The social deduction game that took the internet by storm isn’t out of surprises just yet. We already knew that Among Us developer InnerSloth at one time had plans to make a sequel to their game. Once it became the phenomenon that it did, their plans changed to continue supporting the simple yet addicting original. That extra support has finally resulted in the biggest update to the game yet, including new achievements, costumes to purchase in a new store, an XP system, and perhaps the most substantial change, the introduction of four new roles players can take.
These roles, the Shapeshifter, Engineer, Guardian Angel, and Scientist, spice up the now-familiar routine of crewmates and imposters attempting to deceive or expose the others. That will still be the main focus of the game; however, these roles will add a new layer of mechanics for both sides that promises to make matches even more dynamic and unpredictable. Whether you’re a master of deduction and subterfuge, or interested in jumping into this hit social deduction game for the first time, you’ll need to understand how these roles work. Hit the emergency meeting button because we’ve got all the info on these new Among Us roles right here.
Further reading
- How to play Among Us
- The best Among Us costumes
- Among Us: Essential tips and tricks for crewmates and imposters
How to play with roles in Among Us
If you want to start playing Among Us using the new roles, all you need to do is start up the updated version of the game and begin playing. With the new update, roles are automatically included as the core experience. But, just like you can never count on being a crew member or imposter, you also never know which role you’ll get. Plus, the default crew member and imposter roles still exist, so you will still end up getting matches where you are playing the game in the same way you did before the update.
Still, even if you’re the vanilla crew member or imposter, you will want to know all the new tricks and strategies the new roles have so you can prepare for, and possibly counter, them as you play. Also, when setting up a match, you can determine how many players will fill each role in your match. To do this, access the computer during the pregame lobby that you would normally use to change other game settings. A new tab has been added where you can tweak the number of Shapeshifters, Engineers, Guardian Angels, and Scientists that will be assigned in your game.
When browsing for games, you can also see what the odds are that you will get each of the four new roles by looking at the Roles Settings. Here you can see how many of those roles can exist, and the percentage chance of any player getting that role.
How to play as the Shapeshifter
The Shapeshifter is the only new role given for the imposter team, but is also the most tactical and comes with tons of potential. The main idea is that the Shapeshifter can copy the appearance of any other crew member in the game for a duration of time. The crew member has to be alive to copy them and is very obvious if someone is around to see you do it.
The Shapeshifter takes being an imposter to a new level. Using the Shift ability, you can pick any living crewmate to disguise yourself as for a limited time. Again, the act of shifting is a dead giveaway, and you will leave behind some evidence that can reveal you as well, so, as with using vents, discretion is key. Once you’re disguised, you will have the same appearance and name as the person you choose, thus being a perfect copy.
Once shifted, the best way to use this ability is to frame others for being the imposter. The best-case scenario is if you can kill someone and have a witness, but manage to escape when the disguise fails. When a meeting is called, even if the disguise is still on, you will appear in the room as your default appearance and name. The main thing to avoid while being a Shapeshifter is the actual person you’re taking the identity of. If the two of you are seen together, then it will be a dead giveaway that one of you is the imposter.
How to play as the Engineer
The first of the new roles for the crew member team is the Engineer, but it may end up being a double-edged sword. In the original version of Among Us, seeing someone use the vents to travel through the map was a dead giveaway that they were the imposter, but now the Engineer can also access the vent system in the exact same way.
You can use the vents in a number of ways as the Engineer. Obviously, it is a great way to get around the map in a hurry to complete objectives, but the risk of being confused for the imposter is very high when doing this. It’s best used, as with an imposter, when alone. You also need to know that in games with more than one imposter, that team will know the other imposter as well, so if any imposter spots you using vents, you’ll be an easy target. If you want to play risky, you technically could use the vents to try and sneak up or pursue an imposter to catch them in the act of killing, but you may end up being the prey instead.
Finally, vents are your hail Mary escape attempt as an Engineer if things go bad. Just know that imposters can obviously follow you into the vents, and you can only hide in them for 30 seconds before being forced to exit.
How to play as the Guardian Angel
A Guardian Angel’s abilities shine only after they’ve been killed, unfortunately. While dead, and in ghost form, a Guardian Angel has the ability to cast a protective shield on their surviving crew members that will keep the imposter from being able to kill them. You still can’t vote during meetings, obviously, and you can’t do anything different from a normal crew member while alive.
Being a Guardian Angel is tricky. First, you will need to die in order to actually take advantage of this role’s unique skill. You shouldn’t try and get yourself killed since you’ll be more useful alive, but this role is more of a backup to try and be a little more helpful to your team postmortem. The main ability, shielding surviving crew members, has a very long cool-down time between uses of a full minute. That means you can’t just spam shields on any and every crew member you want, but should instead keep a close eye on as many friendlies as possible and cast a shield when you see danger approaching. You will know at least one of the imposter’s identities, so protecting your team from them should be your main focus.
On the other hand, the other imposters you don’t know won’t be revealed to you. What that means is you can actually cast your shield on an imposter if you’re not careful. Try and follow along and suss out who the imposters really are before casting shields to avoid wasting them.
How to play as the Scientist
Last up, the Scientist role is another very fun idea that could be a huge help, or just cast more doubt and chaos among the crew members. What this role does is allow the player to see all the other players’ vital signs, meaning they will know who is alive and who is dead from anywhere on the map. To keep that from being too powerful, the ability does have a battery that needs to be charged by completing tasks.
The key to being a Scientist is being careful about when you use your ability to check vitals. Try and make a mental note of who is with whom as best you can, then later, when it’s safe of course, check the vitals and see if anyone is dead. If you can remember who a dead crew member was wandering around with, it may point to them being the imposter.
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