Phasmophobia Tempest Update Improves Crucifix Item for the Better

Kinetic Games recently released the new Phasmophobia Tempest update for the popular horror online co-op game and one of them improves a very important item in ghost hunts.

Phasmophobia Tempest Update Released

The latest update has now hit Phasmophobia online, which has introduced a few additions, a lot of improvements, changes, and more. One of the items that got affected is the crucifix, a very useful item in driving away ghosts before they get the jump on you. The update improved on that and now everyone is looking at ways how to weaponize this rather interesting feature.

When getting haunted by ghosts, in an emergency, players can put a crucifix on the ground and it will create a rather small dome of extra security. The only problem is, it is rather quite small and the crucifix will dissolve after two uses. The item can be used to give players more time to complete optional quests and sometimes, it can be used to stop a whole haunt completely.

Before the update, throwing a crucifix is a bit of a gameplay as players do not know where they would land exactly. The latest update changed all that as it allowed them to finally see the trajectory on from the thrower down to where it landed. It has also allowed players to see the three-meter radius of extra security.

Unfortunately, some nasty features got back into the game again. Fog is back again, which is a curse for some players as it confuses them easily. There is now sunrise weather, optimized rain, and now snow effects. The new Custom difficulty system has been rebalanced again and have made some big changes to the mechanics.

Full Patch Notes

Holiday ‘22

From now until Early January, you can take part in the Phasmophobia 2022 Holiday event!

  • Earn yourself a Unique Holiday Trophy for your collection as well as an exclusive Holiday ‘22 ID card and badge!

Reward Changes

Custom Difficulty

With the addition of Custom Difficulty, we’ve seen so many exciting, unique and challenging games being created, but we’d like to redirect what the purpose of Custom games is, and there are several reasons why:

  • We’d like Custom Difficulty to be primarily used for fun and interesting games, with unique twists, similar to other games with a “Custom games” mode, without the worry of how much you’re getting out of it.
  • It’s very difficult to balance each option’s rewards to have a corresponding and fair reward multiplier. Because of this, it’s incredibly quick to create games that are potentially much easier or faster than their default difficulty counterparts but give the same or even more rewards, which makes the default modes redundant.
  • With our analytics and player data, we can see that the large majority of players still play Intermediate and Professional.
  • Having a set reward per custom option makes them very fragile and limits what we can change for the default difficulties, or any future difficulties we’d like to add to the game.
  • Lastly, with the large upcoming changes with Progression 2.0, we’d like experience and money to be gained fairly for every player, and try to avoid any cheesy reward tactics if we can.

Because of these reasons, we’re making the following changes to Custom’s rewards:

  • Custom Difficulty will now have an 80% reduction applied to the reward multiplier

We know this is a huge change, but this should separate custom games into a challenge and fun mode, and keep the default difficulties as the main route for character progression.
In the second part of this major update (coming soonTM), we’ll be adding something special for those wanting a regular, harder challenge than Nightmare and something super special!

Note: Current and future challenges (like the Apocalypse Challenge) will still be accessible in Custom and still grant trophies for your collection.

Investigation bonuses

To compensate for the above changes, we’re adding some additional rewards for playing well in the default difficulties, which will reward players who have the sharpest eye for ghost identification.

We’ll also be changing the rewards for secondary objectives, to encourage players to complete the primary objective each game instead of ignoring it.

  • Added “Payments” page to the journal

Investigation bonus

  • If you can identify the ghost correctly and escape alive, you will double the money and experience you earn for the primary and secondary objectives you complete during that contract!

Perfect Investigation bonus

  • If you manage to complete the above but additionally; collect the bone, and fill your journal with 3-star photos, you will gain an additional sum of money and experience on top of the Investigation bonus!
  • Secondary objectives have had their rewards reduced to make way for the Investigation bonuses

Note: Investigation bonuses are affected by the difficulty multiplier!

Ghost Types

With every update, we like to look into which ghosts need some love. We found that some ghosts needed some buffs and some needed changes to help with low evidence runs!

All ghosts

  • Hunting ghosts’ model flickers are now synced across all players (which should also help hunt photo reliability)
  • When hunting, ghosts now affect lights at the same range as equipment, if on the same floor.
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Wraith

Wraiths have been adjusted to match their journal description better

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  • Updated journal weakness

Obake

Obake have finally remembered how to shapeshift!

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Revenant

The legendary Revenant has been left behind in the ranks of the new threatening ghosts. So, we’re finally returning some former glory to the speed beast, and adjusting how this ghost hunts, hopefully placing them back on the podium!

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Goryo

As Goryo have a history of disobeying their roaming changes, we’ve finally put an end to the over-exploring ghost

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Hantu

Hantu’s secret ability’s visuals have been adjusted

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Yurei

  • Yurei can no longer use their ability when there is no door in its current room

+ The empty details on the ghosts would only spoil the fun so if you want to know about them, check here.

New

  • The Unity rendering pipeline has been updated to URP, spreading some of the load to GPU usage, increasing CPU performance, and allowing us to access new features!
  • Fog has returned!
    • Fog will now only be where it makes sense and has received a visual overhaul
    • Locations will start at the same temperature as Clear weather (8-15°C)
  • Sunrise weather has been added
    • Locations will start with temperatures between 10-18°C
  • Weather effects have been completely recreated from the ground up
    • Rain and snow have received large performance increases and improved visuals
  • New graphics options have been added
    • Sky light – For enabling sun or moonlight in each locationScreen Space Ambient OcclusionFog qualityFidelityFX 1.0 – AI upscaling for better performance(Only compatible with AMD RX 400 GPUs and newer / Nvidia GTX 10 series GPUs and newer)
    • Anti-Aliasing options – You can now choose between FXAA, SMAA, and MSAA. VR players can only choose MSAA
  • You can now place crucifixes
    • When placing the crucifix, you can now see the range of its effect on the environment
  • All post-processing effects have been adjusted and improved
  • Added a text option for voice recognition. This will show UI for selecting what question to ask on the Spirit Box and Ouija Board
  • If you swap to a new PC or reinstall windows your save will now revert to your personal cloud backup

Changes

  • The Smudge Sticks’ burn effect has been improved
  • The Haunted Mirror’s effects and visibility have been improved
  • Improved glowstick model and effects
  • Transparent objects and effects will now receive shadows from lights
  • Resetting your save file will now wipe your cloud backup
  • Improved performance on campsite maps
  • Fingerprints have been moved on Willow doors to be more consistently placed
  • Radios are now interactable with the breaker off
  • All players must now be further than 5m from the Ouija board before it breaks, instead of just the person who activated it
  • The Ouija board will now auto-deactivate when walking outside the map.
  • Sanity pills no longer disappear when using them. Instead, they now drop on the floor and are no longer useable
  • Improved all candle wax effects when lit
  • Improved two hiding spots in Sunny Meadows; one by the restricted area door and in the one restricted wing
  • Small tent cloth is now translucent

Fixes

  • The ‘average sanity’ objective will now complete at the same time for all players
  • The bone will no longer spawn inside other objects
  • Tripods no longer count as electronic equipment after removing a camcorder
  • Willow windows are now the correct way round
  • The weekly challenge timer will now reset at the same time as the challenges themselves.
  • The “Complete daily challenges” weekly challenge will now only trigger when a daily challenge completes, instead of when it progresses.
  • You can no longer scroll to another item while placing something
  • The ghost’s room will now show on the board in the truck in training
  • The Deogen spirit box reply will now work if you are not crouched
  • The morgue door VR grab point is now in the correct position
  • Hitting the crouch button, then physically crouching in VR no longer pushes you enough into the floor that the ghost cannot kill you
  • Computer monitors in prison no longer turn on when the power is off
  • The “ghosts repelled” stat will now count if you are not the host
  • In Sunny Medows, the female hallway light switch will no longer toggle the utility room’s light
  • Journal on/off buttons are much clearer to understand
  • The EULA accept button will no longer be clickable until you scroll to the bottom
  • The objects moved stat will now correctly count poltergeist throws
  • Your inventory will no longer break if you grab more than one item before joining a game
  • Room reflections will now be accurate after turning a light on and off quickly
  • Russian and Ukrainian fonts will no longer have grey boxes around most characters
  • VR death room spawn position is now correct
Former News Editor