Inky: the cyan ghost whose moves depend on Blinky
Inky is the hardest ghost to predict because his target is calculated from two things at once: your position and Blinky's. When the red ghost is far away, Inky is harmless; when it is close, he is lethal.
Names
Inky in English, nicknamed Bashful; Aosuke ("blue guy") in Japan, nicknamed Kimagure, the fickle one. The names are explained alongside the others in names of the four pacman ghosts.
How he moves
Take the tile two spaces ahead of Pac-Man. Draw a line from Blinky's position to that tile. Double the line. Where it ends is Inky's target. If Blinky is right behind Pac-Man, the doubled vector lands just ahead of Pac-Man and Inky behaves like a second ambusher. If Blinky is across the maze, the target flies off into a corner and Inky wanders. His scatter corner is the bottom right. He leaves the house after 30 dots on level 1 and immediately from level 3, per ghost exit timing explained. The same up-direction bug that affects Pinky shifts his reference tile two up and two left; see ghost targeting logic in pacman.
Reading him
- Watch Blinky, not Inky. Inky is dangerous only when Blinky is close to you.
- If Blinky is far, Inky's target is usually off the board and he circles the loop nearest it, which makes him easy to avoid and hard to group.
- To group Inky for a pellet, bring Blinky close first; Inky's target then collapses onto you and he follows.
- His profile makes him the ghost most responsible for "unfair" deaths: players rarely see the Blinky-Inky geometry forming.
Elsewhere in the series
Inky keeps his name throughout and is often written as the childish or clumsy one. In the games on the mr pacman games and guides, the mint triangle drone plays his role, using the chaser drone's position to flank Munch.
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Frequently asked questions
What does Inky do in Pac-Man?
He targets a point calculated from both Pac-Man's and Blinky's positions, doubling the vector from Blinky to a tile two ahead of Pac-Man.
Why is Inky called Bashful?
Because he seems to shy away when Blinky is far from Pac-Man and only commits when Blinky is close.
When does Inky leave the ghost house?
After 30 dots on level 1, immediately on level 2 and beyond, unless the no-dot timer releases him earlier.