Phasmophobia: Tips You Need To Know When Hunting A Revenant

Phasmophobia was an underdog of a video game that wound up being one of 2020's surprise hits. It was created by Kinetic Games, a one-person developer founded by designer Dknighter. It was first released in September 2020 in early access, just in time for Twitch streamers to discover the game and hype it during spooky season. This led to a flood of "overwhelmingly positive" reviews on Steam. IDespite Phasmophobia's hacker problems, it's considered one of 2020's best VR games, if not best games overall. Dknighter plans for a full release some time in 2021.

Phasmophobia is a tense indie survival horror title that tasks one or more players with investigating paranormal activity. There are twelve different ghost varieties in the game. Many ghosts can exhibit the same types of behavior, like making dirty water appear in a sink. But each ghost also performs unique activities, so it's up to the player to sift through all the clues. Making this more difficult is the fact that the player can't attack. The only way to survive an encounter with a hostile ghost is to hide.

But with the Revenant, that's no easy task.

The Revenant is one of Phasmophobia's deadliest enemies, and the best way to survive an encounter with one is to avoid being discovered in the first place. But the player will still have to identity Revenant based on the clues it leaves.

The Revenant leaves three pieces of evidence: its EMF Reader level is 5, and it leaves both ghost writing and fingerprints. In terms of gear, equip the EMF Reader, the Ghost Writing Book, and either the UV Flashlight or the Glow Stick, which can both be used to detect spectral fingerprints.

As with any ghost, the first steps in dealing with a Revenant are locating the source of the paranormal activity and then gathering clues to identify it. Start by equipping the EMF Reader and walking around the location until it registers Level 5, in red. The Revenant isn't the only ghost that can reach Level 5, but a Level 5 reading can be used as one of the key bits of evidence needed to confirm the Revenant's identity. Once it's located, gather the remaining two clues and book it. 

Hopefully you won't need the next tip. But if the Revenant discovers you, read on. 

The Revenant's most dangerous feature is speed. When it chases the player, it can move twice as fast as any other ghosts in the game, making it impossible to outrun. However, speed is also its greatest weakness. When the Revenant doesn't have line of sight on the player, it moves 1.5 times slower than any other ghost in the game. 

So if the Revenant does discover the player, the first priority should be breaking line of sight. If there are no good opportunities to break line of sight, lighting a Smudge Stick will create a brief smoke cloud that will buy a few seconds of time to get away. The next priority should be finding a place to hide. 

The Revenant can also be cheesed a bit if there are other players. Per Redditor u/William_ghost1, players can use each other to aggravate the Revenant, "juggling" it between them and allowing each other to complete the mission. That will still most likely result in at least one player dead, but there are times when it may be the only option.