What is hyperosmia in Phasmophobia?

It's quite important to know about.

The player using Incense in front of a ghost trapped in the Summoning Circle.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

Every ghost you can identify in Phasmophobia has its own special set of evidence and unique behaviors. These oftentimes come with terms you might not be familiar with like hyperosmia.

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Understanding what hyperosmia means in Phasmophobia is crucial for knowing how one ghost functions and how you can identify them with ease.

What does hyperosmia mean in Phasmophobia?

Hyperosmia in Phasmophobia is an extreme sensitivity to smells, which is a condition that directly affects how the Moroi behaves. The Moroi is the only ghost that is affected by this condition, but it’s important to know how every ghost works, which is why you need to understand how this changes its behavior.

You may have seen the description “Moroi suffer from hyperosmia, weakening them for longer periods” in your ghost hunting journal but been unsure what this means in terms of gameplay. The journal doesn’t give you any further information about this, but this tip is actually an incredibly powerful one once you know what it means.

Hyperosmia specifically plays into how the Moroi responds to Incense. Because of its sensitivity, the Moroi will always be deterred by Incense for a longer period of time during a hunt. All ghosts have some kind of special weakness, and for the Moroi, this is it.

Incense burning.
This weakness is one your ghost-hunting endeavors can greatly benefit from. Screenshot by Dot Esports

The smell of Incense is overwhelming to Moroi because they are susceptible to hyperosmia. This is an advantage you can use against it to help yourself escape during a particularly tough hunt or one you can use to directly identify the Moroi even with no other evidence.

Other ghosts are only affected by Incense for five seconds during a hunt, but because of hyperosmia, the Moroi becomes disoriented for a total of 7.5 seconds during a hunt. If you carefully count the time between when you light Incense and when the ghost resumes hunting, you can definitively identify or rule out this ghost even if you haven’t caught any other evidence.

Few ghosts have such reliable behaviors you can use to identify them without evidence. There are certainly some ghosts that have strong clues, such as the presence of fake Ghost Orbs for The Mimic or the strange activity chart patterns for The Twins, but the Moroi is by far one of the easiest ghosts you can check for during a hunt thanks to hyperosmia.

Author
Image of Kacee Fay
Kacee Fay
Staff Writer at Dot Esports primarily covering Minecraft, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, MC Championship (MCC), Disney Dreamlight Valley, general gaming, and streaming. She has been avidly writing and gaming her whole life and now spends her time combining the two. Kacee graduated from San Diego State University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Certificate in Creative Editing and Publishing. She then joined Dot Esports as a Freelance Writer in 2022 before transitioning to a Staff Writer in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys buying more books than she can read, gaming alone or with friends, drinking too much tea, struggling to keep up with all of the streamers she loves to watch, attending concerts, fangirling over movies and television, listening to music, and spending time with her family, friends, and pets, who are the most important parts of her world.