Phasmophobia fans are downgrading their game versions, but it may get you banned

Like many of you, me and my group have also stopped playing Phasmophobia in recent months. A plethora of reasons, from the character update to the roadmap delay into 2027, has given us pause to play other games as a group. For many, it seems like a similar story.

Yet, those who yearn for the glory days have found ways to play old patches and get around the changes made to Phasmophobia in recent months. The trick, shared on Reddit, is a long-standing feature of Steam’s open platform. SteamDB allows devs and fans to go back and check versions of games, with patches and versions often still stored somewhere on Steam’s repositories. The result is you can run commands to force-update a game to a certain patch and, as a result, downgrade your version of most games. That is unless the devs find a way to stop that from happening.

Fans downgrade to play on older Phasmophobia patches – but know the risks

This applies to Phasmophobia, where some fans have downgraded the game to the patch where Nell’s Diner was first introduced last autumn. This removes the revamped Tanglewood Drive, the character update, and other additions since then. It also removes the three new ghosts that were added as a surprise.

If you’re interested, you can follow the steps and instructions posted on Reddit.

However, be warned that it could result in bans. Phasmophobia has a code of conduct on its site covering game file modifications, ranging from exploits on maps and modding textures to altering game files. Considering you’re using actual source code for the game to do this, it sits awkwardly in a grey area. You’ve modified the game, but using an older version of itself.

So you do run the risk of being banned using this method. If you are banned, expect a multiplayer ban for a duration of time. You can still play the game in single-player, but you will be locked out of multiplayer. Bans will increase in severity depending on how many times you do something bannable.

So, get around the poorly received character update at your own peril.

Though, recent review from June and July trend on mostly positive, with June around 62% positive, and July around 65% positive. We did the math based on SteamDB review figures. It’s a far cry from its overwhelmingly positive historically overall trend, but, it is a sign that the game is getting largely better. There’s also the recent blog post talking about much better QoL too. So maybe, that might affect your decision or not to continue with the live versions.