Phasmophobia got a new update this week, one that developer Kinetic Games said contained "important difficulty changes" dealing with the ghost hunts. The goal of these changes, according to the developer, is to bring the gameplay more "towards where it needs to be."

Patch notes released alongside the update show that the developer wasn't kidding when it said the "changes may seem significant." Kinetic Games assured players that the changes have been tested for a while now on the beta version of the game to ensure balance is maintained.

A new update is now out for the main build that adds several important difficulty changes.

You can read the full patch notes here: https://t.co/f7D0OpPFwM
#Phasmophobia

— Phasmophobia (@KineticGame) May 14, 2021

You can find the patch notes for all those difficulty-affecting ghost changes below alongside some other key changes made to the game. For the full patch notes including the bugfixes, you can see those through the game's Steam page.

Phasmophobia Update

New

• Added player volume controls to the main menu server screen which will carry over between games.
• Added several new hiding places to Grafton and Bleasdale.

Ghost Changes

• The ghost will no longer move at the start of the hunt in the starting phase which is now 5 seconds instead of 8. This is to prevent confusion as to when the hunt has actually started.
• All ghosts except Revenants will now move increasingly faster over time if they see you during a hunt. The speed will only drop if they can't see you after they have checked your last known location.
• The ghost now has a chance to slightly open both closet doors at the same time during a hunt.
• The ghost now has a 50% chance to remember where it last saw you during the last hunt and will search that area in the next hunt.
• If you keep talking inside a locker or closet and the ghost knows you are in there it will now fully open both of the closet or locker doors on it's second attempt even if you are grabbing them.
• Furniture will now block the line of sight between you and the ghost. This means that there are now a lot more places you can hide in all maps rather than just closets and lockers.

Changes

• Asylum: Increased the size of player icons on the truck map.
• Prison and School: Optimisations to significantly improve load times and fps.
• You can no longer click any multiplayer related UI buttons (join, create etc.) on the main menu when you are still connecting to the server or a new region.
• Crucifixes will now cause a 5 second delay in between each hunt attempt after it gets used by the ghost.
• Removed the Garage and Basement keys as they currently have no purpose.
• Bleasdale: Some minor lighting changes to help with performance.
• The Non-VR area light will now light up the equipment in your hand which will allow you to see what you are holding in the dark.
• bHaptics: Removed the footstep haptic effect. More haptics will be added in the future.
• Tanglewood: The Garage room has been slightly changed to prevent some exploits.