Ghost Event

A **ghost event** is a manifestation of the ghost in the mortal world other than a hunt and which does not directly interact with the environment (unlike an interaction). Ghost events vary from full on physical apparitions to mere balls of smoke and usually produce sound (hissing, moaning, chanting etc.) percievable without the use specialized equipment.

## Mechanics

### Triggering ghost events

When the ghost attempts to perform a ghost event, it will check for players in the investigation area within a certain range (around 10 metres). If successful, one player within the range will be randomly chosen as the ghost event's target each time. If the ghost chooses to manifest, it will be teleported to near the player first. Ghosts do not teleport for airball events. An EMF 4 reading will be generated at the point where the ghost is at the start of the event.

Players can trigger ghost events by drawing *The Devil* card from a deck of Tarot Cards. Some other cursed possessions can trigger specialised ghost events. Otherwise, ghost events are random, and a lower average sanity increases the chance of them occurring. Neither smudging nor verbally provoking the ghost will increase the chance of a ghost event.

### Blacklisted rooms

Ghosts cannot perform ghost events towards a player if they are standing in the following rooms:

Sunny Meadows
* Basement west corridor
* Restricted area (the corridor, not the individual rooms)
* Courtyard corridor
* Female wing (the corridor, not the individual rooms)
* Male wing (the corridor, not the individual rooms)

Ghosts and ghost airballs can still follow a player into these rooms from an adjacent room.

### Types of events

#### Manifestation

When the ghost chooses to manifest, there are several subtypes which it may perform:

* The ghost stands in one spot and sings; this is usually known as a singing event. Male ghosts will hum an unknown, low-tone tune, while female ghosts will sing *Ring Around the Rosie*.
* The ghost remains stationary. One of three things will happen:
	+ No additional features other than the lights in the room turning off.
	+ All lights in the room will turn on, glowing red for the duration of the event.
	+ All lights in the room will flicker (if turned on), then shatter at the end of the event.
* The ghost chases and walks towards the player who triggered the event. If it goes near enough to the player, it will disappear and hiss sharply. Otherwise, it will disappear without any sound if enough time has elapsed. The ghost will walk at the standard ghost speed of 1.7 m/s, regardless of the ghost type.

In all subtypes except for the singing event, the ghost will select a random hunt vocalisation.

The ghost can manifest in its full form, a shadow which is only visible only under light, or a jelly-like, almost see-through form. At the start of the event, the ghost may close doors (including exit doors, but without locking them) or turn off lights in the room. During the event, nearby electronics will malfunction and lights will flicker, giving the impression of an ongoing hunt. During ghost events, ghosts do not leave fingerprints when interacting with doors or causing light switches to turn off. Light switches cannot be toggled in the room where the ghost event occured if it is a non-singing stationary event.

The ghost event will end prematurely if the ghost goes near enough to the target player, making it disappear.

#### Airball

The ghost will create a airball in the room of the player the event is targeted at, which will begin traveling towards them. If that player collides with the ball, it will disappear and cause a sharp hissing sound, in which the pitch and duration is always the same. Any lights currently turned on in the player's current room will be turned off.

This event goes by multiple names, such as "smoke ball", "ghost ball", "ghost mist", or simply "mist".

Note that there are other "mist"-like things or graphics effects that can all be confused with each other, such as freezing breath, smudge stick smoke, or lighting bloom.

#### Summoning

This event can be triggered by using a Summoning Circle or a Monkey Paw. When used, the ghost will be teleported to the circle (or in its current location instead when using the Monkey Paw), become visible and remain trapped there for 5 seconds with a summoning animation. Afterwards, it will begin a cursed hunt on the spot.

#### Music box

This event can only be triggered by using a Music Box. If the ghost is within 5 metres of an actively playing music box, it will become visible and begin walking towards the box. If it walks for 5 seconds, touches a player holding the music box, or the music box is dropped, it will begin a cursed hunt.

### Sanity drain

If the ghost event target collides with the ghost or the airball, causing it to disappear, 10% of their sanity will be deducted. For light-shattering events, the player has to be near the ghost when the event ends. Some ghosts have differing rates of sanity drain:

* **Banshee:** 15% sanity instead of 10% if:
	+ The ghost event is of the singing type, and
	+ The ghost event target is also the hunt target.
* **Oni:** 20% sanity instead of 10% for all types of events.
* **Phantom:** Additional 0.5%/s sanity drain if the player is within 10 metres of the ghost while in pseudo line-of-sight (where heartbeats play).

### Ghost event rates and preferences

Some ghosts have a preference for certain types of ghost events, or have modified rates of ghost events:

* **Banshee:** Higher chance of singing ghost events.
* **Mare:** Higher chance of light-shattering ghost events.
* **Oni:** Will never perform the airball ghost event, and is more likely to appear in its full form when manifesting.
* **Shade:** Higher chance of airball ghost events, higher chance of shadow model for manifestation events, and increasing sanity (above 50%) corresponds to decreasing chance of all types of ghost events.
	+ Also has a chance of showing up as a shadow model when summoned via the summoning circle, the music box, or the monkey paw, for the duration of the ghost event.
* **Thaye:** Initially 100% more likely to perform ghost events. Every time it ages, the likelihood decreases by 15% in absolute terms, decreasing to 50% once it has aged completely.

### Non-ghost events

The following are *not* considered ghost events:

* Any ghost activity occurring during a hunt.
* Room lighting fading or dimming for 1-2 seconds.
* Candles burning out by themselves.
* Any interaction.
* The Yurei's ability to shut a door and deduct nearby players' sanity.
* On some maps, a larger puff of smoke (compared to the airball) may rapidly fly across the investigation area in a straight line and through walls. This occurs at random and does *not* count as a ghost event.

## Tips

* Although smudging is not known to increase the chance of a ghost event, doing so when sanity is very low will allow for a short period of time to allow the ghost to perform a ghost event instead of hunting.

## Related difficulty settings

*Main article: Difficulty*
* **Event frequency:** The chance for the ghost to trigger an event

## Trivia

* Ghost events where the ghost manifests sometimes produce a photographable interaction at the position where the ghost appeared. This can be demonstrated most easily when summoning the ghost using a Summoning Circle, by taking a photo twice.

## See also

* Photo Camera
* Photo Rewards