By Darius Thornton

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for, give or take, the last three months, you’ve probably heard of Among Us. The software game, published by InnerSloth, is a multiplayer deduction and survival game that puts players in the role of astronauts or “Crewmates” who have to complete a number of tasks around their spaceship or base, all while an alien “Imposter” (Or Imposters) are hiding in plain sight among them, picking them off and sabotaging the ship. Essentially, it’s an unholy mixture of John Carpenter’s The Thing, Alien, but with cute and colorful avatars, so needless to say, it’s gotten extremely popular. While being a Crewmate is fun and all, performing the necessary tasks, trying to stay alive, determining who’s sus, and hoping you ejected the right people else, nothing compares to the rush and satisfaction of playing Imposter. Sabotaging the base, hiding in the shadows, picking off players, sewing distrust, it’s really too much fun. But every now and again, you may find yourself in a lobby full of decently savvy Crewmates who won’t go for just anything. Well with these five tips, you’ll be able to pull the wool over the eyes of even the most observant and demonstrate your superior strategy intellect over even the most cunning. Now, this list is made under the assumption that you are playing two Imposter games (since that’s what the majority of the player base plays), so keep that in mind.

5. Tread (Or Vent) Carefully

We’ll get started with a relatively simple one. Other than being able to kill and see who the other Imposter is, Imposters have the unique ability to travel through vents on the map, as a means of getting around. This can be a quick, convenient way to get away after committing a murder, or a means of ambushing an unsuspecting victim without being seen by other Crewmates. Vents can be an Imposter’s best friend, under the right set of circumstances. However, if you do not use them wisely, they could end up being your undoing. You see, it’s common knowledge that only Imposters travel through the vents and since the vents are scattered throughout various rooms on the map, it is possible that someone could see you either going in or coming out of a vent. If this happens, they will almost certainly report you and unless, you’re a brilliant liar, you’re probably cooked. So, it’s imperative that you pick your spots when you use the vents. If you can, try to use the cameras to keep track of who is where before you decide to vent, so you avoid areas where lots of Crewmates are grouped up and you stand a better chance of being spotted. Or if this isn’t an option, wait until someone in the area leaves before you come out of the vent, unless you intend to kill them immediately. Caution and patience will be your true best friend here.

4. Be Vocal, But Not Too Vocal

When the group converses after a report or emergency meeting is triggered, many Imposters take the approach of being the most vocal in their opinions and leading the search for the Imposters. On the surface, this seems like the wisest course of action. Being too quiet can give others the impression that you’ve got something to hide. After all, you’ve got to have an opinion on who’s killing people and sabotaging everything, right? Well, the reverse is also true. Being too vocal and establishing yourself as the de facto leader can make you seem like you’re trying to divert attention from yourself by focusing on others. This can be a dead giveaway. Like with most things in life, the key is striking that fine balance. You have to be somewhat vocal in the meetings, but not too vocal. Put it like this, you don’t ever want to be the center of attention, but don’t let yourself fly completely under the radar either. Chime in just enough with insight and opinions so that you’re seen as a cooperative member of the crew, nothing more, They won’t think anything of you one way or another, until it’s too late.

3. Find Yourself a Target To Frame

Now, this is admittedly a pretty mean-spirited and toxic strategy, but you wanna win, right? I thought so. Morals don’t matter when you’re an Imposter. Obviously, when committing your nefarious deeds, you don’t want to get caught. The most common way to avoid this is by blaming other people and attempting to plead that case, which is fair enough. But it doesn’t quite go far enough. See, blaming people with very little or tangential evidence may work if you have the silver tongue of a lawyer or a gullible cast of crewmates, but in the big leagues chances are that it’s not gonna fly. The solution is as simple as it is diabolical. Pick someone out, preferably someone who the other Crewmates haven’t “cleared” or ruled out of being an Imposter through watching them complete tasks or some other method. Stick close to them, really close. Make sure not to be seen by others and then, pounce. Self-report if you need to. The key is manipulating the evidence in your favor, do everything in your power to make it look like it was the other person. Vent away if you must, lie about where you were, throw their own words back in their face, turn up the scrutiny, anything. Leaving them alone with the body is a nice touch, Worst case, it’s their word against yours and if you did your job right, all the evidence should line up against them and the Crewmates choice should be easier.  Be your own crooked lawyer. And hey, if you’re feeling guilty, think of it this way–it was you or them, and it wasn’t gonna be you.

2. Find Yourself a Pawn

This is kind of in the same vein as the last one, but instead of finding someone to methodically pin the blame on, you find someone to become your walking alibi. This time make it someone the group has explicitly cleared from suspicion. Stick to that person like glue. I mean it, follow them everywhere. Stand behind them as they do tasks, run behind them to keep pace, where they go, you go. You may think that this makes you look suspicious, like you’re trying to chase them down and kill them. But don’t. Don’t kill them, even when you’re alone and you may have the chance to, don’t. This will gain their trust and they will assume you are not the Imposter, because if you were, you would have killed them. After gaining their trust and travelling everywhere with them, they will forever be your ally. Whenever you may be questioned during meetings, they will say “Nah it can’t be them, they were with me” and if you can get them to do that, it will be really hard for anyone to nail you down. Of course you can’t stick to them TOO closely, you’ll still need to do your Imposter stuff. So you will need to be quick and cunning when you kill. Do it and race right back to your pawn. Some people call this making them the “third Imposter”, as even though they don’t realize it, they are aiding you and your partner by constantly ruling you out, giving you both more time to work with. Just be sure that you kill quickly and stick close to this pawn of yours. You can’t afford to lose their trust.

1. Vote Off The Other Imposter (If You Have To) You may see this one and do a double take. Why would you ever vote off the other Imposter? It would make your job a great deal harder as you have no one to rely on and would be forced to do everything. And I agree, if you can, you should avoid voting off your partner. The issue is, sometimes you can’t. Picture this, the other Imposter got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Maybe someone saw them vent, or kill someone, noticed them faking tasks, or maybe the lobby’s deductive reasoning is just on another level. Whatever the case, they got caught and everyone is on their case. Now unless they are just that good of a liar and can talk their way out of it, odds are, they’re going down. It may be tempting to rush to their defense, but unless your argument is absolutely foolproof, don’t. Hear me out here. If you rush to defend them or refuse to vote them off, that will arouse suspicion towards you, because the Crewmates will come to the conclusion that you have no other reason to defend them than you being their partner. And come next time, they’ll boot you off too and the game will be lost. So, it may be a little cutthroat, but if your partner was caught in 4K and has no way out, vote them on outta there. If you do this, you won’t be suspected because no one would think that you’d knowingly vote out your Imposter friend, as that’s seen as digging a hole for yourself. Using this together with the framing strategy is a guaranteed win almost every time, if you execute it correctly.