Welcome back, Ghost Hunters.
Thank you to everyone for the warm reception to our first Quality of Life update last month, and we’re glad to see many of you enjoying Phasmophobia once more.
Today as promised, we’re sharing details on the upcoming second Quality of Life update for Phasmophobia. We’ll be releasing this update across all platforms on 25th August, 2026. Exact release times are still to be confirmed, so keep an eye on our channels for official confirmation of when the update is live.
Let’s break down a couple of the features we’re excited about before sharing the full list:
New Restricted Options
For a long while, we have seen folks requesting smaller versions of our larger maps in the vein of Sunny Meadows Restricted. With this update we’re excited to introduce Restricted versions for Prison, Brownstone High School and Point Hope.
As with Sunny Meadows, these map variants are designed for quicker games in locations that we know players enjoy but sometimes don’t want to be investigating the larger area. In the case of Point Hope Restricted, which will be classed as small, Ghost Hunters will be able to access up to the Dining Room while Prison and Brownstone High School will have multiple variants - classed as Small and Medium respectively - which will be randomly assigned upon loading into a contract.
Brownstone High School in particular will have a total of 4 map variants following the update. With such a big map, we believed it was appropriate to give a variety of variations, giving Ghost Hunters a sense of mystery when loading up. Outside each Restricted version of the map, a small piece of environmental decor will signify which variant of the map you’re on.
Journal & Evidence Changes
We made a handful of changes and improvements to Evidence collection with the first Quality of Life update, and we’re doing the same with the second. As with all of our updates, we’ll be looking for and reading through player feedback on these changes so please do let us know your thoughts once you’ve spent some time with them.
Since our Chronicle update last year, we’ve been working on finessing the Unique/Duplicate system. A change we’re introducing with this next update means there’ll now be visual indicators to show that a piece of Media a Ghost Hunter captures is a Duplicate without the need to check the Journal.
To detect a Duplicate, keep an eye out for the following indicators:
- Tier 1 Photo Cameras will display a yellow LED light.
- Tier 2 & 3 Photo Cameras and all Tiers of Video Cameras will display a faded overlay, rather than the usual bold white text.
- Tier 1 Sound Recorder will lower the brightness of the Volume indicators.
- Tier 2 & 3 Sound Recorders will display faded sound waves.
Another important addition in this update is being able to see other Ghost Hunters’ Evidence and Ghost selections in the Journal. This means there’ll be no more need to double check with other players which pieces of Evidence you’ve captured and see other’s opinions on which Ghost the group is dealing with - and of course making sure everyone has the same selection when you’re leaving in the Truck!
Elsewhere, we’ve replaced the Keys section in the journal with the ‘Items We’ve Found’ section. Appearing in the order they are found, this will display collected items such as keys, the bone and seasonal event collectables. On this same page, a gender symbol (♀/♂) will now be displayed alongside the Ghost's name, allowing for easier understanding of male and female names and Ghost types - especially for non-English speaking players.
VR Improvements
With this Quality of Life update, we’re completely replacing the VR character rig across all platforms. This means more responsive movement in-line with your own body’s, improved accuracy on the character model to match player’s arm length as well as an overall improvement to visuals of the character model when playing with VR users.
We’re also addressing several regularly reported issues from VR players, which we’ll detail in the full patch notes at release. As with other areas of Phasmophobia, please do let us know any feedback you have from your time in VR or any issues you encounter via our Help Centre.
Gameplay Improvements
Finally, for today, we just wanted to dive in to some of the changes coming to the gameplay of Phasmophobia. Firstly, we’ll be implementing the ability to select the Ghost Type for any Custom Difficulty investigations. You’ll find this in the Ghost settings when setting up your game, as you can see in the screenshot below.
Another change with this update is a change to character appearance upon death. As seen below, the dead body will now be seen with a greyer skin as well as misty eyes. Dead players will also appear this way to others while Dead. In addition to this change a player’s voice chat will now be cut off as soon as they die - the moment their neck is snapped during the death animation.
Below, you’ll find a list of all the New features coming with this Quality of Life update as well as the Changes section. At the release of the update, as mentioned, we’ll share the full patch notes along with the list of Fixes for known bugs and issues. We look forward to sharing this update with you on August 25th, 2026.
New
- Added new Restricted variants of the below maps.
- Prison (Restricted version is classed as a Small map)
- Brownstone High School (Restricted versions are classed as Medium maps)
- Point Hope (Restricted version is classed as a Small map)
- Video Cameras, Photo Cameras and Sound Recorders will now indicate Duplicate evidence.
- Tier 1 Photo Cameras will display a yellow LED light.
- Tier 2 & 3 Photo Cameras and all Tiers of Video Cameras will display faded text rather than the usual bold white text.
- Tier 1 Sound Recorder will lower the brightness of the Volume indicators.
- Tier 2 & 3 Sound Recorders will display faded sound waves.
- The Journal will now display other player selections of Evidence and Ghost Type.
- The Keys section in the Journal has been replaced with Items We’ve Found, this new section will show keys, the bone and seasonal event collectables.
- Added the ability to select the Ghost Type in a Custom Difficulty which will set the multiplier to 0.
- Added a new Legacy Badge section to the Customisation shop to allow you to edit your badge at any time.
- Players without a Legacy Badge will not see this option.
- Added a ‘Hold Use’ sticky note on the Training whiteboards.
- Dead players and dead player bodies will now look dead.
- Added unique video evidence text for shower and fuse box interactions.
- Added an icon to show whether a ghost name is male or female.
Changes
- When speaking, the speaker icon on ID cards will now function for all players, including local player
- Improvements have been made to the VR character rig, allowing for more accurate and responsive movement.
- Players can now interact with a Spirit Box that's not held when using Text Voice Recognition Mode.
- Custom Difficulties with a 0 multiplier will no longer contribute towards any progress, such as achievements and leaflets.
- Pressing use while holding a lit Tier 1 Igniter will now use another, without having to wait for the animation to finish.
- When a player dies, their voice chat will now be cut out as soon as they die in the animation, rather than at the end.
- The Truck has been moved closer to the main entrance on Brownstone High School and Prison.
- The Journal automatically opens on the Evidence page if the player opens it when Dead for the first time.
