Phasmophobia’s big Nightmare update has arrived, bringing us the game’s first outdoor map, a bunch of new ghost types, and a rework of the difficulty levels that includes the new Nightmare mode, “a challenge mode for those seeking the most intense gameplay Phasmophobia has to offer.”
The new map, called Maple Lodge Campsite, features picnic areas, tents, a log cabin, and a lake, which of course is haunted. It’s a medium-sized map but has more unique objects, object density, and visual detail than other maps in the game, which could impact performance. Developer Kinetic Games said minimum-requirement PCs should be able to handle it without any issues, but if you’re trying to get away with a system that’s not quite up to that spec you might see FPS drops. The minimap in the truck has also been updated for Maple Lodge Campsite; other locations will be given a similar minimap update in the future.
Four new ghost types are on the way—Onryo, The Twins, Obake, and Raiju—all of whom will have an increased chance to spawn during Phasmophobia’s Halloween event. There will also be some new ghost behaviors that should make life more interesting for supernatural super-sleuths:
👻 – The ghost can now interact with several showers in certain locations
👻 – 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
In gameplay terms, the difficulty rework is also a big attraction in this update, as Kinetic said it’s aiming to “provide more options for players of every skill level.”
Here’s how the new levels break down:
Amateur: Recommended for new Ghost Hunters!
- 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: The standard Ghost Huntin’ experience
- 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: For experienced Ghost hunters
- 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
Serious ghost-facers can opt for the new Nightmare difficulty level, which is basically the same as the Professional level except that ghosts will change their preferred rooms more often, your sanity pills are basically Tic-Tacs, there are almost no hiding places, and some of your stuff is busted because of “paranormal interference.” Sounds like a good time!
On top of all that, randomized weather effects will mix things up further—changes in temperature will make finding ghosts more difficult, fog will reduce visibility, that sort of thing—and the Ouija board has been revamped: You won’t suffer too much if your entreaties go unanswered, but if you do get an answer from the other side, look out: When the ghosts respond, your sanity will be lowered “greatly.”
Phasmophobia’s Nightmare update, which also features an array of changes and fixes that you can dive into below, is live now.
Changes:
- All ghost’s base speed and acceleration when chasing a player has been slightly increased
- Ghost hunt duration has been lowered on small and medium maps
- Ghosts now have a low chance to not leave fingerprints when interacting with the environment
- Fingerprints now disappear after 60 seconds
- Attic and basement ghosts now roam less often
- Attic and basement ghosts will now only roam to the next floor and not the other side of the map
- All contracts are now selectable at all times on the map screen
- The average sanity will now be accurate instead of being random
- The contract difficulty will now default to the difficulty you played last
- The map description has been replaced with a difficulty description
- The bone can now be a random bone from the human body, and has new visuals
- Ghost footsteps can now only be heard when the ghost is moving
- Changing screen resolution in the journal now offers confirmation
- Freezing Temperatures evidence has been changed to account for the new weather, requiring a lower reading on the thermometer. Breath has been unchanged
- The fuse box on and off indicator has been split into two different lights, instead of one that changes colour
- Ghost sounds will now fade out instead of abruptly stopping
- Ghost handprints and footprints have received new textures
- Lighters will now turn off when swapped into your inventory
- Ghosts can now blow out candles when the lights are turned on
- Several rooms have been renamed on Edgefield, Bleasdale and Grafton
- All ghost events will now last a minimum of 1 second
- Window knocks will now give noise on the Parabolic
- Several photo frames have had their photos replaced
- The heartbeat will now fade in and out, the volume has also been lowered
Fixes
- Fixed grammar and punctuation for English, in the journal, on several pages
- Fixed a bug where ghosts would not always do their walking animation for ghost events
- Fixed a bug where only the host could turn the car alarm off
- Fixed a bug where the salt placement highlight was visible on walls after looking at the floor
- Fixed a bug where you can place salt on the prison staircase inside the wall
- Fixed a bug where “No code in clipboard” and “None” weren’t translating
- Fixed a bug where the footstep sounds would continue after you have stopped moving
- Fixed a bug where the hunt wouldn’t end if the host left during the hunt
- Fixed a bug where having multiple monitors with different resolution scale would crash the game
- Fixed a bug where the ghost would sing while making hunting sounds at the same time
- 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 the bloom option buttons were backwards on the main menu
- Fixed a bug where you could see DOTS ghosts through walls where there was no DOTS Projector
- Fixed an exploit where you could use a camera on a tripod to trick the ghost into thinking you were inside