How to identify The Mimic in Phasmophobia

This ghost is the ultimate trickster.

A ghost standing by a flaming cross in Phasmophobia.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

The Mimic is an elusive and dangerous copycat ghost designed specifically to trick you in Phasmophobia. This makes it perhaps the toughest ghost of all or at least one of the most difficult ones to correctly identify.

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Unlike most other ghosts you’ll come across, The Mimic throws out a bonus piece of fake evidence to make the investigation even more confusing. If you’re having trouble figuring out whether you’re working with The Mimic or another ghost type, here are the four key pieces of evidence to watch out for plus the other general behaviors this ghost exhibits.

The Mimic Phasmophobia evidence

The Mimic is the only ghost in Phasmophobia that has three pieces of actual evidence plus one fake one, so it technically leaves four evidence types for you to find. However, the fourth one is fake and designed to trick you since you will never actually mark it in your journal when you identify this ghost.

EvidenceHow to obtain evidence
Spirit BoxUse a Spirit Box to successfully obtain a reply from the ghost. Make sure you’re asking questions with the lights in the room turned off and paying attention to whether the ghost responds to everyone or only people who are alone otherwise you won’t get a response even if this is one of the evidence types.
UltravioletAny level of UV Light can be used to see hidden Ultraviolet evidence which includes handprints, fingerprints, and footprints. Handprints are the most common while fingerprints and footprints are more rare and situational. To find this evidence, be sure to check all surfaces the ghost can interact with which primarily includes doors and light switches. Additional surfaces ghosts may interact with include windows, keyboards, coolers, mirrors, parts of the cell doors on the Prison map, lanterns, edges of the tent on either camp map, picnic tabletops, and the poles connected to string lights.
Freezing TemperaturesFreezing Temperatures can only be identified with certainty by using a Thermometer to find a recording below 0°C or below 32°F. Seeing your breath can be a sign the temperature is quite cold, but this does not mean it is actually freezing.
Ghost OrbsThis is the fake evidence The Mimic always has. If you have actually identified The Mimic, you won’t be marking Ghost Orbs in your journal since this evidence is used solely to trick you. You can only spot Ghost Orbs by using a Video Camera, Tier I Head Gear, or the Video Feed in the truck automatically available on most larger maps. Ghost Orbs will only appear in the ghost’s favorite room and will move on higher difficulty contracts if the favorite room does too.

To determine the ghost type you’re working with to be The Mimic, you’ll generally want to find all four pieces of evidence although you can mark it with only three if the one you’re missing is Ghost Orbs since you will have found all three pieces of actual evidence.

The Mimic behavior, patterns, and clues in Phasmophobia

Because The Mimic is designed to purposefully try and trick you, paying close attention to its behavior, patterns, and clues is one of the best ways to increase your chances of correctly catching this ghost.

  • The Mimic can copy the behaviors and patterns of any other kind of ghost, which means it can mimic other ghost’s event rates, interaction preferences, hunting thresholds, hunt movement speeds, and even their special abilities like the Poltergeist’s multi-object throw during a hunt.
  • The Mimic can copy unique evidence-related behavior of other ghosts but cannot perform any evidence-related behavior that is not part of its actual three pieces of evidence. This means The Mimic could leave a six-fingered handprint to copy the Obake since Ultraviolet is one of The Mimic’s actual evidence pieces but it cannot copy the Goryo’s ability to only appear on the DOTS Projector through a camera, since DOTS is not one of its evidence types.
A player recording outside on the Camp Woodwind map.
Keep an eye out for those fake Ghost Orbs as you investigate. Screenshot by Dot Esports
  • The Mimic is overall very unpredictable since it could have any kind of abilities and powers at any given moment only to swap to a new set of skills at the next moment.
  • The Mimic changes the type of ghost it copies between every 30 seconds and two minutes.
  • The Mimic cannot change the type of ghost it is copying during a hunt.
  • The Mimic does not change its ghost model appearance when mimicking any other being.
  • The Mimic’s fake Ghost Orbs will always exist, even during special challenges like No Evidence, which can make identifying it extremely easy in certain special cases.
  • The Mimic has very similar evidence to the Hantu, so be sure to correctly determine whether Spirit Box is a piece of evidence so you can figure out which of the two you are working with.
Author
Image of Kacee Fay
Kacee Fay
Staff Writer at Dot Esports covering new releases and a wide array of topics including Minecraft, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Phasmophobia, general gaming, streaming, and more. She has been avidly writing and gaming her whole life and now spends her time combining the two. Kacee graduated from San Diego State University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Certificate in Creative Editing and Publishing. She then joined Dot Esports as a Freelance Writer in 2022 before transitioning to a Staff Writer in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys buying more books than she can read, gaming alone or with friends, drinking too much tea, attending concerts, fangirling over movies and television, listening to music, and spending time with her family, friends, and pets, who are the most important parts of her world.