Ghost Hunter: the 12 graveyard levels, what every gift box does and why missing costs more than time

Ghost Hunter is archery in a haunted graveyard. Creatures peek out from behind gravestones or fly in from the edges of the sky, and you shoot them with a bow at the bottom of the screen: drag near the bow to aim, release to shoot. Before the first hunt the game asks for a hunter name; it is the name your scores carry. You can play it in your browser.

How a level is won or lost

Every level has a score target and a timer. Reach the target and you clear the level, but never before 30 seconds of play: when the target is reached early the game says "Target reached! Keep hunting!" and you keep scoring until the 30 seconds are up.
If the timer runs out first, the level is lost.
Creatures throw slime, bones, rocks and skulls at you. Five hits end the hunt.
Clearing a level opens the next one on the map.

Missing is the real penalty

A miss takes no time off the clock. Instead every miss makes the creatures faster: ground creatures hide sooner, flyers speed up and they throw more often and harder. This builds up for the rest of the level, so careful shots are worth more than fast ones.

What each creature is worth

Ground creatures only come out from behind gravestones and can only be hit once they have risen far enough. Flyers can enter from any side.

| Ground | Points | Air | Points | |---|---|---|---| | Snail | 10 | Bat | 25 | | Snake | 20 | Raven | 45 | | Spider | 35 | Owl | 70 | | Elephant | 50 | | | | Lion | 80 | | | | Octopus | 100 | | |

An armoured creature needs two arrows: the first one only cracks the armour. It pays 1.6 times its normal points. Later levels bring the higher-value creatures more often.

Gift boxes

A hit has a chance to drop a gift box (more often from flyers than from ground creatures). The box counts at once: +15 points and one stack of its upgrade. Each upgrade stacks up to 5 times and resets when a new level starts.

Rapid fire: less waiting between shots.
Speed: faster arrows.
Dodge: thrown objects need to come closer to hit you.
Shield: blocks one hit; you can hold up to two.
Slow: thrown objects fly slower.
Triple shot: every shot fires three arrows in a small fan.
Elemental arrows (the last one you picked is active):
Flame pierces armour and burns away thrown objects around the impact.
Ice freezes creatures near the impact.
Bomb damages creatures near the impact and clears thrown objects there.
Lightning jumps from the target to the nearest creature, and to more of them as it stacks.

Creatures taken down by a blast or a lightning jump still give points but never drop a box.

The 12 levels

| # | Level | Target | Time | Rule | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Quiet Graves | 330 | 55 s | ground creatures only, few throws | | 2 | First Flight | 700 | 54 s | first flyers | | 3 | Windy Hollow | 900 | 53 s | wind pushes arrows to one side | | 4 | Bat Roost | 1050 | 52 s | swarms arrive together | | 5 | Moonless Fog | 1100 | 50 s | darkness | | 6 | Shifting Graves | 1300 | 48 s | gravestones move every 6 s | | 7 | Bone Armor | 1600 | 46 s | half the creatures armoured | | 8 | Howling Gale | 1700 | 44 s | wind in gusts | | 9 | Bone Barrage | 1800 | 43 s | a rain of thrown objects | | 10 | Blackout Vigil | 2000 | 42 s | darkness, gravestones move every 5 s | | 11 | Feeding Frenzy | 2500 | 41 s | swarms, armour, more throws | | 12 | Wraith Moon | 3000 | 40 s | darkness, gusts, armour, swarms and barrage |

Tips

On windy levels aim against the wind; in gusts wait for a calm moment.
Save shots for creatures that have fully risen: a half-hidden one cannot be hit yet, and a miss speeds everything up.
On Bone Armor and later, Flame arrows are the best pick-up: they skip the extra arrow on armour.
Your best scores are kept on a local top 10 and sent to the online leaderboard under your hunter name.