Phasmophobia is starting off 2023 with a bang, with a new update ‘coming soon’. This update contains a new weekly challenge mode, quality-of-life improvements, insanity difficulty, and a completely revamped progression and prestige system. This was all revealed in their 7th development preview on 19/01/2023.
Revamped Progression and Prestige System
Whilst not stated to be part of the v.81 update, this progression rework will be included in the v9.0 major update. The developers will wipe your current progression for an updated leveling and prestige system. However, you will get a cool player badge on your character’s model depending on your pre-wipe level.
As you play, you will gain levels that unlock new upgrades and equipment to use in the game. Once you get to level 100, you can prestige and return to level 1, but with a new badge and title to display on your profile ID card. This means you’ll have to unlock these upgrades and equipment again but with the added bonus of being able to show off what you prestige.
The developers have confirmed they will keep your current level stored and will release a special badge to show your pre-wipe progress in the future. We will still have to wait until the v9.0 new Phasmophobia update to actually see this new progression system, so don’t worry if you’re already at level 10,000.
Insanity Difficulty
Aside from changing the rewards multipliers in custom difficulty games, the new update will also add a new difficulty even harder than Nightmare Mode. Insanity difficulty ghosts will hide two types of evidence, instead of just one in Nightmare difficulty. This means you must rely on ghost behaviors rather than your evidence, so put those EMF readers away and start listening to the speed of those footsteps! Furthermore, the cursed possession will be disabled and the ghost room will change more often. Most of the other conditions are the same as Nightmare, so make sure to try out this challenge only when prepared, as you are likely to die.
Weekly Challenge Mode
The new update preview has also teased a challenge mode made by the developers which will change each week. Importantly you do not have to pay for equipment and there is no consequence if you die! And you earn a handy amount of money if you complete the challenge, so it is definitely worth trying out. An example challenge they gave was ‘Lights Out’ where you must use candles to see as the fuse box is broken and there are no flashlights. This will be a good reason to come back to the game each week, as it’s a fun challenge to try without losing all of your hard earnt items.
Quality of Life Improvements
They also announced a number of improvements to the shop UI, which had previously made the entire inventory system pretty confusing. The new ‘auto-add’ and ‘all equipment’ buttons should make getting into a match much faster with a lot fewer clicks.
To see the full list of changes, make sure to check out their development preview.