All Phasmophobia Monkey Paw Wishes and Effects

The Monkey Paw in Phasmophobia is one of the game’s most powerful and risky-to-use cursed objects. While all the cursed possessions in Phasmophobia have some sort of negative effects, the benefits often outweigh the negatives, and some will only drain your sanity level as long as they’re used cautiously and correctly. However, using the Monkey Paw to make a wish can be very helpful to your investigation–offering the ability to change the weather, increase your sanity level, trap the ghost, and even revive a dead player–doing so always has negative consequences.

While some of the Monkey Paw’s negative effects are temporary, others last throughout the current contract, and can include obscured vision, muffled hearing, and even straight-up death. So make sure to weigh up if using it is really worth it and remember that each wish can only be used once, so don’t waste them.

To use the paw, simply pick it up and make a wish–starting your sentence with “I wish…”– or, if you’re using the text-based UI, press your use button and choose the wish you want to make. If you find that the paw is struggling to understand you, or you don’t have a mic available, it’s worth changing your voice recognition mode to ‘Text’ under game options, so you can still use the Monkey Paw. When a wish is successful, a finger on the paw will curl closed. If the fingers don’t move, the paw likely hasn’t registered your voice, and if a finger twitches but doesn’t curl, then the wish isn’t valid. Below are all the Monkey Paw wishes in Phasmophobia and their effects.

All Monkey Paw ghost wishes and effects

“I wish to see the ghost”
Triggers a summoning ghost event (like the Summoning Circle) that makes the ghost appear in full form in its current room, but locks the exit doors. The ghost starts a cursed hunt–during which your vision is obscured–five seconds after the summon.

“I wish for activity”
Ghost activity is doubled for two minutes, but locks exit doors for two minutes and permanently breaks the fuse box/breaker.

“I wish to trap the ghost”
Teleports the ghost to its favorite room and locks the door for one minute, during which it cannot hunt, use abilities, or roam, but locks all doors to your current room at the same time, and the ghost will hunt once it’s free.

All Monkey Paw player wishes and effects

“I wish to be sane”
Sets every player’s sanity level to 50%, but passive sanity will drain 1.5 times faster for the rest of the contract, and the ghost’s favorite room will change.

“I wish to be safe”
Gives access to the nearest blocked or locked official hiding spot. The lights in your room will shatter, and the ghost will be able to sense your active electronic devices from any distance for the rest of the contract.

“I wish to leave”
Unlocks all locked exit doors in the investigation, even during a hunt, but makes you slower for five seconds and obscures your vision.

All Monkey Paw other wishes and effects

“I wish to revive my friend” or “I wish for life”
Revives the first dead player (according to the order of the lobby list), but has a 50% chance of killing you in the process.

“I wish for knowledge”
Removes one piece of evidence from your journal, but the ghost teleports to you, starting a cursed hunt. Your hearing will be muffled, and your vision obscured, for the remainder of the contract–or until you die.

“I wish for [clear sky/fog/rain/snow/sunrise]”
Changes the weather, but reduces your sanity by 25% and temporarily blinds all players. Requires 25% sanity or above. On text-based UI, you can select ‘Weather’ to wish for a weather change, with the sun, rain, and clear sky options under ‘Weather #1’ on the following menu, and fog and snow available under the ‘Weather #2’ option. 

“I wish for anything”
Grants a random remaining wish. Only available through voice chat.

How many Monkey Paw wishes can you make?

On lower difficulties (between 0x and 1x), you can make five Monkey Paw wishes. On intermediate difficulty levels (between 1x and 2x), you can make four wishes. On higher difficulty levels, above 2x, you only get three wishes. Once all the fingers are curled, you can no longer make wishes.