Candles are a piece of Equipment in Phasmophobia. They are deployable light sources that can be lit using a source of fire such as the Lighter. They can be used to light up a room with a warm, orange glow, and mitigate Sanity drain from darkness. Players can both purchase Candles and utilize the ones that natively spawn in some Locations. Similar to the Glow Stick, they can be placed on the ground and will continuously emit light until eventually burning out.
Lit candles and turned on lights will help slow, but not stop your sanity from dropping, so they should not be completely relied on.
Ghosts tend to blow out nearby Candles, making them effective at checking if a ghost is nearby.
Lighting a Candle held by the player
- Using a Lighter
When holding a candle, players can light it by having a lit Lighter in their inventory and pressing the F key while holding the candle. In detail:
- Pick up a Lighter and an unlit Candle.
- Turn the Lighter on and change inventory slots by pressing Q (but do not drop the Lighter) so that the Candle is in your hand.
- Press the F key.
- Using another lit candle
- Hold the unlit Candle in your hand.
- Look at the lit Candle and press F.
- Having another player light your candle
- Hold the unlit Candle in your hand.
- The other player must look at your unlit Candle and press F.
Lighting a Candle not held by the player
Players can light candles that are not in their hand by holding a (lit) lighter or a lit candle in their hands, and then pressing the F key while looking at the unlit candle.
Dropping/Placing Candles
Candles can either be:
- Placed down gently by pressing the F key. This results in the candle standing vertically/in an upright manner.
- Dropped by pressing the G key. The candle might land on its side, which will result in less of its light illuminating the room.
Burning out
A Candle stays lit for only a few minutes before burning out.
Ghost Presence with a Candle
Ghosts can interact with Candles just like with all other things. An evidence of Ghost Interaction would be the Candle being suddenly and unexpectedly blown out with a blowing "sigh" effect. Ghosts are more eager to blow out Candles when other sources of light are absent (this is especially true for Mares who have a specific change of activity pattern when in the dark).
An objective may appear on the Objective Board requiring ghost hunters to detect a ghost's presence using a candle.
Tips
- Dropping candles where they sit on the sides of tables, shelves, or other elevated objects will significantly improve their lighting, since candles produce weak visibility on the ground (mainly when dropped on carpets, as carpets are slightly above ground level, but function as light solid objects - lights cannot pass through light solid objects).
- In larger maps like Brownstone High School or the Asylum, candles may be helpful as navigation markers for important areas such as the fuse box, ghost room, or exit door(s), though they are not as reliable as Glow Sticks or spare Flashlights as candles both burn out after a time and can be blown out by the Ghost.
- Candles are not affected by Hunts and will continue to provide a steady light source. However, it will not flicker during Hunts (as it is not electric in nature), leaving players without source to an electric light such as a Flashlight, UV Flashlight, or the building lights clueless as to when a Hunt is occurring.
- Candles found on-site can also be lit up with a lighter or another lit candle.
- Sometimes a bug happens where candles do not run out over time.
Several candles found on-site or bought. Note the differences in color.
Trivia
- Candles are not extinguished by being dropped in water. They will not burn out if they fall over or are upside down.
- Purchasable candles are much brighter than those found in Locations.