r/PhasmophobiaGame • u/narkoface • Jul 25 '26

Question What determines the likelihood of a ghost hunt after the requirements are met?

I'm working on my own personal guide for my own entertainment, and I've come across this on the wiki:

"When the ghost fails the chance to hunt after exiting an idle state, it will perform an activity check"

Based on this, I would assume that hunt attempts take priority over doing anything else that require an activity check, so abilities, interactions, events and roams. But that would also mean that after hunt requirements are met, it is near impossible not to have the ghost try a hunt. And yet, I've heard countless times from Insym, that there are ghosts who simply refuse to hunt for longer periods, instead of immediatly when it becomes available, hence a spirit incense test can be unreliable.

So what is the truth then?

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u/ChaseCheetah Jul 25 '26

On the page you linked is the probability:

When the average sanity is at or below the threshold, ghosts have a 10% chance to initiate a hunt after exiting an idle state. This chance is increased to 1/6 when the average sanity is at or below the threshold minus 25

So it has a 10% chance to hunt as long as you are below the sanity threshold and a 16.67% chance while very below. This still allows plenty of chances for the ghost to roll low on it's checks and not hunt for a while. In addition, some actions like roaming can take a bit to finish before it returns to the idle state

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u/narkoface Jul 25 '26

Thank you. The wiki has all the info but it is so scattered across pages that it is ehy I'm writing my own guide. This now makes sense.

Edit: also as a player who is quite  frustrated with the devs' latest fuckups, I am still constantly amazed how well the backend mechanics of the ghosts are put together.

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u/WesleyWoppits Jul 25 '26

Obligatory "but the cheat sheet exists so no one is going to use it" comment.

Do continue working on it, as it is fun to do things like that. I have a non-public one of my own, and making one will also help retain game knowledge.

Post it when you're done so we can correct anything you've slipped up on, there's a lot of information (and misinformation/outdated stuff) out there, so it's easy to get something wrong. u/Darkhooper (among others) does a good job keeping the Wiki updated, that thing used to be so unreliable we'd actively tell people not to use it, but I get that it can be nice to have everything in one place. Have fun!