„A Phantom is a ghost that can possess the living, inducing fear into those around it. They are most commonly summoned from Ouija Boards.”
The Phantom is a type of ghost in Phasmophobia. It is known to drain the sanity of those that have sight of it during a manifestation.
Behavior[]
Abilities[]
If a successful photo is taken of a Phantom, the ghost will be invisible in the photo, and the photo will not contain any interference.
Furthermore, if the photo is taken during a ghost event,
- The ghost will physically disappear
- Electronic equipment will cease to malfunction
- Players will no longer hear their heartbeats
- The event sound will continue to play for the duration of the event
If the photo is taken while the Phantom is in a D.O.T.S state, it will also physically disappear.
If the photo is taken during a hunt, the Phantom will also be invisible in the photo, but it will continue to physically flash in and out, and the hunt will not be affected in any way.
The Phantom has an ability where it will choose a random player and travel to their location (as opposed to a regular roam).[1] This will create an EMF Level 2 reading at the location where the roam ended. This behavior is somewhat similar to that of the Banshee and the Wraith; unlike Banshees, Phantoms do not select a player to target until they die or leave the game, and do not do this as often; and unlike Wraiths, the Phantom physically walks to that point rather than teleporting, and will set off Motion Sensors and disturb Salt on the way to it.
Being within 10 metres of a Phantom while in pseudo line-of-sight (where heartbeats play) reduces the player's sanity by 0.5%/s. This only applies during ghost events and hunts, and is separate from passive sanity drain. This does not apply during ghost events if the Phantom was made invisible by taking a picture.
Hunt[]
During a hunt, the Phantom flickers and is on average visible for shorter and invisible for longer compared to most other ghosts:
| Ghost | Visibility length (s) | Invisibility length (s) | Total per-flicker length (s)[note 1] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phantom | 0.08 - 0.30 | 0.70 - 1.92 | 1.00 - 2.00 |
| Standard ghost | 0.08 - 0.30 | 0.10 - 0.92 | 0.30 - 1.00 |
Evidence[]
Strengths and weaknesses[]
These are the strengths and weaknesses as listed in the journal:
Strength: Looking at a Phantom will drop your sanity considerably faster.
Weakness: Taking a photo of the Phantom will make it temporarily disappear.
Strategies[]
Identification[]
A good way to identify a Phantom is to observe whether the ghost is invisible for longer intervals on average during hunts (more than 1 second); this will usually indicate a Phantom.
Taking a photo of a Phantom is also a fair indicator; the Phantom will not be visible in the photo, and there will be no interference pattern on the photo. If the photo was taken during D.O.T.S or a ghost event, the ghost will also disappear from view. This can be done when the ghost appears in D.O.T.S, when it manifests during a ghost event, or during a hunt; Generally D.O.T.S will be the most reliable, as the ghost is visible less frequently during hunts making photos difficult (and observing this blinking behavior is already enough to identify a Phantom anyways), and ghost events can be quite rare. However, note that on reduced evidence difficulties, a Phantom is not guaranteed to have D.O.T.S as one of its evidence.
- Note that occasionally, desync may cause the same effect if the picture is taken right at the end of the ghost event, even if the ghost is not a Phantom. This may make this semi-unreliable; checking with other players about whether the photo is completely clear may help you to arrive at a conclusion (though it is not definite).
- This could also happen at the very end of a hunt.
- This is better to do with a Summoning Circle or Music Box, since the "ghost event grace period" is generally fixed or predictable.
- Taking photos of any ghost from a different floor will not produce interference, though for all other ghosts the ghost will still be visible.
- Taking a photo of a Goryo during its D.O.T.S state will also produce no interference, and the ghost to be invisible on the picture.
The Phantom's sanity-draining ability could be used to identify it, though this is rarely the main strategy used, as its sanity drain is gradual and not as dramatic as e.g. a Moroi or Jinn's sanity drain, and the player must discern normal sanity drain due to darkness/other factors, from the actual sanity drain caused by a Phantom.
If activity (interactions or hunts) is noted in a room far away from its existing favourite room, and a player has recently been in that far-away room, then the ghosts could be narrowed down to a few ghosts, one of these being the Phantom. Note that some ghost events or custom difficulty settings make it normal for any ghost to move far away in this manner. On the other hand, this is more reliable on big maps, since ghost activity for a generic ghost is more likely to be confined to a small area relative to the map size.
When it roams to a player, it will leave an EMF level 2 reading where the roam ended, and if the player notices such a reading appearing out of nowhere when there has been no interactions and/or the player is far from the ghost room, then it could be a Phantom. Keep in mind that Wraiths also exhibit this behavior; confirm that it is not a Wraith by placing Salt nearby.
Survival[]
Since the Phantom is visible much less frequently during hunts, it will be harder to track, and players may die as a result of not knowing exactly where it is in time. Specifically, it will be much harder (and not recommended) to loop the ghost, while blinding it using Incense must be treated with caution: stand at the end of a suitably long hallway, and smudge slightly earlier than one would normally do to avoid being caught off guard. Tracking the ghost by its hunting noises is also a considerable strategy when dealing with a Phantom.
Trivia[]
- Etymology-wise, Phantom pulls from as early as Greece with the word φάντασμα, or phantasma, which stands for an apparition or a ghost. It could also be translated to something that is not real in general, like a dream or an illusion.[2] As such, phantoms in most tales typically elaborate more on the concept of being an illusion version of something that already exists. The Phantom could be said to be a dream ghost.
- Contrary to the journal's description, the Ouija Board is not related to the Phantom in any way gameplay-wise; contracts where the cursed possession is Ouija Board do not have a higher chance of the ghost being a Phantom and vice versa, and it has no relation to a Phantom's ability to wander to players.
History[]
| Early Access Alpha | |
|---|---|
| 6 March 2020 | Increased the amount of time during which Phantoms are invisible during hunts. |
| 7 August 2020 | Visible Phantoms now drain sanity if the player is within line-of-sight nearby. |
| Early Access | |
| 0.3.0 | Prior to 0.3.0, the evidence was EMF Level 5, Ghost Orb, and Freezing Temperatures. |
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ This refers to the time between the start of two consecutive flickering-ins.
| Ghosts |
|---|
| Banshee • Demon • Deogen • Goryo • Hantu • Jinn • Mare • Moroi • Myling • Obake • Oni • Onryo • Phantom • Poltergeist • Raiju • Revenant • Shade • Spirit • Thaye • The Mimic • The Twins • Wraith • Yokai • Yurei |