Guides/Surviving a hunt

This guide will teach you how to **survive a ghost's hunting phase** in *Phasmophobia*.

During regular gameplay and not taking into account the use of certain cursed possessions, the hunt is the only mechanic in which a ghost can kill players one at a time by colliding with them. No items can end a hunt, although lit Incense can disorient ghosts for some time. Thus, in order to survive, players are required to either hide from, try to outrun, or loop the ghost for as long as they can until the hunt ends.

## Identifying the start of a hunt

Hunts are not always easy to tell apart from other manifestation ghost events (especially by amateur players). The following is a list of indicators that are unique to hunts, manifestation ghost events, or shared between both:

Keep in mind that unless a cursed hunt is initiated, ghosts cannot hunt for a certain duration (90 seconds for most ghosts) after being smudged.

## Surviving a hunt

There are many strategies for surviving a hunt. Some of these may involve riskier tactics, while others may require cooperation between players. Often, using multiple strategies will help to achieve the highest chance of survival.

### Knowing the map's layout

It is ideal to get a good sense of the layout of all maps, including good hiding places, potential dead-ends, and routes for you to escape. Map layouts range from the near-symmetry of Brownstone High School and Sunny Meadows Mental Institution, to the organic layout of Maple Lodge Campsite, to the tighter environments of 42 Edgefield Road and 6 Tanglewood Drive. Knowing the symmetry of the map may improve your understanding of the layout. There are several strategies to learn where to hide; pick one map and keep playing on it until you remember all the hiding spots, or learn a couple of hiding spots each round, potentially across different maps.

### Hunt prevention

By preventing hunts in the first place, the player's chance of dying significantly decreases.

Incense
* Smudging the ghost will prevent hunts for the next 90 seconds (60 seconds for Demon and 180 seconds for Spirit). This applies even when the ghost is smudged during a hunt, though the ongoing hunt will *not* end. It may be preferable to smudge just as a hunt is about to end (if you are far away from the favourite room), or just before the hunt cooldown is over.
* Note that if an existing hunt prevention cooldown from a previous Incense is still ongoing, using a new Incense will *not* restart the timer.

Crucifix
* In some cases, it may be more ideal to place a crucifix along the escape route near the favourite room, so that the ghost does not initiate a hunt from there. Make use of the visible crucifix radius to cover a larger area.

Sanity
* If you start with 100% sanity, almost all ghosts cannot hunt immediately unless you use a cursed possession. By turning on lights, holding lit candles, avoiding ghost events, and taking Sanity Pills as needed, you can keep sanity well above the threshold for most ghosts for a longer time. If you start at lower sanities, these strategies may decrease in usefulness.

Though hunts are dangerous, in some cases it may be necessary for them to happen for the players to identify the ghost or complete objectives.

### Communicating hunts

When a hunt starts, there is usually a short grace period before the ghost can actually detect or kill players. Communicating to other players that a hunt has started can help them to get a head start on the ghost and be more likely to survive.

As players that are far enough from the ghost can still use global chat, they can communicate that a hunt has started if they realize so. Some clues include all the exit doors locking, the activity level displayed in the van reaching 10, and any video feeds suddenly going haywire. Note that some of these may also be caused by ghost events or other factors.

### Running away

Once a hunt starts, try to figure out where exactly the ghost will spawn. The only indicators of where the ghost will be are electronic interference and its hunting noise, so a stereo audio setup is recommended. Depending on where the ghost begins, decide which hiding spots are feasible and begin to move.

* Try not to hide near the area where the ghost could spawn, unless you can reach a decent hiding spot before the ghost can detect players. Otherwise, hiding near the ghost could mean it detecting you quickly, then looking around your last seen location first.
* If the ghost spawns just outside the room you're in, try to get to the safest spot against an adjacent wall, so your line of sight can be broken by at least another corner.
* Use the sprint ability strategically, as it will only allow the player to run for 3 seconds before having a 5 second cooldown, limiting the player to walking. It can either be used whenever a hunt starts to gain a head start on the ghost to quickly reach a hiding location or to quickly break line of sight if the ghost happens to spot the player.
* Most ghosts speed up with continued line-of-sight. Hence, refrain from running in a straight line from the ghost; use corners or objects to your advantage instead. If you happen to run into a long hallway or a corridor, always consider pointers to break line of sight such as doors or stairs. Generally, turning two line-of-sight blockers in quick succession (by turning corners and closing doors) before entering a hiding spot is a commonly touted rule-of-thumb to shake off the ghost.
* Once you know the route, turn off your electronic equipment as soon as possible. Having lit firelights or igniters does not attract the ghost and can safely be used in case you still need to see.
* If the ghost had the chance to spot you or a teammate, it will "camp" around that location for a short while, before moving to a new random area. Make sure you are always moving towards the hiding spot and be very attentive to its hunting sounds. The Myling's vocalizations are audible only from a shorter distance, while some vocalizations can be very soft.
* Some ghosts (e.g. Revenant, Hantu) have different speed abilities that may allow them to catch up even quicker. This is important to note if the ghost's location is relatively free of obstructions, making it harder to break line-of-sight with the ghost and enabling it to continue chasing at high speeds.

### Hiding

While searching for the ghost or afterwards, players should identify accessible closets, lockers and other hiding spots around the map. Depending on the difficulty as well as the number of players, some hiding spots will be inaccessible, forcing players to take potentially riskier routes to escape the ghost during a hunt. There are four main types of hiding places that players can use:

#### Availability

Generally, there are two types of hiding spots that can be blocked off or rendered unusable: closets/lockers/small tents, and furniture hiding spots. These can be blocked by bulky items, or have their concealing element removed. The availability is as follows:

* **Amateur:** All spots available
* **Intermediate:** At least 3 spots available
* **Professional:** At least 2 spots available
* **Nightmare/Insanity:** At least 1 spot available

On top of this, more spots will be freed up depending on the number of players:

* **3-player game:** +1 spot available
* **4-player game:** +2 spots available

For example, a Professional game with 3 players will have at least 3 hiding spots available.

By using a custom difficulty, hiding spots can also be turned off entirely, overriding the multiplayer rule.

Note that some furniture hiding spots are not considered in the computation above, and hence will never be blocked off. In addition, there may be certain locations which may act as decent hiding spots even without furniture. Hence, there are usually more hiding spots available than listed, depending on your risk tolerance.

#### Closets, lockers, and small tents

Ghosts can randomly open closet and locker doors, and hence not holding the door while hiding in one can be risky. Provided that closing an open door takes time and effort from players, it gives the ghost a chance to establish line-of-sight and kill the player before they close the door. Although this theoretically makes lockers safer (since they have only one door), it is possible to hide in closets in such a way that having only one door open will not let the ghost see the player inside.

* If a ghost detects a player inside a closet, it will always open both doors at the same time. This almost always results in death, except in very specific cases where line-of-sight is not achieved.
* Holding closet or lockers doors shut is useless if the ghost knows your location; this can happen because the ghost detected someone inside the hiding spot, or it remembered that it detected someone hiding there in the previous hunt.
* If you think the ghost is about to rip the doors open, use an Incense or simply run to another hiding spot if you have enough time to do so.
* If the difficulty is set such that a player death does not automatically end the hunt, it is generally not recommended to have multiple players hiding in the same closet, as the risk of a player error from someone near/in the closet accumulates. If hiding in the same spot is a must in this instance, try spreading the players out so that there may still be a chance (however) of the ghost not establishing line-of-sight with one or more players if a mistake is made.
	+ If the hunt automatically ends on a player death, then it may not be necessary to spread out within the small hiding spot.
	+ Ghosts do *not* open small tent doors unless it detects a player inside, but it can be harder to break line-of-sight while diving into the tent.

#### Hiding behind furniture

Some maps, such as Grafton Farmhouse, Brownstone High School, and especially 13 Willow Street, have few or no lockers to hide in. Where closets and lockers are inaccessible, the next best move is to hide behind furniture. Generally, recommended hiding spots have a large piece of furniture that are located in a dead end, such that the ghost will rarely path all the way to that area, and block line-of-sight all the way to right besides the hiding spot. Viable spots should be checked each contract, as they may sometimes be blocked or the furniture itself removed, depending on the difficulty.

As a general rule of thumb, if the furniture covers the player to at least the horizontal eye level, it should be a viable hiding spot. Players may need to crouch where the furniture is not tall enough to fully cover them without doing so. Generally, furniture elements with no or small collisions such as potted plants or the bushes on Maple Lodge Campsite will not hide the player from the ghost. Note that the tent flaps on Maple Lodge Campsite and Camp Woodwind *do not* break line of sight if they are not fully closed.

#### Hiding in a bare room

If all else fails, simply hiding in a room is the last resort. It is best to choose smaller and dead-end rooms as the pathable area is small, meaning that the ghost is less likely to choose that room to enter. On smaller maps, this is risky as the ghost simply has to walk into the room you're hiding in to kill you. This strategy is marginally more useful on larger maps, such as Sunny Meadows Mental Institution, where there is a significant number of rooms the ghost can go to instead of the one that players are hiding in, and in general, players have a higher chance to be further away from the ghost when it hunts.

Hiding behind specific open doors was once a viable (and heavily preferred) strategy, but this is now discouraged as the ghost can now use a series of checks to detect nearby players hiding behind open doors. This also includes closets and locker doors if the player is outside the closet/locker. Remember to close the door if you are hiding in a small room.

#### Hiding in "safe spots"

Some maps have spots where it is impossible for the ghost to kill a player, even when the ghost is fully aware of the player being there. This generally occurs in places where the ghost is either unable to collide with the player, or cannot achieve line-of-sight. Some of these spots may require additional actions by the player to remain safe. Users of these spots should take note that they can be patched in any update, and cannot be relied on indefinitely.

#### Other tips on hiding

* Bathroom stalls found on certain maps make for fair hiding spots as the ghost will almost never wander into each individual stall unless the player attracts its attention.
	+ Note that holding the door can trigger a mechanic where the ghost will detect the player, since they are not "true" hiding spot doors.
* The small tents on Maple Lodge Campsite and Camp Woodwind are viable hiding spots, as long as the ghost does not spot a player diving into one.
* The ghost has a 50% chance of remembering where it last detected the player during the previous hunt and first searching this area when starting the next hunt; players may need to change their hiding spot if a player was detected by the ghost near or in that spot in the previous hunt.
* The Deogen always knows where the players are during a hunt; hiding may only be viable if someone else is already looping the ghost and the hiding player is far away.
* The dining table in the farmhouses can be used to "hide"; if the ghost wanders over, you can also perform a partial loop until it decides to search another location.

### Lighting Incense near the ghost

Using Incense near a ghost will cause it to ignore all players for 5 seconds and wander in a random fashion. This gives the player time to escape and move to a different location to hide if needed. Beware that the ghost can still wander in the same direction as an escaping player, making it lock back onto them if it can see them.

* Preferably, you should be able to reach a hiding spot by the time the Incense runs out. Avoid sprinting towards the ghost before you have even lit the Incense to conserve it for later.
* Remember that each Incense can only be used once and will only blind the ghost once. Trying to light it again won't work and keeping it in your hand after it has burnt out is pointless.
* The Moroi is smudged for 7.5 seconds instead of 5, giving players more time to move to a hiding spot.
* If you are not the host of the current lobby or have a slow connection, try to light the Incense slightly earlier than you comfortably would, as significant lag on the player's end may cause the ghost to be registered as killing them before the Incense is actually lit.
* Like hunt prevention, blinding the ghost cannot stack. To avoid this, it may be desirable to decide who will smudge first, this preferably being the host or the person with the lowest latency.

### Looping the ghost

Some locations have furniture or walls that are located in such a way that players can loop around while the ghost is chasing them, such as Grafton Farmhouse, where one can loop between the Dining Room, the Kitchen, and the Foyer, or around the kitchen islands in various houses. Looping takes advantage of the shape of the furniture or structure continually breaking line-of-sight, reducing the ghost's acceleration. Generally, most looping is done around kitchen islands, and players usually crouch to slow the rate at which the ghost gains speed. Players looking for more intense gameplay may loop the ghost until the end of the hunt, but partial looping can also be used to run to a safer place or bide time. Looping can also be used to save other players, especially in Nightmare and Insanity difficulty if the ghost is chasing players towards a dead end.

If the player plans on looping, keep the lights in the room turned on to aid visibility. Looping will generally involve the ghost reversing direction; players should keep a lookout for when it does so. Looping is generally more dangerous if the ghost is a Phantom, has a speed advantage, or is a crawling ghost, and players may need to listen for the ghost's precise location or abandon looping altogether. If the player performing the strategy is confident, they may try to take pictures of the ghost while looping, though this usually requires the player to continually have line-of-sight with the ghost, making it accelerate. An Incense is highly recommended in case the ghost catches up with the player.

* The Deogen, Hantu and Thaye become slower than even the player's walking speed under certain conditions, and do not speed up with line-of-sight; looping these ghosts is generally much safer, and in the case of the Deogen, is essential for surviving against it.

Tier III Salt may come peculiarly handy to loop a ghost, since it has the ability to slow down a hunting ghost for 2 seconds (this will not reset the line of sight acceleration, however). Placing lines at regular intervals may allow the player to loop a ghost for possibly the entire hunt.

### Turning off, throwing, and/or swapping electronic equipment

As any active electronic equipment held in the hand, including flashlights (even when on the shoulder), will attract the ghost within 7.5 meters, players should turn these off or swap them to another inventory slot *before* entering their hiding place, or preferably as early into the hunt as possible. Note that the default flashlight with a very weak light (that cannot be removed from the shoulder) will not attract the ghost.

* Ghosts will move to the last known location of a detected electronic, even if it was turned off after. Do *not* turn off electronics in the hiding spot - do so well before entering the spot.
* Always assume that attracting the ghost is instantaneous; electronic equipment that is turned on then very quickly turned off can still be detected if the ghost is within range.
* For the Yokai, this range is 2.5 metres.

A Raiju will gain speed almost equal to that of a Revenant if nearby electronic equipment is active, even when thrown on the floor, so swapping electronics into the inventory, or turning them off before throwing them, is important to prevent it from gaining strength.

### Keeping quiet

The ghost is able to hear players using any form of voice chat within 9 meters; a ghost which hears a player will immediately go to their location and attempt to kill them if they are present. For the Yokai, this range is also 2.5 meters. On smaller maps, it is especially important to keep quiet, as the ghost will more often be within range to hear you if you speak.

Using push-to-talk can be useful if one has sufficient background noise that may inadvertently alert the ghost. If your cat's meow is loud enough, the ghost knows!

### Recognizing the end of a hunt

When a hunt ends, the ghost will disappear and be teleported back to its room, hunting sounds will cease, and all lights on-site will turn off and be toggleable again. If hiding away from the ghost, try toggling a light source to see if it turns on, audibly clicks, or physically changes (e.g., light switches flicking up and down). If a player kill ends the hunt, hearing a player die also means that the hunt has ended, however unfortunate this may be.

### Other tips

* Listen for vocalizations and footsteps that the ghost makes to approximate its location. Similarly, active EMF readers, spirit boxes, or video cameras may give players a general idea of the ghost's whereabouts during a hunt.
	+ Keep the exit doors open to provide an additional indicator for a hunt starting.
* Whether a player is standing or crouching, they will walk and sprint at the same speed. The same is true whether the player is running forwards or backwards, left or right, or even running backwards while crouched. Crouching can be useful for wayfinding in the dark.
* In theory, if all players manage to get outside of the investigation area during a hunt, the hunt *will* end prematurely.
	+ The only legitimate method of doing so is by using the Monkey Paw. The paw can be used to unlock all exit doors even *during* a hunt (or if they were locked due to another reason). This can be used when you are far from the ghost and close to an exit door. Do consider that the wisher will momentarily be blind and very slow upon the wish being granted.