Interaction

An **interaction** is an-game mechanic occurring within the investigation area in relation to ghost activity. Although not evidence in and of itself, it both helps players to find certain pieces of evidence, and allows them to gather photo rewards by taking pictures of it.

Ghost events and hunts do not count as interactions, but the ghost can still interact with the environment during both.

## Mechanics

Ghosts can interact with a variety of items, including handheld objects, doors, windows, electronics, and switches, among other things. Each interaction causes an EMF 2 or 3 reading emitted at the point of interaction for 20 seconds, depending on the type of interaction. If the ghost has EMF Level 5 as one of its evidences, each individual reading has a 25% chance to be EMF 5 instead. Subsequently, when touching surfaces or switches, the relevant ghosts may also leave fingerprints on them.

Most ghosts can interact with items within a ~3 metre range. More accurately, this is a 6m×6m×6m cube centred on the ghost. Ghosts can interact with objects through walls. Props (not fixed objects such as doors) are thrown with a "power" of 1 - 3.

During hunts, ghosts have a 50% chance of throwing a nearby prop every 0.5 seconds. Ghosts can also interact with doors during hunts, though at a different rate.

The chance of an interaction can be increased through the following:

* Playing on a lower difficulty
* Customizing the ghost's interaction rate on the Custom Difficulty settings
* Cleansing the area near the ghost with smudge sticks
* Saying phrases that are recognised by the game, such as its name or questions
	+ This has a cooldown of 10 seconds, the player must be in the same room as the ghost, and only increases the chance of interactions in general
* Forcing an interaction through cursed objects

### Ghost-specific modifiers

Some ghosts have different interaction rates or mechanics:

* Mares are less active if the lights in its current room are turned on
* Oni are more likely to interact with objects if a player is in the same room[*verification needed*]
* Poltergeists are more likely to throw objects, and have a 100% chance of interacting with objects during hunts, instead of 50%
	+ When throwing an object, it has a chance of throwing it with 2 - 6 power instead of 1 - 3 power
	+ Poltergeists also have an ability to throw all nearby items with this power
* Shades cannot perform interactions (except Ghost Writing) if a player is in the same room, and in general perform interactions less often
* Thaye are initially 200% more likely to interact with objects; this decreases over time to a minimum of 50% as it ages
* When The Twins uses its ability, it can interact within two ranges; one within ~3 metres (6m×6m×6m cube), and the other within ~16 metres (32m×32m×32m cube)
* Yokai are more active if people are talking nearby

Interactions can be forced by using a Voodoo Doll or drawing a tarot card labeled *The Tower*. Unlike ghost events or hunts, interactions are not directly affected by the sanity level. Ghosts cannot throw items if the lights in their current room are on, except for when the Poltergeist uses its multithrow ability.

### Photo rewards

*Main article: Photo Rewards*
Using a Photo Camera to take a photo of an interaction will yield a photo labelled as **Interaction**, and reward up to $5 and 5XP depending on the distance it was taken from. A photo must be taken within 20 seconds of the interaction occurring, the same duration that the EMF reading is active for.

### Types of interactions

This is a list of interactions that the ghost can perform:

## Tips

* Common interactions in one room at the early stages of investigation can pinpoint to it being the ghost room, or near where the ghost is.
* The overall number of interactions of a given game can be seen on the corkboard at the end of the mission.

## Related difficulty settings

* **Interaction amount:** Low/Medium/High

## References

1. ↑ *"yeah it can't throw anything [with the room lights turned on]"* Dknighter, *Phasmophobia* Lead Developer. 4 December 2022.

## Notes

1. ↑ Items thrown during hunts do not count for photo rewards