In Phasmophobia, the Spirit Box is a piece of equipment that you can use to gather Spirit Box evidence, helping you to identify the ghost you’re dealing with. When used under the right conditions, players can use the Spirit Box to communicate with the ghost by asking valid questions or saying recognized phrases. If the ghost has Spirit Box as one of its pieces of evidence, it will likely respond–though higher difficulty levels with less evidence may impact this.
Its responses may not necessarily prove useful in identifying it, but any response counts as valid Spirit Box evidence and takes you one step closer to determining your spectre. In addition, using the Spirit Box can also be useful when trying to identify a certain ghost’s unique abilities. For example, if the ghost’s age response changes across the course of the contract, you likely have a Thaye on your hands, while a heavy breathing response is specific to the Deogen.
There are a lot of questions you can ask the ghost through the Spirit Box in Phasmophobia, but below, we’ve rounded up those most likely to get a response and what that response could be–though you may not like it.
In This Article
How to use the Spirit Box
Spirit Box questions and responses
Spirit Box aggression questions and responses
Spirit Box location questions and responses
Spirit Box age questions and responses
How to use the Spirit Box without voice chat
How to use the Spirit Box
A row of light lights on the Tier 3 indicates a successful Spirit Box response.
The most important thing to note about the Spirit Box is that not all ghosts will respond to your questions; only those with the Spirit Box as evidence will successfully do so. However, being able to rule out the Spirit Box as evidence is just as useful, so always make sure to try it. You can’t just run in and start bothering the ghost with your questions, though; certain conditions need to be met to ensure you get a successful response from eligible ghosts.
Before you start using the Spirit Box, check (if available) the board in the van that reveals who the ghost responds to, either ‘everyone’ or ‘people who are alone’ (requiring you to be in the room alone when using the Spirit Box). If this information isn’t available and the Ouija Board cursed object is available, you can ask the Ouija Board to tell you–but it’ll cost you some Sanity.
With this determined, take the Spirit Box to the ghost room and turn off the lights in the room, ensuring you’re alone if needed. Toggle the Spirit Box on and use your selected voice input to ask the ghost a question. Note that the Spirit Box needs to be within a certain range of the ghost for it to respond: three meters for Tier 1, four meters for Tier 2, or five meters for Tier 3. These tier levels also impact the chance of the ghost responding, with higher-tier Spirit Boxes having a greater chance to elicit a response.
If the ghost gives an audible response through the Spirit Box, then you can mark it down as evidence. If you see the ghost icon light up white (Tier 1), a ghost icon appear (on Tier 2), or a line of white LEDS (Tier 3), this also counts as a successful reading. If you see a red ghost icon light (Tier 1), an X instead of a ghost icon (Tier 2), or a line of red lights (Tier 3), this means the question was valid, but the ghost didn’t respond–in this case, it’s worth trying a few more times before you rule it out. Anything else means your question was either invalid or there’s an issue with your mic/voice recognition.
While you can stand and hold the Spirit Box, asking questions one at a time, my advice if you’re using voice chat is to activate the box and then place it on the floor, allowing you to ask questions and await responses while searching for other evidence.
Spirit Box questions and responses
Try to use the Spirit Box as early as possible, once you’ve found the ghost room.
There are three main categories of Spirit Box questions in Phasmophobia: how aggressive is the ghost, its location, and its age. The ghost will not provide an answer to your specific question, but the category of that question will determine its potential response, which typically takes the form of a news report sound bite. For example, if you ask “Are you friendly?”, a ghost won’t say yes or no, but it may(if eligible) respond with a short phrase that includes the word “kill” or “death,” indicating it’s probably not friendly.
But it’s not necessarily the response that matters here, but whether the ghost does respond. So, really, you can get what you need from the Spirit Box by remembering three main questions: “Are you friendly?,” “Where are you?,” and “How old are you?” These cover all three categories and are valid questions that the ghost, if eligible, should respond to. However, below, we provide a list of other popular questions you can ask and the responses the ghost might give.
Spirit Box aggression questions and responses
To ask the ghost about how aggressive/friendly it is, you can ask the following:
“Are you friendly?”
“Should we leave?”
“Do you want to hurt us?”
“Why are you here?”
“What do you want?”
Be warned, the ghost will never respond positively to these questions–we’re not dealing with Casper here. Instead, the sound bite response to these sorts of questions will feature the word “attack,” “kill,” “death,” “hurt,” or “hate.” Here are some of the potential aggression responses you will hear:
“Kill”
“…active killing…”
“…project killing…”
“…to killing…”
“Attack”
“The attack left a…”
“An attack..”
“…getting attacked has left…”
“..the attack has left a…”
“The attack was…”
“Death”
“…a tragic death…”
“…person died…”
“…this person died…”
“…only death…”
“…trail of death in its…”
“…tragic death…”
“Hurt”
“…left hurt after a…”
“…injured in a…”
“…hurt after…”
Hate
“…act of hate…”
“…possible hate crime…”
Spirit Box location questions and responses
Asking Spirit Box questions about the ghost’s location can actually help you identify how close the ghost is to you if it responds. Here are the location-related Spirit Box voice commands and questions you should ask:
“Where are you?”
“What is your location?”
“Are you close?”
“Give us a sign.”
“Are you here?”
“Show yourself.”
“Is there a ghost here?”
“Can you talk?”
The ghost’s response to your location question will indicate how many meters away it is from you. The sound bite response to this category of questions will feature the word “here,” “close,” “behind,” “away,” or “far.” Here are all the possible location responses:
“Here”
The ghost is within two meters of the player.
“…here in the local…”
“…right here, in/at the…”
“…right here…”
“Close”
The ghost is within two meters of the player.
“…a close encounter…”
“…close to an abandoned…”
“…in a close-knit community…”
“…close to…”
“…close to passing…”
“Behind”
The ghost is within two meters of the player.
“…from behind…”
“…struck from behind…”
“…from behind, leaving…”
“Far”
The ghost is between two and five meters away from the player.
“…the far-reaching…”
“…far from their home…”
“…far and wide…”
“…found far from their home…”
“…far…”
“Away”
The ghost is between two and five meters away from the player.
“…that was taken away…”
“…taken away…”
“…slips away…”
Spirit Box age questions and responses
Each Phasmophobia ghost has a randomized, predetermined age between 10 and 90. This means that asking the ghost its age isn’t particularly helpful for your investigation, but doing so can help identify a Thaye. So, if you think you’ve got one, make sure to ask an age-related question to the Spirit Box later in the contract to see if its response has changed from “Young” to “Elderly.” Here are the questions to ask the ghost through the Spirit Box:
“How old are you?”
“Are you old?”
“Are you young?”
“Are you a child?”
Ghosts that respond to this question will answer with a phrase that contains either the word “Elderly” or “Young.” Here are some of the possible sound bite responses:
“Elderly”
“…an elderly individual…”
“…an elderly resident…”
“…an elderly victim…”
“Young”
“…between a young assailant…”
“…a young individual…”
“…the young individual became…”
How to use the Spirit Box without voice chat
A simple trick that makes it easier to use the Spirit Box.
As in many games, voice chat/recognition in Phasmophobia can be a bit temperamental at times, but here’s a tip if you’re struggling to get a successful Spirit Box reading or don’t have a working microphone. Go into the game’s menu, then ‘Options’ settings, and change ‘Voice Recognition Mode’ to ‘Text.’ This will allow you to use a text-based UI menu to select Spirit Box questions rather than ask them through voice chat, though the options are limited to just three.
