Phasmophobia offers five preset difficulty options, plus a custom and challenge mode, for you to choose from. But these difficulty levels don’t simply dictate how aggressive the ghost will be; they also influence critical aspects such as how much official evidence you can gather, how quickly your Sanity drains, the number of cursed possessions, how long (if any) set-up time you get, and, most importantly, your rewards.
That doesn’t mean you should jump to Insanity, the hardest preset difficulty level in Phasmophobia, as soon as you have a few successful contracts. Beginners should start on Amateur mode, where you’re offered a bit more leniency. Then, once you begin leveling up, unlocking higher-tier equipment, and becoming more comfortable gathering evidence, escaping the ghost, and identifying unique ghost abilities, you should gradually increase your difficulty level.
Higher difficulty levels, like Nightmare and Insanity, are when a lot of Phasmophobia’s tips and tricks are particularly important to know, as investigations are much more challenging and the ghosts more lethal–with some difficulty levels offering only one or two pieces of official evidence. But once you graduate to these higher levels and can complete these contracts successfully with ease, the rewards are huge, with Insanity offering a x6 multiplier on your normal cash and experience payout. If you’re feeling particularly brave, you can adjust Custom settings to take on the game’s Apocalypse Challenges.
Below, we break down all the available difficulty options in Phasmophobia, including the player level required to unlock them, their settings, and reward multipliers.
In This Article
Amateur
Amateur player settings
Amateur ghost settings
Amateur contract settings
Intermediate
Intermediate player settings
Intermediate ghost settings
Intermediate contract settings
Professional
Professional player settings
Professional ghost settings
Professional contract settings
Nightmare
Nightmare player settings
Nightmare ghost settings
Nightmare contract settings
Insanity
Insanity player settings
Insanity ghost settings
Insanity contract settings
Challenge Mode
Custom
Apocalypse Challenges
Apocalypse player settings
Apocalypse ghost settings
Apocalypse contract settings
Amateur
Beginners, start here.
Amateur is unlocked for all players immediately. This difficulty level is best for beginners as it offers a long set-up time (how long you get before the ghost can hunt), long grace period (cooldown between hunts), and short hunt duration. Sanity pills also restore a lot of sanity and you can regain half of your lost equipment if you die.
Amateur player settings
Reward multiplier (cash and experience)
x1
Insurance
50%
Starting sanity
100
Sanity Pill restoration
40%
Sanity drain speed
100%
Sprinting
On
Player speed
100%
Flashlights
On
Lose items and consumables
On
Amateur ghost settings
Ghost speed
100%
Roaming frequency
Medium
Changing favorite room
No chance
Activity level
High
Event frequency
Low
Friendly ghost
Off
Grace period
5 seconds
Hunt duration
Low
Kills extend hunts
Off
Evidence given
3
Fingerprint chance
100%
Fingerprint duration
120 seconds
Amateur contract settings
Set-up time
300 seconds
Weather
Random
Doors starting open
None
Number of hiding places
Very high
Sanity monitor
On
Activity monitor
On
Fuse box at start of contract
On
Fuse box visible on map
On
Cursed Possessions quantity
1
Cursed Possession #1
Random
Intermediate
Once you feel a bit more comfortable, move up a level.
Intermediate difficulty is unlocked at player level 10 and is best for those who have outgrown Amateur, but are still learning the ropes. This standard-level mode offers an average set-up time, hunt grace period, and hunt duration. In addition, sanity pills restore some sanity, but the fuse box starts off, there are fewer places to hide, and you’ll only regain some of your lost equipment if you die.
Intermediate player settings
Reward multiplier (cash and experience)
x2
Insurance
25%
Starting sanity
100
Sanity Pill restoration
35%
Sanity drain speed
150%
Sprinting
On
Player speed
100%
Flashlights
On
Lose items and consumables
On
Intermediate ghost settings
Ghost speed
100%
Roaming frequency
Medium
Changing favorite room
No chance
Activity level
Medium
Event frequency
Medium
Friendly ghost
Off
Grace period
4 seconds
Hunt duration
Medium
Kills extend hunts
Off
Evidence given
3
Fingerprint chance
100%
Fingerprint duration
120 seconds
Intermediate contract settings
Set-up time
120 seconds
Weather
Random
Doors starting open
Low
Number of hiding places
High
Sanity monitor
On
Activity monitor
On
Fuse box at start of contract
Off
Fuse box visible on map
On
Cursed Possessions quantity
1
Cursed Possession #1
Random
Professional
Unlock at player level 20, Professional is for those who feel pretty comfortable in their ghost hunting abilities, but still have some trouble identifying a ghost without evidence. On this difficulty level, the ghost’s room can change (albeit rarely), there’s no set-up time, hunts are longer, and the grace period between hunts is shorter. In addition, there are much fewer hiding places, you’ll lose all your equipped items when you die, and the fuse box will always be off when you start a contract.
Professional player settings
Reward multiplier (cash and experience)
x3
Insurance
None
Starting sanity
100
Sanity Pill restoration
30%
Sanity drain speed
200%
Sprinting
On
Player speed
100%
Flashlights
On
Lose items and consumables
On
Professional ghost settings
Ghost speed
100%
Roaming frequency
High
Changing favorite room
Low
Activity level
Low
Event frequency
Medium
Friendly ghost
Off
Grace period
3 seconds
Hunt duration
High
Kills extend hunts
Off
Evidence given
3
Fingerprint chance
100%
Fingerprint duration
120 seconds
Professional contract settings
Set-up time
None
Weather
Random
Doors starting open
Medium
Number of hiding places
Medium
Sanity monitor
On
Activity monitor
On
Fuse box at start of contract
Off
Fuse box visible on map
On
Cursed Possessions quantity
1
Cursed Possession #1
Random
Nightmare
Step up the challenge with Nightmare.
Unlocked at player level 30, Nightmare difficulty is for ghost hunters who want to seriously increase the challenge. If you’re comfortable engaging with long ghost hunts with limited hiding places, smudging, and identifying ghosts without three pieces of evidence, then this may be the difficulty level for you.
Nightmare player settings
Reward multiplier (cash and experience)
x4
Insurance
None
Starting sanity
100
Sanity Pill restoration
25%
Sanity drain speed
200%
Sprinting
On
Player speed
100%
Flashlights
On
Lose items and consumables
On
Nightmare ghost settings
Ghost speed
100%
Roaming frequency
High
Changing favorite room
Medium
Activity level
Low
Event frequency
High
Friendly ghost
Off
Grace period
2 seconds
Hunt duration
High
Kills extend hunts
Low
Evidence given
2
Fingerprint chance
100%
Fingerprint duration
120 seconds
Nightmare contract settings
Set-up time
None
Weather
Random
Doors starting open
High
Number of hiding places
Low
Sanity monitor
Off
Activity monitor
Off
Fuse box at start of contract
Off
Fuse box visible on map
Off
Cursed Possessions quantity
1
Cursed Possession #1
Random
Insanity
Are you feeling brave?
Unlocked at player level 40, Insanity is for those who are feeling brave. This is the most challenging of the preset difficulty modes in Phasmophobia, offering little to no hiding spaces, only one piece of evidence, no cursed objects, and longer hunts that increase in duration every time the ghost kills a member of your team.
Insanity player settings
Reward multiplier (cash and experience)
x6
Insurance
None
Starting sanity
75
Sanity Pill restoration
20%
Sanity drain speed
200%
Sprinting
On
Player speed
100%
Flashlights
On
Lose items and consumables
On
Insanity ghost settings
Ghost speed
100%
Roaming frequency
High
Changing favorite room
High
Activity level
Low
Event frequency
High
Friendly ghost
Off
Grace period
2 seconds
Hunt duration
High
Kills extend hunts
Low
Evidence given
1
Fingerprint chance
100%
Fingerprint duration
60 seconds
Insanity contract settings
Set-up time
None
Weather
Random
Doors starting open
High
Number of hiding places
Low
Sanity monitor
Off
Activity monitor
Off
Fuse box at start of contract
Off
Fuse box visible on map
Off
Cursed Possessions quantity
0
Challenge Mode
The challenge changes every week, so you better act fast.
Challenge Mode is a limited time difficulty level that changes every week. There are 26 challenge mode possibilities, each with its own difficult settings, forced equipment loadout, and task to complete a set number of times. Completing the challenge grants you $5,000 and 5,000 XP, so it’s worth trying them.
Custom
Making the difficulty too easy will stop you earning rewards.
Custom does what it says on the tin. You can adjust all the player, ghost, and contract settings to your liking, with the reward multiplier automatically calculated based on how challenging the settings you’ve chosen are. However, activating certain settings that make the contract far too easy, such as ‘Friendly Ghost’ (where the ghost doesn’t hunt), will result in no rewards.
Apocalypse Challenges
Apocalypse Challenges are not for the faint-hearted.
In Phasmophobia, Apocalypse Challenges are extremely tough single-player challenges you can find on the event board, with each offering a special trophy, ID card, and badge to those who complete them. Unlockable at player level 50, there are three Apocalypse Challenges, each requiring you to identify the ghost, complete all optional objectives, and take a photo of the ghost during one contract.
The hardest part? You need to be playing Sunny Meadows Mental Institution by yourself, on the highest difficulty level–which can be set through Custom difficulty–with Apocalypse I requiring x6 or higher rewards multiplier, Apocalypse II requiring x10 or higher, and Apocalypse III requiring x15 (the highest custom difficulty in the game). If you want to take it on, here are the settings you can use.
Apocalypse player settings
Apocalypse I
Apocalypse II
Apocalypse III
Reward multiplier (cash and experience)
x6
x10
x15
Insurance
None
None
None
Starting sanity
75
50
0
Sanity Pill restoration
20%
5%
0%
Sanity drain speed
200%
200%
200%
Sprinting
Off
Off
Off
Player speed
100%
75%
50%
Flashlights
On
On
Off
Lose items and consumables
On
On
On
Apocalypse ghost settings
Apocalypse I
Apocalypse II
Apocalypse III
Ghost speed
150%
150%
150%
Roaming frequency
High
High
High
Changing favorite room
High
High
High
Activity level
Low
Low
Low
Event frequency
Low
Low
Low
Friendly ghost
Off
Off
Off
Grace period
2 seconds
2 seconds
None
Hunt duration
High
High
High
Kills extend hunts
High
High
High
Evidence given
2
1
0
Fingerprint chance
100%
100%
N/A
Fingerprint duration
60 seconds
60 seconds
N/A
Apocalypse contract settings
Apocalypse I
Apocalypse II
Apocalypse III
Set-up time
None
None
None
Weather
Random
Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain
Doors starting open
High
High
High
Number of hiding places
None
None
None
Sanity monitor
On
Off
Off
Activity monitor
On
Off
Off
Fuse box at start of contract
On
Broken
Broken
Fuse box visible on map
Off
N/A
N/A
Cursed Possessions quantity
1
0
0
Cursed Possession #1
Random
N/A
N/A
