The Mimic

Ability: mimicking other ghosts

The Mimic can mimic any ghost type and inherits all of its features:

• How much it interacts, how many ghost events it performs and which ones it prefers.
• Its hunt threshold.
• Its hunt speed.
• Its special abilities (for example, the Poltergeist’s multi-throw or the Demon’s ability hunt).

What it doesn’t copy: evidence. It also won’t necessarily give the guaranteed evidence of the ghost it’s mimicking on difficulties like Insanity. But it does copy traits tied to an evidence type if it has that evidence too. For example, it can leave the Obake’s six-fingered handprints (it has Ultraviolet) or copy the Deogen’s breathing (it has Spirit Box). On the other hand, it can’t copy the Goryo’s trait of only showing up on D.O.T.S through a Video Camera, because it doesn’t have D.O.T.S Projector.

When it switches:

• It always starts the contract “blank” (mimicking itself): it acts like a standard ghost, with no abilities.
• It tries to switch 1 minute after an exit door is opened for the first time, and then every 30 s to 2 minutes. It doesn’t switch during hunts or ghost events.
• If it’s male (male ghost model, voice and name), it can’t mimic the Banshee or the Dayan.

Details when mimicking certain ghosts:

Mimicking…	What changes
Banshee	It starts with no target. It picks one at random on its first hunt attempt (cursed possessions don’t count).
Deogen	Only the host sees the way it flickers during hunts and hears (or records) its breathing on the Spirit Box.
Hantu	Only the host sees its freezing breath.
Kormos	It can see farther than 5 m.
Moroi	It can only curse the host, and the curse stays even if it switches ghosts. Incense blinds it for 5 s instead of 7.
Myling	Only the host hears its hunt sounds at 12 m; everyone else, at 20 m.
Obake	Only the host notices the missing footsteps outside of hunts and sees its shapeshifts.
Obambo	A state is picked at random.
Oni and Phantom	Only the host sees the way they flicker during hunts.
Raiju	Only the host sees the electronic interference at 15 m; the heartbeat is heard at 10 m for everyone.
Thaye	It has a fixed age picked at random between 0 and 9.

If you smudge it, it can’t hunt for the duration that applies to the ghost it was mimicking at that moment, even if it switches before that time is up.

Extra orbs. On top of its three evidence types, it always leaves Ghost Orbs, even on difficulties with reduced evidence or none at all. The orbs (and its other evidence, if the difficulty doesn’t hide it) always show up no matter which ghost it’s mimicking, work just like any other ghost’s and only float in its favorite room.

Evidence

The journal doesn’t take Ghost Orbs into account when you mark evidence. Marking them or not doesn’t change your payout, even if the Mimic ends up crossed out when you select it.

Strategy

• It’s extremely unpredictable: it can mimic a Shade and not hunt for the whole contract, or mimic a Moroi, drain everyone’s sanity and then turn into a Revenant and hunt early. In theory it can have almost any power at any time, especially the ones that allow early hunts.
• The safest approach, in theory, is to treat it as if it had everything that makes a ghost more aggressive or drains sanity faster, and use every defense. In practice that’s overkill, and some of them conflict with each other. Most of the time it’s enough to place Crucifixes early and take Sanity Medication when needed.
• Keep Incense on hand: it can mimic fast ghosts (Revenant, Deildegast), hunt from where you don’t expect it (if it mimics the Twins or the ghosts that close in on players: Wraith, Phantom and Banshee) or, most dangerous of all, mimic the Deogen or the Kormos, which force you to switch from hiding to looping them or standing still, possibly when everyone is already hiding.

How to identify it

• By evidence. Since it always leaves Ghost Orbs, it seems to have one more evidence type than the difficulty allows. That makes it easy to identify: you only need to confirm one extra evidence. Don’t mistake it for the Hantu, the Kormos or the Onryo because you didn’t get Spirit Box, Freezing Temperatures or Ultraviolet, respectively.
• By behavior (somewhat luck-dependent). If you see behavior that points to different ghosts at different times, it’s almost certainly the Mimic switching ghosts. Seeing one ghost’s behavior and finding evidence that ghost doesn’t have also gives it away. For example, if you hear a Banshee’s scream on the Parabolic Microphone and you also get a Spirit Box response (the Banshee doesn’t have Spirit Box), it’s the Mimic.

Trivia

• It’s the only ghost that can leave handprints on the exit door: it has to be mimicking a Yurei, use the door-closing ability on the exit door, and Ultraviolet can’t be hidden. It’s extremely rare.
• You can’t get the “Doom Slayed” achievement against the Mimic: it spends the first minute “blank,” so it can’t use the Demon’s ability in the required time.
• With the journal’s alphabetical sorting, it shows up as “The Mimic,” next to “The Twins,” and not near the Moroi. That can throw you off when you look for it.

Change history

Version	Change
0.5.0	Added the Mimic.