How Sidekick AI works a Phasmophobia contract
Phasmophobia rewards a very specific habit: lock evidence fast, read behavior, then survive the hunt window. Most deaths come from doing those steps in the wrong order. The workflow below is exactly how Sidekick AI coaches live runs.
Front door, 12-second pause. Drop the thermometer in the room with the most personal items — that's almost always the bone-room or favorite-room. Don't waste sanity reading every door.
Phase 1 — Setup (don't skip this)
- Sanity pills stay on your hotbar, not in the truck.
- One smudge per teammate, plus a backup near the entrance for emergency hunts.
- Pick a single room as your "evidence base" — drop the camera, thermometer, and salt there. All three pieces of evidence usually trigger in the ghost room within minutes.
Phase 2 — Evidence pass
The trick is to lock the first two pieces of evidence inside the ghost room before sanity drops below 60%. Below 60% you start risking unpredictable hunts.
- Throw a Spirit Box question — "are you here?", "where are you?". Listen on the journal.
- Check the thermometer for sub-10°C (Freezing Temperatures evidence).
- Glance for ghost writing, EMF spikes, DOTS silhouettes in the camera feed.
- Drop salt at the doorway and check for ghost footprints on a return pass.
Two evidence locked: Freezing + Spirit Box. Journal narrows to four candidates: Onryo, Hantu, Demon, Yokai. Time to behavior-test before the third evidence — don't wait for sanity to crash.
Phase 3 — Behavior reads (the third evidence is often unreliable)
Some ghost evidence is intentionally misleading or rare. Don't bet your contract on a single ghost orb sighting if a behavior tell can confirm.
| Behavior | Likely ghost | Confirmation step | | --- | --- | --- | | Hunts immediately after a sound (whisper, footstep) | Yokai | Whisper near it at full sanity — if it hunts, it's Yokai. | | Hunts at high sanity (above 70%) | Demon | Stand still and wait — most ghosts can't hunt this high. | | Speed changes with the room temperature (faster in cold) | Hantu | Time it in a warm vs. cold room. | | Hunts when you stand still in line of sight | Deogen | Approach with a smudge ready. | | Hunts faster the longer the contract runs | Thaye | Compare hunt speed at minute 5 vs. minute 15. | | Speed doesn't change with line of sight (always fast) | Revenant when seen, slow when blind | Hide and wait — Revenant slows to a crawl when blind. |
Phase 4 — Hunt survival
When a hunt starts, you have ~6 seconds before the ghost actually starts moving. Use them.
- Drop your video camera and EMF reader — running with them in hand wastes time and they light up the dark.
- Kill your flashlight if the ghost hasn't seen you yet. The flicker gives you away.
- Break line of sight twice — most ghost AI loses you on the second corner.
- Crouch behind tall furniture for ghosts with poor floor-level vision.
Hunt incoming — flicker on the kitchen lamp. Smudge is on cooldown, you have no crucifix. Closet on your left, two corners between you and the ghost. Get in, kill your light, hold crouch. Don't move until the radio static stops.
Solo run survival rules
Solo runs are where Sidekick AI changes the experience the most. With a voice in the headset:
- Sanity drains slower when you're not constantly checking the journal — the AI calls evidence out loud.
- You react faster to hunts when you don't have to recognize the cue yourself.
- You actually take harder contracts — the silence is what stops most solo players from trying nightmare difficulty.
Summary
Phasmophobia ID isn't about memorizing a flat ghost list — it's about a fast first-evidence pass, behavior reads on the second, and surviving the hunt window long enough to confirm the third. Sidekick AI runs that loop with you out loud, so the worst part of solo Phasmophobia (the silence and the second-guessing) goes away.