Among Us: How to play impostor, tips and strategy guide
Impostors in Among Us have a tough time ahead, and are largely responsible for making games fun. The better you can play impostor, therefore, the more fun you’ll make the game for everyone else. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while playing impostor, and some good tips and strategies to use in your own games.
Among Us Impostor fundamentals
Starting with the basics, your primary focus as impostor in Among Us should be on remaining undetected. Whether you kill the crew quickly or slowly won’t matter if they identify you right away, so don’t be afraid to take your time, observe the crew, and test their game knowledge and perception.
Remember that, as impostor, you dictate the pace of your game of Among Us. Take some time to get used to the map, the players, the sabotages, and the vents however you can before you move on.
Every map has the same three main types of sabotages, while two of the maps also have the ability to lock doors. The three types of sabotages are:
- Turn off the lights
- Split players up
- Bring players together
You’ll want to use these to your advantage to control where the crew goes and what they have access to. One thing to note is that, during a sabotage, the crew can not call emergency meetings without reporting a body. Let’s look at them in more detail.
Among Us: Hey, who turned off the lights!?
Lights are probably going to be the most useful sabotage for you to use as impostor. When the lights go off, the crew will only be able to see in a small radius around themselves, while impostors will be able to see as normal. Use this time to move around undetected, sneak kills in improbable areas, and possibly even frame a member of the crew.
One important thing to remember is that darkness doesn’t present a critical threat to the crew, and it doesn’t stop them from doing tasks. Be sure to watch how the crew responds to this sabotage to plan your next moves.
Additionally, just because the lights are off in Among Us doesn’t mean that the crew is blind. They’ll still be able to see you if they’re up close.
And finally, because you don’t see the darkness as impostor, you should look at the sabotage indicator on the left to see where the lights are at the moment.
Among Us: Everybody, come check this thing out
On each map in Among Us there are one or more sabotages which tend to bring everyone to the same location. These include the reactors, the comms sabotages, and even the lights. Of these three, the reactor sabotage tends to be the most powerful, and thus have the greatest “pull” on the crew, while lights have the weakest “pull” in Among Us. This is because lights, as mentioned above, don’t end the game or stop tasks.
The reactor, on the other hand, initiates a countdown that, if it reaches zero, results in an impostor victory. It also requires two people to interact with two pads simultaneously, which usually causes more players to show up than normal.
Comms sabotages also pull players to a single location, but work a bit differently. They don’t start a countdown, but they do make it harder for the crew to do their tasks in Among Us. Therefore, with little else to do, the crew usually goes to comms to sort out the sabotage.
Getting the crew to group up in a single location is useful for keeping them away from areas you might not want prying eyes (such as a dead body elsewhere on the map) or just to see if there are any crew who definitely ignore the crisis (making them an easier target).
Among Us: Alright gang, let’s split up!
The final category of sabotage in Among Us are those which encourage players to split up. For these ones, we have the O2 sabotage on Skeld and MIRA HQ, and the seismic dampener on Polus. O2 sabotages require the crew to input a code in two different and far apart locations, but doesn’t require that they both be done simultaneously.
Nevertheless, the crew usually splits up for these tasks to get it done more quickly. Late game, however, the crew may decide to accomplish these one at a time in order to keep an eye on everyone, but that usually doesn’t happen except with highly coordinated crews.
The seismic stabilizers on Polus, however, require that one person on each end interact with the pad simultaneously, requiring that the groups split up to accomplish it.
These tasks are great for picking off crewmembers who split up from the groups, but you want to be careful about picking off easy targets. An observant crew will be able to tell who was vulnerable, and discern who was mysteriously absent, to discover who the impostor is in Among Us.
Among Us: Be seen to remain hidden
The best way to throw off crew suspicion in Among Us is to be seen doing tasks. Therefore, don’t be afraid to let crew members observe you doing normal crew things from time to time, it might even get them to defend you when the meetings get called. However, you will eventually need to sneak away as an impostor in order to get a kill.
To do this, carefully control who sees you with whom and when. A common tactic is to let yourself be seen leaving a group with one person, call in a sabotage (usually lights) to cause confusion, slip away from the person you left with and kill someone else, only to return to them before the sabotage can be resolved.
By doing this, you can get a kill while seemingly being around a crewmember the entire time. Another trick might be to frame a crew member. Hit the lights and try to wait for a scattered group to walk to the electrical room. Kill someone towards the middle and evade being seen, that way it will seem like someone in the group went for the kill.
Among Us: With friends like these…
But at the end of the day, nothing is more powerful than having a friend. Most games feature two impostors, and if the two of you can work together you might be able to manipulate the entire crew. Double kills are a common way for impostors to take down players who pair up.
Because communication is only possible during meetings, however, you may need to be careful and creative about how you communicate.
Among Us: I wonder what’s down here
And finally, as an impostor you’ll want to make sure you take advantage of the vents scattered around the maps. On the Skeld and Polus, the vent systems tend to be fairly small and isolated, but they’re still useful for evading crew or surprising someone who is out of position.
MIRA HQ is the real place where vents shine, as all vents are connected through a web. This means that a player can jump into a vent at the launch pad, pop out at the cafeteria for a kill, then vent all the way to O2.
Be careful about using them too much, you don’t want to be seen and you wouldn’t want someone to check the hall logs to see if anyone might be jumping around them, but MIRA HQ is arguably the most vent-happy map currently available.
Among Us: Pick your targets
Once you’ve gotten used to controlling how the crew moves around you’ll want to take some time to pick your targets. If you play with a regular group, you probably know which players are best at figuring out who impostors are, and you may want to target them as a result.
If you play with people online, however, take some time to see which players seem to know what they’re doing and target them first. These will be the players who control discussion and handle sabotages the best.
Additionally, make sure you pay attention to the discussion. If a crew member seems to have drawn suspicion, see if you can frame them for a kill, or at least keep them alive to split crew loyalties.
Among Us is ultimately a game about deception, so you’ll want to pull out every trick in the book.
Among Us: No matter what, have fun
Remember what I said about how the impostor’s job in Among Us is to make the game fun for everyone. Sometimes that means being creative. Ultimately, you shouldn’t get mad at anyone who figures you out. Remember, it’s only a game, you don’t have to be mad.