One of the amazing things about Phasmophobia is that you actually do not need evidence to figure out the ghost type. They each have their own quirks that make them unique. The no evidence challenge is the ultimate test of your knowledge about the game and its ghosts.

For this guide, I assume you use the custom difficulty setting with 0 evidence given. I would recommend you keep the sanity board, though it is not absolutely necessary. Also, please turn on the breaker as soon as you walk in the house or just set it to be on from the beginning – I will explain why later.

Consider this entire guide as one big spoiler. All knowledge of ghost behavior is something the game developers give you a chance to discover yourself. Trying to uncover the unique traits can be a fun way to play for some players. But I expect that anyone searching up the no evidence topic is actually looking for these spoilers – so I will not bother actually using the spoiler function.

Should you notice anything is missing or wrong, tell me in the comments. I will also try to keep this updated as the developers make changes to the ghosts.

What is the first thing upon finding the ghost room that you should do, you ask? Well, my suggestion is to go grab a video camera and look very carefully all around the ghost room and nearby rooms for orbs. You see, there is this pesky ghost called The Mimic, who could easily set you up for failure.

The Mimic is a ghost that takes on other ghosts’ traits. The ghost type it mimics changes relatively frequently, about every half a minute to two minutes. So if you have a Mimic, you can encounter special behavior of several different ghost types in one mission. However, most players will probably just fill in the ghost type based on the first unique behavior they see and leave the mission, only to find they had been bamboozled by the Mimic. And that is why I am telling you to do a thorough check for orbs – because the Mimic, aside from it’s three real evidence, also exhibits fake orbs, which will show up even on 0 evidence.

Now that the Mimic is safely out of the way, I will try to not mention it ever again. Just keep in mind that basically all behavior of all ghost types can also be done by the Mimic.

There are currently 24 ghost types in the game. We could roughly divide them into ghosts that can be primarily identified during a hunt, ghosts that you can identify based on their behavior outside hunts and ghosts that are a bit of both. A few ghosts are really hard to identify with 0 evidence and some are only possible to rule out, not 100% confirm.

Getting a hunt will help you either figure the ghost out quickly or rule out many ghosts. You can decide if you want to get a hunt early on or if you wish to first observe the ghost for a bit. If you decide to get a hunt, I recommend doing so through dropping your sanity into hunting range, rather than starting a cursed hunt (provided you have a good cursed item – like the mirror, Ouija board or the summoning circle; tarot cards, music box and the voodoo doll are a bit unreliable for this). Natural hunts are, after all, shorter than cursed hunts. Not to mention you will still have the cursed item intact for future use.

Some ghosts have traits that make it possible to rule them out without risking your neck.

The ghost turned OFF the breaker – you can rule out Jinn. This ghost cannot turn off the breaker, because it is necessary for its other special abilities. However, beware! If the ghost just accidentally turns on one too many lights, the breaker can still pop! If you turn on the breaker and all the lights that were originally on are now off, it means the breaker broke itself, it was not done by the ghost and it can still be a Jinn. This is also one of the reasons I recommended turning on the breaker as soon as you start the mission.

The ghost moved a door, but didn't fully open or fully close it. – you can rule out Yurei. Since v0.13 this ghost can only interact with a door by FULLY closing it or opening it.

The ghost turned ON the breaker – you can rule out Hantu. This ghost prefers lower temperatures for his special hunt ability, so it has a slightly larger chance of turning the breaker off than other ghosts, but it cannot turn it on.

The ghost turned on a light, a computer or TV. – rule out Mare. Mares like darkness and have a tendency to either turn off lights or roam to nearby rooms that don’t have the lights on. They cannot turn on any source of light. Some players believe Mares cannot turn on the breaker, but that is false. Mares have no connection to the breaker.

I got hit by a smoke ball event – rule out Oni. If you don’t know what I mean: a ball of smoke suddenly comes at you and collides with you with a specific hiss. If the lights were on in the room, they usually turn off for this event. There is a bit of a misunderstanding among players – some believe that Oni’s cannot hiss. That is not true, they can still do manifestation events that include hissing. Oni cannot do the smoke ball event, so do not rule them out based on just hissing without seeing the smoke ball. Also, sometimes you just see this dark mist happily floating around the house – that is not related to this event, it can still happen with an Oni, don’t be tricked.

I took a ghost photo and I see the ghost on it. – rule out Phantom. If you take a ghost photo and take a look at it in your journal and instead of an indescribable abstract masterpiece you see a perfectly normal clear photo of a kitchen counter (or whatever else was in the background) labeled as ‘ghost photo’, you are probably dealing with a Phantom. The photo in that case should show no ghost and no disruption. It should ideally be labeled as 3 star ghost photo or 2 star ghost photo. 1 star photos are not very reliable. Also, if you take the photo on the stairs, it will also not show any disruption (if you and the ghost are technically on different floors of the house), so don't rely on not seeing disruption!

Ghost stepped in the salt. – rule out Wraith. Since the end of 2022, Wraith can no longer step in the salt AT ALL. If you suspect a wraith, I recommend placing salt in the doorway of its ghost room. Ghost always roam a little bit out of the room and should step in the salt as they do so. If a while passes and the salt is still untouched, it is fairly likely to be a wraith. Note that it does not lock the Wraith in the room, it just floats over it without stepping in.

The ghost has definitely changed the ghost room. – rule out Goryo. Goryo can no longer change ghost rooms and also has a smaller chance of roaming around. Be careful not to get baited by the ouija board – it shows where the ghost currently is, not necessarily the ghost room. Mirror should, as far as I know, show the actual ghost room.

The ghost has blown out a candle while someone was in the same room as the ghost. – rule out Shade. Shades cannot do many things while someone is in the same room and a candle is a good clear way to rule it out. BUT you must be sure both you and the ghost are in the same room, not just you and the candle! Better wait if you see it happen repeatedly.

Here, I will only list things that immediately give away the ghost.

I got some unusual howling on the sound recorder or parabolic microphone. – you have witnessed a Banshee scream. Banshees have several unique sounds.

I took a ghost photo and the ghost model disappeared + it doesn’t show on the photo. – the Phantom classic. Once you take a ghost photo, the ghost will immediately disappear from sight, even if the event is still not done yet. If you look at your photos and see a photo labeled ‘ghost’, but there is no ghost in sight, not even any disruption on the photo itself, it is further proof it is a Phantom. Note that if you take a photo on the stairs and are technically on a different floor than the ghost, the photo will not have any disruption either. Or if it’s only a one star ghost photo, too far for the equipment to be affected by the ghost. Don’t get bamboozled by that.

I heard two different interactions happen immediately one after each other. – the famous ‘Twinteraction’. Each of The Twins happen to interact with different objects at almost the same time in different parts of the room or even in different rooms.

Several items were just thrown at once! – certainly you have heard of the Polter throw. Poltergeist can throw more than one item at once and also throw them much farther than any other ghosts! If you put a lot of items in a pile, you might also experience the Polter bomb.

The lightswitch was turned off immediately after I turned it on! – that is the Mare ability. There is a very tiny chance that it happens with another ghost by chance, so it’s not 100%, but should definitely be more than 90% guaranteed mare.

Asking the Ouija board for the age of the ghost led to different results! – a way to check for Thaye. Because the Thaye actually ages as the investigation progresses. At the beginning, Thaye is a young energetic (very active, early hunting, very fast) ghost, but the more time it spends near players, the older it gets and its activity, hunting threshold and speed go down. The age on the Ouija board reflects this aging process.

A door was fully shut or open by the ghost, but not slammed as fast as usual. My sanity dropped. – this is the Yurei ability. If you stand within 7-8 meters, it can suddenly drain your sanity by 12,5%. This is accompanied by a nearby door shutting close or fully opening. All ghosts can slam the door shut, but the Yurei ability moves the door a little slower.

Some abilities are only ‘ghost has a higher chance of’ or they are not so obvious/exclusive that you could immediately fill in the ghost type based on them.

I feel like the ghost is following me around, there are interactions happening near me even away from the ghost room. The ghost feels all over the place. – the following three ghosts have abilities that allowed them to ‘stalk’ their prey outside hunts.

• Wraith – has the ability to teleport to a random player, which will give an EMF2 reading. Watch out for an EMF2 out of nowhere.
  
• Banshee – can roam towards their target. Additionally, when visible in DOTS, walks towards the target rather than a random player.
  
• Phantom – occasionally walks up to a random player, leaving EMF2 in the place it started the walk from.

The range of interactions of this ghost feels really big. – you might want to suspect either one of the ghosts that can follow you around, or the Twins. The twins work like this – the main ghost is a normal ghost with normal range and behavior outside hunts. The ‘decoy’ ghost kind of sits on top of the main ghost, but has a much larger reach for interactions. That’s why you feel like the interaction range of The Twins is very large, but still contained in one area of the map. The ‘decoy twin’ is not really an entirely separate entity from the ‘main twin’.

EMF 2 out of nowhere??? – EMF reader can actually be useful to figure out the ghost even on no evidence! If you suddenly get EMF 2 out of the blue, with nothing thrown/touched, you have likely just encountered a special ability of the Wraith (teleported to you), the Phantom (roamed to you) or perhaps the Jinn (if you are near the breaker – it leaves EMF 2 on the breaker when it uses its special abilities).

I’m getting a LOT of singing ghost events. – you can have a suspicion for a Banshee. They have an increased chance of singing ghost events compared to other ghosts. But it’s not the most conclusive way to tell. Go try to get a Banshee scream with the paramic or see if it tends to roam towards you.

This ghost is really chatty on the parabolic microphone – Myling has an increased chance of making sounds on the parabolic microphone, but it’s not all that usable or reliable in practice. I’m mentioning it because it does exist, but just use the footsteps during hunts to decide on Myling.

Is there even a ghost in this house??? – if the ghost is relatively inactive, then you can start suspecting a Shade. Especially when you are high sanity, these ghosts barely show their existence. Not the most conclusive of things, but it is definitely a bit sus.

The ghost hasn’t changed his ghost room at all and doesn’t seem to roam much. – if the match has been going on for a while and the ghost has not changed the ghost room at all (unless you chose that in difficulty settings of course), you can start suspecting a Goryo. Don’t commit to that until you rule out as many other ghosts as possible.

The ghost seems to like turning off the lights/computers/TVs, never turns them on. – You might be suspicious of the Mare. Additionally, instead of turning off the light, sometimes the mare moves from its lit up ghost room to a nearby dark room instead. Not the most conclusive, though, plenty ghosts will somehow never turn on anything during the mission. But if you ruled out most of the other ghosts, it will hint at a mare.

I’m getting a LOT of ghost events (and none of them are airball ghost events.) – could potentially be an Oni. It’s a very active ghost, showing up for ghost events more often than others. It cannot do the airball ghost event, though. These events also drain twice as much sanity as events of other ghosts!

Excuse me? My sanity is disappearing faster than my chocolate stash! – some ghosts can have an unusual negative effect on your sanity (and I mean the in-game one). Some only have such a small effect that you usually don’t even notice. Jinn, Moroi and Yurei are most remarkable. They all can feel like early hunters despite having normal 50% sanity threshold, if you do not have the sanity board to check.

• Jinn – if the breaker is on and you are near the Jinn, you can suddenly lose whole 25% sanity! This ability leaves EMF 2 at the breaker.
  
• Moroi – normally you would get cursed by using the spirit box, but on no evidence, you have to trigger this ability by using the parabolic microphone and getting a whisper. Once you hear the whisper, your passive sanity drain will be doubled and cannot be stopped by even lights! So if you look at your sanity, go in a room with main light turned on, stay there for a bit and then check your sanity again, you can determine if you are dealing with a Moroi or not. Taking sanity medication will cure you.
  
• Yurei – if you are within a certain distance and there is a door nearby, the Yurei can drop your sanity by 12,5%. It is accompanied by a door being slammed closed with an obviously delayed sound effect. Or slammed open, though that might be a bug currently.
  
• Banshee – singing ghost events have a larger effect on the sanity of the Banshee’s target than is normal. On multiplayer, if you notice one player has a remarkably lower sanity than others (without an obvious cause), Banshee could be the reason.
  
• Oni – drains double sanity during ghost events. Since also does ghost events more frequently than others, it can become fairly obvious.
  
• Phantom – during events and hunts, Phantom drains your sanity twice as fast as other ghosts.
  
• Poltergeist – when throwing multiple objects near you, your sanity is dropped a little, based on how many objects were thrown.

There are eight ghosts (one third of all the ghosts in the game!) that have unusual speed patterns during a hunt. It is absolutely imperative that you learn to recognize the rhythm of normal ghost footsteps.

How does a normal speed ghost behave during a hunt? It starts off at about 1,5 m/s and slowly picks up a little bit of speed during a hunt. If it sees a player (and I mean line of sight, not just detecting voice or your flashlight), it will start gradually speeding up.

The speed of the footsteps keeps going from slow to fast to slow to fast without a player in line of sight – you are dealing with either Hantu or Raiju. If you are just chilling in a closet and hear the ghost going from slow/normal to super fast, it can only be one of these. You just need to figure out which one it is.

• - Raiju usually has a normal speed, but when it is near an active equipment (like D.O.T.S., tossed spirit box, EMF reader, motion sensor…) it immediately almost doubles its speed. If you have no active equipment around, Raiju will be just a normal speed ghost (so set up something before getting a hunt if you want to rule this ghost out!). Photo cameras and tossed down video cameras are not considered active equipment.
  
• - Hantu’s speed depends on the temperature. It is extremely fast in rooms that have approximately 3°C or less (about 2,7 m/s) and get slower the higher the temps, until they are just a bit slower than normal ghosts. This ghost is the main reason you should have the breaker on. If the breaker is off, the house is cold and this ghost is fast everywhere. It is also harder to pick up on the speed differences. When the breaker is on, the only really cold place is the ghost room, so the ghost will be very fast there, but relatively slow everywhere else. On campsite maps, this ghost is a bit unpleasant to deal with, because the outside areas do not get warmed up. In a warmed up house, you can actually loop this ghost easily around furniture, because it doesn’t speed up with line of sight.

The ghost is not speeding up at all when seeing a player – it is either Hantu, Thaye or technically also Deogen and Revenant. Neither of these ghosts speed up when having line of sight. This makes these (with the exception of Revenant) the only ghosts possible to long-term loop around furniture (Deogen always, Hantu and Thaye depending on their set speed).

I hid at the beginning of the hunt and suddenly hear a steam train coming straight for my toilet stall, no hesitation – congratulations, you just died to a Deogen (as I am sure you have found out). The one ghost in the game that knows your location at all times and will come at you at the lovely speed of 3 m/s. However, once it is within a few meters of you, it turns into the slowest of snails. You have to slowly lead the ghost on a walk around the house, without getting cornered, to survive. It is a very obvious ghost type and the dream of no evidence players, speed runners and those going for the apocalypse trophies.

The ghost was walking around slower than an old turtle, but once it detected me, it immediately came charging at me like an angry bull – you have met the Revenant, one of the most feared ghost, especially if you meet it in a gym or a long empty hallway. Revenants are very slow, about half the speed of normal ghosts (so about 0,75 m/s). With line of sight or (newly) if they detect your equipment or voice, they switch to 3 m/s instantly and will only return back to slow speed once it reaches your last known position. A very obvious ghost type – at least during a hunt, they have nothing special outside of it.

The ghost speed differs from hunt to hunt – you are dealing with The Twins, Moroi or Thaye.

• The Twins - depending on whether it is the ‘real’ ghost or the ‘fake’ ghost hunting, the speed will either be a little slower than a normal ghost or a little faster than a normal ghost. It is possible to pick up on it if your ears are trained.
  
• Moroi – the speed of a Moroi depends on the average sanity. So unless you take pills (or get a tarot card raising sanity), you will notice that the ghost starts the hunt at higher speed each time. At 50% sanity (the threshold), it starts as a normal speed ghost. At 0% sanity, though, it starts the hunt at 2,25 m/s, much faster. Because this ghost can speed up during the hunt and when it sees a player like any normal ghost, it is potentially the fastest ghost in the game.
  
• Thaye – the speed of a Thaye depends on how long it spent in the proximity of players. It can start at 2,75 m/s (if you get a hunt right at the beginning of a game). Every one to two minutes, Thaye checks if there are any players nearby, and if there are, the ghost will ‘age’. Interactions, event frequency, hunt sanity threshold and ghost speed are all reduced a bit. So it is basically the opposite of the Moroi – the longer the game goes on, the slower the speed of the ghost.

The ghost was normal speed, but when it saw me from afar, it instantly went zooming at me – this is the Jinn ability and it only happens if the breaker is on. If the breaker is off, the Jinn is just a normal ghost during a hunt (another reason why it is good to keep the breaker on). If you hear someone say “let’s do the Jinn test”, it means they will take a smudge stick and stand somewhere where they can get a very long line of sight to look for this trait (for example, in Tanglewood, you would stand on the far end of the garage with the doors open). The Jinn, upon seeing the player from far away, will immediately go 2,5 m/s (it is not normal gradual speed up). Also, once the ghost gets within about 2 meters of the player, it suddenly slows down. Players could theoretically mistake a Jinn for a Revenant, but don’t forget Revenants are super slow when not having line of sight!

I triggered a hunt with the cursed item right at the start and the ghost is very fast (without line of sight) – you are dealing with Deogen, Thaye and possibly Hantu or Moroi – I have already explained all of those, but a recapitulation for this exact situation:

• Deogen goes at 3 m/s straight at you, knows where you are. You must not hide, you have to wait until it is close to you (it turns into a sloth in close proximity) and just walk around with it.
  
• Thaye is slower the longer it spends near players (outside a hunt that is). If you trigger a hunt right away, it is at its fastest – 2,75 m/s.
  
• This means that if you are in this situation, you do not know if you must hide (Thaye) or must not hide (Deogen). Good luck.
  
• Hantu – if you did not turn on the breaker yet, the entire house is pretty cold, so Hantu will be faster than normal ghosts. It won’t be quite as fast as the other ghosts on this list, but it will still be very obviously fast.
  
• Moroi – if you managed to trigger a hunt without losing much sanity (a Death tarot card, an early heart pin on the voodoo doll…), this ghost will be normal speed or relatively slow. However, if you lost a lot of sanity to get the hunt (e.g. with a Moon tarot card), Moroi can also be very fast.

Yes, we will be talking about hunt sanity thresholds. The standard threshold is 50% average team sanity, as we all (hopefully) know. Some ghosts have not gotten the message, unfortunately, and can cause unpleasant surprises.

In case you don’t have a way to check your sanity, you need to also consider ghosts that have abilities linked to sanity drain as early hunters.

If you use the cursed item right off the bat, you will make it harder to evaluate if the ghost has an abnormal sanity threshold. It becomes even worse if you do not have the sanity board on. But you still sometimes run into a situation when you know your approximate sanity and can make use of this information (e.g. if you got a sun tarot card followed by a red wheel of fortune, you know you are exactly 75%).

The blasted ghost refuses to hunt and I’m this close to begging it – everyone knows who I am talking about – Shade. The threshold on this one is 35%. And to make matters worse, it will never hunt if a player is in the same room (it can start a hunt if it rooms to a nearby room, though!).

Hunts a little later than expected, but not too much – there is Deogen and also Mare.

• Deogen has a threshold of 40%, but let’s be real, you don’t usually identify a Deogen based on its sanity threshold, not with such an iconic behavior during a hunt.
  
• A Mare can also have a threshold of 40%, if it is in a room with turned on lights. Doesn’t happen often, because Mares really like to turn off lights or roam into rooms with lights off.

That out of the way, the early hunters:

Um, my sanity is very high (>70%), but I’m somehow being hunted, send help – most likely Demon, possibly Thaye, under certain conditions Yokai or Onryo.

• Demon – sanity threshold is 70%, however it can also use this little special ability to hunt at any sanity
  
• Thaye – it starts with a sanity threshold of 75%. A very high number. However, the sanity threshold goes down the longer there are players near the ghost, until it effectively turns into a Shade. So unless you dropped your sanity with a cursed item, had a ghost event or were running around in the dark on a big map to even just find the ghost room, you will probably not get hunted at that sanity. You will have already spent some time with the ghost, the threshold would have dropped, so it will only feel as though it hunted just a bit earlier.
  
• Yokai – a Yokai has a normal threshold, but if you talk near it, it can start hunting if you are under 80% sanity
  
• Onryo – normally has 60% threshold, but can also hunt at any sanity if it blows out a candle (notice that it never triggers a hunt for the first two blown out candles, always hunts after the third one and any following ones have only a 50% chance).

It felt like it hunted just a little earlier (about 50-70% sanity) – apart from any of the previous ghosts, there are also Mare and Raiju in this category, and both need specific conditions to be met to hunt early.

• Raiju – if there is active electronic equipment nearby (EMF reader, D.O.T.S. etc.), the hunt threshold goes from normal 50% to 65%.
  
• Mare – if it is in a room with lights off, the sanity threshold is moved to 60%. Lit up room means the threshold goes down to 40%. But Mares do their best to be in a dark room, so usually it is the 60% that applies.

There is also one special ghost on multiplayer only – Banshee. It does not look at the average team sanity, but only at the sanity of the player it chose to target. The threshold is normally 50%.

A few ghosts have perks that are not about the speed during a hunt, but something else. Pay attention to these things during a hunt.

Did the ghost just completely ignore me despite seeing me??? – I am assuming you are on multiplayer and have just met the Banshee. Sadly, you won’t enjoy this fun on singleplayer. Banshees choose one player to be their target at the start of the mission. During a hunt, it will ignore all other players and just look for the target (provided the target is in the location and not chilling in the truck). Once it kills the target, it will switch to another one. Banshee test – one brave player (ideally one that you do not believe is the target) stands with an incese ready and the flashlight on at a convenient place (not in the way, go to some corner of the room to minimize the chance of it randomly walking into you, but also somewhere you can have a good view of the major ‘routes’). If the ghost leisurely walks past you despite obviously being able to detect you, it is a confirmed Banshee. If the ghost attacks you, try the test again with someone else, just to make sure you were not the target. For this test to work, everyone has to be in the location – if you accidentally leave the target outside, it turns into a normal ghost and this test has no point!

I can’t hear the footsteps, they are so quiet, even though the ghost is quite close! – meet Myling. It will only let you hear the footsteps in a very small radius. This is something you need to get a bit of experience to correctly identify, because there are some things that can throw you off – like the sound issues between different floors.

You know how ghosts ‘blink’ during a hunt? Visible for a moment, invisible the next? Well it seems like this ghost is doing it a bit differently. – ‘blinking’ frequency is an important tell of two ghosts, so pay attention to it! Find a way to observe the ghost during a hunt – for example by looping it once around a kitchen counter or something.

• Oni – they are visible a lot more than invisible. It is pretty obvious.
  
• Phantom – the opposite of Oni, it is mostly invisible.

This ghost is throwing stuff around it like crazy during hunts. – all ghosts interact with objects around them during hunts, but Poltergeist makes it a sport. If there is an object in range, it will throw it every 0,5 seconds. If you loop this guy around a table filled with objects, it will throw them around in a very noticeably fast and rhythmic manner. Other ghosts may throw a lot too, but they will not do it in perfect rhythm – sometimes they will throw a few things in short succession, then there will be a pause, then throws again…

Incense worked for longer/shorter than expected. - Normally provides X seconds of safety from a hunt from the moment of smudging. ‘Blinds’ the ghost for Y seconds during a hunt. Depends on tier.

• Moroi – during a hunt, the incense works for 50% longer. I don’t recommend using this to test for Moroi, unless you are pretty sure it is one. High dying chance.
  
• Spirit – using incense a Spirit makes it unable to hunt for 3 minutes instead of the amount. On this is based the Spirit test – smudge the ghost, set a timer and wait in the location (obviously you need to have low enough sanity to get hunted). If the ghost hunts within three minutes, you can rule out Spirit. If it hunts after 3 minutes, it does not reliably mean it is a Spirit. It might also be another ghost that just wasn’t in the mood to play with you yet. But the lower your sanity is, the higher the chance it is in fact Spirit. Also, ideally don’t sit in the ghost room while doing this test, in case it’s a Shade and it just can’t hunt with you there.
  
• Demon – after smudging this guy, you only have 1 minute of safety. So if the ghost initiates a hunt before the expected normal time is up, it is definitely a Demon. A cursed hunt, can of course be triggeredearlier with all ghosts.

The ghost changed the ghost model for a moment there! – that is the improved Obake. As of the end of 2022, Obake has a 6,66% chance of shapeshifting into a different ghost model when it ‘blinks’ during a hunt. It always happens at least once during a hunt. It’s pretty unlikely that you will just happen to see it by chance, you will probably have to loop the ghost around a table or a car and stare at it for as long as possible to check.

A cloud of faint smoke appears near the ghost’s head during hunt. – the freezing breath of Hantu. As long as the breaker is off, it is visible in every room in the house, no matter the temperature (it used to just be in places where it was freezing). It’s pretty hard to see, you have to concentrate on it (especially since the lights are off), so I don’t expect anyone to actually use it for Hantu identification. Its hunt speed is obvious enough.

During a hunt, the ghost is nearby and doesn’t react to my shouting and or active equipment in my hand. Like it’s deaf. – that is Yokai. They have a very small range in which they hear you and detect active equipment. Their sight is normal though.

During a hunt, my equipment (flashlight etc.) get disrupted from a longer distance from the ghost. – that is Raiju. Raiju affects equipment from 15 meters away, instead of the normal 10 meters away. It doesn’t detect it from any farther away than others, though, don’t worry about that.

The ghost never uses a crucifix if there is a lit candle on top of it and other candle shenanigans. – Somewhat complicated behavior towards candles is typical for Onryo. Lit candles work as crucifixes and have priority over them. Their range is similar to the range of crucifixes, so if you put a candle on top of a crucifix, the ghost can never use the crucifix as long as the candle burns. If you have a bunch of candles, it is possible to almost perfectly stop the ghost from ever hunting – you just have to constantly light them up. Onryo’s have a higher chance of normally blowing out candles too. A little confusingly, Onryo has a chance of triggering a hunt after it blows out a candle at any sanity. It will NOT hunt after the first two candles. It will always hunt after the third candle is blown out. The fourth time and so forth, there is a chance of a hunt being triggered. Don’t get bamboozled by the candle going out by itself. Sometimes, if there are too many lit candles next to each other, the ghost can blow out several at once, but it only counts as one candle. If you want to test the hunt after the third candle, I recommend using only one candle, or putting the candles far away from each other. The candle hunt can be a little delayed, not immediate, so wait up to ten seconds to judge that it is not an Onryo. For this reason though, it is better to test this at a high sanity, so you don’t get led astray by a normal hunt happening randomly at this time.

The ghost hunts super frequently. A crucifix works very efficiently. – Not only does the Demon hunt at very high sanity, it also has a shorter cooldown in between hunts. If you are getting chain hunted like crazy, Demon is your suspect. Even an incense can guarantee you a 60 seconds break instead of normal 90 seconds. As an offset to this, the range of the crucifix is increased by 50% against demons (so the final range depends on the tier). This means that a single crucifix in the middle of almost any ghost room (at least on small maps) can reliably stop the ghost from hunting. Demon will eat up the crucifix extremely fast, though, so this safety is very fleeting.

So you have a journal full of crossed out ghost types? It is not a ghost that does anything obvious during a hunt? Shows no obvious ability? You have done all the standard tests? Then I am guessing you are stuck with these and will just have to make an ‘educated guess’:

Banshee – in multiplayer, you can do a Banshee test (which you will find in the section Other hunt related special behavior). In singleplayer, it’s a bit harder, because it becomes mostly a normal ghost. They have the BANSHEE SCREAM ON A PARABOLIC MICROPHONE. Unfortunately, the chance of this special sound is so low, that you can sit there with the paramic for ten minutes and only get five whispers. If you get the scream within the first minute, you are extremely lucky. I usually find even trying this a waste of time. Banshees also have a slightly HIGHER TENDENCY TO DO SINGING GHOST EVENTS, but that is not all that reliable either. You use that knowledge in the last moments of desperation to take a guess. Your best shot is their last ability – ROAMING TOWARDS THE TARGET PLAYER. Just like Phantom and Wraith, Banshees have a tendency to follow you around, so you will notice interactions sometimes happen around you even though you are not in the ghost room. If you take notice of this happening two or more times, go with Banshee (if Phantom and Wraith are ruled out).

Yurei. After update v0.13 Yurei has become much easier to tell, as long as you have a door nearby. But the campsites in particular make the Yurei hard to tell tell. They have other two traits, but those are pretty much equally useless for reliably telling a Yurei: they have a slightly higher chance of doing smoke ball events and if you smudge them, they are locked in their room for 90 seconds. You can try watching out for unusual sanity drains if you have the sanity board. Or if you have gotten many smoke balls, you can take an ‘educated guess’ on Yurei.

Goryo - has a lower chance of roaming and CANNOT CHANGE GHOST ROOM, but otherwise there is nothing to set it apart on no evidence. It’s main ‘ability’, after all, is that its DOTS cannot be seen with the naked eye. Previously, one would always get stuck between Goryo and Obake on no evidence, but thankfully now Obake has a shapeshifting ability during hunts. If you have ruled out everything you could and the ghost has never changed ghost room, Goryo is your best guess. But keep in mind, Banshee also cannot change ghost room!

I have already mentioned all of these tests before in various sections, but thought it might be nice to list them all out together. So here they are:

Banshee test: Only applicable for multiplayer. Everyone must be inside the location. Whoever you think is not the Banshee’s target takes an incense and stands in a convenient spot with the flashlight on. By a convenient spot, I mean a place the ghost likely to pass by (the ghost is definitely going to spot you), but unlikely for the ghost to just randomly walk into. If the ghost just walks past, it is a Banshee. If it goes at the player, it is either not a Banshee, or the player was the target. You can try again with another player if you want to be certain.

Jinn test: Turn on the breaker. Take an incense and stand in such a way that there will be a long line of sight between you and the ghost. If the ghost immediately goes from normal speed to turbo mode upon seeing you (not a normal speeding up, but instant), only to suddenly go slow just as it reaches you – it is the Jinn. Listen to the footsteps, don’t focus so much on watching the ghost. The footsteps make it much easier to tell the speed than the animation!

Mare test: Not really much of a test, because it has very low chance of succeeding, but Mare is kind of hard to tell, so you take what you can get. Just switch on the light in the ghost room. Mares can turn the light off immediately after you do that. They will not always do it. They will not even do it commonly. Just try it once in a while and maybe one day you will see this ability. There is also a very miniscule chance of another ghost just randomly deciding to switch the light off at the wrong moment, bamboozling you into thinking it’s the mare ability.

Myling test: You hide during the hunt and let go off your active flashlight. You watch the flashlight flicker. For normal ghosts, you would sometimes hear the footsteps even when the flashlight is not yet flickering. For Myling, you would only start hearing the footsteps after the flashlight started flickering. They seem to have tweaked the audibility a little bit, so it doesn’t quite work that perfectly now, but the flickering of the flashlight (or other equipment) can still give you an idea of how far away the ghost is and if the footsteps are less audible than normally. Note that this trick only works on SMALL MAPS, because on larger maps, the footsteps are heard from further away, but equipment disruption should be the same range. Do not get bamboozled by Raiju! Because Raiju affects equipment from further away, you will also start hearing footsteps around the same time as your flashlight starts flickering!

Moroi test: Moroi is relatively obvious from its speed during the hunt (the lower your sanity, the faster the ghost), but there are other ways to test, too. Moroi places a curse on anyone who hears its voice, through either the spirit box (impossible on no evidence) or the parabolic microphone (usable!). Get a whisper on the paramic. Check your sanity. Do not take any sanity meds, they cure the curse. Now go in the house and stand in a room with the main light on. You should be perfectly keeping your sanity locked in place, for it does not get passively drained in lit rooms. Wait a while, then check your sanity again. If it is still the same, not a Moroi. If it went down, it is a Moroi and you were cursed to passively lose twice as much sanity regardless of lights. To test a Moroi, you could also try to see if an incense repels the ghost for 50% longer than expected during a hunt. But that’s a bit tricky and risky.

Obake test: Loop the ghost around objects (like tables/counters/cars) during the hunt and keep a very close eye on it. Obake should at least once in a hunt shapeshift into a different model for a second. You might need to do it twice to be certain it is/isn’t an Obake.

Onryo test: Can rule out Onryo, not confirm 100%, but you can get to 99% certainty. You have two options, thanks to the two firelight related behaviours of this ghost:

• A) Put a crucifix in the ghost room and put a lit candle on top of it. Keep the candle lit and watch the crucifix. If the crucifix gets used while the candle is lit, it is NOT an Onryo. An Onryo prioritizes using a candle to stop a hunt over a crucifix.
  
• B) Ideally at a high sanity, take a lit candle to the ghost room. Wait for the ghost to blow out the candle three times. After the third candle, an Onryo will always hunt within the next ten seconds, regardless of your sanity. Any candle after that, there is a 50% chance of a hunt, but the third candle has 100% chance. Careful not to get confused by the candle going out on its own. If you have more lit candles nearby and they get blown out at once, it counts as one candle. If you do this at lower sanity, you risk that any ghost will randomly happen to hunt after blowing out the candle.

Oni and Phantom test: Watch out for the frequency of ‘blinking’ during hunts. If the ghost is a lot more visible than invisible, it’s an Oni. The other way around, a Phantom.

Poltergeist test: A quick hunt test if you don’t want to wait for a Polter multithrow. Put a lot of objects on a loopable object (some table or counter) and loop the ghost around it. During hunts, if they have objects nearby, Polters throw in perfect rhythm every 0.5 seconds! No other ghost will be this precise in their timing, sometimes throwing a few things in quick succession, sometimes being lazy about it.

Raiju test: Place an active equipment (like DOTS, turned on flashlight…) somewhere the ghost is sure to pass during the hunt. Hide nearby and wait for a hunt. Listen to the footsteps. Raiju has normal footsteps, but when it gets closer to active equipment, it will suddenly change to a really fast speed. Then go back to normal instantly once it leaves the range of the equipment.

Spirit test: Can rule out Spirit, cannot 100% confirm. Use incense on the ghost with less than 50% average sanity and stay in the location. If ghost hunts sooner than 3 minutes, it is NOT a Spirit. If it hunts after 3 minutes, it CAN be a Spirit. The lower your sanity, the higher chance it is a Spirit after 3 minutes of no hunt. Don’t forget about crucifixes – if you previously placed them in the ghost room, either take them out or watch them for signs of the ghost trying to hunt.

Wraith test: Place salt strategically (in places the ghost is very likely to roam through – like the corners of furniture or in the doorway of the ghost room). If the ghost steps in it, it is not a Wraith. If it never steps in it even after a long while passes, highly suspect a Wraith.

Yokai test: Take an incense (if you value your life). The Yokai has a hearing and equipment detecting range of only about 2 or 3 meters, so you need to find a room where you will stand farther than that away from the door (closed door). During a hunt, you will shout at the ghost or have your flashlight turned on while the ghost is passing by the room you are in. If the ghost immediately detect and goes for you, it is likely not a Yokai. If it ignores you and continues roaming around, it is likely a Yokai. It’s better to do the test at least twice, in case you got super unlucky and the ghost just randomly walked into your room.