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Ghost Types and Behaviors Reference Guide

By ScotPublished Updated Checked against v0.19.0.0 on

Tactical Quick Answer

Phasmophobia features 30 ghost types, each with a fixed three-piece evidence combination, a hunt sanity threshold, and a movement speed that often shifts with conditions. Most ghosts run at the 1.7 m/s baseline and hunt at 50 percent sanity, but outliers such as the Revenant, Deogen, Thaye, Hantu, and Moroi break those rules in ways you can hear and time. Learning those speed and threshold tells lets you name the entity even without complete evidence.

Phasmophobia features 30 distinct ghost types. Every ghost possesses unique hunt thresholds, hidden abilities, and speed modifiers that allow experienced players to identify the entity even without complete evidence.

This guide lists every ghost type with its evidence combination, base hunt speed, sanity triggers, and key diagnostic traits.

Quick Ghost Reference Matrix​

Ghost TypeEvidence ComboNormal SpeedHunt Sanity Threshold
SpiritEMF 5, Spirit Box, Writing1.7 m/s50%
WraithEMF 5, Spirit Box, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s50%
PhantomSpirit Box, Ultraviolet, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s50%
PoltergeistSpirit Box, Ultraviolet, Writing1.7 m/s50%
BansheeUltraviolet, Orbs, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s50% (of its target's own sanity)
JinnEMF 5, Ultraviolet, Freezing1.7 m/s (2.5 m/s far)50%
MareSpirit Box, Orbs, Writing1.7 m/s60% (Dark) / 40% (Lit)
RevenantOrbs, Writing, Freezing1.0 m/s (3.0 m/s once detected)50%
ShadeEMF 5, Writing, Freezing1.7 m/s35%
DemonUltraviolet, Writing, Freezing1.7 m/s70% (Any % ability)
YureiOrbs, Freezing, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s50%
OniEMF 5, Freezing, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s50%
YokaiSpirit Box, Orbs, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s80% (Talking near ghost)
HantuUltraviolet, Orbs, Freezing1.4 m/s - 2.7 m/s (Temp dependent)50%
GoryoEMF 5, Ultraviolet, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s50%
MylingEMF 5, Ultraviolet, Writing1.7 m/s50%
OnryoSpirit Box, Orbs, Freezing1.7 m/s60% (40% near a flame)
The TwinsEMF 5, Spirit Box, Freezing1.5 m/s or 1.9 m/s (coin flip per hunt)50%
RaijuEMF 5, Orbs, D.O.T.S.1.7 m/s (2.5 m/s near electronics)65% (Near electronics)
ObakeEMF 5, Ultraviolet, Orbs1.7 m/s50%
The MimicSpirit Box, Ultraviolet, Freezing (+ Fake Orb)VariableVariable
MoroiSpirit Box, Writing, Freezing1.5 m/s - 2.25 m/s (Sanity dependent)50%
DeogenSpirit Box, Writing, D.O.T.S.3.0 m/s - 0.4 m/s (Far to close)40%
ThayeOrbs, Writing, D.O.T.S.2.75 m/s - 1.0 m/s (Young to aged)75% (Young) down to 15% (Aged)
AswangFreezing, Writing, D.O.T.S.1.53 m/s (accelerates fastest of any ghost)50%
DayanEMF 5, Orbs, Spirit Box1.2 m/s - 2.25 m/s (Proximity motion)45% (Still) / 65% (Moving)
DeildegastEMF 5, Writing, D.O.T.S.3.0 m/s - 0.4 m/s (Prop degraded)50%
GalluEMF 5, Ultraviolet, Spirit Box1.7 m/s / 1.955 m/s (Enraged) / 1.36 m/s (Weakened)50% / 60% (Enraged) / 40% (Weakened)
KormosOrbs, Spirit Box, Ultraviolet1.7 m/s50% (70% against a sprinting player)
ObamboUltraviolet, Writing, D.O.T.S.1.445 m/s (Calm) / 1.955 m/s (Aggressive)10% (Calm) / 65% (Aggressive)
note

Ultraviolet was called Fingerprints until the Ascension update (v0.9.0.0, August 2023) renamed it. It is the same evidence type under a new name.

All 30 combinations above are distinct, and that is what makes three matching evidences enough to name a single entity. Only 30 of the 35 possible three-from-seven combinations are in use, so five sets belong to no ghost at all and mean you have misread one of your reads.

Detailed Ghost Traits and Abilities​

Spirit​

  • Trait: The baseline ghost with no speed modifiers.
  • Key Ability: Smudging a Spirit prevents it from hunting for 180 seconds (double the standard 90-second smudge timer).
  • Diagnostic: If 120 seconds pass after smudging and no hunt occurs despite low sanity, keep testing for Spirit up to the 180-second mark.

Wraith​

  • Trait: Never steps in salt.
  • Key Ability: Walks through salt piles without disturbing them, so it never generates footprints. It does not float or hover, and it does not path around the pile. It simply ignores it.
  • Diagnostic: Place salt piles in walkways. If the ghost disturbs salt or leaves footprints, rule out Wraith immediately. Two caveats now blunt this test. Tier III salt does not work on a Wraith during a hunt, and an enraged Gallu also passes through salt undisturbed, so undisturbed salt no longer points at a Wraith on its own.

Phantom​

  • Trait: Drains player sanity faster when looked at during events, at 0.5% per second within 10 meters. Since v0.18.0.0 it can no longer perform that ability on dead players or on players standing outside the location.
  • Key Ability: Disappears instantly when photographed during ghost manifestations. The event state continues, but the audio and electronic cues stop, so your gear stops malfunctioning and the heartbeat audio cuts out.
  • Flicker Rate: Flickers slowly during hunts, visible only 11.5% to 14% of the time against a 30% to 33% standard.

Poltergeist​

  • Trait: Multi-item throw ability.
  • Key Ability: Throws multiple items simultaneously, dropping player sanity by 2% per item thrown.
  • Diagnostic: Create an item pile in the ghost room. A Poltergeist will scatter all items at once with explosive force.

Banshee​

  • Trait: Target-locked hunter.
  • Key Ability: Sings distinctive hunting calls. One of the 20 unique screams it can emit on the Parabolic Microphone or Sound Recorder is its own, so roughly a third of its paranormal sounds identify it outright.
  • Target Mechanics: Selects one single player as its target and passes harmlessly through everyone else. If the target leaves the investigation area it hunts normally and can kill anyone.
  • Threshold Warning: Its 50% threshold reads the target's sanity, not the team average. A Banshee can start hunting while the team average still sits near 87%, so a healthy-looking truck monitor is not safety.

Jinn​

  • Trait: High-speed chaser when fuse box is active.
  • Key Ability: Travels at 2.5 m/s toward a player it can see, but only while the fuse box is on and the player is more than three meters away. Inside three meters it drops back to standard hunt speed, which by then usually includes whatever line-of-sight acceleration it built up, so it is rarely as slow as a flat 1.7 m/s.
  • Weakness: Cannot turn the fuse box off directly, though it can still trip the breaker by switching on too many lights. Drains 25% sanity from a player in the same room or within three meters after a five second delay, while the breaker is on, and leaves EMF at the fuse box when it does.

Mare​

  • Trait: Dark room aggressive hunter.
  • Key Ability: Hunts at 60% sanity in dark rooms and 40% sanity in lit rooms. Has a higher chance to turn off light switches immediately.
  • Diagnostic: Cannot turn light switches ON. If a ghost flips a light on, rule out Mare instantly.

Revenant​

  • Trait: Extreme speed binary hunter.
  • Key Ability: Moves at a crawling 1.0 m/s while it has not detected anyone. Accelerates instantly to 3.0 m/s the moment it detects a player, which it can do by sight, by hearing your microphone, or by picking up active electronics. Staying out of view is not enough on its own. Losing you does not switch it off instantly either, since it decelerates over roughly 2.7 seconds.
  • Diagnostic: Listen for footstep cadence during hunts. Very slow footsteps that suddenly sprint fast indicate a Revenant. It gains no line-of-sight acceleration on top of the 3.0 m/s.

Shade​

  • Trait: Shy ghost.
  • Key Ability: Cannot initiate a hunt, interact, or produce ghost events at all while a player is in the room it currently occupies.
  • Sanity Scaling: Its ghost events scale with sanity and not with its interactions. At 100% sanity an event never fires, the chance climbs 2% for every point of sanity lost, and at 50% or below it always succeeds. It is simply less active than other ghosts across the board.
  • Diagnostic: Hunts only at 35% average sanity or lower.

Demon​

  • Trait: Most aggressive hunter in the game.
  • Key Ability: Standard hunt threshold is 70% sanity, but possesses an ability to hunt at ANY sanity level.
  • Smudge Timer: Incense prevents a Demon from hunting for only 60 seconds (compared to standard 90 seconds).

Yurei​

  • Trait: Heavy sanity drain entity.
  • Key Ability: Closes an open door fully, smoothly, and silently, with none of the creak or bang a normal door interaction makes. Doing so drains 15% sanity from every player within 7.5 meters.
  • Diagnostic: A door that slams is not the Yurei ability. Every ghost slams doors, and a slam is what rules the ability out. What you are waiting for is a door gliding shut without a sound. The ability also needs an open door in the Yurei's current room to fire at all, so prop a few doors open near the ghost room or you may wait out the whole contract for an event that has nothing to act on. Until v0.18.0.0 (July 2026) every ghost type could mimic this door ability, which made a silent close worthless as a tell. That patch fixed it, so the smooth silent close points at a Yurei again.
  • Containment: Smudging a Yurei traps it in its room for 90 seconds. No other ghost gets confined to its room by incense at all.

Oni​

  • Trait: High activity, visible flasher.
  • Key Ability: Cannot perform the ghost mist event. Flickers rapidly during hunts, visible 55% to 63% of the time against a 30% to 33% standard.
  • Activity: Gains a large activity bonus while a player is in its room or within six meters, and doubles the sanity drain from its ghost events to 20%.
note

The Oni no longer throws items farther than other ghosts. That super throw moved to the Poltergeist in the Apocalypse update (v0.7.0, September 2022).

Yokai​

  • Trait: Sound-sensitive hunter.
  • Key Ability: Using voice chat in the same room as a Yokai boosts its hunt threshold to 80% sanity. Away from it, the threshold is the standard 50%.
  • Deaf Hunter: During hunts, a Yokai only hears player voices and detects active electronics within 2.5 meters, replacing the standard 9 meter voice range and 7.5 meter electronics range. Its line of sight is unaffected, so it still sees you normally.

Hantu​

  • Trait: Temperature-dependent speed (Zero line-of-sight acceleration).
  • Key Ability: Moves at up to 2.7 m/s in freezing rooms, but drops to 1.4 m/s in warm rooms. Strictly ignores standard line-of-sight acceleration.
  • Visual Tell: Emits visible cold breath from its mouth during hunts if the fuse box is off.

Goryo​

  • Trait: Camera-locked D.O.T.S. entity.
  • Key Ability: D.O.T.S. evidence is visible ONLY through a video camera lens while no players are in the room.
  • Roam Restraint: Cannot change its favorite room on any difficulty, and can only perform short roams. This is a hard elimination, not a hint. A ghost that changes favorite rooms is not a Goryo.

Myling​

  • Trait: Quiet footstep stalker.
  • Key Ability: Footsteps and hunting noises carry only 12 meters, against a 20 meter standard.
  • Diagnostic: Electronic interference starts at 10 meters, and the two meter gap between that and the Myling's 12 meter audio range is the test. Stand where your gear has just started flickering and listen. Any other ghost is still audible there, and a Myling is close to inaudible.
  • Parabolic Trait: Emits paranormal noises every 64 to 127 seconds instead of the standard 80 to 127, so only the floor drops. Two sounds inside 80 seconds is the confirmation. It works on the Sound Recorder as well as the Parabolic Microphone.

Onryo​

  • Trait: Flame-afraid entity.
  • Key Ability: A hunt attempt within four meters of any flame blows that flame out and fails, which works like a Crucifix except that it does not reset the 25 second hunt cooldown. Flames take priority over a Crucifix when both are in range.
  • Third Flame Rule: Every third flame extinguished arms a hunt that ignores sanity entirely. It does not fire immediately. It waits until the Onryo next leaves an idle state, which can take longer than 20 seconds, and the counter can pass three in the meantime. Another lit flame nearby blocks that hunt, and blocking it still adds one to the counter.
  • Sanity Threshold: 60% is its standard threshold. Being within four meters of a flame lowers it to 40%, so lighting candles is not a pure safety measure.
  • Diagnostic Caveat: Since v0.9.4.1 (January 2024) incense blocks the Onryo's flame hunt outright, and a third blowout during a hunt cancels that hunt. A team that has been smudging will never see the trigger it is testing for.

The Twins​

  • Trait: Dual-location interaction entity.
  • Key Ability: Interacts from two places on the map, but mechanically this is one ghost. There is no second entity. The remote interactions produce EMF only, and never trip a motion sensor, disturb salt, answer a Spirit Box, or drop the temperature.
  • Speed: Each hunt it flips a coin and moves at either 1.5 m/s or 1.9 m/s for the whole hunt. The slow twin hunts from where it stands, the fast twin teleports to its last long-range interaction first.
  • Graphic Tell: The Site Activity Monitor shows a descending slope with a sudden break in gradient across about two seconds. It is a weak indicator with plenty of false positives, including ghost events, Poltergeist throws, cursed possessions, and the drop-off at the end of any hunt.

Raiju​

  • Trait: Electronic device siphon.
  • Key Ability: Draws power from active player equipment to reach a 65% hunt threshold and 2.5 m/s, but the range that matters is map dependent: six meters on small maps, eight on medium, ten on large.
  • Disruption: Disrupts player electronics at 15 meters instead of the standard 10, on the same floor, and interferes with global chat and heartbeat audio too.
  • Diagnostic Caveat: Flicker begins at 15 meters while the speed boost begins at six to ten. Gear flickering does not mean the Raiju is already powered up, so do not use the flicker as your cue for when it is moving fast.

Obake​

  • Trait: Shapeshifter entity.
  • Key Ability: Has a precise 6.66% chance to shapeshift into a different ghost model per hunt blink (guaranteed at least once during full hunts). Leaves 6-fingered UV handprints. Since v0.18.0.0 the shapeshift counts toward the Ghost video objective.
  • Evidence Hide: Has a 25% chance to NOT leave UV evidence on interactions despite having UV evidence.

The Mimic​

  • Trait: Imitator entity.
  • Key Ability: Copies the exact stats, traits, and hunt behavior of any other ghost type, switching identities periodically.
  • Fourth Evidence: Always spawns Ghost Orbs as a secondary fake evidence on ALL difficulties (including 0-evidence Apocalypse).

Moroi​

  • Trait: Curse caster and terminal speed sprinter.
  • Key Ability: Curses players through Spirit Box responses, Parabolic mic whispers, or the Sound Recorder, doubling their sanity drain rate. The curse also makes you count as standing in the dark at all times, so switching lights on stops helping you.
  • Curing It: Sanity Medication removes the curse. Leaving the investigation area pauses the drain, and firelights still help. Curses do not stack, but you can be cursed again after clearing one.
  • Line-of-Sight Speed: Baseline speed at 0% team sanity is 2.25 m/s, but line-of-sight acceleration boosts its terminal velocity up to a maximum of 3.71 m/s.

Deogen​

  • Trait: Inescapable line-of-sight stalker.
  • Key Ability: Always knows player locations during hunts. You cannot hide from a Deogen, and it re-picks the nearest target every 5 to 10 seconds.
  • Speed Mechanics: Runs at 3.0 m/s beyond six meters, then scales down continuously with distance to a 0.4 m/s crawl within 2.5 meters. It is not a two-speed switch. Loop it around a table to survive.

Thaye​

  • Trait: Aging entity.
  • Key Ability: Starts as an extremely fast, aggressive ghost (2.75 m/s, 75% hunt threshold).
  • Aging Trigger: It first tries to age one minute after an exit door is opened, and only ages if a player is in its room or within three meters. On a success it waits 1 to 2 minutes before trying again, and on a failure it retries after only 30 seconds. Staying away from it keeps it young and fast.
  • Aged State: Drops to 1.0 m/s hunt speed, 15% hunt threshold, and half its starting activity in the fully aged state, losing 0.175 m/s and 6% threshold per step.

Aswang​

  • Trait: Corridor sprinter with hiding spot vulnerability.
  • Key Ability: Base speed is a slightly below-average 1.53 m/s, but it accelerates with line of sight faster than any other ghost, reaching 2.53 m/s in under nine seconds.
  • Hiding Spot Rule: Cannot kill a player concealed in an available official closet or locker. Reaching one ends the hunt instantly. It then places a waypoint at that spot for the start of the next hunt only, and moves toward it even during the grace period. The waypoint is not permanent, so a spot is not burned forever.

Dayan​

  • Trait: Movement-reactive entity.
  • Key Ability: Continuously checks nearby player movement states within 10 meters.
  • State Scaling: If nearby players are moving, hunt threshold jumps to 65% sanity and speed locks at 2.25 m/s. If nearby players stand completely still, hunt threshold drops to 45% sanity and speed slows to 1.2 m/s.

Deildegast​

  • Trait: Prop-degrading entity.
  • Key Ability: Starts every hunt at a terrifying 3.0 m/s, matching the fastest ghosts in the game.
  • Prop Mitigation: Every unique prop or environmental item moved during the contract slows it by 0.1 m/s, bottoming out at 0.4 m/s once you have displaced 26 of them. Throw everything you can find.
  • The Catch: The counter resets to 3.0 m/s after every hunt, and after a Crucifix burns. Slowing it down buys you one hunt, not the contract. It has no line-of-sight acceleration at all, and hunts at the standard 50%.

Gallu​

  • Trait: Equipment-reactive entity with three states.
  • Key Ability: Changes state in response to protective equipment, not on a timer. A Crucifix burning, incense, or salt is what flips it.
  • State Breakdown: Normal sits at a 50% threshold and 1.7 m/s. Enraged rises to a 60% threshold and 1.955 m/s. Weakened drops to a 40% threshold and 1.36 m/s.
  • Salt Warning: An enraged Gallu passes through salt without disturbing it, exactly as a Wraith does, so undisturbed salt is no longer proof of a Wraith.

Kormos​

  • Trait: Nearly blind hunter that tracks by sound.
  • Key Ability: Hunts almost entirely by hearing your footsteps. It picks up sprinting at 30 meters, walking at 15, and crouch-walking at 10.
  • Threshold Shift: Its 50% threshold rises to 70% if a player sprints in its room, so running away from a Kormos is what invites the hunt. Crouch-walk near it.
  • Patched Reach: A run of fixes across v0.17.1.4 and v0.18.0.0 stopped the Kormos killing players through floors, through walls, from a greater distance than intended, and while they were outside the location. The same patches stopped it hearing players during the grace period after a hunt, and made incense block its hearing during a hunt as intended. A Kormos that reached you through a wall was a bug, so do not plan around it.

Obambo​

  • Trait: Cyclic personality entity.
  • Key Ability: Alternates between calm and aggressive states, switching one minute after an exit door first opens and then every two minutes.
  • Cycle Breakdown: Calm sits at a 10% hunt threshold and 1.445 m/s. Aggressive jumps to a 65% threshold and 1.955 m/s. Hunts that start in the aggressive state run about 20% shorter.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What is the fastest ghost in Phasmophobia?

The Deogen, the Revenant, and a fresh Deildegast all reach 3.0 m/s. The Moroi goes higher, since line-of-sight acceleration pushes its terminal velocity up to a maximum of 3.71 m/s.

How do you survive a Deogen hunt?

You cannot hide from a Deogen because it always knows where players are. It runs at 3.0 m/s beyond six meters and scales down continuously to a 0.4 m/s crawl within 2.5 meters, so loop it around a table until the hunt ends.

Which ghost can hunt at any sanity level?

The Demon. Its standard hunt threshold is 70 percent sanity, but it has an ability that lets it hunt at any sanity. Incense also holds a Demon off for only 60 seconds instead of the usual 90.

How do you tell a Mare apart from other ghosts?

A Mare cannot turn light switches on. If a light flips on right after you turned it off, rule out Mare. It hunts at 60 percent sanity in dark rooms and 40 percent in lit rooms.

Is there a ghost that cannot kill you in a closet?

The Aswang. It cannot kill players concealed in an available official closet or locker, and reaching one ends the hunt instantly. It then targets that spot at the start of the next hunt only, so the hiding place is not burned permanently.

How many ghosts are in Phasmophobia?

Thirty. The six most recent arrivals are the Obambo, Gallu, and Dayan from Winter's Jest in December 2025, the Kormos and Aswang from the Alan Wake event in May 2026, and the Deildegast from v0.18.0.0 in July 2026. None of the six has a Steam achievement yet, so the achievement list is not a reliable roster.