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Main Roles
Crewmates
- Ambiguously Human: Crewmates are likely not human. They are stated to be 3'6 feet tall yet weigh 92 lbs, which for a human would result in an abnormally high BMI. They appear to wear spacesuits, yet for some reason the color of their spacesuits is reported in their medical exams, as if those suits were part of their bodies. Furthermore, when they are killed, their body stumps appear to have flesh that is the same color as their suits and only one solid Stock Femur Bone in place of a spine, though that last part may just be a stylistic choice.
- Further complicating things is the addition of Alien Blood in later versions of Among Us having crewmates have blood that matches their suits.
- Badass Pacifist: Unlike impostors, crewmates cannot directly kill each other. However, through deduction and investigation, crewmates can find and eliminate impostors hiding among them before kicking them out.
- Little Green Man in a Can: They're never seen without their suits.
- Made of Bologna: Crewmates who are unfortunate enough to get killed by the Impostor suffer this, getting their heads torn off but leaving a single bone poking out of the lower stump.
- No Name Given: The Crewmates are never given a canonical name, only being referred to by either their colour or the player's usernames.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: If an Impostor attacks them, they die instantly.
- Skewed Priorities: Mostly at Mira HQ; while impostors are running around killing them, the crewmates are trying to do such tasks as watering plants and ordering drinks from the vending machine.
- Stock Femur Bone: The closest thing to a skeleton they have is a cartoonish femur bone.
Impostors
- Air Vent Escape: Prior to the Engineer role being added, Impostors were the only ones that can traverse the vent systems, allowing them to quickly move between rooms to avoid being caught near their victims or catch one unaware. It's also a dead giveaway if they're caught doing it.
- Big Bad: The threat the Crewmates have to face. Their exact type of Big Bad depends if they're one or more and if they're working together or not.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To avoid getting voted out, they pretend to be Crewmates.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Impostors can split their torsos in two to reveal a mouth full of teeth and a tongue sharp enough to impale people. They don't seem to need oxygen to survive, either, as they win if oxygen sabotage isn't fixed.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Some Impostors will vote to kick out other Impostors to save their own skin — a viable strategy if not doing so will put suspicion on the remaining Impostor(s). Also a Literal Metaphor, as one of the ways they kill Crewmates is by literally backstabbing them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. They won't harm Crewmate's pets, but killing their masters still leaves them to grieve the loss of their beloved companions.
- Eye Beams: The Right Hand Man Reborn skinnote allows them to shoot a laser from their visors to kill crewmates.
- Fights Like a Normal: Or rather, murder like a normal - they have sharp tongues used to impale their victims, but sometimes, they just use knives, guns, or their own hands. And in terms of the crew being the "normals", Impostors can also simply kill Crewmates by getting them ejected.
- Manipulative Bastard: Skilled Impostors are usually this trope, earning the trust of Crewmates to avoid suspicion until it's too late and playing them against each other so they suspect and potentially eject the wrong person.
- Neck Snap: One of the ways in which they can kill Crewmates.
- Propping Up Their Patsy: A potential strategy for throwing suspicion off of oneself involves coming to the defense of another player who is being accused of being the Impostor, potentially by asking for proof. It's less suspicious if there is either only one Impostor, or any other Impostors are proven to be dead, because then the player has no apparent motive for coming to the defense of an accused Impostor when they cannot be co-conspirators.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Unless the creature can assimilate knowledge, the Impostors may actually become stranded on a broken ship or on an alien planet.
- Shapeshifting: According to the official website, Impostors are shapeshifters who infiltrated the ship and are posing as crew members. Their shapeshifting ability is demonstrated in a kill animation in which the killer flips up its top half to reveal a sharp-toothed maw and impales the target with a spear-like tongue, before closing the mouth, fixing its clothes and leaving no trace of an opening.
- Taking You with Me: Their sabotage options are seemingly as lethal to them as to the crew, but they win if the sabotage isn't fixed in time.
- Villain Protagonist: Pretty much what you are if you were chosen as this.
- Weak, but Skilled: Impostors can definitely blend in with crewmates well, and have a multitude of ways to kill one off in short order... but they can only kill one at a time. If even just two Crewmates catch them and decide to vote them off, they lack the strength to try and overpower them.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The video game logic of crew victory by finishing the task list lends itself to this through the
Fridge Logic of doing a random thing and suddenly the imposters lose; on the Skeld, most of the tasks relate to getting the ship to its destination, so it makes sense that the imposters lose, but some of the tasks on other maps are Buy Beverage, Play Video Game, or Make Burger.
The Seeker
- Ambiguously Related: While they seem to be ordinary crewmates horrifically transformed into homicidal monstrosities instead of the shapeshifting aliens the Imposters are, they also have quite a few elements in common. Such as using the same methods of killing people and a mysterious drive to kill everyone. The two might be sister species, but it's unclear.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Compared to Impostors, The Seeker doesn't bother with sneaking about the Crew to pick them off with nobody the wiser; they just kill anybody they see.
- Ax-Crazy: If their expression doesn't give it away, they're much more gleeful at killing the crewmates wide open compared to the ordinary ones.
- Invincible Villain: Unlike the classic game where Crewmates can eject anyone they suspect of being an Imposter, there's nothing they can do to fight back. All they can do is run, and hope the monster doesn't find them.
- Leitmotif: Seek
, the music that plays during Hide and Seek mode. - Logical Weakness: Their larger build makes them more intimidating, but it also makes them too big to fit into and make use of any air vents.
- Obviously Evil: Unlike the ordinary imposters, the seeker doesn't bother trying to hide its true identity.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Implied. When the round starts, the player who is the Seeker, doubles over and collapses. A few seconds later, they stand up, they rip-open a mouth, and roar. Whether the crewmember is dead or just subjugated by whatever is controlling their body is not clear.
- Skewed Priorities: The very first thing they do after transforming is to put on a headgear if their character so happens to wear any.
- Turns Red: If the Final Hide option is on, the Seeker gets a few final seconds to kill the Crewmates after their initial timer runs out. During this period, they get a bigger boost in speed to catch the crewmates; a Seek menu if they haven't already triggered it by killing enough Crewmates (basically their own Admin map); and a Ping that lets them zero in on where the remaining crewmates are.
Ghosts
Ghosts are former Crewmates and Impostors. The way to become a Ghost is to either be killed or be ejected.
- Bystander Syndrome: Crewmate and Imposter ghosts don't have to help their still-living comrades if they don't want to. This can mean tasks never get fully completed, and/or the remaining Impostors struggle to juggle killing and sabotaging.
- Intangibility: Ghosts can fly through walls, doors, and otherwise impassible barriers. They can even fly outside of the boundaries of their location into the sky or deep space with no trouble. However, they can still complete tasks or cause sabotages.
- Invisible to Normals: Ghosts can only be seen by other Ghosts. Living players not only can't see Ghosts, but they can't hear them in the meetings.
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day:
- Being a Ghost allows a Crewmate to still complete their tasks after being killed or ejected. If all the Crewmates finish their tasks, even if some of them are dead, the Crew still wins.
- Dead Impostors can still sabotage.
- Averted in Hide and Seek mode. The Ghosts can't do anything except, as the game puts it, "Enjoy the chaos".
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Dead Crewmates can still use the medical bay's scanner to get their height, color, weight, and blood type all analyzed.
- Poltergeist:
- The only thing dead Crewmates can do is to finish their assigned tasks. They can't say who their killers are (except to other dead players).
- Dead Impostors can still shut down the lights, sabotage oxygen/reactor, cut communication lines and close doors from beyond the grave.
Extra Roles
Engineer
Can use the vents
A Crewmate's role. Like Impostors, engineers have the ability to vent.- Air Vent Escape: Their special ability is to use these despite being Crewmates.
- Artifact Name: In the Fungle map, vents are replaced by fly trap plants, making the name “Engineer” seem unfitting for the gimmick.
- Cooldown: It's important to note that unlike Impostors, Engineers have a cooldown on when they can vent. Someone jumping in and out of vents rapidly is likely not an Engineer.
- Good Counterpart: To impostors since both can vent. Unlike them, engineers can't kill and tend to reveal their identities the first meeting that comes up.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Care needs to taken when using the vents. Its very easy to get accidentally blamed by Crewmates or accused by Imposters if you vent into or out of, a room that contains a dead body.
- Power Nullifier: For some reason, Engineers cannot vent if Communications have been sabotaged.
Scientist
Access vitals at any time
Another Crewmate's role. Scientists can view the current status of everyone else at any time, provided they have the batteries.- Difficult, but Awesome: The finite battery life means you can't always be watching the screen, so it takes lucky timing for this role to be any help. But if you get that timing and see someone go down, you can immediately either counter a self report or spot which "Crewmate's" heart rate spiked after the death. Either one immediately gives away the Impostor. Furthermore, anyone who was next to you at the time of the murder is cleared of suspicion.
- Ignored Vital News Reports: As checking the vitals is usually an Underused Game Mechanic, most Scientist players don't bother using it. Calling an emergency meeting just to say you noticed someone die on your screen, but having no knowledge of where the body is, or who else was nearby, only earns you the suspicion of your fellow Crewmates.
- Spotting the Thread: This role can completely shut down self reports if timed right.
Guardian Angel
Protect the remaining crew
A third Crewmate's (albeit only for dead Crewmates) only role. Guardian Angels can bless a living Crewmate with a protective shield that saves them from an Impostor attack.- Anti-Frustration Features: Among other things, this role exists for the benefit of players who die early, so they don't feel like they have nothing left to contribute to the game besides finishing their tasks.
- Deflector Shields: A Guardian Angel's role is to give a Crewmate a shield. If an Impostor tries to kill that Crewmate, the shield will activate and the attack will be harmlessly blocked.
- Failed a Spot Check: They may not know who actually killed them if it were a Shapeshifter. Consequently, the Guardian Angel may end up wastefully trying to protect the Imposters by accident.
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day: Even more so than regular Ghosts. They can protect living Crewmates from Impostor attacks.
- Power Gives You Wings: They are differentiated from normal Ghosts by having two constantly flapping wings.
- Wings Do Nothing: Given how Ghosts can already fly without wings, their wings are seemingly just for show.
Shapeshifter
Disguise yourself
An Impostor's only role. Shapeshifters can transform into any Crewmate or Impostor on the ship.- A Rotten Time to Revert: If they don't pay attention to the timer, they can be unlucky enough to turn back to their normal form in front of enough witnesses that there's no talking their way out next meeting.
- Can't Shift While Shifted: While a shapeshifter is disguised as another player, their Shift icon is replaced by an Unshift icon, only allowing them to revert back to their real colour rather than transform into someone new. The Shift option is also made unavailable during the mushroom mixup sabotage in the Fungle, which changes every player's appearance including the impostor's.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Transforming into another Imposter, is a high-risk high-reward strategy. It provides you with the perfect alibi, but can backfire horribly if they or you accidentally frame each other.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Passing yourself off as someone else may seem like an easily exploitable mechanic giving beginners something to compensate for their inexperience, but in practice, you need to know when to morph and who to disguise yourself as, because otherwise you can easily end up making the fact it's a Frame-Up obvious and effectively proving a Crewmate innocent instead (for example, if you simply commit murder in plain sight of several players, they'll probably know immediately that the player they witnessed was a fake). At worst, someone might happen to witness the transformation, at which point you're pretty much busted. However, experienced players who develop a good sense of timing and planning can get a lot of mileage out of transforming and throw even a competent crew into utter confusion.
- Frame-Up: A potential application of the shapeshifting mechanic. With proper planning, you can disguise yourself as a fellow player, make them look suspicious and potentially get them ejected.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Disguising yourself as the wrong person at the wrong time can result in an attempted Frame-Up becoming obvious, effectively proving that player innocent and making things harder for the Impostors.
- Kill and Replace: Because they can shift into anyone who was alive at the start of the current round, it's entirely possible for them to be disguised as someone they've just killed.
- Logical Weakness: They cannot sabotage the Crewmate's systems. They can only transform into anyone of the living Crewmates (or Imposters).
- Obvious Rule Patch: Besides some new Impostor shenanigans, the Shapeshifter pretty much serves as a hard counter to the Guardian Angel.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Their ability to shapeshift as another player is temporary, and after a certain amount of time they will switch back to their normal form.
- Shapeshifting: Even though all Impostors are shapeshifters, these Impostors have the added ability to temporarily disguise themselves as another player.
- Token Evil Teammate: The only extra role belonging to the Impostors instead of the Crewmates.
April Fools
Horses
Crewmates and Impostors appear as horses during April Fools' Day.
- Cartoony Tail: Their "tails" are actually their oxygen tanks.
- Hellish Horse: Impostor horses. They're still monstrous and out to kill off the crew.
- Hitbox Dissonance: Their ranges for interacting with things and with other players (doing tasks, fixing sabotages, pushing the Emergency Button, killing Crewmates...) are still based on the horse's front, to match up with regular Crewmates and Impostors.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: Due to their heads remaining unchanged and thus not being very horse-like, they look more like Crewmate centaurs than actual horses.
- Rearing Horse: Impostor horses rear up during their kill animation.
The Rancher
Hide and Seek mode becomes Horse Wrangling mode during April Fools' Day, and the Seeker is accordingly replaced by the Rancher, who sets out to round up the horses.
- Ambiguously Human: The Rancher looks identical to an ordinary Crewmate, and thus shares in this trope with them.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Much like the Seeker, the Rancher doesn't bother being sneaky or manipulative the way Impostors do, instead simply chasing the horses down.
- Badass Normal: No superpowers or Bizarre Alien Biology gimmicks like the other antagonists; the Rancher is essentially just a regular Crewmate with a lasso.
- Large Ham: Unzips out of a horse costume while loudly shouting "Yeehaw!", and has a unique kill screen where they confidently tip their hat.
- Leitmotif: Ranch, the music that plays during Horse Wrangling mode.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: The only antagonist in the entire game not to kill their victims; instead, the Rancher just ties the horses down.
- Token Human: Well, Ambiguously Human, but still applies. The Rancher is the only character to not be a horse during April Fools.
NPCs
Pets
Small, non playable characters that follow the crew.
- Ambiguously Evil: When their owner is an Impostor; they follow the Impostors around, but don't kill, sabotage or otherwise contribute themselves.
- Ambiguously Related: Mini-Crewmates to Crewmates. They may or may not be the playable Crewmates' children.
- The Cameo: Among the selection of the available pets, the mini version of Henry Stickmin and Ellie Rose are included.
- Despair Event Horizon: Almost all of them cross this after their Crewmate dies.
- Evil Counterpart: The Toppat Chopper to Charles Chopper.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Doggy and Frankendog Avert this until it's too late.
- Planimal: Bushfriend is a sentient flowering plant that slithers around like a snake.
- Uncertain Doom: Ellie lays on the floor lifelessly unlike the other pets. She's also the only pet to show resistance to the Impostor.
