Ouija Board

### Description

The ghost can be asked questions to get definitive information at the cost of player sanity.

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> „*This Ouija Board allows us to talk with the ghost.*”
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—Objective Board

*"The most common way of accidentally summoning a ghost is with a Ouija Board, so you may come across these during your investigations. Be careful if you choose to use it as they have been known to lower your sanity. To use one, activate it and then ask a question with your voice."*

The **Ouija Board** is a cursed possession in *Phasmophobia*. It can be used to communicate with the ghost at the cost of sanity.

## Mechanics

A Ouija Board has a 1 in 7 chance per contract of being chosen as the cursed possession that will spawn, with one specific spawn location per map.

A Ouija Board can be picked up with an empty hand. Swapping to another item will cause the Ouija Board to drop from the inventory.

### Activation

The Ouija Board can be activated by left clicking (default: left click on mouse) on it if the player is not holding it, or toggling (default: right click on mouse) it directly while holding the board. The planchette will drop down onto the board, signifying that the board has been activated. This will also cancel the setup phase if it is ongoing.

### Questioning

   Players can choose to either use voice chat or a text-based UI to ask questions.

* If using voice chat, once activated, the Ouija Board will respond to voice input within 5 metres of it.
* If using the text-based UI, the UI will appear upon activation. Players can then click to select one of 3 categories, then select a category-specific question, or say goodbye. The player cannot exit the UI without saying goodbye or the board breaking, but the board can be thrown out while holding it.

The player asking the question must be within the investigation area to ask questions, but does not have to be in the ghost room (nor the ghost's current room).

If the question is recognised, the planchette will move to answer the question, and an EMF Level 2 reading will be generated around the Ouija Board. If the ghost has EMF Level 5 as evidence, there is a 25% chance for this to instead be the reading per question asked.

Whether the ghost is "shy" or not does not affect its ability to respond via the Ouija Board. If the Ouija Board is asked a question via voice but nothing happens, then either the board is not activated or the phrase was not recognised. There is a cooldown of ~2.5 seconds for clicking via text-based UI, while there is no cooldown time for voice chat other than any voice recognition limitations.

### Deactivation

   To deactivate the Ouija Board, any nearby player must say "Goodbye", which will make the planchette disappear. The Ouija Board can then be left alone safely. The Ouija Board will also deactivate automatically if the player holds the board and exits the investigation area.

The Ouija Board will break if any of the following occurs:

* There is no player within 5 metres of a still-active board
* The player currently asking questions has less sanity than required to "pay" for the question
* The player saying goodbye has no sanity left
* The phrase "hide and seek" (or similar) is said (see Questions)

The board will burn and break itself up, initiating a cursed hunt if any player is inside the building.

### Photo rewards

*Main article: Photo rewards*
   Using a Photo Camera to take a photo of the Ouija Board, on or off, will yield a photo labelled as **Ouija Board**, and reward up to $5 and 5XP, depending on the distance it was taken from.

If a photo of the Ouija Board is taken within 20 seconds after a question is successfully asked, it will count as an interaction photo instead, with up to $5 and 5XP rewarded depending on distance. There is no limit to the amount of such photographs that can be taken of responses, including of the same question category, allowing players to fill up extra spaces in the journal with additional interaction photos.

## Questions

There are at least 13 different types of questions (including two jokes) that can be asked:

* Location
* Age
* Death
* Room count
* Sanity
* Method of death
* Bone location
* Hide and seek
* Feeling
* Purpose
* Joke
* Shyness

Note that if a question does not get a response, it is not considered a valid question. A few example questions:

* "Are you from [Country/State Name]?"
* "Are you [single/married]?"
* "What is your name?"

## Tips

* Breaking the Ouija Board can be useful for completing several hunt-related objectives or earning photo rewards by taking a picture of the ghost.
* You can quickly decrease a player's sanity (and, by extension, the average sanity of your team) by using the Ouija Board repeatedly, even while it's in the middle of answering another question.
* You can repeatedly ask low-cost questions with the Ouija Board in order to create numerous interactions; with an EMF Reader nearby, EMF level 5 reading may be quickly attained, as each question has a 1/4 chance to give off the evidence.
* When using voice chat to ask questions, wait at least a few seconds for the board to respond before asking again, to avoid breaking the board when asking high sanity-deducting questions.