Phasmophobia’s game-changing update finally has a release date

Ghost hunters have been eagerly awaiting Phasmophobia’s next update for months—and the devs are finally ready to deliver. Everything you know about Phasmophobia is about to change for the better, and the update is arriving sooner than most players expected.

Phasmophobia’s most expansive update yet finally has a release date—and it’s just two days from now. The update will officially go live at 5am CT on Aug. 17 for all PC players.

The name of this update is officially “Ascension,” which is fitting for the update’s core theme of leveling up and revamping everything about the game for the better. Just about everything you know about the ghost-hunting game will be receiving some sort of touch-up as the game moves closer to its Version 1.0 release.

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After the update launches, all equipment will be broken up into three different tiers or levels, with each one functioning differently from the others. Players will be able to decide which version of the equipment they like best and swap between them as desired.

The devs have been sharing regular blogs on Steam highlighting what some of these tiers will entail, and a good example of how drastic the differences between each tier will be is the new salt. Previously, salt was mostly a useless investigation item, but after the update launches, it will become immensely helpful.

Salt will now allow ghosts to leave UV footprints that count as fingerprint evidence. The first tier of salt will only allow you to place two piles and otherwise works fairly similar to how it is now. But the second tier is a special pink salt that can be placed in lines to strategically block doorways and the final tier is a blessed black salt that can both repel and trap ghosts when used right.

All other pieces of equipment will be receiving a similar tier system where some tiers seem better than others but all tiers also provide different benefits so you can decide for yourself which one you prefer.

If you head to the Phasmophobia lobby now, you can enjoy a small preview of the different tiers when walking around the equipment shop where a “coming soon” sign is displayed alongside visual representations of each new tier. Kinetic Games has also shared several blogs showcasing the differences between tiers for each item over on Steam if you want a more expansive look at how the update will change all equipment.

A whole new leveling system is also taking over when the “Ascension” update arrives. This does mean that all of your current levels will be completely wiped, but you will get to customize a special patch for your character to commemorate how far you managed to get before the update.

Although this update will be live for PC players on Aug. 17, the console release date isn’t until later this month. Kinetic Games hasn’t shared an official console release date for Phasmophobia just yet, but it did say it would launch by the end of August, so console players should also get to experience all this massive update has to offer fairly soon.