Phasmophobia – How to Always Escape a Hunt

This guide is about hunts and how to escape them. These are all tricks and strategies I personally use and I have never died since starting to do so.

Introduction

Note: Credit goes to StaticR

Every now and then I see a forum post from someone complaining about hunts being glitched too hard or unfair and it is always appearant that this is caused by a misunderstanding how the game works. Escaping hunts can be trivial if you know what to do.

The game does not tend to have bugs or issues that will get you killed. If any deadly glitches do pop up they are usually the first ones to get fixed. If you feel like you died unfairly, especially if it happens repeatedly it is not because of an issue with the game but rather a misjudgement, misunderstanding of the game’s mechanics or the ghost presenting you with a situation you were not prepared for.

In this guide I will reveal game mechanics, tricks and things to keep in mind related to hunts, allowing you to escape the ghost every time if applied successfully.

Warning: The following information may be considered heavy spoilers due to the nature of the game. The unknown is a big contributor to fear and knowing the exact game mechanics may diminish the horror experience.

For this reason I will spoiler tag some of the explainations and game mechanics to make this guide still helpful for people who prefer not to know all the secrets. If the horror aspects of the game are specifically a reason why you play you may want to skip over some of those.

Hunt Mechanics

First let’s explain all the game mechanics relating to hunts.

Hunt MechanicsFirst let’s explain all the game mechanics relating to hunts.

• Sanity: Most ghosts can only start hunting once your average sanity is at 50% or below Exceptions are the yokai which can start at 80% if people are talking nearby, the demon which can start at 70% and the mare, which can start at 60% from a room with lights turned off and 40% if lights are turned on. Note that it is only affected by the average sanity, not individual players’.
  
• Line of Sight: The ghost can’t kill you if it can’t see you*. If you break line of sight the ghost will pursue you to the location where it lost you. If it doesn’t regain line of sight there it will go back to searching for a target. This essentially means you have to break line of sight twice to fully lose the ghost.
  
• Noise and electronics: The asterisk to the point above. Talking through your microphone and holding electronic equipment that is turned on will alert the ghost to your current location, allowing it to find you even if it didn’t see you. Electronics on the floor will not attract the ghost, as well as player footsteps, character breathing from running out of stamina, opening/closing doors, throwing items or the radio static.
  
• Searching: While searching, the ghost will wander around and head towards the location where it last heard a player while randomly checking doors and rooms nearby. While searching the ghost is unlikely to fully enter some dead end rooms, making hiding behind a room’s entrance door possible.
  
• Pursuit: When the ghost gains line of sight of a target it will start to pursue them. The ghost will gain speed over time the longer it is in pursuit of a player.
  
• Sprint: Your sprint gives you a significant speed boost for the duration of 3 seconds, with a 5 second cooldown. Your sprint speed is fast enough to even momentarily outrun even a revanent and escape if you’re able to fully break line of sight before it runs out.
  
• Smudge Sticks: Lighting a smudge stick next to the ghost will blind it for a few seconds. During that time it will walk around aimlessly and be unable to kill, allowing you to run right through it.
  
• Cruzifix: Will NOT protect you during an active hunt. The cruzifix will only prevent a hunt from starting in the first place if the ghost attempts to start one near it. 3m raduis, 5m for banshee.

Before the Hunt

If you want to guarantee survival you need to be prepared before the hunt even starts to avoid the ghost catching you off guard by a surprise hunt from an unexpected location. During an active hunt you may not have the time and/or focus to strategize. Plan ahead so you always know what to do as soon as the lightshow starts!

• Have your sprint ready. Avoid sprinting when you’re near the ghost. Having it available at the start of a hunt will give you a considerable head start.
  
• Know your hiding spots. Always have a destination in mind. If you don’t know where to hide beforehand you will waste valuable time trying to find a spot to hide, and at worst may corner yourself in a dead end in an attempt to search for a hiding spot. Suitable hiding spots can be closets, lockers, furniture and doors. Anything the ghost can walk past without gaining line of sight of you is suitable for a hiding spot. Note: This guide is not about hiding spots and I will not list them here. It’s best to explore the maps yourself to familiarize yourself with them and all it’s possible pathways and routes.
  
• Have multiple escape routes planned. Perhaps the most important one. The ghost can start a hunt from anywhere it’s currently at. Always have an alternate escape route in mind that you can take even if the ghost starts its hunt in the worst possible spot. Avoid putting yourself in a place where a unlicky ghost hunt could block all your available escape routes.
  
• Don’t corner yourself. The worst you can do is corner yourself in a dead end room and have the ghost start hunting outside, along your only escape route. If you do have to go in such a room it is best to leave at least one cruzifix along your exit path to prevent the ghost from spawning there and blocking your only escape. You can also prepare a smudge stick and lighter in dead end places to allow you to escape if you do get cornered.

Hunt Start

At the start of a hunt there is a 4 second grace period before the ghost will actually appear and start hunting players. During this time the ghost will not move and will not be able to kill any player. This time period aligns pretty neatly with your combined sprint duration and reaction time. By the time the sprint runs out you’ll know the ghost will spawn.

• Don’t panic. A sudden and unexpected hunt can be quite frightening. This is why you prepare your exit strategy beforehand. In the moment it can get hard to strategize, especially when you get scared. As soon as you notice a hunt start following your escape plan.
  
• Avoid being in line of sight when the ghost appears This will give you an easy head start because the ghost will not know where to go right away. In the best case you’ll guarantee your escape right then and there if you do not make any further mistake.
  
• Don’t run into the ghost. Before the ghost actually spawns it will make loud noises at the point where it is going to appear. If you are at that spot after the 4 seconds run out you will instantly die. It is perfectly fine to run past the ghost if it means you’re out of line of sight when the ghost appears.

Escaping

When the ghost is on your tail there’s a lot you can do to lose it.

• Follow your pre planned routes. While being chased by the ghost is not a good time to start exploring the map for hiding spots.
  
• Break line of sight as much as possible. This can be done by going behind open doors while running away or closing them behind you and taking sharp corners. Avoid to reenter line of sight after breaking it once since you need to break it twice for the ghost to lose you.
  
• Run straight and take corners as sharp as possible. This will minimize the distance you have to travel. Aim straight for the next corner instead of staying in the middle of the hallway. Although be careful not to get stuck as this will cost valuable time.
  
• Run while ducking. No, seriously. While this will not make you any faster (although it will look like it due to the closer proximity to the ground) it will make navigating much easier. Your shoulder light will also be closer to the ground, illuminating it and giving you a bit more visibility. It also makes it easier to break line of sight due to your smaller “hitbox”.

You can apply all of the above when looping the ghost around cars, corners, tables etc.

Hiding

So you’ve pretty much escaped the ghost. Now you’ll need to make sure it doesn’t find you again.

• Turn off your electronics before you enter your hiding spot. Alternatively you can also drop them. It can be useful to drop the flashlight pointing towards your hiding spot so you don’t need to go blind. The exact range in which the ghost can hear your electronics is debated. Presumably it’s around 6 meters. Outside of that range the ghost will not hear you if you momentarely turn on your electronics.
  
• Make sure you are not within line of sight while entering your hiding spot. A hilarious technicality of this you can hide inside a locker right in front of the ghost by breaking line of sight with the same locker door right before you enter. If it never saw you actually inside it will not know you’re there.
  
• Don’t make a noise. Your microphone can pick up all kinds of noises depending on where it is and how sensitive it is, like your breathing or room background noises. Make sure to be as quiet as possible. Turn down your mic volume so background noises don’t register and if necessary, mute your mic entirely. Sneaky mic noises may be the biggest reason why people die when they thought they were safe. Especially in single player, where push to talk is disabled and the mic is always open.
  
• Hold the Door. While it will not prevent the ghost from opening the door when it knows you’re there due to a noise it will prevent it from opening the door randomly while walking past searching.

Happy Ghost Hunting

If you follow all those correctly it will become near impossible for the ghost to get you. Unless you make a mistake the ghost will never kill you again.

Keeping track of all that stuff while also doing the objectives can get overwhelming at first so take it easy and only tackle a few at a time. It’ll become second nature soon enough. The most important things are knowing the hiding spots and always having an escape route ready and available. Focus on that and for the most part you’ll be safe.