How to complete the Sanity Survival challenge in Phasmophobia

Be prepared for lots of hunts with this one.

The player holding a Crucifix and looking at a broken sanity board in the Sanity Survival Phasmophobia challenge.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

The Sanity Survival weekly challenge in Phasmophobia drops you into quite a tough predicament where your sanity is limited, you don’t have much to work with, and the power is permanently out. It’s a pretty tricky trial to complete, but it has some excellent rewards.

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Everything about the Sanity Survival challenge directly works against you, which makes this a tough one to work through. Here’s how to complete the Sanity Survival challenge in Phasmophobia.

What is the Sanity Survival challenge in Phasmophobia?

The Sanity Survival challenge is one of Phasmophobia’s many special weekly-themed trials. A different challenge is available to tackle every week and successfully finishing one grants you 5,000 experience and $5,000 cash.

Weekly challenges are both a great way to level up fast and unlock some of Phasmophobia’s achievements. They’re always worth doing, but they’re generally quite tricky to actually complete.

The description for the Sanity Survival challenge in Phasmophobia.
It’s a tough one. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Sanity Survival Phasmophobia challenge rules

The special rules for the Sanity Survival challenge you need to know about before attempting this trial are as follows.

  • Must be completed on 10 Ridgeview Court.
  • The fuse box is broken.
  • The ghost will only give you two pieces of evidence.
  • The sanity screen in the truck is broken.
  • You have a mix of Tier I and Tier II equipment.
    • Tier I: Head Gear, Crucifix, Tripod, Ghost Writing Book, Spirit Box, EMF Reader, Thermometer, Photo Camera, Sound Sensor, Salt, Parabolic Microphone, Motion Sensor, Sanity Medication, and Igniter.
    • Tier II: Video Camera, DOTS Projector, Flashlight, Firelight, and UV Light.
  • You only have one Crucifix.
  • You have no Incense.
The equipment available in the Sanity Survival weekly Phasmophobia challenge.
Not a lot to work with here. Screenshot by Dot Esports

How to complete the Sanity Survival Phasmophobia weekly challenge

To complete the Sanity Survival challenge in Phasmophobia, you need to identify the ghost that is haunting 10 Ridgeview Court three separate times.

You’re allowed to fail this challenge as many times as you like, and you won’t lose anything for doing so. As long as you get the contract done correctly three times while the challenge is active, you can still earn the rewards.

Phasmophobia Sanity Survival challenge tips

The Sanity Survival challenge is a pretty difficult one to successfully complete unless luck plays massively in your favor, so here are some tips to help get you through this challenge.

Pay attention to ghost behavior and unofficial evidence

You’re limited to just two pieces of evidence in this challenge, so watching for unofficial evidence and ghost behavior indicators is crucial for success. This doesn’t work with every ghost type, but it does work for quite a few. Some indicators you can watch for are as follows.

  • Ghost Orbs: If you have two pieces of evidence and spot Ghost Orbs as a third one, you know you have caught The Mimic. This ghost always displays fake Ghost Orbs, so even though this challenge is limited to two, the fake orbs will always be present when it’s The Mimic.
A Ghost Orb moving toward some DOTS.
Fake Ghost Orbs always give The Mimic away. Screenshot by Dot Esports. Remix by Kacee Fay
  • Frequent singing or Parabolic Microphone scream: Banshees are known to perform singing events more frequently than other ghosts. They also sometimes emit a signature wail on the Parabolic Microphone.
  • Specific activity chart markings: The Twins sometimes create some specific strange patterns you might be able to spot on the activity board.
  • Missing ghost in photo: If you take a photo that’s labeled as a ghost but none are present, you may have caught a Phantom. This ghost disappears in photographs.
  • Super shy ghost: There’s a good chance you’ll get hunted a lot in this challenge since there’s no way to manage your sanity, but if the ghost seems strangely super shy and unwilling to hunt, it might be a Shade.
  • DOTS on Video Camera: The Goryo will only show itself on the DOTS Projector through a Video Camera. This means you can identify it with certainty if you see DOTS on camera but not in person or rule out this ghost if you do see DOTS without a camera.
  • Copying other ghost behaviors: Another way to identify The Mimic is to watch out for a ghost that seems to regularly swap the behaviors it’s performing. This Mimic changes the ghost type it’s mimicking around every 30 seconds to two minutes, so you can pick up on this trait if you watch closely.
  • Refusal to step in Salt: When the ghost just won’t step in Salt but is interacting with everything else, it’s probably a Wraith. This ghost refuses to ever step in Salt, so you can also cross it out if the ghost does step in some.
Ultraviolet footprints next to Salt in Phasmophobia.
The Wraith will never step in Salt to leave UV evidence. Screenshot by Dot Esports
  • Special throw: The Poltergeist loves to throw items, has a special throw that occurs during hunts where it throws an item every 0.5 seconds, and can throw multiple objects at once.
  • Ghost ball mist event: If you see a ball of mist hurl itself at you with a hiss, you can rule out the Oni since this ghost cannot perform this ghost event.
  • Six-finger fingerprint: The Obake has a chance of leaving behind a special six-finger fingerprint mark you can detect with your UV Light, which will be a full handprint with six fingers.

Use strategies from other challenges

Although the Sanity Survival weekly trial is quite tough, there are also way more difficult ones that cycle into Phasmophobia. You can use the same strategies you can employ in other challenges to find success here.

In trials like No Evidence and The Apocalypse Draws Near, the ghost refuses to give you any evidence at all, which means you instead have to turn to other methods of deciding what it is. These same methods work well here since you cannot get the third piece of evidence you need, so consider using these and other challenge strategies to help you navigate this one.

Reroll and try again

Giving any challenge another try is always one of the best tips for Phasmophobia, but rerolling in this trial is an especially important move to consider. Some ghosts are a lot easier to identify with little to no evidence than others, which means some matches will be fundamentally much easier.

Author
Image of Kacee Fay
Kacee Fay
Staff Writer at Dot Esports covering new releases and a wide array of topics including Minecraft, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Phasmophobia, general gaming, streaming, and more. She has been avidly writing and gaming her whole life and now spends her time combining the two. Kacee graduated from San Diego State University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Certificate in Creative Editing and Publishing. She then joined Dot Esports as a Freelance Writer in 2022 before transitioning to a Staff Writer in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys buying more books than she can read, gaming alone or with friends, drinking too much tea, attending concerts, fangirling over movies and television, listening to music, and spending time with her family, friends, and pets, who are the most important parts of her world.