Game guide

The basics

This guide matches version 2026.10.1. Numbers and behaviour may change as the game is balanced.

You play a Spirit haunting a village. Three bars sit at the top of the screen:

• Death is your health. If it empties, you are banished and come back with full health and ectoplasm. You keep your XP.
• Ectoplasm is the energy for invisibility and possession.
• EXP shows the XP you have earned, next to your current level.

You start with 40 health and 40 ectoplasm. Skills in the skill tree can raise both, up to 70 each.

Scaring villagers

Press Q to let out a noise. A sound wave appears around you and any scareable or hostile villager inside it is startled and turns towards you.

After a moment, a startled scareable villager panics and runs away from you for a few seconds. A startled hostile villager starts hunting for you.

Scared villagers run straight away from you, so you have to herd them. If a scared villager reaches the door of a house, they dash inside. At night the house lights up, and you earn 1 XP.

Villager types

Villagers spot you when you are in front of them and visible. If they see you they gasp, walk over to investigate and, if they lose track of you, look confused before going back to wandering. Their speech bubbles show what they are thinking.

Scareable villagers

Run away if you get close enough, or after you make noise. They are your source of XP.

Hostile villagers

Chase you at a faster pace than normal and keep chasing for a couple of seconds after losing sight of you. If they touch you, you take damage (currently 10) and are knocked back. You are briefly immune afterwards. Turning invisible makes them lose you at once.

Indifferent villagers

Stand still and mutter to themselves. They do not react to you.

Possession and invisibility

Possession

Stand near a villager and press E to possess them. You become invisible and control them with the left and right keys. Press E again to leave and return to the spot where you started. Possession drains ectoplasm slowly, and if it runs out you are pushed out of the villager. You cannot possess anyone while carrying an object, or with an empty ectoplasm bar.

Invisibility

Press Space to turn invisible. Villagers cannot see you and hostile ones stop chasing. It drains ectoplasm much faster than possession does (from a full starting bar, roughly eight seconds) and ends automatically when the bar is empty.

Items and healing

• Objects. Press E near an object such as a barrel to pick it up. It hovers above you. Press E again to throw it in the direction you are facing. Thrown objects skid to a stop.
• Health potions. Walk into one to heal. They come in four sizes (Minor, Medium, Major and Max) that restore 20%, 30%, 50% and 100% of your maximum health. A potion stays put if your health is already full.
• Healing bubbles. Stand inside a patch of green bubbles to refill your health and ectoplasm quickly.

Moving around

In the living world the game is a side-on platformer. Holding jump while rising gives you a higher jump. Slowing your fall needs the Float skill, and Glide lets you glide gently. You can cling to walls instead of sliding down them, and the game forgives you a little if you press jump just before landing or just after leaving a ledge. Sprint with Shift.

The roofs of houses are one-way platforms. You can jump up through them and stand on top, or press down to drop through.

In the hub the camera looks down from above and you can walk in every direction. There is no jumping there.

Progression and skills

Every villager you scare home gives you XP. That XP is carried with you and only counts once you bring it back to the Ethereal Plane through a portal. The current level cap is 26, and each level gives you 2 skill points. That is not enough to unlock everything, so you have to choose a build. A free Respec button refunds every point if you change your mind.

Open the skill tree from the pause menu or the hub. Skills have prerequisites, so the stronger ones stay locked until you have invested in earlier ones.

Movement

Swift (faster movement and sprint), Double Jump, Triple Jump, Float and Glide.

Ectoplasm

Reservoir (more max ectoplasm) and Efficiency (invisibility drains more slowly).

Body

Vitality (more max health) and Recovery (slowly regenerate health).

Scare

Spook (bigger scare radius and longer stun) and Haunt (scared villagers flee for longer and give bonus XP).

You can now evolve beyond Spirit into Ghost, Banshee and Poltergeist at the evolution shrine in the hub. The shrine shows what your next form needs.

The hub and areas

The hub is the Ethereal Plane. Portals take you into areas of the living world, and the Small Village is the first. Using a portal saves your progress. You also start with a short tutorial the first time you play.

Seasonal events

Around Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter the game can show seasonal decorations on villagers and in the world.