Smudge Sticks on Pro Difficulty.

[Moon Helldiver]

Are kind of Meh. I mean, I use them to achieve the mission objective, but using them when ghost is on the hunt means I am dead. I see the ghost hunting, I use the smudge sticks to banish him, but the ghost is banished for only 1 second then he runs at me and kills me. On Pro I always run with 2 smudge sticks which limits my gear a lot and 2 smudge sticks barely can give me time to hide. In fact 2 smudge sticks only worked when I was in a garage already in the locker.

I know it is supposed to be harder difficulty but having smudge stick working for 1 second is too much. I kind of feel this thing needs some tuning. Not to mention that on Pro some things are just too much. We barely made it out using a total of 5 smudge sticks and we had to go back to accomplish the objective for below 25 sanity. The moment we crossed the front door my mates where left outside and I died immediately.

[76561199129443368]

Reading this post brought me some doubt about smudge sticks. I'm checking the wiki {LINK REMOVED}(https://phasmophobia.fandom.com/wiki/Smudge_Sticks) but the information there says it works for 5 seconds during hunts when successfully applied, without any mention to game difficulties. Can someone clarify us if there are informations missing on the wiki (I mean, if the smudge stick's working time during hunts depends on the game difficulty)?

[Kelrycor]

The OP seems to mess up some things. A total of 5 smudge sticks is not possible :)

The smudging did not changed through a recent patch. They work all the same on any difficulty. A short summarisation:

1. smudges count the moment you light them and when they burn out (so 2 strikes)
2. they have a range of 6 meters from every player position at once
3. they work globally, even from the truck
4. burning out needs 6 seconds
5. ghost is "blinded" 5 seconds (all senses), that is why it is possible to double blind a ghost with the same stick
6. ghosts do remember the last position of your as soon as the effect wears out (means they even force open lockers)
7. you can bring at most 4 sticks into a contract
8. they even work on VR belts

This is what I remember so far.

[Moon Helldiver]

Originally posted by Kelrycor:

The OP seems to mess up some things. A total of 5 smudge sticks is not possible :)

The smudging did not changed through a recent patch. They work all the same on any difficulty. A short summarisation:

1. smudges count the moment you light them and when they burn out (so 2 strikes)
2. they have a range of 6 meters from every player position at once
3. they work globally, even from the truck
4. burning out needs 6 seconds
5. ghost is "blinded" 5 seconds (all senses), that is why it is possible to double blind a ghost with the same stick
6. ghosts do remember the last position of your as soon as the effect wears out (means they even force open lockers)
7. you can bring at most 4 sticks into a contract
8. they even work on VR belts

This is what I remember so far.

I was not aware of the duration of the smudge sticks.
I think we brought 4 or 5, but I don't know how much exactly or paid attention if there is a limit.
We will test for how long the Ghost is banished from Hunt, cause it certainly feels like less than 5 seconds.
Issue is that when I use it I don't have time to run to a locker, cause 99% of times there ain't one.
Forcing the door open was fun, glad I managed to survive that.

[thrythlind]

Insym makes really good use of smudge sticks... it's one of his favored tools in the game. He's done a video on it that was pre-Nightmare but the mechanics haven't changed and he uses smudge sticks in most of his videos so you can often see some examples of how to use them.

They also can be used in Nightmare (or any difficulty really) to rule out yurei since a smudged yurei won't leave the area. So you set up an area with motion censors, smudge the ghost, and line exits with salt. If the ghost leaves and triggers the salt or motion censor within the smudge duration, it's not a yurei.

If it stays in, you haven't proven yurei for sure, but the likeliness has increased.

it's fairly worthwhile on a team to have someone who's job is to have smudge ready

[thrythlind]

https://youtu.be/9uyzuoAi-VU

https://youtu.be/eD-rKc9QYwo?list=PLhO3J4aB-4miuMwzuGFyDmMC3k9d_q2AH

[Kaisoku]

I could have sworn the smudge's ending was designed to occur before the effect wore off, so you could only have it occur once...
Or was that one of the instances when they were changing smudge (I remember when it was only 3 seconds to burn out) and it's now settled that it CAN apply twice per smudge?

[datCookie]

Originally posted by Kaisoku:

I could have sworn the smudge's ending was designed to occur before the effect wore off, so you could only have it occur once...
Or was that one of the instances when they were changing smudge (I remember when it was only 3 seconds to burn out) and it's now settled that it CAN apply twice per smudge?

It doesnt really matter tbh. The idea is that you smudge a ghost to blind it and run, with the duration of its blindness being just long enough for you to get away.

Anyone trying to deliberately smudge a ghost more than once in a hunt is wasting their time.

[Kelrycor]

Originally posted by Kaisoku:

I could have sworn the smudge's ending was designed to occur before the effect wore off, so you could only have it occur once...
Or was that one of the instances when they were changing smudge (I remember when it was only 3 seconds to burn out) and it's now settled that it CAN apply twice per smudge?

I only remember they reduced smudge stick from 15 seconds down to 6 in June for sure:

"The smudge sticks smoking time has been reduced from 15 to 6 seconds to match the ghost delay during a hunt."

Any other reduction I am not aware of right now. There is no information in the patch notes about changes to smudge sticks after the June patch.

As far a I noticed the ghost is struck twice by the same stick. The issue is, that the ghost will be blinded 5 secs, the stick will strike it in 6 again. Means there is a 1 seconds gap in which a ghost will neithertheless kill you if stay and wait at the same spot. So safety is not guaranteed by the double strike.

[thrythlind]

The Smudge Stick used to take 15 seconds to burn out.

At the time, the community thought it was the smoke that was causing the effect so they were like smudging from one corner of a room and doing a circle trying to get the smoke to touch a larger area.

And with hunts, they were trying to smudge early and trailing the smoke behind them expecting the effect to happen when the ghost hit the smoke.

However, instead of a lingering effect touching where the smoke is, the Smudge Stick has ALWAYS been two explosion effects that occur at the start and end of the burn time.

So back in the day it would be:

-Smudge Stick lit
-- Explosion one happens
-- any ghost in 6m range at that moment is affected.
-15 seconds of burn
-Smudge Stick goes out
-- Explosion two happens
-- any ghost in 6m range at that moment is affected

The devs were finding this was getting people killed because what would happen is:

- Player lights smudge stick, Explosion one, Ghost too far away
- Player thinks smoke is the source of the effect, throws stick behind them
- Ghost runs through smoke which does nothing
- Smudge burns out, Explosion two happens, Ghost too far away to be affected
- Player dies

So they reduced the burn out time to 6 seconds which we thought was a nerf originally, but now what happens is:

- Player lights smudge stick, Explosion one, Ghost too far away
- Player throws stick behind him
- Ghost wanders past stick
- Smudge stick goes out, explosion two happens and catches ghost
- Ghost wanders around
- Player has 6 seconds to find hiding sppot

Also, people directly asked the devs "why nerf the smudge stick?" (see Insym's video on smudge sticks above) and they said "we didn't" and explained the above.

So now we know to wait a little while before lighting the smudge stick so that we know the ghost is close enough to be hit.

Also, while the ghost is blind, you can walk through it safely... so looks like the strat is to wait for it to corner you, light the stick as it comes close and sprint out of the room while it wanders around the room you were just in.


Unless you're like me and push the wrong button by throwing the stick instead of lighting it.

[Kelrycor]

Originally posted by thrythlind:

Unless you're like me and push the wrong button by throwing the stick instead of lighting it.

lol. I can really imagine the wtf face :)

Or what happened to me is that the ghost blew out my lighter the moment I wanted to light the stick. In VR this can happen as the lighter is exposed to the ghost ^.^

[reg1s7]

Originally posted by Kelrycor:

The OP seems to mess up some things. A total of 5 smudge sticks is not possible :)

The smudging did not changed through a recent patch. They work all the same on any difficulty. A short summarisation:

1. smudges count the moment you light them and when they burn out (so 2 strikes)
2. they have a range of 6 meters from every player position at once
3. they work globally, even from the truck
4. burning out needs 6 seconds
5. ghost is "blinded" 5 seconds (all senses), that is why it is possible to double blind a ghost with the same stick
6. ghosts do remember the last position of your as soon as the effect wears out (means they even force open lockers)
7. you can bring at most 4 sticks into a contract
8. they even work on VR belts

This is what I remember so far.

Thank you for sharing this information.

[LeonYEET]

I always use them to run through the ghost and go hide. works for me :D