Among Us has become a massive rage all of a sudden and for good reason too. This cross-platform party game that first arrived on Steam and eventually Android as well as iOS has an interesting psychological element set around fairly simple gameplay, with the win dependent on the user’s ability to identify the deception of others in the game.
Speaking of others, each game consists of 4-10 players, and 1or 2 players are usually the imposters depending on how many people are in the game. Either the crewmates (who must complete tasks to repair the ship) or the imposters (who need to kill everyone else) can win the game depending on who achieves their objective first. If you are someone who’s struggling to execute moves as an imposter and keep finding yourself unsuccessful in your attempts to take down the crewmates, then you will find what’s written next super helpful.
Sabotage moves in Among US
Imposters don’t enter the game empty-handed. They have a bunch of moves up their sleeve in the form of Sabotages. Each of these moves will weaken the crewmates or create situations that will lower their guard, thus giving the imposter the opportunity to move in for the kill move which we have elaborated later on in this article. If the crewmates are not able to fix the situation created by the Sabotage before the countdown, then the game automatically goes to the imposter. Let’s take a look at all the Sabotage moves and how they work.
O2
When you execute O2, the oxygen source of the ship is shut off and the crewmates need to enter two pin codes on two different number pads for the situation to be resolved. As an imposter, you can either make your move while the crewmates attempt to quell this situation or you can hope that they are not able to resolve the issue before the countdown strikes which will give you a natural victory.
Reactor Meltdown
Another major method to kill off all crewmates in one go is the Reactor Meltdown, a sabotage that requires two people to work together. In this case, they need to stop the meltdown by simultaneously holding their hands on a scanner at the same time for the issue to be resolved. When this situation occurs, you can make your move as an imposter to takedown crewmates or wait for the countdown to arrive at its natural end.
Communication (Comms Disruption)
This sabotage is a hard-hitter because the moment you execute this sabotage, crewmates will be momentarily blinded and unable to see their task lists or locations on the map. To add to the crewmate’s troubles, this sabotage move will put a hold on all surveillance by disabling security cameras, stop all vitals monitoring, and cut-off access to the admin map as well as door log. The only means to resolve this issue is to have two people at different locations in MIRA HQ restore it. So yes, Comms Disruption gives you ample opportunity to make one of those single kills.
Lights off
The Lights sabotage drastically reduces the vision radius of crewmates, making it easier for the imposter to move in for the kill. Since the crewmates will only see the imposter once they are extremely close, it will be too late by the time they discover who the imposter it.
Lockdown
You can impose a selective or ship-wise lockdown when you use the Doors sabotage, thus locking people into whatever rooms they are working in. The door/s can be locked for 10 seconds and cooldown will only be triggered when you execute another lockdown. Crewmates can re-open sabotaged doors in Polus by resetting four switches on a circuit breaker. One of the major benefits of this sabotage is that it can be executed with other sabotages and vice versa.
Despite how lovely these sabotages sound and the kind of destruction they are capable of wreaking, you cannot expect to get away with them as easily as you think. A watchful crew with a smart strategy is easily capable of overcoming these sabotage moves and a vote out is all that’s necessary to weed out a sloppy imposter. So use these perks wisely, keeping in mind the timing and circumstances you’re in before going for the kill.
What is the Kill ability?
Only imposters have the Kill ability, which as the name suggests, gives them the power to kill crewmates on the ship. All thought, strategy, and sabotage moves are invoked to make the final kill move that will reduce the number of crewmates on a ship, making it easier for the imposter to take the game.
Despite having the ability to kill, you need to remember that it’s not possible to go on a killing spree because right after performing one kill, the imposter requires about 10 to 60 seconds to reacquire the ability again. It’s better to perform kills at a short distance so that you require very little cooldown time. Besides this, the kill stops recharging if you enter a vent, checking the cameras, sensors, or the vitality machine.
Finally, keep in mind that the killing ability does not bypass through walls/obstructions as it only works at a certain distance in a straight line. So if there is an object between the crewmate and impostor, a kill won’t be possible.
Kill strategies
It must be fairly obvious by now that you cannot just go about killing crewmates. There has to be a strategy in place to ensure that you’re not caught in the act. Let’s look at some of them now.
Vent Killing
The super stealthy ability to travel through vents is only given to imposters. Now, this ability can be used against you if you are caught by crewmates entering or exiting one, resulting in an immediate ejection. On the other end, crewmates standing near vents make for easy pickings, so you can finish off a crewmate near a vent and then go right back through the vent and emerge elsewhere till your kill ability is restored again. You can use the same strategy to ambush unsuspecting crew members who walking past the vents and killing them.
Vents are an extremely useful strategy on the Polus map. For example, it’s easy to kill a crewmate who is doing a wiring task in the Laboratory by sabotaging the lights and then hopping in using the Lab vent to wait for another crewmate. When using vents, be careful not to use them for or other players will eventually vote you off because they simply haven’t seen you around.
Killing in a crowd
Even crewmates are smart in their approach which is why you will see that many of them travel in groups so that they are not picked off easily. What you can do in this case is sabotage either the lights or comms and the whole crew will gather. Next, fake doing repair tasks and when everyone’s attention is otherwise occupied, take the knife to a crewmate’s back. Since the kill will be reported instantly and crewmates will not be able to discern who did it, all it will culminate into is a bad ejection or a skip. Nevertheless, don’t overuse this strategy because crewmates will catch on that you’re behind them if they see you so frequently.
Crewmate separation using the right sabotage moves
Catching a crewmate alone is one of the toughest things to do in the game. This is when a sabotage move like lockdown or lights off becomes extremely useful. But you cannot just execute the sabotage and expect the crewmates to disperse. First, you need to do something major to cause a separation like a reactor meltdown or O2 deprivation that will force the crewmates apart to resolve the situation and fix it. Once you have the crewmate where you want them, they will be easy pickings.
Keep sabotage moves for the last minute
Now, you may find yourself in a 1 vs 3 or 2 vs 3 situations in which case making the right sabotage move will mean that you have essentially won. Activate a massive situation like reactor meltdown that will require two crewmates to split off, leaving on crewmate vulnerable and ripe for the picking. Once you’ve taken down the vulnerable crewmate, you need to make sure to activate another crew splitting sabotage or simply make sure that you’re close to one when you activate a normal one like light-off. In any case, the game will be yours because you will have essentially created a situation that is impossible to fix.
Non-Kill strategies
Kill move and sabotage are not the only ways to win this game. You can vote out innocent crewmates or create enough alibis to not draw major suspicion to take the game from them just as easily. Let’s look at the kind of approach you need to take to be able to successfully execute this.
Cast your vote carefully in the crew meetings
The first thing that happens once a crewmate is dead is a crew discussion. This is also when a vote is cast to eject members from the ship. Pay attention to the conversation and gauge whether there is solid evidence against your fellow imposter before voting them out. Keep in mind that should you decide not to vote in such situations, you could lose the trust of your crew. Alternately, if the crewmates don’t suspect you and your fellow imposter, work together to make sure that no one suspects the two of you and make sure that you’ll vote out as many crew members as possible.
Voting is a very tricky subject because everyone is super volatile and suspicious. They will be looking for a scapegoat and if you advocate too heavily for a crewmate, that would make them look at you with suspicion as well so be careful when you cast your vote.
Be careful about surveillance
Crewmates can watch everything that is happening from the security cameras on the Skeld. They get a view of the hallway between Upper Engine and the Cafeteria, the vertical hallway from Upper Engine to Lower Engine that connects to Reactor and Security, the hallway between Weapons and a vent located near Navigation and O2, and finally, the hallway between Cafeteria and Storage. If you cannot remember the locations, then keep an eye out for the cameras in these approximate areas, and more importantly, if the camera flashes red, it means that you’re being watched.
Play the innocent
Whether its a crew discussion or you’re moving about in the ship. Try not to get seen going to places of your kills so you aren’t a suspect if a body is found there. You also need to make sure that even if you’ve been seen, you have your excuse ready to defend yourself during a crew meeting. Playing the innocent requires major practice in lying and denial. Make it a point to sound as convincing as possible without trying too hard. It can be a very delicate balance that you’re trying to maintain.
Look Busy
One of the biggest giveaways of imposters is that they cannot perform any tasks. So you need to make sure that you give the impression that you are since that’s a major identifier for crewmates. Of course, try to avoid physical tasks such as moving boulders because you won’t be able to fake those anyway. But if you cannot avoid these tasks, then move away from the task when the taskbar is filled to make it look like you did something to contribute. Look busy performing other tasks that no one can tell whether you’re performing or not. Crewmates prove their innocence by performing tasks, so make sure to take this aspect seriously.
Report bodies
Yes, reporting bodies that you see (or are the cause for) is an effective way to evade suspicion. However, you need to make sure that you don’t report every crewmate you kill because it starts to look suspicious and many innocent crewmates have gone the ejection way because of suspicious crewmates not being able to believe them. So this is a move that needs to be made judiciously, once in a while without drawing attention.
Among Us is a very social game, meant to encourage interactions between humans as well as add some fun to the party. Definitely try this game out if you haven’t already and if you are already hooked, then have fun! Take care and stay safe.
