The jargon in Ghostbusters: The Video Game gets thick in a hurry. Between Egon’s tech talk, Tobin-style ghost labels, and all the Shandor/Gozer baggage hanging over the campaign, it helps to have one page that translates the language into plain English.
Use this glossary when a mission page, equipment page, or Tobin’s entry starts sounding a little too much like paranormal grad school. It is not here to be fancy. It is here to keep the guide readable.
How to read Ghostbusters threat labels
- Class: A rough threat bracket or category marker.
- Anchored: Bound to one location.
- Free-roaming: Able to move away from one fixed haunt.
- Corporeal: Physical enough to hit hard and soak damage like a real body.
- Ethereal: More vaporous, spectral, or intangible.
- Possessor: A ghost that takes over objects, people, or machines.
- Swarmer: A smaller threat that attacks in numbers.
- Remnant: A spirit that has not crossed over and still clings to the world.
- Telekinetic: Able to throw or move objects without touching them normally.
- Full-torsoed: A floating humanoid form with no lower body.
- Vapor / vaporous: Wispy and visible, but not fully solid.
Field gear and ghostbusting terms
- PKE Meter: The meter used to track psychokinetic energy and sniff out paranormal activity.
- PK Scan: The scan mode that records data on ghosts, objects, slime, and environmental clues.
- Ecto Goggles: The visual filter that helps you see hidden trails, weak points, and strange residue.
- Proton Pack: Your main ghostbusting weapon platform.
- Capture Stream: The standard proton stream used to rope ghosts and drag them toward the trap.
- Ghost Trap: The deployable trap used to finish a capture once a ghost is weakened.
- Shock Blast: A close-range proton burst that is great for knocking enemies back.
- Boson Dart: A heavier charged shot for focused damage.
- Slime Blower: The pack mode for laying down positive slime, dealing with black slime, and solving certain puzzles.
- Slime Tether: The slime line used to connect two points and move or hold objects in place.
- Meson Collider: A high-output beam attack that trades control for raw destructive power.
- Dark Matter Generator: The trap-adjacent pack upgrade that deploys a short-lived mini singularity.
Slime, residue, and haunted-environment terms
- Ectoplasm: Ghostly residue left behind by supernatural activity.
- Ectoplasmic residue: The smaller traces and leftovers you scan to read a location.
- Black slime: Corrupted slime tied to the darker Shandor side of the haunting.
- Portal: A supernatural opening ghosts or energy use to enter, escape, or spread chaos through a level.
- Mandala: The circular occult structure Shandor’s systems use as part of his larger supernatural machinery.
Story and lore terms worth knowing
- Ivo Shandor: Architect, cult leader, and the main human mind behind the game’s haunting crisis.
- Gozer: The destructive deity at the center of the original film and still the gravitational pull behind Shandor’s work.
- Shandor Island: The abandoned stronghold where the endgame turns fully occult.
- World of Gozer: The reality-bending afterlife space tied to the cult and its supernatural machinery.
- Tobin’s Spirit Guide: The in-universe style reference point for cataloging paranormal entities.
Ghostbusters words that show up all over this guide
- Wrangling: The actual work of weakening, controlling, and dragging a ghost where you want it.
- Containment: The broader Ghostbusters goal: keep the haunt under control and get it off the streets.
- Manifestation: A visible supernatural appearance, attack, or burst of ghost activity.
- Entity: A catch-all Ghostbusters term for a ghost, creature, construct, or paranormal presence.
- Classified threat: Any ghost or entity described with one of the series’ pseudo-scientific labels.