Phasmophobia: How to Beat Challenge Mode and Claim $5,000

Challenge Mode is a curated custom difficulty in Phasmophobia with fixed rules and a fixed loadout you cannot change. Because you never bring your own gear, dying costs you nothing, which is why the mode is far more forgiving than its parameters suggest. The money is tied to the weekly task attached to it, not to surviving.

Quick answer: Correctly mark the ghost type in your journal on the exact map named by the current challenge, three separate times. You do not need to survive the hunt, finish optional objectives, or do the runs back to back. The third correct identification pays out $5,000 and 5,000 XP.

What counts as a Challenge Mode completion

Only one thing decides whether a run counts. The ghost type you selected in the journal must match the ghost that was actually there when the contract ends. Everything else — photos, bone, cursed possession objectives, escaping alive — is optional and pays extra cash, but it does not affect the weekly counter.

Dying does not void a run. If you mark the correct ghost and then get killed during a hunt, the contract still resolves with a correct identification and the counter still moves from 0/3 to 1/3. That makes the safest strategy simple. Get the ghost marked as early as you can, then treat everything after that as a bonus.

You can also play Challenge Mode as many times as you like on any map for fun, but only runs on the map named in the challenge description feed the weekly task.

How to run a Challenge Mode contract

Read the challenge board in the lobby first. It shows the challenge name, its description, the required map, your current progress, and the countdown until the weekly reset.

Go to the contract board and set the difficulty to Challenge Mode, then pick the exact map the challenge names. Picking any other location still lets you play the challenge rules, but it will not add to your 0/3 counter.

Contract voting board in the lobby with the cursor over the map selection cards — The contract board, where you set Challenge Mode and lock in the required location. Image: Kinetic Games

Start the contract and check the truck. Every tool the challenge allows is already stocked on the shelves at no cost, and you cannot add or upgrade anything. Note which items are missing, since that dictates how you play.

Truck equipment rack stocked with the challenge loadout, cursor hovering over the shelf — The truck rack comes pre-stocked with the preset loadout, so nothing is bought or lost. Image: Kinetic Games

Enter the location and find the ghost room before you commit gear. A parabolic microphone, an EMF reader, or a thermometer will usually narrow it down quickly, depending on what the challenge gives you.

First-person view approaching the front door of the challenge location — Heading inside to locate the ghost room on a Challenge Mode run. Image: Kinetic Games

Collect the evidence you need, then open the journal and select the ghost type. Mark it as soon as you are confident rather than waiting until the end of the contract.

Walk back to the truck and shut the door to end the contract. There is no need to carry equipment back or tidy up.

Repeat until the counter reads 3/3. The runs can be spread across the week and can be done solo or in a group, as long as each one ends with a correct identification on the required map.

How to confirm the run counted

The end-of-contract summary is the confirmation. It names the ghost that was present and shows whether your journal answer matched, along with the XP and cash earned for that run. Back in the lobby, the challenge board increments the counter, so 0/3 becomes 1/3 after a successful run.

End of contract summary screen confirming the correct ghost type and the payout for the run — The results screen confirms the ghost type and the run’s payout before the challenge counter updates. Image: Kinetic Games

If the summary confirms the correct ghost but the counter has not moved, the run was almost certainly played on the wrong location.

Why Challenge Mode progress does not count

The ghost type marked in the journal was wrong, or no ghost was marked at all.
The contract was played on a different map than the one named in the challenge.
The contract was played on a non-Challenge difficulty such as Professional or a custom setup.
A Sunny Meadows challenge was run on Sunny Meadows (Restricted), or the reverse. The two do not count for each other.
The three runs were not finished before the weekly reset, which wipes the counter back to zero.

Challenge Mode rewards and the 1x multiplier

Individual Challenge Mode contracts pay poorly. No matter how punishing the parameters are, the mode always uses a base reward multiplier of 1x, the same as Amateur. The payout that matters is the weekly task bonus, which lands once you hit the third completion.

Element	Value
Runs required	3 correct ghost identifications
Weekly task reward	$5,000 and 5,000 XP
In-run multiplier	1x, regardless of difficulty
Equipment cost	Free, preset, and not lost on death
Survival requirement	None

Note: Optional objectives, photo rewards, and bone pickups still stack on top of each run’s payout, so they are worth grabbing on easier challenges. They just never substitute for the ghost identification.

Weekly rotation and the current challenge

There are 26 standard challenges, and they rotate every Monday at midnight UTC. The challenge board in the lobby always shows a countdown to the next swap, which is the deadline for finishing all three runs.

Comment
byu/Zambi_Moon from discussion
inPhasmophobiaGame

The active challenge is Gotta Go Fast!, set at Prison. It is one of the harshest entries in the pool because you start at 0% sanity with no pill restoration and a disabled sanity monitor, hiding spots are removed entirely, and both you and the ghost move at 125% speed. The fuse box starts broken and most doors start open, on one of the largest and easiest maps to get lost in.

Setting	Effect on the run
Starting sanity	0%, with no pill restoration and no sanity monitor
Player and ghost speed	125% for both, so speed is useless as an identifier
Hiding places	None, so hunts must be outrun or avoided
Fuse box	Broken for the whole contract
Doors	High chance of starting open
Loadout	Tier 1 only, with no incense and no crucifixes

With no incense or crucifixes, there is nothing to stop or delay a hunt, so distance is the only defence. Sweep for the ghost room with the parabolic microphone and the EMF reader first, drop electronics and run the moment a hunt starts, then bring in only a writing book, a DOTS projector, or a spirit box. Salt and UV cost you time standing still in the ghost’s room, which is the most dangerous thing you can do here. Prison’s built-in camera system is also worth checking for ghost orbs without walking the halls.

Standard challenges and their required maps

Challenge	Required map
Lights out!	6 Tanglewood Drive
Déjà Vu	6 Tanglewood Drive
Speedrun!	6 Tanglewood Drive
Speed Demons	Maple Lodge Campsite
Detectives only	42 Edgefield Road
Glow in the Dark	42 Edgefield Road
Survival of the Fittest	42 Edgefield Road
Hide and Seek: Seeker	Brownstone High School
Tag! You’re it!	Brownstone High School
Missed Delivery	Brownstone High School
Hide and Seek: Hide!	Point Hope
Paranormal Paparazzi	Point Hope
Frostbitten	Camp Woodwind
Slow and Steady	Camp Woodwind
Hide and Seek: Extreme	Camp Woodwind
Do as I Command	Sunny Meadows
Audio Only	Sunny Meadows
The Apocalypse Draws Near	Sunny Meadows
Tortoise and the Hare: Hare	Bleasdale Farmhouse
Technophilia	Bleasdale Farmhouse
Tortoise and the Hare: Tortoise	Grafton Farmhouse
No Evidence	Grafton Farmhouse
Sanity Survival	10 Ridgeview Court
Primitive	10 Ridgeview Court
Vulnerable	Willow Street
Gotta Go Fast!	Prison

Treat each contract as a single question to answer rather than a survival test. Find the room, get the evidence that separates the likely ghosts, mark the journal, and leave. Three correct answers on the right map is the whole task, and the game hands you the gear to do it for free every time.