Skip to main content

Sanity, Hunts, and Survival Guide

By ScotPublished Updated Checked against v0.19.0.0 on

Tactical Quick Answer

Sanity is your primary resource in Phasmophobia, and it controls how often ghost events and hunts fire. Your team starts at 100 percent on most difficulties and loses sanity to darkness, ghost events, ghost abilities, and cursed possessions, and once the average of all living players falls below a ghost's threshold it starts rolling hunt checks. Turning on main hallway lights, taking medication well before you reach 50 percent, and watching the truck sanity board keeps you out of the danger zone.

Sanity is your primary resource in Phasmophobia. As your team average sanity drops, the frequency and danger of ghost events and hunts increase sharply.

This guide covers sanity mechanics, ghost hunt execution, control keybinds, survival tactics, and cursed possessions.

Sanity Drain Mechanics​

Team sanity starts at 100% when stepping off the truck on Amateur, Intermediate, Professional, and Nightmare. Insanity starts you at 75%, and Custom lets you pick 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100. Sanity cannot move at all until someone opens an exit door, and it cannot fall below 50% while the setup phase is still running.

Primary Sanity Drain Sources​

  • Darkness: Standing in rooms with main lights off drains sanity continuously. The base rate is roughly 0.12% per second on a small map during the normal phase, dropping to 0.08% on medium and 0.05% on large, and lower still during setup. Difficulty multiplies it, from 1x on Amateur to 2x on Professional and above, and playing solo halves it.
  • Ghost Events: Only the player the event targets loses sanity, and only if they make contact with the manifestation or smoke ball. That costs 10% normally, 15% for a Banshee singing at its target, and 20% for an Oni. Simply watching an event from across the room costs nothing.
  • Teammate Deaths: Every living player loses 15% sanity when someone dies.
  • Ghost Abilities: Special ghost abilities (Yurei door slams, Jinn power siphon, Poltergeist multi-item throws) cause abrupt sanity drops.
  • Cursed Possessions: Using cursed items (Ouija Board, Tarot Cards, Haunted Mirror) consumes significant sanity per interaction.
warning

Do not wait for 50% to take Sanity Medication. 50% is the standard hunt threshold, so by the time you reach it the ghost is already rolling hunt checks. Drink earlier. Note also that you cannot drink above 95% sanity, and that a dose restores an amount set by difficulty, not by tier: 40% on Amateur down to 20% on Insanity. Higher tiers only make it work faster.

Manage sanity in this priority order:

  1. Turn on main hallway lights. Lit rooms keep passive drain near 0%.
  2. Take Sanity Medication above 50%. You stay clear of the standard hunt threshold.
  3. Watch the truck sanity board. The whole team sees who is in the danger zone.

Ghost Hunt Mechanics​

When the average sanity of all living players drops below a ghost's hunt threshold, the ghost rolls periodic checks to initiate a hunt. Dead players are excluded from the average, and players outside the building still count.

The one exception is the Banshee, which reads only its chosen target's sanity. A Banshee can start hunting while the truck monitor still shows a comfortable team average.

Difficulty Grace Periods​

During the grace period at the start of a hunt, the ghost is locked in place or invisible, allowing players time to run and hide.

DifficultyGrace Period Duration
Amateur5.0 seconds
Intermediate4.0 seconds
Professional3.0 seconds
Nightmare2.0 seconds
Insanity2.0 seconds
Cursed hunt (any difficulty)1.0 second

How Ghosts Track Players During Hunts​

During a hunt, ghosts search for players using three primary tracking mechanisms:

  1. Line of Sight (LOS): If a ghost spots a player, it locks on and accelerates over time. The Aswang, Deildegast, Deogen, Hantu, Kormos, Revenant, and Thaye do not use standard line-of-sight acceleration, and the Dayan, Jinn, and Raiju override it with fixed speeds under their own conditions.
  2. Active Electronics: Ghosts detect active equipment within 7.5 meters on the same floor, whether held, on the VR belt, or worn as Head Gear. A Yokai only manages 2.5 meters.
  3. Voice Audio: Ghosts hear player microphones within 9 meters on the same floor. A Yokai only manages 2.5 meters.

Line-of-sight acceleration runs in stages:

  1. Most ghosts hunt at a base speed of 1.7 m/s.
  2. While the ghost can see you, it gains 0.05x its base speed every second.
  3. After 13 seconds of continuous sight it caps at 1.65x base speed, 2.8 m/s for a standard ghost.
  4. When the ghost loses sight, the bonus bleeds off slowly and can take up to 65 seconds to fully decay from top speed.
note

The cap is a multiplier, not a fixed ceiling. A 1.7 m/s ghost tops out at 2.8 m/s, but a Moroi at 0% team sanity has a 2.25 m/s base, so the same 1.65x rule takes it to 3.71 m/s.

Patch v0.17.1.4 on June 2, 2026 reverted the line-of-sight speed accelerations that the Player Character Update had introduced, putting them back to their original state.

Do not count on a ghost losing you and immediately slowing down. Deceleration is far slower than acceleration, so a ghost that has been chasing you at full speed stays dangerous for a long time after you break line of sight.

Control Keybinds and VR Optimizations​

  • PC Quick Inventory (Keybinds 1-4): Use numerical keys 1, 2, 3, and 4 for instant gear swapping during hunts instead of scroll-wheel cycling. These arrived in v0.18.0.0, they are PC only, and they can be rebound. Slots fill in the order you pick items up, from 1 to 3, and Igniters always default to 4. The launch build locked Flashlights to slot 1, and the v0.18.0.1 hotfix on July 28, 2026 removed that.
  • Watch Inspect Key: A dedicated key checks your sanity and the contract time without swapping to an item. It defaults to H on keyboard and Left DPAD on a controller, and you can rebind it under Options > Controls.
  • Cancel a Use Animation: Press the Use button again during an animation to cut it short. That lets you toggle equipment without waiting for the animation to play out, which is worth real seconds when a hunt starts mid-placement.
  • VR Control Improvements: Headset gaze tracking dictates turning orientation instantly. Upper body animations remain independent of foot locomotion, keeping held video cameras and parabolic microphones completely stable while walking.

Closet and Hiding Spot Rules​

  • Closets & Lockers: Crouch inside, turn off all gear, stop speaking, and hold one door handle shut if the ghost comes near. Ghosts cannot physically enter a closet, locker, or mini-tent.
  • What Actually Gets You Killed: Being seen walking in is not the trigger. The ghost has to detect you while you are inside, by line of sight through a gap, by your microphone within 9 meters, or by active electronics within 7.5 meters. Once it does, it sets a waypoint outside and forces the doors open, overriding a held handle. Ghosts do not remember hiding spots between hunts.
  • Door Handles: The ghost cannot open a door a player is physically holding. Solo you can only ever hold one of a pair, so hug the door you are holding. Covering both needs a second player.
  • Furniture Hiding: Crouch behind boxes, beds, or partition walls out of direct line of sight from room entrances.
  • Incense Defense: If trapped in a dead end, light Incense when the ghost approaches. It blinds the ghost for about five seconds (seven against a Moroi), during which it cannot detect or kill you and has to pick a new waypoint. Higher tiers change what the blind does, not how long it lasts: Tier I only blinds the ghost, Tier II also slows it to half speed, and Tier III stops it moving entirely, with range growing from 3 m to 4 m to 5 m. Only a Tier III smudge leaves the ghost standing still, so with Tier I or II plan on getting away.

Cursed Possessions Reference​

Every map spawns exactly one Cursed Possession, and each of the seven items has its own dedicated spawn point on every map. Which of the seven turns up is random, but where it sits is not, so learning the seven spots per map pays off. Insanity spawns none at all, and Custom lets you set anywhere from zero to seven.

1. Tarot Cards (Deck of 10 Cards)​

  • The Sun: Restores sanity to 100% (5% chance).
  • The Moon: Drops sanity instantly to 0% (5% chance).
  • The Tower: Doubles ghost activity for 20s (20% chance). It no longer forces an interaction, which it did before v0.8.1.0.
  • The Wheel of Fortune: Grants +25% sanity (green glow) or takes -25% sanity (red glow) (20% chance).
  • The Devil: Triggers a ghost event near the player (10% chance).
  • The Hermit: Walks the ghost back to its favorite room and disables roaming for 1 minute (10% chance). It does not teleport the ghost, and it does not stop hunts or events.
  • The High Priestess: Revives a dead teammate or stores a revive charge for the next death (2% chance).
  • The Hanged Man: Instantly kills the drawing player (1% chance).
  • Death: Triggers a cursed hunt instantly (10% chance).
  • Fool: Appears as another card initially, then transforms into The Fool upon drawing (17% chance).
  • Active Hunt Override: Drawing ANY Tarot Card during an active hunt forces a 100% hard-coded chance to draw The Fool, preventing the deck from being used as a defense item.

2. Ouija Board​

  • Purpose: Ask questions regarding ghost room location ("Where are you?"), bone location ("Where is the bone?"), or player sanity ("What is my sanity?").
  • Cost by Question: Asking the ghost's current room costs 50%. Proximity, bone location, room count, and shyness cost 20% each. Age, cause of death, your sanity, its feelings, and its purpose cost only 5%. "Hide and seek" costs nothing but breaks the board.
  • What Actually Breaks It: The board shatters and starts a cursed hunt if no player is within 5 meters of it while it is active, if the asker cannot pay a question's sanity cost, or if anyone asks for hide and seek. Saying "Good Bye" deactivates it safely, so it is walking away from a live board, and not a missing farewell, that gets you hunted.

3. Haunted Mirror​

  • Purpose: Peer into the mirror to see a real-time panorama view of the ghost room.
  • Cost: 7.5% sanity per second, or a 20% minimum per use, whichever is higher. Any glance shorter than about three seconds still costs the full 20%, so take one long look instead of several short ones.
  • When It Cracks: It shatters and triggers a cursed hunt if your sanity reaches 0% while looking, or if you activate it while already below 20%.

4. Music Box​

  • Purpose: Plays a tune that forces the ghost to sing along, revealing its location. It can be heard up to 20 meters away.
  • Cost: Standing within 3 meters drains 2.6% sanity per second, which is about 77% across a full song.
  • What Triggers the Cursed Hunt: The ghost manifests and walks toward the box once it is within 5 meters, and that part is safe. The hunt fires when the ghost's head gets within 1 meter of the box (half a meter for a Yokai), if the ghost walks for more than 5 seconds during the event, if the box is thrown while playing, or if the holder hits 0% sanity.

5. Summoning Circle​

  • Purpose: Light all 5 candles using a Lighter to summon the ghost trapped inside the circle for 5 seconds (great for ghost photos).
  • Cost: Each lit candle consumes 16% player sanity, so 80% for the full set.
  • The Trap: The exit door locks the instant the fifth candle catches, and the cursed hunt that follows has no grace period at all. Be standing where you intend to run from. Candles lit below 16% sanity blow themselves out, except the fifth, which forces an immediate hunt.

6. Monkey Paw​

  • Purpose: Grants wishes, and the count runs opposite to what farmers expect. You get 5 wishes at a 0 to 1x reward multiplier, 4 between 1.01x and 2x, and only 3 at 2.01x and above.
  • "I wish to see the ghost": Forces the ghost to appear and blinds you. It also locks every exit door immediately and guarantees a cursed hunt five seconds later.
  • "I wish for sanity": Sets everyone to 50%, multiplies passive drain by 1.5, and rerolls the ghost's favorite room, so your evidence setup may now be in the wrong place.
  • Reviving: The phrase is "I wish for life" or "I wish to revive my friend". There is no "I wish to resurrect". It only works when somebody is already dead, and it has a 50% chance of killing the wisher instead.

7. Voodoo Doll​

  • Purpose: Push pins into the doll to force ghost interactions.
  • Cost: The doll has 10 pins. Each ordinary pin drains 5% sanity, and the heart pin drains 10% and triggers a cursed hunt. Using the doll at 0% sanity pushes every remaining pin at once and also triggers a cursed hunt.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What drains sanity fastest in Phasmophobia?

The Summoning Circle costs 80 percent for a full set of five candles, and a full Music Box song at close range costs about 77 percent. The Haunted Mirror burns 7.5 percent per second with a 20 percent minimum per use. Ghost events cost the targeted player 10 to 20 percent on contact, and standing in dark rooms costs about 0.12 percent per second on small maps.

How long is the grace period at the start of a hunt?

Amateur gives 5.0 seconds, Intermediate 4.0, Professional 3.0, and both Nightmare and Insanity 2.0. A cursed hunt gives 1.0 second on any difficulty. The ghost stays locked in place or invisible during that window so you can run and hide.

How do ghosts find you during a hunt?

Three ways. Line of sight locks them onto you and accelerates them over time, active electronics give you away within 7.5 meters, and player microphones are heard within 9 meters. Both are same-floor only. Turn your gear off and stop talking.

What happens if you do not say Good Bye on the Ouija Board?

Saying Good Bye deactivates the board safely, but the real danger is leaving. If no player is within 5 meters of a board that is still active it shatters and triggers a cursed hunt. It also breaks if you cannot pay a question's sanity cost, or if anyone asks it for hide and seek.

Can you use Tarot Cards to escape an active hunt?

No. Drawing any Tarot Card during an active hunt has a hard-coded 100 percent chance to give you The Fool, which stops the deck from working as a defense item.