The smallest house in Phasmophobia has been rebuilt. Update v0.18.0.0 gives 13 Willow Street a full visual overhaul, adds a new ghost called the Deildegast, and lands the first of two planned quality-of-life passes for 2026. It is a free download across PC, PlayStation 5, PSVR2, and Xbox Series X|S.
Quick answer: Install v0.18.0.0 to play the reworked 13 Willow Street, hunt the new Deildegast, start the Artist’s Retreat challenge for the Sun Seeker ID Card and Badge, and use the new equipment keybinds (1–4) and Watch inspect key. All Cursed Possession spots on the map have moved.
13 Willow Street rework: layout stays, rooms change
The base floor plan of 13 Willow Street is the same one long-time players already know. What changed is nearly everything on top of it. The rooms carry new assets, props, decorations, and hiding spots, and the flow of several spaces has been edited to make hunts play out differently. The home now leans into a cat-lover theme, with cat trees on the walls and toys scattered across the floors.
Several rooms were repurposed rather than redecorated. Here is how the key spaces map to their old versions.
| Room now | What it replaced |
|---|---|
| Art studio | The second bedroom |
| Gym | The garage |
| Basement games room (bar, pool table, seating) | Cramped storage and DIY rooms |
| Thin basement utility corridor | Nod to the old storage layout |
There is now only one bedroom, and it includes a walk-in wardrobe you can hide in. The kitchen keeps its position but adds working interactions such as an oven, microwave, air fryer, and openable cupboards. The basement is the biggest gameplay shift. Instead of a tight L-shaped storage area, you get an open rectangular games room with a pool table, a bar, and a seated area, which gives you far more room to kite a ghost instead of dying the moment it spawns on you.
New ghost: the Deildegast
The Deildegast is the new entity added with this update. To confirm it, you need three pieces of evidence: Ghost Writing, EMF Level Five, and DOTS Projector.
Its behaviour sets it apart. The Deildegast tends to move faster than other ghosts, especially early in a contract, and you can slow it down by displacing items around it. For the first few weeks after launch, it appears in contracts at an increased rate so you can learn how it works before the odds settle back to normal.
Artist’s Retreat challenge and the Sun Seeker reward
Every reworked map ships with its own trial, and this one is the Artist’s Retreat challenge. Completing 50 contracts at 13 Willow Street, correctly identifying the ghost and surviving, earns you the Sun Seeker ID Card and Badge set.
Cursed Possession locations and the updated truck map
Because rooms were rebuilt and repurposed, every Cursed Possession spot on 13 Willow Street has moved. All seven items now spawn in different places, so old memory routes no longer apply and you will need to relearn where each one appears.
The map screen in the truck has been redrawn to match the new interior. It has moved away from the plain grey box style to a full-color layout that shows room details, which makes planning routes easier before you head inside.
Quality-of-life changes for controls and evidence
This is the first of two quality-of-life updates for 2026, and much of it addresses friction introduced by the earlier player character update. The headline additions cover equipment switching, the Watch, and how the game handles photos.
| Change | Detail |
|---|---|
| Equipment keybinds (PC) | Switch slots with the 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys; rebindable in Options > Controls |
| Watch inspect key | Check the Watch at any time; default H on keyboard, Left DPAD on controller |
| EMF Level 5 photo | A separate photo can now be captured for an EMF Level 5 reading |
| Photo Camera highlight | Same highlight frame as Video Cameras; indicator on Tier 2 and 3, light color change on Tier 1 |
| Media priority | When several subjects are in frame, the game favours unique evidence or the biggest reward |
Movement and interaction also feel faster. Character legs now use real animations instead of procedural IK, the body no longer sways held items while walking, and many grab, drop, and door animations were shortened or removed from your own view to speed up play. The Journal opens noticeably faster and sits closer for readability, and you can cancel a Use animation by pressing Use again to toggle equipment without waiting.
Cool Cat Twitch Drops (July 21 to 28)
A Twitch Drops campaign runs for the first week after launch, from July 21 to July 28. Watching a total of two hours of participating Phasmophobia streams unlocks the Cool Cat ID Card and Badge. The animated version is available exclusively through Kinetic Games Partner channels, while the static version comes from general viewing.
VR improvements now, and a new rig coming in late August
VR players get immediate upgrades in this build. There are new character animations, a more usable equipment belt, and instant turning that follows where you are looking instead of snapping at set angles. When you look straight ahead the character rotates to match your head, and when you look down it only turns past a threshold so the belt stays easy to reach. The Journal also opens instantly on use.
The larger VR work is being held back for the second quality-of-life update, currently planned for late August. That release is set to bring a completely new VR character rig with improved crouching, more accurate body positioning, better animations, held items that no longer sway while walking, and further belt usability tweaks. Splitting the two keeps the July update focused on the map, the ghost, and the control fixes that affect every player right now.
