The fog that a dead player sees the world through
In Phasmophobia, death results from being caught by the ghost during a hunt, obtaining The Hanged Man tarot card, or by chance from using the Monkey Paw's revival wish.
Mechanics[]
Player's death[]
When a player dies, all their equipment is dropped onto the ground and grotesque hands appear on their screen suggesting the player is being choked, for about 5 seconds. The player is then teleported to an otherwordly room with the ghost itself, both standing around hanged corpses for about 5 more seconds. The player hears a lightbulb shattering, and the room goes dark. Finally, the dead player teleports back to the location where they died, in form of an observer (see below). The whole process takes about 10 seconds. From another player's perspective, the victim drops their equipment, brings their hands to their neck while writhing from being strangled by an invisible force with a choking sound, and drops dead.
Observer[]
An observer will see the map through a greyish fog and can only communicate with other observers, though they can still hear the living (which may sound incorrectly muffled due to a bug), including the global chat radio. Observers will be able to phase through all forms of doors, even if they are locked. Ghosts will ignore dead players. Observers can sprint infinitely, unlike regular players which run out of breath after a few seconds and have to "recharge" (unless the "Sprint duration" difficulty setting is set to infinite).
Observers cannot pick up or interact with equipment or any other investigation-sensitive items (such as bones or cursed possessions). However, they can still pick up decorative items found around the map (dishes, notebooks, shoes, etc).
Tarot Card[]
If a living player draws a Tarot Card labeled The High Priestess, one dead player will randomly be chosen to be revived. The dead player will reappear at the location of their Dead Body (even if they were outside the investigation before being resurrected). Otherwise, the observer will remain as one until the game ends. The Monkey Paw can also be used to revive an existing dead player, but with a 50% chance of killing the wisher at the same time.
End of the round[]
If all players in the round die, the game will end shortly after the last player returns as an observer.
Hands that appear when killed
Post-mortem[]
While dead, players may still help the investigation in the following manner:
- Players can attempt to use random items to interact with the other living players. They can turn their attention to themselves if they find the Bone Evidence or if they know approximately where the ghost will spawn for its next hunt.
- Items held by dead players vary in visibility depending on their current platform. When playing on desktop, items are invisible when held and only reveal themselves when thrown or placed down. If, however, the dead player is in VR, the held item is always visible to their teammates, and manifests as floating in midair. Clever players can use this to more accurately convey ideas, and, in some cases "write" out simple words in air gestures.
Pranking & griefing[]
Naturally, there is nothing preventing malicious players from also acting in bad faith; they can make deliberate attempts to prank, confuse, or otherwise lightly sabotage investigation post-mortem with their limited abilities. Since throwing items as an observer does not trigger a sound to the living survivors, imitating the ghost throwing items is not possible. However, throwing a ball down the stairs may confuse the remaining players about the ghost's location. They may also move and place miscellaneous items such as dolls and teddy bears in key locations like doorways so as to appear to be stalking the remaining investigators. However, as the ghost is incapable of such specific behaviour, experienced players can quickly discern what is a ghost interaction/event and what is the work of another player.
Post-game rewards[]
If the player is still dead when the round ends (and not revived by Tarot Cards), the difficulty multiplier will not be applied, and their rewards will be halved instead. They will also lose any equipment that they added to the game, instead receiving a percentage of the total value of the items that they added, depending on the difficulty multiplier.
| Difficulty | Percentage of Value |
|---|---|
| Amateur Difficulty with multiplier ≤ 1x |
50% |
| Intermediate Difficulty with multiplier ≤ 2x |
25% |
| Professional Nightmare Insanity Difficulty with multiplier > 2x |
0% |
Whether a photo of the player's dead body is taken or not does not affect their insurance. Taking a photo of a dead body will still count towards photo rewards.