Ghostbusting

Hello, and welcome to the Freedom City Ghostbuster division. Here you will learn what ghosts are, why you should go after them, and how you should do so.

What the fuck is a ghost?

Many of you have probably occasionally had items vanish from your inventory and gotten a minor stress bump. This is due to a ghost harassing you. Most ghosts are poltergeists, which will drop whatever they take on the floor. This is the kind you will be hunting most of the time.

Why should I hunt ghosts?

For the money, of course! Since ghosts spawn outside of Freedom City, they can be a nice way to make money for people who either can't or won't go there.

If you're not convinced, here's the numbers.

Payout per basic poltergeist: $160 (adjust for payrate)
Cost per bait: $60
Cost per trap: $225
Payout per trap: $1,760 $570
Total profit: $445 (not including payrate)

Selling full traps to Spengler also counts for the 'Ghostbuster' job, which rewards some cash and a bit of science IP and can be done multiple times. If you still can't see why ghostbusting is so awesome you should stop reading this article.

Okay, so how do I kill them?

You will need three things in order to find and kill ghosts:

1) A PK Illuminator. This essentially is a ghost tracker, and it will tell you if PK energy is in the area. Using it is simple: type view PK. If any ghosts are anywhere nearby, it will tell you how much PK energy is detected and in what direction. Follow the trail until it shows you some ghosts.

2) Ghostbait. Drop this on the ground to make one of the ghosts in the room appear. The ghost eats the bait, so you will want as much as possible. Only one ghost per ghostbait!

3) A source of EMP (or fire or shock) damage. As ghosts are immaterial, you cannot beat them up or kill them through base physical means. You need something that will do EMP or elemental damage to do it, and EMP grenades are not good for this since you must be out of the room to use them. You can totally use them in the room just either activate it and drop it or nade the poltergeist. Hell even if it goes off in your hand it will still damage the ghost. Therefore, you will want one of three options, in increasing order of usefulness depending on the skills you use: a weapon EMP mod, a powersquirt with a illuminol clip , a crystal spike, an EMP shotgun, or a proton pack. Flame and shock weapons also work, though not as well. Ghosts seem to have very high soaks for those. Once the ghost appears, blaze (or thump) away, as you desire, and with luck. soon enough it will poof into nonexistence and money will poof into your wallet! EMP shotguns rely on the rifle skill, and the proton pack has recently been changed to use SCIENCE! instead of rifles. If you are lucky enough to own a flame chain, this will work as well.

4) This part is optional, but if you drop a trap, the ghost will be sucked into it. A full (containing one ghost) trap sells for several hundred bucks more than you can buy it for, so you should buy and use them whenever you can. There is also a journal for using one properly once.

Many of these things can be purchased at CP in Slagtown, directly south of the Bradbury. You'll want to buy a lot of ghostbait, so stock up.

How do ghosts kill me?

Ghosts do a combination of rad and cold damage, but have shitty hit. You can tank the rad damage a bit with heavy chem suits and a lot with a rad suit, and the cold damage with yeti fur. If you have even a moderate amount of dodge, you can probably kill them without getting hurt, though.

Where can I find ghosts?

Most ghosts spawn in Gangland and Slagtown, making them relatively easy to find and kill. Spectres spawn in Necropolis, though if you go there to ghostbust, you're probably retarded. Edith's dad also counts as a ghost, and Edith will summon spectres if you attack her. Naskar and Moms (the two ghosts in the Sharpton Projects) near Firewalker are ghosts too. Ghosts also will spawn in Adamant Canyon and Gangland.

You can also find apparitions in Birchwood, and Great Old Ones (GOOs) in both Birchwood and Gangland on occasion. Be warned though, GOOs are scary fuckers who can kill you even through an HEV suit if you're not careful. They take around 5 EMP grenades to kill, and pay in profit around $4500 without contract (trap sell price - price of bait, trap, and 5 emp grenades). Just remember you won't get experience or credit for the kill(experience, contract payout) unless you are in actual combat with them, so plan your strategy wisely. Highly suggested to run if they become aggressive.

Making ghosts

You too can make your own ghosts! Go to the Church of Satan and go all the way south. East one from there is a cabinet, in the cabinet are 3 pieces of chalk. Inscribe pentagram with chalk on any square you're going to kill someone on and you might (not always) suck their soul from their body, causing it to be expelled as a ghost. Drop bait, wield your proton pack weapon, profit.

Note that all ghosts produced in this manner will be poltergeists, some are fucking badass and will set you on fire and shit.