How To Play Among Us (Everything You Need to Know)

Among Us’ gameplay is somewhat different from your typical mobile game (or any other regular game for that matter), making it a little difficult to grasps the mechanics at first.

In this post, I’ll show you everything you need to know on how to play Among Us plus some tips to get you started.

Game Mechanics

Among Us is a casual multiplayer game centered around deception and deduction. It’s that kind of game where you need to pay attention to your surroundings and observe the behavior of other players to win.

You can play with other players through the public or private hosts online or with your friends locally via local wifi.

Depending on the host setting, there will be 4-10 total players in a match. And each match will have 1-3 impostors and the rest are crew members.

Once the game starts, you will be assigned a role to either a crewmate or an impostor. Each role will have very different objectives and conditions to win the game.

RELATED: How To Download Among US on PC for Free

Playing as a Crewmate

Doing a task as a crewmate in among us

As a crewmate, your main objective is to complete all assigned tasks and deduce who among you is an impostor.

Your team will win once you meet either one of these conditions:

  • All tasks from all crewmates are completed
  • There is no longer an impostor in the game

Tasks

While impostors can pretend to do tasks, only crewmates have the ability to finish tasks. It is one of the winning conditions as a crew member in Among Us so it is imperative to finish these as soon as possible.

However, doing tasks will require some of your concentration since it will require you to solve some easy puzzles like a mini-game. It will also take up a huge space on your screen, making it hard to pay attention to your surroundings.

It may be the most vulnerable time for crewmates, but you will get faster in solving these as you spend more time in the game.

To find the list of tasks assigned to you, look at the upper left corner of your screen. You can toggle this list on/off too if you want to free up some space on your screen.

There 3 types of tasks:

  • Common Tasks – These are tasks that are very easy to do and are given to all crewmates. Meaning, if one crewmate has a task to fix wiring, all crewmates have the same task.

  • Short Tasks – These tasks can sometimes take 1 or 2 steps to complete but they are still fairly easy to complete. In most cases, it may require you to fix something from two different rooms.

  • Long Tasks – In most cases, these tasks will take multiple steps across multiple rooms. It may also require you to solve puzzles on your screen that take longer to finish.

It’s also worth noting that you can still do tasks even if you’re dead. As a ghost, you can still help your team to win the match.

Playing as an Impostor

Killing crewmates as an impostor in among us

As an impostor, your only goal is to kill every crew member on the ship. 

You and your fellow impostors will win if:

  • The crewmembers failed to stop a lethal sabotage
  • The number of alive crewmates is equal to the number of alive impostor(s).

But remember, you are the minority here. And every crewmate’s goal is to identify you so they kick you out of the ship and return to their peaceful space life.

So you have to be sneaky when eliminating other crew members. You also have to be convincing if somebody suspects you so you can misdirect the crew member’s attention and force them to kick someone else.

Impostor-specific Actions

Since impostors really lose out in terms of numbers in the beginning, they have actions that only they can use throughout the game.

There are specific actions that are available only to Impostors:

  • Kill Action – You can assassinate a crewmate by getting close to them then pressing the Kill button at the lower right side of your screen.

    Depending on the Kill Distance setting, you may have to get really close to your target before you can activate this skill.

  • Sabotage – You can close doors, turn off lightings or even perform sabotages that can prove fatal to crew members if left unattended.

    You can utilize this skill to misdirect the crewmates’ attention or even set a trap for one of them.

    Also, the emergency meeting cannot be used until the sabotage has been fixed.

  • Ability to use Ventilations – impostors can click on ventilations to quickly move from one room to the next.

    While this is a great way to escape from the crime scene and avoid suspicions, you should be mindful of security cameras before going out of the vents.

    Only impostors can use vents and getting caught from the surveillance camera is a surefire way to get thrown out of the space ship.

    If a security camera is flashing red, it means that someone is using watching and you should avoid getting out of that specific area at all cost.

Reporting Dead Bodies

Reporting a dead body as a crewmate in among us

Reporting a dead body is an action available for both the Crewmates and the Impostor. Once you’re near a corpse, click on the Report button on the lower-right side of your screen (Just above the Use button).

And once a body is reported, you will all be teleported to the cafeteria and a voting/discussion phase will initialize. There will also be an icon next to your character that signifies you’re the one who found the dead body.

All dead bodies will also disappear once the meeting is over.

Calling Emergency Meetings

Calling emergency meeting in among us

At the cafeteria section of any maps, an emergency button is available for everybody to use, including impostors. Like the Report button, everybody will be teleported back to the cafeteria and will trigger a discussion/voting session once this button is clicked.

But unlike the report function, there is a limit on the number of times you can call a meeting depending on the host setting.

This is a great tool for crewmates to use if you witness a murder from face to face or through a security camera. It’s also a good way to discuss something with your crewmates like confirm to confirm a suspicion or simply generate a strategy to rat out the impostor.

Be warned though, since everybody is in the conversation, this will make your strategy known to the impostors as well. So your plan better is fool-proofed or you might get burned.

Calling an emergency meeting to point your fingers on someone without enough proof to back it up can also backfire and you might end up getting thrown from the spaceship instead of the real impostor.

Anyway. setting the emergency meeting to 1-2 per match is a good one as this will add more depth to the game.

Voting, Discussion and Ejection Phase

Discussion phase in among us

Every time someone reports a dead body or call an emergency meeting, the voting and discussion phase will trigger. All surviving crewmates and impostors will be teleported back to the cafeteria.

Depending on the host setting,  you will be given a certain amount of time to discuss some clues like where the body is found, who’s with whom or simply let your suspicion known to others.

This is where you get to use your power of deduction or deception.

After the discussion time is over, comes the voting time. During this phase, everybody gets to vote who should be ejected from the space ship.

For crewmates, voting someone off the space ship is the only way you can get rid of the impostors so make this one count.

Crew members can also choose to skip voting if not enough information was provided during the discussion. After all, life is precious, right? Likewise, if you failed to pass your vote within the time limit, your vote will then go to Skipped.

Voting time can also be set from the host settings. Since you can still discuss during the voting time, we recommend setting the discussion time to 0 and increase the voting time to make everything seamless.

After everyone voted, the Ejection phase will begin. Everything is decided through the majority rule so whoever gets the most number of votes will be kicked out of the space ship leaving them for dead in the vast unknown.

In the event that there is a tie, either through a skipped vote or through other crewmembers, no one will get ejected.

Also, if the host setting “Confirm Ejects” is enabled, the system will reveal if that some you all chose to get thrown out is an impostor or not.

We suggest disabling this setting once you get a hang of the game to make it more interesting. I mean, it’s super hard to play an impostor in Among Us if everybody knows the ins and out of the game.

Game Host Settings

It’s worth noting that the host settings can highly affect the flow of the game. Some of these settings could actually break the fairness of the game so it is a good idea to check it before deciding to join a game.

Here are the settings the host can set prior to starting the game, I also put the settings I look for when playing the game:

Host SettingMinimum/Max ThreshholdMinimum/Max ThresholdDescription
Confirm EjectsEnabled or
Disabled
DisabledIf this setting is enabled, the system will reveal wether the ejected player is an impostor or not. It will also provide information of the remaining impostor within your crew.
Emergency Meetings0 to 92Sets the number of Emergency Meetings the players can call for each match
Emergency Cooldown0 secs to 60 secs30 secsThis setting sets the interval duration before another emergency meeting can be called.
Discussion Time0 secs to 120 secs0 secsThis setting sets the duration of the meeting before the voting time.
Voting Time0 secs to 300 secs120 secs – 180 secsThis sets how many seconds you have to place your vote. If you do not place a vote for someone after this duration is over, will automatically Skip voting.
Player Speed0.5x to 3.0 x1.25x – 1.5xThis setting determines how fast each players can walk throughout the match.
Crewmate Vision0.25x to 5.0x0.75xThis setting sets how far any crewmate vision can see when moving around.
Impostor Vision0.25x to 5.0x1.25xThis setting sets how far any impostor vision can see when moving around.
Kill Cooldown10 secs to 60 secs30 secsSets the duration before an impostor is allowed to use the Kill action.
Kill DistanceShort, Medium, LongshortSets how close the impostor should be from the target before the Kill action can be triggered.
Visual TasksOn and OffoffIf this setting is enabled, some taks such as the Destroying Asteroids or MedBay scanning can be seen by other playes. This is an irrefutable proof that you are a crewmate since impostors can not do this task.
Common Tasks0 to 22Sets the number of basic tasks each crewmember must finish.
Long Tasks0 to 31Long Tasks are a series of tasks than only be completed by finishing multiple tasks from different rooms.
Short Tasks0 to 53Short Tasks are a series of tasks than can be completed from the same room. This setting sets the number short tasks each crewmember must complete.

Among Us Maps

The skeld map in among us

Knowing the layout of you the map you are playing will play a big role in how you move as a crewmate or as an impostor.

Each map will offer different sets of tasks and may not allow impostors to move in and out of the vents. Each map deserves a dedicated post for the best strategies but let me give a quick introduction to them.

The 3 maps currently available in Among Us are:

  • The Skeld – This is perhaps the most commonly used map in the game. It is set from within a spaceship traveling back to earth.

    It offers lots of small rooms, giving the impostor plenty of opportunities to kill a crewmate. While at the same time, the distance from each room isn’t too far apart, making the tasks easier to access for the crewmates.

    It also offers surveillance rooms for the crewmates and many ventilation exit points for the impostors.

    It’s the perfect map to play with if you’re just starting out in the game.

  • MIRA HQ – This one is set from within the floating Headquarters Mira (or at least it feels floating) after the Skeld spaceship has landed.

    This one feels a little bigger than the Skeld map. It offers long hallways and doing tasks is a little harder on this map.

    It also offers surveillance in the form of Door Log and Admin access. Unlike the security cameras in the Skeld, the surveillance here doesn’t give visual confirmations making it a little harder to catch impostors.

    And for better or worse, the doors here require some “decontamination” procedure making it slower to move between rooms.

    I recommend playing on this map once you get comfortable with the game since it will be a little harder to play as a crewmate on this map. And you will be playing as a crewmate more often than not, right?

  • Polus – This is the largest map currently available in Among Us and perhaps the hardest map to play as a crewmate.

    Since impostors have access to vents, crewmates have a disadvantage in terms of mobility on this map. And while there is a security room with a visual view on this map, you can only watch one area at a time.

    Due to the size of this map, it’s also pretty hard to finish the tasks here.

    Don’t get me wrong, it’s still super fun to play on this map. It actually seems pretty fair to play 1 vs 9 in this map as an impostor compared to other maps.

Conclusion

I initially put off playing this game because it doesn’t suit my kind of game aesthetically speaking. However, playing this game once made me see why this game has become really popular.

For a game like Among Us, knowing the rules and how it works makes a game like even more enjoyable.

If this post helped, share it with your friends so you can have one more person to play with.

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