Obake

Activity

• Every time it touches a valid surface it has a 75% chance of leaving fingerprints (100% for other ghosts).
• After stepping in Salt, each step has a 75% chance of leaving a footprint. When it doesn’t, the footstep makes no sound either. In multiplayer this isn’t synchronized, so each player may see and hear a different number of footprints and footsteps.
• Unique fingerprints. When it leaves fingerprints it has a 1/6 (~16.7%) chance of leaving a special pattern:
  • a six-fingered handprint instead of five;
  • two fingerprints instead of one on light switches, lamps and TV remotes;
  • five fingerprints instead of four on keyboards and Prison cell doors.
• In fake hunt ghost events and Music Box events, it’s the only ghost that sometimes misses a footstep. This is probably a bug.

Ability: erasing fingerprints

Every so often it cuts the time left on every fingerprint on the map in half. For example, two fingerprints with 40 s and 70 s left drop to 20 s and 35 s.

Hunt

• It shapeshifts. When it flickers during a hunt, it sometimes appears for an instant as a different ghost model of the same gender, and on the next flicker it’s back to its own. Dead players can’t see it.
• It always shapeshifts on flickers 12, 27, 39, 54, 62, 80, 105 and 120 of the hunt, and the cycle repeats if the hunt is long.
  • The first shapeshift comes about 6 to 8 s after the grace period.
  • If the hunt ends early (because it killed someone or everyone left the investigation area), it may never get to shapeshift.
• It uses the models in a fixed order: the first shapeshift of the contract is always the first model on the list, the second is the second, and so on in a loop. When its own model comes up, it “shapeshifts into itself” and you can notice a small posture reset.
• Both shapeshifting and erasing fingerprints count as an ability use in the post-game statistics.

Evidence

On contracts with only 1 or 2 evidence types, the Obake always keeps Ultraviolet. Even so, it will still sometimes leave no fingerprints.

How to identify it

• If it touches a surface without leaving fingerprints and then leaves fingerprints on another (or the other way around), that points to the Obake.
• If you suspect one, check every surface it touches (doors and so on) with the UV Light to spot its special fingerprints and notice whether they disappear fast. Finding normal fingerprints, even several times in a row, doesn’t rule it out.
  • By sheer probability, it can leave fingerprints every time, like any other ghost with Ultraviolet.
  • If it touches nearby doors very often, it can “mask” a time it left no fingerprints with another interaction shortly after, and hide that it erases them quickly.
• With no evidence it never leaves fingerprints or footprints, so you have to see it shapeshift during a hunt:
  • In multiplayer, one player stays hidden in the investigation area while the others watch safely through Video Cameras that are already set up.
  • Solo, you need to be good at looping it to keep it in view long enough. Pick a good spot: in some (like the cars at certain houses) you can’t see it while you loop it.
  • It’s much easier if it’s using the child or Patient 07 model: they can be crawling (or bent backwards, for Patient 07), and when it shifts they’re suddenly standing upright again, which is very obvious.
  • Incense or Tier III Salt helps slow it down. A Video Camera helps a lot, even playing solo: if it’s pointed at the ghost right when it shapeshifts, the screen shows “Ghost Shapeshift” and gives it away instantly.
• Missing footsteps. You can also identify it if footsteps are missing in a series of 3 or more after it steps in a single Salt pile, or during fake hunt or Music Box events. This works with no evidence. In multiplayer, if two players hear a different number of footsteps in the same series, it’s an Obake.
• Some difficulty settings change the chance of leaving fingerprints and how long they last. Keep that in mind on custom difficulties.

Trivia

• In Japanese folklore, an obake (お化け), also bakemono (化け物), is a type of yōkai. It literally means “a thing that changes,” for its ability to transform. It’s often translated as “ghost,” but it refers mainly to living or supernatural beings that have transformed, distinct from the spirits of the dead. In a secondary sense, obake can also be a synonym for yūrei, the ghost of a human.
• With the game set to Japanese, this ghost is called 化け狐 (bake kitsune): specifically a fox obake.
• On custom difficulties, its fingerprint-erasing ability also affects “infinite” fingerprints, which actually last 2,147,483,647 s (about 68 years). If you wait long enough and it uses the ability about 25 times, they can disappear.

Change history

Version	Change
0.4.0	Added the Obake.
0.4.1.0	Its chance of leaving fingerprints increased from 50% to 75%.
0.8.0	During hunts it now has a 1/15 (~6.67%) chance per flicker of appearing as a different ghost model, at least once per hunt.