A ghost-hunting multiplayer game released on Steam, Phasmophobia was a huge hit. You work with your team to identify the ghosts haunting various locations using special items. These spirits do not like being bothered, so you need to identify them and get out before they murder you.
Knowing what you’ll be up against is important, as not all ghosts are the same in this game. In this list, we rank all types of ghosts in Phasmophobia, from the easiest to the toughest to deal with.
20. Shade
Although creepy, Shades do not like making an appearance when there are many players around. Your team’s sanity is safer when you’re grouped together if you’re dealing with one, but this obviously makes collecting evidence a lot slower and harder.
This ghost can be more annoying than scary as they are much harder to find, but with a reduced scare factor, it’s so much easier to strategize as a team and easily survive dealing with a Shade.
19. Goryo
Also shy like the Shade, Goryo avoids cameras when there are people around. You would need to point the video camera at the DOTS Projector and patiently wait for it to make its move to successfully capture evidence of this ghost.
Getting a Goryo to manifest is also as annoying as dealing with a Shade, but just consider it a break from all the jump scares you’ve gotten or will get from other ghost types that are much scarier and harder to deal with.
18. Myling
When you’re using a Parabolic Microphone and detect a very loud ghost, then there’s a good chance it’s a Myling. It gets very quiet during a hunt though, so be wary when they suddenly stop creating a racket as you may be the next victim.
In Phasmophobia, identifying the ghosts before they get the chance to catch you off guard during a hunt is the goal. Mylings are one of the easiest to identify with minimal effort, so use this as your leverage so you can be well-prepared for the hunt when it happens.
17. Jinn
Having a Jinn run towards you can be a really spooky situation, but their only ability is to play with the lights. If they turn on and off constantly on their own, it’s easy to deduce that you’re dealing with a Jinn which will make your tasks easier. You can also easily turn off the power source to stop a Jinn’s annoying antics.
16. The Twins
Although they always appear on the map as a pair, both Twins can start a hunt on their own. They often interact with the environment at the same time as they tend to mimic each other’s actions, so they’re fairly easy to identify.
However, be careful not to give in to their tactics of misdirecting you to survive and escape to safety with all your objectives done and dusted.
15. Spirit
A Spirit has no unique features, and their behavior naturally varies from time to time. This one is a pretty moody ghost type as sometimes they’re pretty manageable, and at other times, very threatening. They’re not like the other ghosts in which you can immediately identify their level of aggressiveness by the book, either.
However, you can use your items to quickly identify the Spirit through its ghost writing and by using the Spirit Box instead. And when you do get the most aggressive type of Spirit, they’re nowhere near as dangerous as all the other ghosts that we’ve ranked higher here.
14. Poltergeist
Poltergeists have clear-cut qualities that make them fairly easy to deal with. With the ability to throw several objects at once, beginners need to know this and focus on not getting easily manipulated. Why? Because this is the Poltergeist’s tactic — to send the team on a wild goose chase. Focus on the objectives, as a Poltergeist responds to your voice commands on the Spirit Box and leaves fingerprints all over the map.
Although still easy to identify, they like to cause more chaos than the ghost types that we’ve ranked lower. As such, they easily take the 14th spot in our list as a mid-tier ghost.
13. Banshee
One of the ghosts that are fairly easy to deal with, Banshees have an easily identifiable shriek when using the Parabolic Microphone. They take a higher rank on our list due to its unique ability to fixate on one player as its target as they ignore everyone else during a hunt.
When the target dies, the Banshee then picks another person to hone in on. So you better hope that its target is a team member who knows to use a crucifix and Smudge Sticks efficiently, so everyone else can continue completing objectives quickly. This way, everyone can leave as soon as all tasks are finished.
12. Yurei
A Yurei’s main distinction aside from its unique appearance is its ability to quickly drain the sanity of any player that’s within 7.5 meters of it by 15%. This easily affects every single player in the team while everyone roams around completing objectives, unlike the Banshee that fixates on a single target. Use Smudge Sticks to prevent a hunt and stop it from leaving the room it’s in for 90 seconds.
That’s just enough time for you to get some good distance between you and the Yurei, and possibly collect your last pieces of evidence so you can finally get away.
11. Hantu
You need to have developed some strong dynamics with your team before you can handle a tricky ghost-like Hantu. It’s a lot faster than normal ghosts as the temperature decreases and can emit its freezing breath to further strengthen this ability when the location’s circuit breaker is switched off.
You can strategize with your team on how to control the circuit breaker to identify the Hantu while staying safe from it by ensuring it stays on longer once it has been identified.
So while the Hantu has strong unique abilities, you at least have a clear-cut way to lessen its devastating effects with the circuit breaker as your major key, unlike with the trickier ghost types who rank higher in our list.
10. Obake
A shapeshifter who can take on a human form to cause confusion, an Obake is one of the trickier ghosts to identify and deal with.
Its only dead giveaway is a six-fingered handprint, which is unique to this type of ghost. Its fingerprints also do not linger as long as the other ghosts, making it much harder for this Obakes to be identified and for evidence collection.
Only experienced players have the ability to be quick and observant enough to identify the Obake fast enough and escape the location safely.
9. Oni
As one of the most, if not the most violent ghost type in the game, Onis are very strong and they get more aggressive when you stick together as a team. Although they are easier to take photos of, it’s best to collect the evidence quickly and get out as fast as you can with your team as soon as you see one, or suspect you’re dealing with one.
Despite evidence collection being easier, an Oni is so aggressive that it’s very easy for you to suddenly get killed even before you get the chance to gather them.
8. Yokai
Collaboration and communication are important in this game, so it’s normal for players to share as much information as they can with each other and even get a little chatty to ease the nerves. When dealing with a Yokai though, you’ll want to keep talking to an absolute minimum, as it’ll get increasingly aggressive if it hears voices.
However, there’s a good chance that a Yokai gets triggered by your and your team’s voices and it’ll come at you hot before you could even identify it. This means you’ll have to collect all the needed evidence with one less team member, and that is if you’re lucky enough to only lose one before you can leave the location.
7. Mare
Also one of the aggressive ghost types, Mares attack the power source and can drain your sanity pretty quickly.
They seem pretty easy to deal with at first if you’re not yet familiar with this ghost type. In the Journal, it is indicated that they’re the most powerful in the dark. You may think you can escape the terrifying nightmare that is the Mare by simply ensuring all or most of the lights are turned on, but you couldn’t be more fatally wrong.
They can initiate light-shattering ghost events more frequently which disables all the lights, and once that happens, they attack incredibly quickly. With this very distinct characteristic, it makes the Mare fairly easy to identify, but very tough to deal with. Focus on completing all objectives, and get out as fast as you can when a Mare is in the location.
6. Phantom
Seeing a Phantom drops your sanity at a much higher rate compared to other ghost types. Additionally, when you take a photo of this ghost, it temporarily disappears, and the photo still gets labeled as ‘Ghost’.
With this unique ability and behavior combined, it makes both evidence collection and surviving this ghost tougher. Phantoms are more invisible during hunts, making them harder to track, so you and your team members can easily die as it’s tough to know its location before you get the chance to protect yourself from it.
5. Raiju
The Raiju is one of the toughest ghost types to deal with, as its strength comes from the players’ ghost-hunting equipment. It dramatically boosts its speed and aggression in hunts, and a clear sign that one is nearby is when you notice your equipment getting constantly disrupted.
With the Raiju’s increased speed and the disruption of your electronic equipment, this makes your objective of evidence collection a lot harder to complete as it’s hard to know whether to prioritize escaping this ghost type safely or continuing to finish your objectives as fast as you can.
The Raiju also grows in strength throughout the game, unlike the Phantom who does not necessarily get an ability boost by making it hard for you to finish your objectives.
4. Onryo
When all sources of fire go out after you’ve identified an Onryo with your team, get ready for a hunt and run for dear life. A good way to identify it is by using the crucifix alongside candles or any other fire source.
If the crucifix gets activated without the fire source going out first, then it is not an Onryo. Ensure you have more than one fire source around to prevent a hunt once one of them gets put out by this vengeful ghost.
Even with such strategies, though, successfully surviving an Onryo requires a solid team effort. All the other ghost types that ranked lower can be survived so long as at least one or two players can carry the game, but this is not the case for the Onryo.
This ghost type gets more aggressive in extinguishing fire sources as more players die, so if you happen to chance upon an Onryo with team members who are not as experienced, it’s next to impossible to survive and/or complete all objectives.
3. Wraith
A Wraith is an old-fashioned ghost who should definitely be feared in Phasmophobia. It floats instead of walking, so you can’t hear it coming at you before they attack. They can also move and see through walls, doors, and lockers, so hiding is not an option.
If you have no clear escape route, use salt to repel them and complete your objectives and get out faster than the Wraith can catch you. Even with a team of the most experienced players, surviving the Wraith is a pain, and can easily catch anyone off-guard.
2. Demon
This ghost type is not for the faint of heart. A Demon’s aggressiveness is incredibly unpredictable and will definitely terrify the living soul out of you when they attack.
They don’t need to be triggered to attack you violently unlike all the other ghost types, so there’s absolutely no escaping the wrath of one. However, the crucifix is your saving grace as a Demon gets less aggressive when around one.
That is, if you get the chance to take out one before this ghost jump scares you out of your wits and kills you almost instantly.
1. Revenant
Deceivingly slow when roaming, a Revenant is the fastest ghost in this game during a hunt. Dealing with one can easily make the game feel painfully long, as the only way to survive it is through hiding, and this very much slows down everyone’s objective completion.
Although you’re highly skilled to hide from one, the passive sanity drain can easily butcher your good momentum.
To add to this, your actual sanity can also be affected in the longest, most anxiety-inducing contract that involves dealing with a Revenant, so much so that only the most skilled and bravest players can successfully survive this ghost.
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