How to complete the Audio Only challenge in Phasmophobia

Every themed weekly trial in Phasmophobia tests your ghost-hunting abilities in a unique way, and the Audio Only challenge is all about sound-based equipment. You have to always be listening and paying close attention to successfully finish this trial.

With missing equipment, an emphasis on noise, and a massive map to navigate, this can be a pretty tricky challenge to work through. Here’s what you need to know to complete the Audio Only challenge in Phasmophobia.

What is the Audio Only challenge in Phasmophobia?

The Audio Only challenge is one of Phasmophobia’s many special weekly trials you can attempt. Finishing any weekly trial nets you 5,000 experience and $5,000 cash, which means you should always try to tackle them when you can to level up fast and unlock special Phasmophobia achievements.

Audio Only Phasmophobia challenge rules

Tackling Audio Only isn’t easy, but it’s a lot less daunting when you know the exact rules this challenge has before you jump into it. Most of the special modifiers for this trial are focused on the overarching sound theme.

• You have to complete this trial on the Sunny Meadows Mental Institution map.
  • Make sure you select regular Sunny Meadows and not Sunny Meadows Restricted. Progress for this challenge is only tracked at regular Sunny Meadows.
• There is a five-minute grace period you can use to set up without worrying about any pesky early hunters before the five minutes are up.
• The fuse box is broken, which means the power is permanently off.
• There are no Cursed Possessions you can use.
• You’re missing a lot of equipment, including Sanity Medication, Incense, Crucifixes, Salt, UV Light, Thermometers, EMF Readers, Tripods, and Video Cameras.
• You have access to a variety of equipment across all three Tiers.
  • Tier I: Igniter and Head Gear.
  • Tier II: Firelight, Motion Sensor, Photo Camera, Ghost Writing Book, DOTS Projector, and Flashlight.
  • Tier III: Parabolic Microphone, Sound Sensor, and Spirit Box.

How to complete the Audio Only Phasmophobia weekly challenge

To complete the Audio Only challenge in Phasmophobia, you must identify the ghost present at Sunny Meadows with the challenge mode active a total of three times.

When this trial is featured, you have a week to attempt it before a different one rotates in. All challenge modes come back from time to time, so if you don’t get it this time, you can always try again later. There’s nothing to lose since all equipment is provided for free, so try this challenge as much as you can when it’s active.

Phasmophobia Audio Only challenge tips

All weekly challenge modes in Phasmophobia can be difficult in one way or another, and Audio Only is an especially tough one to work through, so here are some tips to help you complete it.

Ghost hunt with other players

Sunny Meadows is arguably the most massive, confusing, and terrifying map Phasmophobia has to offer, which makes trying to complete this challenge alone very difficult. Because of this, you should tackle Audio Only with other players, whether those players are friends or random ghost hunters you match with in the lobby.

Ghost hunting with other players is one of the best tips for Phasmophobia since you have a massive advantage when you have others helping you. Without additional players, the contract ends when you die or leave, but as long as one player is still alive, you can keep investigating which means you can still help from beyond the grave.

Audio Only isn’t one of the toughest trials you can face, but it’s one of the most tedious if you’re trying to navigate the vast map on your own. The overall best way you can increase your odds of success in this challenge is by rallying friends to play with you or using the matchmaking feature to find fellow ghost hunters.

Make an equipment pile by the door

This tip is a bit of a sneaky cheat, but it’s super useful for making the most of your time. Start each attempt at this challenge by bringing most or all of your equipment to the front door and piling it up there. Doing so saves you a ton of time down the line since you don’t have to waste precious seconds walking from the front door back to the truck.

The time it takes to navigate from the front door to the truck might not seem like much, but since you have no protection items and no power to keep your sanity high, you need to finish this trial as quickly as possible. This small change in how you use equipment ends up saving you many minutes by the end of the challenge, which increases your overall chances of success.

Run, don’t hide

If you find yourself the victim of an unwelcome ghost hunt, always choose to run rather than hide if you can. I always find running to be the most effective option for escaping a ghost hunt, and this is especially true when you’re on a massive map like Sunny Meadows where it’s easy to loop around and continuously run from the ghost.

Learn the map layout

Sunny Meadows is a super easy map to get lost on, so if you’re trying this challenge over and over but repeatedly getting lost, you may want to visit this location in another mode to learn the map layout. Having a solid understanding of this building makes investigating and escaping during a hunt much easier.

The best way to learn this map is to create a custom mode with the friendly ghost option on. In this mode, the ghost cannot kill you. This means you can freely roam the spooky halls of Sunny Meadows without worrying about a dangerous and oftentimes deadly ghost hunt.

Check the truck cameras

Since you have no Video Cameras to work with in this audio-focused trial, you might be wondering how you can check for Ghost Orbs. There’s no way to rule them out with certainty, but you can use the truck cameras to view a total of eight locations around the map.

You might get lucky and spot Ghost Orbs, which means you’ll know one evidence piece and exactly where the ghost room is. But even if you don’t get lucky, you might spot something helpful like an open door or a thrown object to point you in the right direction.

Update your journal often

You can die in this challenge and technically still complete it as long as you pick the right ghost, so try to keep your ghost selection in the journal updated as you learn new information. This will likely change often as you test out different equipment or experience more ghost events, but do your best to keep an updated guess circled to increase your odds of success if you end up being caught during a hunt.

If you’re unsure when to change your answer and what to look out for, keep an eye on the ghost’s general personality. When the ghost seems unusually shy, you might select Shade as your main guess, while a ghost that seems far too eager to hunt and sought you out a lot sooner than expected might mean you want to keep Demon circled.

Keeping your journal up to date is easier when you watch for general ghost patterns as you would in tougher challenges like No Evidence, Detectives Only, and Apocalypse, so you can also use the same methods from other trials to make this one easier.

Try again

Challenge modes are incredibly difficult to complete, and this one is especially tough because it takes place at Sunny Meadows. Luckily, you don’t lose anything for failing these trials, so even if you’re struggling to get it right, it’s always worth trying the challenge again as many times as you can while it’s active.

Some ghosts are much easier to identify than others, so you’re guaranteed to have some contracts that feel a lot easier and some that are incredibly hard. Every match is different and you never know when you’ll end up getting a ghost that’s easy to identify, so keep at this challenge and give it your all even if it takes many tries to get it right.