Phasmophobia Cursed Hollow 2026: Hunting Jackalopes In The Dark
Nothing ruins a perfectly methodical paranormal investigation quite like having to crouch in a dark corner listening for a hissing pile of eggs.
The seasonal updates in Phasmophobia always add a bizarre layer of multitasking to an already stressful job. The v0.16.1.0 update brought back the Cursed Hollow event, and it is running from March 31 all the way to April 21. You are no longer just looking for freezing temperatures and ghost orbs. You are now a heavily armed exterminator looking for invisible forest creatures while trying to keep your sanity above zero.
I actually appreciate events like this because they force you to break your routine. You cannot just sprint into a house, drop a crucifix, find the ghost room, and leave. You have to thoroughly explore the map, which inevitably leads to more hunting phases and significantly higher stakes.
I have mapped out exactly how the point system works, where to find these weird little minions, and the rather amusing catch attached to your final rewards.
Map Rotations And Difficulty Requirements
You cannot just boot up your favorite small map on repeat to grind this event out. Kinetic Games actively forces you to switch up your hunting grounds on a daily basis.
When you log in and look at the map selection board in your revamped lobby, pay close attention to the bottom right corner of the location photos. You are looking for a small nest icon. That icon indicates the map is currently active for the Cursed Hollow event. The pool of active locations rotates in real time every single day.
If you are looking to plan ahead, the potential map pool includes 6 Tanglewood Drive, 13 Willow Street, 42 Edgefield Road, 10 Ridgeview Court, Nell's Diner, Grafton Farmhouse, Bleasdale Farmhouse, Camp Woodwind, Maple Lodge Campsite, and Point Hope. If Tanglewood pops up in your rotation, take advantage of it immediately. It is a fantastic opportunity to knock out your Entangled Terror Challenge progress at the exact same time.
You also need to check your difficulty settings before you step out of the van. The game requires a minimum difficulty multiplier of x1.00 to earn any Event Points. If you have a custom difficulty set up with incredibly safe parameters that drop your multiplier into the decimals, your efforts will not count. You have to take on at least a moderate amount of risk.
Maximizing Your Event Points
Getting the rewards requires a methodical approach to every single contract. You earn your progression through a mix of standard ghost hunting protocols and event specific scavenger hunts.
Your primary chunk of points still comes from doing your actual job. Correctly identifying the ghost type at the end of the contract provides a base payout. Because the event scales with your difficulty multiplier, taking on a harder contract directly translates to a larger influx of Event Points. If you are confident in your survival skills, bump the difficulty up.
You also need to look at the optional objectives listed on the whiteboard inside the van. Completing these tasks grants bonus points on top of your base reward. You are not strictly required to complete them to participate in the event, but ignoring them makes the grind significantly longer. Take the extra five minutes to cleanse the area with smudge sticks or get an EMF reading if the board asks for it.
The Double XP Window
If you are reading this shortly after the update dropped, you are in luck. The first week of the event features a massive boost. From March 31 to April 7, you earn double XP and double Event Points for every single contract you complete. I strongly advise you to grind out your personal reward track during this specific window so you are not scrambling in late April.
Uncovering The Forest Minions
The core gimmick of Cursed Hollow revolves around tracking down entities called Forest Minions. These things are scattered around the active event maps and serve as your primary source of bonus progression.
They do not wander the halls. They are always anchored to physical nests full of eggs placed on the ground, usually tucked into tight corners or hidden near heavy furniture. However, finding a nest does not guarantee a minion is actually there. You have to use audio cues.
Walk up to a nest and listen closely. If you hear a distinct hissing or faint chittering noise, you have a target. If the nest is completely silent, move on.
Once you locate a noisy nest, you need to grab a D.O.T.S. Projector. I highly recommend bringing a Tier II projector for this because the spread is much easier to work with, but any tier will technically function. Place the projector on the ground aiming directly at the nest. The green laser grid will illuminate the silhouette of a strange, jackalope shaped creature.
The Ultimate Gamble
Revealing a minion is not just a visual easter egg. It actively alters the mechanics of your current investigation. The game categorizes these creatures into two distinct types, and you do not know what you have until the laser grid hits them.
If you reveal a Lucky Forest Minion, it will quietly run away and vanish. This applies a massive debuff to the ghost, permanently reducing its hunting speed by 10 percent.
If you reveal an Unlucky Forest Minion, it will loudly screech and launch itself directly at your face. Aside from being a cheap jump scare, this applies a vicious buff to the ghost, increasing its hunting speed by 10 percent.
These effects are entirely stackable. If you reveal three unlucky minions in a single run, you are suddenly dealing with a ghost moving 30 percent faster than normal. If you are already fighting a naturally fast entity like a Revenant or a Thaye, an unlucky minion can turn an average hunt into an absolute death sentence. Be prepared to hide the moment you hear that screech.
The Cosmetic Catch And Final Rewards
The reward structure for Cursed Hollow is split into two separate tracks. The community track requires everyone logging in to contribute to a massive global point total. The personal track is entirely dependent on your own grinding.
The community rewards will automatically drop into your account once the global thresholds are met, but the personal rewards come with a painfully ironic twist.
These are the first actual character cosmetics ever introduced to Phasmophobia. You grind the event, you earn your required points, and the game explicitly tells you that you have unlocked the Forest Spirit Mask. But you cannot actually equip it.
Kinetic Games released the cosmetics before releasing the actual character customization system. The announcement confirmed that the customization update is due "soon," which in game development time usually means hoping for a late summer drop. So you get to endure the terror of hyper-speed ghosts and screeching nests just to unlock a digital t-shirt that goes straight into an inaccessible void.
It is a uniquely frustrating situation, but skipping the event means missing out on these permanent unlocks entirely. Put your head down, grab your projector, and start listening for the hissing. Just keep an eye on your escape routes if the minion decides to jump at you.
