Skip to Content

Ghostbusters World Guide: Tips, Cheats & Strategies to Clear All Stages And Dominate The Arena

Launched just in time for Spooktober and Halloween, FourThirtyThree Inc.’s latest Augmented Reality (AR) adventure game for both Android and iOS, Ghostbusters World promises to be at least as successful as its most popular hits like Boxing Star, Monster Super League, and DC: Unchained just to name a few. With over 100,000 installs just a little over a month after its initial release on the Google Play Store, Ghostbusters World stands among the top most downloaded AR games in the mobile gaming market. While it is bound to be compared with Pokémon Go due to some similarities, there are huge differences as well considering gameplay and mechanics. If you are a fan of the original Ghostbusters films as well as the cartoon show and comic books that spawned afterwards, this game will definitely be a nostalgic treat for you as you will see a lot of familiar faces from all the popular incarnations of the franchise. If you’re looking to explore AR games as well, that offers a wild mix of strategy, gacha, and adventure elements, be sure to try this game out!

Ghostbusters World seems to pick up from where the original movies and cartoon series left off as a new story unfolds where ghosts of the past all come haunting again. As you start off on the game, you get to create your custom character and be the newest recruit to join the team’s roster. As you progress through the story from one chapter to the next, you must continuously catch, collect, and enhance ghosts that will form part of your trained (or domesticated) team of ghosts. Aside from battles in the story chapters, there are plenty of game modes which will put your army to the test as you ceaselessly gather important resources from the Ghost Dimension, through Gozer’s Tower, Daily Haunts, and PvP battles in the Ghost Arena.

On top of the ever-popular Proton Pack and Ghost Traps you have for capturing monsters, you also have a Proton Glove for making a counter-attack against aggressions by some ghosts. You may also choose to destabilize ghosts with a variety of ammo-reliant weapons and earn crystals you can collect to summon them later or enhance a similar one in your roster. Although the distance you have travelled while playing the game is recorded, there are no benefits to it at this time. In fact, Ghostbusters World discourages you from playing while you are travelling and instead suggests you to stay in a location when you want to obtain resources from a Dimensional Door or engage in ghost battles.

The first few minutes you will spend with Ghostbusters World takes you through not just an introduction to the story and characters but also a tour of what you basically need to know and understand to progress forward. As you level and clear some of the initial stages of the story mode, you will be provided with a brief explanation of new features you have unlocked. There is also an in-game Help Section accessible through the Menu that provides a brief description of most features and items in the game. Despite that, strategies and means of progressing faster are mostly up to you and that will be the main focus of our Ghostbusters World strategy guide. If you are new to AR games or have played some but still feel the need to do better, specifically in this game, our Ghostbusters World guide will surely help you become stronger faster and progress through the game more efficiently.

1. Master The AR World Ghost Hunts

First and foremost, you need to understand that battles in Ghostbusters World are categorically divided into two: One happens in the AR world where you, as a Ghostbuster, must use your weapons and tools to defeat the ghosts roaming around, and the other exclusively involves your squad of tamed minions fighting against another team of ghosts.

The AR world ghost battle mainly consists of you roaming around going from one dimensional door to the next and engaging some ghosts along the way. These are the types of battle that focus on you being a Ghostbuster and as such, your equipment and tools, most especially the consumable ones, should be kept in check always. If you are having difficulty fighting battles here and aiming at ghosts with the tilt controls, be sure to visit the game options accessible through the menu, and switch to virtual pad controls so you can aim instead by swiping your other finger to aim.

ghostbusters world tips

For the AR world ghost battles, you will mostly be using your Particle Thrower (Proton Packs) as you would want to capture ghosts more than destabilize them especially on the first few days of your gameplay. Although the Particle Thrower doesn’t run out of ammo, it needs to be reloaded once it overheats, but you can more efficiently do this during times when the ghost disappears and reappears somewhere else. You will also consume traps for every attempt to capture a ghost, and if they escape, which they can do more than once, you will consume another one of your traps. As you will be able to use Standard Traps, and later on Advanced Traps and Master Traps, be sure to switch it out when the currently equipped one is running low.

Ghosts aren’t totally helpless when you are trying to capture or destabilize them. Each of them actually has their own unique way of attacking and dealing damage to you. Some ghosts are more aggressive than others and will often attack you more often. This will be very notable, though, as you will see a red circle in the middle of the screen with the word “counter” on it and tapping it will initiate a counter-attack, damaging the ghost and potentially dizzying them. The damage you can do here depends on the speed of your reaction time as you’ll see the words “fantastic”, “great”, or “good” pop up after a successful counter-attack. Failing to do a counter-attack within the time limit will result in you being damaged. If your HP drops down to 0% you will lose the battle and the ghost you are hunting will disappear. Be sure to pay close attention when you see the word “deadly” under the ghost’s HP bar, as they can deal a lot of damage to you. Additionally, be ready to smash the counter button whenever a ghost escapes your trap as they will always attack right after that.

After playing Ghostbusters World for a while, you may see notifications of a boss appearing on certain areas near you. Being there at the right time will make you encounter one but bosses may also appear randomly on the map without notice. You’ll know it’s a boss when you see a dark aura around the entity. Bosses are unique in that they are extra tough and cannot be captured or countered. Whenever a boss is about to attack, be sure to aim and fire at the weak spot being highlighted to stun him and prevent the attack. Before you engage in a boss battle, you should equip at least one of your other weapons designed to deal greater damage to ghosts at the cost of ammo. The Boson Caster, Shock Blast Emitter, or Meson Collider can all do good damage but be sure that you have more than enough darts or pods as ammo before you use them. Keep in mind that you can equip 2 of these at the same time. You can also use these weapons when you want to outright destabilize a ghost instead of capturing it. You can earn spirit shards this way which can be later used to summon the ghost or upgrade a similar one’s skills.

Be sure to check in on the Dimensional Doors once every 5 minutes to earn experience points and items you’ll need on your journey. Feel free to deploy your Remote gate at the spot where you most frequently play the game to obtain additional items once every 15 minutes.

2. Assemble A Good Enough Starting Team

One of the things to love about Ghostbusters World is the abundance of ghosts in most areas as well as a fast enough spawn rate. In most cases, you’ll tire yourself from engaging in ghost battles faster than running out of ghosts to capture or destabilize. Once you have chased and captured enough ghosts, you can already begin to try and establish your starting ghost team which you will use in team ghost battles. While you will be acquiring some pretty decent ones during the story prologue, you may be able to capture equally good ones or better along the way. With the resource requirements needed to enhance and upgrade ghosts, you may want to stick to upgrading only four ghosts at a time. You may decide to switch some characters in and out of the roster later on but be sure that priority is still set on your main ones.

To ensure that you have a good enough team set up for the initial stages of your journey, you should consider a ghost’s element, skills, rank, and grade. You may not have exactly what you are looking for early on but at least find something workable with what you have as you progress further in the story and other game modes.

ghostbusters world guide

Elemental affinities in Ghostbusters World works basically following the rock-paper-scissors mechanics as each of the five elements is strong against an element and weak against another one. The basic ones are Fire, Water, and Earth with Fire being strong against Earth and weak against water. The harder to obtain elements are Light and Dark and each one is deals greater damage only to their own elements. With these considerations, be sure to compose a team that has more than one type of element in it as having a team bearing entirely the same elemental affinity will be very disadvantageous against an opposing team of the element they are weak against.

All ghosts have at least 3 different skills, which are categorized as Passive, Normal and Special ones. Some ghosts have Leader Skills which is also a passive skill that mostly applies to the entire team. Be sure to consider having at least one ghost with a Leader Skill and place it on the first spot of your team’s roster as Leader Skills greatly impact your team’s performance in battle. Be sure to carefully read through each of the potential candidate’s skills as some of them are very effective in team battle. For one, Dixie, which you will acquire early on in the game, has a Normal Skill that heals an ally ghost with the lowest HP by 30% when she attacks and she also has a Special Skill that heals 30% of her team’s HP.

Ghosts have ranks as indicated by the number of starts they have on their portraits. You can capture or acquire ghosts from the Ecto-Sphere with ranks ranging from 1 to 5 stars and all ghosts can be upgraded to 6 stars. As a ghost’s rank determines overall strength as well as maximum level, you might naturally want to go for the ones you have with the higher stars. With each battle your squad engages in, they acquire experience but you can boost it on your own as well by spending PKE Crystals. Once a ghost reaches the maximum level of the rank, it can be upgraded to the next rank using PKE Crystals, Element Shards, Slime Shards, and Coins.

Last, but most definitely not the least you should consider are the ghosts’ grades which ranges from D to A, and then S for the best ones. You might not want to invest on D and C-graded ghosts as they have inferior stats compared to their higher graded counterparts but in some cases, the higher ranked ghosts you can easily acquire may have low grades. For ghosts with both low grades and ranks, you may want to destabilize them instead and earn useful resources than build them up to be a part of your team. Keep in mind as well that the similarly graded ghosts sill still vary in stats so carefully look at both, if you encounter some, before you decide which one to take into your team.

3. Progress The Story As Much As You Can

Ghostbusters World’s story mode is actually worth playing through. On top of the actual story-telling part, though, there are some great rewards you can easily get here than anywhere else in the game. For one, the ghost shards of the chapter bosses which you can receive brings you a step closer to having them become a part of your team. You can also randomly acquire Ecto-Spheres on most stages in the Story Mode on top of the rewards you get for completing each chapter. You should try to secure a 3-star rating at the end of each stage to reap even more rewards. As each battle consumes Phantom Keys, which serves as in-game stamina, you can check your mail for rewards if you run out of it and want to play more immediately and simply can’t wait for it to regenerate over time.

ghostbusters world guide

Once you finish a chapter in Story Mode, you not only unlock the next one, but the next difficulty level in the chapter as well. Although much harder, the next difficulty level of each chapter offers better rewards. For one, unlocking the normal difficulty of the chapter can earn you Runes on top of the usual rewards. Although you can only use runes on your ghosts once you hit level 20, it’s never too early to start farming for them.

4. Climb Gozer’s Tower For Resources And Rewards

ghostbusters world gozer's tower

Once you find it too difficult to progress the story further, you may want to shift your focus next on Gozer’s Tower in the Ghost Dimension. On top of the instant resources you obtain from successfully defeating each floor, there are additional rewards to get as well from depending on the number of stars you earn. Not being able to get a 3-star rank on the current floor means you should stop trying to progress as your current team may always do better on the next one. There are huge amounts of gems and coins up for grabs depending on your ranking at Gozer’s Tower at the end of each season, so be sure to monitor this closely and exert more effort towards the end of each season.

5. Spend Phantom Keys On Daily Haunts

ghostbuster's world daily haunt

If you need to obtain some Element Shards to be able to upgrade the rank of your favorite ghosts, be sure to check in and participate in Daily Haunts. While different elements can be obtained on different days, you can randomly farm all elements on weekends. Be sure to try the next level difficulty once you complete your run to obtain better rewards. As Daily Haunts also consume Phantom Keys you may want to use elsewhere, be sure to make runs here only when you need to farm a certain Element Shard on top of meeting you’re your Daily Mission requirements.

6. Battle Other Players In The Ghost Arena

You will have a maximum of 5 attempts to battle in the arena and once you have less than that an additional chance will be earned after every 3 hours. Although the Ghost Arena doesn’t consume Phantom Keys, you need to spend 100 coins to search for an opponent. Feel free to spend another 100 coins search for another opponent if you feel that you can’t win against the current one. You can see the opponent team’s combat power (CP) as well as each of the ghost’s skills in the roster.

ghostbusters world ghost arena

Keep in mind that you can still win even if the opponent’s ghost team has a higher CP. It may happen that the chemistry of the team may not be as good as yours or their elemental affinities are weak compared to your team. Most importantly, you can manually control your team in arena battles, so that gives you a big edge over the opposing AI-controlled team. Like in most team battles, you can focus on and eliminate one of the enemies at a time, preferably the leader, as opposed to the AI-controlled team targeting randomly.

On top of the Experience Points, Coins, and PKE Crystals you obtain after each battle, you can earn you additional rewards after earning 10 stars. As you earn more points and rank up, you can earn more of the same rewards though expect to face stronger opponents as well. There are also great rewards that you can earn per season so try your best to participate as much here most especially towards the last days of the season.

7. Upgrade Equipment And Build Traps Regularly

On top of ghost enhancements and upgrades, some of the things you will be spending coins on in Ghostbusters World are your traps and equipment. If you are lucky enough to be mostly playing around areas with at least one Dimensional Door, you may be able to easily farm traps and not have to build more. On the other hand, you should continuously build 5 at a time through the character and equipment icon on the menu.

ghostbusters world weapons

All weapons you use in the game can be upgraded through research. As you will be using all of them in a variety of situations, it doesn’t matter much which one you try to upgrade first. What matters more is that you are continuously improving on one as much as possible. Once Research has been maxed out on one piece of equipment, you can rank them up and refresh the whole research table.

8. Continuously Convert Ecto-Spheres

ghostbusters world ecto-sphere

One of the rarest rewards you can get from Daily Logins and Story Mode accomplishments are Ecto-Spheres which act like “eggs” that needs 3 to 12 hours of incubation before they “hatch”. Considering that you can get a 5-star ghost from it makes it a very valuable commodity. If you can, take note of the time your Ecto-Sphere fully converts so you can immediately work on the next one afterwards. If you run out of Ecto-Spheres, you can purchase additional ones from the store using coins or gems. Considering the gacha element and probability of getting exceptionally good ghosts here, you may want to save your gems for something else.

9. Aim To Accomplish Missions For Additional Rewards

ghostbusters world missions

Though there are already a lot of in-game items you can obtain just by regularly playing, Ghostbusters World further provides you more rewards through easily accomplishable missions. On top of Daily and Weekly Missions you can accomplish without you even noticing, there are Challenges that reward you as well for meeting certain milestones in the game. You’ll be sure to notice the exclamation mark on the Missions Icon whenever there are rewards for you to claim. To be sure, visit the Missions Icon to check some missions that you have yet to accomplish as you will get an extra reward for completing all daily and weekly objectives.

10. Always Check Your Inventory

ghostbusters world inventory

On the opposite edge of running out of traps and ammo for your ghost hunts, there also exists the danger of hoarding too many of one or several items. As most consumables and runes have maximum capacities that you can carry, you need to constantly check on your inventory as maxing an item out will mean not being able to get more of it. Traps can only have a maximum of 100 each. So if your Advanced Traps are close to maximum, feel free to use it even though your just after some easy to capture ghosts. Darts and Pods, on the other hand has a maximum value of 500 each. Although you would want to use the highest DPS weapon on a boss battle, be sure to use some of the excess ammo on destabilizing some ghosts around you. Lastly, you can only store a total of 100 runes at a time, including the ones attuned to your ghosts, so feel free to dispose of the lower ranked ones when you are carrying too much.

11. Constantly Check Your Mail

Some of the rewards you get in Ghostbusters World doesn’t end up directly in your inventory and are sent to your mail. As these rewards can only be kept in your mail for a maximum of 6 days, be sure to claim them before they are gone forever. If you are not intending to play that long in one session and won’t be able to consume a lot of Phantom Keys, feel free to hold off on claiming as you will never know which mail contains which rewards and obtaining more Phantom Keys than you can consume would be a waste of precious resources.

ghostbusters world mail

There’s still so much that Ghostbusters World may offer in the future and there may still be some mechanics coming up later in its development. With so many things to look into and do in this game, we wouldn’t be surprised if we missed some details. If you have followed our Ghostbusters World, then you will surely be doing a lot better in the game. In any case, if you want to add to the list of Ghostbusters World tips, cheats, and strategies we mentioned in our guide, we are especially interested in hearing you out so feel free to drop us a line in the comment area below!