Phasmophobia Ghosts Behaviour

All the little details you need to know about Ghosts behaviour in Phasmophobia.

Ghosts Behaviour in Phasmophobia

Car

• The car alarm can be turned on when the ghost is within 2m of the car. When the alarm is on, the car’s headlights will also be on, and it will play some sounds.
  
• To turn it off, you need the car keys and hit Use on the car. As soon as the car alarm turns on, a Ghost Interaction EMF (Level 2) spot will be created at the car’s position.

Other Phasmophobia Guides:

• Phasmophobia Maps
• Phasmophobia Ghosts List

Doors

• As soon as a ghost with fingerprints touches a door, it will spawn the fingerprint evidence, but only on one side of the door. Fingerprint evidence does not spawn Ghost Interaction EMF.
  
• Doors always lock during the hunting phase and will remain locked for a random amount of time between 10 and 20 seconds.
  
• Doors all start with a locked timer between 5-20 seconds.
  
• Ghosts make door knocking sounds when they are within 3m of the door, and create a Ghost Interaction EMF (Level 2) at the door’s audio source location.
  
• Ghosts can close and lock doors randomly, which do NOT trigger Ghost Interaction EMFs.

Favourite Rooms

• Ghosts stay in their favourite room for 30 seconds, then return to their idle phase.

Footsteps

• Wraiths do not make black light footsteps after stepping on a salt pile.
  
• Wraiths have an additional Wraith multiplier set to 50 after stepping in salt, making it less likely to start a hunting phase.
  
• Ghost footsteps play at 5% volume during non-hunting and non-appearing phases.
  
• When the ghost has appeared, footsteps are immediately played at full volume when in line of sight, then at 30% volume while you can still see the ghost.
  
• During the hunting phase, random hunting noises are played at full volume, then at 30% while you can still see the ghost.

Fusebox

• Small houses can have a max of 10 lights on
  
• Medium houses can have a max of 9 lights on
  
• Large houses can have a max of 8 lights on
  
• The ghost spawns a Ghost Interaction EMF (Level 2) when they use the fusebox
  
• Ghosts have a 1-in-5 chance of turning the fusebox back on

Generic VOIP recognition

• Ghosts can react with your voice throughout the game, even when you are not holding down a VOIP key.
  
• You must be in the ghost room to trigger a response.
  
• You must be in a room for more than 2 seconds for phrases to be recognised.
  
• Shy ghosts will not respond to you if there are multiple people in the room.
  
• Ghosts can react to their name at any time, even when you are not holding down a VOIP key, with a 20-second delay in-between reactions.
  
• Saying the ghost’s name makes the ghost more likely to respond to the Spirit Box.
  
• Saying just the ghost’s first name is sufficient
  
• A generic ghost reaction will add a random value between 10 and 25 to their activity multiplier.
  
• Generic reactions have a 1-in-200 chance of the ghost turning the fusebox off.
  
• Generic reactions have a 1-in-8 chance of interacting with a random prop.
  
• Generic reactions have a 1-in-8 chance of interacting with a random door.
  
• Generic reaction phrases
  • F*ck
  • B*tch
  • Sh*t
  • C*nt
  • Ass
  • Bastard
  • Motherf*cker
  • A*shole
  • Crap
  • P*ssy
  • D*ckhead
  • Bloody Mary
    
  • Plus 57 more that are language-specific. The English versions are provided below. For all languages, refer to https://github.com/azsry/phasmophobia_mechanics/blob/master/localisation.csv, and search for Phrase_. All these are taken directly from the .csv, lack of punctuation, spelling errors, and all.
    • Can you speak
    • Show us
    • Let us know you are here
    • Do something
    • Is there anyone with me
    • Scream
    • Are you alone
    • Can we speak
    • would like to speak to you
    • Is there anyone here
    • May I ask you
    • Can you speak to us
    • Would you like to talk
    • Are you the only one here
    • Are you waiting
    • Is there anything that I can do
    • Do you know who we are
    • Are you happy
    • Are you here all the time
    • Are you male or female
    • Are there children here
    • Do you want us to leave
    • Make a noise
    • Can I ask you
    • Can you make a sound
    • Show us your presence
    • Knock something
    • Make a sound
    • Open the door
    • Throw something
    • Talk to me
    • Talk to us
    • We mean you no harm
    • Open a door
    • We are friends
    • Is this you’re home
    • Can you speak to us
    • I’m scared
    • I am scared
    • scared
    • scary
    • spooky
    • Horror
    • Scare
    • Open this door
    • Frighten
    • panic
    • Fright
    • Hide
    • Run
    • Show your presence
    • Show us
    • Show me
    • Turn on the light
    • Turn off the light
    • Are there any ghosts
    • Give us a sign

Ghost activity

• Ghosts have random ability values set at the start of an idle phase, based on difficulty.
  • Amateur: 100
  • Intermediate: 115
  • Professional: 130
• Certain ghosts have their own multiplier that changes depending on in-game events:
  • Oni multiplier: 30 if the ghost is an Oni and there are people in the room
  • Wraith multiplier: 50 if the ghost is a Wraith and they have walked in salt
• Hunting multiplier
  • Starts at 0
  • Does not increase steadily over time
  • Decreases by 10 if ghost type is a Mare and a light switch in their current room is on
  • Increases by 10 if ghost type is a Mare and no lights in their current room are on, or there are no light switches in their current room
  • Increases by 15 if the ghost type is a Demon
• Ghost activity level
  • Starts at 0
  • Increases by 10 to 25 on phrase recognition
  • Increases by 20-30 if a smudge stick is used within 6m of it
  • Decays by deltaTime (time since the last frame) / 2 every frame, capped at 0
• If a random number from 0 to <random ability value> (based on difficulty) is greater than or equal to their current activity level, including all ghost-specific multipliers, and an additional 15% if playing solo, they have a chance of interacting with objects or going to their favourite room, appear, use the fusebox, etc.
  • This means that a higher Ghost activity level, Oni/Wraith multiplier, and playing solo decreases the chance of the ghost interacting with the house
• Ghosts can throw any prop around the house. A prop moving does not indicate the ghost being nearby. Poltergeists throw objects with a random force between ((-5, 5), (-2.5, 2.5), (-3, 3)), while other ghosts throw them with a random force between ((-2.5, 2.5), (-2, 2), (-2.5, 2.5))

– Ghost Powers

• All ghosts have a 4-in-12 chance of entering a ghost ability state.
  
• Ghosts that have specific behaviours (listed below) have a 2-in-12 chance of using their specific power on Amateur, and a 2-in-15 chance on other difficulties, once this state has been entered.

— Banshee

• If the Banshee’s current target is outside the house, it will not use its ability
  
• The Banshee will move onto the target player’s position.
  
• The Banshee will wait for the 20s, and then, if the target player is not visible, the Banshee will go into the hunting phase. If the current game is a tutorial, it will go back to idle.

— Jinn

• If the fusebox is off, Jinns will not enter their ability state and will return to idle
  
• Once the Jinn enters their ability state, it will wait 5 seconds before using the ability.
  
• If a player is within 3m of the Jinn when it activates its ability, that player’s insanity will increase by 25%.
  
• A Ghost Interaction EMF (Level 2) will be created at the ghost’s Raycast point.
  
• After a Jinn has used its ability, it cannot use it again for 100s

— Phantom

• The Phantom will navigate to a random player’s location
  
• The Phantom will create a Ghost Interaction (Level 2) EMF at its Raycast point
  
• Once it reaches the random player’s position, it will enter the idle phase

— Poltergeist

• If the Poltergeist has no props to interact with, it will return to idle phase
  
• If there are props to interact with, the Poltergeist will throw all of them with a random force of ((-4,4), (-2,2), (-4,4)), and create a Ghost Throwing (Level 3) EMF at the thrown prop’s location.
  
• If the player was not in line-of-sight of the EMF spot when it spawned, the player’s insanity will increase by 2x the number of props thrown

— Wraith

• The Wraith will choose a random player
  
• If the chosen player is outside the house, or dead, the Wraith will return to idle phase
  
• If the chosen player is in the house and not dead, the Wraith will teleport to a spot within 3m of the chosen player, then return to idle phase

Ghost interactions

• Ghosts have a 5-in-12 chance of doing random interactions such as opening doors, throwing props, and writing in ghost books, after satisfying the insanity check above
  
• Random ghost interactions, including sounds, turning on faucets, moving items, teleporting items, etc, do not generate EMF spots.
  
• Being within 3m of a Jinn instantly drops your sanity by 25%

– Ghost Events

• Ghost events for the optional objective occur as part of random ghost interactions
  
• Ghosts have a 10-in-15 chance (which changes to 10-in-13 on higher difficulties) to enter a random event phase
  
• After all these checks, it can either:
  • appear to the player, and create a Ghost Appeared (Level 4) EMF Spot
  • turn off light switches
  • slam doors shut, and create a Ghost Appeared (Level 4) EMF Spot
  • spawn a random player’s model, play a scream if the spawned model or ghost is within 2m of the player
    • This one doesn’t seem to be implemented, as the game contains code to select a random player model, but never uses it
  • A ghost event will decrease a random player’s insanity by 20% (not sure if this is intended)

Ghost phases

• Ghost phases are determined by average player sanity, multiplied by a hunting multiplier, and alternatively multiplied by an Oni or Wraith multiplier.

– In truck

• Ghosts stay in their favourite room until the main door has been unlocked.

– Setup phase

The setup phase is when the timer in the truck is non-zero:

• Amateur has 5 minutes of the setup phase
  
• Intermediate has 2 minutes of the setup phase
  
• Professional has 0 minutes of the setup phase
  
• Ghosts cannot enter the hunting phase during this time, but will instead be sent straight to their favourite room.
  
• “Hunting phase” starts immediately after setup phase, but this merely means regular phase and not a true hunting phase
  
• Entering a recognised phrase into an Ouija Board has a 1-in-3 chance of ending setup phase

– Idle

• All ghosts have an idle timer of 2-6 seconds, set when they return to an idle state
  
• Once their idle timer has elapsed, the ghost has a 1-in-2 chance of attempting to enter a hunting phase, depending on the team’s average insanity and the current hunting multiplier.
  • Average team insanity considers everyone in the game, not just those in the house
  • If 50 < average player insanity + hunting multiplier < 75, the ghost has a 1-in-6 chance of entering hunting phase
  • If average player insanity + hunting multiplier >= 75, the ghost has a 1-in-4 chance of entering hunting phase
• If a random number generated between 0 and the ghost’s random activity value (discussed in Ghost Activity) is greater than their current activity multiplier, the ghost has a 1-in-2 chance of doing an interaction, using their ghost ability, or entering Wander phase.

– Wander

• Ghosts can wander up to 3m from their current location at a time.
  
• Wraiths can occasionally teleport to the player’s location, leaving a Ghost Interaction EMF (Level 2) at their new location
  
• If a smudge stick is within 6m of the ghost, it will:
  • add a random value between 20 and 30 to their activity multiplier,
  • stop the ghost from hunting for the 90s (or 180s for Spirits)
  • stop Yureis from wandering for the 90s
• Banshees choose a new target when their current target dies, or if they leave the building. If no players are in the building, they will return to their favourite room.
  • Banshees choose the first player in the player list who is not dead
• Revenants move 1.5x slower than other ghosts when not chasing a player. When they are chasing a player, they are 2x faster than other ghosts.
  
• Jinns move at 2x Unity’s default navmesh movement speed when you are more than 4m away from it, and the fusebox is on.

– Ghost appearing

• Ghosts have a random chance of appearing only as a shadow, but only for alive players. Dead players will always see the full model.
  
• 1-in-2 chance if it is part of a random event. 1-in-3 chance as part of a hunt, appearance, or player kill

– Hunting

• Hunting phases last for 25 seconds in Amateur, 35 seconds in Intermediate, and 50 seconds in Professional.
  
• When a hunting phase starts, the following will occur:
  • Ghosts pick a player to chase at the start of a hunting phase. This changes during a phase if the target player leaves the ghost’s line of sight, or for non-Banshees, if another player steps closer to the ghost than the previous target player.
  • While chasing a player, the ghost uses one ray trace to check for line of sight, from its raycasting to the player’s head position. This means crouching behind objects may prove useful.
  • While not chasing a player, ghosts cast two rays to check for line of sight
    • One ray directly from their raycastPoint (likely located near their head, but unknown at this time)
    • If the direct ray fails, one ray 0.167m to the right of their raycasting
    • If both of these raytracers fail, it will default to chasing the original target player
    • If the ghost is not a Banshee, it will cast two rays at each player to check for line of sight
      • One ray from their raycasting
      • One ray 0.01m to the right of their raycasting
    • If both of these raytracers fail, it will default to targeting the first non-dead player
  • A Ghost Appeared EMF (Level 3) reading will be created where they spawn
  • All entries to the house will be locked
  • If a crucifix is within 3m of the ghost (or 5m for banshees), the hunt will be cancelled, and the ghost will return to its favourite room.
  • If the ghost is a shade and there is more than 1 player in the room, hunting phase will be cancelled, and the ghost will return to their favourite room.
• During hunting phases, the following occurs:
  • The ghost will start flickering the fusebox and all flashlights to indicate the successful start of a hunting phase (i.e. phase was not cancelled by anything listed above)
  • Phantoms appear every 1-2 seconds, while all other ghost types appear every 0.3-1 seconds.
• The ghost will return to its favourite room when the player they are targeting is dead.
  
• If a smudge stick is within 1.5m of their teleport destination, they will return to their favourite room
  
• After killing a player, the ghost will teleport back to where it was just before the hunting phase began, and reset to idle phase. They cannot initiate hunting phase for the next 25 seconds.

Window knocking

• Ghosts can occasionally knock on windows. When they do, they create fingerprint evidence on the window and create a Ghost Interaction EMF (Level 2) on the window

Credits

All the credits go to Azsry who published these mechanics into this Github repository.