Santa Claus is coming to town, and he's probably hiding in your basement or up that creaking, spooky staircase. This isn't the start of some B-list horror flick. It's just one small part of Phasmophobia's Cursed Possessions update.
As spotted by The Gamer, the new Dead Santa wears his usual red outfit, but the jolly man's arrival is a surprise for everyone since he was playfully excluded from the patch notes aside from the mention of a strange ghost. Make no mistakes about his intentions, though. Dead Santa only has one thing in his bag, and it's your demise.
Along with Dead Santa, the new update also introduced items such as a music box, tortured voodoo doll, haunted mirror, summoning circle, Tarot cards, and new effects for the Oujia Board, alongside seasonal touches such as snow at the campsite, among other things.
Here's the whole set of Phasmophobia Cursed Possessions patch notes:
CURSED POSSESSIONS
Several new items have been added: The Cursed Possessions.
Each location will feature 1 of 6 items, randomly chosen at the start of each contract. There are several spawn points for each item, so get searching!
Cursed Possessions trade sanity for information, but be warned; using these items can cause an additional negative effect, so think carefully if you want to anger the ghost for the rest of the investigation.
- Music box: Reports show paranormal entities singing along to this haunting melody. Don't get too close or you may get a nasty surprise
- Tortured Voodoo Doll: Force a pin into the doll to trigger a reaction from the ghost, but you may lose more than you gain
- Haunted Mirror: A visible portal into the spectral realm, dare you peer inside to find the ghost's room?
- Summoning Circle: Risk your life by summoning the ghost and trapping it temporarily. Don't stay too long, it'll break free eventually
- Tarot Cards: A deck of ten random cards, each with a unique mystical property
- Ouija Board: The Ouija Board is now classed as a Cursed Possession, and has received new visual. You must now say "Goodbye" to finish talking with a ghost on the Ouija Board, or else. The Ouija Board is no longer guaranteed on Nightmare, due to the new Cursed Possessions and ghost identity changes. The Ouija Board will no longer have a chance to fail questions. The Ouija Board will no longer play an additional sound when spelling double letters. The total number of Ouija Board spawn points have been reduced on Prison, Asylum and High School
GHOST IDENTITIES
Nightmare has been a successful addition to Phasmophobia, but we've all found some ghosts are just too hard to identify with only two evidences.
We never intended for Nightmare to be a guessing game, so to combat this, some ghost types have received new abilities, passives and other adjustments to make them feel more in line with their journal descriptions, and most recently added ghosts.
- Shade: The shy ghost, often hiding in plain sight, only showing itself when truly necessary
- Poltergeist: The ghost that loves to throw things, watch out!
- Banshee: The singing siren, luring ghost hunters near and far. The banshee's rare ability to hunt at any sanity percentage has been moved to the Demon
- Demon; The most aggressive and dangerous ghost we've ever witnessed
- Jinn: These ghosts love to chase, hide before they see you
- Hantu: The cold has empowered these ghosts so much, it's starting to show
- Mare: The thing that goes bump in the night, thriving in darkness
- Oni: New reports show many more sightings, maybe these ghosts enjoy the fear in people's eyes
- Yokai: Be quiet, you wouldn't want to wake it up
- Yurei: Masters of insanity, making anyone crazy who comes into contact with them
- Ghosts will now only use their physical form during hunts, instead of shadow or translucent forms
- All ghost abilities have been adjusted to make them happen more often and more consistently
NEW
- For the duration of the holiday period, Maple Campsite weather will always be snowing, and has received new seasonal decorations
- The Mimic, The most intriguing ghost type we've ever encountered. More information is available in the journal.
- Two new tabs have been added the journal for easier navigation: Home and Items
- Several questions have been added to the Ouija board, such as "how did you die?"
- Almost every object has had its impact sounds replaced to match its material
- New sounds have been added for player footsteps while sprinting on different surfaces
- All large rugs and floor mats now have collision
CHANGES
- Several scripts, Maple Campsite assets and the weather system have been optimised heavily to help with performance
- All ghosts can now throw objects during hunts, similarly to how they currently open doors
- All ghosts, except Yokais, can now hear your voice from further away
- Ghosts will no longer be able to wander long paths when setting waypoints through walls (e.g., Campsite black tent to storage tents) and will choose another closer waypoint
- You can no longer quickly escape through the exterior doors or gates when a hunt starts
- The ghost will now always write in a ghost-writing book after throwing it (if it's the correct evidence type), except during hunts
- You must now take interaction photos of the object that was thrown, instead of where the object was before the ghost moved it
- Hunting effects on cameras have been adjusted
- Ghosts refreshing fingerprints will now allow you to take an additional photo (e.g., touching the same door twice)
- Ghosts flickering lights will now be based on the distance to the light itself, instead of the light switch
- Footstep sounds are now more accurately synchronised with player and ghost movement speed
- The Heartbeat sound's volume is now based on the distance from the ghost, getting louder the closer it is
- Hunting ghost sounds will now fade out instead of abruptly stopping
- Increased the frequency of Paranormal sounds picked up by the Parabolic Mic
FIXES
- Fixed a bug where the Raiju's weakness was only affecting camcorders and cameras
- Fixed a bug where the hunt duration was being set based on the size of the map you previously played
- Fixed a bug where heartbeat sound would play if the ghost was too far away
- Fixed a bug where sound would muffle if you walked near the cabin balcony door
- Fixed a bug where the escape from the ghost during a hunt objective couldn't be completed
- Fixed a bug where several interactions were not giving photo rewards
- Fixed a bug where the photo camera could be turned on inside the truck
- Fixed a bug where smashed lights could be turned on when toggling the fuse box
- Fixed a bug where you could hold lit candles outside in heavy rain
- Fixed a bug where the temperatures inside the Campsite toilets were not being set correctly
- Fixed a bug where the heartbeat sound would play when you were too far away from the ghost
- Fixed a bug where you using a second smudge stick (within a few seconds of the first) wouldn't stop the ghost killing you
- Fixed a bug where setting the master volume slider wouldn't always work
- Fixed a bug where VR players couldn't hear their own footsteps
- Fixed a bug where some curtains didn't have collision, causing a safe spot
- Fixed a bug where the model of some lights wouldnt look 'turned on' after it flickered
- Fixed a bug where the shower water in the ensuite in Edgefield was spraying the wrong way
- Fixed several bugs where certain map UI and player icons were rotated incorrectly
- Fixed several bugs where photo rewards were being given when they shouldn't be
- Fixed several floating books in high school
- Fixed several safe spots in Prison
- Fixed several fans in Asylum having two sets of fan blades
- Fixed several rare visual issues in Willow and Ridgeview