The “Virtual Ghost-san Ramen Simulator” event is a secret, multi-stage questline within the indie hit Ramen Simulator called “The Ghost’s Banquet,” featuring a crossover with the popular VTuber Virtual Ghost-san. This is not a separate game, but a permanent, hidden storyline added in the v1.5 “Afterlife” patch that challenges your noodle-making skills in a series of esoteric puzzles and culminates in a unique boss encounter, rewarding you with some of the rarest items in the game.
This guide breaks down every single step, from triggering the event to claiming your final rewards. Many of the steps are time-gated or require specific weather conditions, so attention to detail is critical.
Who is Virtual Ghost-san?
Before diving into the quest, it helps to know who you’re serving. Virtual Ghost-san is a popular independent VTuber known for her calm, ethereal demeanor and her streams of indie horror, puzzle, and simulation games. Her avatar is a ghostly figure in a traditional white kimono, her face perpetually hidden behind a white kitsune (fox) mask. Her lore is intentionally vague, hinting at a spirit lingering in the digital world.
Her inclusion in Ramen Simulator was a surprise, as the game initially presents as a straightforward cooking sim. The “Ghost’s Banquet” quest adds a layer of supernatural mystery that aligns perfectly with her brand. She doesn't just appear as a simple cameo; her presence is woven into a complex narrative about memory, craft, and the ghosts of the past that haunt the game’s lonely back alley setting.
How to Start the “Ghost’s Banquet” Quest
Triggering the appearance of Virtual Ghost-san is a multi-step process that requires patience and specific ingredients. You cannot begin this quest until you have achieved a 3-Star Shop Rating and unlocked the back alley expansion. The key is to craft a specific, off-menu ramen bowl that acts as a beacon for her.
Step 1: Find the ‘Empty Cicada Shell’ Charm
The quest cannot begin until you possess the ‘Empty Cicada Shell’ charm. This item is not sold at any vendor. To find it, you must go to the Inari shrine in the bamboo grove area, accessible only after completing the main storyline quest for the old man, Kenji.
Go to the shrine on a rainy night after 10 PM. The charm will be hanging from the rope of the shrine’s bell. Interact with it to add it to your key items. Once you have it, a faint ghostly whisper will be audible whenever it rains, signaling that the first condition has been met.
Step 2: Brew the ‘Ephemeral Broth’
With the charm in your inventory, you can now create the special broth that will attract your ghostly customer. This is a unique recipe that doesn’t appear in your cookbook. You must combine the ingredients manually in your pot. The three core ingredients are found in specific, hidden locations.
- Moonpetal Shiitake: This glowing mushroom only grows on the oldest tree in the bamboo grove. It can only be harvested during a New Moon phase in the game’s day/night cycle.
- Riverstone Salt: Gathered from the riverbed in the northwestern part of the map. You must use your fishing rod on a sparkling spot that appears between 4 AM and 5 AM in-game time.
- Weeping Willow Dashi: This is a special stock base. To get it, you must fill an empty bottle with water from the small waterfall behind the abandoned temple. This location only becomes accessible after you’ve donated a total of 100,000 yen to the Inari shrine.
Combine these three ingredients with a standard pork bone base to create the ‘Ephemeral Broth’. The broth will have a faint, shimmering blue aura when brewed correctly.
Ramen Simulator in-game screenshot
Step 3: Serve the Special Customer
Once the broth is prepared, you must wait for the right conditions. Ghost-san will only visit your ramen stand under the following circumstances:
- It must be raining.
- It must be after midnight in-game.
- You must have the ‘Ephemeral Broth’ active in one of your pots.
- You must have an empty seat at the counter.
When all conditions are met, Virtual Ghost-san will silently appear at your counter, a faint glitch effect surrounding her. She will not place a normal order. Instead, a single, cryptic phrase will appear in the order window: “A meal to remember what was lost.” Serve her a bowl of ramen using the Ephemeral Broth. She will eat it, leave a single, cracked piece of a mask on the counter, and vanish.
All Three Mask Fragment Locations
The first fragment begins the main phase of the quest: reassembling Ghost-san’s shattered memories by finding the other two pieces of her mask. Each fragment is locked behind a unique puzzle in a different part of the city.
Ramen Simulator in-game screenshot
The Fox Mask Fragment (Kitsune)
This is the fragment she leaves on your counter. It represents her primary identity. Picking it up officially starts the quest in your log.
The Oni Mask Fragment
This fragment is hidden in the Neon Arcade. To get it, you must achieve a perfect score on the rhythm game “Taiko Fever” on the hardest difficulty. However, the machine will appear “Out of Order.” To fix it, you must speak to the Arcade Owner, who will complain about a faulty fuse. You can buy a ‘Replacement Fuse’ from the electronics shop in the downtown area for 5,000 yen. Give the fuse to the owner, who will fix the machine. The trick is that the final song, “Oni’s Dance,” only appears on the song list if you play the machine on a Tuesday night after 8 PM. Get a full combo to earn the Oni Mask Fragment as a special prize.
The Cat Mask Fragment (Neko)
This final fragment involves a dialogue puzzle with the stray cat that hangs around your ramen stand. You must first feed the cat a ‘Deluxe Fish Cake’ (purchasable from the fish market) every day for five consecutive days. On the fifth day, the cat will allow you to follow it.
It will lead you to a small, hidden garden behind the apartment complex. Here, you'll find an old woman NPC named Chiyo. She will speak in riddles about a mischievous spirit. You must choose the correct dialogue options to earn her trust:
- When she asks what you seek, choose: “A piece of a forgotten promise.”
- When she asks what you offer, choose: “A warm meal and a listening ear.”
- When she asks why the spirit lingers, choose: “Because it has not yet found peace.”
Answering correctly will cause her to smile and give you the Neko Mask Fragment, telling you it was left in her care long ago.
The Final Confrontation: The Glitched Chef
With all three mask fragments, return to your ramen stand. The next time it rains after midnight, instead of Ghost-san appearing, your entire shop will glitch out, and you’ll be pulled into a surreal boss battle against the “Glitched Chef”—a corrupted, shadowy version of yourself.
This isn't a combat encounter. It's a high-pressure ramen-making challenge. The Glitched Chef will flood your order queue with complex, rapidly changing orders. The mechanics are twisted:
- Corrupted Ingredients: Some ingredients on your prep station will be glitched and pixelated. Using them will decrease the customer's satisfaction meter.
- Reversed Controls: Your controls for slicing chashu and adding toppings will periodically reverse without warning.
- Flickering Orders: The order tickets will flicker and change, forcing you to adapt instantly.
- Sanity Meter: A new UI element, the Sanity Meter, appears. It depletes with every mistake. If it empties, you are kicked out and must wait for the next rainy night to try again.
The key to winning is to ignore the glitched ingredients entirely and focus on preparing simpler, correct orders even if it means being slower. Successfully serve 10 correct orders before the Sanity Meter depletes to win. Upon victory, the glitching stops, and Virtual Ghost-san appears, her mask now whole. She bows, and the quest is complete.
Ramen Simulator in-game screenshot
All “Ghost’s Banquet” Quest Rewards
Completing this challenging questline provides some of the best and most unique rewards in Ramen Simulator. These items are purely cosmetic or add new gameplay options but are a significant status symbol for dedicated players.
| Reward Item | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost-san's Kitsune Mask | Player Cosmetic | A wearable mask for your character, identical to Ghost-san's. |
| Wispfire Lantern | Shop Decoration | A hanging lantern for your shop that emits a gentle, spectral blue light. |
| Stygian Tonkotsu Recipe | Permanent Recipe | A new, high-value ramen recipe. Its broth is pitch black with a blue sheen. It sells for a very high price and is a favorite of late-night customers. |
| ”A Meal Fit for a Phantom” | Achievement | A rare achievement for your profile. |
These rewards make the entire ordeal worthwhile, transforming your ramen shop with a subtle, supernatural flair.
Ramen Simulator in-game screenshot
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Virtual Ghost-san event still available in 2026? Yes. While it was originally introduced as a limited-time event in 2024, the developers made “The Ghost’s Banquet” a permanent, secret questline in the v1.5 “Afterlife” patch. It is available in the game today.
Do I need any DLC to play the Ghost’s Banquet quest? No. The entire questline is part of the base game of Ramen Simulator. You do not need to purchase any additional content, but you must be updated to at least patch v1.5.
What happens if I fail the Glitched Chef battle? If your Sanity Meter runs out, you will be ejected from the sequence and find yourself back in your shop. You do not lose any mask fragments or quest progress. You can re-attempt the encounter the next time the conditions (after midnight, during rain) are met.
Is Virtual Ghost-san a real VTuber? Yes, Virtual Ghost-san is a real, active VTuber. Her collaboration with the developers of Ramen Simulator was a well-received crossover that brought many of her fans to the game and added a surprising narrative depth that players have praised.
A Hauntingly Good Meal
The Virtual Ghost-san quest chain is more than a simple cameo; it's a masterclass in integrating a crossover into a game's core world and mechanics. It uses the quiet, atmospheric backdrop of Ramen Simulator to tell a small, poignant story, all while testing your skills in ways the main game never does. It’s a challenging, cryptic, and ultimately rewarding experience that stands as one of the best-kept secrets in the entire game.