In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, players choose to play as the Busters or cause havoc as one of the many fiendish ghosts to unlock. Each ghost has several primary abilities, including an individual Unique Ability specific to every ghost and all unlockable ghost skin variants, giving players a good reason to level up to unlock them all. Additionally, all ghosts have additional tricks hidden up their slimy sleeves to thwart the Busters.
In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, there are 5 ghost types: Ectoplasm, Ghouly, Basher, Howler, and Poltergeist. Players immediately have access to a default ghost in the first 4 types, but must reach level 50 to unlock the Poltergeist and reach lower levels to unlock other variants. Playing as a ghost is often hilarious owing to their range of ways to spook the living and evade the Busters and their gadgets, but undoubtedly some ghost abilities are better than others.
7 Ectovision
All ghosts in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed possess the ability to enter Ectovision mode, which turns the player's screen black and white except for civilians and their fear level, Busters, and Rifts that show up in different colors as a sneaky locator tool.
It's a handy ability to have at times when players need to locate their Rifts or focus on hunting the most freaked-out civilians, but most of the time players floating around as the ghost don't need to use it, as there are plenty of civilians nearby, with Rifts and Busters being easy to spot across the relatively small maps.
6 Pass-Through Humans
Another shared ability all ghosts have is the means to pass-through civilians or Busters, drenching them in slime. However, to do this, players must fly at top speed to phase through human flesh, which significantly drains ghost energy. Ghosts then need to restore their energy through object possession.
Passing through humans is a valuable trick as it gives the ghost Pass-through points and a few scare points. However, it's best used somewhat sparingly and in combination with other abilities to boost the overall scare factor and limit energy depletion.
5 Scare Ability
The Scare Ability is the standard way to frighten or jump-scare civilians used by pressing the right trigger on an Xbox controller. Each ghost type has a slightly different kind of movement for the Scare Ability, such as a Ghouly's scratching swipe and a Basher ghost's chain whip.
For all ghosts, using the Scare Ability depletes a small chunk of ghost energy with a relatively short cooldown time. It's most effective when deployed after another ability to ramp up the civilian fear factor. It's all about timing with this ability, and ghosts cannot rely on it alone due to its energy drain.
4 Summon Minions
All ghosts can summon a troupe of mini ghoulies to help do the ghost's dirty work by pressing LB on an Xbox controller. The ghouls spread out in a group to either slime Busters or help scare civilians.
If the ghost player ever becomes cornered by the Busters, summoning Minions can help serve as a slippery distraction while the ghost escapes. Summoning Minions also gives XP points for Minion Slime to help players level up, but they have a slightly longer 35-second cooldown compared to some abilities.
3 Possess Objects to Hide Or Jump Scare
All ghosts can possess grounded or free-roam objects highlighted on the terrain by pressing X on an Xbox controller to quickly zoom inside them. Players can use possession to sneakily hide from Busters in hilarious Garry's Mod style, like hiding in security cameras to rack up Clever Ghost XP points. Additionally, ghosts can whoosh between nearby objects without exiting an object fully to help avoid detection.
Possession is also a different way of using the Scare Ability. Once inside an object, wait until a civilian is near and press the right trigger to hilariously jump-scare a passer-by.
2 Unique Ability
The Unique Ability is specific to each ghost type and variant with many powerful and stand-out abilities. The Ghouly Wraith variant is the only ghost with the ability to briefly possess scared humans by pressing X on an Xbox controller. It is one of the most effective and fun Unique abilities as it horrifies a civilian so much they always exit the building.
The Squiggler Basher lets players throw objects by holding RB next to any non-grounded object and releasing it to launch the projectile, making it another amusing Unique Ability that adds variety. Some other Unique Abilities pale by comparison, but many have devastating effects with a shorter cooldown time than the Ultimate Ability, such as Pokey's 6-second cooldown slime-spitting.
1 Ultimate Ability
The Ultimate Ability is undoubtedly the best, as it deals significant fear and often grounds the Busters, covering them in slime, like the Ectoplasmic slime attack by the iconic Slimer ghost, which is unlockable at level 20. Likewise, Ectoplasm Winky or Brainy's tornadoes slime tornadoes bring Busters to their knees.
However, one of the reasons the Howler ghost type is one of the best ghosts in the game is its significant fear-inducing Ultimate Ability. This shows how Ultimate is often the way to go to thwart Busters and haunt a building, even at the high-cost cooldown of 270 seconds or more, as it sends civilians screaming for the exit.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is available to play now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.