Phasmophobia received another major update that many differences occur. The most important changes included players saying farewell to the Asylum map with it being replaced with the Sunny Meadows Mental Institution. It may be a large map, but it also comes in a restricted version that allows players to explore a smaller section of it.
However, one of the most praised additions of this update has been the custom difficulties allowing players to create their own challenges by altering different elements of the game from the player, the ghost, and the location. Players can either make Phasmophobia easier for themselves risking the amount of money they make or instead turn it into a nightmare they will be begging to leave. These are by far the best challenges players should try.
Updated February 7th, 2023, by Megan Smith:Phasmophobia continues to be placed in early access with the Steam page stating that the game finally having the chance to escape from this early 2023. However, even though it has been in early access for a long period of time the developers have continued to update and alter the game and its ghosts that players hunt in a hope to keep the game fresh. Similarly, players have also kept themselves entertained over these past few months since the most wanted feature of a custom difficulty mode was added to the ghost hunting game.
Every day players are coming up with interesting ways to challenge themselves further through near impossible settings that make finding the paranormal entity impossible, to just the outright hilarious other ways players can enjoy with the Phasmophobia custom difficulty settings. Since this article was originally published there has been a few more brilliant suggestions on what custom difficulty players should try next as well as revisiting some old ones.
12 Lights Off Challenge
As the name of the challenge may suggest lights off relies on the player walking through the various haunted maps completely in the dark. All the other settings can be kept at normal to avoid the game becoming too difficult, but players are free to increase the hostility of the ghost if they wish for a further challenge. Players will be surprised by how much they need the light in order to figure out where they're going as well as avoiding the constant sanity drop from spending long periods of time with no light.
Settings outside the Custom Difficulty Mode can even make this challenge more complex in Phasmophobia as players can also choose to turn down their own brightness if they feel that being able to see with no flashlight is already too easy. Lights Off may also include not using candles or other possible light sources when walking around, but that's down to the player to decide how intense they wish for their hunt to be.
What Settings To Include:
- Flashlights: Off
- Broken Fuse Box
11 One Type Of Evidence Run
While some players may find the No Evidence challenge that can be found at the bottom of this list to be too challenging, ghost hunters may first wish to try their hand at the one type of evidence run. Sometimes all a player needs is a bit of a hint to work out what ghost it is, by having this single piece of evidence available to the player they can already cross out a couple of different options depending on what evidence they find.
Although this Phasmophobia custom difficulty may as first not sound like much of a challenge, players have no way to exclude evidences from being selected unless it's fingerprints. Therefore, it may actually take a hunter a longer amount of time to figure out the first piece of evidence before they can even start debating which of the several available it could be. Not only is this an entertaining challenge it also helps players understand the intricate differences between each ghost that sets them apart from their evidences, especially if facing something like the Mimic that tends to copy the traits of other ghosts and therefore keeps changing.
What Settings To Include:
- Ghost Evidence Types: One
- Optional: Turn Off Fingerprints
10 Speed Runner Challenge
Players that don't like how slow the character moves and want to swiftly explore larger maps such as the Prison no longer need to worry about slowly checking each room. With the Speed Runner mode players can increase not only their own speed but also the ghosts while having an infinite duration of sprint.
A player could then challenge themselves to see what the fastest time is they can uncover the type of ghost, get the evidence and leave without dying.
What Settings To Include:
- Sprint Duration: Infinite
- Player Speed: 150
- Ghost Speed: 150
9 No Sprinting
As the opposite to the Speed Runner Challenge players can also completely turn off the capability to sprint putting them even more in harm's way of the ghosts in Phasmophobia. For an extra challenge an investigator could also make themselves even slower than the ghost for added danger.
Players will want to avoid hunts a lot more in the challenge as they physically can't outrun the ghost and therefore must have an escape route preplanned for those situations or keeping their sanity up to avoid it.
What Settings To Include:
- Sprinting: Off
- Player Speed: Normal
8 Angel Numbers
Although called Angel Numbers there is nothing angelic about this challenge. A player will set all the options available to them to three, this may either curse or aid them as some third options may hinder the ghost and therefore help the player or the other way round.
Like angels, the player is putting their faith into Phasmophobia in a hope that the third settings of everything will allow them to survive with the least amount of obstacles.
What Settings To Include:
- Everything that can be three should be set to three
- Things that can't be three should be the third option
7 This House Is Cursed
A house being haunted is one thing, but this house could also be cursed by the ghost. Although the cursed items will reduce the reward multiplayer significantly they can still be a hazard, meaning the player will have to take a major risk when using them.
This curse has also meant that the fuse box no longer functions making freezing temperatures harder to discover as well as the house feeling alive which can be replicated by all the doors being open from the start.
What Settings To Include:
- Turn on all cursed objects
- Broken Fuse Box
- Doors starting open: High
6 20/20/20 Mode
Named to be similar to how challenging the Five Nights At Freddy's custom night is, many players may not survive while attempting this challenge as it resembles an ultimate nightmare mode.
All the settings have been pumped up to max to make the most stressful Phasmophobia experience possible. This means that hunts will be longer, evidence doesn't exist, and the player is at their slowest, making for quite the impossible experience.
What Settings To Include:
- All settings should have green arrows at the max next to them
- No red arrows
5 Rainy-Day
Elements like the weather can make many jobs more of a challenge than they need to be, this also includes investigating ghosts, and players can replicate this in the Rainy-Day custom challenge.
The immersion can be increased by taking part in this challenge on the campsite map where the player will be stuck out in the heavy rain the entire time. The water has caused all electrical items to stop working meaning players will be searching in the dark and quickly to fend off the rain's hindrances.
What Settings To Include:
- Weather: Heavy rain
- Sprint Recharge: 6
- Player Speed: 75
- Flashlight: Off
- Broken Fuse Box
- Fingerprint Duration: 15
4 Indecisive Ghost
Sometimes the ghosts in Phasmophobia really can't make up their mind where they want to be or what they want to do. In the Indecisive Ghost challenge players will struggle to locate where the ghost is at all times as the longer they take, the higher the risk of the ghost moving elsewhere.
This can make for quite the entertaining challenge as finding evidence from the ghost may mean moving all the equipment to different areas in the building or looking for other means of identifying what type of ghost it is.
What Settings To Include:
- Roaming Frequency: High
- Changing Favorite Room: High
3 Nowhere To Hide
Being constantly hunted is a big fear for many players, especially if there are no hiding spaces available. Nowhere To Hide challenges the player to learn how to loop the Ghost and avoid getting caught at all costs as the usual hiding areas have been blocked from being used.
But it isn't just the hiding that has changed, the ghost has become even more of a threat as the ghost can hunt the player from the second they enter the house.
What Settings To Include:
- Hiding Spaces: None
- Grace Periods: 0
- Hunt Duration: High
- Kills Extend Hunts: High
2 The Insanity Challenge
Filled with fear before they even set foot into the haunted location, the insanity challenge forces players to take on the most feared of ghosts with no sanity or sanity pills to protect them. This naturally increases the amounts of hunts that occur without any way to solve it.
Perhaps everything that is happening is simply in the player's head, or perhaps it isn't. That doesn't stop the need to try to survive while locating where the ghost can be found as every second risks another hunt happening.
What Settings To Include:
- Starting Sanity: 0
- Sanity Pills Restore: 0
- Sanity Drain: 2
1 No Evidence Run
Many players had been trying this challenge already before custom difficulties had even been added by not bringing the starting equipment into the location. Now this challenge can be set as its own custom preset difficulty making the ghost not provide any evidence.
Therefore, players are forced to analyze the actions of the ghosts they face to figure out what ghost they are through their personality and quirks that are noted in the journal for the player to read.
What Settings To Include:
- All evidence should be turned off
Phasmophobia is available on the PC.