Hunt

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The hunt is an in-game mechanic intended to complicate further investigation of a location by the player(s). During hunts, the ghost will materialize itself and proceed to roam around the location in order to kill one or more players. For the duration of the hunt, all exit doors will become locked and the ghost will cause all nearby lights and electronic equipment to malfunction.

A cursed hunt is a variant of a hunt caused by cursed possessions. Mechanic-wise, cursed hunts are mostly similar to regular hunts.

Initiating a hunt

Standard protections

Hunts cannot occur while the setup phase is ongoing. The duration of the setup phase by difficulty is as follows:

Difficulty	Duration of setup phase
Amateur	5 minutes
Intermediate	2 minutes
Professional Nightmare Insanity	No setup phase

The setup phase can be ended early if a cursed possession is used or activated.

Once a hunt ends, there is a minimum cooldown of 25 seconds (20 seconds for a Demon) before the ghost can attempt to initiate another hunt. This does not affect the activation of cursed hunts. Ghosts do not necessarily hunt immediately once this cooldown is over.

Regular hunt requirements

At least one player must be within the investigation area for a hunt to begin. All ghosts have a sanity hunt threshold below which they will be able to hunt, and some ghosts may have abilities which may modify the threshold, or even override it entirely.

Using "trigger words" or swearing does not increase the chance of a hunt.

Hunt sanity thresholds

For most ghosts, the average team sanity is used to determine whether the ghost can hunt. The average sanity is of all players who are alive, regardless of whether they are inside or outside the investigation area. Dead players do not count towards the average team sanity.

For most ghosts, the hunt sanity threshold is 50%; ghosts can choose to initiate hunts at random once the average sanity is at or below 50%. Generally, a lower average sanity increases the frequency of hunts, but other factors may affect this.

The following table lists the hunt sanity thresholds and abilities for all ghosts:

Ghost	Condition	Hunt sanity threshold (if non-standard) (%)	Non-threshold based ability/ additional notes
Banshee	Always	Standard	Only checks target's sanity
Demon	On ability phase activation	N/A	Hunts regardless of sanity Can use its ability during the setup phase, but it will not hunt.
	Always	70
Deogen	Always	40
Mare	Lights turned off or broken at ghost's current room	60
	Lights turned on at ghost's current room	40	Regardless of fuse box status
Onryo	Always	60
	Every third flame blown out and no other flame nearby	N/A	Hunts regardless of sanity
Raiju	In the presence of active electronic equipment	65
Shade	Always	35
	At least one player in ghost's current room	N/A	Does not hunt regardless of sanity
Thaye	Initial threshold (Age 0)	75
	Modifier per age added (Age +1)	-6
	Final threshold (Age 10)	15
The Mimic	Inherits hunt thresholds & abilities of currently-mimicked ghost
Yokai	At least one player uses voice chat nearby	80
All other ghosts/ standard	Always	50

Cursed hunts

Cursed hunts can only be initiated directly by using cursed possessions. Cursed hunts always ignore the hunt sanity thresholds and cooldown between hunts; a cursed hunt can start immediately after a normal one, but a normal hunt respects the cooldown after a previous cursed hunt ends. If a cursed hunt is cancelled prematurely due to no one being inside, the cancelled cursed hunt will not count towards the cooldown timer.

Activity

During a hunt, the activity monitor will display level 10. However, the current activity level of a ghost does neither indicates nor relates to the ghost's chances of hunting. Moreover, a display of level 10 does not necessarily indicate an ongoing hunt.

Preventing a hunt

Some equipment can temporarily prevent hunts:

• At the point that the ghost attempts to initiate a hunt, if the ghost is within a crucifix's effective range, the hunt will fail. Each time a crucifix is used, the ghost must wait 25 seconds (20 seconds for a Demon) before attempting to initiate a hunt again. A tier I crucifix can only prevent one hunt, while tier II and III crucifixes can prevent two hunts, before becoming useless.
  • For the tier II crucifix, the range is 4 metres (6 metres for a Demon), and for the tier III crucifix, the range is 5 metres (7.5 metres for a Demon).
• A lit firelight, campfire or igniter within 4 meters of an Onryo will effectively act like a crucifix and prevent the ghost from hunting. The Onryo can however blow out the flame which may cause it to hunt, regardless of sanity level.
• Lighting Incense within 3-5 metres (depending on tier) of the ghost will prevent it from attempting to initiate further hunts for 60 seconds for a Demon, 180 seconds for a Spirit, and 90 seconds for all other ghosts.
• Using the Monkey Paw's "I wish to trap the ghost" wish will prevent the ghost from hunting for 1 minute, along with other effects. However, a guaranteed hunt will happen immediately after.

A cursed hunt can only be prevented by a tier III crucifix with two charges remaining. Incense can still be used to "blind" the ghost as normal during cursed hunts.

Start of a hunt

Each hunt consists of a grace period (not to be confused with the cooldown between hunts) and the actual hunting phase. During the grace period, the ghost will remain invisible and still for a number of seconds, giving players a chance to escape before it begins chasing them. All exit doors lock at the beginning of the grace period, preventing players from entering or exiting the investigation area. The duration of this grace period depends on difficulty or the type of the hunt:

• Amateur: 5 seconds
• Intermediate: 4 seconds
• Professional: 3 seconds
• Nightmare: 2 seconds
• Insanity: 2 seconds
• Cursed hunt: 1 second
• Custom: 0 - 5 seconds

The ghost cannot detect or see players during this grace period. Subsequent hunts after a cursed hunt, where not activated by a cursed possession again, are not "true" cursed hunts and hence revert to the difficulty-based grace period.

The duration of a hunt depends on the difficulty and the map size. These are as follows, excluding the grace period:

Difficulty	Duration of hunt
	Small map	Medium map	Large map
Amateur Hunt duration: Low	15 seconds	30 seconds	40 seconds
Intermediate Hunt duration: Medium	20 seconds	40 seconds	50 seconds
Professional Nightmare Insanity Hunt duration: High	30 seconds	50 seconds	1 minute

After a cursed hunt is initiated, all subsequent hunts in the same contract, whether regular or cursed, including the ongoing cursed hunt, will last 20 seconds longer than the original duration. The hunt duration is the same for all ghosts.

If the Kills extend hunts setting is not off, each successful kill will extend the current hunt duration:

Difficulty	Added duration
	Small map	Medium map	Large map
Nightmare Insanity Kills extend hunts: Low	15 seconds	20 seconds	25 seconds
Kills extend hunts: Medium	25 seconds	30 seconds	35 seconds
Kills extend hunts: High	35 seconds	40 seconds	45 seconds

Using the Monkey Paw's "I wish to leave" wish will unlock all exit doors even during a hunt, but with temporary side effects.

Hunts always initiate from wherever the ghost is standing (except for The Twins in specific cases); it does not have to start from any specific room. Once the grace period begins, an EMF 4 signal will be emitted at the point where the ghost is standing.

Ghost movement

Once the grace period ends, the ghost will proceed to either wander in a random direction, or chase a player. Ghosts cannot teleport during hunts.

Within the investigation area, the ghost is able to access practically all places that players can access. It may also phase through certain furniture such as doors, some beds, and some clutter. The ghost cannot physically enter closets, lockers and mini tents, though it can stand in front of (and appear to be partially inside) one.

Wandering

In a "wandering" (or "roaming") phase where the ghost is not aware of any player, the ghost randomly selects a waypoint on the map, moves to that waypoint, then repeats. The ghost always attempts to take the shortest path to its waypoint.

Chasing phase

If the ghost detects a player, its "wandering" phase will be disrupted and it will enter a "chasing" phase, setting a waypoint at the player's last known location. If it reaches the waypoint, it will repeat this action until it is unable to detect any player, upon which it will search in the immediate vicinity, before returning to its "wandering" phase. If multiple players are detected at the same time (such as a Deogen which immediately detects all players after the grace period ends), it will set a waypoint at the nearest player by straight-line distance.

The following actions attract the ghost:

Being seen by the ghost

• Each player has a total of 6 tracking points, split into 2 groups of 3, each on the upper and lower parts of the hitbox. This is anchored to the player's current point-of-view. The ghost is considered to be able to see the player, or achieving line-of-sight (LoS), if it can see all 3 points of one group (e.g. seeing 2 upper group points and 2 lower group points does not count). The placement of these tracking points means that having the head poke through a closed closet will not allow the ghost to see non-VR players, but VR players could possibly be seen, since they are actually looking through the closet.
• The ghost's vision is 360 degrees.
• There is no maximum distance at which the ghost can see the player.
• Each ghost model has the same "head" height. If the ghost is a crawling model, LoS will still be achieved as if the ghost was standing.
• Most physical objects or structures, except throwable objects, will block LoS. This includes glass windows and doors, and cell walls and doors in Prison.

Voice communications

• During a hunt, ghosts can hear players up to 9 metres away on the same floor.
• Whether the ghost can hear the player is dictated by their voice chat settings. When voice chat is activated, any sound above a certain volume, whether from the player talking or background noise, will attract the ghost within the specified distance.
• Using global chat within 9 metres of the ghost, even without talking, will attract it to the player using it. This does not attract the ghost to other players; players outside the investigation area using global chat will not cause players inside to die.

Active electronic equipment

• The ghost will be attracted by any active electronic equipment held by players in their hand, placed on the VR toolbelt, or being worn on their head, within 7.5 metres of it on the same floor during a hunt. Items that do not make any noise such as flashlights or thermometers will still attract the ghost. Regular flashlights (but not UV flashlights) that are swapped into the inventory but still turned on will also attract the ghost.
• Equipment dropped on the floor or offhand, as well as deactivated Head Gear that is still being worn, do not attract the ghost.
• The player model always has a default, short shoulder flashlight (different from the ones collected from the truck wall). This small flashlight is always turned on and does not attract the ghost.

For comparison, the normal electronic interference range is 10 metres.

Voice communication and electronic detection are similar in terms of detection priority. If the ghost is considered to be on a different floor from the player, the ghost can only detect the player through LoS. Otherwise, the ghost will not be able to detect the player through other methods.

The following do not attract the ghost:

• Footsteps;
• Door, closet and locker noises;
• Electronics on the floor, even when turned on;
• Electronics that are held and turned off;
• Crucifixes;
• Lit incense;
• Firelights and glowsticks, even when lit;
• Players outside the investigation area (except Deogen in some cases).

Special detection cases

Waypoint memory between hunts

During the hunt, the ghost will remember the last detected location of a player before the hunt ended, whether through sight, sound, or electronics. When a new hunt starts, the ghost first has a 50% chance to set a waypoint at this location. This may include the location of a player it killed. If there is no such instance or otherwise, the ghost will "forget" this location and proceed with either regular wandering or chasing.

• This is not relevant when the ghost is not hunting; the ghost does not remember player locations outside of a hunt. It is theoretically safe to hide in a closet or locker indefinitely if the doors remain closed and the player avoids detection, since ghosts cannot walk into them.
• The ghost can only remember one waypoint per hunt; the same waypoint does not carry across multiple hunts.
• If the ghost is smudged, the waypoint is forgotten. Hence, the ghost also does not intentionally go to the last known player location from before the smudge.

Detection in hiding spots with doors

If the player is detected in a closet, locker, or small tent, the ghost will set a waypoint just outside that location, then force open the door(s) of that hiding spot when it arrives, overriding the player holding the door if applicable. This usually results in death unless the player is standing in such a way that delays LoS from being achieved, and they can close the closet door again fast enough.

Hiding behind opened room doors

If there is an opened room door in the ghost's interaction range, it will check if there are players nearby. If this is true, it will roam to the player's location and forcefully close the door, similar to how ghosts open closet/locker doors if a player is detected inside.

Smudging

If the ghost is within range of a burning Incense, regardless of who is holding the Incense, and is successfully "pinged", the ghost will forget the last known player location and be unable to detect or kill players for 5 seconds, causing it to enter the "wandering" phase. When the effect ends, it will be able to detect and kill players again, resuming its normal hunting behaviour. The Incense technically does not "repel" the ghost away from the player, only that it will randomly set a new waypoint which may or may not be in the same direction as the player.

Monkey Paw

Using the Monkey Paw's "I wish to be safe" will enable the ghost to detect the wisher's voice and electronics from infinite range (including from different floors) for the rest of the contract.

Ghost-specific detection behaviours

Some ghosts have different behaviours in terms of detecting players during hunts:

• If the Banshee's target is currently within the investigation area, it cannot detect nor kill non-targets.
• The Deogen always has LoS with all players, meaning it always knows everyone's location.
• Blinding the Moroi using Incense is effective for 50% longer.
• The Yokai can only detect voices and electronics within 2.5 metres of it, instead of the respective 9 and 7.5 metres.

Ghost speeds

The speeds listed below assume a default Ghost speed (%) setting of 100. The speeds will scale accordingly if this setting is changed.

Most ghosts move at a base speed of 1.7 m/s. If a ghost maintains active line-of-sight (LoS) with a player it is chasing, its speed will gradually increase at a rate of 0.05 times its base speed per second, taking up to 13 seconds to reach the cap of 1.65 times its base speed. If it loses detection of a player, it will maintain the speed until it gives up its "immediate area search", thereafter slowly decreasing its speed at 0.01 times its base speed per second. This takes 65 seconds to return to base speed if from maximum speed. Ghosts do not carry over their speed across hunts.

The following ghosts obey LoS, but have additional modifiers that may or may not conditionally override it:

• The Jinn moves at a fixed speed of 2.5 m/s (overriding LoS acceleration) if it has LoS with a player, that player is further than 3 metres away, and the fuse box is on. It obeys normal ghost speeds if any of these conditions are not met.
• The Moroi's base speed increases the lower the average sanity is, going from a minimum of 1.5 m/s to a maximum of 2.25 m/s. With continuous LoS, its maximum speed at the lowest average sanity range (0% - 5%) is 3.71 m/s.
• The Raiju moves at a fixed speed of 2.5 m/s (overriding LoS acceleration) if it is within a certain distance of any active electronic equipment. It obeys normal speeds outside of the radius.
• The main "twin" of The Twins has a base speed of 1.53 m/s, while the decoy "twin" has a base speed of 1.87 m/s.

The following ghosts ignore standard LoS speed rules:

• The Deogen moves slower the shorter its pathing distance is to the player; its speed ranges from 0.4 m/s (within 2.5 metres of the player) to 3 m/s (further than 6 metres). If it is not chasing anyone (e.g. when smudged), it stays at its previous speed, or 1.6 m/s if its previous speed was higher than 3 m/s.
• The Hantu's speed increases the lower the room temperature is, going from a minimum of 1.4 m/s to a maximum of 2.7 m/s.
• The Revenant moves at 1 m/s if it has not detected any player. If it detects a player, it will move at 3 m/s until it reaches the last known position of the player, before decelerating at a rate of 0.75 m/s² (for ~2.7 s) back to 1 m/s.
• The Thaye's speed is fixed at 2.75 m/s initially. Every time it ages, this speed decreases by 0.175 m/s; it will reach 1 m/s once it has aged completely.

Additionally, if the weather is Blood Moon, the ghost's speed is increased by 15%.

For comparison, the player walks at 1.6 m/s and can sprint at 3 m/s for 3 seconds with a 5-second cooldown, resulting in an average speed of 2.125 m/s if continuously sprinting off-cooldown.

Interacting with objects

Ghosts are able to perform interactions during hunts. There are similarities and differences from non-hunt interactions:

• All ghosts have a 50% chance (100% chance for Poltergeist) of throwing one object near them (within their interaction range) every 0.5 seconds during hunts.
• Ghosts can interact with all types of doors, except exit doors and other types of furniture doors. If a ghost with the Ultraviolet evidence interacts with a door, it will leave the evidence accordingly.
  • If the player is holding a normal or closet door, the ghost cannot override it unless it detects the player as defined above. It can still leave an EMF signal and Ultraviolet (if applicable) if it cannot override the door.
  • Ghosts cannot randomly interact with small tent (hiding) doors but will do so if a player is detected in the small tent.
• The ghost can blow out firelights within 5 meters during a hunt, though this is technically not a true interaction.

Most other objects cannot be interacted with by the ghost during a hunt.

Other hunt-related behaviour

During hunts, the ghost will always produce footsteps and one specific vocalization that is used for all hunts in that contract. The interval between footsteps depends on the moving speed of the ghost.

Without adjusting for volume fall-off, the maximum distance a player can hear ghost footsteps and vocalizations during a hunt is 20 metres (12 metres for Myling). If the player(s) and the ghost are located on different floors during the hunt, there will be no electronic interference and the ghost's footsteps and vocalizations will be greatly muffled, though the range is still the same. Sound occlusion and electronic interference does not account for physics; a ghost going up a staircase may sound muffled and not cause electronic interference on the upper floor until it reaches the top, for example.

Within 10 metres of the ghost (15 metres for Raiju), all active electronic equipment and map lights, as well as global chat, will malfunction and/or flicker rapidly.

Players can hear their own heartbeat if the ghost is within 10 metres, and there are no walls, floors, or doors between the ghost and the player, and the closer the ghost is to the player, the louder the heartbeats. Most, if not all pieces of furniture do not prevent heartbeats even when the ghost technically does not have line-of-sight with the player.

During a hunt, the ghost will flicker or flash in and out of existence. The first flicker-in occurs immediately when the grace period ends. The following shows the flickering rates of various ghosts:

Ghost	Visibility length (s)	Invisibility length (s)	Total per-flicker length (s)	Average visibility compared to standard ghost
Standard	0.08 - 0.30	0.10 - 0.92	0.30 - 1.00	N/A
Deogen*	0.20 - 0.30	0.01? - 0.40	0.30 - 0.60	More visible/less invisible
Oni*	0.02? - 0.50	0.01? - 0.50?	0.30? - 1.00?	More visible/less invisible
Phantom	0.08 - 0.30	0.70 - 1.92	1.00 - 2.00	More invisible/less visible

*Note: values for Deogen and Oni are measured values and may not be accurate.
The total per-flicker length refers to the time between two consecutive flicker-ins, i.e. the total duration of 1 set of the ghost being visible and then invisible, in that order. The visibility length and invisibility length added together will not exceed the total per-flicker length. For example, if a normal ghost has a visibility length of 0.30 seconds in 1 set, the invisibility length in that same set will not exceed 0.70 seconds (the total not exceeding 1 second).

In addition, the Obake occasionally shapeshifts into a different ghost model on one flicker-in, before returning to its normal model on the following flicker-in.

Timed correctly, one can obtain rewardable ghost photos during a hunt while the ghost flashes visible.

Dying

Main article: Death

For the ghost to kill a player, their "collision boxes" must intersect, and line-of-sight must be achieved. When the ghost kills a player, the player will drop all of their equipment and grotesque hands will appear on their screen before they are teleported into an otherworldly room alone with the ghost. The dead player will then return to their location with their entire screen covered in bright fog. From another player's perspective, the victim drops their equipment and reaches for their neck as they're being strangled by an invisible force, before dropping dead. One dead player chosen at random can be revived if a tarot card labeled The High Priestess is drawn or if the Monkey Paw's "I wish for life" wish is used with a 50% chance of killing the wishing player. If all players die, the contract will end.

End of a hunt

A hunt ends when the ghost successfully kills a player (when Kills extend hunts is off), the ghost's hunting time is up, or there are no alive players within the investigation area for any reason, including if every player is killed, if every player glitches out at the start of a hunt/during a hunt, or if the exit doors are unlocked with the Monkey Paw's "I wish to leave" wish and every player exits during a hunt.

When the hunt ends, the ghost will disappear and be teleported back to its ghost room, the exit door can be unlocked again, all on-site lights will turn off and can once again be toggled.

Related difficulty settings

• Ghost speed (%): How quickly the ghost moves
• Friendly ghost: The ghost will never hunt. Turning this setting on will result in zero rewards
• Grace period (s): The duration before the ghost can kill you at the start of a hunt
• Hunt duration (s): The duration the ghost will hunt for
• Kills extend hunts (s): The time added to the hunt duration when killing a player
• Setup time (s): How long before the ghost can start a hunt

Trivia

• Hunts do not count toward witnessing a ghost event.
• The number of hunts during a given game will appear on the resume screen in the lobby.
• It is possible for a hunt to start without any players inside the investigation area; when a player stands perfectly in an exit doorway, it's possible for a hunt to start, as the game thinks they are inside the investigation area, but with the player getting pushed outwards and out of the investigation area when the doorway is blocked. If this happens, the hunt will immediately end.

See also

• Guides/Surviving a hunt
• Guides/Identifying ghosts
• Guides/Common misconceptions

History

Early Access Alpha
2 February 2020	Doubled the hunt duration.
	Ghosts now have a higher chance of teleporting if it cannot find players while hunting.
5 March 2020	Global chat is now unusable during hunts.
	Ghosts will now flash in and out during hunts.
10 March 2020	Ghosts will no longer teleport while hunting on smaller maps.
19 March 2020	Added a grace period of 3 seconds to the start of the hunt.
23 March 2020 (Part 2)	Ghosts now flash at a faster rate during hunts.
23 March 2020 (Part 3)	Ghosts now appear for longer during hunts.
	All exit doors are now locked during hunts and cannot be unlocked until after the hunt.
	Ghosts now emit footstep sounds during hunts.
25 March 2020 (Part 2)	Hunts now cause the Site Activity Monitor to show at level 10.
30 March 2020	Reduced the hunt duration.
31 March 2020	Hunts will no longer initiate if no one is inside the building.
8 April 2020	Added a 15 second cooldown between hunts.
26 April 2020	Flashlights will now flicker during hunts.
30 July 2020 (Part 2)	Lights will now turn off while the ghost is in the room during a hunt.
15 August 2020 (Part 3)	The ghost is now invisible during the grace period at the start of a hunt.
17 August 2020 (Part 2)	Increased the cooldown between hunts to 25 seconds.
22 August 2020	Heartbeats will now play when looking at the ghost while it is invisible during hunts.
3 September 2020 (Part 2)	The ghost now appears for longer when flashing during hunts.
10 September 2020	Ghosts will now teleport back to the ghost room after a hunt.
Early Access
22 September 2020	Increased the grace period to 8 seconds.
0.28.6.5	Decreased the grace period to 5 seconds.
	Ghosts no longer move during the hunt's starting grace period.
	Ghosts now accelerate or decelerate depending on whether they see a player.
	Ghosts now have a chance to remember the last known location of a player.
	Ghosts now open both locker doors slightly as a chance or to kill players.
	Furniture now blocks line-of-sight.
0.3.0	The flickering animation for flashlights during hunts has been changed.
	All electronics now flicker during hunts, instead of only some.
	Electronics now only flicker within a certain radius of the ghost.
	Most electronics now attract the ghost during hunts.
	Decreased the grace period to 3 seconds.
	Global chat now works outside of the electronic interference range.
0.3.0.1	Increased the grace period to 4 seconds.
0.4.0	The hunt duration is now variable based on map size.
	The grace period is now variable based on difficulty.
0.5.0	Ghosts can now throw objects during hunts.
	Added cursed hunts.
0.6.1.0	Ghosts can now check behind doors.
0.6.2.1	Ghosts no longer emit footsteps while standing still during the grace period.
0.7.0	Reduced the audible range of ghost vocalisations from unlimited to 20 metres.
	Increased the rate of interacting with objects during hunts to 50% every 0.5 seconds.