Ghosts

Overview

Ghosts are Zois who died with insufficient karma and could not pass to the afterlife. Instead of resting peacefully, they linger in the world as spectral presences that count toward the city's population cap. Ghosts retain aspects of their personality from life and can interact with the living under certain conditions. The ghost system ties directly into inZOI's karma and death mechanics.

A city with too many ghosts faces serious gameplay consequences, including blocked births and the inability to form new families. This article covers ghosts as they exist in the world. For the player-controlled afterlife experience, see Ghost Play.

Becoming a Ghost

The transformation happens at the moment of death. When a Zoi dies, the game evaluates their accumulated karma score:

Upon death, clicking "On to the Afterlife" summons Nyx, a black cat entity from AR Company. Nyx is responsible for processing souls and explains the ghost state to the player. According to Nyx, "having too many ghosts in your city can make it harder to add new Zois."

The Karma System

Karma determines whether a Zoi passes peacefully or lingers as a ghost. There are seven karma tiers: Terrible, Poor, Neutral, Good, and Excellent. Karma accumulates through daily interactions.

Good Karma Actions

Good karma actions are marked with a blue indicator in conversation menus:

• Solo: Clapping, cheering on

• With others: Compliments, offering directions, providing comfort, sharing food, giving encouragement, exchanging ideas, presenting gifts or thank-you cards, asking if help is needed, mood-lifting jokes

• Smartphone: Posting complimentary content on Bubbly, leaving positive comments, sending thank-yous, signing environmental petitions

Bad Karma Actions

Bad karma actions are marked with a red indicator:

• Solo: Secretly dropping items, secretly flatulating, expressing anger

• With others: Heckling, yelling, offering fake gifts, knocking down, phone distraction, insulting, yawning in face, threatening, crude jokes, fighting, extortion, throwing punches

• Smartphone: Sending rumors or malicious texts, prank messages

Good karma takes sustained effort over several in-game days to shift levels. Bad karma has a spiral effect: low-karma Zois receive more bad karma options and fewer good ones, making recovery increasingly difficult without intervention.

Karma System Changes

v0.4.0 (October 2025): Major overhaul. Karma interactions were merged into general interactions. Dedicated karma score displays, karma-specific icons, and standalone karma menu items were removed. The Zoi Karma Status section was deleted from the Karma Report. Neutral Donut and Diabolic Donut were removed from the Meow Store.

v0.5.0 (December 2025): Karma interaction selection rate decreased by 50% for more gradual progression. Psycat alerts for declining city karma were removed. Karma interactions now consider the Zoi's emotional state and relationship dynamics.

Ghost Encounters

Ghosts appear in the world under specific conditions. They tend to manifest in locations connected to their life: near their former home, workplace, or places where significant Shared Memories were formed.

Each ghost's behavior reflects their unresolved issues and personality traits from when they were alive. A ghost who was angry in life may be hostile and spread anger. A ghost who was neglected may cry out asking others to play. Players cannot directly control NPC ghosts; they appear and act autonomously.

Effects on Living Zois

• Fear and mood effects: Unexpected ghost encounters can leave living Zois in a negative emotional state. The fear and unease from seeing a ghost affects mood and behavior for some time. Fear is one of 22 intense emotional states in the game.

• Blocking pathways: Ghosts in houses can block essential areas like bathrooms and refrigerators. Living Zois become constantly distracted by "ghost events" and stop repeatedly to look, making navigation difficult.

• Emotional reunions: When a living Zoi encounters the ghost of a deceased friend or family member, the game can trigger heartwarming reunion moments with dramatic emotional weight.

Ghost Towns

The ghost population of a city is tracked through the Soul Management Report (accessible via City Map > Souls tab). This report shows every deceased Zoi and displays a Zoi-Soul Ratio indicating the proportion of living versus deceased Zois. Cities have a population cap of 300 Zois, and ghosts occupy population slots.

When the ghost percentage grows too high, the city becomes a ghost town. Ghost town status has two major consequences:

• No new births: Pregnancy attempts automatically fail. No new Zois can be born into the city.

• No new families: New family formation is blocked. Existing families continue, but no new households can be created.

Reversing Ghost Town Status

Reducing the ghost population requires a combination of prevention and active management:

Nyx and AR Company

AR Company is the fictional virtual reality firm that oversees all Zoi lives. Players take on the role of the company's intern (a character named Bora) who manages virtual people and monitors their karma.

• Psycat is the player's supervisor at AR Company. Originally conceived as a deity in the game's earliest lore, Psycat was later rewritten as a supervisor and "ex-god." Psycat warns players when city karma declines.

• Nyx is a black cat that manages Zois in the afterlife. Nyx only appears in-game as a notification when a Zoi dies and explains whether the Zoi will become a ghost based on their karma.

• Cupid is another AR Company employee who has a crush on Psycat (a mythology reference: Psyche is the goddess of the soul, Cupid represents physical love).

If city karma drops critically low, the player must "meet with the CEO" outside the inZOI city, a narrative consequence designed to encourage karma management.

Funeral Properties

Three property types for handling death and remembrance were added in v0.4.0. These exist in all three cities: Dowon, Bliss Bay, and Cahaya.

When a Zoi dies, an urn is automatically generated. This urn is used for funeral ceremonies and interment. Enshrined urns can be retrieved later for additional ceremonies. Urns are only generated for deaths that occur after v0.4.0; earlier deaths do not retroactively produce urns.

Soul Services

Several services help manage ghosts and communicate with the deceased. These are accessed through the Pocket Market on the smartphone.

Ghost Appearance and Korean Folklore

Ghosts in inZOI are designed to look eerie and unsettling rather than cartoonish or comedic. The developers took deliberate inspiration from Korean folklore, particularly in the city of Dowon, where cultural elements influence the visual style and behavior of ghosts.

Korean supernatural traditions that may influence inZOI's ghost design include gwishin (spirits that have not fulfilled their life's purpose), dokkaebi (mischievous nature spirits with extraordinary powers), and dalgyal gwishin (featureless egg-shaped ghosts). The gwishin concept aligns well with inZOI's system where ghosts have "unfinished business" in the form of restoring their karma.

Players can control ghost density using the Ghost Appearance Rate Slider in the City Edit menu. The slider has nine levels from Lowest (no ghosts at all) to Highest (densely populated). Higher ghost density makes it more challenging to help ghosts ascend, creating a difficulty factor that players can tune to their preference.

Ghost-Related Cheats

Enable cheats via Psycat's Advice menu, then open the console with Ctrl + Shift + C.

Planned Features

The developers have outlined several expansions to the ghost system for future updates:

Death-to-Ghost Transition

When a Zoi dies, the game presents the option "On to the Afterlife." Selecting this transitions the deceased Zoi into a ghost state rather than permanently removing them from the world. The ghost appears at the location of death and remains playable for three in-game days. During this period, the player can switch to controlling the ghost just as they would any other household member.

There are currently 17 confirmed ways for a Zoi to die in inZOI, each of which produces a ghost with distinct abilities and urges. Death types include natural causes (old age), starvation, sleep deprivation, fire, electrocution, traffic accident, falling, food poisoning, drowning, shark attack, jellyfish attack, lightning, hypothermia, heatstroke, anger, overwork, and lack of recognition. Only Zois who have reached the Senior life stage can die of natural causes; younger Zois can only die from accidents, environmental hazards, or extreme neglect.

Karma and the Afterlife

The karma system determines a Zoi's fate after death. Zois who die with sufficient karma pass on to the afterlife and do not linger as ghosts. Those who die with insufficient karma remain as spirits and must work to restore their karma points during the three-day ghost period before they can move on. This creates a gameplay dynamic where moral choices made during a Zoi's lifetime directly affect what happens after death.

As of the v0.4.0 update, the karma system was streamlined significantly. Dedicated karma score displays, karma-specific icons, and standalone karma menu items were removed. Instead, karma-based interactions were merged into the general interaction system, making the mechanic feel more organic and less like a separate numerical score to track.

Ghost Abilities by Death Type

Each death type grants a ghost a unique set of abilities and urges. These death-specific powers define how the ghost interacts with the living world during their three-day afterlife. Below is a breakdown of confirmed ghost abilities by cause of death:

Additional death types such as death by embarrassment and death by high fever have been referenced by KRAFTON but are not yet implemented as of the v0.6.0 update.

Ghost Personality and Behavior

Beyond death-type abilities, a ghost retains the traits and personality they had in life. A calm, mild-mannered Zoi becomes a gentle spirit, while a Zoi with troublesome traits becomes a mischievous ghost more likely to frighten the living. This personality carryover means no two ghosts behave identically, even if they died the same way.

The v0.4.0 update introduced over 140 new urges broadly (not all ghost-specific), with 120 existing urges reworked to better align with personality traits. Ghost urges are a subset of this expanded system.

Ghost Appearance and Customization

Ghosts in inZOI are designed to look eerie and unsettling rather than cartoonish or comedic. The developers took deliberate inspiration from Korean folklore, particularly in the city of Dowon, where cultural elements influence the visual style and behavior of ghosts. This gives the ghost system a distinctly atmospheric quality that differentiates it from similar features in other life simulation games.

Players have access to a Ghost Appearance Rate Slider in the City Edit menu that controls how frequently ghosts appear in their city. At the lowest setting, ghosts are removed entirely. At the highest setting, ghosts densely populate the city. Higher ghost density makes it more challenging to help ghosts earn enough karma to move on, creating a gameplay difficulty factor that players can tune to their preference.

Ascending and Departing

At the end of the three-day ghost period, the player faces a final choice. The ghost can either:

1. Ascend to the Afterlife: The ghost peacefully departs from the mortal world, disappearing permanently.

2. Attend Their Own Funeral: The ghost visits their funeral ceremony one last time before moving on. This provides a final narrative moment and emotional closure.

If the player does not make an active choice and instead selects "Continue" play, any remaining ghosts in the household will automatically ascend and disappear. Note that selecting "Continue" also resets certain NPC relationships (such as the relationship with Claire) back to their default state. Reincarnation was not included in the v0.4.0 update, though the developer has hinted at expanded supernatural mechanics in future updates.

Community Tips

• If ghosts are blocking pathways in your house, they will eventually move out naturally over time. Relocating the household is a last resort.

• Use the Ghost Appearance Rate Slider at the Lowest setting to remove all ghosts from a city that has become unmanageable.

• Adjust city karma sliders in 5% increments to find a comfortable balance between positive and negative karma.

• The Intervention system (scolding bad-karma Zois) resets them to Neutral once per 24 hours, which is the fastest free method for improving city karma.

• The removeZoi cheat is the most direct way to eliminate a specific problematic ghost. Use showZoiInfo true first to find their ID.