Among Us Tips and Tricks for Beginners

After way too many hours of Among Us, you start to notice the smaller things that can help you deduce who is innocent and suspicious, or come off as innocent. Most of this guide will be about the flow of information during meetings and what to do with it, but will include a glossary of small tips that are not well known.

Normally it would be nice to assume that all participants are completely rational and self serving, but I’ll provide some leeway here and there to substantiate.

I will be assuming that you are in a voice channel and there are 2 imposters.

Among Us Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Information Distrubtion

The first stage of every meeting, and arguably the most important. This will mostly include how crewmates should approach this (considering economically them winning benefits the most people), however there will be interjections for what imposter’s should do.

Although not perfect, information distribution should look around:

1. Hard Accusations
   Any absolute incrimination should not be taken lightly, which normally includes of only seeing the kill/imposter venting. Depending on the skill level of the lobby, crewmate vision, and whether lights are on/off will influence the certainty of the accusation at hand. Even if you see a body standing up right next to someone, there is a possibility depending on whether or not lights are out and the kill is near a vent, that a third party was involved.

As Imposter, even if you think you’ve been caught, hold onto your word as crewmate vision might save you. Although get ready to flip the script whenever.

2. Meeting Caller’s Questions
   The meeting caller has the potential to reveal contradictory information if their information is withheld. While self-reporting can undermine this, they will have serious plot holes in their story. Here are some of the most common lines of logic to go down if it was a self report:

a. They were last seen with the killed person.

b. They had just reached the location of the body very early into the round.

c. Their pathing is unusual (a loop back around, not double backing).

d. They were caught lying.

As imposter, you want to avoid this as much as you can so you can align your information with crewmates. Flip the script by asking other people what you were asked that were also potentially in the area with faulty reasoning, such as ‘I’m pretty sure x faked a task, so where were you actually?’, etc.

3. Positioning
   Where everyone is can determine suspects and innocents. Keep in mind 2 kills are required to full clear, with 1 only retaining innocence for that kill. Corroboration is very important, with those who corroborate kept track of.
4. Body Location
   Same logic as before.
5. Previous Information (Death Round)
   This is where it gets tricky. With most games that I have seen personally, imposters will lie through their teeth in order to get off scotch free or get a wrong kill. Normally information distributed from the early on will result in a confliction, with one/two hard accusing another one/two, and vice versa.

Note who doesn’t talk and those with the least information on them. Confirmation bias can really mess you up here.

As imposter, lobbies will tend to treat information from those who have died as absolutely true. Before getting to this point, you can muddy up the waters by asking whether or not they actually had said that, provide information from the points later on in order to distort evidence, provide crappy reasoning, etc.

6. ‘Important Information’
   This is where most lobbies I’ve seen falter. Many imposters will attempt to stall by flipping the script with no strong reasoning/push for unimportant information. Try to recognize stalling when it happens, as getting useless information will inevitably get you nowhere. This can include some of the latter information provided. Information from here alone shouldn’t be enough to push a kill.
7. Pathing
   Similar to positioning, but timing is quite a bit more significant. Not everyone has perfect memory, with concepts applied to positioning applied here.
8. Tasks
   Most good imposters will remember what they have done throughout the round. If you want to go the extra mile you can count how many tasks they’ve done, but common/chained tasks should mainly be considered.
9. Previous Information
   Although I wish people have perfect memory, old information can be mentioned as necessary. Information from the dead should be held as absolutely true, unless there is significant trouble with such which can include timing difference, lights/coms getting hit the round of, etc.

Reasoning

Probably the hardest part during meetings, as going down a slippery slope with 1 wrong assumption could end with the demise of crewmates.

At the end of the day, each player needs to evaluate for themselves whether or not the conclusions that are found are valid or not, but here’s a general process to go through when attempting to figure out who the imposter is. Avoid logical fallacies when you can.

**Really this whole section comes down to using your head and listing out all possibilities. Take it slow and methodically, and especially listen. You aren’t all-seeing/all-knowing. Bad information does get given out.

1. Deduction
It’s pretty safe to assume that all information is valid at the start (with the exception of the sudden death round), since most imposters will be afraid to claim since they aren’t all-seeing. Generally the imposter’s contributions will come in the form of ‘I was with x/y’ in order to make themselves appear clear but positioning matters much more. This is counteracted by the second imposter most of the time being able to claim so their teammate is ‘accounted’ for, but normally at the start of the game this rarely happens since most lobbies are incapable of pushing through so much information fast enough.

Normally, this results in ~ 2-4 people being suspects for the kill, but note those who seriously defend themselves. Since losing a crewmate is not as significant as losing an imposter (imposter needs 1 more kill to achieve victory and loses 1/2 kill potential), most imposters will vigorously defend themselves if inept. Otherwise, they will align themselves with currently available information in order to clear themselves, which is why withholding information is sometimes important to prevent confirmation bias. Crewmates will tend to provide other lines of logic and remember what the others have said if their fellow crewmates end up dead. (see stage 2 of information distribution)

Main Points:

• Assume most information that’s distributed early is good.
• Note those who provide small points/nothing. ex. ‘I was with x/y‘

ex. 3 people saying that all scan cancelled and saw each other’s names on the scanner itself.
x saw y scan
y saw z scan
z saw x scan
y should believe x is innocent, since y saw z scan and z saw x scan

2. Abduction
Combining unconfirmable information and confirmed information can sometimes lead towards a specific person. While stronger than induction, this should still be held lightly since imposters may take up this opportunity to frame, but regardless it should put them very high on the suspicion list.

Main Points:

• Running through this line of logic could frame someone else.
• Look at what killed crewmates have said from previous rounds.

ex. Positioning during death
x dies near y and z, y sees z
y dies the next round, and because he has died he is innocent
since imposters will generally be around a body when a kill happens, and the only suspect left is z

3. Induction
Based on the information presented (and if on death round, previous rounds), your goal is generally to see which person’s have a pattern of suspicious behavior/safe behavior. I would argue that movement doesn’t count as much, but when information is lacking there isn’t really much you can do. Give points individually to each point of previous information made that makes a person safe, and subtract when someone is acting suspicious. However, be careful of being gish galloped and falling under confirmation bias.

Main Points:

• Look at every point mentioned, add or subtract points whether or not it goes for or against someone.
• Imposter’s may take up the opportunity to constantly say evidence that would dissuade from the truth, so note this if one is speaking a bit much.

ex. 2 people always clearing each other/1 person always alone, taskbar reading, etc.
x, y, and z are all alive with 1 imposter left
x was seen doing a task, taskbar went up
y is nowhere to be seen during the last 2-3 rounds
z was accounted for the previous 2-3 rounds during kills
based off evidence, you can infer that x and z are innocent and y is imposter.

Election

Meetings are effectively useless if players do not vote. While each game will have it’s nuances, here are some factors you can take into consideration before pushing for the final vote.

1. Cleared?
   It’s generally better to determine who is safe rather than jumping to conclusions. Don’t forget to ask by whom, and why. It should go without saying, but try to stall before getting to this point as imposter. Trust these people significantly, unless you have reason to believe their information is bad otherwise.
2. Confirmed Actions
   The two conditions for such include 3 parties all confirming, or one that had seen the action ended up dead.
3. Amount of Players
   Meetings on 8, 9, and 10 are generally safe to push, with a lower suspicion level letting a sooner vote-off. 7 is relatively unsafe with 2 imposters, so vote wisely based on known information. 5 and 6 will force you to vote in order to prevent the game from immediately ending. The situation with 4 on 1 imposter is similar to the situation on 7, however crewmates should be much more wary of keeping track of each other. 3 is the same situation as 5 and 6.

Miscellaneous Tips

Assuming you know the main core features of the game, here are some tips that will help your gameplay. This might get expanded into a comprehensive guide, but we’ll see what happens.

• On the Skeld, the divert power panel in reactor is fake. With task bar updates having the option to be changed in the beta, it’ll be possible to fake tasks that normally catch people hard with immediate taskbar updates.
  
• While admin obviously shows how many are in each room, the room will flash when a body is killed (one will leave then immediately reenter).
  
• You can close out of windows after a task is complete to save time, or if the task autocompletes itself at some point you can even exit early.
  
• On Polus, killing on cams isn’t necessarily a death sentence. Since cameras force you to only look at one a time, as long as you make it quick you might be able to get away with it.
  
• ad hominems are generally suspicious enough, but it should be an immediate red flag if someone who has been talking quite a bit starts throwing them out.
  
• It’s easy to see sabotages for their direct implications, but their strongest effect is to pull crewmates away. Even if lights are extremely strong, if you can pull multiple crewmates from what they are doing, you’ll get a better opportunity potentially to catch someone in the corner.
  
• Communications is always an option for sabotage. You’ll have people who camp admin table/cameras/vitals, and since many will double back to check they are alive you’ll just have to force them off. Pushing this for tasks isn’t quite strong however, unless everyone is far away from the sabotage.
  
• Present yourself methodically. Sometimes I literally/jokingly admit in an unbelievable tone that I killed someone round 1. You can use this to your advantage in both ways, helping confirm information that you present easily, or ridicule someone after ‘jokingly’ admitting to killing someone.
  
• You can move while your role is being presented, and can click on the screen to see the role faster.
  
• This should go unspoken, but pay attention to those who do chained tasks. Divert power is especially strong for clearing people, as not many people are willing to bet that the task bar goes up immediately as soon as they reach the panel.
  
• Each task, whether short, long, or common always pushes the bar up the same amount. It should go without saying that you can use this to determine who faked a task.

I might update this as needed, but this should cover a good portion of high level gameplay.