Unique Secondary Evidence and How To Find It [Last Updated for 0.6.2]

If you didn't already know, many ghosts in Phasmophobia have unique type-specific behaviors to them, as anyone cornered by a hunting Revenant will tell you. Since Nightmare difficulty removes 1 of the 3 exhibited evidences, the game now makes these secondary traits far more obvious than before. Even though they're more common, not everyone knows what they're actually looking for.

This guide will show you what the player base calls "Secondary Evidence" for each of these ghost types and their special behaviors, if they have any! Not all ghosts have useful secondary evidence, but I've given at least a little info for each type.

Guide is being updated for game version 0.6.2, The Truck Overhaul. There are 3 new ghosts in the Deogen, Moroi, and Thaye, and due to how new they are, information on them is tentative and potentially incorrect, incomplete, or slightly inaccurate. Most of what I have here is comprised of assumptions I have come to, YouTube VODs, and the wiki.

What Is This Guide?

Secondary Evidence, or How To Win Nightmare Mode

Obviously within Phasmophobia, you have your standard EMF, Spirit Box, Fingies, and more to find. These are Primary Evidence, so any type of evidence that you can't put into your journal is what I'm calling Secondary Evidence.

Since Nightmare Difficulty removes one of these 3 primary evidences, finding the ghost is entirely dependent on Secondary Evidence, and there are a lot of less-obvious ways to determine the ghost outside of standard evidence items. At worst, these behaviors answer little but may cross 1 ghost off the list. At best, you instantly know the ghost type without even turning a Spirit Box on.

This guide will start with a few sections of condensed, more general knowledge for quick reference, and the later sections will cover more details for each ghost type. The information is accurate as of update v0.4.0 "Nightmare" released a little before Halloween 2021 (now 0.4.2). I will try to update the guide as updates to Phasmophobia release.

Why Do We Need Secondary Evidence?

With Nightmare Difficulty, 1 of the 3 evidences are hidden permanently.

Due to this change from other difficulties, it becomes imperative to know ghost behaviors before playing Nightmare.



Every ghost in Phasmophobia is unique to some degree, and there is a fair amount of RNG in how ghosts operate. You can wail on the Spirit Box for fifteen straight minutes, not get an answer, not get hunted, and never see an interaction, only to find out it was a Yokai. Sometimes the dice don't just roll bad numbers, they roll right off the board onto the floor.

Even outside of Nightmare mode, knowing some of the more common behavioral clues can just speed the game up, and it has the added benefit of impressing your teammates when you guess one right on the nose based solely on observation!

Not all ghosts are so easily determined by behavior alone, so this guide is written in the spirit of using behavior AND available evidence, regardless of difficulty or number of teammates. Some ghosts have dead-giveaway behaviors, but most don't, so this guide is meant to show how you can narrow things down.

What Doesn't Count?

Phasmophobia loves misleading the player a bit.
Journal descriptions of ghosts are full of little details that aren't 100% accurate to the ghost's in-game mechanics, even if it is accurate to the real-world folklore its based on. An example of this is the Obake. The Obake is referred to as a "shapeshifter" who "takes human form", but you will never see it do either of those things. That is a reference to a special Fingerprint it can leave behind.

Similarly, the new Deogen's journal entry says that they "require a lot of energy to form and will move very slowly", but it isn't that simple. Deogen's are far from slow if no players are within its sight line.

With that in mind, lets cover the elements of Phasmophobia that will never be specific to ghost type.

The Ghost Model
The ghost model is always the same and randomly chosen when the level loads. Each model has 3 states: corporeal, shadow, and transparent. The ghost will intermittently switch between fully visible, shadow form, and transparent versions of the same model between manifestations (hunts or otherwise), but its always the same model. If you saw a girl wearing PJs, all of the models are a girl wearing PJs. Even the Obake does not have a unique model or transformation, but it might change states more often.

Identity
The name, gender, age, and date of death also have no bearing on ghost type. They are all randomly chosen from lists based on the ghost's gender.

Electrical Interference During Hunts
The new Raiju ghost type interferes with electronics, but all ghosts do this when in your proximity during a hunt. Its only when you see this interference OUTSIDE of a hunt that it might tie into a specific ghost type.

Cheat Sheet

Some of you may have noticed that the icon for this guide is a hand print with 6 fingers. Only an Obake can leave such a fingerprint, making it a dead giveaway. This section is effectively a short summary of everything in the guide, here for quick reference.

Different Hunt Threshold

• Demons: 70%
  
• Deogen: 40%, unknown if it can change
  
• Mares: 60% when lights off in ghost room, 40% if lights on
  
• Onryo: 60%
  
• Raiju: 65% when in presence of electronic equipment
  
• Shade: 35%
  
• Thaye: 70% to 15%, starting at 70% & going down over time
  
• Yokai: 80% if talking within 2 meters of it

Unique Interactions

• Banshees: Chance to make a "distant scream" sound when using a Parabolic Mic
  
• Goryo: DOTS interactions only visible through a camera, not in-person
  
• Moroi: Applies constant sanity drain debuff if you get a response from it on the Spirit Box
  
• Myling: Makes many more sounds audible to the Parabolic Mic
  
• Obake: Small chance for six-fingered Fingerprints evidence (picture at top)
  
• Onryo: Chance to instantly hunt if a flame is put out
  
• Phantom: Photographing it will cause it to disappear for a moment.
  
• Spirit: Held in place twice as long by Smudge Sticks when not hunting
  
• Thaye: General activity level drops off over time but starts really high
  
• The Twins: Can perform multiple simultaneous interactions
  
• Wraith: Activity spikes if it touches salt

Can Start Hunts Outside Ghost Room

• Banshee, if power used
  
• Demon, if power used and succeeds line-of-sight check
  
• Phantom, if succeeds in initiating hunt AFTER it uses its power
  
• The Twins, if secondary Twin starts hunt and is not in ghost room
  
• Wraiths, if succeeds in initiating hunt AFTER it uses its power to teleport

Dead Giveaways

• Banshee: Distant scream audible when using Parabolic Mic. Easy to determine.
  
• Goryo: DOTS interactions not visible in-person. Harder to determine.
  
• Onryo: Can, but won't always, start a hunt instantly upon fire being extinguished.
  
• Phantom: Taking a photo of it will cause it to disappear during ghost events.
  
• Mimic: Mimics can exhibit traits of all other ghosts at random. Takes decent amount of game knowledge to spot but is easy for those knowledgeable. Only ghost type capable of giving 3 evidences in Nightmare (can give Ghost Orbs) and 4 types in normal modes, which is easy to spot.
  
• Yokai: Can start hunts near-instantly if talking near it (from 80% thresh.)

Hidden Abilities and Behaviors

NOTE: This list does not contain anything one could figure out just by reading the journal entry.

• Banshee: Hunt initiation based on current target's sanity, not team sanity
  
• Demon: Can choose to attempt to start a hunt at any time by walking to a chosen target, waiting 20 seconds, and starting a hunt if the player is still within line-of-sight. 20 second hunt cooldown instead of 25.
  
• Goryo: Only interacts with DOTS projector if alone & no players are nearby
  
• Jinn: Can lower the sanity of all players within 3 meters of it by 25% instantly, which generates an EMF 2 or 5 reading on the fuse box when used. Cannot do this if fuse box off.
  
• Myling: Although footsteps are not audible at same distance, vocalizations still are.
  
• Obake: 25% less chance to leave fingerprints when interacting, can choose to halve the time all fingerprints on the map disappear (20s instead of 40s)
  
• Oni: Is incapable of the smoke-ball Ghost Event that causes a hiss but will still hiss sometimes
  
• Onryo: If nearby flame prevents a hunt, it will blow out said flame. Passively more likely to blow out flames than other ghost types.
  
• Phantom: Can choose a player and walk directly to their location, emitting EMF 2 when it uses this ability. Passively reduces sanity of those within 10m and line-of-sight by 0.5%/sec during both hunts and events. When hunting, its "blink interval" is a lot longer, meaning its invisible for longer. Flashes into visibility approx. every 1-2 seconds.
  
• Poltergeist: Can generate an EMF 3 and throw several nearby props at once, reducing sanity of nearby players for 2% times number of items thrown.
  
• Shade: Incapable of emitting EMF 3 specifically when at least 1 player is in the room with it. May wander into an unoccupied room to hunt, since it can't hunt if 1 or more people is in the same room as it. Chance to manifest as black shadow when summoned in a Summoning Circle. Prefers Hissing events to full manifestations.
  
• Mimic: Essentially able to copy nearly everything from other ghosts, including things within the "Dead Giveaways" list like the Obake's 6-finger prints but can't copy Goryo's invisibility since it doesn't have DOTS evidence for itself. Mimics copy the same ghost for 30s to 2 minutes.
  
• Twins: 50% chance for either Twin to start the hunt from their prospective location, meaning it can regularly start hunts from a completely random location instead of the ghost room. Main Twin is 10% slower. Crucifix check only applies to main ghost.
  
• Wraith: Can choose to teleport to a random player, emitting EMF 2 (with 25% chance for EMF 5 instead). Cant teleport during hunts but may try to start a hunt after teleport.
  
• Yokai: Activity will spike if talking near it fails to start a hunt
  
• Yurei: Can drain all nearby players of 15% sanity and effectively "slam" the doors with 1 random door shutting way faster than ghosts normally can shut doors. More likely to do "airball" ghost events.

The Banshee

The Banshee. A wailing specter heralding a family death with shrieks and howls. Phasmophobia's resident early hunter.

The Banshee has been around since launch and has grown an infamous reputation thanks to its power. Banshees are typically decently aggressive and can be quite a handful for new players as well as Nightmare runners.



The Banshee's strength is its power, which allows it to pick a target to hunt first. If the Banshee uses its ghost power, it will initiate a hunt near the target if the target is at or below 50% sanity (differing from how it used to behave) and aggressively pursue the target. Hiding from a Banshee as the target is extremely difficult but possible, but on Nightmare, a power-enabled Banshee hunt is almost a certain death sentence.

The biggest dead giveaway, however, is a scream/yell sound audible when using the Parabolic Mic. Only Banshees are capable of this, even if they don't always perform this scream.

If in co-op, narrowing down a Banshee can be quite easy as it will only attempt to kill the target. All other players are free to sit down, crack open a beer, and watch the show. All non-target players are completely ignored by a hunting Banshee, meaning it is quite easy to spot when it hunts in co-op. This is when to take pictures, complete the Smudge Stick objective, or any other hunt objective. Its important to note, however, that Banshees will still try to hunt someone if team sanity is below 50% and the target is outside. You cannot avoid hunts forever by keeping the target outside, only when the current target's sanity is above 50%. If the previous target is outside the investigation area, the Banshee will choose a new one.

In solo, it is a fair bit harder to determine a Banshee this way. The weakness of a Banshee is the Crucifix radius. Banshees are prone to the Crucifix stopping hunts at a 5m radius instead of 3m, so if your Crucifixes are used rather early or still hit when placed in a large room, it could be a Banshee. Anecdotally, Banshees for me also tend to have lower ghost activity when Crucifixes are placed in its room, but a stronger indicator would be a hunt starting near you (in solo) outside of its room. There are a handful of other ghosts capable of this, including Phantoms, Wraiths, Demons, and The Twins, but it narrows things down either way. In short, watch for those Crucifixes, try to track sanity, and pay attention if it starts a hunt outside of its room.

In Summary
In Any Mode: Watch for early hunts or hunts starting near a person outside the ghost room. Watch for lower activity after Crucifixes placed in ghost's room. Hearing a scream or yell while using the Parabolic Mic means its a Banshee, always.

In Solo: Above tips only
In Co-op: Watch hunting behavior. Banshees ignore non-target players if target is not in the truck.

The Demon

Aren't Ouija Boards licensed and patented by Hasbro? How can it be dangerous?

The Demon is Phasmophobia's eponymous hyper-aggressive species of ghost. They're capable of frequent and earlier than normal hunts, and while they no longer have their previous Ouija Board interactions, they've gained a deadly new hidden power in its stead.



The Demon can hunt starting at 70% sanity, only needs 20 seconds cooldown between hunts, and can rarely choose to hunt at any sanity level by walking directly to a target and attacking if they haven't moved out of sight in 20 seconds. Demons are still very aggressive ghosts even if they don't have the same evidences or Ouija power anymore.

Outside of Nightmare, the best way to check for a Demon is for a van dweller to watch the team sanity threshold to see when the first hunt starts. Additionally, watch to make sure the Demon is spawning where it should spawn during hunts. While multiple other ghosts can start hunts outside of their rooms, it would narrow things down anyway.

Unfortunately that last strategy is one of your only strategies on Nightmare difficulty. If you notice likely early hunts and are missing the signs of other ghost types, then a Demon might be your answer, but its overaggression might be a better giveaway. The best strategy would likely be to narrow down other early hunters before assuming a Demon. Start by doing everything you know to do to stop or expose other early hunters- don't talk in the ghost room (Yokai), remove as many electronic devices as you can from the ghost room (Raiju), turn the lights on in the room (Mare), repeatedly drop a lit candle to snuff it out (Onryo), and if you assume Banshee, check where it spawns next hunt.

[NEW] The Deogen

The Deogen is a brand-new ghost type added in 0.6.2, the Truck Overhaul update. The journal states that the Deogen always knows where the player is and moves quite slowly due to how much energy it uses to become corporeal.

A Deogen ID requires Spirit Box (important), Ghost Writing, and DOTS. The Deogen has a unique potential interaction with the Spirit Box. This journal summary is mostly accurate, but there are some nuances not mentioned.

The community currently theorizes that the Deogen's hunt threshold is actually 40%, making it a late hunter much like the Shade. The journal's statement that the Deogen "constantly senses the living" is 100% true in-game, meaning hiding from it is quite useless and a poor strategy. Once a Deogen is identified, it is best to find areas to loop it, as it will be quite slow when near you.

This slow speed during a hunt is extremely noticeable in my opinion and looked almost comical when I first encountered one. It is slower than the player's normal walking speed by enough of a margin that a straight hallway in Highschool is enough to escape it.

Secondary Evidences Recap

- A Deogen moves quite slowly when near a player, even slower than default walk speed
- A Deogen moves extremely fast without a player in its line-of-sight, slowing instantly once gaining sightline of someone
- The Deogen has a unique Spirit Box response it can give to any question, making a sound like a bull huffing & breathing into a microphone for 3-4 seconds
- Due to the Deogen's unique "breathing" Spirit Box response, it will always give Spirit Box evidence on Nightmare difficulty

The Deogen's breathing Spirit Box response is a 100% dead giveaway that rules out all other ghost types, and it will always give off Spirit Box evidence in Nightmare difficulty as a result. Deogens are capable of giving the "breathing" response to any Spirit Box question at random and is not tied to any specific question.

The Goryo

This is Paranormal Activity now boiii

The Goryo's most noticeable secondary evidence is slightly tricky but fairly conclusive once you confirm. One of the Goryo's evidences is the DOTS Projector, and its DOTS silhouette is only visible over video camera (almost always when alone in the room). Goryos also prefer to not manifest during ghost events, meaning it typically just doesn't do those ghost events. It will still be visible, however, during any ghost events where ghosts manifest.

A Goryo also tends to stay put in their favorite room. This isn't to say they NEVER wander, just that they often don't wander MUCH outside of hunts. Using a motion or sound sensor to see the range of interactions and movements can help you narrow down to a Goryo. Most of the time I had trouble finding a Goryo, I had initially assumed Shade because of how little it wandered which therefore limited the interactions I saw.

In short, if you can confirm that the DOTS evidence is only showing up on video cams, then you definitely have a Goryo, but if you're having trouble confirming it, are assuming it to be true, and the ghost doesn't wander much if at all, then a Goryo is much more likely (but not definitive).

The Hantu

Snowy super-sonic speed sprinter

The Hantu is a speed-based ghost. Warmer rooms slow it down, and colder rooms speed it up. For finding a Hantu based on secondary evidence, the breaker becomes absolutely CRUCIAL.

The Hantu's speed only applies during hunts, so this one will require risking your biscuit(s) to confirm. A hunting Hantu in a cold room (breaker OFF) will move at nearly double the speed it will while hunting in a warm room (breaker ON). There are two general strategies: keep the breaker on, or track the ghost around its room.

While this will likely not be helpful as secondary evidence (because you're boned if you see it), a Hantu at max speed (in a room at 3C or lower) will have frost breath. Consider this a warning from the game that the ghost of Sonic is at full speed, which reaches double normal speed at 2.7m/s.

The Hantu's gain or loss in speed is almost instant when moving between rooms of varying temperatures, so it is possible to place video cameras in and around the ghost's room to watch its speed coming out at the start of a hunt. If you notice a rather fast ghost hunting while the power is off, then turn the breaker on (and keep it on). Once the place has warmed up a bit, watch to see if the ghost slows down noticeably upon leaving its room. If you see this with surety, its a Hantu.

The Jinn

Speed, I am Speed, Kachow

The Jinn is another speed-based ghost centered around the breaker. When the breaker is on, the Jinn can (rarely) instantly drain 25% sanity of all investigators within a short radius of the ghost. During a hunt, the Jinn's movement speed is higher the further away from its victim it is, meaning that it closes gaps very quickly but actually pursues rather slowly when close to you. Any use of this power will emit EMF from the breaker box as well, and while situational, its a solid sign of a Jinn.

Jinns can only use these 2 powers if the breaker is on. Knowing this, there are 3 strategies. For solo or co-op, you can simply watch the ghost's hunting behavior. If you notice it slow down every time it gets close to you, odds are strong its a Jinn. If in co-op, a van dweller may be able to notice a ~25% dip in sanity across one or more players in a short moment. If both are seen, its 99% likely to be a Jinn.

Another important factor to know is that the Jinn, as of the current build of the game (0.4.0), is INCAPABLE of turning the breaker off. If the ghost disables the breaker, its not a Jinn. Jinns are also more likely to interact with electrical objects in the house such as lamps, phones, TVs, etc, but I've seen Poltergeists that make similar interactions, so just pay attention.

The Mare

No, not the horse

The Mare is a light-level based ghost. In darker conditions, its hunting threshold is raised to 60%. In brighter conditions, its hunting threshold is lowered to 40%. This makes the Mare an early hunter by a very small margin, making it unlikely to be useful in Nightmare difficulty. On other difficulties though, an attentive van dweller could easily spot an above-50 hunt and go from there. The Mare's hunting threshold is only affected by "room lights" such as light switches or the Campsite's electric lanterns, candles and flashlights have no effect.

Another less well known secondary evidence for Mares is light switches. Mares are only able to turn lights OFF and CANNOT turn lights back on. If the ghost you're investigating turns a light ON, it cannot be a Mare. This means that on Nightmare difficulty, this secondary evidence is best used as a way to disqualify the Mare, not discover it.

The Mimic

Phasmophobia's resident trickster ghost is here and ready to reap chaos!

Ironically, despite being a Mimic, this ghost is among the easier to identify in Nightmare mode, if all goes well, as it is the only ghost capable of leaving three evidences instead of two. That isn't much of a benefit, however, as Mimics can mimic just about everything about the ghost type it chooses for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. This includes only characteristics of evidence and can't include evidences it doesn't have. Since it has Fingerprints, it can give off six-fingered handprints for Fingerprints evidence if mimicking an Obake, but it can't mimic the Goryo's DOTS invisibility since it does not have DOTS itself.

As a quick overview, the Mimic does as the name implies in that it mimics an attribute of another ghost type as a red herring. This can be as simple as mimicking the Poltergeist by throwing and touching a lot of items or much more specific, such as mimicking the 6-fingered handprint that the Obake can leave behind. In fact, enabling the Mimic to fake this handprint is why the Mimic has Fingerprints evidence at all. I personally am uncertain of how deep the mimicry goes, but the Mimic can indeed copy passive attributes of ghost types as well, such as the Onryo's chance to hunt if flame burns out as well as its passive fear of fire.

The secondary quality (weakness) of the Mimic means that Ghost Orbs are going to be visible near the Mimic at some times. I am currently not 100% sure how consistently the Mimic can leave Ghost Orbs around itself because I have only encountered it twice so far, but it does seem that the orbs spawn around its physical location rather than its room. When completing a Mimic investigation, Orbs are not considered evidence towards it, so pay careful attention to placement of orbs and the ghost's behaviors.

What this means is that the Mimic essentially has four evidences if you include Orbs, and it will be the ONLY ghost to show three evidences in Nightmare.

If you find four evidences, that is an easy identification clearly, but if you, on Nightmare mode, find 3, then Mimic is the only option. Without just... finding all the evidence... your best bet is just observation, making Mimics extremely difficult for newer players but much easier for experienced players. If you notice peculiar behavioral changes that you believe may correlate to certain ghost types (ie. it reacts violently to talking at first but now is throwing a lot of stuff, like the Yokai and Poltergeist respectively), that is a sign of a Mimic.

[NEW] The Moroi

NOTE: The Moroi has a bit more complexity to it than the other new ghost types, and as such, most of what I have to say here isn't concretely confirmed just yet. Anything I or the community are unsure of will be noted.

The Moroi is the second of 3 new ghosts in the Truck update, and this one is quite interesting indeed. The Moroi brings with it a new "mechanic" with it's special ability to apply curses to players which weaken them.

The journal notes are interesting this time around, so I will copy them here in full:

Originally posted by Moroi Journal Entry:

Moroi have risen from the grave to drain energy from the living. They have been known to place curses on their victims, curable only by antidotes or moving very far away.

Strength: The weaker their victims, the stronger the Moroi becomes.

Weakness: Moroi suffer from hyperosmia, weakening them for longer periods.

The journal offers more direct help than usual here, and as you could likely guess, a Moroi will be weaker against Smudge Sticks than other ghosts. "Weaker" in this case means that a Moroi can be Smudged during a hunt & stunned twice as long as another ghost type (12 seconds instead of 6). NOTE: As of testing myself, I cannot tell if Smudging it outside of hunts stops wandering for a longer duration, similar to a Spirit, so do not consider this as evidence.

The Moroi's Curse

Now onto the elephant in the room here, the meaning of "weak" and "weakening" players. "Weak" in this context seems to relate to sanity drain and level. Through a targeting mechanism we haven't fully discovered yet, the Moroi will apply a "curse" to a target player which applies a passive sanity drain. The drain is slow but constant, not linked to being in the dark, can't be stopped by candles, and can only be abated if outside of the investigation area (ie. in the truck, out of the house, outside the campground gates). This curse can be cured by taking a Sanity Pill.

So we know how the curse works, but how do you get it in the first place? The Moroi has the evidence types Spirit Box, Ghost Writing, and Freezing Temperatures, and similar to the new Deogen, it's been observed that Morois always have Spirit Box on Nightmare difficulty. This is because the Spirit Box is definitively a way the Moroi curses players, possibly multiple at once.

Asking and receiving an answer on the Spirit Box applies the curse to the person who asked the question. Some claim to have had multiple people cursed all at once if in the same room when this happens, so try to avoid multiples on the Spirit Box at once. It is also theorized that the same person can be cursed multiple times (with only 1 curse "active" at once) which would need more than 1 Sanity Pill to cure.

Other Behaviors

The Moroi is a speedy ghost that moves faster during hunts relative to how much team sanity has been lost. Lower average sanity increases the Moroi's speed up to 50% faster when the team is at 0% average sanity.

Secondary Evidence Recap

- Getting a Spirit Box response curses the person asking with constant sanity drain that only stops when outside of the level (ie. in truck), isn't cancelled by being in light, can't be slowed or stopped by candlelight, and goes away after taking Sanity Pills.
- Smudging a Moroi during a hunt causes it to wander around for 12 seconds instead of the usual 6
- Its movement sped during hunts increases by up to 50% depending on how low team sanity is
- Always displays Spirit Box evidence in Nightmare mode.

The Myling

Testing... Testing... Spook, two, three!

The Myling is a bit of a moody ghost that can't decide if they want to be talkative or a mute, as they make a large number of paranormal sounds outside of hunts but are unusually quiet during hunts.

The secondary evidence for Mylings is best discovered with a parabolic microphone and some experience with it. If you're familiar with roughly how common paranormal noises are, then a Myling can be assumed if you see a lot of noises on the Paramic. That said, you do need some familiarity with how the Paramic works for this to be of use.

If you are a Paramic noob, then you need to put your life on the line. During hunts, the Myling's footsteps are only audible from a short distance, just barely shorter than the distance where electronic interference starts to flicker the lights around you. If you hear that the hunting ghost's footsteps are only audible at roughly the same moment your lights start flickering, it could be a Myling.

The Obake

Obake is sus

The Obake is a rather unique and interesting ghost that can be infuriating to investigate sometimes, but it has 2 completely dead giveaways for secondary evidence. The Obake in general has a number of secondary evidences in addition to these 2 definitive signs.

The Obake is listed as a "shapeshifter" in the journal, but before we move on, the Obake can not be found just by paying attention to the ghost model. The "shapeshifting" mentioned in the journal has to do with a unique kind of Fingerprints evidence the Obake can leave behind, though not always.

A standard Fingerprints ghost, as of v0.4.2, has a 100% chance to leave behind Fingerprints evidence upon touching a switch or door, but the Obake originally had only 50% chance. As of 0.4.2, this chance was raised, but I don't have an exact number. Experience tells me around 75%.
A very subtle but definitive piece of secondary evidence is how long the Fingerprints last. The Obake's fingerprints last only 50% the duration of other ghosts. Standard fingerprints last 2 minutes, but the Obake's last 1 minute.

The SINGLE MOST OBVIOUS secondary evidence and a 100% dead giveaway, that said, is this Fingerprint pattern:



This is a variant of Fingerprints evidence that only the Obake can leave behind. It won't always spawn, but if it does, you 100% have an Obake, no other evidence needs gathering. A few fellow players have told me these 6-fingered handprints are more common after the 0.4.2 update alongside the wiki now stating around a 50% chance to find them over standard fingerprints, but I haven't been able to corroborate that yet.

The Oni

The Oni is one of if not THE most active ghost in Phasmophobia, if there are multiple people near it and you forgot about The Twins. With the Cursed Possessions update, the activity level of the Oni seems to be even higher as well.

The best strategy is to just load up the ghost room with 2 people and start checking for evidence items. Onis are way more generous with evidence if their passive is triggered, so feel free to invite the family over for dinner with an Oni. Its high activity level will often, but not always, stand out among other ghosts.

For a more subtle clue, watch when an Oni throws an object. Typically these thrown items go a fair bit farther and are thrown a lot harder than normal.

The Onryo

The Onryo is an angry fire-hating ghost that can hunt essentially whenever it feels like, so long as a fire was recently extinguished. The flames that count towards this early hunt trigger are ones the ghost itself can blow out, an action which, yes, counts towards the early hunt trigger.

If you suspect an Onryo, you can attempt to bait out a hunt by lighting a candle, going into the ghost room, and repeatedly throwing the lit candle at the floor to extinguish it. If you keep doing this a few times, re-lighting the candle once or twice, an Onryo will typically attack quite quickly. It is also more likely to be triggered by fire for every person that has died this round.

The Onryo does not leave rooms with fire in them, but it is less likely to hunt. That said, it is still capable of blowing out a flame and triggering itself all on its own.

The Phantom

A bug, a feature, or both?

The Phantom is another on the short list of ghosts with a really obvious tell, despite it being a little less obvious since a few patches ago. Phantoms have two clear signs. Taking a picture of a Phantom will cause it to disappear temporarily. This can happen instantly of after half a second or so, and you may need to take a second picture to confirm. It will not stop hunts, so don't try it!

The Phantom also has a less obvious secondary evidence in its hunting behavior. All ghosts will flicker between visibility and invisibility during hunts, but the Phantom only flickers into the visible spectrum every 1 or 2 seconds, while standard ghosts do so between 0.3 and 1 second intervals. This makes it harder to take a picture of during a hunt but serves as further secondary evidence towards a Phantom.

The FINAL secret behavior of the Phantom makes it a bit of a wildcard. Phantoms can, rarely, walk (NOT teleport, like the Wraith), across the map to a player and start a hunt. This behavior can be really hard to spot, as it looks quite similar to how Wraiths can teleport and start a hunt. The best way to determine if it walked or teleported is, unfortunately, just paying attention. If you see wandering (meaning interactions far from ghost room) followed by a hunt with the ghost spawning behind someone, it could be a Phantom trying to end your career.

The Poltergeist

The Poltergeist does not have much definitive secondary evidence, but they do tend to throw objects much more often than other ghosts. They're also capable of throwing multiple items at once and drain sanity equal to the number of items thrown times 2, but these are anecdotal and hard to confirm.

Even more troubling is that the Poltergeist's tendency to touch stuff can make other ghosts seem like one. If, for example, it touches a lot of light fixtures, its actually more likely to be a Jinn despite seeming like it could be a Poltergeist.

On that note, just keep in mind that the Poltergeist is often a bit of a red herring and hard to confirm without primary evidence.

The Raiju

Evolves from Pikaju

The Raiju is a really dangerous ghost new to the 0.4.0 Nightmare update. They gain speed when in proximity to any electronics, be it on the floor or in your hands. This is indeed the karmic punishment for chucking my empty cameras into the hall of so many homes.



Raijus can be quite easy to spot or really hard to find, and there's little in-between in my personal experience. That said, it is an early hunter and has some clear signs to watch for.

Perhaps the easiest sign of a Raiju is having a really fast ghost during hunts, not quite as fast as a Revenant, but it is almost the same speed. Another clear sign is an early hunt. Raijus can hunt at a maximum sanity threshold of 70% dependent on having electronics near it. Anecdotes tell me that more makes this number go up, but I have no proof.

The most reliable ways to determine a Raiju are watching its speed during hunts. The infamous Revenant needs to have line-of-sight on a player to get its speed boost, Jinns need to be in a chase and at a distance, and the Hantu requires a cold room. The Raiju just needs some electrons, so watch if the ghost is wandering during a hunt yet still moving quickly. If the breaker is still on and electronics are near where it is wandering, a Raiju is highly likely.

As for its "electronic disturbances", I honestly do not know how it works. I have had experiences with Raijus causing lights in a level to flicker from a longer distance than I would assume but have nothing to offer otherwise. The ghost is too complex and new to know for sure what its effects ON electronics are, even if its effects FROM electronics are horrifyingly obvious.

The Revenant

The Revenant is Phasmophobia's infamous murderous horror. Many have ascribed a very high lethality rate to the Revenant due to its ridiculous speed, now potentially matched or even exceeded by a new challenger- the Raiju.

Revenants will extremely quickly raise their speed upon gaining line of sight of a victim during a hunt. It will move at ridiculous speeds if LOS is not broken, and when LOS is broken, the Revenant moves at half the speed of a standard hunting ghost.

This pattern of see victim -> zoomies, lose victim -> leadfoot is very easy to see but less easy to consistently SURVIVE, so operate with caution. If you must bait a Revenant, keep a lighter and smudge stick on you to repel the ghost when it gets close, because otherwise you may have no chance at survival.

If you see a fast hunting ghost that does not consistently grow faster with line of sight, it probably is not a Revenant. Check what evidences you do have against the Hantu, Raiju, and Jinn if you are unsure of it being a Revenant.

The Shade

The depression one, that's what they called me

The Shade is a relatively docile and shy ghost that typically does far less when in the presence of people. If at least 2 people are near a Shade, it usually does not perform any interactions or ghost events. That said, I've had my organs suddenly and violently rearranged by Shades before, so this reported "shyness" is not always as obvious as you'd like.

Similarly, the hunting likelihood (NOT threshold) of a Shade is markedly lower if people are near it, but this can be deceptive as Shades can just start a hunt somewhere else without people in it. My kind of ghost. Since this does not affect the threshold it can start hunting at, it makes determining a Shade a bit of a crapshoot, so its best to try to track frequency and timing of ghost events instead. Consistently more ghost events when people aren't around is a good sign of a Shade.

Shades are best discovered anecdotally, unfortunately. You need to split up into solo mode to see if the ghost does more. It could be a Shade if so, but there isn't really a definitive secondary evidence for it.

The Spirit

The ghost equivalent of a Roblox Guest account

The Spirit is Phasmophobia's basic b**ch. Sorry devs, but its true. Spirits are painfully average, have no strength, and a hard to confirm weakness that, while definitive if confirmed, is very difficult to confirm at all.

The Spirit can be discovered with the Smudge Sticks. Smudging near a Spirit renders it unable to hunt for 3 minutes. This can potentially be confirmed at average sanity level of 0%, smudging it, and waiting 90 seconds to see if you die, but any ghost just... might not hunt during that time. This secondary evidence is best used to eliminate ghosts rather than confirm the Spirit, as its easier to see if a hunt happens within 180 seconds than it is to confirm a Spirit this way.

[NEW] The Thaye

Rounding out the last of our new Truck Update ghosts is The Thaye, an aggressive ghost type that can be thought of as the "reverse Shade". An "active, defensive, and agile" ghost, the Thaye exhibits very aggressive behavior early in the game that wanes over time, eventually making it a timid and slow ghost hesitant to attack.

The Thaye's journal entry denotes that the Thaye is overactive "upon entering the location", making it quite defensive and territorial early on. The listed weakness is that Thayes weaken and degenerate over time, making them much less active.

The Thaye's "Degeneration" Behavior

A Thaye will slowly "degenerate" during the course of an investigation, which will impact its behaviors and the frequency of them in a major way. A decent comparison to make here is that a Thaye starts the game acting like an overactive Demon type ghost and ends up, eventually, acting like a timid Shade by the end.

At the start of an investigation. it will make a lot of interactions, cause ghost events more often, and can hunt early. Current thoughts are that, similar to Demons, a Thaye can hunt as early as 70% team sanity or so early on in the investigation, but these are not 100% confirmed as of yet. Regardless, it seems clear to most that The Thaye can hunt early. Most people also report that The Thaye is much faster during early hunts, reaching nearly double normal hunt speed if a Cursed Hunt is triggered almost immediately when starting an investigation.

None of these things will last, however. As the investigation goes on, the Thaye will become less and less aggressive, slower, and less likely to interact or cause ghost events. Its hunt threshold will lower as well, with some saying it can get as low as 15% team sanity in a rather long investigation. This effectively means that, while very dangerous, a Thaye only ever gets safer to be near.

Recap

-The Thaye is extremely aggressive at first, but its level of activity goes down as the match goes on
-The Thaye can hunt early AND hunt late depending on the length of the game so far
-Hunting speed seems tied to its activity level, meaning it is fastest during early-game hunts

The Twins

Going from the least unique ghost to the most, we have The Twins. As unique in name as they are in behavior.

As the name and obvious meme choice both imply, there are two of them. One Twin is the "primary" ghost capable of leaving behind evidence, and the other is there to screw with you (and can't leave evidence). This makes The Twins inherently chaotic on Professional and above, and a semi-experienced player familiar with The Twins can sometimes suss them out just by being in the building.

The Twins don't necessarily have any definitive secondary evidence, but their behavior is rather unique in most cases. If you are seeing very frequent interactions in multiple rooms across the building, that's a strong clue. If you are seeing frequent jumps to activity level 10 without any hunts, that is also a very strong clue.

The biggest wrench in the cog here is the second Twin. This Twin is essentially always wandering, won't pick a favorite room, and does whatever the heck it wants to (aside from evidence stuff). This Twin has a 50% chance to be the hunter whenever The Twins decide to initiate a hunt, and if the second twin hunts, it does so from wherever on the map it was wandering at that time. This makes The Twins a natural red herring for the Banshee, the Shade, or one of several other ghost types depending on where it spawns for the hunt.



While the second Twin is the source of 100% of the confusion and chaos this ghost type is known for, it can also be a way to directly confirm The Twins. The lesser Twin cannot give evidence, but evidence items are meant to be used near or in the same room as the ghost. This means you can attempt to use evidence items where you see interactions to see if you get a response. For example, if you have previously confirmed Freezing Temps but cannot see them where an interaction is happening, this is a VERY strong sign of the lesser Twin's antics. The Spirit Box can work in much the same way. Failing to get any response near multiple interactions are signs of The Twins in action.

In summary, The Twins are chaos, intentionally cause confusion, and can accidentally mimic much more complex aspects of other ghosts than you would expect. Not to mention that the new ability of ghosts to change their favorite room adds to the confusion created by The Twins. Watch for frequent activity spikes to 10 without a hunt, measurements at interaction sites that don't match the ghost room, and hunts from several different starting places.

The Wraith

Salty mofo incarnate

The Wraith is a classic Phasmophobia ghost with a VERY misleading journal entry, which is itself ALSO classic Phasmophobia. This salty spook is described in the journal as a dangerous, flying ghost that can phase through walls. As usual, this description is not quite literal when talking about its actual mechanics.

The "flying" of the Wraith is less floating around menacingly and more straight up teleporting around like a lunatic. The Wraith will intermittently teleport to within 3 meters of a player inside the building when not hunting. This can trigger an EMF 5 reading about a quarter of the time. This ability alone isn't the most reliable way to vet a Wraith, but with clever motion sensor placement, some patience, and a victim, you can potentially get stronger proof of a Wraith.

The above method isn't worth your time, however, because the Wraith is on the short list of ghosts with definitive secondary evidence, and this is due to the Wraith's "toxic" reaction to salt. When a Wraith steps in salt, it will show an imprint in the salt pile as with any ghost, but Wraiths do not leave UV footprints like other ghosts. All other ghosts will leave footprints visible with UV light after stepping in salt, so if you see none, it is 100% always a Wraith.

The Yokai

The Yokai rounds off our list of early hunters, and they all have a bit of an issue with you loud youngins and whippersnappers. Probably doesn't like you being on their lawn either. The Yokai is a uniquely dangerous ghost in Phasmophobia, as the risk factors involve the core game mechanic of voice recognition. For as much as they hate talking, the Yokai still needs Spirit Box evidence.



Paradoxically, the Yokai is actually less sensitive to talking when it is hunting, and it only uses its ability when not hunting. This means the actual evidence-gathering phase is more dangerous because it can start early hunts, but weirdly the hunts themselves are arguably less dangerous. Its a unique parallel.

The hunting threshold of an angered Yokai is 80% or so, and while hunting, it can only hear voices from a maximum of 2 meters away. This distance is smaller than the effective radius of the Crucifix on non-Banshee ghosts. Imagine two players smushed together front-to-back, and you have a rough approximation of that distance in-game. It is VERY small and thus exploitable.

Discovering a Yokai can be quite easy sometimes. If you get multiple early hunts, and the common denominator is people talking near the ghost, then that's an excellent clue pointing to the Yokai. Similarly, if you speak near the Yokai as it patrols and you DON'T die, it could be a Yokai (assuming your mic is working correctly, made that mistake before).

This means the Yokai is primarily discovered through hunting behaviors, one way or another. Talking freely during a hunt is usually a bad sign, but if you repeatedly get away with it, you might should evaluate if its a Yokai.

The Yurei

The Yurei is unfortunately very similar to the Spirit and the Phantom as of v0.4.0. It has lost a little of its individuality and danger compared to previous versions of it.

The Yurei has the Phantom's passive but better, in that both have double sanity drain, but Phantoms only have it while you are looking at it. A Yurei will drain double sanity for any ghost event that happens in your range. That said, a Yurei will obviously never disappear if you take a picture.

The only reliable enough method to suss out a Yurei is to smudge its room and try to track how long it stays there. Yureis will be mostly stopped from wandering for about 90 seconds if smudged, but in this time, it may still wander once or twice. You should generally see few to no interactions outside of the ghost room during this 90 second duration.

With the 0.4.2 update, my own and other anecdotes are supporting the Yurei's behavior being much more active than before. Take it with a grain of salt.

[🍉Фрута🍍]

Another Unique interaction:
Yurei: when you use smudge sticks, they will stay only in his room for about 1 min.
Moroi: when use smudge sticks during hunt they will be blinded for 2 secs more, from 5 secs to 7 secs.
Deogen: when you get a response with spirit box he have a small chance to only do a heavy breathing insted of talking.

[Kabelcar]

anyone now reading this in 2023, the obake does and will change form during a hunt and this is a dead giveaway

[Asterial]

Really helpful! Thank you so much for this, helps us get through our nightmare runs a lot more painlessly. Also love the memes :)

[7-Avocado-40]

@ShingekiNoRex Be my guest! Happy to hear it was helpful

[ShingekiNoRex]

Really helpful Do you mind if I write a similar guide in another language, specifically Chinese, based on your guide? Not translating, but summary with my own words.