Among Us: Complete Guide

Everything you need to win as Crewmate or Impostor: tasks, sabotages, every role including the new Judge, map notes, meeting play, and lobby settings.

Researched September 2026 — current as of v18.0.0 (the Judge update, August 18, 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

Crewmates win by finishing all tasks or voting out every Impostor. Impostors win by killing until they equal the Crewmates, or by letting a critical sabotage (Reactor, O2, Seismic Stabilizers, Crash Course) run out.
Do your tasks. Task bar progress is the Crewmates' clock. Wandering around "investigating" instead of tasking is the most common way crews lose.
Dead players still do tasks. As a ghost, keep finishing your list; ghosts walk through walls, so you finish fast.
Visual tasks prove innocence (when they are enabled in settings). Medbay Scan, Clear Asteroids, Empty Garbage/Chute and Prime Shields show an animation only a real Crewmate can trigger.
Watch who vents. Only Impostors and the Engineer can use vents. A vent call is strong evidence, but ask about roles first.
Report bodies, don't just flee. A body nobody reports gives the Impostor a free kill and no information for you.
Talk with information, not vibes. "I saw Red leave Electrical right before the body" beats "Red is sus."
Check the new Match Info Guide (v18.0.0) to see which roles and settings are active in your lobby before you make claims about them.
Skip if unsure. An ejected Crewmate is a free kill for the Impostors. Voting early and randomly helps them.

How a Round Works

Phase	What happens	What to do
Free roam	Crewmates task; Impostors kill and sabotage	Task efficiently, note who you see and where
Body report / Emergency button	Everyone is pulled into a meeting	Share where you were, who you saw, what you did
Discussion + voting	Timed chat, then votes	Vote on evidence; skip when evidence is thin
Ejection	Most-voted player is thrown out (confirm ejects is a setting)	Update your read on who is left

Emergency meetings are limited per player and have a cooldown (both set by the host). A sabotage in progress blocks the button.

Critical vs. non-critical sabotages

Sabotage	Maps	Type	Fix
Reactor Meltdown	The Skeld, MIRA HQ, The Fungle	Critical	Two players hold the two hand scanners at once
Oxygen Depleted	The Skeld, MIRA HQ	Critical	Enter the code at both O2 panels
Reset Seismic Stabilizers	Polus	Critical	Fix both stabilizer panels before the timer ends
Avert Crash Course	The Airship	Critical	Fix both panels before the timer ends
Fix Lights	Most maps	Non-critical	Flip switches in the Electrical panel (Crewmate vision shrinks, Impostor vision does not)
Comms	All maps	Non-critical	Fix the Comms panel; tasks and admin info are hidden until then
Doors	Several maps	Non-critical	Wait them out (or fix door panels where the map has them)
Mushroom Mixup	The Fungle	Non-critical	Everyone looks alike temporarily; wait it out and be careful

Criticals are the Impostors' best tool: they pull the crew to one spot, split the group, and create cover for kills on the way.

Maps

Map	Size	Notes
The Skeld	Small/medium	The classic. Vents link in small networks (e.g. Electrical, Medbay and Security connect). Cameras in Security, Admin table in Admin.
MIRA HQ	Small	Everything connects through a central hallway; all vents link into one network. Door log and Admin give strong info. No cameras.
Polus	Large	Outdoor base with Vitals in Office and cameras. Long walks make alibis easier to check. Seismic sabotage replaces Reactor/O2.
The Airship	Very large	You choose your spawn point each round. Long hallways, ladders and the Gap Room moving platform make isolated kills easy. Crash Course is the critical sabotage.
The Fungle	Large	Jungle island with a zipline, ladders and mushroom-based Mushroom Mixup sabotage. Sight lines are broken up by foliage, so kills are easy to miss.

Information tools to learn per map: Admin (shows how many people are in each room, not who), Cameras/Security, Vitals (who is alive/dead), and Door Log on MIRA HQ. Checking these between tasks is how good Crewmates catch lies.

Roles

Roles are enabled per lobby in Role Settings, each with its own count and spawn chance. The Match Info Guide added in v18.0.0 shows what is active.

Crewmate roles

Role	Ability	How to play it
Engineer	Can use vents	Use vents to fix sabotages fast. Expect to be accused if someone sees you vent, so claim early when caught.
Scientist	Portable Vitals (battery charges by doing tasks)	Check Vitals right after a kill window to time deaths. Call a meeting as soon as someone dies near you.
Guardian Angel	Ghost role: shields a living player for a short time	Protect whoever the Impostor is likely to hit next (lone players near a sabotage fix).
Tracker	Tracks one player's position on the map for a time	Track the player you trust least; a track that shows them near the body is huge evidence.
Noisemaker	When killed, alerts others to the body's location	Makes you a bad target; Impostors may avoid you, which is also information.
Detective (v17.0.0)	Two abilities: Notes (records the dead Crewmate's location, your suspect list, and what kind of Impostor you're facing) and Interrogate (question players to learn where they were during the crime)	Interrogate after a kill. Since v18.0.0 Interrogate has a cooldown after Emergency Meetings, so plan when you use it.
Judge (v18.0.0)	Overrule: once per game, eject any player regardless of the vote. Unlocks after completing a set number of tasks (host-configurable). If your target is not an Impostor, you are ejected instead	Only fire it on hard evidence (seen kill, seen vent with no Engineer in lobby). If multiple Judges overrule in the same meeting, the first one counts and the others get the use back for a later meeting.

Impostor roles

Role	Ability	How to play it
Impostor (base)	Kill, sabotage, vent	The baseline. Fake tasks at plausible spots and time kills with sabotages.
Shapeshifter	Transform into another player for a time	Shift into someone, kill in view of a witness, then shift back. Framing is the point.
Phantom	Turn invisible for a time; can kill (visibly ending the invisibility)	Vanish to cross open areas or leave a crime scene without being seen walking away.
Viper (v17.0.0)	Victims are dissolved with acid; bodies disappear after a short time	Kill in rooms people won't pass soon. Bodies that vanish before anyone finds them give the crew nothing to report.

Crewmate Strategy

Stack tasks by room. Plan a route that clears nearby tasks in one pass. Long tasks (e.g. Fuel Engines, Start Reactor) are where you are most vulnerable, so do them when others are around.
Buddy up, but watch your buddy. Pairs deter kills, but in a 2-Impostor game one of your pair could be the killer. A buddy who keeps steering you into dead ends is a red flag.
Keep a mental timeline. Who was where at each meeting and sabotage. Most Impostors get caught by an inconsistency ("you said Admin, but Admin showed nobody there").
Use info tools between tasks. A quick glance at Admin or Vitals can confirm or break alibis.
Respond to criticals. If nobody fixes Reactor/O2, everyone loses. Go, but do not go alone into a dark corridor.
Protect confirmed players. Someone who did a visual task in front of you is clear; defend them in meetings.
Count. Once the Impostors are one kill from winning, you must eject correctly or skip carefully. Never skip at a count where skipping loses the game.

Impostor Strategy

Fake tasks believably. Stand at a task long enough for its real duration. Don't "do" a task that isn't on the map or is visual-only when visuals are on.
Kill away from info tools. Rooms outside camera coverage and far from Admin sightlines are safest.
Time kills with sabotages. Call Reactor or O2, then pick off the player who goes to the far side alone. Lights sabotage is the classic cover on The Skeld.
Don't vent in front of anyone. If you must, make sure the Engineer role is enabled so you have a cover claim.
Self-report sparingly. It can work once. Doing it repeatedly paints you as the constant body finder.
Coordinate with your partner. Stack kills on opposite sides of the map, then alibi each other lightly. Defending your partner too hard gets both of you caught.
Role-specific: Shapeshifters frame, Phantoms escape, Vipers exploit empty rooms. Pick your plays around your role.

Hide n Seek Mode

A separate mode: one Impostor hunts, Crewmates hide and do tasks. The Impostor is revealed from the start, Crewmates get a limited number of vent uses and fake-task tricks do not matter. Final Hide is a short phase near the end where the Impostor gets a speed boost. Win as Crewmate by surviving the timer (tasks shorten it); win as Impostor by killing everyone.

Lobby Settings Worth Knowing

Setting	Why it matters
Confirm Ejects	Off makes ejections uncertain and games tenser
Visual Tasks	Off removes the easiest proof of innocence
Task Bar Updates	"Meetings" or "Never" stops Crewmates from reading kills off the bar
Kill Cooldown / Impostor count	The main balance levers; 2 Impostors in lobbies of about 8-10 players is common
Anonymous Votes	Hides who voted for whom
Role Settings	Count and chance per role; the Judge's task requirement lives here

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Chasing the Impostor instead of tasking. Tasks win games; detective work only helps if you also task.
Voting on "sus" with no evidence. Every wrong ejection accelerates the Impostors' count.
Forgetting the count. At high kill counts one wrong skip or one wrong vote ends the game.
Using Judge's Overrule on a hunch. If you're wrong you eject yourself and hand the Impostors a free removal.
Standing on a vent. Crewmates standing where Impostors pop out die; Impostors standing on vents look guilty.
Faking tasks the map doesn't have (as Impostor). Crewmates check task lists; a fake "Download Data" in a room without it ends you.
Leaving a critical sabotage for "someone else." That is how a lobby loses to Reactor.

Advanced Tips

Door and vent pathing: Learn which vents connect on each map. A body found next to a vent that connects to where someone claims they were is a strong read.
Kill cooldown math: If two bodies appear faster than the lobby's kill cooldown, there are two different killers, or a Viper body sat unnoticed.
Interrogate wisely: With the post-meeting cooldown, Detectives should hold Interrogate for right after a kill rather than burning it at round start.
Read the Match Info Guide before claiming. Claiming a role that isn't enabled in your lobby gets you ejected; so does failing to know one that is.
Late-game pressure: As Impostor, pushing for a meeting when two Crewmates are fighting often gets one of them ejected by the other.
As a ghost Guardian Angel, shield the player the crew trusts most; the Impostor wants to remove confirmed Crewmates first.

FAQ

Is Among Us free on Steam? No, it's a paid game on Steam. Cosmetics come from Cosmicubes and the in-game store.

What does the Judge do? Added in v18.0.0 (August 2026). Once the Judge finishes enough tasks, they can Overrule once per game to eject any player regardless of the vote. If that player is not an Impostor, the Judge is ejected instead.

What are the newest roles? Detective and Viper (v17.0.0, September 2025) and the Judge (v18.0.0, August 2026). Innersloth's 2026 roadmap planned two new roles for the second half of 2026, and the Judge was the first.

Can I play with console and mobile friends? Yes, Among Us has cross-play across PC, console and mobile through lobby codes. Keep everyone on the latest version, because old versions lose support.

How many Impostors should a lobby have? It's up to the host. One Impostor for small lobbies and two for larger ones (around 8 or more players) is the usual balance.

What is Among Us 3D? The renamed Among Us VR, a separate first-person game with its own updates. This guide covers the standard game.

Is there a story mode? Innersloth is making a narrative game, "Among Us Story: On Guard." The 2026 Roadmap Part 2 says it's in active development after its reveal and demo, with release expected later in 2026 (no firm date yet).