Not very. And that is why I chose to write this guide. A person like me that plays Professional and occasionally Nightmare wanted to tackle the worst challenge of this game. One because of achievement hunting, and another to see what cool badge or emblem you can get out of it Nothing :( . However every post, video, and guide was with people having 800 hours, attempting this for months, or can play zero evidence and x13 multipliers like a casual Friday. I consider myself good, but not godlike and decided to attempt this game's hardest challenge before prestige. Lo and behold, I got it done and so can you.

To put simply, you will see this on every post, guide, or discussion about this challenge. It is pretty RNG dependent and nothing like the normal Phasmophobia experience. You are expected to abuse what little you have and push back at such an unfair challenge. If you attempt this, try to do so with failure in mind, because a perfect run can end because the ghost just happened to wander in the worst spot.

You will need to get used to using a timer. Everything you do will rely heavily on being able to tell how long a ghost hunt is, when to attract the ghost for a photo, how long between hunts, how long an incense will work, and various other uses. Either have your phone on standby or look into an overlay stopwatch that you can start/stop without having to Alt+Tab out of the game.


Before you even attempt this, and make it double, make sure you unlock Tier 3 equipment. The most important tool you can have is the tier 3 parabolic, along with the Night Vision Goggles [Tier 3 head monitor]. There will be no flashlights, no sanity meds, and no equipment. Being in single player, you cannot rely on other people to supply you, so make sure you are well equipped. You will also need to be able to multitask a stopwatch, whether on your phone or computer. This can be a dealbreaker for several ghosts, and is a must have to safely know when to run, and when to hide.

Below is the equipment loadout I used, which costs $565 to refill if I died. If You Do Not Want To Lose Items, Leave The Game When You Die So You Do Not Lose Inventory. This means you would miss out on a guess to see if you were right, but more than likely you will have to guess at some point. At the time of trying this I had about $50k so dying didn't bother me, it was just faster to quit than go through the dying screen.



Note that you can basically bring one of everything, because you are the only player. You can more than likely get away with one motion sensor.
Edit; You can ignore the Salt. As a returning player I thought salt was still an objective and never noticed that it got removed.

• A Different Tier Incense. You will likely see players either use tier 1 or tier 3. Tier 3 has the longest duration, largest range of 5m (as big as a T3 Crucifix), and the longest blind timer. But there is a massive difference they all have, and that is how the ghost is slowed down. If you intend to STOP the ghost for photos, a Tier 3 is the way to go. As a fellow noob there is zero chance of me getting a photo as the ghost is sprinting mach 10 past me, so I had to go Tier 3. But if you are really good with photos, a Tier 1 incense will be better because IT LETS THE GHOST WANDER AWAY BLINDLY. This is crucial for trying to stall for time, where a Tier 3 will have to be spammed back-to-back forcing you to waste 3 or 4 per photo atttempt.
  
  
• Headgear. If you do not like the Night Vision Goggles, or cannot afford them, the only other way to see in the dark will be a video camera of your choice. This can be extremely risky, but it is faster to drop the camera that de-activate the goggles if the ghost wanders too close while hiding. A camera also has benefits of letting you observe in the truck if you can manage to get it close enough to the ghost room, albeit way too risky to even try.
  
  
• Photo Camera. A tier 1 photo camera is not electronic, and WILL NOT ATTRACT A GHOST IF HELD. The cooldown is really long, meaning you will only have a couple chances for a ghost photo, but the advantage is being able to have it at the ready without accidentally attracting the ghost.
  
  
• Any tier Crucifix will work, ideally Tier 2 or 3 due to their double usage. A tier 1 just isn't worthwhile due to its range.

At this point in the game, you should be able to do Nightmare mode. This will teach you two very important thing.

1. How to escape a ghost during a hunt.
   
2. How to identify unique ghost behavior.

I cannot consistently do Nightmare, unless the ghost is obvious. For example, I can easily tell what a Revenant is but not the difference between a Yokai and Onryo on Nightmare and higher. And this can highly relate to this challenge. If you get a ghost that is difficult to identify, it's better to reset than keep trying and likely fail.

There is a handy unofficial cheat sheet that you can use for unique behavior, and more importantly hear footsteps for small differences. There is a ton of information and built-in timers. Definitely a go-to for anyone that needs to narrow down a couple options.

https://tybayn.github.io/phasmo-cheat-sheet/


**Although Heavy Rain Is Fine, You Can Change The Weather and Still Have x15 Multiplier If You REALLY Do Not Like Heavy Rain**

The number one decider for your run are the objectives. Every guide will discuss this, but it is CRUCIAL to get objectives you know are possible. I would recommend ignoring this for your first couple attempts, so you can get used to the new feeling of a super fast ghost and slow walk speed. Once you get a feeling for it, re roll your objectives until you get something you can do.







Any combination of these 3 objectives is the ideal run. All of these you will have to do in order to fully identify the ghost. You will need a valid ghost photo (any star) for this challenge, objective or not. Meaning you will need to get up close and personal with the ghost so any objective involving Incense or Photos are perfect. There is a way around it with ghost events, but it is extremely risky.



This is almost a given, easy objective. You will always want to use the parabolic to listen for ghost hunts and timers. And almost every time you will hear paranormal sounds. The only time you do not want this is if you try with a lobby ghost that can instantly find and un-alive you.





These objectives are very easy, but require an extra item. In a challenge like this you want to be in and out as quick as possible, so if you can handle it, these are not too bad and all can be done during a hunt while you try for the ghost picture. Motion sensor and Firelight simply needs to be in the room you will take the photo, and the EMF needs to be on the door when the ghost touches it to enter your room. the Firelight can actually be done by a chapel ghost by naturally blowing one out, so you could wait in a hiding spot until it eventually blows one out.



These objective will more than likely get you killed. They are not impossible, but get extremely RNG dependent. Firstly the Crucifix. In between hunts you have about 30 seconds. To put in perspective, that is the time it takes to go from the entrance to the chapel doors. That is not very far. To both find and get into the ghost room is near impossible, and will require wasting an incense or two just to get in, stall a hunt, and hope the ghost is even close enough for a crucifix/incense delay.

The ghost event is straight suicide. One of my runs had a ghost in the small kitchen to the left of the chapel. It would wander a LOT, and made it difficult to attract into the chapel for a picture. So long in fact that the ghost room eventually became the chapel and I began getting ghost events. One event was the ghost hush where it manifests, walks into you, and hisses. Just so happens a hunt happened 1 second after the event and I died because the ghost was on top of me from walking into me from the event. The ghost turned out to be an Onryo, so no teleportation abilities here. On one hand, this was an extremely easy way to nab a ghost photo outside of a hunt. However this forces you to be in probably the worst spot to hide from any ghost.

This challenge has you locked at 0% sanity, so this objective will not appear.

Now we have the gear, we have the objectives, and we know about unique evidence, its time to make a plan for how to actually find the ghost. With so many options, this means the ghost can behave extremely random. So its more than important to learn from your mistakes and why. Here are some ways to be preemptive.


For the first hunt, there are 3 ghosts that can instantly ruin your day if not prepared. A Wraith, Banshee, and Deogen. Before entering the building, throw your objects through the door. At the minimum; have a photo camera, 2 incense, lighter, crucifix, EMF, and parabolic. Once all items are in place, IMMEDIATELY place a Crucifix near your hiding spot with the EMF visible.


I usually always have time to put a second one slightly further before hunting, next to the desk which both Crucifixes can cover the entire lobby area.


This is preventative for a Wraith/Banshee. A Wraith will burn a crucifix AND leave an EMF 2 reading behind. so you will either have 2 readings at once, or hear the EMF go off right before a crucifix burns. I learned the hard way about a Banshee, and ended up getting 2 of them within 5 hunts. A Banshee will walk towards you, then teleport back to its spawn. Some people may say the opposite, but the point being that a Banshee can wander from its spawn room to your hiding spot. Unfortunately, it can hunt any time during this. This means if a Crucifix burns without a tell-tale EMF from a wraith, or the one across the room burns, you could easily have a Banshee. Another tell-tale sign would be the Banshee scream. That doesn't always happen. Or if you notice the ghost starts hunting closer to you than normal all of a sudden when it's normally far away, high chance of a Banshee. If I get either of these, or a lobby ghost, I leave. You will be against the clock with crucifixes and waste too much time putting them in place. and a lobby ghost is just asking for trouble.

Once the crucifixes are in place, get behind a wall and watch the front door. Make sure to start a timer RIGHT as the lock closes. there is no grace period so your timer may be one or two seconds off. Once the hunt starts, I usually just start listening with the parabolic while wedged into a corner. I always died to lobby ghosts, so I never attempted them. If you think you can handle a lobby ghost than you will want to hold an incense while listening for a couple seconds, if there are no footsteps, bust out the parabolic and listen.

Once the timer has reached 1 minute, open the front door BUT DO NOT STOP THE TIMER. a Demon can hunt within 20 seconds, any other ghost is 25 seconds. You also need to wait a hunt or two for a wraith/banshee ability and to properly time between hunts. Remember;

Just Because It Can, Doesn't Mean It Will

This also lets the ghost wander more to open doors and can tell you if there is a basement ghost or if the lobby is relatively safe. The door opening for hunts is usually reliable for my next step after the lobby.






The ideal ghost. A very easy win as long as you don't panic. I actually had this ghost in an early attempt, but was trying for ghost event objective. meaning I had to find a way to get inside the ghost room, which is almost not happening. Once a hunt starts, turn on the parabolic and listen.
if the ghost seems to be sprinting UNBELIEVABLY fast at you, drop the parabolic and panic smudge. Either you have a Hantu and are ungoldy screwed, or the stars have aligned and you have a Deogen.

The trick here will be to get behind the Deogen every hunt, and luckily there is a nifty piece of scrap in the lobby to do so. This is not very reliable to run circles around, but is just enough to get behind it without a smudge. Basically from here on every time you need to enter the building, abuse this spot to get behind it, and go left to the desk and run in circles.






Step one is to throw your items through the front door. Then enter, setup a Crucifix, and wait. Once the front door closes start a timer and listen. Spend the first hunt hunched in the corner holding and incense. Once your timer is almost up, try to open the door and keep the timer running. reset every time a new hunt happens. Wraith/Banshee will burn a crucifix. Deogen will always come to you. A Demon will always hunt faster than other ghosts.

No doubt in any guide, walkthrough, or video people will say go to the chapel. Its not just for a nice hiding spot, its the middle of the map. A great spot to camp while you listen in the parabolic for where the ghost is. More or less the plan is simple. Bring a parabolic, and anything you find useful, and sit in the chapel until you hear the ghost. My Go-To is always a parabolic and 2 smudges. You will have to take 2 or 3 trips, so My plan was to leave smudges in whatever room i choose, then bring a camera, lighter, and smudge the 2nd trip without a parabolic so if I became hunted, i could nab a ghost photo and potentially have 3 smudges on hand to survive.

When walking to the chapel, You will have JUST enough time to make it in the door when a hunt starts. usually the ghost never starts exactly after the 25 second limit, so I haven't had an issue with a nearby ghost spawn. You can also leave the lobby early, around the 50 or 55 second mark to get a head start since the ghost will more than likely stop hunting before it gets too close. Pay very close attention if the doors are thrown open, because that means the ghost is nearby and you may not have much time before it moves into your room.

If you can hear the ghost nearby from the front door, you can just do everything here at the entrance and never have to wander the facility. If you think the ghost is in the basement, the offices in the middle section can be treated like the chapel, but hiding spaces will be up to luck. There are a ton of obstacles to block Line of Sight [LOS], but in my experience a basement ghost was more of a pain than it was worth. On one hand, its a single hallway, easy to lure for a photo. On the other, the severe lack of hallways means there's only so many places for the ghost to wander before it finds you. Absolutely doable with patience, but not my ideal strategy.

So you are relatively safe, you are in the middle of the map, time to find the ghost and make a judgment call. This is where the famous Piano comes in. You can hide next to it, and a wandering ghost will not see you. Until it decides to check out the piano. If the ghost moves into the room, you see cold breath, and it makes a piano sound, you will have to retreat back to the lobby and try from there. Otherwise just chill out for a couple minutes and listen.

-If you still cannot hear the ghost, it should be safe to wander the room. Check both sides and listen. If you still cannot hear the ghost, it will be downstairs or on the FAR end of either wing. At this point I would just reset as it can take way too long to walk to the ghost. There is one exception that got me a winning run, which will be the next section. For now though,


This can easily differentiate a unique ghost from a generic one. here, it is important to get used to 2 things.
1) Getting used to timers. I never used a timer before this challenge, and will likely never use one again. But for this monster of a task, get used to quickly starting a timer during a hunt AND MULTITASK WATCHING IT. Depending how far you are willing to go, a timer will make or break you.
2) Finding how fast the ghost can walk. By tapping your finger, your toe, your teeth. Anything to get the rhythm. Get an understanding of how fast it is. Here we can easily find a couple ghosts.

UTILIZE THE UNOFFICIAL CHEAT SHEET TO HELP NARROW DOWN A GHOST'S WALK SPEED IF NEEDED.

**When I refer to 'normal' speed, i mean a normal 150% ghost speed, not the normal 100% we are all used to**


There will only be 2 options. A Revenant, which will sound almost exactly like a normal 100% speed ghost at this speed and is indistinguishable. Or a Twin that is only slightly slower than a normal speed ghost. My first trial run was actually a Revenant, but with bad objectives I had to leave. Easy $5k if you need the money or want some nice xp. But that's not why we are here.


Being in the Chapel, The Deogen has been ruled out. Meaning only a handful remain. The fastest ghosts here will be a Hantu or Thaye. They will have an almost identical speed, but luckily we can do a test for them later. Next comes a Moroi, which is faster than normal but not as fast as the former two. Finally the faster Twin, only slightly faster than normal speed.


Only 2 ghosts can change speeds between hunts; the Mimic and the Twins. The Twins will always be slightly faster or slightly slower, but a large enough difference between the two to easily tell between hunts. A Mimic can copy any ghost, and can change every 30 seconds or 2 minutes, meaning you will have a different ghost every 1 or 2 hunts. This can be deadly if It becomes a Deogen when not prepared. So while listening in the chapel, if something is rapidly approaching you without wandering a bit, make sure to start moving.

A Mimic will also ALWAYS leave ghost orbs, even on zero evidence. If you can narrow down the ghost area, and suspect a Mimic, you can try to leave a camera in the hallway and hope that the ghost room changes into it. A mimic will always copy the behavior / speed of the currently mimicked ghost, so the safer option would be to wait a couple hunts for speed changes.

Note a Hantu should change speeds when it enters a warmer room, but you can safely assume that will not be happening. That being said you could catch a small change in speed as it wanders, but with how fast a Hantu is, it will be zipping from cold to warm rooms too fast to notice.


This is where to make the judgment call. You probably re-rolled 20 times for good objectives. For once the ghost isn't spawn camping the lobby. Do you continue or try for an easier to identify ghost? Regardless of what you choose, you will need a ghost photo. And easily half the remaining ghosts can be identified from there. But your attention to detail will have to be sharper. If you choose to go on, make sure you can manage your timer properly, and pay CLOSE attention to footstep speed, because it can be the deciding factor.



Get to the Chapel. Hide behind the Piano, and listen. Move around the room if you deem it safe to do so to hear around the map better. Use your knowledge or the cheat sheet to time the footsteps and identify the ghost. Either plan now to take the picture, or reset for a different ghost.

Go Right.

This will be the ideal location and can almost guarantee you a win. No matter what the ghost is, if you can tell it is in the right wing, take your chance and go there. Of the 10 actual attempts I made for a ghost photo (the rest I reset because the ghost was either too far to detect or in the basement), only once was it in that hallway. I could not detect the ghost in the lobby, moved to the chapel and heard nothing, and only when having my face shoved against the right wing door did I hear it. WAAAAY in the back, but i knew it was the winning ghost and got me the gold.


Haul everything as close as possible, abuse an object to run the ghost in circles to spam pictures, and run like hell.


There is a handy hospital bed shoved against the wall that is the perfect spot to squeeze into. Any wandering ghost will not see you here, unless they manage to go in front of the nearby bookshelf. But like any hiding place, its always up to chance. This is a great spot because it gives you the most time to get as far as you can inside the hallways before a hunt. You can also reach the door for your timer(s) to tell when a hunt has started and ended to really maximize your time. Overall, the perfect camping spot before venturing deeper. And if the ghost is near the main hallway, you can use this spot to hide for your photo if needed. But the perfect spot on this map is . . .



This cot is at just the right spot that you can walk around it, but the ghost cannot. Even a Revenent can be outplayed here allowing easy pictures and any other objective, even getting close or into the ghost room if lucky. The dangerous part here will be getting stuck in the hallway. Unfortunately, the walk here is long enough the ghost will start hunting before you can reach here from the door, but burning an incense to reach here will be more than worth it. Even if incensed early in the hunt, it gives plenty time to retreat out of the door to the outside cot and wait for a hunt before retreating further.

Make sure to abuse the nearby bookshelf you have to pass before the bed to block any LOS from a ghost sneaking up on you. This is actually where I hauled all my items (backup incense, camera, parabolic, and motion sensor) before the final stretch of playing with the ghost.

This is more or less the same setup, as it pans out the same. If you want to tackle a ghost in the chapel, pay close attention to your timers. Your hiding spot should have all your incense ready to go, as you will more than likely only have one chance. The plan is simple, wait for the 40 second mark on the timer and turn on your global mic, night vision goggles, and anything to attract the ghost. If hiding in a room, make sure to step out into the hallway. The ghost can and WILL see you from a mile away. It is important to attract the ghost near the END of a hunt. Remember, you cannot run. Where you choose to take a photo will be your last stand.

Once the ghost gets near, if it isn't already, light an incense and drop immediately. The incense will burn and the ghost will be blinded while you spam pictures. Try to take 2 or 3, then pickup a 2nd incense and wait for the ghost to start moving. This is where a Tier 3 incense can shine as the ghost will stop moving, making easier to observe. If you are good at taking photos, use a tier 1 incense and the ghost will wander away. But being that it took me 6 tries to get a photo that counted, I myself am not good enough to use less than a Tier 3.

You may notice people in guides tend to snap a photo first BEFORE smudging. They are faster at keybindings than me, and with how often a ghost blinks I feel like i would mess it up worse that way. Being trigger happy with an incense is easier than quickly timing a camera and trying to remember if you scroll up or down for your incense in a split second. You have 4 incenses, make sure to use them or risk having to do a whole new run.


For a hallway ghost, you basically have to haul your items room by room until you get close, or the ghost wanders to you at the perfect moment. RNGesus hates you, so do NOT be afraid to take advantage of a ghost that has wandered near you at the 45 second mark. Being nervous has cost me a couple runs, making the ghost spawn a little to close to me the next hunt. REMEMBER TO SPAM LIGHTSWITCHES. Regardless of the breaker, power, or broken lights, any light switch can be flicked. If you cannot flick it anymore, the hunt has started.


For a chapel ghost the strategy is the same. The difference being you can hide in the chapel while the ghost walks through it. There are many rooms where you can squeeze into small spaces or awkwardly thrown beds to hide behind, but the chapel piano is pretty reliable and CLOSE TO THE EXIT. I've had an almost perfect Myling in the Hallway run ruined because it spotted me moving between rooms from the opposite end of the right Courtyard Hallway.


After attempting these hallways twice, I do not recommend them. It takes so much time to travel there and back just for a small mistake to ruin your day. But it is easy to abuse the courtyard. If you find the ghost next to the chapel, in one of the side hallways, you can haul all your item up the other side of the map. Go into the courtyard, throw everything back inside the building and treat the nearby rooms like the Lobby. Enter, wait for a hunt, and listen. STAY NEAR THE COURTYARD DOORS. Once you can get a photo, spam smudge and hide if possible. Once the hunt is done, enter the courtyard, leave out the opposite side, and slowly leave through the front. This process is painfully tedious and after a serious attempt, I gave up these areas for good.

The kitchen is a death sentence with how deep into the building you have to go, and escape. All you need is a wandering Shade to come say hello and ruin almost an hour of hauling items.

This is it. The moment of truth. A lot will happen here in a short amount of time, so you need to be mentally prepared. You need to have a timer ready, Incenses nearby, Camera in hand, and any objective equipment ready. You only have one chance for a photo and to finish identifying the last ghosts. The strategy for the photo is simple; Spam light switches or listen in the parabolic for the start of a hunt. At 40-45 seconds GET THAT GHOSTS ATTENTION. If you are extra far out of the range, try earlier.

KNOW HOW LONG YOUR CHOSEN INCENSE WILL LAST. This will determine how many pictures you should take before re-smudging, and will help you keep track on your timer. pay very close attention to footstep speed to tell if it wore off to maximize your time for photos and observation.

Here is the most important part, your attention to detail. A lot is about to happen and you need to be ready.

The first difference, and easy one, will be if you had a fast ghost earlier. A Hantu will have cold breath visible, a Thaye will not. A small difference, but extremely obvious. Neither ghost speeds up with LOS, so their walk speed is max speed.

At zero sanity, this is the fastest ghost once it has LOS on you. It's footsteps will be so fast, there will be no pause between them. If you managed to sneak up on the ghost (incensed it around a corner rather than waiting in the hallway), a Moroi will be blinded longer than a normal ghost. Meaning with no LOS, it will be walking normal speed for 7 seconds rather than the typical 5 (or frozen by the tier 3 incense). The LOS speed will be obvious, but keep an eye on how long it stays frozen.

A Myling's dead giveaway is the footsteps. If you get glitchy equipment and can hear the ghost's voice in a hunt BEFORE footsteps, its a Myling. More specific, your equipment should be glitchy around 15m, where the ghost will become audible around 12m. A small difference, but really obvious from other ghosts. You may even learn this early when finding the ghost as every other ghost will be very LOUD in this echo-y map, heavy rain or not.

Similar to the Moroi, It will become incredibly fast in a short time. A Raiju will also become fast without LOS if you have something turned on, like an EMF for your objective or night vision goggles to see the ghost. So if you suspect Raiju, leave something turned on in that hallway and try listening in the Chapel again. If the ghost is still very fast the next hunt around where you left an item, its a Raiju.

An easy one to identify. The ghost will be more invisible than other ghosts, and actually be noticeably harder to get a photo. An average ghost blinks every half second, almost timed up with the heartbeat if you need a quick measurement. A phantom blinks EXTREMELY slowly.

What about the opposite. What if the ghost is barely blinking and is mainly visible? That would be an Oni. An Oni means you had a very easy time taking the picture. It still blinks at about the same rate, but it will stay visible MUCH longer. As in you will actually see arm swaying and movement than a bunch of snapshots.

This will depend on the smudge timer. I recommend NOT resetting your hunt timer and let it run. It will be more accurate than stopping and resetting, especially after your instinct will be to check if you even got a worthy photo. A spirit will take 3 minutes to hunt again, so if your timer is almost at 4 minutes without a hunt (if done ideally somewhere around 3:50), its a spirit. At zero sanity, its not likely but it does happen that a ghost can take a while to hunt. You can try another smudge test, but that decision will be up to you to press your luck.

A Poltergeist ability makes it throw objects VERY frequently during hunts. An object every half second compared to a normal ghost, maybe one every 2 seconds. Wherever you choose for your showdown, make sure some items are nearby. If items are constantly moving and being thrown, its likely a Poltergeist. Pretty hard to see in the heat of things, but very obvious once you know what to look for.

A very difficult one to spot. An Obake can shape-shift, but will only change for a single blink, at least once a hunt. With us waiting until the end of a hunt to attract a ghost, there is a very real chance of surviving 2 hunts without seeing a shape-shift.


Check for 3 important things while taking the photo.

1. Footsteps. Either quiet or much faster than usual
   
2. Is the blinking of the ghost unusual? Faster or Slower than usual? Did it shape-shift?
   
3. Are a lot of objects being thrown around enough that it seems there's always something moving?

Lastly, when running away, make sure to keep a close eye on your timer for Demon (90 seconds) or Spirit (240 seconds).

Unfortunately there is no good or easy way to determine the remaining few. Just like how we avoided Ghost Events and Crucifix objectives, the last couple require the ghost room.

Yurei - Smudging will trap the ghost. Meaning you need to monitor a motion sensor and/or salt in the front door of a ghost room we have not found.

Mare - More active in the dark. On a dark map. With a broken fuse box. You can try trigger the Mare ability if it is within 4m of you flicking a light switch. Which is just asking for failure.

Jinn - Extremely fast with LOS while the breaker is on. With a broken breaker box. Impossible to accurately test.

Goryo - Evidence will always have dots on camera instead of in person. On a 0 evidence game.
A Goryo will not change rooms, so you can eliminate Goryo if the ghost changes room into your hiding. But keeping track of the specific ghost room is dangerous.

Shade - Will not hunt with a person in the room. Where we haven't found the room. With a ghost that wanders and changes room very frequently. No cursed object for shadowy figure either.

Yokai - Will attack at high sanity while talking in the room. When we do not know the room on fixed 0 sanity. There is a way to potentially determine a Yokai, which is using your global mic, which any ghost can detect from 15m away, but a Yokai will not be able to detect until it is withing 2.5m. The problem here being that you will find it is ALWAYS hard to attract a ghost for the photo.


This is why you need to make the judgment call early. Of the 24 ghosts, 14 are normal speed you need to investigate and only 6 are near impossible to identify in this challenge. Thats almost half the normal speed ghosts, which is why I would abandon any normal speed ghost you cant identify outside Wraith / Banshee (which i still wouldn't attempt them again). I would recommend going to your Journal -> Home -> and select whichever is the most common for you and make a guess at this point. Trying for the last bit of unique evidence on these ghosts is far too much of a risk, with only Goryo being viable to cross off if you can hide nearby, and the ghost room moves into yours.

Just a quick synopsis of my strategy in action and how it got me to victory. I had a ton of attempts, a handful of potential winners, and one victory.

The run started like normal, I had reset for objectives and got Capture a photo, Repel with Incense, and Motion Sensor. After doing about 20 resets because i refused to do Firelight, I was willing to try. To not ruin my sanity I was with a friend on discord and they were playing a demo for the game CryptMaster, so we were just hanging out. I setup the crucifix, sat in the lobby and waited, This ghost actually took a LONG time to hunt. I legitimately thought I messed up the settings somehow with how long the first hunt took to start. I waited in my corner, played with my timer, started looping it between hunts to check for demon. It legit took 2 minutes to hunt again.

Satisfied I had Parabolic, Smudge, and lighter and went to the Chapel. No nearby doors opened, except the chapel door so I felt pretty safe but was worried maybe it was a Myling in the Chapel. So I listened for the ghost. Nothing. I ran to the right side chapel. Nothing. For about 5 minutes I waited, but was mainly paying attention to my friend's stream to pass the time.

As a final try a went into the right wing spot and listened. A hunt had started so I hid by the door, let a new hunt start and waited. Nothing. Right as I opened my journal to give up, I heard it. For one split second I heard footsteps in the far back of the wing. So far away that the ghost didn't wander at ALL during the hunts. This was it. My ideal spot. So I began hauling items, starting with my initial items, and coming back with 3 smudges.

One thing I noticed was that this ghost was taking an unusually long time between hunts, but there was no ghost I knew with that behavior. It was just insane luck. I hauled everything into the hallway, right behind the nearby bookcase and my heart started pounding. I knew this was it, and I heard a really fast ghost while hauling items in the parabolic meaning Hantu or Thaye. An easy distinction.

I started with the photo, bringing a camera, lighter, and incense and waited by my looping spot too afraid to take 2 trips for more items. I could actually see the ghost with my night vision down the hallway, but it absolutely did NOT want to come down. Eventually I began seeing my breath and got worried about another spawn kill, but luckily it stayed down the hall. Eventually it did make its way, and I panic smudged, hid around the cot, and spammed pictures. Overall, for such a fast ghost, was very easy to cheese using that cot.

Once the hunt ended I knew i had extra time. I grabbed 2 motion sensors, set one up in my spot and one slightly closer to the ghost in the middle of the hallway. I was ready to wait on the opposite side of the map until it would wander into the sensors. As I went back to my stash, i grabbed 2 incenses and a lighter and started spamming the light switch for the next hunt. Turns out the ghost had other plans and ran from down the hall DIRECTLY INTO MY ROOM. I panicked smudged, went to the nearby cot, and began looping again, my heart about to explode.

After the hunt my only thought was to leave as fast as possible. I don't know how the ghost knew exactly where I was, but that was one second away from losing EVERYTHING. While walking I mulled over what I saw, or rather lack of breath from the ghost. I was 100% going with Thaye, and once again this ghost took FOREVER to hunt again. I was able to slowly walk from that looping cot, down the hall, and into the lobby before it hunted as i reached the main door. My heart about to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ explode because what are the odds the ghost would instantly find me again with only 2 smudges. That last hunt was the longest, I got out the door, in the truck, and snagged my trophy.

This run was the easiest attempt I had, but this sits on a pile of wasted attempts, especially having a Banshee hunt immediately next to me by the exit when unprepared, which had never happened to me before even on normal games. But for 6900k points/money, it was just enough to get me to lvl 100 ready for my first real prestige (my prestige 1 was from playing this game a LONG time ago)

This challenge is not fun. It did not even give a cool emblem or sigil to justify, just a trophy no one will look at only if I am the host. This challenge forces people to break down the game to it's core elements and dissect the ghost AI down to a science.

I think this game peaks on Nightmare with the sanity monitor enabled, so you can use all your tools properly and make smart educated guesses while still having the ghost hunting theme of finding evidence before the ghost finds you. Nightmare forces you to weigh your options in a ghost hunt and come out stronger.

This challenge was the complete opposite. No sprint, not lights, forced to guess based on walk speed and minute differences. Having to abuse a timer and reset constantly for bad objectives. No hiding spots. I can only dread thinking about people that have done this with Tier 1 equipment or how this challenge was at all before tier 3 existed.

I would recommend seeing people attempt this, because you can learn a lot from this challenge. But actually attempting this was praying to RNG that you had an identifiable ghost, it spawned in a decent area, AND you had manageable objectives. Overall took me about 3 days or practice, but at least a couple weeks of Nightmare games to both rank up and learn ghost behaviors. If you do attempt this, make sure to be mentally ready before clicking that Apocalypse 3 modifier.

Huge shoutout to the developer of the unofficial cheat sheet by SeverelyZero for helping me learn ghost speeds and with tons of visuals.

The wiki for all its wacky numbers and counters.

2 Youtube guides that really helped me;

One for some interesting decision making that I started learning in Nightmare by ItsJovanaar

One for hiding spots and where to loop the ghost for an easy trophy by Maggstor.
**Long but a must have if attempting this.**


And lastly tons of toxic online players that made me learn how to smudge and run out of spite.