Few games have the ability to devolve into a friendly shouting match between friends as quickly as Among Us does. The wildly popular game can go a couple of different ways. If the impostors do not do a good job, the game can be quite boring.
However, when the impostors know what they are doing, they can strike fear into the hearts of all the crew members and will cause utter chaos. Nobody watches a murder mystery movie where the killer is easily identifiable. Among Usis the same way. The game is most enjoyable when the impostors keep the crew members on their toes at all times, scared to go anywhere.
Updated November 16, 2021 by Staci Srebro: Among Us remains an incredibly popular game for its accessibility and frequent updates to its maps and gameplay. If you own a Nintendo Switch, a Steam account, or even a smartphone, you can easily play this game with your own friend group or people anywhere in the world online. Most players understand the straightforward goals of crewmates: to do their tasks and to stay alive. Playing as an impostor can be tricky.
In Among Us, the impostors are the killers who hide undetected by the crewmates. It’s both entertaining and chaotic to kill your friends and make them turn on each other in search of who’s responsible for their dwindling team. The strategy on how to not get caught as the impostor varies from player to player, but we know if you read these tips you have a strong chance of victory.
20 Do: Keep Track Of Who Is Around You
Far too many impostors get tunnel vision. They have one singular purpose. To kill. What they fail to remember is that other players exist. If someone sees you walk into a room with someone and then you leave alone, it’s obvious that you killed someone. Try to keep track of people in the area around you. If you know most people are on the left side of the map and you see someone alone on the right side, and nobody has seen you recently, feel free to kill them and make a quick escape.
Keeping track of people is a skill that comes from experience and playtime. The more time you spend as an impostor the better you will be at knowing when you can go in for a kill.
19 Don’t: Use Vents Too Often
Vents are a fantastic way to quickly move around the map. They are an invaluable tool for an impostor when they are used to their full potential. Proper vent usage can be the difference between a win and a loss. However, using vents is always risky. Every single time you drop into one, you’re risking somebody seeing you enter or leave it. Get caught going through even one time and your game is finished.
Seeing as there is no Jester type roll in Among Us, going through the vents freely without any care in the world is a surefire way to lose the game.
18 Do: Have An Alibi
Whenever a body is found and deliberations begin, everyone starts to say what they were doing and why they couldn’t be the killer. As the impostor who killed someone, it is imperative that you have an excuse. When making up an alibi it is important to consider where other people are. If you say you were in electrical, but someone else was there, you’ll be caught redhanded. Try not to be the first person to speak and base your lie on what others are saying.
17 Don’t: Be Kill Happy
One mistake newer impostors make is playing the game like it is a team deathmatch. They try to end the game just as quickly as it started. Don’t be afraid to slow it down a little and take some time making a plan. A round is longer than you think it is. Spend some time trying to blend in and get a feel for how the game is going before starting to pick off the crew one by one.
When you’re killing players recklessly, there’s a higher chance that you’ll get caught, as opposed to taking your time and striking when you know it’s safe to do so.
16 Do: Remember To Sabotage
As an impostor, you have tools to make your life easier. Remembering to sabotage allows you to manipulate the map to your advantage. Doing something as simple as turning off the lights can give you the edge you need to pick up a quick kill or two with minimal risk involved. Turning off the lights severely restricts the crew’s ability to see, meaning that you can kill with near impunity.
There are multiple forms of sabotage, such as taking away oxygen, setting a timer for the ship to blow up, closing doors, and more. All of them are useful to the impostors. Using the right sabotage at the right time can be game-winning.
15 Don’t: Talk Too Much
Some impostors are guilty of talking themselves into an early death. They feel the need to prove their innocence so much, that they overshare and raise suspicion. A good impostor only says what they need to say to stay alive. During group discussions, you should focus on stating your alibi and lowering your suspicion as much as possible. Try not to accuse others too often because what usually ends up happening is that people will decide to vote off one accused, but if they were innocent, then they’ll vote off the accuser next.
The saying, “anything you say can and will be used against you,” holds true in Among Us. Learning when to stay quiet is a crucial skill for an impostor.
14 Do: Sabotage The Reactor And Oxygen
One of the most useful tools in an impostor’s arsenal is the ability to sabotage the work of the other players, but it’s a careful process that has to be done right. Sabotaging left, right and center will make it obvious that you aren’t doing other things, but a clever imposter will make good use of sabotaging the Reactor and the oxygen.
Both of these tasks are not easily ignored by players — unless everyone wants to die — and are not only a good way to hinder progress, but also to find people. If you have had trouble isolating people to finish off, pretending to rush off to fix a catastrophe can easily land you alone with an unsuspecting victim…
13 Don’t: Take Charge In Emergency Meetings
As much as you can say too little in an emergency meeting, it is also possible to say too much. A guilty man babbles, and if you always take command in meetings and try to immediately deflect blame onto other people without answering questions yourself, people will start to take notice.
This little known trick is good for crewmates, too. If you’ve not run into other players in a while, rather than asking what they have been up to, volunteer what you have been doing. Regardless of your role, being too hasty to decry your innocence could get you thrown out an airlock faster than you can say “I saw orange vent!”
12 Do: Gain Someone’s Trust
An excellent strategy is to follow someone around for a short while and not kill them. They will most likely vouch for you if there was a scenario where you easily could’ve killed them without being caught, but didn’t. Having an unknowing ally on the crew side helps alleviate some suspicion aimed in your direction. You can even trick them into vouching for you by vouching for them first.
In a game where people inherently distrust everyone, tricking someone into gaining your trust is a priceless resource that can protect you for a long time and help lead you toward an easy win.
11 Don’t: Spend Too Long In Admin Or On Cams
Using the vents to sneak around the maps and popping into Security and Cams to see where your wayward crewmates might be is a good way to advance the game if you’re having trouble getting kills. However, these tasks — as well as accessing the Admin console — can also make it harder to get kills.
When you’re in a vent or accessing some kind of panel, your kill cooldown counter doesn’t go down. So while you might have sat happily in a vent for the last thirty seconds or so waiting to pass by, you might find yourself leaping out and going “aha!”, only to have egg not just on your helmet, but also on your face.
10 Do: Talk During Emergency Meetings
While it is easy to imagine that you can’t damn yourself if you say nothing at all, keeping completely silent during Emergency Meetings and dead body reports can land you in just as much hot water. After all, it can seem a little bit “sus” if everybody else is clamoring to prove their innocence and you are notably silent.
When it comes time for players to try and work out who the impostor may be, take care to be involved in the conversation. Listen to what is said, have your cover story straight, and be ready to back up other players in the hopes that they will remember your aid and return the favor. And if somebody asks you a question, try not to stammer.
9 Don’t: Stack Kills
Stack killing is the act of killing someone when everyone is piled onto one square, making it impossible to know who did it. There are a few problems with this. First, it puts suspicion onto everyone in the room, which is a double-edged sword for the impostor. The biggest problem is that veteran players are waiting for the stack kill. People will bait the impostor by faking a stack and moving off of it to see who the killer is. Stack killing is a high-risk play with little reward.
A stack kill is at best one free kill, but the risk and amount of suspicion it puts onto everyone in the area makes it a poor choice against good players.
8 Do: Work With You Teammate
As an impostor, you have a friend to work with. Using your co-op partner to its full potential is a skill that can elevate your impostor gameplay. People tend to try to find somebody to group up with to stay safe since an impostor has a kill cooldown. If you and your partner stay together, other players may feel safe around you. If you’re well-coordinated, you can your teammate can take out two players at once, which is both super effective and cool.
Remembering that Among Usis a team game is crucial to becoming a better impostor. Your teammate is an asset that needs to be used to win.
7 Don’t: Follow Players Too Closely
If your cooldown timer is almost up, it can be tempting to change your course and follow somebody who has been alone for a long time. But if you don’t succeed in catching them unawares before the alarm is called or somebody reports the other body you left behind, then “you’re sus.”
This kind of behavior is commonly referred to as camping, and it is not only annoying, but also a waste of your time. It makes you look sketchy, keeps you from well-timed sabotage missions, and might lose you an easy kill if you’ve been trailing one crewmate and ignoring everybody else. Next thing you know, they’ll have all the tasks done and you’ll be feeling pretty embarrassed.
6 Do: Keep Track Of What You’ve “Done”
If you’re not a very good liar, then being the impostor is not going to be your strongest play. In scenarios like this, it’s important to have a list of “truths” that you can bring out to confirm your innocence.
After all, the first time around, everyone might believe you if you say you were busy fixing wires and didn’t see the imposter. However, if you say that you were on wires the second time around, too, you risk sounding like you’re either a very unhelpful crewmate or a very forgetful impostor. Map out your supposed tasks list in your head, and don’t just stick to it in meetings — try to travel around that way, too. No sense saying you were in Weapons if someone else saw you in Storage when the body was found…
5 Don’t: Ignore Dead Bodies
Many impostors tend to ignore dead bodies on the ground and not report them. The problem with that is if someone sees you leave a room and then they go in and find a body, you will be the prime suspect. However, if you report it people are less likely to think that you’re the impostor. Try not to report every body you see though, as that becomes suspicious.
Reporting bodies can lead to your suspicion level being lowered or even someone innocent being voted off the ship. Knowing when to report a body is a powerful tool that should not be overlooked.
4 Do: Learn Your Map Well
Being the impostor means you’re going to have to lie to the other crewmates about your identity. Winning impostors are always great at seamlessly hiding their true identities from unsuspecting crewmates.
If you learn the map you’re playing on, this will be essential to your impostor victory. You will start seeing where the crewmates most often gather and learn where tasks are located on a specific map. You can then fake tasks by standing next to the task location, convincing other crewmates that you’re safe to be around.
3 Don’t: Push The Blame On Crewmates
Jumping too hard to blame another crewmate can be your downfall as the impostor. It’s important to fake the sense of teamwork good crewmates have. This means that you must strategize when you accuse another crewmate and why.
When a crewmate accuses you of being the impostor, most often blaming another random crewmate will not help. The crewmate that accused you has already made up their mind on you being guilty, and your job is to convince everyone else of your innocence. If the other crewmates believe you’re looking out for the safety of the entire team, they’re more likely to trust you.
2 Do: Blame Your Fellow Impostors
Playing impostor is incredibly different from playing as a crewmate. Crewmates’ key to success is to have strong teamwork. Impostors should work with their teammates whenever possible, but they also should be prepared to turn on each other.
Random accusations against your impostor teammate will not help. However, if the crewmates start becoming suspicious of your impostor teammate, it’s time to join them in the accusations. The crewmates will start to trust you if they see you killed the impostor. Then, you can go around taking them out undetected.
1 Don’t: Dress Too Extravagantly
One strategy that not too many Among Us fans consider is to be careful on how you dress your character, both in accessories and color choice. If you’re a crewmate, this doesn’t matter as much.
When you’re the impostor, your funny hats, bright pink or lime green spacesuit, and cute pets you carry with you make you more identifiable. The more incognito you can go, the less likely you are to get recognized. If a crewmate sees you acting suspicious, they are less likely to remember where you were or who you were by the time they have to walk all the way to the emergency button for a meeting.
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