Known Lag Problems
These problems are reported by real players. If your region or ISP is listed, a network optimizer is likely to help.
Russia
- Severe connection issues reported due to Cloudflare disruptions affecting Photon's connectivity infrastructure. International sanctions have disrupted access to Unity's US-based cloud services. Players in Siberia and Ural regions report frequent disconnects.
Australia
- AU Photon relay region has lower population. Australian players are sometimes automatically routed to the Asia/Singapore relay node instead of AU, adding 50-100ms compared to a local relay.
How to Fix It
Try these first — they're free and solve the problem for most people.
01 Switch to a wired Ethernet connection
1. Connect an Ethernet cable from your PC directly to your router 2. In Windows: Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi → turn off Wi-Fi 3. Verify in Settings → Network & Internet → Ethernet that you're connected 4. Join a Phasmophobia lobby and observe — jitter during hunts should reduce significantly
WiFi introduces 5-30ms of unpredictable jitter. In Phasmophobia, jitter causes ghost events (footsteps, doors, EMF readings) to arrive out of sequence. Wired connection removes this variability cheaply.
02 Close background bandwidth consumers before playing
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc → Task Manager → Performance → Open Resource Monitor 2. Click the Network tab — sort by 'Total (B/sec)' 3. Common culprits: Windows Update (pause 7 days in Settings → Update), OneDrive sync, cloud backups, Discord video, streaming services 4. Close or pause all before launching Phasmophobia
Phasmophobia uses modest bandwidth, but background sync bursts can cause 50-200ms ping spikes to the Photon relay. This shows up as ghost events arriving late or hunts stuttering for all players in your lobby if you're the host.
General network tips (not Phasmophobia-specific)
03 Check your ping to the Photon relay in-game
1. Launch Phasmophobia and join or create a lobby 2. Press Escape to open the menu — look for a connection indicator or ping display in the top corner 3. Alternatively: while in a lobby, watch for the 'Connecting...' duration — slower connections to Photon relay nodes take longer 4. For a precise reading: open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) → Performance → Open Resource Monitor → Network tab → find Phasmophobia.exe → note the Send/Receive activity and target addresses 5. Use a tool like PingPlotter or the Windows command 'ping ns.exitgames.com' to measure your latency to Photon's name server
Confirms whether your connection to the Photon relay is the issue. If ping to Photon relay nodes is over 100ms, you'll notice ghost event delays and hunt desync.
04 Enable Alternative Ports if stuck on 'Connecting'
1. Launch Phasmophobia and go to Settings 2. Navigate to the Network or Connection section 3. Toggle 'Use Alternative Ports' or 'Alternative Server Ports' to ON 4. Restart the game and try connecting again 5. This switches Photon from ports 5055-5058 to the 27000-27002 range, which some ISPs and routers handle better
Fixes connection failures when your ISP or router blocks the default Photon port range 5055-5058. Common fix for players who can't get past the lobby loading screen.
05 Join lobbies hosted by players in your region
1. When browsing public lobbies, prefer rooms listed by friends or players with similar usernames suggesting same region 2. The Photon relay region is determined by the room host's location — if the host is in Japan and you're in the US, you'll connect to Japan's Photon relay node 3. Create your own lobby to ensure you're connecting to your nearest Photon region 4. Communicate with regular co-op partners about who should host based on geographic centrality
The single most effective free fix. Joining a lobby where the host is in your region can drop your relay ping from 200ms to 20ms. Ghost event timing and hunt behavior improve immediately.
Still lagging? The problem is likely your ISP's routing to the game servers.
PingAim detects Phasmophobia automatically
No manual config. PingAim identifies Phasmophobia by process name and routes it through your fastest connection using a kernel-level WFP driver.