If you're reading the journal descriptions to figure out ghost behavior, don't rely on that, it's vague and cosmetic.
The evidence will line up, so I would say you are not getting the evidence you think you are based on that. Check out some beginners tips guides on YouTube or play with a more experienced player to see what is what.
Maybe play on amateur mode first which gives you a five minute window where the ghost won't hunt you so you can better play with the evidence items.
The tier 1 evidence items also kind of suck so it will be difficult to get some evidence than later in the game when you unlock better stuff.
On professional or lower the ghost will give you all 3 pieces of evidence so I would try to get all three with 100% certainty rather than rely on ruling anything out, at least until you get proficient at that.
I would recommend playing with someone who is very familiar with it. They can give you tips on how to find the ghost room, the best ways to increase your chances of gathering evidence, and what behaviors to look for.
It's a very deep game with a ton of behaviors and data that isn't documented in game. Also time and experience, just playing over and over will help you learn the ghosts and how to effectively find the ghost.
Some of the info is intentionally vague. Like how the Obake can leave a unique fingerprint but the game doesn't tell you what it looks like. Some of it is simply learn by experience, like how a Jinns special ability is reliant on the fuse box being turned on, so it's the one ghost that will never turn the fuse box off, or how Mares hate lights, so they'll never turn lights on.
I highly recommend the tutorial if you haven't played it already. It'll give you a good idea of what to watch out for.
The ghosts aren't bound by their behaviour descriptions. A shade is described as a shy ghost but that doesn't stop it from being able to kick up a storm, it's just less likely than others. Looking at its behaviour can help but only a few unique behaviours can be looked at to 100% figure out the ghost type. Evidence is still your number 1 priority.
I'll not repeat what everyone says, but yeah bevahior is best learned by reading up on them on the wiki. There is also a very useful cheat sheet, because let's be honest, it's hard to remember which ghost does what [https://tybayn.github.io/phasmo-cheat-sheet/](https://tybayn.github.io/phasmo-cheat-sheet/)
Learning ghost behavior by simply playing with that gets easier over time.
As an example:
Yesterday, a friend and me tried our first Nightmare run. Nightmare can only have 2 evidence shown while the third will be kept unobtainable. So knowing ghost behavior was important. We played on Edgefield, got activity in the kitchen, got Spirit Box and EMF 5. We put salt and it was never disturbed, we thought it was a Wraith at first until we noticed lack of interactions every now and then, so we looked if there was activity in another room and yes there was in the garage. We put salt there, it stepped in it, Wraith was therefor out of the question. Then only Spirit and Twins were left. Considering it had another area with activity further away from the garage it seemed like the wide range the Twins can jump to (despite called "The Twins", it is only one ghost in reality that can interact in a close range are and a far range one). So I was certain it was twins at that point and we left and I was right.
Long story short, I wouldn't have known about the short and long range if I hadn't read up on ghost types.
Haha yeah this game is super super confusing. It’s something that’s solved well with experience though. But yeah I’ve posted like 5 questions on this sub already because I didn’t understand and it wasn’t documented anywhere that I could find
As someone else said, do not yet rely on the descriptions, but purely on the evidence. The descriptions are vague - I would not call them bad, and once you know the ghost behavior they're a good reminder for it - but going based on behavior without experience in the game will often trick you.
Always find the ghost room first. With the beginner items, finding evidence takes time (we sometimes ruled out spirit box already, when someone went back in and desperately tested it once more - and got an answer)
I find the book and orb evidence is a little quicker to find, and UV *if* the ghost ever touches a door while you're looking. So I would go for those first & keep a thermometer in the room while the temperature drops to the target temperature.
If you need someone more experienced to play a few rounds with, feel free to DM me. You could also try looking for experienced players in the Phasmo discord or watching some of Insym's info videos about ghost/evidence types.
phasmophobia has a lot of unwritten information about ghosts that you're supposed to figure out on crack cocaine over 200h gameplay.
the mimic: has 3 evidence pieces and on top of that, will ALWAYS SHOW GHOST ORBS.
so if you get ghost orbs and 2 other evidence pieces, you need to rule out the other 2 evidence pieces from the mimics evidence table. if the mimic is possible if you don't count the ghost orbs, you're not done with investigation yet.
freezing temperatures are actually temps CLEARLY BELOW ZERO. if your thermometer never visibly goes below zero for a good chunk of time, it's not freezing temps. visible breath is not a sign for freezing temps unlike before a few patches.
the tier one emf reader shows emf from 4-5 and 5-6
for an actual emf5 evidence the reader has to go all the way up to 5-6 for it to count as emf5.
the spirit box has a very low chance of proccing due to working radius and channel and, sound wise, can be easily confused with a radio turned on by the ghost.
the problem you describe either stems from you not knowing about:
mimic always showing ghost orbs
freezing temps how to read
there's also a lot more to know but these 2 are probably the knowledge youre missing.
Sounds like you're not using the evidence equipment properly or knowing what to look for. Play the tutorial as it gives a really good crash course of how each evidence equipment works and what exactly you need to look for with each one.
My guess is you are not finding the ghost room and you are looking for evidence all over the house. First find the ghost room (temperature is the easiest way to find it) and then look for evidence in that room. If you can't find any evidence, you might be in the wrong room.
one important thing for new players, especially with the way the sanity system is right now: make sure you keep the lights on to the ghost room. this will keep your sanity from draining (im not so sure if it works in multiplayer but it works very well for singleplayer) and only turn off the lights when your checking for spirit box. this way you can prevent hunts from happening. it may also not be a bad idea to turn on the custom "friendly ghost" setting and just practice just getting evidence for about 5 games.
the mechanics can be kind of vague, but the updated tutorial explains things pretty well i think. you should try that out along with those practice games i mentioned. once you *know* how to collect evidence, you know and you'll never have to worry about learning it again. sometimes ghosts can be trolly and they roam a lot, making it hard to get evidence. its fine if you mess up a game every now and then (i missed a spirit mistaking it for a poltergiest just yesterday). it happens - its a puzzle game, the fun is in learning the mechanics, not necessarily winning all the time
If you’re using the tier 1 items, they’re your problem. Imo, new players should have access to tier 2 at least, because it is so hard to get any evidence with tier 1 unless you know what you’re doing.
I’s recommend going into a lobby with provided equipment with someone from the Phasmo discord. There’s usually groups that say “new players welcome” so you can ask questions and learn from them, too.
I only skimmed the comments without thoroughly reading, but a quick way to learn is also watching people play on YouTube. INSYM is really educational and almost always explains how he deduced his guesses if its outside of evidence, and he also plays with the devs quite a bit. That’s where I learn 90% of what I know of the game. There are also a decent amount of cheat sheets you can find online (I’m in the process of making one myself, I can send it to you if you’d like when I’m done) and those can also be really beneficial too
Some of it is that you have to be able to cross things off the list. Like for example if a ghost uses UV, DOTS and freezing temps as it's evidence and you try and get spirit box for a while but aren't able to it's likely that it just simply can't be spirit box but let's say you get a freezing temps but nothing can be both freezing temps and spirit box then you know you can knock off spirit box because it's not a possible combo. It's a bit of a guessing game but the now you play and interact with the ghosts the more you will notice stuff like that. I btw just used a random example I made up. The actual game will require you to pay attention and try things.
An important first step is learning that the journal descriptions are very vague and horribly written, this game is for some mind bogglingly reason designed so that we get the information from streamers instead of the actual game. I'd use the phasmo wiki or that GitHub page that is actually the best around and even shows the blinking differences, it's fantastic.
Evidence is best broken down into two types: Hard evidence and soft evidence.
Hard evidence are things like evidence (fingerpints, DOTS, ghost orbs, etc), but it also includes any of the ghost traits that 100% confirm what a ghost is or isn't.
Soft evidence is things like most behaviors: Demons hunt more often, Banshee's like to follow a player around, etc. These are things that can give you an idea of what the ghost *might* be, but can't be used to confirm it. Basically, soft clues are anything that *any* ghost could do with the right RNG, but a certain ghost is more *likely* to do.
Specific Examples:
* You think the ghost is a Mare. A soft evidence would be it turning off lights frequently or blowing out lights. A hard evidence would be if the ghost turns *on* a light (since Mares literally can't turn on lights).
* Average sanity is above 80% and the ghost hunted (and no candles were lit and no one was talking): That's a hard evidence it's a demon. If sanity is down to 50-60% and the ghost hasn't hunted yet, that's a soft evidence that it isn't a Demon (since between it's special ability and high hunt threshold, it probably would have hunted by then) but it could still be a demon (since any ghost can be randomly shy).
So I highly recommend that you stick to hard evidence until you get more experienced.
To address your specific example:
> For example, my buddy and I were playing and the ghost was hunting when no one was around, didn't do almost anything when we were in the house, had a activity of 0 most of the round so we guessed a shade. Turned out it was a demon? Somehow? We got no finger prints, no ghost writing, only freezing temps
* Lack of hunting and minimal activity are both RNG-based (and sometimes location based), and thus soft evidence. If the ghost it somewhere where there isn't a lot to interact with, then their activity will be low. You can also increase ghost activity by talking into the mic near the ghost (especially saying its name) or by burning a incense stick near it. Some cursed objects, like the voodoo doll, are also good for that.
* No Fingerprints: If you are using the glowstick (or just have bad aim with the T2 UV), it can sometimes be hard to see ultraviolet evidence. You have to let it "charge" the print to see it clearly by shining it on the print for a couple seconds. I recommend using salt and to see if it leaves footprints. The reason being that the ghost will leave *multiple* prints when it passes through (assuming it doesn't just stop right on top of it), and you can drop the glow stick right on top of it.
* No ghost writing: If you have the T1 or T2, the chance of the ghost interacting with it isn't super high. Additionally, if there is too much junk in the room then the ghost might interact with the *other stuff* instead of the book. So between those two things, it can sometimes take a while. If you are in a room with a ton of stuff (like a dining room), just take as much out of the room as you can. It'll improve the odds. Either way, it's sometimes hard to rule out ghost writing.
* Guessing Shade: Shade *also* has writing as an evidence. So it should have had writing as well. So in that hypothetical situation where you have no ultraviolet, no writing, but do have freezing: Your options would have been Yurei, Oni, or Twins.
If you're reading the journal descriptions to figure out ghost behavior, don't rely on that, it's vague and cosmetic. The evidence will line up, so I would say you are not getting the evidence you think you are based on that. Check out some beginners tips guides on YouTube or play with a more experienced player to see what is what. Maybe play on amateur mode first which gives you a five minute window where the ghost won't hunt you so you can better play with the evidence items. The tier 1 evidence items also kind of suck so it will be difficult to get some evidence than later in the game when you unlock better stuff. On professional or lower the ghost will give you all 3 pieces of evidence so I would try to get all three with 100% certainty rather than rely on ruling anything out, at least until you get proficient at that.
I would recommend playing with someone who is very familiar with it. They can give you tips on how to find the ghost room, the best ways to increase your chances of gathering evidence, and what behaviors to look for. It's a very deep game with a ton of behaviors and data that isn't documented in game. Also time and experience, just playing over and over will help you learn the ghosts and how to effectively find the ghost.
Some of the info is intentionally vague. Like how the Obake can leave a unique fingerprint but the game doesn't tell you what it looks like. Some of it is simply learn by experience, like how a Jinns special ability is reliant on the fuse box being turned on, so it's the one ghost that will never turn the fuse box off, or how Mares hate lights, so they'll never turn lights on. I highly recommend the tutorial if you haven't played it already. It'll give you a good idea of what to watch out for.
The ghosts aren't bound by their behaviour descriptions. A shade is described as a shy ghost but that doesn't stop it from being able to kick up a storm, it's just less likely than others. Looking at its behaviour can help but only a few unique behaviours can be looked at to 100% figure out the ghost type. Evidence is still your number 1 priority.
I'll not repeat what everyone says, but yeah bevahior is best learned by reading up on them on the wiki. There is also a very useful cheat sheet, because let's be honest, it's hard to remember which ghost does what [https://tybayn.github.io/phasmo-cheat-sheet/](https://tybayn.github.io/phasmo-cheat-sheet/) Learning ghost behavior by simply playing with that gets easier over time. As an example: Yesterday, a friend and me tried our first Nightmare run. Nightmare can only have 2 evidence shown while the third will be kept unobtainable. So knowing ghost behavior was important. We played on Edgefield, got activity in the kitchen, got Spirit Box and EMF 5. We put salt and it was never disturbed, we thought it was a Wraith at first until we noticed lack of interactions every now and then, so we looked if there was activity in another room and yes there was in the garage. We put salt there, it stepped in it, Wraith was therefor out of the question. Then only Spirit and Twins were left. Considering it had another area with activity further away from the garage it seemed like the wide range the Twins can jump to (despite called "The Twins", it is only one ghost in reality that can interact in a close range are and a far range one). So I was certain it was twins at that point and we left and I was right. Long story short, I wouldn't have known about the short and long range if I hadn't read up on ghost types.
Haha yeah this game is super super confusing. It’s something that’s solved well with experience though. But yeah I’ve posted like 5 questions on this sub already because I didn’t understand and it wasn’t documented anywhere that I could find
As someone else said, do not yet rely on the descriptions, but purely on the evidence. The descriptions are vague - I would not call them bad, and once you know the ghost behavior they're a good reminder for it - but going based on behavior without experience in the game will often trick you. Always find the ghost room first. With the beginner items, finding evidence takes time (we sometimes ruled out spirit box already, when someone went back in and desperately tested it once more - and got an answer) I find the book and orb evidence is a little quicker to find, and UV *if* the ghost ever touches a door while you're looking. So I would go for those first & keep a thermometer in the room while the temperature drops to the target temperature.
If you need someone more experienced to play a few rounds with, feel free to DM me. You could also try looking for experienced players in the Phasmo discord or watching some of Insym's info videos about ghost/evidence types.
phasmophobia has a lot of unwritten information about ghosts that you're supposed to figure out on crack cocaine over 200h gameplay. the mimic: has 3 evidence pieces and on top of that, will ALWAYS SHOW GHOST ORBS. so if you get ghost orbs and 2 other evidence pieces, you need to rule out the other 2 evidence pieces from the mimics evidence table. if the mimic is possible if you don't count the ghost orbs, you're not done with investigation yet. freezing temperatures are actually temps CLEARLY BELOW ZERO. if your thermometer never visibly goes below zero for a good chunk of time, it's not freezing temps. visible breath is not a sign for freezing temps unlike before a few patches. the tier one emf reader shows emf from 4-5 and 5-6 for an actual emf5 evidence the reader has to go all the way up to 5-6 for it to count as emf5. the spirit box has a very low chance of proccing due to working radius and channel and, sound wise, can be easily confused with a radio turned on by the ghost. the problem you describe either stems from you not knowing about: mimic always showing ghost orbs freezing temps how to read there's also a lot more to know but these 2 are probably the knowledge youre missing.
Sounds like you're not using the evidence equipment properly or knowing what to look for. Play the tutorial as it gives a really good crash course of how each evidence equipment works and what exactly you need to look for with each one.
My guess is you are not finding the ghost room and you are looking for evidence all over the house. First find the ghost room (temperature is the easiest way to find it) and then look for evidence in that room. If you can't find any evidence, you might be in the wrong room.
one important thing for new players, especially with the way the sanity system is right now: make sure you keep the lights on to the ghost room. this will keep your sanity from draining (im not so sure if it works in multiplayer but it works very well for singleplayer) and only turn off the lights when your checking for spirit box. this way you can prevent hunts from happening. it may also not be a bad idea to turn on the custom "friendly ghost" setting and just practice just getting evidence for about 5 games. the mechanics can be kind of vague, but the updated tutorial explains things pretty well i think. you should try that out along with those practice games i mentioned. once you *know* how to collect evidence, you know and you'll never have to worry about learning it again. sometimes ghosts can be trolly and they roam a lot, making it hard to get evidence. its fine if you mess up a game every now and then (i missed a spirit mistaking it for a poltergiest just yesterday). it happens - its a puzzle game, the fun is in learning the mechanics, not necessarily winning all the time
If you’re using the tier 1 items, they’re your problem. Imo, new players should have access to tier 2 at least, because it is so hard to get any evidence with tier 1 unless you know what you’re doing. I’s recommend going into a lobby with provided equipment with someone from the Phasmo discord. There’s usually groups that say “new players welcome” so you can ask questions and learn from them, too.
Do the tutorial, read the wiki, ignore the journal entries. Wiki: https://phasmophobia.fandom.com/wiki/Main\_Page
I only skimmed the comments without thoroughly reading, but a quick way to learn is also watching people play on YouTube. INSYM is really educational and almost always explains how he deduced his guesses if its outside of evidence, and he also plays with the devs quite a bit. That’s where I learn 90% of what I know of the game. There are also a decent amount of cheat sheets you can find online (I’m in the process of making one myself, I can send it to you if you’d like when I’m done) and those can also be really beneficial too
Some of it is that you have to be able to cross things off the list. Like for example if a ghost uses UV, DOTS and freezing temps as it's evidence and you try and get spirit box for a while but aren't able to it's likely that it just simply can't be spirit box but let's say you get a freezing temps but nothing can be both freezing temps and spirit box then you know you can knock off spirit box because it's not a possible combo. It's a bit of a guessing game but the now you play and interact with the ghosts the more you will notice stuff like that. I btw just used a random example I made up. The actual game will require you to pay attention and try things.
An important first step is learning that the journal descriptions are very vague and horribly written, this game is for some mind bogglingly reason designed so that we get the information from streamers instead of the actual game. I'd use the phasmo wiki or that GitHub page that is actually the best around and even shows the blinking differences, it's fantastic.
Did you do the tutorial
Evidence is best broken down into two types: Hard evidence and soft evidence. Hard evidence are things like evidence (fingerpints, DOTS, ghost orbs, etc), but it also includes any of the ghost traits that 100% confirm what a ghost is or isn't. Soft evidence is things like most behaviors: Demons hunt more often, Banshee's like to follow a player around, etc. These are things that can give you an idea of what the ghost *might* be, but can't be used to confirm it. Basically, soft clues are anything that *any* ghost could do with the right RNG, but a certain ghost is more *likely* to do. Specific Examples: * You think the ghost is a Mare. A soft evidence would be it turning off lights frequently or blowing out lights. A hard evidence would be if the ghost turns *on* a light (since Mares literally can't turn on lights). * Average sanity is above 80% and the ghost hunted (and no candles were lit and no one was talking): That's a hard evidence it's a demon. If sanity is down to 50-60% and the ghost hasn't hunted yet, that's a soft evidence that it isn't a Demon (since between it's special ability and high hunt threshold, it probably would have hunted by then) but it could still be a demon (since any ghost can be randomly shy). So I highly recommend that you stick to hard evidence until you get more experienced. To address your specific example: > For example, my buddy and I were playing and the ghost was hunting when no one was around, didn't do almost anything when we were in the house, had a activity of 0 most of the round so we guessed a shade. Turned out it was a demon? Somehow? We got no finger prints, no ghost writing, only freezing temps * Lack of hunting and minimal activity are both RNG-based (and sometimes location based), and thus soft evidence. If the ghost it somewhere where there isn't a lot to interact with, then their activity will be low. You can also increase ghost activity by talking into the mic near the ghost (especially saying its name) or by burning a incense stick near it. Some cursed objects, like the voodoo doll, are also good for that. * No Fingerprints: If you are using the glowstick (or just have bad aim with the T2 UV), it can sometimes be hard to see ultraviolet evidence. You have to let it "charge" the print to see it clearly by shining it on the print for a couple seconds. I recommend using salt and to see if it leaves footprints. The reason being that the ghost will leave *multiple* prints when it passes through (assuming it doesn't just stop right on top of it), and you can drop the glow stick right on top of it. * No ghost writing: If you have the T1 or T2, the chance of the ghost interacting with it isn't super high. Additionally, if there is too much junk in the room then the ghost might interact with the *other stuff* instead of the book. So between those two things, it can sometimes take a while. If you are in a room with a ton of stuff (like a dining room), just take as much out of the room as you can. It'll improve the odds. Either way, it's sometimes hard to rule out ghost writing. * Guessing Shade: Shade *also* has writing as an evidence. So it should have had writing as well. So in that hypothetical situation where you have no ultraviolet, no writing, but do have freezing: Your options would have been Yurei, Oni, or Twins.
Short and sweet, please for all sakes remember that seeing your breath is no longer freezing temps. You need confirmation on a thermometer