A ghost room, officially referred to as the favourite room, is a specific room in a map that the ghost will "prefer", or base specific actions upon. Those can be limited to whole rooms of a building but can also include hallways, some stairwells, enclosed areas, campsite tents, etc. Ghosts may leave their room while hunting or simply being more active due to a player's decreasing sanity, but in general, their activity will be localised to the favourite room and its immediate surroundings.
Finding the favourite room in itself is not an objective found on the Objective Board, however, it simplifies the task of identifying the type of ghost correctly and allows players to gain photo rewards more quickly. The favourite room remains the same per each game on all difficulty levels except for Professional, Nightmare, and Insanity. The favourite room plays a lesser role once the type of ghost has been identified correctly and will usually serve as a reference for player activity during hunts.
Mechanics[]
Favourite room[]
Whenever a map is loaded in, one room in the area will be randomly selected as the favourite room. The favourite room is relevant for the following behaviour:
- The ghost will teleport to the favourite room at the end of every hunt and when a crucifix has successfully prevented a hunt.
- The ghost will roam back to the room after certain conditions are satisfied.
- Ghost Orbs, if the ghost has it as evidence, will be present in the favourite room.
- Though The Mimic doesn't have Ghost Orb among its types of evidence, it will still provide it as its weakness.
- The Haunted Mirror will show a view of the favourite room.
- The Hermit tarot card and the "I wish to trap the ghost" wish from the Monkey Paw will teleport the ghost to the favourite room and temporarily trap it there.
- The Yurei will be sent back to the favourite room and stay within it for 90 seconds after being affected with Incense outside of a hunt.
Ghost's current location/room[]
As an invisible entity by default, ghosts can perform roaming simply to walk around. This can include roaming to another room; this does not change the favourite room. The following behaviour relates to where the ghost actually is:
- Ghosts will interact with objects in a certain radius around itself.
- Ghosts always start a hunt from its current position (except for The Twins in some cases).
- Ghosts can initiate ghost events (naturally) if the player is within a certain range of the ghost.
- For evidence to either be created and/or obtained, the ghost must be nearby (other than Ghost Orbs).
- Ouija Board responses always give the ghost's current room, not the favourite one.
Generally, ghosts will spend most of their time in the favourite room and will not roam far off. Still, they may move far away from their room if they have an ability that allows them to do so (the Wraith's teleport ability, the Banshee's roaming ability, and the Phantom's travel ability), or perform a ghost event on a player that is somewhat far from the ghost room (but not too far). These instances are technically not a "roaming phase, " but the ghost may roam after performing these actions.
Changing favourite rooms[]
Three criteria are used to determine whether the favourite room will change. Suppose the ghost performs a 'long roam' and ends up in a room that is not its current favourite. In that case, the ghost will perform a chance roll based on the Changing favourite room difficulty setting:
- None (Amateur, Intermediate): 0%
- Low (Professional): 33%
- Medium (Nightmare): 66%
- High (Insanity): 100%
If the chance above succeeds, a second chance roll is performed on the complement of the average sanity (or insanity); for example, an average sanity of 80% has a 20% chance of succeeding. If both chances are successful, the favourite room will change to the ghost's current room.
The Banshee and the Goryo cannot change their favourite room by themselves, even with the "Changing favourite room" parameter set to High. Using a specific Monkey Paw wish can force them to change the favourite room once.
Disallowed favourite rooms[]
Some maps have rooms such as corridors or hallways which cannot be chosen as the favourite room. The ghost can still roam into these rooms, provide evidence in these rooms, interact with items in or around the room, and spawn in these rooms during hunts or manifestations, but Ghost Orbs cannot be present in these rooms, the ghost will always fail its favourite room change roll if it ends up in one after a long roam, and it will not teleport to these rooms after a hunt.[1]
The maps with such rooms are:
- All hallways and staircases of both floors (not including Lobby)
- Campsite A
- Campsite B
- North East Path
- Bathroom Hallway
- Master Bedroom Hallway
- Child Bedroom Hallway
- Balcony
- Main hallway (the entire stretch connecting both prison blocks up to the metal bars segregating the hallway and the cell blocks, as well as the attached staircase)
- Second floor corridor (the corridor connecting both staircases)
- Sunny Meadows Mental Institution/Restricted
- Foyer (only on the large version of the map)
- Both padded rooms
- All hallways and staircases of both floors (except Entrance Corridor)
- All inaccessible rooms
Tips[]
- As the favourite room or the current location of the ghost can be a corridor, hallway, or large room, there may be difficulties for the players especially when it comes to the accurate use of equipment such as crucifixes and Incense.
- Rooms on small maps containing stairways (i.e, basements in most houses, the Foyer on Ridgeview, etc.) will always include said stairway when chosen as a favourite room.