In a fitting move for a game that’s all about hunting ghosts, Phasmophobia is releasing a huge “Nightmare” update, just in time for Halloween. The biggest new addition is a new campsite map called Maple Lodge Campsite, with the update also adding a handful of new ghost types, a rework to the way the game handles difficulty, and more.
The new Maple Lodge Campsite is a medium-sized map that combines indoor and outdoor areas–you’ll be able to explore picnic areas, a number of tents, a log cabin, and an eerie haunted lake. The developer warns that the map is one of the most detailed yet, which means outdated computers may see FPS drops when loading up the new map. The new map also adds a new truck mini-map design, which the update notes say will be the standard for further mini-map updates rolling out later on other maps.
Four new ghost types have been added with the new update, and players will have a higher chance of encountering one of the new types for the duration of the Halloween event. The new ghost types are named Onryo, The Twins, Obake, and Raiju.
The update has also added a new feature in the form of weather, with each new contract now loading in with a different weather event in play. This can be one of six different weather events–clear skies, fog, light rain, heavy rain, strong wing, or light snow. Each will have a unique effect on different elements of players’ ghost hunts.
The last bit of new content being added for Halloween is a brand new Nightmare-level difficulty, designed to provide an extra challenge for seasoned ghost hunters. This new difficulty level comes on top of a broader overhaul of the game’s existing three difficulty levels, which was designed to make the game more enjoyable for players at any skill level.
Other than the new additions, a number of big tweaks and fixes have been made to the game’s existing features. You can check out the full patch notes below:
Phasmophobia Nightmare Update v0.4.0
Maple Lodge Campsite
A brand new medium sized map featuring picnic areas, games, multiple tents, a log cabin and a haunted lake.
- Maple Lodge Campsite has more unique objects, higher object density and more visual detail.
Minimum specification computers should have no issues, but if you have outdated hardware you may see FPS drops - Other locations will receive more detail and more unique objects at a later date
- In the future, other locations will receive a new truck mini-map design to be consistent with Maple Lodge Campsite
Difficulty Rework
All difficulties have received a major overhaul. We hope these changes make each difficulty feel more unique, and provide more options for players of every skill level.
- A percentage of doors will now randomly start open depending on difficulty
-
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
Nightmare Difficulty
A new difficulty for the top ghost hunters, designed to be a challenge mode for those seeking the most intense gameplay Phasmophobia has to offer.
- 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
Weather
Each time you start a contract, the location will have different weather, adding new layers of gameplay and making each contract feel unique. Change in temperature will make finding the ghost’s location more difficult, rain or wind will impair your hearing, and a thick fog will reduce visibility.
- Clear Skies
- Fog
- Light Rain
- Heavy Rain
- Strong Wind
- Light Snow
Ouija Board
The Ouija Board didn’t make as much sense as we’d like, so it’s been revamped. You now trade Sanity for information, and are penalized less if you don’t get a response.
- The Ouija board will now lower your sanity greatly when the ghost responds
- If the ghost doesn’t respond you will only lose a small fraction of sanity
- Demon’s have had their weakness changed to reflect these changes
New
- Several new ghost types have been sighted. These new ghost types have an increased chance to spawn for the duration of the Halloween event:
- When crouching, the players collider now shrinks to match the player model
- 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
- Lighters and candles will now extinguish when outside in heavy rain and when thrown
- The truck map screen has received new icons
- The ghost can now interact with several showers in certain locations
- You can now place sound and motion sensors on floors
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
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