Normally, I’d hedge my bets, making caveats that play style heavily influences which cursed possession works best, but at the end of the day, the versatility and reliability of certain setups that are now tested and true after years of updates leaves me confident that I’ve gotten the order right.

If you disagree, feel free to sound off in the comments. However, if you use the possessions as suggested below, your chances of a perfect investigation will increase, and you won’t waste your time springing hunts on you and your team by mishandling these items while trying to complete your tasks.

7. Voodoo Doll

Torturing the dead is never a good idea, and with the pins randomized, there’s no control over when a cursed hunt starts. Those reasons alone should put the Voodoo Doll at the bottom of every tier list.

Some folks who enjoy the misery will tell you that it’s just another way to find the favorite room by listening to interactions, but without knowing the favorite room, there’s little hope of dodging a cursed hunt if the heart pin gets pushed in.

Best chance is to find the room through other means (temperature is usually the quickest unless there are ghost orbs). Once that’s done, removal all interaction objects that you can and put down whatever evidence you’d like the ghost to interact with. From there, with a Tier 3 Crucifix in place, you should be able to safely use the doll.

6. Music Box

Some folks swear by the Music Box, but at the end of the day, it’s a one hit wonder that demands double the effort for not even half the reward you can get with the rest of the possessions.

Sure, the song is nice. If you want to track the ghost by sound, it can work on the smaller maps, but depending on your sanity when using it and the position of the ghost, it’s a gamble at best even on medium sized maps. The haunted mirror is more immediate, more accurate, and doesn’t rely on guesswork, so the only use the Music Box has is completely wasted.

For those who are less experienced in Phasmophobia, there’s also a huge risk of accidentally triggering a cursed hunt if you throw it while it is playing instead of putting it down. A cursed hunt also triggers if: 1) the player holding it reaches a 0% sanity; 2) ghost’s head is within 1 meter of the box while it is playing; or 3) the ghost walks for more than 5 seconds during the triggered ghost event.

The only reason this isn’t below Voodoo Doll is because you can put it down while it is playing, and doing so should allow for a workable escape that allows the ghost to be caught in a photo or a video. You’ll die a lot mastering the skills needed to do this, and you’re still at the mercy of ghost location at the time you start, but at least that’s something.

5. Monkey’s Paw

If the Monkey’s Paw is lower on your list, you probably haven’t looked up the Phasmopedia or used it with text speech on. There’s definitely a sharp learning curve, and it’s one of the worst cursed possessions to just play around with as the consequences aren’t always immediately obvious; however, if you know the cost of your wishes, it’s easy to prep and avoid ones that will end with you dead.

If you have a solid idea of the location of the ghost, and the ghost isn’t in a room or area with an unbroken connection between you and the front door, one of the best ones to wish is for the ghost to be trapped. Best to do it from the entryway. With any luck, you can immediately leave, but if you get hit with the 25% chance of the doors in your immediate room being locked as well, you still have a slight grace period when your doors will unlock before the ghost’s, so you should still be able to easily escape a hunt if you don’t panic.

Plus, if you have the ghost’s favorite room fully covered by a Tier 3 Crucifix, that should get you the burned Crucifix and a high level of interaction during and following the entrapment period.

During a hunt, if you’re on a large map and close to the door, wishing to leave can safely get you out. Just make sure you have a clear line to the door or know what’s in your way as your sight will decrease.

If you want to wish for knowledge, make sure you are the only player (alive or dead) in the house at the time. Unless you’re extremely close to identifying the ghost and plan to end the investigation after this, don’t use this wish when hunting solo. Purposefully decide on two rooms. One to start in and the second to hide in. Closer to the exit is better as is the case with most wish locations. Hide yourself, angling yourself before making the wish, so that you have an easy time making the dash out once the hunt ends, and then you can wish for knowledge while hidden. The ghost appears in the prior room, initiating a hunt, and your vision as well as your hearing get wrecked until the end of the contract or your death.

And as an added bonus, if you have the challenge to get less than 25% sanity, using the Monkey’s Paw to wish for a change of weather is a fun way to knock yourself down with minimal repercussions if you hide and then beeline out if the sanity drop doesn’t trigger a hunt.

All in all, I’m a fan of the Monkey’s Paw, but the high likelihood that panic or a wrong step could lead to death (as well as the aforementioned sharp learning curve) pushes this one down toward the bottom of the list.

4. Haunted Mirror

The better you know your maps, the better the Haunted Mirror becomes. Like the Music Box, the Haunted Mirror is a one trick pony really only useful for locating the ghost’s favorite room, but it’s far more reusable, and a couple seconds can get you the exact spot, minimizing sanity drain.

Last confirmed use drain settings had the mirror with a drain of about 8% per second or 20%, so if you want to count it out, just over 2 seconds is the most bang for your buck. As it will break and trigger a hunt if used when the player is at less than 20%, there’s a rough equation of uses equaling 4 x [player count] with additional uses dependent on what tier of sanity medication you have but generally no more than an additional 4 as you have to deal with general drain as well.

On larger maps with many similar rooms, like Brownstone High School or Sunny Meadows, you should still be able to narrow to a handful of rooms based on the room type during your first use. From there, put different tools in each location which are readily visible and look in the mirror again. If there are more rooms than unique tools, using the lights on/off should also help narrow which it is.

Overall, the Haunted Mirror may be limited, but it is efficient and predictable, setting it at a solid mid-ranking.

3. Ouija Board

Everyone has that one cursed possession that they underutilize, and for me, it’s the Ouija Board. Like the Monkey’s Paw, players can easily get a lot out of the Ouija Board, including ghost and bone locations, which are helpful to get a perfect investigation, and a bunch of other information that can be useful depending on the type of ghost, but there are few optional objectives that can be completed with this one.

Like the Voodoo Doll, using the Ouija Board will increase the number of interactions, especially the EMF Reader. Unlike the doll, it’s easier to avoid the cursed hunt just by not doing Hide & Seek while keeping an eye on your sanity. For streamers, this is also great for interactions. Solidly mid with more uses than the Haunted Mirror.

2. Tarot Cards

As with the Ouija Board, the Tarot Cards are great for streamers as they have a wider variety of interaction and responses. The cards have varying frequency percentages, so certain ones will pop up more than others, meaning there is less control; however, it is far easier to play cards on the threshold, and there’s a 2% chance of pulling the High Priestess card which will either revive a dead player or revive the next player to die depending on if someone is dead at the time it is pulled.

Of course, there’s a 1% chance of instant death, so it’s a risk to play with these solo, but as the player can easily exit the threshold during the card-pulling animation, that is the only guaranteed risk of death. Overall, there’s a chance to do a lot of what the Monkey’s Paw can do without the negative consequences.

Survivability alone should put the Tarot Cards high on any list. With the High Priestess in the mix, the Hail Mary possibilities of a strong deck mix are a gamble that might just win the top spot for many, but the random nature makes it fall shy of the real GOAT.

1. Summoning Circle

The Summoning Circle is often shoved into the middle of the pack and dramatically underutilized, but the facts make it clear why this cursed possession is the crème de la crème.

First, it’s impossible to accidentally activate. Its immovable nature, which is often cited as a detriment, ensures even the novice player won’t accidentally start the sanity drain or cause a cursed hunt without intending to do so.

Second, the multiple candles and clear 16% sanity drain make it easy to use to drain sanity if that’s a challenge without risking a full on cursed hunt. As a bonus, it drains the sanity of everybody nearby, so unlike some of the other cursed objects, you can control drain the entire team and not just a single player.

Third, the summoning counts as a ghost event (check one challenge). A video camera set up and the sacrificial player having a camera ensures you can get both a video and a photo of the ghost (two more challenges checked off).

Fourth, if you have Tier 3 Crucifix, cursed hunt can’t happen when positioned in the center of the Summoning Circle before activating. This will also cause the Crucifix to burn (another challenged checked off), and you can get a high value picture, video, or sound recording of that burning depending on what you need.

All in all, most challenges can be completed either directly or indirectly using the summoning circle, and full use won’t necessarily completely drain your sanity. Used toward the end of a contract, it’s a great way to fill out any gaps to ensure you get a perfect investigation.

While there are some maps where the summoning circle is in an inconvenient location, and the large maps might make escapes afterwards a long run, the guaranteed evidence dramatically outweighs the prep-time required to ensure the sacrificial player makes it out alive. You could also argue that it is single use, but most of the cursed possessions are no longer usable after triggering a cursed hunt, so this isn’t anything new, and lighting only some of the candles can cause interactions if the ghost’s favorite room is where the circle is, so it’s all about planning.

Do you agree with our list? Disagree? Let us know how you’d rank Phasmophobia’s cursed possessions in the comments below, and as always, join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord and Facebook.

Featured Image: Kinetic Games

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