So, this question isn't to come across as rude to anyone... But i was wondering.. With all these mods and such out there, why is verifying not more strict?? I have always wanted to post, but entire communities seem too close knit. People who "verify" also play with everyone else they are verifying for... For those unknowingly, you are able to have a buddy join you in game, and can manipulate where the ghost is, how it interacts, and even if it hunts... you can make it choose what type, and EVERYTHING... this isn't just for the host, the one recording, he could be completely clean in the situation. As long as you have a buddy controlling the ghost, it "looks" clean... would if be too much to request ALL parties record, and even show their task managers, or something more solid... Certain apps can be controlled via a phone, but still needs the app running in task manager.... Again, not trying to come across rude, but these runs seems too repetitive, and it's their buddies who verify... The runners seems to only buy multiple flashlight and lighters... like they don't even own anything else... but are levels 1500+.... With the mods, you can get ghost photos even when the ghost isn't present... I would like to see a more solid way of verifying runs, so any other input or suggestions would be wonderfully welcomed... thank you for your time.

Yaaaa this site has Galaxy Twins vibes all over again............

The mods & verifiers are trusted members of the community.

We are playing phasmohpbia for a very long time and have discovered multiple people trying to use mods to increase their luck in running. Usually we can detect this when an unknown runner that is very low level in the game for instance gets a WR that nobody beats for 3 month (this is just an example)

We also know how the game works, and if the runner does weird things that are very suspicious, we try to investigate before validating the run.

Just so you know, we rejected a lot of runs where the runner(s) were using mods. You can't see them obviously, but there is a lot more than you think.

In order to win a WR in this game, you need a LOT of patience, and we know for sure that everyone who got WRs were very patient, as they have a lot of hours in the game and we can see that they play (or played) a lot.

Our current process for verifying suspicious runs is the following: we ask the runner to submit ALL his "running session" which should be at least 1 or 2 hours of trying & restarting runs, and we check for incoherences.

If you think someone cheated please let us know and we will investigate.

If you think that anyone in the mod/verifier team cheated, please let us know, bring your arguments and we will try to answer as truthful as possible.

EDIT: On another note, most of active runners streamed their running sessions on twitch. Just look at a random 5h+ VOD and you can see for yourself if the runner cheats or not.

Even though we verify runs for this game, we still enjoy running it. Most of us has dedicated 1000+ hours into speedrunning, practicing and learning new strategies for this game. We can easily point out when there is mods or external softwares being used and I can assure you that if any verifier somehow WAS using a mod to control the ghost it would of been caught a longgg time ago. I know it seems like we just get the record and the perfect RNG but if you'd like I can send you folders filled with 200gb+ of attempted runs for this game. Just like how Vision said if you believe someone cheated in a run and we somehow didn't catch it we are always available and you can DM any of us with these concerns. We will never be insulted if you think one of our own runs have been cheated. (This wasn't meant to sound rude or anything, so I apologize if it came off that way.)

-"With all these mods and such out there, why is verifying not more strict?? I have always wanted to post, but entire communities seem too close knit. People who "verify" also play with everyone else they are verifying for..."

In that case, Phasmophobia as a base game, its hard to detect the cheats directly from the gameplay unless there's inconsistencies in the game mechanics that we know well about. In addition to that, human behavior is easy to decode when it comes to cheating since we've verified plenty of runs, we would be able to pinpoint a genuine reaction from a faked one. In addition to that, if you see the community as a tight knit community then you're probably not wrong. Our discord is extremely friendly and welcoming to new people so we do end up playing with the new people and helping them out when it comes to understanding the game and running it. The discord link is available at the main page, and you're always welcome to join!

• "For those unknowingly, you are able to have a buddy join you in game, and can manipulate where the ghost is, how it interacts, and even if it hunts... you can make it choose what type, and EVERYTHING... this isn't just for the host, the one recording, he could be completely clean in the situation. As long as you have a buddy controlling the ghost, it "looks" clean... would if be too much to request ALL parties record, and even show their task managers, or something more solid..."

While this is true, an inexperienced runner with insane luck with ghosts and objectives would most probably brush over the game mechanics and try to spam certain trigger phrases and argue that their RNG is just good, however I can assure you our team is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to the game and detecting the slightest inconsistencies. However, if we were to ask people to show that much of their games such as all POV's + their task manager, and some of their files, that could discourage more people to run due to it seeming like we're setting the bar way too high for anyone new to enter this community and submit a run. However, this doesn't mean we wouldn't ask for such, but we would act on that based on suspicion.

• "Again, not trying to come across rude, but these runs seems too repetitive, and it's their buddies who verify... The runners seems to only buy multiple flashlight and lighters... like they don't even own anything else... but are levels 1500+...."

The reason the runs seem repetitive is because of the constant resetting for the perfect objectives and the perfect ghost. Those would be the objectives where you need the ghost to extinguish the candle, have an emf reading, have the ghost walk in salt, smudging the ghost, and ghost events. Due to those being the optimal objectives, the runners are running in amateur to eliminate the rng of the harder objectives such as escaping hunts, which would make a run slower. As for the items, there are a lot of optional equipment that genuinely isnt needed in the truck as it would slow the loading in period, and crowd up the truck as you could also pick up the wrong items, therefore the runners just sell everything useless for runs (like parabolic, noise sensor, and tripods) so when they press "ADD ALL" they won't have to deal with the useless items.

• "I would like to see a more solid way of verifying runs, so any other input or suggestions would be wonderfully welcomed... thank you for your time."

I don't think there is a more solid way of verifying runs without being intrusive into peoples personal pc's and asking for task manager and what not. However, if you have any other suggestions to mention I'm more than glad to hear you out. You can either respond to this forum post, or dm me at dubzyhs#0539 on discord, or just message me here.

Thank you.

I too am jealous of how good Justly and Hashirama are. It's okay, we learn to accept it and live with it eventually. We'll all go through it together, like a family guys. :)

This isn't me saying I'm jealous, I say congrats... I would just like to see some more covering... I am well set up in speed runs, but things get looked over for YEARS until they are discovered... Trackmania for many years had the ability to cover up key inputs, until it was finally looked into... shifted the whole board... mario speed runners have to showcase their entire consoles, and prove it. Other speed runners have to end the video with all windows being showcased to show no mods/hacks... Was just curious if there was anything we could suggest... but being told "we know what we are looking for".... "even when we can't see them" doesn't give me high hope in this group... Regardless, love the game, but I wish you all luck.

Phasmophobia has been decompiled many times and we have a very clear idea of how the game runs and works. You are questioning the legitimacy of runs because of mods and cheats being able to force events and interactions. We have many tools to be able to tell a cheated run apart from a valid run (end game board, audio cues, visual cues, activity board, etc). In almost all cases these forced interactions and events have flaws in them that lead to the discovery of these cheats and mods. There have been many cheated runs that use these mods/cheats and we have caught them due to this. I don't think that "even when we cant see them" is a flaw in our methods of verification. We know how the game works very well, we don't even need to see it, although in most cases we actually do.

While we are always open to suggestions on how to better our standard and integrity. We are very glad and grateful that the phasmophobia community is a very nice, honest, and welcoming community. We don't often have an overwhelming amount of illegitimate and cheated runs. :)

I don't know how much you want to speedrun the game, but from what you said, I guess you don't really want to speedrun the game at all, not even because of the suspicions of hack.

So even though we create a rule that requires the runner to show its process or anything, I don't even believe you would speedrun at all.

Please tell us what would be your committment if such a rule was created, and correct me if I'm wrong.

Usually when we start speedrunning a game, the first thing you should do is try to compete with the highest records. Not trying to create a rule about cheating or hacking.

And then afterwards after your 1000+ attempts you see that some runs are impossible, then we can try to talk.

Comparing phasmophobia to highly technical games like trackmania and SM64 is wrong imo. The only field you would need cheats to better your runs in is luck, as opposed to trackmania which is a game that requires a lot of precise and perfect inputs by the player. It is significantly harder to hide being unreasonably lucky than to hide being unreasonably good at a game (imo). This is exactly why nothing more is needed to verify runs.

Some WR are as fast as under a minute, but those records can take weeks or even months to achieve, which is bound to create a lot of unsuccessful attempts caught on recording. The mods here have the right to ask for those attempts if suspicion arises that someone might be manipulating their luck via a 3rd party software. If they fail to provide such footage, they have the right to suspend verifying the player's runs.

You suggested we require the runners show their task managers at the end of their run. Well how do we know they didn't cut up clips to show a different task manager? Require it on screen for the whole run? That would take too much of the screen up. Require that all attempts are livestreamed just like minecraft did? That would cut off part of the community who can't or don't want to stream.

I get your concern here, and the mod team has probably asked themselves this question before. What I don't like about the way you're phrasing things is this: "being told "we know what we are looking for".... "even when we can't see them" doesn't give me high hope in this group..." This makes it sound like you're saying "well if they don't do this then they're doomed to fail", which couldn't be farther from the truth.

This game has been on src for over a year now, and the main appeal of speedrunning this game is how easy it is to speedrun, and how it runs on basically any potato PC. If we put more measures in place to prevent what we have already prevented for over a year, we'll lose more of our players.

It's also hard to take someone who clearly has no motivation to run the game seriously, as you can probably imagine. You've made it quite clear you won't be running this game, so I'm intrigued to know why you even brought this up.

Either way, I hope you maybe change your mind in the future. This game has a lot of different categories that can actually be quite fun.

In response to VisionELF

Saying that someone won't try to do speedruns even if you do implemented a certain rule honestly isnt the strongest of arguments. I have one have over 600hrs in the game, and have used your leader boards on stream to compare my speedruns to the ones on here. Truth be told I may not get 1st in a lot of them but I would have close 2nd's for about 80% of them. I choose not to post on here because honestly the game can be cheated and I dont feel like chasing a false tail because I'm not a dog. Using process, or task manager if an old school, tried and true, reliable way of doing speed runs. The runner records everything shows processes before and after, sends recording in, once deemed legit by the moderators they (the runners) are allowed to trim the video and post it.

Now with all that being said, I'm not saying anyone on the leader boards is cheating but knowing what I know and playing with the game and its files as I have I myself can easily fake a speedrun and I think more thorough verifications are needed.

We can't just impose very intrusive rules just because cheating exists. We try to keep our rules as simple as possible as we already said before. I don't like adapting the rules just for the cheaters who doesn't like the game and only wants to get WRs. We create the rules around the active community, not the other part which doesn't care about the speedrun anyways.

Just wanna quickly mention that, unlike skill based speedrun games, Phasmo is luck based. So if someone does manipulate their rng to get a fast run, this doesn't mean it's impossible to reproduce with unmanipulated rng. This isn't meant to come across as "well if they do cheat it's ok because we can always beat them", but rather "well if they do cheat, if they don't go for an insane record and risk getting caught, there really is no point".

If you cheated in trackmania for example (as mentioned above), you could potentially get the records up to an inhuman standard, making it virtually impossible to beat without absolute perfection.

Even if a run is cheated in Phasmo, countless times have I seen people get way faster times than those that were cheating, given the right rng. If a run is completely perfect or even beyond what you could possibly do, then we'd know instantly, which is why I think using "I know this game can be easily cheated" as an argument to not submit your runs on src isn't really valid.

That being said though, I understand that not everyone wants to compete with the best times in the world, I do so myself with a lot of games I speedrun. I can also understand if you don't agree with our ruling and want to make your own rules and whatnot, I also do this.

Wow somebody actually adressed that. Idk just a quick peek at tab and obs would do. Apparently phas speedrun so dead mods verify blunt cheated runs. I suspect the cheat was used long time ago to beat the records and the mods used that, thus they don't actually deny suspicious runs or ask proof of no software assistance.

@Blandon93 If you suspect a run to be cheated feel free to let us know so we can double check. Even though the verifiers are also very experienced Phas players it's always possible that something slips through. But I am certain that we are able to spot most cheated runs and reject them accordingly which does happen now and then.