Several updated visuals
• Fixed a bug where only the host could turn the car alarm off
• Fixed an exploit where you could use a camera on a tripod to trick the ghost into thinking you were inside
• Fixed a bug where you could hold a tripod with a camera on during a hunt and the ghost wouldn't find you
• Fixed a bug where “No code in clipboard” and “None” weren’t translating

More information about the patch can be found on the patch notes post on Steam. It is live at the time of writing and registers around 1.4 GB.