Phasmophobia's hotfix resolves the Ascension update's sound and Smudge Stick issues
A smudge in time saves lives.
Ghost-hunting sim Phasmophobia has just rolled out a hotfix to address some of the issues that crept in with its highly-anticipated Ascension update earlier this week.
The patch – which brings in an all-new levelling system at the cost of wiping out your progression, items, and virtual bank balance – rolled out on Thursday. Whilst it's been welcomed by most of the community, a handful of issues – including performance woes and a problem with the falloff volume of ghosts, making hunts considerably trickier – have marred the launch.
Kinetic moved quickly to address reports raised by its community. For instance, one change includes shifting the Tier 3 lighter from a consumable item to a non-consumable one following player feedback, and another ensures that the T3 crucifix now has the correct five-metre radius.
The Incense hunt effect duration – formerly known as Smudge Sticks, and perhaps the biggest issue to plague fans since the new update went live – have been fixed, too, so they will no longer "sometimes set to 0 seconds" and get ghosthunters unwittingly killed even if they theoretically managed to light a Smudge Stick in time.
Admittedly, the hotfix hasn't quite addressed all the stuttering and freezing issues, but Kinetic has "temporarily" removed the VR social screen mode "due to severe performance issues", and the "main menu performance has been improved", along with a "significantly improved performance of saving and loading from the save file".
For the full patch notes, head on over to Steam.
ICYMI, goosebump-inducing ghost-hunting sim Phasmophobia is headed to PlayStation 5, including VR2, and Xbox Series X/S later this month.