Among Us: a guide to winning as an Impostor

By Renee Xiang,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

InnerSloth’s 2018 indie game Among Us has recently surged in popularity. In just a few short months, the online game has taken over streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, and risen to the third most played game on Steam, according to steamcharts.com. Among Us is all about social deduction, incorporating certain elements of deception and communication that hark back to childhood games like Clue or Mafia. 

The fun of the game comes when players land the role of the Impostor, whose job is to sabotage and kill the crewmates before they can finish their tasks. That being said, it can be hard to get away with lying to other players, especially if you’re playing with friends who may know your tells.

Here are some tried and true tips from players at Davis High which you can use to ensure your victory as an Impostor.

Time is of the essence.

With the clock ticking down until everyone’s tasks are finished, buying yourself time is imperative. The number one goal of any Impostor should be to increase the amount of time between group discussions in order to reduce their chances of being voted out before they can kill enough people.

The first step to successfully achieving this goal is to prevent the crewmates from discovering bodies by killing in isolated, low-traffic areas. Some examples of places to avoid are hallways and rooms with multiple entrances that act as thoroughfares.

“Try and find people who are alone, and if you can, try and find isolated spaces. If you’re inside a room and you have the ability to close the doors in that room, that’s good because it can delay the crewmates from finding the body that much longer,” senior Miles Beaulieu said. 

Use the sabotage mechanic to your advantage.

One of the features in the game accessible exclusively to Impostors is the sabotage function. Using it, Impostors can create temporary problems which the crewmates are forced to either fix or wait out. This can be used to your advantage in several ways, by acting as a diversion tactic, hindering other players’ abilities to complete their tasks and even providing a direct win if the problem is not fixed in time. 

Sophomore Joseph Zhou uses sabotage as a way of directing people away from a body, allowing him to distance himself from the kill and give himself an alibi, while simultaneously leading others to a different part of the map so that they are less likely to spot him running from the body.

“Sabotaging is the most important because if you kill someone on one side, you could sabotage on the other side [of the map],” Zhou said.

Gain the trust of the crewmates

Speaking of alibis, getting someone on the crew to vouch for you can make you less likely to seem suspicious to others. After making a kill, find a crew member to stick with for a little while, perhaps even taking time to fake some tasks during the cooldown period. 

Keep in mind, though, that other people may be keeping an eye on you, even while you’re acting like a crewmate. 

“It’s easy to spot someone who’s faking a task — they’ll either stay too long or too short, and you can gauge that by how long it takes you to do the task [as a crew member],” senior Emma Perdue said. 

To avoid giving yourself away, you should avoid visual tasks that other players can see being performed, and familiarize yourself with location, length and commonality of certain tasks.

Divert suspicion away from yourself

If you’re lucky, with the help of some subtle deception, you can get the crewmates to do some of the killing for you by having them vote off their own teammates. First, you can limit their ability to keep track of each player by turning off the lights. Reducing their vision will make it much harder for them to discern who is where.

If they happen to stumble across a body, they will have no way of telling who the killer is as long as you avoid their field of view. This tactic automatically creates more tension between crewmates, as they have no way of confirming their whereabouts and cannot rely on anyone else as their alibi. 

From here, you can simply sit back and wait for someone to point an accusatory finger at another crewmate. 

“I never like accusing people even when I’m not the Impostor because I just feel like that makes you look really suspicious, so I always wait for someone else to make an accusation and then I’ll get on board with it once a couple of other people have,” senior Jane Rauchway said.

With these useful tips under your belt, you’re well on your way to becoming a skilled Impostor, fooling all of your friends with ease in your next game of Among Us.

This article was corrected on Oct. 20 to revise the grade level of Joseph Zhou.