🎃 Phasmophobia | Ep. 20 – Halloween Special: Knocking on Doors We Really Shouldn’t

HallowStream Week begins with a return to Phasmophobia! We’re heading into haunted locations, investigating paranormal activity and attempting to identify whatever is lurking in the darkness. Naturally, this involves walking into buildings that have absolutely no business being entered after sunset. If something whispers my name, I’m leaving.

It’s been absolutely ages since we last played on stream, so I thought Halloween would be a good opportunity to return. We started with some solo ghost hunting, showed off my usual speedrunning technique and eventually had Mr Smith join us for a few more rounds. Most of the investigations went surprisingly well, although one Mimic and a particularly angry ghost had other ideas.

👻 About the Game

Phasmophobia is a paranormal investigation game where we explore haunted houses, abandoned buildings and other creepy locations, trying to identify which ghost is haunting each one.

Armed with thermometers, EMF Readers, Spirit Boxes, UV lights and D.O.T.S. Projectors, we gather evidence while attempting to stay alive. We can investigate alone or work together, although having somebody else around doesn’t necessarily make the ghosts any friendlier!

The challenge is working out what we’re dealing with before things become dangerous, preferably while completing a few optional objectives along the way.

🕯️ Where We Are in the Journey

This is Episode 20 of our Phasmophobia series, and we’re returning after quite a lengthy break.

As I’ve mentioned before, the previous events became incredibly grindy. Although you fortunately don’t have to repeat them once completed, they burned me out on the game quite badly. It’s only in recent weeks that I’ve started playing the occasional round again.

We’re already fairly experienced ghost hunters, with plenty of equipment unlocked and a collection of achievements behind us. For this HallowStream episode, I wanted to get back into the investigations without turning the evening into another enormous grind.

🔦 What Happens in This Episode

We began the evening with several solo investigations, giving me an opportunity to demonstrate the speedrunning method I normally use in Phasmophobia. I’ve been using this technique for quite a while now, and on most of the smaller houses, I can generally complete an investigation in approximately two and a half to three minutes. It’s a fairly straightforward routine once you get used to the order of the equipment, although it does rely on the ghost actually cooperating.

For the first trip into the house, I take the Ghost Writing Book, video camera and thermometer. I search the building for temperature changes, checking for Ghost Orbs along the way. I’ve also configured a few macros on my mouse that allow me to hold the walking button and keep the thermometer activated without constantly pressing the keyboard. It makes everything that extra little bit lazy, particularly when you’re trying to enjoy a cup of tea while walking back to the van!

I also explained how this method works with level-one equipment. The original thermometer behaves differently from the upgraded versions, but it’s still perfectly usable. What I normally do is enter the first room, drop the thermometer on the floor and scout the nearby areas with the camera while it adjusts. Once it settles around twenty degrees, I pick it up and start checking rooms. Normal temperatures generally fluctuate around twenty or twenty-one degrees, whereas the ghost room will usually drop below nineteen. You can see the difference quite clearly once you know what to look for.

Once I’ve located the suspected ghost room, I leave the Ghost Writing Book on the floor, check for Orbs with the camera and deploy the remaining equipment. Leaving the book early gives the ghost an opportunity to write in it while I’m collecting the next lot of gear. By the time I head back to the van, the only thing I normally have left in my hand is the lighter, which stays with me throughout the investigation.

The second trip involves the Spirit Box, EMF Reader and D.O.T.S. Projector. I switch on the EMF Reader as I approach the room, place it somewhere central and give the Spirit Box a quick test to see if anything responds. After that, I position the D.O.T.S. Projector on a wall or surface where it can cover as much of the room as possible. I try to place it somewhere that doesn’t require constantly rotating it around to get the coverage I want.

Before leaving, I check the thermometer again and update the evidence in the journal. One thing I always recommend is walking backwards towards the exit whenever possible, keeping the ghost room in view for as long as you can. Sometimes you’ll catch the D.O.T.S. evidence while you’re already heading back to the van, saving another trip inside.

For the third visit, I bring the Crucifix, Salt and UV Light. I prefer using the UV stick rather than unlocking the third-tier UV equipment, which I don’t find particularly useful. With the recent update, the activated UV stick also provides a limited amount of light while attached to your belt, which is quite handy.

I normally put two piles of Salt inside the ghost room and another just outside, giving the ghost several opportunities to walk through it. With level-one Salt, placing the piles at opposite ends of the room helps cover more ground. Once the ghost walks through, I check for UV evidence and have another look at the temperatures and Spirit Box if necessary.

By this stage, there’s usually enough evidence to identify the ghost. If things are progressing slowly, I recommend stepping outside the room for a while rather than standing over all the equipment. That gives the ghost a chance to interact with everything. Once we’ve identified it, an optional fourth trip with the stills camera and whatever equipment is needed for the bonus objectives can finish things off.

During the first few rounds, we put the technique into practice with some fairly successful investigations. One ghost gave us EMF five, falling temperatures and very little else to work with. After checking the neighbouring rooms and considering the evidence, I decided to gamble on the Twins. Fortunately, that turned out to be the correct identification.

Another investigation provided EMF five and Ghost Orbs, allowing us to narrow things down without spending too long waiting around. We also picked up some experience and equipment unlocks, including sanity medication, although it’s not something I tend to need very often with the speedrunning method.

Naturally, the occasional Mimic can cause problems, particularly when you’re trying to complete investigations quickly. I don’t worry too much about that, though. If we get one wrong, we simply move on to the next round. Most of the time, I prefer having firm evidence, but sometimes the temperatures take so long to drop that you have to decide whether it’s worth waiting.

I also mentioned an oddity I’ve noticed with the random map selection. In my experience, the game’s random selection appears to be influenced by the computer’s system time. When you’re completing investigations very quickly, repeatedly selecting random can result in being sent straight back to the same map. It’s something worth remembering if you’re trying to work through several different locations.

While we were investigating, we had a few conversations with chat about Phasmophobia achievements and the current events. Rebecky92 was also taking part in the ghost-hunting event supporting the American Heart Association and mentioned how much more frightening the game can be when playing alone. We discussed some of the more awkward achievements, including the Demon-related challenges that Mr Smith and I had previously worked through.

There was also a conversation about Waterpark Simulator, after Mr Smith discovered that repeatedly knocking into a cleaner could eventually make the employee quit. I’d managed something similar with one of my maintenance workers, so apparently neither of us has been particularly successful at looking after our virtual employees.

Before moving into multiplayer, we had a little distraction with the community Hunger Games. JD started a round, several of us joined in, and I somehow managed to win. Mr Smith immediately declared that it was rigged, which was a perfectly reasonable response as far as he was concerned!

Eventually, Mr Smith finished his supper and joined us for the multiplayer investigations. After sorting out Discord and getting the lobby organised, we headed into a selection of different locations.

One of the first buildings gave us the usual problem of having the ghost upstairs, which meant repeatedly carrying equipment up and down the building. We located Ghost Orbs and received a Spirit Box response, but getting everything into position involved quite a lot of walking. I suggested that the building really ought to have a slide running down the outside, like the ones you sometimes see at children’s playgrounds. It would certainly make returning to the van considerably quicker.

The following investigations continued reasonably well, although we had the occasional problem with equipment refusing to provide evidence when we wanted it. In one house, we had EMF five and UV evidence, but the ghost seemed determined to avoid the motion sensors. It had been interacting with everything earlier, only to become completely uncooperative once we needed it to trigger something. Eventually, it managed to activate several sensors, giving us the objective we were waiting for.

We also visited the prison, where the conversation somehow turned towards being arrested for crimes against cheese. Considering the amount of cheese that gets discussed during our streams, I think we’re probably fairly safe from that particular charge.

That investigation involved Ghost Writing, freezing temperatures and some experimentation with the parabolic microphone. We spent a while checking the remaining evidence, with the ghost being rather reluctant to cooperate. Eventually, we managed to obtain the EMF five reading we needed after it interacted with the fire. At that point, I wasn’t particularly interested in walking all the way back inside for any remaining bonus objectives, so we called it a successful investigation and moved on.

Between all the ghost hunting, I also talked about my trip to Comic-Con the previous day. It had been an enjoyable but rather exhausting experience, and I was still suffering from all the walking around.

One of the highlights was meeting the actress who played Cordelia in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I’d taken along some photographs of Butter watching Buffy on television, which she absolutely loved. She even asked me to send copies of the pictures to her, and when we met again later for a photograph, she immediately started asking about the chickens again.

I also enjoyed meeting Mark Sheppard, who had plenty of energy and sarcasm. Some of the other encounters were a little disappointing, but overall, I did manage to meet everyone I’d set out to see, even if it took most of the day.

We also caught up with JD, whose long-awaited package of treats had finally arrived after the postal problems we’d experienced. Everything had survived the journey, and JD was planning to ration the snacks rather than eat everything immediately. That led into a conversation about some of the things I’ve made for the community, including the hats, scarves and little wooden gifts.

I’ve been considering making woolly gloves for everyone as a Christmas present this year, although deciding on a suitable pattern and finding enough time to manufacture them might be a little challenging.

Back in Phasmophobia, we continued working through the investigations, with a few more awkward ghost locations and evidence that didn’t always want to appear. D.O.T.S. in particular was being troublesome, occasionally appearing for such a short time that it was difficult to tell whether we’d actually seen anything. We also had a location where the ghost seemed determined to occupy the same inconvenient area again, leaving us checking rooms and trying to work out exactly where it was interacting.

One of the more entertaining successes came when we noticed a challenge requiring thirty sound-sensor detections. We placed the sensors around the ghost room and discovered that we could complete the entire objective remarkably quickly. Before long, the counter had reached thirty out of thirty, all during a single investigation.

Once we’d completed what we needed, the room ended up with rather a lot of equipment and glow sticks scattered around. There was even some discussion about turning the place into a rave. We also acquired a garden gnome, which somehow became Mr Smith’s new master. Quite how we arrived at that arrangement, I’m not entirely sure, but the gnome seemed to be enjoying himself.

Another investigation at the diner was slightly less relaxing. We gathered evidence including Ghost Orbs, Ghost Writing and a Spirit Box response, but the ghost decided to begin hunting while we were still sorting things out. I warned Mr Smith to get out, and we decided that returning to look for the missing bone probably wasn’t worth the trouble.

We had a few other amusing distractions from the community games during the evening. Mr Smith attempted a Pokémon-hunting contract using a rotten-tomato launcher, which didn’t go particularly well, while JD’s later attempt with a Claymore was equally unsuccessful. CheeseCollector31 also supplied a few comments during the investigations, keeping the conversations going between rounds.

Unfortunately, things became rather less successful towards the end of the stream. One particularly aggressive ghost caught me out during an investigation, and we eventually confirmed that we were dealing with a Demon. It certainly wasn’t interested in giving us much time to collect evidence.

That also prompted a conversation about what would happen if dead players could still interact with certain objects in the environment. I quite like the idea of being able to interfere with doors or cursed objects after being killed, provided there were sensible restrictions to stop people from constantly causing trouble.

We decided to have one final round before finishing for the evening. The evidence pointed towards a Yurei, but the investigation didn’t end particularly well, and we eventually found ourselves with nobody left alive. Not exactly the result we were hoping for, although after so many successful rounds, I suppose the ghosts were entitled to win a couple.

Overall, we managed to complete quite a few investigations, make some progress through the equipment levels and finish several objectives, including the daily bone challenge and that unusually quick thirty-sound-detection task.

Considering how long it’s been since we regularly played Phasmophobia, I was quite pleased with how much we managed to accomplish. It was also nice to return to the game without feeling that we needed to spend hours grinding away at an event.

At some point, I’d quite like to put together a separate tutorial video explaining the speedrunning method in more detail, particularly for anyone who wants to complete smaller investigations efficiently without relying on all the highest-tier equipment.

For now, that brought our first HallowStream session to an end. After thanking Mr Smith and everyone who joined us, we finished the evening by raiding over to Rooville, ready to continue our Halloween week with something a little different on the next stream.

🎥 Watch the Episode

Fancy seeing how quickly these investigations can be completed, or what happened when our final ghost decided not to cooperate?

You can watch Phasmophobia Episode 20 here, including the solo speedrunning demonstrations and multiplayer investigations with Mr Smith.

You can also explore the complete Phasmophobia playlist or visit my YouTube channel for more gameplay.

If you enjoy the episode, please consider leaving a like, sharing your thoughts in the comments and subscribing for future videos.

🔴 Join the Adventure Live

Watching somebody else investigate a haunted building is one thing. Being there live when the thermometer starts dropping and the ghost decides it’s had enough is something else entirely!

Come and join us on Twitch or YouTube for more gameplay, conversations and occasional questionable decisions.

HallowStream continues throughout the week, so have a look at our Halloween streaming schedule to see what’s coming next.

🌐 Community & Links

The investigation might be over, but there’s plenty happening beyond the haunted houses. Here are all the places you can find me, join the community and explore my other projects.

Live — Catch the next stream and see what trouble we get into:

Twitch | YouTube

Community — Join us between streams for conversation and upcoming events:

Discord

Socials — Follow the latest updates, clips and other mischief:

TikTok | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X

Music — Something to listen to when the ghosts finally go quiet:

Spotify | Apple Music

Support — Help keep the streams and other creations going:

Fourthwall | Teespring | Streamlabs

More — Discover what else I’ve been creating outside the game:

Business Centre | Download the Brochure | About Me | Blog

🎃 Thirty Sounds, One Angry Ghost

Despite being away from Phasmophobia for so long, it was nice to return and get through so many successful investigations. We completed the sound-sensor challenge, made some progress through the levels and only had a couple of rounds that didn’t quite go according to plan.

We finished the evening with a raid over to Rooville, bringing our first HallowStream session to a close.

There’s plenty more Halloween-themed content coming throughout the week, and I might eventually put together a dedicated tutorial covering my speedrunning method.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, whether watching live or catching up afterwards. I’ll see you in the next stream!

— Dr Ravenholm