Among Us: Resuscitated by the Pandemic and Murdered by its Abatement

Among Us:

Among Us: Mafia During the Coronavirus

Among Us: Resuscitated by the Pandemic and Murdered by its Abatement

Games of Among Us are better with two impostors. One impostor is easy to discover, or at least to eliminate. If two players mutually accuse each other of committing murder, the remaining player have a simple solution. Vote one out, and then the other. Two impostors reduce the clarity of events. Impostors can vouch for each other, or kill to cover up a botched kill. More importantly, the second impostor can foster suspicion to remove it from the first. And discovering one impostor doesn't end the game. While Among Us does allow for a third impostor, even with seven crew members, a match would vastly favor the impostors. Five, six, or seven, players can only afford one impostor. Eight requires a tough decision, but it demands two impostors. One will never kill six without discovery. Fortunately nine and ten are perfect for two impostors. The best criteria is the two double kill limit. If a match can be won by the impostors if they both kill twice, the impostors register a significant advantage. If they need more than two double kills, that's preferable, and if less, the impostors have too much of an advantage. In a seven person game, a single impostor killing twice results in four crew and one impostor remaining. That isn't great. But playing with two impostors, the result of two double kills would be one remaining crew and two impostors. If the impostors can win in two rounds, with only one meeting, the crew doesn't have enough time to uncover clues to discover the villains.

I've made a helpful chart, outlining the theory in the chart below, with numbers up to a fifteen person game, if Inner Sloth ever graces us with one.

Player Number	Crew/Impostors	Double Double Kill C/I	Percentage C/I
5	4/1	2/1	80/20
6	5/1	3/1	83/17
7	6/1	4/1	86/14
8	6/2	2/2 – impostor victory	75/25
9	7/2	3/2	78/22
10	8/2	4/2	80/20
11	9/2	5/2	82/18
12a	10/2	6/2	83/16
12b	9/3	3/3 – impostor victory	75/25
13	10/3	4/3	77/23
14	11/3	5/3	79/21
15	12/3	6/3	80/20

Eight players offers the most difficult decision. Seven crew against one impostor is obviously too difficult on the solo player. But with two impostors, if each kills without discovery, one meeting doesn't allow for the crew to figure out who is their foe. Yet they must vote someone out or they lose when the two impostors kill again. The same could be true for a hypothetical twelve people, three of them impostors. But three kills, twice would be more difficult to achieve. The final tool of the impostor is sabotage. Impostors sabotage with a click of a button. They don't need to be in the location of the sabotage. There are two types, critical and inconvenient. A serious sabotage, if not fixed, ends the game in an impostor victory. This includes the reactor meltdown, oxygen shutdown, seismic stabilizer meltdown, and avert crash course, all of which function in a similar manner. An alarm warns the players, while a timer counts down. Flashing arrows point the way to fixing these catastrophes. While the imposter often uses these to distract, rather than win, my five year old son used the oxygen sabotage to defeat myself, my wife, and a small group of new players.

Inconvenient sabotages turn off the lights, temporarily close doors, or disable electronics (so people can't see tasks or use security systems). All sabotages are fixable on location. Impostors can fix them to deflect suspicion.

A dead crew member still needs to complete their tasks to help the other crew. A dead impostor can still sabotage, though they might want to stick to doors, allowing the living impostor to call the sabotages that best help them.

On the PC, Among Us has a collection of mods. These are not available for other platforms like phones. Inner Sloth is working on other updates, but hopefully they consider adding roles. Disguised Toast's group cycled through numerous roles developed by modders, and some of them dramatically improve the game. The most essential is the Jester. A Jester is a solo team, and that singular person wins if they are voted off. The Jester invaluably aids the impostor side, creating confusion in the crew member ranks, as they pretend to be an impostor. The impostors need the Jester as a third vote, and to deflect suspicion, but they eventually need to kill him, before he is voted off. Other interesting roles; the Sheriff, a crew member who can kill impostors, but if they try kill a crew member they die, the Snitch, who learns who the impostors are when they finish all their tasks, the Morphling, an impostor who briefly looks like another player, a Guardian, who protects one person from murder, and the Detective, who receives a clue when they visit the site of a murder. Inner Sloth could also create their own. What about a Psychic, who can stand still and send out their ghost to scout the map? I've got ideas. Call me!

While Inner Sloth is adding these, it also needs to fix a flaw. I know Among Us selects impostors randomly, but I don't think it does. In my fifteen sessions, I've had at least five, where, in a ten person game, it chooses the same person to be an impostor for six matches in a row. Just last week, in a six person game, over ten matches, one person was impostor seven times. I know true randomness appears strange to the human mind, but this is statistics gone awry.

I've watched Disguised Toast and his fellow players develop their strategy over a six month period (He announced last week that he is done posting his daily Among Us video on YouTube). Our cohort developed as well. At first crew members venture off solo from the start. They attempt their tasks without thinking of anything else. Impostors go straight for the kill. Most seem nervous of using vents. Eventually, fearing to be killed solo, crew members start to travel in pairs. Now impostors ask themselves, should we be a pair, or pair up with two crew members. Some impostors try to marinate a crew member, stay with them, and convince them they are also a crew member. Some pairs of impostors run around trying to perform double kills, killing two crew members simultaneously. The pairs become too much for the impostors to beat, and players start reconsidering their goals. How do you want to play Among Us? So that you always win as a crew member, but never as impostor? That can't be right! Winning as an impostor is the real treat. How can a player win more as impostor? First, by breaking the pair mindset. It's back to solo travel. But that's not enough. With enough games, players are on to how you play. Players have tics, behavioral tells they display, like poker, that change depending on whether they are crew or impostor. The other players know yours. There is another step. Scramble your tics. Lean into preposterous behavior while a crew member, pretend to help out while an impostor. Talk when you should be silent, be quiet when you should be boisterous. In other words, always play a little like a Jester. Stand on bodies instead of instantly reporting. Accuse people at random.

Don't throw as the crew member, but play so people can never be certain who you are. But adjust your style depending on the game. If the impostors are winning every match, play more crew-ish, and vice versa.

One of the best parts of Among Us, at least among friends, is the casual atmosphere. Sure, I spend more time thinking about it than most of the other people playing, but it's easy for everyone to play. Any sting of defeat is removed by the quick matches (5-15 minutes), and how swiftly a new match begins.

In conclusion, as the pandemic winds down, Among Us is sure to fade. But it was an excellent mafia style game available before we even knew it existed. Already, the player numbers on Steam are only a quarter of their peak. As I feel safe to meet the people face to face that I've played with screen to screen, our Among Us sessions will eventually end. But it was a good substitute while it lasted.

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