Communicating directly with the ghost in Phasmophobia can be a very dangerous but rewarding process. It’s certainly high-risk, high-reward, and the Spirit Box is one of the best ways to facilitate this communication.
The Spirit Box is a very powerful tool, but it can also be quite a confusing one since it has three distinct tiers that function differently. Mastering this tool will make your ghost-hunting skills much more effective, so here’s everything you need to know about using the Spirit Box in Phasmophobia.
How to use Phasmophobia’s Spirit Box
How you use the Spirit Box in Phasmophobia will differ depending on what tier Spirit Box you are working with, but for all three, you’ll either need to speak aloud or use the text-based voice recognition mode to gain a valid response from the ghost.
There are three different types of Spirit Boxes you can unlock and use in Phasmophobia.
- Tier I: An old FM/AM Radio with fairly low quality and a low response rate.
- Range: Three meters
- Audio quality: Low
- Response rate: Low
- Unlock: Immediately
- Tier II: A P-SB7T Spirit Box designed specifically to communicate with ghosts.
- Range: Four meters
- Audio quality: Medium
- Response rate: Medium
- Unlock: Level 27
- Tier III: A top-of-the-line SB11-Z Spirit Box capable of scanning two channels at once to increase response likeliness.
- Range: Five meters
- Audio quality: High
- Response rate: High
- Unlock: Level 54
Spirit Box rules in Phasmophobia
Regardless of which Spirit Box you’re using, there are a few rules to keep in mind if you want to receive a response.
- The lights in the room must be off or the ghost will never respond.
- If the ghost only responds to people who are alone, then you must be the only player in the room during questioning.
- You must be actually on the map to use the Spirit Box, which means through the main front door for all buildings and through the front gate for outdoor maps.
- You’ll have to be within a certain distance of the ghost depending on which level of Spirit Box you’re using. Tier I is three meters, Tier II is four meters, and Tier III is five meters.
- The ghost must have Spirit Box as one of its three evidence types or you won’t receive any response.
How to communicate using Spirit Box in Phasmophobia
For all three tiers, communication will work exactly the same. How you can tell whether you actually got a response is the part that varies between each tier, but for communicating with the ghost using each Spirit Box, here are the steps to follow.
- Turn on the Spirit Box by pressing the Primary Use button, which defaults to the right mouse button. You will hear static when the box is on.
- Communicate with the ghost by asking questions through one of four methods depending on which form of voice recognition mode you have activated.
- Push-to-talk: Hold down either “V” for local push-to-talk or “B” for global push-to-talk and ask the ghost questions while continuously holding down either button.
- Voice activation: Talk and ask questions whenever you like since the ghost will always be able to hear you. You don’t need to press any button for this method to work since it is an open microphone.
- Toggle: Use the local push-to-talk button, which defaults to “V,” to toggle on and off voice recognition mode as desired. You’ll just have to press this button once to turn it on and then press it again later once you are done asking questions and don’t want to trigger the Spirit Box anymore.
- Text: With the text-based mode of communication, you’ll see three questions pop up as soon as you turn this tool on. Click any of the three questions to ask the ghost for a response. You can repeatedly click these questions as many times as you want to test for Spirit Box as a piece of evidence.
- Turn off the Spirit Box to stop communication using the Primary Use button, which will default to the right mouse button. The static noise will stop when you have successfully turned it off.
How to use Tier I Spirit Box in Phasmophobia
On the Tier I Spirit Box, you’re looking for a white dot to signify a ghost response.
- When the Tier I Spirit Box is on, you’ll see a red dot next to the word power. This means it is functioning and ready to listen when you start using it to communicate.
- A small microphone icon sits in the right corner region of the box above the speaker and will feature a white dot when your microphone is on and being heard by the Tier I Spirit Box.
- The most important dot to watch for is the one in the very bottom right corner of the box above the speaker. This box indicates a valid ghost response or the lack of one.
- When this dot is white, you have successfully obtained a ghost response and can mark Spirit Box as evidence in your journal.
- When the dot is red, no response has been obtained.
The Tier I Spirit Box is the weakest form of this tool and will generally be difficult to obtain responses through, so you’ll want to test this one as many times as you can. I’d recommend at least 10 tries where you see no response before you officially cross it off.
How to use Tier II Spirit Box in Phasmophobia
On the Tier II Spirit Box, you’re looking for a black ghost icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to indicate a valid response. If you played at all before the equipment was overhauled with the Ascension update, you should find using the Tier II Spirit Box familiar since this level is the exact same as the original Spirit Box that existed before it.
- A red dot next to the word “power” indicates the Tier II Spirit Box is powered on as does the illuminated orange screen displaying various radio channels.
- In the top left corner of the Spirit Box screen, you’ll see a black microphone icon when your microphone is on and being heard.
- Whether you have received a valid ghost response is represented in the bottom-right corner of the Tier II Spirit Box screen. Both the X icon and the ghost outline will be on display at all times, so you’re looking for a slight color change to indicate whether the ghost responded.
- If the small ghost icon changes to a black color, you have gotten a direct reply from the ghost and can now mark of Spirit Box as evidence.
- If the X turns to a dark black color, then no response has been received.
How to use Tier III Spirit Box in Phasmophobia
Although the Tier III Spirit Box is the most powerful version of this tool, it’s also the most confusing and overwhelming to look at since it has a lot of unnecessary extra display features.
You are looking for a line of white dots to indicate a valid ghost response.
- The dot underneath the word power will be red when the Tier III Spirit Box is on.
- The dot under the words mic input will be white when it hears what you are saying and red when it hears you but you obtain no response.
- The collection of dots underneath the word response is where you’ll be looking for a ghost reply.
- If the row of dots turns white, you’ve captured a ghost reply and can now mark off Spirit Box as evidence.
- If the row of dots is red, no reply was heard and you may have to do further testing.
Spirit Box Phasmophobia questions
There is an expansive list of ghost trigger phrases and voice commands you can use to elicit a response, but for the Spirit Box specifically, you’ll have the best luck using the following questions to gain insight about the ghost.
- Where are you?
- Are you close?
- Are you here?
- Is there a ghost here?
- Give us a sign.
- Are you friendly?
- How old are you?
- What do you want?
- Why are you here?
- Do you want to hurt us?
- Should we leave?
- Speak to us.
- What is your location?
- Can you talk?
- Show yourself.
- Are you a child?
- Are you young?
- Are you old?
I recommend using “Where are you?” and all other questions relating specifically to location the most since how the ghost answers this question can help you determine where the ghost room is.
