how do i find the ghost favorite room

[SB-[51stNY]Rct.Mr.Cereal killer]

how do i find the ghost favorite room and not die?`. i am new to the game

[Watcher Rat]

Here are some basic tips for you:

• On Amateur and Intermediate difficulties, you do have a 5:00 or 2:00 timer respectively where the ghost cannot hunt, so you can look without fear at the very start. These timers begin the moment you open the front door.
  
  
• Method one, look for puffs of breath - that indicates the room you are in is cold (but not necessarily freezing), which means that's either the favorite room, or near the favorite room if the ghost is wandering a lot. Alternatively, take in the thermometer, the tier 1 thermometer will immediately show lower temperature when entering the room with the ghost, and will generally fall to about 4ºC or less.
  
  
• Method two, look for disturbed objects. Door sounds, items being thrown, etc. If you walk into a room and see things scattered on the floor, the ghost is either in or near that room.
  
  
• Method three, the parabolic microphone can be used well on bigger maps to help hear activity from further away.
  
  
• Method four, you can use certain cursed objects to find the ghost, but they do have some risks - to begin with, any use of a cursed item immediately ends the 5/2 minute setup timer. The cursed mirror shows you where the ghost is, at the cost of a certain amount of sanity each use. The monkey paw can trap the ghost in its room, and after the effect ends, the ghost will hunt. Until then, you can find a room with a door you cannot open, that's the room. The Ouija Board can tell you what room the ghost is in at the cost of 50 sanity. The music box makes the ghost sing, but costs sanity if you're near the music box (can place, but not throw it on the ground and move away, but if the ghost is close, it will move to the box then hunt). The voodoo doll makes interactions happen at a sanity cost, but there's a random chance to push the heart pin every time (guaranteed with low sanity) which starts a hunt.
  
  
• Method five, which rarely works, but can have some success on larger maps is to use the fixed cameras on said larger maps. I've located ghost orbs on Prison, for instance, without even having gone all the way inside.
  
  
• Finally, method six: Go in with a video camera at the ready as you look for breath in each room; if you're lucky, you will see a ghost orb, which will always be in the ghost's current favorite room.
  
  Once you get used to looking for the room early, you can usually start to find it pretty quick.

[Maya-Neko]

Switch on lights in the rooms you're in, that will prevent any hunts from most ghosts, as you don't drop any sanity currently.

And beyond that it is mostly about listening to the ghost throwing stuff to determine the general area (for amateur you can also see, where doors are opened without you opening them, as doors always start closed at that difficulty) and then you can use the thermometer to see, which room in particular gets colder. You can also use ghost orbs to determine the ghost room, but most ghost doesn't have that as evidence to begin with.

[Captain Oveur]

I was playing amateur in Tanglewood. I heard the ghost being most active in the kitchen and around that area for the entire contract, yet the ghost room was the bathroom nearest the front door.

While we’re on the subject, is there some kind of hidden internal check to trigger the temperature drops? It seems to me like the ghost room won’t get cold until after I check literally every single other room too. I also noticed a bug where the T1 thermometer will start to rise while in the ghost room and I have to pick it up and carry it out of the room and back in before it starts to drop again.

[Pwincess]

The temp drops when the ghost is in the room, and goes back up when the ghost is not in the room (if the power is on). That's problematic if the ghost is a total spaz and runs all over the house like a maniac - but if you're stuck waiting for a third piece of evidence and your ghost just won't sit still, consider freezing temperatures.

Just last night we ended up with a ghost that spent 17 of the 25 minutes we spent in Tanglewood not in the ghost room (plus it moved rooms at one point). We never got freezing temperatures - we just decided to pick the one bit of evidence we didn't have that required the ghost to sit still for a few minutes, which it absolutely refused to do. That ended up being the right call (hantu). It was a child ghost, which was very fitting.

When you get motion sensors, those can be very handy to tell how often the ghost is in the room.

Also, be aware that ghosts can do things through walls - so a picture falling off the wall in the next room is not necessarily the ghost actually being in that room. It's gotta be within... I think 2 meters IIRC? There's also one type of ghost (twins) that has a kind of decoy ghost that will run around doing stuff while the other just acts like a normal ghost.

Lastly, sound sensors can be useful so long as you clear people out of the house after setting them up. They pick up ambient noises, so watch the total activity monitor for blips that coincide with sounds to find the general vicinity of the ghost. They also ignore walls, and seem to pick up loud noises (like slamming doors or sprinting players) beyond the shown radius.

[Zebra_204]

A buddy and I usually split up with video cameras and another tool. Be it EMF or thermometer. The video camera will help spot the orbs if their is one, emf will help detect any recent or current activity. Depending on the thermometer tier it can be less helpful than just simply looking for cold breath. We usually find the room within the first minute. Also listening for sounds, sinks turning on, etc.

Edit: Forgot to add this method mostly works well on smaller maps. If you are going into the school doing this you are not gonna have a good time.

[WolfLink0370]

watcher rat has some good tips there, but I wish to provide an addendum. One of the random weather effects during your contract can be Snowfall... if this is the case... immediately looking for breath can prove to be futile on Intermediate... where the power box, and by extension the heating, is Off at the beginning.

The base temperature of the locale in Snowy weather can cause the average temperature of the entire area to be cold enough for your breath to freeze, even in the truck... which in turn makes it an unreliable room detection method until the location is powered and had some time to warm back up. On Amateur, the power starts on by default, which makes this weather scenario a non-issue.

EDIT: and to add another, more subtle detection method - utilize sound sensors and try to cover multiple floors. You can then hear door interactions or items being tossed around from the truck... and while it won't isolate the exact room it will at least narrow your search to a specific floor, or a small section of rooms (because you, for example, heard a plate being tossed). Do bear in mind though that ambient sounds such as floors creaking are also picked up... but these can be ignored safely.

[Lazydrones]

How to get started: (don't fall asleep reading)

1. It is a learning process and expect to spend a bit of time getting into the groove of it and how to go about figuring out each ghost type. The game doesn't hold your hand.
2. You are starting out with crappy gear which isn't always 100% reliable (except for the T1 thermometer which is arguably the best equipment in the game for determining a ghost room since you can simply stare at it while walking around and watch it move in real time)
3. Learn the maps, start with smaller maps - desensitize yourself with ghost encounters if you wish... an easy way to shrug off jump scares is to trigger them purposefully by annoying the ghost. Talking to the ghost in game can work wonders (generally best done in the dark).
Ask it:
Show Yourself or Reveal Yourself
Give me a sign

After you've bugged it enough, it'll start bugging you back. (Not all ghosts are as sociable though almost all do react in some way)

4. (Most) Ghosts don't simply stand around waiting for you to discover them but starting out their room won't move or change but the ghost may not always be IN it, it'll walk around in hallways and other rooms etc.
5 Do the tutorial a time or two more times to get it

Start with flashlight and thermometer and something else, like EMF or Ultraviolet sticks to determine the ghost's favorite room.
Give the thermometer time to stabilize once inside and clear rooms in order with the thermometer in hand - turn on lights stand in the middle of the room, wait for about 2 - 5 seconds. If the thermometer doesn't move, turn off the light, move on to the next room.

The ghost's favorite room will ALWAYS be lower temp than normalized. Usually between 0 and 5 C and you'll start to see your breath in the air.
If the thermometer starts to drop below normalized temp - you have likely found an area near / in / or around the ghost room (with the exception of garages and basements can fluctuate). Wait till the temp drops to about 5 to 10 deg C or about 40 F (give or take, whichever unit you wish to follow).
PS: freezing temps will noticeably drop below 0 C - if it hovers ON 0 C you aren't at freezing temps even though it may look like it (with T1 thermo)
Pay more attention if it is snowing out which will change the ambient temp inside the house a bit.

If you haven't found the room, do another sweep.. the favorite room won't always start out really cold and will drop over time so it can be easy to miss if it is at the front of the house.

Once the room / area has been found, proceed through a checklist of detecting devices - EG: EMF / UV / spirit box / thermometer / ghost book / dots - in whatever order you fancy. Some objects can be placed in rooms and forgotten about and check up on as you move in and out of a room / area. Any doors / footfalls / light switches can be checked for UV but don't linger too long as you are wasting time otherwise (though with starting gear it takes a little longer sometimes; it IS starting gear after all)

Take pictures of things the ghost has thrown and UV evidence / salt foot prints / ghost events / blown out candles etc (but be quick about it). This gives you a little bonus cash on the side.

NOTE NOTE NOTE... The Ghosts don't ALWAYS have a favorite "room".. sometimes they can be in hallways and some rooms on some maps can be misleading (occasionally the temp bleeds through the floor or wall on certain maps causing temps to drop in areas close to favorite rooms or if the ghost wanders a lot)

Also Note - you don't start out with everything needed to find the correct ghost type - I think Spirit box and DOTS are unlocked at higher levels which can cause you to not be able to identify a ghost so if you've spent more than 20 or 25 minutes trying to figure out the ghost, it is likely time to guess and move on or simply play with the ghost.

Take the time to learn how specific ghosts interact with the environment / surroundings / player(s) as the beginner levels are for learning purposes. Use them as such.

[Captain Oveur]

Originally posted by Lazydrones:

Also Note - you don't start out with everything needed to find the correct ghost type - I think Spirit box and DOTS are unlocked at higher levels which can cause you to not be able to identify a ghost so if you've spent more than 20 or 25 minutes trying to figure out the ghost, it is likely time to guess and move on or simply play with the ghost.

Yes you do. You get: DOTS, EMF, Book, Spirit Box, Thermometer, UV Glow Stick, Video Camera and Flashlight, all tier 1. The DOTS suck and the tier 2 unlock at level 29.