The Hunter's Guide to Difficulties

A guide to difficulties and difficulty settings in Phasmophobia

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  
• Amateur difficulty
  
• Intermediate difficulty
  
• Professional difficulty
  
• Nightmare difficulty
  
• Insanity difficulty
  
• Weekly Challenges and Difficulty
  
• Custom difficulty - Player settings
  
• Custom difficulty - Ghost settings
  
• Custom difficulty - Contract settings
  
• Difficulty settings table
  
• Conclusion
  
• Credits and References

Introduction

Difficulty is one of the major settings in Phasmophobia which provide a greater Reward Modifier in exchange for increases in the challenges you may face during an investigation. The game originally came with three difficulties, Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional, and eventually added Nightmare and Insanity along with the ability to customize the difficulty altogether.

If you are a new player you may have initially focused on Amateur difficulty which provides a number of newbie-friendly settings including a setup grace period, all the hiding spots being available, and a 50% Insurance payout in the event that you die during the investigation. However, that also means there is no Reward Modifier per se and, as a result, you aren't earning a whole lot of money or experience per investigation.

If you are a more experienced player you may have reached Professional difficulty but may not yet feel comfortable with Nightmare or Insanity difficulties. You also may not be aware of all the possibilities with the Custom difficulty which is often used for specific modes of game play including grind strategies and the weekly challenge mode.

In short, difficulty allows players to tailor Phasmophobia to their needs and maximize their enjoyment of the game both when they are clueless as a new player and when they have mastered the basics of the game's mechanics.

Amateur difficulty

Most players who are new to Phasmophobia usually begin at Amateur difficulty which is encouraged by the game as it provides a number of safeguards such as a setup period, a long grace period, and a 50% Insurance Payout in the event of death. However, this comes at a cost of rather low contract payouts since the Reward Modifier is only set to 1.0x. This means the reward possibilities are usually between $200 and $500 depending on which objectives you complete, if you bring along a Photo Camera, etc.

Some important highlights of Amateur difficulty:

• Setup period of 5 minutes, which is nullified by the use of a Cursed Possession.
  
• The shortest hurt duration whereas on a Small map, it is only 15 seconds (35 for Cursed Hunt)
  
• Fuse Box starts ON, meaning you only have to find and turn it ON If the Ghost turns it OFF
  
• 100% Passive Sanity Drain means you have plenty of time to explore the location, even if it's in the dark.
  
• 5-second grace period so if the Ghost does hunt you have plenty of time to react before the actual hunt begins
  
• All the doors start closed so finding the Ghost can be as easy as seeing which doors it has opened
  
• All the hiding spots are open so you can learn where they all are; you don't have to check to see if hiding spots are open.

Intermediate difficulty

This is probably the least played difficulty as it really just acts as a stepping stone between Amateur and Professional difficulties. Some new players, if they feel comfortable with the game from the beginning, may opt to skip Amateur difficulty and go straight to Intermediate. It still offers a setup period, a slightly shorter but still considerable grace period, and a 25% Insurance Payout but starts with the Fuse Box set to OFF so usually one of the first things investigators want to do is to locate the Fuse Box and turn it ON. It provides 2.0x rewards, a bit better than Amateur, with a typical range between $275 and $600.

Some important highlights of Intermediate difficulty:

• Setup period of 2 minutes, which is nullified by the use of a Cursed Possession.
  
• A still somewhat short hurt duration whereas on a Small map, it is only 20 seconds (40 for Cursed Hunt)
  
• Fuse Box starts OFF, meaning you probably want to find it and turn it ON as one of your first goals on a contract
  
• 150% Passive Sanity Drain which still affords you some time to explore in the dark but pushes the idea that you really need to start turning on lights
  
• 4-second grace period so you just lose a second from Amateur difficulty but still plenty of time to react to a hunt
  
• One, or a few, doors may start open so you can no longer use an open door as a guaranteed mark of where the Ghost is located.
  
• You'll start with at least three hiding spots open so you want to check ahead of time to determine your hiding strategy if the Ghost decides to hunt.

Professional difficulty

For many experienced players, this is the "standard difficulty" for Phasmophobia as it still provides the standard investigative experience while eschewing protections such as insurance payout and a setup period that aren't present on higher difficulties. You get 3.0x rewards so your typical payout range is somewhere between $325 and $700 making for a comfortable profit compared to time spent in the investigation.

A new aspect introduced with Professional difficulty is that, until now, the Ghost couldn't normally change it's favorite room. However, in this difficulty, there is a low chance that it can change its favorite room to any other room at the location. This means mid-investigation you may have to move all your gear for evidence gathering and on Medium and Large maps this can take quite a bit of time.

Some important highlights of Professional difficulty:

• No setup period so it's possible to get hunted early or even immediately if it happens to be a Demon. This requires you to be alert and attentive from the moment you open the exit door until you are safely outside the location.
  
  
• The Fuse Box starts OFF, meaning you need to locate it and turn it ON which was introduced on Intermediate difficulty.
  
  
• Passive Sanity Drain is maxed out at 200% so being in darkness really matters, you need to develop a strategy for keeping rooms lit without accidentally overloading the Fuse Box.
  
  
• The grace period is at 3 seconds which still gives you some reaction time but requires you to do a bit of planning.
  
  
• Many of the doors start open so you can't rely on opened doors to indicate the Ghost's presence unless you see them opened in front of you.
  
  
• Many of the hiding spots are closed but you're guaranteed at least two hiding spots, this means you might want to scout out potential hiding spots before you get hunted.

Nightmare difficulty

This is where the investigation changes and experience really matters because on Nightmare difficulty you can only get two out of the possible evidences because one of the three being suppressed by the difficulty. While on previous difficulties the Hunt ended when it killed a player, on this difficulty it extends it by approximately 15 seconds for each player killed which has no real effect on Single Player. This difficulty provides a 4.0x rewards payout giving you a typical range of $525 to $1040 which made this the original grind difficulty before the inclusion of Custom Difficulty.

The suppressed evidence means you may be put into situations where several ghosts don't have easy tells and you may have to do some serious research to make an educated guess which can extend an investigation by quite a bit and put players in danger of additional hunts. However, with certain Ghosts you may be guaranteed a specific Evidence such as Freezing with a Hantu, D.O.T.S with a Goryo, or Spirit Box with a Moroi.

Lastly, another aspect of this difficulty is that both the Sanity Monitor and Total Activity Monitor will be broken and unusable making staying in the Truck less useful to the investigation. You'll also need to learn how to mentally track your most likely Sanity level and it won't be precise as it's difficult to track passive sanity drain.

Some important highlights of Nightmare difficulty:

• 2 second grace period
  
• 1 evidence suppressed, only 2 possible
  
• No setup period
  
• Many settings are the same as Professional such as hunt duration, interaction, player and ghost speeds, doors starting open, etc.
  
• No Sanity or Total Activity monitors
  
• 2-second grace period (down from 3 on Professional)
  
• Higher chance of the Ghost changing its favorite room during the investigation, in this setting it is almost guaranteed to change it at least once.
  
• There may be as few as a single hiding spot open but depends on map and number of players

Insanity difficulty

As the name states this is the ultimate standard difficulty for either the most experienced or most insane Phasmophobia player. It is an extension of Nightmare difficulty and suppresses TWO evidences instead of just ONE so you'll need to understand the specifics of each of the Ghosts to guess it from its tells, hunting behavior, and just plain luck.

One key difference from Nightmare difficulty is that starting Sanity is at 75% instead of 100% so players are already in range of being hunted by a Demon, Yokai, and Thaye. You'll also be all the closer to the 50% threshold for most Ghosts and Sanity medication only restores 20% per use instead of 25% as on Nightmare.

Some important highlights of Insanity difficulty:

• No cursed possession
  
• 2 second grace period
  
• 2 evidence suppressed, only 1 possible
  
• No setup period
  
• Many settings are the same as Nightmare such as roaming frequency, interaction, event frequency, hunt duration, etc.
  
• No Sanity or Total Activity monitors
  
• 2-second grace period
  
• Even higher chance of the Ghost changing its favorite room during the investigation, in this setting it is almost guaranteed to change several times.
  
• There may be as few as a single hiding spot open but depends on the map and the number of players

Weekly Challenges and difficulty

Challenge Mode is a per-week special challenge, currently worth $5000. It requires the player to complete 3 games -- however, they only need to guess the Ghost correctly and it still counts even if they die during the investigation.

For example, the difficulty might be Amateur otherwise but might start at 0% Sanity or Sanity Pill Restoration is set to 0. The equipment might also be Tier I only, or not providing Crucifixes or Incense. However, a key point is that the equipment is free of charge for the challenge mode and nothing can be lost (or need to be re-purchased) due to player death.

Some examples of Challenge Modes:

• Primitive involves having no access to electric/electronic items with the only light source being a Tier I UV Light with the Fuse Box being broken but otherwise Amateur difficulty.
  
• Speed Run was otherwise Amateur difficulty except with the player having a big speed increase.
  
• Survival of the Fittest involved 0% Sanity and no way to regenerate Sanity.

Custom difficulty - Player settings

You can customize any of the difficulty settings that are otherwise unchangeable on set difficulties allowing players to understand the nuisances of difficulties and to create unique challenges for their team. As of the current patch, you can setup (3) custom difficulty presets and, if you so choose, can use the pre-existing difficulties as an initial template which can allow you to practice individual setting differences if you're not comfortable graduating to the next difficulty level. This section will go over each of the custom difficulty settings, how they relate to the game, and how they are represented (if at all) in standard difficulties.

Starting Sanity : 0, 25, 50, 75, 100

This is the Sanity level that each member of the team is at at the beginning of the investigation. Most of the difficulties set this to 100 although Insanity difficulties, some custom difficulties, and the weekly challenge may start at lower levels of Sanity.

Sanity Pill restoration : 0, 5, 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 75, 100

This is how much Sanity is restored by Sanity medication, regardless of tier, and on standard difficulties it usually begins at 40 on Amateur and goes down from there. It is frequently set to 0 on weekly challenges, even if Sanity medication is present, as a good-natured joke from the developers to the players.

Sanity drain speed : 0, 50, 100, 150, 200

This is the rate of the Passive Sanity Drain on standard difficulties begins at 100% on Amateur difficulty and goes up to 200% on Professional difficulty (and higher).

Sprinting: On, Off

This is the players' ability to sprint at 3.0 m/s for up to 3 seconds (with a cooldown of 5 seconds) and is usually set to On for standard difficulties.

Player Speed: 50, 75, 100, 125, 150

This is the percentage of 1.5 m/s that players move at during the investigation. It is usually set to 100% on most standard difficulties.

Flashlights: On, Off

This sets whether or not flashlights will work for players and is usually set to On on standard difficulties. This doesn't affect other light sources such as Firelights, UV Lights, or Video Camera but may affect Headgear.

Lose items and consumables: On, Off

This sets whether or not you lose items on Death or if they can be consumed (and have to be re-purchased). This is set to On for standard difficulties and turning it off sets the Reward Modifier to 0.0x.

Custom difficulty - Ghost settings

Ghost speed: 50, 75, 100, 125, 150

This is the percentage of the Ghost speed that the Ghost moves at during hunts. It is usually set to 100% on most standard difficulties.

Roaming frequency: Low, Medium, High

This is the frequency at which the Ghost roams from its favorite room and how long it may roam before teleporting back to its favorite room. This is set to Medium on Amateur and Intermediate and set to High on Professional and Nightmare.

Changing favorite room: None, Low, Medium, High

This is the chance that a Ghost will change its favorite room during an investigation. It is set to to None (as in it it will never change its room) on Amateur difficulty, Low on Professional, and Medium on Nightmare.

Interaction amount: Low, Medium, High

This is the amount of Ghost Interactions the Ghost will attempt to perform during an investigation but has no effect on forced interactions. It is set to High on Amateur, Medium on Intermediate, and Low on Professional and Nightmare.

Event frequency: Low, Medium, High

This is the chance that the Ghost will perform Ghost Events during the investigation and has no effect on forced events. It is set to Low on Amateur, Medium on Intermediate and Professiona, and High on Nightmare.

Friendly Ghost: On, Off

This is whatever or not the Ghost will ever attempt to hunt (or otherwise kill you) and if turned On you can't die during an investigation under any circumstances including the Hanged Man card from the Tarot Cards. If this is set to Off it will also set the Reward modifier to 0.0x and is otherwise On on any of the standard difficulties.

Grace period (s); 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

This is the period between when the Ghost successfully makes a hunt attempt and when the actual hunt begins. It is set to 5 on Amateur, 4 on Intermediate, 3 on Professional, and 2 on Nightmare and Insanity. It should be noted that it is always 1 second for Cursed Hunts no matter the difficulty setting.

Hunt duration (s): Low, Medium, High

This is how long a normal hunt lasts with 20 seconds added for Cursed Hunts and all hunts afterwards. This is also defined by the map size but on a Small map, it's 15 seconds for Low, 20 seconds for Medium, and 30 seconds for High. It is set to Low on Amateur, Medium on Intermediate, and High on all other standard difficulties.

Kills extend hunts: Off, Low, Medium, High

This setting governs whether or not the Ghost killing a player extends the Hunt and how long it extends the Hunt. It is turned Off by default for Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional and is
set to low for Nightmare. The low setting extends the hunt by 15 seconds for each player kill during a hunt.

Evidence Given: 0, 1, 2, 3

This is the number of evidences the Ghost provides out of its possible (3) evidences. There are some Ghost Types that will always give a specific evidence if the number is below 3 but above 0. It is set to 3 on Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional. It is set to 2 on Nightmare and set to 1 on Insanity. It is a common gameplay challenge to have a "0 Evidence" investigation to learn ghost tells and other behaviors. This doesn't affect the "false orbs" given off by The Mimic.

Fingerprint chance: 25, 50, 75, 100

This is the percentage chance for a Ghost that gives Ultraviolet evidence to leave fingerprints or footprints and is normally set to 100 on most standard difficulties. If a Ghost already has a less than 100% chance to leave Ultraviolet evidence it will further lower its chances if this is set to less than 100%.

Fingerprint duration (s): 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, Infinite

This is the period of time (in seconds) that Ultraviolet fingerprint evidence is left before it vanishes and is normally set to 120 (s) on standard difficulties. If a Ghost leaves fingerprints again it will still override the previous fingerprints regardless of this setting. This setting also has no effect on the Obake's ability to reduce the timer as part of its abilities.

Custom difficulty - Contract settings

Setup time (s): 0, 30, 60, 120, 180, 240, 300

This is the period of time (in seconds) of setup grace period where the Ghost can't usually hunt you nor can your Sanity go below 50%. This is nullified by use of the Cursed Possessions. It is set to 300 (s) on Amateur, 120 (s) on Intermediate, and 0 on all other standard difficulties.

Weather: Random, Light Rain, Heavy Rain, Snow, Windy, Clear, Fog, Sunrise

This is the weather for the investigation and is set to Random on most standard difficulties. The chance of weather does have an effect on the rewards modifier for a custom difficulty but it's relatively small to other settings.

Doors starting open: None, Low, Medium, High

This is the percentage of doors that begin open at the start of an investigation, making it more difficult to determine which ones were opened by the Ghost. This is set to None on Amateur, Low on Intermediate, Medium on Professional, and High on Nightmare and Insanity.

Number of hiding spots: None, Low, Medium, High, Very High

This is the number of "official hiding spots" available to the team during an investigation. This can be a bit misleading as technically any spot that blocks line-of-sight is a hiding spot. It is set to Very High on Amateur where all hiding spots are available, High on Intermediate, Medium on Professional, and Low on Nightmare.

Sanity monitor: On, Off

This sets whether or not the Sanity Monitor in the Truck is functional or broken. It is set to On on Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional and set to Off on Nightmare.

Activity monitor: On, Off

This sets whether or not the Total Activity Monitor in the Truck is functional or broken. It is set to On on Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional and set to Off on Nightmare. This doesn't affect EMF readings detected by individual EMF Readers nor does it suppress EMF 5 evidence.

Fuse box at start of contract: On, Off, Broken

This sets the status of the Fuse Box (Circuit Breaker) at the beginning of the investigation. It is set to On on Amateur and Off on all other standard difficulties. If it is set to Broken it is permenantly Broken and can't be turned on (or off) during the investigation. If it is Broken it means all rooms at the location will be their ambient temperature unless affected by the Ghost's presence for the entire investigation.

Fuse box visible on map: On, Off

This sets whether or not a Fuse Box icon is present on the Map Monitor. It is set to On on Amateur, Intermediate, and Professional and is set to Off on Nightmare.

Cursed possession quantity: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

This is the number of Cursed Possessions present during the investigation and is normally set to 1 on most standard difficulties.

Cursed possession #<1-7>: Random, Tarot Cards, Ouija Board, Haunted Mirror, Music Box, Summoning Circle, Voodoo Doll, Monkey Paw

If Cursed Possession quantity is set above 0 you can either choose Random which is the settings on standard difficulties or pick specific Cursed Possessions.

Difficulty settings table

Setting	Amateur	Intermediate	Professional	Nightmare	Insanity
Starting Sanity	100	100	100	100	75
Sanity pill restoration	40	35	30	25	20
Sanity drain speed	100	150	200	200	200
Sprinting	On	On	On	On	On
Player speed	100	100	100	100	100
Flashlights	On	On	On	On	On
Lose items and consumables	On	On	On	On	On
Ghost speed	100	100	100	100	100
Roaming frequency	Medium	Medium	High	High	High
Changing favorite room	None	None	Low	Medium	High
Interaction amount	High	Medium	Low	Low	Low
Event frequency	Low	Medium	Medium	High	High
Friendly ghost	Off	Off	Off	Off	Off
Grace period	5	4	3	2	2
Hunt duration	Low	Medium	High	High	High
Kills extend hunt	Off	Off	Off	Low	Low
Evidence given	3	3	3	2	1
Fingerprint chance	100	100	100	100	100
Fingerprint duration	120	120	120	120	60
Setup time (s)	300	120	0	0	0
Weather	Random	Random	Random	Random	Random
Doors starting open	None	Low	Medium	High	High
Number of hiding spots open	Very High	High	Medium	Low	Low
Sanity monitor	On	On	On	Off	Off
Activity monitor	On	On	On	Off	Off
Fuse box at start of contract	On	Off	Off	Off	Off
Fuse box visible on map	On	On	On	Off	Off
Cursed possession quantity	1	1	1	1	0
Cursed possession	Random	Random	Random	Random

Conclusion

I hope this guide explained difficulties in more depth, especially Custom Difficulty, and encourages you to try other different difficulty options both for the challenge and to maximize profits. I didn't include various grind strategies (and their settings) as that's explained in other guides and may change at some point in the future.

Credits and References

“Hunt.” Phasmophobia Wiki, phasmophobia.fandom.com/wiki/Hunt. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.

“Difficulty.” Phasmophobia Wiki, phasmophobia.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.
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