Just in time for Halloween, the development team for Phasmophobia launched the latest (and arguably the most frightening) Nightmare update. Horror gamers and Twitch streamers alike flocked to the game for thrilling new jumpscares and festive frights in the brand new update.
Since the launch of the co-op horror game back in September 2020, Phasmophobia’s development team have prided themselves on keeping the content new and fresh, and the Nightmare update was no different. The new update included everything from rebalancing difficulties to brand new ghosts, and even a new campsite map to explore. enhancing various in-game effects like visuals and sound to immerse ghost-hunting players further into their worst fears.
10 Maple Lodge Campsite Is The New Medium-Sized Map
The most obvious new addition to Phasmophobia is the brand new Maple Lodge Campsite map. A medium-sized map featuring a log cabin, a haunted lake, and various large tents spread across the site, it is the first outdoor map ever included in Phasmophobia.
With increased visual quality for added realism, the new campsite map also contains picnic areas, an outdoor generator, and games that both living and dead players can interact with. While the ghost hunters’ van is still safely out of reach from ghosts, it brings with it a chilling realisation that there may be options to include outdoor hunts for other maps in future.
9 Difficulties Have Been Reworked...
All the original difficulty levels — Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional — have been revamped to make each contract feel more unique, and account for players of all skill levels. This has come with a variety of differences, such as doors starting already opened for some difficulties (rather than just the ghost room).
Other changes to difficulty levels include whether the fuse box is on or off at the start of each contract, how much sanity is regained from sanity pills, and how many hiding places are available to players during the contract. In Professional mode, ghosts can now also move their preferred room after moving (although this is meant to be on rare occasions).
8 ...And Nightmare Mode Is Available As A New Difficulty
The addition of the Nightmare difficulty to Phasmophobia struck terror into the hearts of even the most seasoned ghost hunters. Designed as an extra challenging mode for adrenaline junkies and ghost hunting pros, the Nightmare mode brought some unexpected never-before-seen features to the game.
The new difficulty includes new challenges, such as longer hunts, fewer hiding places, and a reduced capacity for the sanity pills to restore sanity. Extra difficult features include the chance for second kills during a single hunt, withholding one evidence type to determine the ghost type, as well as some monitoring equipment starting out broken from the get-go.
7 Four New Ghost Types To Find
There are now a total of 20 different ghost types to identify in Phasmophobia thanks to the new Nightmare update. The Onryo, known as the ‘Wrathful Spirit’, is terrified of fire, but is deadly once any fire is put out. The Twins, as the name implies, appear as a pair of ghosts, but can wreak havoc separately in different parts of the map.
The Obake is known as a shapeshifter, and is known to leave behind unique evidence such as a six-fingered handprint. The final additional ghost, the Raiju, uses the power from players’ equipment to harness its powers, making it a formidable foe to go up against.
6 Weather Affects Your Gameplay
Each new contract now introduces a weather element to Phasmophobia’s gameplay, which can affect players’ experiences in unique ways. Thick fog can reduce a player’s visibility and make spotting ghost evidence more difficult. Changes in temperature from snow can affect how the Freezing Temperature evidence can be found.
Perhaps the most terrifying of all, heavy rain, wind, and thunder can impede the player’s hearing, as well as interfere with equipment such as the Parabolic Microphone. This different weather cycle in each playthrough adds an extra interesting challenge to the game.
5 Sound Overhauls For Ghosts And Players
Playing further into added realism, there have been various overhauls to the sound design from the Phasmophobia Nightmare update. For instance, the ghost’s booming footsteps are only heard when the ghost is actually moving, so it is harder to tell when the hunt has started or finished by sound alone.
The ghost sounds, such as the croaking, singing, and players’ heartbeats, will also fade in and out, with a lowered volume to amp up the creep factor. Other jumpscares like window knocks have also been updated so that they can be heard on the Parabolic Microphone.
4 Visual Changes For Fingerprints And Bone Evidence
Bad news for any players who only do a quick sweep around with a UV flashlight before dashing back to the safety of the van — there’s now a small chance that ghosts may not leave fingerprints when interacting with the environment. In an extra cruel twist, fingerprints now disappear after 60 seconds, so ghost hunters need to be quick with the camera or risk losing vital income.
The bone evidence, while previously a standardised chicken bone-like model, now has updated visuals. It can now appear as a random bone from the human body, from hip bones to full spinal columns.
3 New Ghost Behaviors For Normal Gameplay…
There’s been a complete overhaul in many of the ‘usual’ ghost behaviors during a contract. Ouija boards have been revamped so that players’ Sanity is penalized less for unsuccessful communications, but can greatly drain Sanity if they receive a response.
Ghosts will also now have more of an impact on equipment, disrupting electronics when they’re visible, turning on showers in some locations, and blowing out lighters as well as candles. Roaming behaviors have been curbed, so that ghosts won’t wander too far across a map, and all ghost events last a minimum of one second.
2 ...And New Ghost Behaviors During Hunts
Hunts have also been adapted to suit more challenging gameplay. Ghosts are more responsive to electronic equipment during hunts, as they’re attracted to walkie-talkies, thermometers, and EMF readers. Walkie-talkies also only play static sounds when players are in close proximity to the ghost.
While the ghost speed has been increased when chasing players, it’s nice to see that the developers are throwing players a bone. To help newer players along a little, the duration of each ghost hunt has been reduced on small and medium maps.
1 Player Lobby, Journal, And Map Enhancements
Ghost behaviours and difficulties aren’t the only thing that have received a huge overhaul. Thankfully, the developers have included a much-needed revamp to the user interfaces in Phasmophobia’s latest update. Average sanity is now accurate, rather than randomised. The truck’s map screen has received refreshing new icons, as well as the ability for players to choose any contract on the map screen from the get-go.
The map’s description has been altered to describe the difficulty instead (which players may be more concerned about!), and the contract difficulty will always default to the one previously played. Gone are the days of the accidental Professional round for unsuspecting newbies!