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Unfortunately for players, Ghosts do various things on top of making their presences known - including scaring the living crap out of players. At the worst, Ghosts engage in Hunts where they can actually kill players, with no means of fighting back. With that in mind, some Ghosts in Phasmophobiaturn out much scarier than players anticipate. Which Ghosts should players pay close attention to?

10 Yokai

Evidence: Spirit Box, Ghost Orb, DOTS Projector Unique Trait: Talking close to a Yokai may trigger an early hunt

A known denizen of family homes, the Yokai is very attracted to the noise humans make when talking, sometimes to the point that talking too much can anger the Yokai. This trait applies to the Phasmophobia game’s version of the creature, where players talking near the Yokai’s ghost room may actually trigger a sudden Hunt, even at higher Sanity thresholds. In fact, the Yokai may begin hunting as early as 80% Sanity, making the early-game rather deadly for players.

Perhaps the only saving grace players have against the Yokai is that it’s sensitive to voices and active electronics within 2-meters of it. This means players can potentially escape the Yokai should they stay quiet or leave their electronic devices away from it. Brave-enough players can provoke the Yokai into hunting and perform more of their Whiteboard Objectives - but players who don’t know how to dodge the Yokai may be committing to a deathwish if they do this.

9 Onryo

Evidence: Freezing Temperatures, Ghost Orb, Spirit Box Unique Trait: Flames greatly affect the kind of interactions the Onryo will do, especially when determining the Hunt

Known as the “Wrathful Spirit,” the Onryo is known to steal the souls of those who are about to die in order to exact revenge on the living. Across any Phasmophobia difficulty, the Onryo isn’t just a dangerous type of enemy, but an extremely volatile one due to its relationship with flames. Aside from having a much higher Sanity threshold in that it Hunts at 60% Sanity, players attempting to outwit an Onryo need to know how it interacts with fire.

At its core, players attempting to scout an Onryo have the added pressure of carrying multiple Candles, which are limited enough as it is. A Candle can prevent an Onryo from Hunting as it simply blows it, but the third Candle that gets blown will trigger a Hunt. Not only that, other types of extinguished flame can make the Onryo happily Hunt down players, forcing them to stay on top of keeping a fire on as often as possible.

8 Banshee

Evidence: Fingerprints, Ghost Orb, DOTS Projector Unique Trait: Has a screech when interacting with the Parabolic Microphone, and often sings in ghost events

As with most folklore, the Banshee is known as a siren that attracts its victims through its charming voice. It’s also known to be a vixen, often singling out a person and working their way to make it their victim. In Phasmophobia, the Banshee’s rather violent nature makes it a deadly Ghost to deal with, making this one of the trickiest creature types to deal with in the game. One of the best ways of detecting a Banshee is its hardest, and that’s the identification of its hunt target.

Unlike other Ghosts, the Banshee is especially deadly due to its obsession with a hunt target. Aside from singing in most ghost events, it usually triggers events specifically targeted towards the target. When interacting with the Banshee, the target also gets a 15% Sanity decrease instead of the usual 10%, making this an early Banshee indicator provided someone is checking activity in the truck. The only saving grace players have against the Banshee is almost immediate detection once the Banshee ignores other players except its target during the Hunt.

7 Mare

Evidence: Spirit Box, Ghost Orbs, Ghost Writing Book Unique Trait: May trigger a Hunt depending on whether it’s in a lit or unlit room

Considered as the source of all nightmares, the Mare especially loves it in the dark - making it one of the most difficult Phasmophobia Ghosts to detect. After all, Sanity loses much faster in the darkness, and the Mare is known to especially love shutting down lights whenever it could.

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One of the most dangerous aspects of the Mare is its preference to shut down lights, making exploration much harder for players of the horror title. Not only that, but the Mare hunts at 60% Sanity inside dark rooms, and can hunt at 40% Sanity in lit rooms, forcing players of low Sanity to gamble with their safety in a dark room at the cost of lowering their Sanity faster anyway. Players who approach this intelligently can use this to their advantage, however, as encountering a Ghost who is obsessed with interacting with lights and staying in the dark may be a Mare.

6 Raiju

Evidence: EMF Level 5, Ghost Orb, DOTS Projector Unique Trait: The Raiju is especially attracted to active electronic devices

It’s thanks to ghost-hunting equipment that players are able to detect Ghosts in Phasmophobia, so it’s already a bit unfair that the Raiju is a Ghost type that especially loves electrical current. In fact, such is the deadly appeal of the Raiju that it grows especially more dangerous when in close proximity to electrical equipment, with players sticking to their active equipment during a Hunt as a surefire way of killing them.

At its core, the Raiju’s interactions with electronics become its greatest strength and weakness. When near active electronics, the Raiju becomes much faster. However, its presence will visibly distort electronics in more violent ways compared to other Ghosts, making it easier to detect. Considering how one of the best ways to escape the Raiju is to throw one’s equipment away, trying to navigate one’s way around the location to get them back can become another recipe for disaster as well.

5 Thaye

Evidence: Ghost Orbs, Ghost Writing Book, DOTS Projector Unique Trait: It “ages” over time, making it less active the more players interact with it

When a spirit remains in the mortal realm, it’s commonly seen around the same age it has died. This doesn’t happen with the Thaye, which in Phasmophobia remains one of the game’s more puzzling Ghost types in the game. In the lore, the Thaye also attempts to age even in spirit form. This is reflected in the game, with the Thaye’s aging component making it one of the most aggressive early-game hunters. In turn, this makes it potentially dangerous against players in large maps that aren’t able to spot it quickly.

It doesn’t help that the Thaye actually “slows” its activity over time, especially when close to players. At the endgame, a Thaye may only hunt as low as 15% Sanity, with 1m/s speed (versus 2.75m/s), and 50% interaction rate. However, at the early game, the Thaye may hunt players as early as hitting 75% Sanity, and it doesn’t help that it can do twice as many activities as other Ghosts. Thanks to its “loss” mechanic, players can add the Thaye to their list of predictions during early Hunts. However, this makes the Thaye just as dangerous, as an unsuspecting player could die as early as the first Hunt.

4 The Twins

Evidence: EMF Level 5, Spirit Box, Freezing Temperatures Ability: Have different Hunting speeds, and may interact with the environment at the same time

While Phasmophobia simply elaborates on the Twins as Ghosts that copy each other’s actions from different locations, it makes sense to assume that these spirits may have been twins or close contacts that have died at around the same time in real life. In the game proper, Twins can be extremely dangerous considering how “different” they way they approach both interactions and Hunts. Not only that, but the “decoy Twin” will likely try to mess with the clue-gathering of the team by providing many hints towards interactions.

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At its core, the best way for players to escape the Twin is to identify it the soonest. This often happens when players realize that both Twins have different interaction ranges, with the “main Twin” having a bigger range and the “decoy Twin” having a further range. Hunts can begin from either Twin as well. Players who notice different hunting behaviors may immediately point towards a Twin, provided they outlast it quickly enough.

3 The Mimic

Evidence: Spirit Box, Fingerprints, Freezing Temperatures Ability: Can mimic other Ghosts, including their Hunt thresholds and Evidences.

Even the afterlife has its fair share of copycats, with the Mimic being one of the most dangerous of them all. In Phasmophobia, the Mimic is an enemy type that not only copies the traits of any Ghost it likes, it can even copy the Evidences they provide and the Hunt thresholds they have. The only way players can spot the Mimic is if it provides a Ghost Orb as a fourth Evidence, making this perhaps the only “surefire” Evidence for the Mimic after all.

Its unpredictable nature makes the Mimic one of the most dangerous Ghosts for Phasmophobia player to deal with, especially since other Ghost types it can mimic may exhibit the same “triggers” that cause Hunts. Players are advised to minimize talking too much (Yokai), turn off unused electronics (Raiju), have flame sources in the Ghost Room (Onryo), and prepare Smudge Sticks for looping (Deogen).

2 Deogen

Evidence: Spirit Box, Ghost Writing Book, DOTS Projector Unique Trait: Produces a different Spirit Box responses

Known in legends to be only surrounded by fog, not much is known about the Deogen except for the fact that it almost always manages to catch its prey. Among the monsters present in the horror game, the Deogen is easily the scariest due to the fact that it immediately knows where all players are as soon as it begins its Ghost Hunt. The only solace players know when facing the Deogen is that it gets much slower when in direct eye contact with the player, making escapes slightly more possible. And in extended hunts, knowing there’s no escape from the Deogen practically guarantees death for the inexperienced.

While the Deogen does have a lower hunting threshold (usually at 40%), the fact that it gets much prone to hunting at this state makes it far deadlier. Players can survive the Deogen at best through looping it around kitchen counters or tables, with the rest of the team hiding in rooms with easy exit routes for rotations.

1 Demon

Evidence: Fingerprints, Ghost Writing Book, Freezing Temperatures Unique Trait: Extremely aggressive, and has a rare chance of hunting at any Sanity threshold

There’s a reason why some of the scariest horror flicks often deal with the unholy, as a demonic presence from the abyss is almost always never resolvable - and in some worst cases, even in the presence of the holiest individuals. It makes sense then why the Demon in Phasmophobia is one of its scariest Ghosts. Known to be extremely violent, the Demon is extremely aggressive when Hunting, which doesn’t help the fact that it can Hunt as early as 70% Sanity.

Considering its aggressive nature, the best way to “stop” a Demon is escaping to hiding spots as quickly as possible or simply identifying it early enough. The Crucifix gets a 5-meter effective radius instead of the standard 3-meters, making it a nifty identifier for a Demon. Other indicators include faster cooldowns - with Demons only having a 20-second Hunt cooldown (versus 25s), and Smudge Sticks repelling it for only 60 seconds (versus 90s).

The “Apocalypse” Major Update of Phasmophobia was released last September 27, 2022.

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