Revision 3

Overview

Ghosts are Zois who died with bad or terrible karma and could not pass to the afterlife. Instead of resting peacefully, they linger in the world as spectral presences. 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.

Becoming a ghost

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

• Good or Excellent karma: Smooth transition to the afterlife. No ghost is created.

• Bad or Terrible karma: The Zoi becomes a ghost. They are unable to move on and remain in the world.

Upon death, clicking "On to the Afterlife" summons Nyx from AR Company. Nyx is the entity responsible for processing souls. Nyx explains the ghost state to the player and details what went wrong with the Zoi's karma. AR Company, the fictional organization that oversees all Zoi lives (with Psycat as the player's main supervisor), handles the afterlife bureaucracy.

Ghost ascension

Becoming a ghost is not necessarily permanent. Ghosts can ascend to the afterlife by restoring their karma to Good. This happens through interactions between the ghost and living Zois. The living Zois must engage positively with the ghost, performing kind actions and building a positive relationship. Over time, these interactions raise the ghost's karma enough for them to pass on.

The ascension process is not quick. It requires sustained effort from living Zois who are willing to interact with the ghost repeatedly. The number of interactions needed depends on how far below the Good threshold the ghost's karma sits.

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. A ghost who was neglected may be withdrawn.

Players cannot directly control ghosts. They appear and act autonomously. Living Zois who encounter a ghost may react with fear, curiosity, sadness, or other emotions depending on their own traits and their relationship with the deceased.

Ghost towns

The ghost population of a city is tracked as a percentage in the Karma Report. When this 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 requires reducing the ghost population. This means helping existing ghosts ascend by restoring their karma and preventing new ghosts by improving the karma of living Zois across the city. The resetKarma cheat can reset all living Zois' karma to neutral but does not affect existing ghosts.

Early Access limitations

During Early Access, ghost appearances are intentionally limited. The developers have kept the ghost system relatively restrained while they build out the full feature set. Ghost encounter frequency is low, ghost interactions are basic, and the visual presentation of ghosts is still being refined. The game's current focus is on the living Zoi experience, with the supernatural layer being expanded over time.

Planned features

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