The Mimic

## Evidence

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> „*The Mimic is an elusive, mysterious, copycat ghost that mirrors traits and behaviours from others, including other ghost types.*”
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—The Journal

**The Mimic** is a type of ghost in *Phasmophobia*. They are known for mimicking the traits of other ghosts.

## Behaviour

The Mimic is able to imitate any type of ghost, and inherit all of its features and abilities:

* Interaction and ghost event rates and preferences
* Hunt thresholds
* Hunt movement speeds
* Various forms of special abilities (e.g. Poltergeist multithrow, Demon ability hunt)

It may also copy features of evidence of mimicked ghost types, but not their evidences themselves. For example, it is able to copy the Obake's six-fingered handprints as The Mimic itself has Ultraviolet as evidence, but it cannot copy the Goryo's trait of only appearing on a Video Camera when interacting with a D.O.T.S Projector, as The Mimic does not have D.O.T.S. Projector as one of its evidences. Additionally, it cannot copy other ghost types' guaranteed evidences on Nightmare/reduced evidence types custom difficulty, even if The Mimic has them as evidence.

The Mimic will change the ghost type that it chooses to imitate every 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but cannot change during hunts.

If The Mimic mimics a Thaye, a fixed age is randomly selected, and it will mimic another ghost using its own timer instead of the Thaye's ageing timer. The Mimic may also imitate the player or The Mimic (itself), but in these cases, it will act as a "default" ghost and have no special abilities. Mimicking the player, as well as any other ghost, does not change its ghost model.

The Mimic provides "evidence" of Ghost Orbs in addition to its three main evidence types, which also appear on Nightmare difficulty and on custom difficulties with reduced evidences, including zero evidence. These Ghost Orbs, along with the other evidences if none are hidden due to the difficulty, will always exist regardless of the type of ghost that The Mimic chooses to imitate.

Although some players have suggested the ghost orbs produced by The Mimic tend to follow it around while roaming, these orbs in fact behave in exactly the same way as those produced by other ghost types and will only levitate in its ghost room.

## Evidence

* Spirit Box
* Ultraviolet
* Freezing Temperatures

Though Ghost Orbs are always present, this is not considered by the Journal when inputting evidences. Whether Ghost Orbs is selected does not affect your payout even if the ghost is blanked out when selecting the ghost.

## Strengths and weaknesses

These are the strengths and weaknesses as listed in the journal:

*Strength: We're unsure what this ghost is capable of. Be careful.*

*Weakness: Several reports have noted ghost orb sightings near mimics.*

## Strategies

The Mimic's fundamental nature means that it is unpredictable: it can theoretically have the powers of almost any ghost type at any time, most notably ghost abilities that could enable early hunts. The absolute safest way to handle a Mimic is to treat it as if it had *every* potential modifier that could increase its aggression, and make sure to utilize if not all, then at least a few tactics that would be used to dissuade attacks from other ghost types:

* Try to minimize speaking when near the ghost (Yokai)
* Turn off electronics that are no longer needed (Raiju)
* Make sure to have active sources of flame in the Ghost Room (Onryo)
* In general, be prepared for the possibility of early hunts (Demon)

Additionally, it is prudent to have Incense handy, as The Mimic may imitate fast ghosts such as the Revenant or Thaye, or most dangerously imitate the Deogen and require hunters to completely change up their strategy from hiding to looping between hunts, potentially after everyone is already situated at a hiding spot.

The presence of Ghost Orbs with The Mimic means that players have to take care when trying to identify the ghost with three pieces of evidence, including Ghost Orbs, if there is a potential overlap between The Mimic and another ghost. For example, identifying Fingerprints, Ghost Orbs, and Freezing Temperatures usually indicates a Hantu, but as The Mimic creates orbs, Spirit Box evidence has to be definitively ruled out before a Hantu can be confirmed. Players should go further in confirming or eliminating the presence of a fourth evidence. However, on reduced evidence difficulties, this can cause The Mimic to be very simple to identify, as The Mimic always produces these orbs, and will appear to go over the set maximum amount of given types of evidence.

Concerning evidence, noting the behavior of specific ghost types, but getting evidence that they do not have, can bring The Mimic into suspicion, allowing for more focused evidence-gathering. For example, if the ghost touches two doors on different parts of the map in very close succession, which is usually a strong indication of The Twins, but fingerprints are successfully noted, then The Mimic can be strongly presumed.

## Trivia

* The Mimic is the only ghost that can leave handprints on the Exit Door: it must be mimicking a Yurei, it must use the door-closing ability on the exit door, and the ultraviolet evidence is not hidden. Hence, this occurence is very rare.

## References

1. ↑ *"So, the mimic will change ghost before a chance of aging even happens"'* cjdxn, Developer (on Discord). 25 June 2022.