Phasmophobia Devs Promise Fixes After Recent Player Character Update

Phasmophobia has issued an official apology and made a promise to fix the problems that cropped up with the game’s recent Player Character Update. While the character update had been long awaited by the Phasmophobia playerbase, it unfortunately arrived with a slew of issues attached.

On May 5, Phasmophobia released its Player Character Update, which delivered a complete overhaul to the models and their animations. In addition to the ability to customize one’s characters with unique skins and cosmetics, players were excited to see the overhaul to the game’s animations, particularly since Phasmophobia has been known for some fairly odd “bendy back” character animations, among other things. However, this release didn’t go as planned, and now the developers have addressed it.

Phasmophobia’s Alan Wake Event Was Written By Remedy’s Sam Lake

The worlds of Phasmophobia and Alan Wake officially collide, and the new event was written by none other than Remedy’s Sam Lake.

It didn’t take long for negative feedback to arrive following the release of the Player Character Update, and the Phasmophobia development team has now apologized for the issues. The team is aware that it “missed the mark” and acknowledges that the update didn’t live up to a “higher standard.” The Kinetic Games development team pored over the feedback received from players and has now released a patch that addresses most of the big problems that came up. This update is now live, arriving alongside the Phasmophobia Alan Wake crossover update, which brought the game to version 0.17.1.0.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

A large chunk of the changes made in this update have fixed problems with the game’s visuals. Following the release of the character update, players were upset to find issues with things like wrists appearing broken, odd equipment placement on-screen, and heads and necks not animating correctly when character models looked up or down. Some visuals have been modified, like the Tier 1 Igniter box now appearing open, so players can quickly determine how many matches they have left. Player characters will also no longer appear to float above the floor in some areas, nor will their feet clip beneath the floor when standing still.

phasmophobia-alan-wake-crossover-dining-room

While the odd visuals were upsetting, more players were frustrated by the bugs that appeared with the update, which have now also been tackled. A number of changes have been implemented that fix environments not behaving as expected, like doors not moving correctly, as well as many fixes resolving problems with ghost hunter equipment in Phasmophobia. This update has also fixed some issues that were impacting basic gameplay, like ghosts behaving incorrectly, dropped items disappearing when a player dies, and voice chat not working properly. However, the update has also acknowledged that there are some issues remaining, including some attached to the Alan Wake event. There are problems with some equipment animations, and some visual and audio glitches have been discovered, like the Angel Lamp causing visual glitches while using an EMF Reader, or the Tier 1 Spirit Box becoming invisible on Oh Deer Diner while using the CCTV.

Drag weapons to fill the grid

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Given that the Player Character Update failed to meet the mark, the team has decided to release a second Player Character Update down the road. This new update will increase cosmetic options, improve animations, speed up equipment usability and gameplay animations, and add additional quality of life improvements. No timeline has been offered for this update, but from the sound of it, it will arrive prior to Phasmophobia‘s 1.0 launch.

Phasmophobia 0.17.1.0 Patch Notes

New

Added a 5 second delay after you die to allow you to select a ghost in the journal

Changes

Salt will now get instantly placed at the start of the animation instead of the end.
Most equipment hold poses have been changed to fix several visual issues including wrists, elbows, arms and the equipment’s position on the screen.
The T3 Sanity Medication animation will no longer play in Multiplayer.
The Tier 1 Igniter is now open so you can see how many matches are left.
Removed the inventory swapping animation to allow for instant swapping of held equipment.
Prestige cosmetics are now free after they are unlocked based on your Prestige level.

Fixes

Character Model Fixes

Fixed an issue that caused the heads of character models to look incorrect when the player looks up and down.
Fixed an issue that caused problems with the character rig upon being revived while crouched.
Fixed an issue that caused character models to fall down incorrectly upon death.
Fixed an issue that caused Non-VR player character’s feet to clip below the ground when standing still.
The player characters feet will no longer float in some areas.
Fixed the characters walking animation when below 50% player speed.
Fixed an issue that caused character model mouths to be open when the player moves to the right.

Ghost Fixes

Fixed an issue that prevented the Yurei from fully closing doors.
Fixed an issue that caused the Raiju to flicker lights outside of Hunts.
Fixed an issue on 42 Edgefield Road that caused the Ghost to get stuck in multiple rooms and not be able to reach players in the garage lockers.
Fixed an issue where Ghosts in the Grafton Farmhouse Attic would wander too often outside their room.

Environment Fixes

Fixed an issue that caused doors to move incorrectly when holding the Tarot Cards.
Fixed an issue that caused doors to be blocked by other players.
Fixed an issue that prevented some doors on Bleasdale Farmhouse from opening correctly.
Fixed an issue that caused doors to become detached from their hinges.
Fixed an issue that caused Sunny Meadows Restricted to load into the full Sunny Meadows location.
Fixed an issue that caused two boomboxes to be displayed in the lobby.
Fixed several issues that caused inconsistencies with the animations when grabbing objects.

Equipment Fixes

Fixed an issue that caused held equipment to stutter when turning.
Fixed an issue that caused Head Gear to be misaligned while crouching.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from being seen on the CCTV through Tier 1 Head Gear.
Fixed an issue that caused the Tier 1 Firelight being blown out to be heard throughout the map.
Fixed an issue that caused the Tier 2 Photo Camera audio to play when using other equipment.
Fixed several issues that prevented the Tier 2 and 3 Firelight from working correctly.
Fixed an issue that caused the CCTV screen to be displayed on a Video Camera when first grabbed.
Fixed an issue that caused usability issues with the Head Gear after toggling night vision on/off on a Video Camera.
Fixed an issue related to the above that caused the Tripod to become invisible.
Fixed an issue that caused the Ouija Board planchette to float.
Fixed an issue that caused the watch’s timer to desync upon death and revival.
Fixed an issue that caused the Ouija Board and Haunted Mirror to drop on their sides.
Fixed an issue that caused the wrong Tarot Card to be seen by other players when drawn by the player using them.
Fixed several visual issues when grabbing an Igniter while holding a Flashlight.
Fixed an issue that caused Flashlights to become invisible when being dropped to pick up another item.
Fixed an issue that caused the Flashlight to appear when holding the Journal and pressing using the Flashlight.
Fixed an issue that caused Spirit Box responses to be heard incorrectly
Fixed an issue that caused a still image to be displayed on the Tier 3 Video Camera when leaving the Van.
Fixed an issue that caused the wrong exterior doors to lock on Bleasdale Farmhouse.

VR Fixes

Fixed an issue that prevented VR players from opening the upstairs hallway left side closet door.
Fixed an issue where VR Players had to grab objects twice to pick them up.
Fixed an issue that caused Head Gear to disappear from the player’s hands when grabbed.
Fixed an issue that caused a VR player’s screen to spin when dying or reviving if immersive animations are enabled.
Fixed an issue where the audio of a VR player dying could be heard across the map.
Fixed an issue that caused objects to appear incorrect in a player’s hand.
Fixed an issue that caused items dropped by a VR player after they die to not appear for other players.

Other Fixes

Fixed an issue that prevented Voice Chat from working when the player was Dead.
Fixed an issue that would cause the Journal to remain in the player’s hand while Dead, if it was opened while dying.
Fixed an issue that caused misaligned text with photo names in the Journal.
Fixed an issue that caused the light from a Dead player’s Journal from being visible to players that are alive.
Fixed an issue with the Journal that made it difficult to navigate between pages and tabs.
Fixed an issue that prevented the “Welcome Back” audio from playing.
Fixed an issue that prevented the ‘’Doors Starting Open’’ custom difficulty setting from working correctly.
Fixed an issue that caused players to hear Dead players opening and closing their Journals.
Fixed an issue that caused a soft lock if Alt + Tab was used during the death animation.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Legacy Badge menu options from being selected.
Fixed an issue that caused the journal objectives tick colour to be incorrect.
Fixed an issue that caused door sounds to play when not moving and be heard across the map.
Fixed an issue that caused the ID Card foil animation to not render correctly.
While tomorrow’s update for Phasmophobia contains more than just these fixes and changes, it was important for us to share these with you to see what we’ve been working on while feedback has been coming in.

We’ve reviewed our roadmap and while we’ll provide an update on this later, we have made the decision to release a second Player Character Update with additional content and changes that will include:

Additional cosmetic options to allow you to further personalize your characters.
Improved character animations, aimed at quality and speeding up the gameplay.
Adding the legacy badge customisation to the shop customisation screen.
Improving equipment usability and speed.
Various quality of life improvements to the player character and overall gameplay.
Many other new features, fixes and improvements.

Released: October 29, 2024
ESRB: T For Teen // Blood, Use of Drugs, Violence
Developer(s): Kinetic Games
Publisher(s): Kinetic Games