How Did You Figure Out It Was A Mimic

[Captain Oveur]

I was running back and forth, grabbing tools and running tests and the ghost was being very active. It was opening and closing doors, items were being tossed about left and right. I was worried it would do a handful of events to drain my sanity and initiate a hunt or two, but it wasn’t acting like a poltergeist or a demon. Then I noticed it had yet to turn off the breaker. I experienced the Jinn before—it was one of my first ghosts and the first one I ever got correct.

My mind was telling me that this was what I was dealing with, but the ghost orbs I witnessed said otherwise. Actually, removing orbs from my evidence still left the Jinn as being impossible. Everything was pointing at something else. It didn’t make sense. I quickly came to the conclusion it was probably a mimic imitating the Jinn. I tested for a fourth piece of evidence and that’s exactly what it was.

So there’s how I figured out it was a mimic. It was acting like a Jinn but the evidence pointed me somewhere wildly different. What led you to figuring out you was dealing with a mimic?

[SpellSword0]

If I ever see orbs, and mimic is even a possibility with other gained evidence, I rigorously shout at it with the spirit box to verify.

[Captain Oveur]

I’ve started checking that more often before I encountered the mimic (again). I’ve gotten a suspicious number of ghosts in a row that had orbs as their evidence and figured it was a matter of time until another mimic was thrown my way. Sure enough, it finally happened.

[Strawberry Poison]

A tip I learned was that if you have ghost orbs that you should put two cameras down on opposite sides of the room facing the orbs. One camera will see orbs while the other will not, showing you the orbs are fake.

[underscores222]

Originally posted by Strawberry Poison:

A tip I learned was that if you have ghost orbs that you should put two cameras down on opposite sides of the room facing the orbs. One camera will see orbs while the other will not, showing you the orbs are fake.

I haven't tested this to verify, but this does not sound like intentional design to me. As far as I can tell, Mimics just create the same ghost orbs that any orb producing ghost does, and they should behave the same way. The only difference is for the Mimic, these orbs are not counted as evidence, and therefore are not affected by limiting evidence options (they will still show up on 0 evidence runs).
I would be interested to see if this 2 camera trick works, and if it only works on Mimic orbs or if it also works on any orb producing ghost. I'll be trying it out in the future to see. My bet is that it isn't going to work and orbs just take a while to show up on the other camera.

[Lazydrones]

Generally when we do encounter a Mimic it is because we find 4 types of evidence, always always keep mimic on the board if you find ghost orbs until you find something else that scratches it off.

My friend I play with swears the orbs are usually static and won't follow the Mimic around the room like they do with other ghosts.

Mimics are also generally quite active in areas outside of their favorite room.

[Captain Oveur]

Originally posted by underscores222:

My bet is that it isn't going to work and orbs just take a while to show up on the other camera.

I’ve found that orbs don’t want to show up when holding the camera, at least for the tier 1 cameras. I’ll hold it in the ghost room and see nothing. I’ll then place it down and run out to the truck and it’s ghost orb galore on the monitor.

[Maya-Neko]

I mostly just do the usual stuff by getting one evidence more than expected. Sometimes it's also the contradicting behavior which tells the mimic, but since i'm often playing in MP, the time before we get most evidences isn't that long to make the behavior thing happen that often.

[Emurinus]

How to rule out a Mimic:

• Look for orbs all around the ghost room and nearby rooms. No orbs means no Mimic.
  
  
• Look for conflicting evidence. Mimics cannot get EMF 5, DOTS, or Writing, so any of those evidences immediately rule it out.
  
  
  • Due to mimic having fake orbs, it is also possible for you to get an "impossible combination." One example, if not the only example, is Spirit Box, Ghost Orbs, and Fingerprints.
    
    
  • Alternatively, if you are playing on limited/no evidence missions, and you get orbs in addition to the maximum possible evidence you can already collect (ex: 3 evidences on nightmare, and orbs on no evidence), then you have a Mimic. This makes Mimics very easy to rule out in higher difficulties.
  
  
• Find conflicting ghost traits. Ghost gives Obake fingerprints then disappears when you take its photo? Mimic. Gives a Banshee scream then does a Yurei door touch? Mimic. Sounds super fast in one hunt then sounds normal in another? Mimic.

[Sapper]

Mimics are ghosts that can take on the identity of any other ghost at any time.

It can mimic a banshee (targeting only one player at a time)
It can mimic a demon (hunting super early and aggresively)
It can mimic the twins (having 2 ghosts at a time until it mimics something else)
It can even mimic a spirit and do nothing special

Their biggest giveaway is the fake ghost orbs, they are seen in the room where the ghost is at the current time. They can also be seen on 0 evidence runs. Another giveaway to the Mimic is it's unpredictable behaviour, one minute it will be hunting early like a demon, another minute it will never hunt around anyone like a shade.

Whenever i see ghost orbs first, i don't circle the evidence yet, instead i cross off EVERYTHING that has ghost orbs as evidence, until i can confirm the ghost orbs are real by a consistent behaviour of the ghost (banshee only doing banshee things, shade only doing shade things, etc.) or by non-mimic evidence (EMF Level 5, Ghost writing, D.O.T.S projector), then i circle the evidence and rule out mimic. Sure it's an extra step, but for me it reminds me that a mimic could potentially still be an option.

[Watcher Rat]

Originally posted by Emurinus:

How to rule out a Mimic:

• Look for orbs all around the ghost room and nearby rooms. No orbs means no Mimic.
  
  
• Look for conflicting evidence. Mimics cannot get EMF 5, DOTS, or Writing, so any of those evidences immediately rule it out.
  
  
  • Due to mimic having fake orbs, it is also possible for you to get an "impossible combination." One example, if not the only example, is Spirit Box, Ghost Orbs, and Fingerprints.
    
    
  • Alternatively, if you are playing on limited/no evidence missions, and you get orbs in addition to the maximum possible evidence you can already collect (ex: 3 evidences on nightmare, and orbs on no evidence), then you have a Mimic. This makes Mimics very easy to rule out in higher difficulties.
  
  
• Find conflicting ghost traits. Ghost gives Obake fingerprints then disappears when you take its photo? Mimic. Gives a Banshee scream then does a Yurei door touch? Mimic. Sounds super fast in one hunt then sounds normal in another? Mimic.

This is all fantastic info, and I will add one more to it:

• A Mimic can imitate special evidence and abilities of a ghost, but only if it has that evidence linked. For instance, it can imitate a Deogen's special Spirit Box reply, or an Obake's 6-fingered handprint since it has UV and spirit box as its evidence, but it could not replicate a Goryo's special DOTS evidence since it can never DOTS.

[GuineaPrince]

If you've just got orbs or the evidence is shared by a mimic, it's always time to make sure you get evidence that discounts it.

Unless it's an Onryo. Then it's only a mimic when we're trying to do the candles test.

[Super Earth Ceremonial Guard]

i play insanity so mimic is the easiest to determine
it'll have fake orbs + 1 piece of evidence
every other ghost will only have 1 evidence

another way is just to watch its behaviour. when you know the behaviour of other ghosts mimic is also easy because you can tell when its switched between say, a poltergeist and a shade or behaving like a wraith etc