The short version: Phasmophobia has seven kinds of evidence, every ghost has exactly three of them, and you should not name a ghost until three are in your Journal. Two clues are not enough. I ran all 21 evidence pairs against the current 30-ghost roster, and every pair leaves between 3 and 6 suspects. Start on Amateur, use the free starter gear, and treat the Journal as your cheat sheet.
This guide is verified against patch v0.19.1.0 (October 7, 2026). Two things you may have read are not true. First, there was no “horror rework” in July or August: Kinetic’s January roadmap tied that rework to the 1.0 release, and on June 24 Kinetic moved 1.0 to the second half of 2027. Second, no summer patch changed when ghosts start hunting. What did ship is a 30th ghost, a Journal that does more of the bookkeeping, and three smaller map variants. I did not play contracts for this guide; the numbers come from Kinetic’s patch notes, the community wiki and my own counting of the wiki’s evidence table, and I say so where a figure is a rule of thumb.
Quick start: your first contract in eight steps
Start on Amateur and use only what the game hands you. Here is the order that wastes the least time.
- Pick Amateur. The wiki’s difficulty table gives it a five-minute setup phase, a five-second grace period at the start of every hunt, three pieces of evidence, and sanity pills that restore 40%. Intermediate unlocks at level 10.
- Take the free starter gear. One of each of eight items is always included, per the wiki’s equipment page: EMF Reader, Spirit Box, Thermometer, UV Light, Video Camera, Ghost Writing Book, D.O.T.S. Projector and Flashlight. Together they can test all seven evidence types.
- Use the setup phase to find the ghost room. Hunts cannot start during setup. The ghost spends most of its time in its favourite room, so look for the coldest room with the most thrown objects.
- Set your passive tests in that room. Put the Ghost Writing Book on the floor, the D.O.T.S. Projector in the open and the Video Camera facing the room. They work while you do something else.
- Switch the main lights on. The wiki’s sanity page says room lights block passive sanity drain, while a flashlight, a computer screen or higher brightness do not.
- Let the Journal do the bookkeeping. Since v0.19.0.0, selecting a ghost type highlights its required evidence on the Evidence page, and you can see your teammates’ picks. Kinetic’s August preview post also explains the new flags for duplicate evidence.
- Buy a Crucifix and Incense with your first earnings. They cost $30 and $15, and both can stop a hunt from starting.
- When the lights flicker and the doors lock, stop talking, drop or switch off your electronics, and hide. The hunt section below explains why each part matters.
Verified on v0.19.1.0 (October 7, 2026). The wiki pages used here were read from snapshots dated July to September 2026, and I found no Kinetic patch note since then that changes these systems.
What changed in 2026, and what did not
The 2026 updates changed the interface, the roster and the maps, not the hunt rules. The one exception was reverted within four weeks. This table is the version history a beginner actually needs.
| When | What shipped | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| May 5 (0.17.0.0) | Player Character Update: 12 characters, cosmetics, a wrist Watch | The Watch shows sanity (where the Sanity Monitor works) and the contract timer. Kinetic later apologised for the update. |
| May 12 (0.17.1.0) | Alan Wake event; Aswang and Kormos added, per Screen Hype | Two ghosts older guides do not list |
| Jun 2 (0.17.1.4) | Line-of-sight ghost speed accelerations reverted to their original state | Any May guide describing new ghost acceleration is out of date |
| Jul 21 (0.18.0.0) | 13 Willow Street rework, Deildegast, keybinds 1-4 for equipment | The 30th ghost; faster item switching on PC |
| Aug 25 (0.19.0.0) | Journal shows teammates’ evidence, highlights required evidence, flags duplicates; Restricted Prison, Brownstone High School and Point Hope | Fewer arguments in the van; smaller maps for shorter runs |
| Oct 7 (0.19.1.0) | Crimson Eye event and an event-map toggle | Blood Moon makes hunts harder until November 1 |
| Not shipped | 1.0: the “horror rework” from the January roadmap, redesigned ghost models, Conduits | Second half of 2027 |
The seven evidence types and the free gear that finds them
Every evidence type has a free tool, so a new player never needs to buy anything to identify a ghost. The mapping comes from the wiki’s equipment table.
| Evidence | Free tool, and what counts as a hit |
|---|---|
| EMF 5 | EMF Reader: the reader reaches level 5 after a ghost interaction |
| Spirit Box | Spirit Box: an answer to a question in the ghost room |
| Ultraviolet | UV Light: fingerprints or footprints in the ghost room |
| Ghost Orbs | Video Camera: orbs visible on the camera feed in the ghost room |
| Ghost Writing | Ghost Writing Book: any writing or drawing in the book |
| Freezing | Thermometer: a reading at or below freezing in the ghost room |
| D.O.T.S. | D.O.T.S. Projector: a silhouette moving through its lights |
Passive tools (Book, Projector, Camera) collect evidence while you are elsewhere, so place those first and use the active ones while you wait. That ordering is my own rule of thumb from how the tools work, not a Kinetic recommendation.
The 3-evidence rule: why two clues are never enough
Name the ghost only when you hold three pieces of evidence, because no pair of evidence types identifies a ghost. I built a table of all 30 ghosts from the wiki’s evidence data (the original 24 from the Evidence page, then Dayan, Gallu, Obambo, Aswang and Kormos from their own pages, and Deildegast from Destructoid) and counted the overlaps. The counts hold up against the wiki’s snapshot dated July 9, 2026, which listed 29 types before Deildegast arrived on July 21.
- One clue: every evidence type appears on 12 to 14 of the 30 ghosts, so one clue removes about half the roster at best. No type is worth checking first for its own sake.
- Two clues: of the 21 possible pairs, 3 leave 3 suspects, 7 leave 4, 10 leave 5 and 1 leaves 6. The average is 4.4. No pair names a ghost.
- Three clues: the 30 ghosts use 30 different combinations out of 35 possible, so three clues name exactly one ghost, with one exception below.
The worst pair is Spirit Box plus Orbs, which fits Mare, Onryo, Yokai, Dayan, Kormos and the Mimic. The best pairs (EMF 5 + Orbs, Freezing + D.O.T.S., Orbs + Writing) still leave three suspects each. Here is what splitting a three-way tie looks like in practice: EMF 5 plus Orbs leaves Obake, Raiju and Dayan. The wiki’s hunt data says the Raiju runs at a fixed 2.5 m/s near active electronics and the Dayan moves at 2.25 m/s when a nearby player moves and 1.2 m/s when they stand still, while the Obake is the one that sometimes leaves no fingerprints.
The Mimic exception
The Mimic is the one ghost that can show a fourth piece of evidence, because it always produces fake Ghost Orbs on top of its own three, according to the wiki. That makes three of its four possible triples collide with a real ghost:
| If your three are | It is the Mimic or | One extra test settles it |
|---|---|---|
| Orbs + Spirit Box + UV | Kormos | Check freezing temperatures. Present means Mimic. |
| Orbs + Spirit Box + Freezing | Onryo | Check for UV. Present means Mimic. |
| Orbs + UV + Freezing | Hantu | Test the Spirit Box. A response means Mimic. |
| Spirit Box + UV + Freezing | Mimic only | None needed, but expect Orbs as a fourth. |
The takeaway: whenever Orbs is one of your three, spend one more minute looking for the Mimic’s fourth type before you commit. Destructoid’s Kormos guide flags the same Kormos and Mimic overlap. Treat the extra-test column as my own inference from the evidence data, which holds on Amateur to Professional where all three evidence types are given.
A decision tree for the Journal
- Three types found, no Orbs: pick the ghost. The Journal highlights its required evidence to confirm.
- Three types found, Orbs among them: run the Mimic test above first.
- Two types found (Nightmare, or time is running out): write down the 3 to 6 suspects, then use hunt behaviour, such as speed or what triggered the hunt, to split them.
- One type found (Insanity): you have 12 to 14 suspects. Behaviour is the main way forward.
How many pieces of evidence you actually get
Only the first three difficulties give you three pieces of evidence. The wiki’s difficulty table shows the rest of the ladder:
| Difficulty (unlock level) | What you get |
|---|---|
| Amateur (none) | 3 pieces of evidence, 5-minute setup, 1x sanity drain, 5-second grace period |
| Intermediate (10) | 3 pieces of evidence, 2-minute setup, 1.5x drain, 4-second grace |
| Professional (20) | 3 pieces of evidence, no setup, 2x drain, 3-second grace |
| Nightmare (30) | 2 pieces of evidence, no setup, 2x drain, 2-second grace |
| Insanity (40) | 1 piece of evidence, no setup, 2x drain, 2-second grace |
The 30-ghost cheat sheet
Here is every current ghost with its three evidence types and the one tell that matters most. Abbreviations: EMF = EMF 5, SB = Spirit Box, UV = Ultraviolet, Orbs = Ghost Orbs, Writing = Ghost Writing, Freeze = Freezing Temperatures, DOTS = D.O.T.S. The tells come from the wiki’s strengths and weaknesses.
| Ghost | Evidence | Tell |
|---|---|---|
| Aswang | DOTS, Freeze, Writing | Cannot kill you in an official hiding spot |
| Banshee | DOTS, Orbs, UV | Hunts one chosen player by that player’s sanity |
| Dayan | EMF, Orbs, SB | Faster when nearby players move, slower when they stand still |
| Deildegast | EMF, Writing, DOTS | Starts at 3 m/s and slows as items are moved |
| Demon | UV, Writing, Freeze | Hunts at higher sanity; Incense works for less time |
| Deogen | DOTS, Writing, SB | Always knows where you are, but crawls up close |
| Gallu | EMF, SB, UV | Becomes enraged when protective gear is used |
| Goryo | DOTS, EMF, UV | Its D.O.T.S. shape shows only on a Video Camera |
| Hantu | Orbs, UV, Freeze | Moves faster in cold rooms |
| Jinn | EMF, UV, Freeze | Sprints at distant players while the fuse box is on |
| Kormos | Orbs, SB, UV | Hears footsteps from far away but nearly cannot see |
| Mare | Writing, Orbs, SB | Hunts at higher sanity in the dark |
| Moroi | Writing, Freeze, SB | Speeds up as team sanity falls |
| Myling | Writing, EMF, UV | Quiet in hunts; audible only at close range |
| Obake | EMF, Orbs, UV | Sometimes leaves no fingerprints |
| Obambo | DOTS, Writing, UV | Swaps between a calm and an aggressive state |
| Oni | DOTS, EMF, Freeze | More active near players, more visible in hunts |
| Onryo | Orbs, Freeze, SB | Three blown-out flames can trigger a hunt |
| Phantom | DOTS, UV, SB | Looking at it drains sanity; a photo makes it vanish |
| Poltergeist | Writing, UV, SB | Throws many objects at once |
| Raiju | DOTS, EMF, Orbs | Faster near active electronics |
| Revenant | Writing, Orbs, Freeze | Very slow until it detects you, then very fast |
| Shade | Writing, EMF, Freeze | Cannot hunt while someone is in its room |
| Spirit | Writing, EMF, SB | No strength; Incense holds it longest |
| Thaye | DOTS, Writing, Orbs | Starts aggressive, weakens as it ages |
| The Mimic | UV, Freeze, SB (+ fake Orbs) | Copies the traits of other ghosts |
| The Twins | EMF, Freeze, SB | One twin is slow, the other fast |
| Wraith | DOTS, EMF, SB | Never steps in salt; can teleport to a player |
| Yokai | DOTS, Orbs, SB | Hunts when you talk nearby, but hears little otherwise |
| Yurei | DOTS, Orbs, Freeze | Drains sanity fast; smudging with Incense traps it briefly |
Hunts: which ghosts start early, and how to survive one
Most ghosts start hunting once average team sanity drops to 50%, but twelve ghosts use a different line. The wiki’s hunt page gives the rule: when average sanity is at or below a ghost’s threshold, it has a 10% chance to start a hunt each time it leaves an idle state, rising to 1 in 6 once sanity is 25 points below the threshold. A 25-second cooldown follows every hunt. I found no 2026 patch that altered these lines; the early hunters are simply how those ghosts are built.
| Ghost | Hunts at (average sanity) | What changes the line |
|---|---|---|
| Yokai | 80% | A player talks nearby; otherwise 50% |
| Thaye | 75% falling to 15% | Drops 6 points for each year it ages |
| Demon | 70% | Can also start a hunt at any sanity |
| Kormos | 70% | A nearby player sprints |
| Dayan | 65% or 45% | 65% if a nearby player moves, 45% if they stand still |
| Raiju | 65% | Active electronic equipment nearby |
| Obambo | 65% or 10% | Aggressive or calm state |
| Mare | 60% or 40% | Dark or lit room |
| Gallu | 60% or 40% | Enraged or weakened |
| Onryo | 60% or 40% | 40% when a flame is near |
| Deogen | 40% | Always |
| Shade | 35% | Never hunts with a player in its room |
Banshees check their target’s sanity instead of the team average, and the Mimic inherits the line of whichever ghost it is copying. Read the table as a list of things not to do: do not talk loudly near a possible Yokai, sprint near a possible Kormos, or carry running electronics around a possible Raiju. A Dayan is the one ghost where standing still helps, because its line falls to 45% and its speed to 1.2 m/s when nearby players stop.
What to do when the hunt starts
Break line of sight and stay quiet. The wiki’s hunt data gives the numbers behind that advice:
- Timing: the grace period is 5 seconds on Amateur, then the hunt lasts 15, 30 or 40 seconds on small, medium and large maps. On Professional and above it lasts 30, 50 or 60 seconds.
- Sight and sound: a ghost sees up to 75 meters, hears voice chat within 9 meters and detects held, active electronics within 7.5 meters. Electronics on the floor or switched off do not attract it.
- Speed: most ghosts start at 1.7 m/s and accelerates while it keeps line of sight, reaching about 2.8 m/s after 13 seconds. You walk at 1.6 m/s and sprint at 3 m/s for only 3 seconds, so running in the open loses.
- Kill range: 1.1 meters with line of sight is instant, and 1.5 meters kills after one second. Ghosts cannot enter closets or lockers.
- Warning signs: you hear your own heartbeat within 10 meters when nothing is between you and the ghost, and an EMF reader shows level 4 at the spot where the hunt began.
- Tools: a Crucifix stops a hunt from starting if the ghost is in range (one use on Tier I, two on Tier II and III). Incense blocks a hunt for 90 seconds on most ghosts, 180 on a Spirit and 60 on a Demon.
In May, Kinetic changed how ghosts accelerate with line of sight and reverted it on June 2. The speeds above are the original behaviour, and they are the ones in force today.
Sanity: the clock behind every hunt
Sanity drains only in the dark, and the drain is slow enough to manage. On Amateur, standing in a dark room costs 0.12 points a second on a small map, 0.08 on a medium map and 0.05 on a large one, which the wiki lists for lights-off rooms. By my arithmetic that is about 7 points a minute on a small map, so a team standing in the dark loses half its sanity in about seven minutes.
- Difficulty multiplies the drain: 1.5x on Intermediate, 2x on Professional and above, and +1 more during Blood Moon weather.
- Playing solo halves the drain.
- When a player dies, everyone loses 15% sanity.
- Dead players do not count toward the team average.
- Sanity pills restore 40% on Amateur, down to 20% on Insanity.
The practical lesson is that lights and pills are cheaper than hiding. Turn the main lights on in the room you are working in before sanity falls, and keep a pill for a hunt you cannot afford.
Meet the 30th ghost: Deildegast
Deildegast is the only ghost that gets slower as you make a mess. It arrived July 21, 2026 with the 0.18.0.0 patch notes, which also say players get a higher chance of meeting it for the first few weeks. Its evidence is EMF 5, Ghost Writing and D.O.T.S., a combination no earlier ghost used. The wiki’s hunt page puts its speed anywhere from 0.4 to 3 m/s depending on how many items players have moved, with no line-of-sight acceleration. Two community guides add that it starts a contract at about 3 m/s and slows each time players move a house item outside a hunt. Your own gear does not count, and dead players can help.
The sources disagree on the exact curve. Playnews reports 0.1 m/s off per item, reaching its 0.4 m/s floor after 26 items, while Destructoid says around 30 items. Destructoid’s own per-item figure, about 3.3% of 3 m/s, is also 0.1 m/s, and 3.0 minus 0.4 divided by 0.1 is 26, so I read “around 30” as rounding. Both guides rest on community testing, so treat the exact number as approximate and move as much furniture as you can before the first hunt.
The other five newer ghosts are Aswang and Kormos (added May 12), plus Dayan, Gallu and Obambo. Kinetic’s December 16 patch notes only teased “unidentified ghost types” without naming them, so the timing of those three comes from community guides and I could not confirm the date.
Which difficulty and play style fits you
Match the difficulty to how much deduction you want to do. This table gives different advice for each type of player.
| If you are | Play this, and do this first |
|---|---|
| A new player | Amateur, solo or with one friend. Solo play halves sanity drain, so learn the Journal and the tutorial before you worry about hunts. |
| A casual player | Intermediate at level 10. Rewards double, setup shrinks to 2 minutes, and you still get three pieces of evidence. |
| An optimiser | Professional or Nightmare. Memorise the pair shortlists; at two pieces of evidence your hunt-behaviour tests do the work. |
| A completionist | Custom difficulty. Since v0.19.0.0 you can pick the ghost type, which sets the reward multiplier to 0 and earns no progress, so it works as a practice mode. |
Playing this month: Crimson Eye
The Crimson Eye event runs from October 8 to November 1, 2026 on eight locations, and its Blood Moon weather is harder than normal play. Per the wiki, Blood Moon adds 1 to the sanity-drain multiplier and raises ghost speed by 15%. If you are still learning, patch 0.19.1.0 added a toggle that turns the event maps off for your session, and I would use it until you are comfortable on Amateur.
What the 1.0 delay means for new players
Kinetic’s own posts give the sequence. The January roadmap promised 1.0 in 2026, including the horror rework. After criticism of the May update, the June 24 announcement moved 1.0 to the second half of 2027, to launch together with the Nintendo Switch 2 version. The studio wrote that the Player Character Update “did not meet the standards we set for ourselves or the expectations you have for the game.” The same post says 1.0 will bring redesigned ghost models and Conduits, collectables that replace the Bone.
Two of the June promises have since moved. Patch 0.19.1.0 says the Unity 6 update is now scheduled for November, not October, and I found no newer date for the second Player Character update that June had pencilled in for November. Treat both as unconfirmed.
The community numbers reflect the mood. SteamCharts shows the monthly average falling from 13,832 players in May to 8,381 in June, a 39% drop, and the last 30 days average about 9,745 against 15,079 in October 2025. The Steam page still shows 94.4% positive across 841,624 reviews, but a sample I pulled of the 500 newest reviews (October 14 to 19) is 85.2% positive. Roughly 15,000 people were online while I wrote this, so lobbies are not the problem.
| You are | Verdict | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Starting out, with friends | Buy now | $13.99, a complete contract loop and lobbies full of players. Everything in this guide works today. |
| Playing solo or on a tight budget | Buy now | Solo play halves sanity drain, though you carry every test yourself. |
| Waiting for a finished game | Wait for 1.0 | Second half of 2027 at the earliest, with ghost redesigns that may change how you identify them. |
Kinetic has not said whether the evidence rules will change in 1.0, so I would expect the gear and the three-evidence logic to carry over and the ghost behaviour to shift. That is an inference, not a promise.
Frequently asked questions
Is Phasmophobia worth buying in October 2026?
Yes, if you want the investigation loop and have people to play with. It costs $13.99, the contract structure is stable, and the 1.0 delay does not remove anything you can play today. Wait only if you want the polished 1.0 experience.
Can I play Phasmophobia solo?
Yes, and the wiki says solo halves sanity drain, so it is the gentlest way to learn. The trade-off is that you carry every test yourself. One upside is that some ghosts only answer the Spirit Box when you are alone in the room, which solo play always satisfies.
Do I need a microphone?
No. The game has a text voice recognition mode, and the v0.19.0.0 notes let you use a Spirit Box that is not in your hand while in it. Remember that a ghost can hear voice chat within 9 meters during a hunt, which is why a quiet team survives longer.
Which evidence should I check first?
Check whatever your passive tools can collect without you. Spirit Box is the most common type, appearing on 14 of 30 ghosts, but every type is on at least 12, so no single test is worth rushing. Place the Book, Projector and Camera first, then use the active tools while they work.
Where to go next
This hub covers the evidence system, hunt basics, sanity and the 2026 roadmap, and later guides will go deeper on individual ghosts, maps and gear. If Phasmophobia’s deduction loop clicks for you, our ranking of the best horror games of 2026 places it among the patient, methodical picks, and the list of co-op horror games ranked by chaos and scares shows what to play next. Comparing co-op options for a group? Our R.E.P.O. vs. Lethal Company vs. PEAK comparison covers the louder end. The same reasoning-under-uncertainty habit also drives our Buckshot Roulette card-counting guide.
Sources
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia’s Roadmap for 2026. Steam (January 31, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia 2026 and Beyond. Steam (June 24, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia – Player Character Update 0.17.0.0. Steam (May 5, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia v0.17.1.4 – Patch Notes. Steam (June 2, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia v0.18.0.0 – 13 Willow Street Rework & Quality of Life #1. Steam (July 21, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia v0.19.0.0 – Quality of Life Part 2. Steam (August 25, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia Quality of Life Part 2 Preview. Steam (August 11, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia v0.19.1.0 – Patch Notes. Steam (October 7, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. The Crimson Eye Approaches Once More. Steam (October 1, 2026)
- Kinetic Games. Phasmophobia – Winter’s Jest v0.15.1.0. Steam (December 16, 2025)
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Difficulty (snapshot July 28, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Hunt (snapshot July 27, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Sanity (snapshot July 11, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Ghost (snapshot July 9, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Equipment (snapshot September 18, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Evidence (snapshot November 12, 2025). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Dayan (snapshot July 24, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Gallu (snapshot July 24, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Kormos (snapshot July 25, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Obambo (snapshot June 17, 2026). Fandom
- Phasmophobia Wiki. Aswang (snapshot June 17, 2026). Fandom
- Destructoid. How to identify a Deildegast in Phasmophobia (July 2026)
- Playnews. Phasmophobia: the complete Deildegast guide (2026)
- Destructoid. How to identify a Kormos in Phasmophobia (May 20, 2026)
- Screen Hype. How To Identify The Aswang and Kormos Ghosts in Phasmophobia (May 12, 2026)
- Valve. Phasmophobia on Steam: price, Early Access status and review totals (accessed October 19, 2026)
- SteamCharts. Phasmophobia player counts by month (accessed October 19, 2026)
Illustrations in this guide were created for editorial purposes and are not in-game screenshots. Phasmophobia is the property of Kinetic Games.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.