Shade

Shade
Strength	Harder to find due to it being generally less active
Abilities	Produces hissing and shadowy form ghost events more often
Weakness(es)	Has a low hunt sanity threshold Generally unwilling to hunt and perform interactions in the presence of players
Evidence

„A Shade is known to be very shy. There is evidence to suggest that a Shade will stop all paranormal activity if there are people nearby.”

—The Journal

The Shade is a type of ghost in Phasmophobia. Noted as being shy ghosts, a Shade will lower its activity in the presence of multiple players.

Behaviour

Activity

On average, the Shade is less likely to perform interactions than other ghosts.

The Shade is less likely to perform ghost events at high sanity. At 100% average sanity, it has a 0% chance of successfully performing an event. This success rate increases by 2% per percentage of average sanity lost; at an average sanity of 50%, an attempted ghost event will always succeed.

A Shade's potential appearance in a Summoning Circle

When it performs a ghost event, the Shade has a higher chance of appearing as a shadow. If the ghost is made to appear using a Summoning Circle, a Music Box, or a Monkey Paw, it has a chance of appearing as a black shadow rather than in its full form while in the ghost event stage. It will return to a fully visible form when the hunt begins.

Advanced mechanics
WARNING: This data is based on testing and not officially verified.
Ghost event chances	The Shade cannot perform singing events. Instead, it has an approximately 67% chance to perform a "ghost mist" event overall. The other event mechanics (stated above) remain true at the same time.

(In)abilities

If at least one person is in the same room as a Shade, it will be unable to perform interactions or ghost events, or initiate hunts, regardless of average sanity. It may still perform these actions if it happens to wander into a room without players. Since interactions occur in a range, the Shade can still "reach" into the player's room from another room to interact with objects.

Advanced mechanics
WARNING: This data is based on testing and not officially verified.
Interactions during hunts	When the Shade is in the same room as a player during a hunt, though it can interact with doors normally like any other ghost, it is unable to blow out flames.

Hunt

The Shade can only hunt below an average sanity of 35%, lower than most other ghosts.

Evidence

• EMF Level 5
• Ghost Writing
• Freezing Temperatures

Strengths and weaknesses

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

Strength: Shades are much harder to find.

Weakness: The ghost will not enter a hunt if there are people nearby.

Strategies

Due to the Shade's aforementioned shyness, the lack of interactions may give it away, or players may become frustrated at the ghost not producing evidence, though this also makes them one of the safer ghosts to encounter, as their shyness also extends to hunts. Try keeping everyone out of the ghost room, as well as using Incense or specific cursed possessions that will increase the chance of the ghost interacting with the environment. Turning off the lights in the ghost's room may also help.

Given the Shade's inability to hunt in a room with players, one can be tested for in Nightmare/Insanity difficulty simply by lowering the average sanity close to zero, and having players stand in the ghost's current room and rooms directly adjacent. If it refuses to hunt or hunts only from a room without players, then it may be a Shade; players should identify nearby escape routes and/or prepare Incense before testing this, as the ghost may hunt in the same room as a player if it's actually not a Shade, which can be very dangerous, especially since a Shade shares two evidence types with a Jinn which is extremely difficult to escape from if the fuse box is on, and a Revenant which is almost certain death if it hunts in the same room as a player.

In singleplayer on Nightmare or Insanity difficulty, one way to identify a Shade is to drop the average sanity to zero, before using two Sanity Medications to restore the player's sanity to 50%, then allowing a small drop of sanity for a few seconds within the investigation area before stopping it via room lights (ideally hiding far away or on a different floor to prevent witnessing ghost events that may drain sanity). A ghost that refuses to hunt at this sanity may indicate that the ghost is a Shade.

If trying to identify a Shade by its hunt sanity threshold, keep in mind a Deogen and aged Thaye will also have low hunting sanity thresholds, though a Deogen is extremely easily distinguishable from its hunting behavior, and a Thaye will initially have a much higher sanity threshold, and be very active in stark contrast to a Shade; a Mare will also have a similarly low sanity threshold when the lights in its ghost room are on; turn it off to raise its sanity threshold and prevent mistaking it for a Shade.

The Shade appearing as a shadow when manifested by cursed possessions is not guaranteed, so seeing a full-body manifestation with them does not rule out a Shade.

A common misconception surrounds the technicality on Shades performing interactions or ghost events in the same room as the player:

• All ghosts have a range in which they can interact. Simply put, the Shade can "interact through walls". More precisely, if the Shade is in a room with no players, but its interaction range extends into a room with players, then the Shade can still interact with items inside the room with players provided that they are covered by the interaction range.
  • In general, this logic also applies for ghosts not being able to throw items in a lit room.
• Additionally, a ghost event will always occur in the same room as a player, but the ghost does not have to be in that room to initiate it; for physical events, the ghost will teleport to the chosen player's room once the event is triggered, while no teleportation occurs for airball events. This remains true for the Shade. See Ghost Event for more information on ghost events.

Trivia

• Shade (lat. umbra, gr. σκιά) - in the mythology of many peoples, the ghost or spirit of the dead human, who is in the afterlife.

History

Early Access Alpha
24 March 2020	Added Shade.
Early Access
0.3.0	Prior to 0.3.0, the evidence was EMF Level 5, Ghost Orb, and Ghost Writing.
0.5.0	Reduced the number of players required in the Shade's current room to prevent hunts from 2 to 1.
	Being in the same room as the Shade will now prevent EMF 3 interactions.
	The Shade now prefers shadow form if manifesting during a ghost event.
	Reduced the Shade's hunt sanity threshold from 50% to 35%.
0.5.2.0	Shades now have a chance to fail ghost events at higher sanities.
?	Shades can no longer perform interactions when a player is in its current room.
0.10.0	Shades can no longer blow out fire sources and write in Ghost Writing Books if there are any players in the same room.