What Kind of Among Us Player Are You?

During the time of physical distancing, people are looking for many different ways to connect with family and friends. Enter: online games. One game that has taken the world by storm is Among Us. Among Us has actually been around for a couple of years, but has only recently grown in popularity because of live streamers and other visibility. For example, political stars Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have been playing Among Us live on Twitch for voter outreach and to fundraise for COVID relief.

For those of you who don’t know, Among Us is a social deduction game in which teammates, aka crewmates, try to figure out who the saboteurs, aka impostors, are. In short, crewmates are in charge of completing tasks within a map while keeping an eye out for impostors, who are responsible for killing crewmates and sabotaging the ship. When someone is killed and their body reported, all players will convene and discuss who they think are impostors. After voting, a player is kicked out, whether they are an impostor or not.

Having played numerous hours of Among Us, both in public and private lobbies (NGL, I stayed up until 4 a.m. the first night I played the game), I’ve come across many different playing styles and strategies. Below, I list some of the most common types of players I've seen in Among Us.

1. The Taskmaster‍

Often a lone wolf, this crewmate’s first and only priority is to complete all of their assigned tasks. They’ll often be accused of being the impostor because they will run off on their own to complete tasks and no one can vouch for their location when a kill is reported. As a ghost, they diligently complete their tasks postmortem.

2. The Poor Sport

If this player is the impostor and they get caught, they’ll immediately name who their partner in crime was, ruining the game for everyone else. Most of the time this results in getting kicked from the lobby or they leave immediately because of how salty they are.

3. The Detective‍

As a crewmate, this player refuses to vote for anyone unless they have solid evidence. Hates players who will vote for the first player named as a suspect. Asks for everyone’s location when a body is reported to try to figure out who was closest to the dead body. Easily frustrated with the Noob and Poor Sports.

4. The Noob‍

It’s likely your first time playing. As a crewmate, when you report a body and everyone asks “where” you say “I don’t know, what's the room that's all the way on the right towards the middle?” You’re likely running through the different rooms not completing tasks because you either a) don’t know what room you’re in, b) don’t know how to complete tasks, or c) don’t even know what your tasks are. As an impostor, you’ll vent or kill someone right in front of another player (or a security camera) and get reported and voted off immediately.

"blue faking tasks" - me, while I work on a group project and my partner doesn't contribute anything

5. The Litigator

Are they a crewmate? Impostor? It’s so hard to tell! They’re so good at convincing other players that you forget whether you’re a crewmate or impostor. As impostors, they’re often able to kill right in front of a crewmate and manage to convince everyone in the lobby that that crewmate, is in fact, the impostor, leading to a tie vote and their remaining presence in the game.

6. The Assassin

How do they always end up as the impostor? This player knows all the vent routes and the perfect timing to kill all the crewmates before a body is even reported. When paired up with a Saboteur, this team of Impostors can be efficient and lethal.

7. The Shadow

This player seems sus because they seem to just be following other players around the entire game. However, they’re watching the task bar to see if it moves or to witness visible tasks. They are oftentimes more focused on figuring out who the impostors are and will not complete their tasks, frustrating the Taskmaster.

8. The Ne’er-Do-Wrong

For some reason, everyone believes whatever this player says. Maybe it’s because they seem like a really honest person. But when you vote with the Ne’er-Do-Wrong player and you end up kicking a crewmate off, your whole moral compass is thrown off and odds are the Ne'er-Do-Wrong player will be voted off next for being sus.

9. The Buddies

Usually complete strangers when they start playing together, the Buddies stay in a lobby together and are always vouching for each other. They will often follow each other as they complete tasks to protect one another. But, when one Buddy is the impostor and kills the other, the betrayal felt is like nothing else you can experience in the game. But Buddies have short-term memory, so the next game you can expect them to be following each other around again.

Them: "im sorry orange"

Me: "i thought we were friends purple"

10. The Saboteur

This impostor does not have the finesse to be an Assassin, so they spend their time sabotaging the ship and faking tasks. You’ll often find them standing in one spot watching the map, counting down the seconds until they can sabotage again.

Did I miss any types of players? Which player are you? I personally like to think I’m a combination of the Litigator and Detective. As long as you’re not a Poor Sport, let’s play sometime! I’m most often playing as my dog, Cricket. See you in the Skeld!