Among Us: How To Be A Better Imposter And Get Away With Murder

 Among Us: How To Be A Better Imposter And Get Away With Murder

Being the imposter in Among Us can be tough, but here are a few tips on how to be a better liar.

Ah yes, Among Us, the latest game that's taking over our social feeds and seizing our memes. Back in 2018, it was a way to connect with my friends back home and realize they're all still really bad liars, but have the most infectious giggles when they get caught and know I can't whoop their asses--I miss them very much. So with all that experience in catching liars, I'm here to help all you bad liars become better imposters.

Admittedly, it's a bit tough to guide folks through Among Us because success revolves around social interaction, not necessarily being good at a certain game mechanic or grasping deep gameplay systems. There are optimal ways to manipulate your environment or understand how certain tasks work, but when it comes down to identifying the imposter or defending yourself from being ejected from the crew, you have to be ready to speak up. This may not be ideal for some players, so take what you feel comfortable with from this guid

Depending on the rules, Among Us pits a number of innocent crewmates against one or two secret imposters, but lumps them all into one group of up to 10 players. Crewmates need to complete a number of tasks across the map before imposters kill enough of them, and imposters need to be clever about how they blend in and commit murders. Everyone deliberates when a dead body is reported or when an emergency meeting is called, and can subsequently vote on who to eject from the group, in hopes of ridding the crew of its imposters.

Veteran players know how this all works, but regardless, be sure to check how the host has configured the rules of the game before playing. Pay particular attention to the imposters' cooldown timer for kills, the parameters for tasks and types of tasks that have been set, player vision settings, and whether imposter confirmation upon ejection is enabled. Alright, that's enough setup,: let me show you how to be a better imposter --and feel free to share your own tips in the comments, too!

Make Sure You Know Your (Fake) Tasks

When you're designated imposter, you'll be given fake tasks across the map. These are in spots where real tasks happen, and provide effective opportunities to blend in with crewmates and act normal among them. You don't actually get to do anything for these "tasks," though. However, understanding what these tasks are is a key piece of concealing your identity throughout a match

It isn't much use if you don't know what those tasks entail, since some take longer than others, and some are multi-step processes that make you go to different locations on the map. Knowing the task's requirements gives you an idea of how long you should be at that location, especially when other players are keeping a watchful eye. During discussion phases, aggressive crewmates tend to question what others' tasks are and what they had to do, so you better be ready to reasonably lie your ass off to blend into the discussion and explain the tasks you were "supposed" to complete.

Track Where Others Are Going And Have Been

Sometimes it's not enough to just state your case when lying in discussions. You might also want to blend into talks by taking note of where crewmates have been and where they're going. This helps you look active in the process of weeding out imposters, but can also present opportunities to seed suspicion of others who might trip up defending themselves.

This is especially useful when you start killing crewmates yourself. When someone reports a dead body, everyone will question crewmate locations and tasks. If you can pin it on someone else because you saw them in rooms or hallways near the body, more power to you.

Work With Your Fellow Imposter

All the matches I've played have been set with two imposters among our group. And I found that chances of success increase significantly when working in tandem. Of course, you can't be talking with anyone during gameplay phases, but you should keep tabs on how they're moving and sometimes move with them.

The best reason for this is to set up double kills. Although there tend to be few opportunities to pull this off, it's especially effective when you have the chance. You can rid the crew of two players simultaneously and prevent either one from reporting dead bodies in that moment. It's dangerous, for sure, but it's efficient when you both slip away unnoticed.

Kill The Sharpest Crewmates Early

I have this one friend who is very observant and actually good at tracking who's doing what in relation to the rules and tasks given. He tries too hard, but I respect it. You know who you are, Jeremy.

That said, they should be in your sights early on, especially if the rest of the crew doesn't know you have it out for them. The last thing you need is them keeping a long list in their mind of where you've been and what you say you've been doing. This kind of player will grill you on your task list, what those tasks required you to do, why you took so long in one area, or why you moved on so fast from a task that should've taken longer. You don't need that energy in your hunt for crewmates.

Don't Sit On Your Kill Cooldown For Too Long

It's tempting to go for a kill once your cooldown recharges. It goes without saying that you should be very careful of when and where you kill a player, as well as being mindful of players in the vicinity and how you could create an alibi. But you should also be quick in getting that kill in.

After deliberations, whether it be from an emergency meeting or body report, imposter cooldown timers will restart when you get back to the game. It hurts to sit through that timer again and keep trying to fake tasks and hide in plain sight, so get to work on that kill as soon as is reasonably possible.

When playing with other tryhards, like my aforementioned friend Jeremy, keep in mind that they tend to use up their chance to call an emergency to simply reset the imposters' cooldown timer in the mid-to-late game. I hate it when this happens, so don't let it happen to you.

Kill The Lights To Cover Up Or Setup A Kill

As the imposter, you have a few map-wide distractions, called sabotages, at your disposal, which throw off the crewmates from their normal tasks and draw their attention to a temporary, but critical task. One of them can be the ability to turn off the lights on the map, which shrinks everyone's vision to what's immediately next to them, creating a dense fog of war for you to take advantage of.

The best use of this is to cover up a dead body, since you're limiting player vision, or to set up a kill and make sure no one else who might come around sees it happen. Turning off lights right after a kill can also buy you time to relocate and create a new alibi before someone discovers the body. On top of that, it'll also draw players to the task of restoring the lights.

Understand What Each Sabotage Does And Where It Forces Crewmates To Go

In a broader sense, imposter sabotages can be the key to pulling off slick kills unnoticed. However, each sabotage draws players to specific locations on the map, so you need to be mindful of where it takes them.

For example, in the snow map Polus, initiating the seismic stabilizer sabotage will take players to the two northern corners of the map to disable the countdown. This will help draw attention away from the lower end of the map, which could be useful if you're making a killing in those areas. Shutting down comms disables player task lists, so this would be good to disperse the overall group as they scramble to get comes back on and get back to tasks, especially if you're feeling uneasy about how you've been faking your own tasks.

Use Vents Sparingly

Imposters can use vents to hide away from everyone else. It's important to know where vents are to conceal yourself in butt-clenching situations when you have nowhere else to hide, or when you want to pull up on someone who enters a room alone. But you can't rely on vents too much.

Vents pause your kill cooldown timer from recharging, so hiding in one wastes precious time that can be spent setting up a kill. Staying in a vent too long can also hinder your ability to form an alibi when crewmates start to question where others have been and what others have been doing--no one can vouch for you (not even yourself) if they haven't seen you around.

Wow, it was purple in med bay.

Self-Report And Frame Others Only With Confidence

If you're a real savage, you can report a dead body yourself, but you better be ready to play it off. This can go two ways: you can either be like "wow, I found the body in [x] room, damn, ya hate to see it," or "WOW, I JUST SAW [other player] COMING FROM [X] ROOM, YOU LOOKIN REAL SUS BUDDY." Either way, you need to be able to play the part just like you would as a crewmate, and make sure you can cover your tracks. You also want to know who's been in the general vicinity, because you're the only one who's going to look suspicious if a dead body is in a spot no one else has been for a good long while.

Another similarly bold move is to kill someone right in front of another player, report the body, and immediately sell everyone on the lie that you saw that other player commit the murder. You basically have to lie so good that you're even convincing yourself of it. And you need to make sure the player you're pinning it on has either ambiguous or dubious status among the crewmates.

Please note that this method only has a chance of working when the option for imposter confirmation upon ejection is disabled. Even then, you'll want to use this sparingly; if anything in your case starts to fall apart, the only one looking sus is you.

The Infamous Stack Kill

I'm not going to say I've had success doing this, but damn do I respect a good stack kill. A stack kill is when a bunch of players stand in one spot doing a task--ideally more than four--and you hit the kill button, leaving everyone there wondering who the hell it was in that group that just committed murder in plain sight. Of course, this puts you in the conversation of suspicious players if you're noticed as one in the stack. Just be ready to defend yourself incessantly.

e.