Ghost hunting is a profession in the Ambitions expansion pack.  As opposed to a career (where your Sim spends the entire shift in a rabbit hole) or a hobby (which can be lucrative, and which you can do on a freelance basis).  Confused yet?  I sure am!  But that's okay - let's stick to hunting ghosts!

I was disappointed to learn that you can't actually hunt ghosts.  I had imagined stalking through the graveyard, sucking up those annoying transparent people who make the irritating music.  Instead, you hunt "spirits" which look like an illustration from a Halloween card.

When you sign up for the Ghosthunting profession, the idea is that you're on call for a specific shift.  When your shift starts, you'll be paged to go help out.  You can also switch to Map View, and look for the orange-yellow dots that indicate a haunting in progress.

Initially I was confused about how this worked.  The dialogue message says something about your Sim being given a Banshee Banisher, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  It turns out to be something your Sim just uses, like the spoons they use to stir their mac and cheese.

In order to banish a ghost, you simply click on the floating spirit and select "Banish."  Your Sim will suck it up with the Banshee Banisher, in much the same way that the Repo Team sucks up a random item of furniture if you don't pay your bills.

At the end of the day, you end up with a big collection of spirits in your backpack.  You can sell these spirits by dragging them to the sell box, or you can take them to the Science Lab.  You seem to get the same price either way, but sometimes your Sim will get a Wish to sell a certain number of spirits to the lab.

The type and age of the spirit determines its value.  I quickly learned that when you hit a lot, you should pause the game and go looking for the most valuable spirits.  Don't just click on the first Friendly (white) spirit you see!  There may be 5 spirits on the lot, but as soon as you banish 3, the whole thing ends.  

Spirit Types/Color

• Lost - Purple
• Friendly - White
• Frightened - Yellow
• Kind - Electric Blue
• Jealous - Green
• Wrathful - Orange
• Evil - Red

The age modifiers are: Young, Old, and Ancient.

I also noticed that spirits quickly lose value in your backpack.  In one case, a spirit initially worth $600 dropped to only $480 in two days!  Once you have cleared the map, you should sell your spirits right away.  

This Profession requires Investigation, Spirits, and Logic to continue.  You don't have control over whether you get to Investigate or Hunt Spirits, but you can control your Logic skills.  Play chess, read Logic books, and look through the telescope in your off hours to boost your skills.  

The first five levels are:

1.    Tarot Card Reader, $280/week (unlocks the Banshee Banisher)
2.    Ectoplasm Cleaner, $344/week
3.    Spooky Noise Silencer
4.    Spirit Sweeper, $520/week
5.    Séance Holder, $640/week (unlocks the Spooko-Meter, which lets you scan the area for ghosts)