How to play Among Us

What you need

• Among Us on a supported platform. Innersloth lists mobile (iOS and Android), Steam, Epic, itch.io, Microsoft Store, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.
• An appropriate lobby: a private room with friends using a code, or a public lobby. Local Wi-Fi play is also supported.
• Enough players for its selected settings. Four is the minimum; 8 to 10 with two Impostors is the classic feel.
• A way to talk during meetings. The in-game chat works; friend groups often use a voice call and mute outside meetings.
• Controls set the way you like. Innersloth's beginner guide recommends switching PC to Mouse + Keyboard and mobile to Joystick, so you can move while looking at the map.

If you play on PC for long stretches, a comfortable mouse or headset makes a real difference. Razer's accessory range is one place to compare options; check platform compatibility first. (Affiliate link: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How links work.)

Set up the game

1. New to the game? Try Freeplay from the start screen first. It lets you walk a map alone, pick tasks from a laptop, and practice venting and sabotage as an Impostor with dummy players.
2. Create or join a lobby. Choose Classic mode, map, lobby privacy and number of Impostors. The host sets options such as task count, voting time and role settings.
3. Common settings worth agreeing on: number of emergency meetings each player can call, discussion and voting time, kill cooldown, whether ejected players' roles are confirmed, and whether visual tasks are on.
4. This guide explains the basic Crewmate and Impostor roles. Extra roles and Hide n Seek have additional rules; check the selected lobby.
5. Agree on table manners for voice chat: nobody talks about the game outside meetings, and dead players stay silent.

Tasks, sabotage, reports, and votes

1. The game secretly assigns roles. Crewmates navigate the map and complete their own tasks to fill the group task bar; Impostors can pretend to do tasks but cannot actually complete Crewmate objectives.
2. An Impostor can eliminate Crewmates, move through vents, close doors and use sabotage to create emergencies. Only Impostors, and Engineers if that role is enabled, can use vents.
3. Crewmates may report a body or use the emergency-meeting button when allowed by lobby settings. Nobody can call an emergency meeting while a sabotage is still unfixed.
4. Critical sabotages, O2 and Reactor, start a countdown. Crewmates must fix them at the marked locations before time runs out. Reporting a body during O2 or Reactor clears that emergency immediately; lights and communications sabotages still need fixing afterward.
5. In a meeting, players discuss evidence and vote, or skip when appropriate. An ejected player is revealed according to the host's setting; a wrong vote can bring Impostors closer to victory.
6. Eliminated players become ghosts. Crewmate ghosts can keep doing tasks; Impostor ghosts can still sabotage. Ghosts cannot talk to the living.
7. Crewmates win by completing all required tasks or eliminating all Impostors. Impostors win when they eliminate enough Crewmates, or a critical sabotage timer expires unresolved.

A sample match, moment by moment

Ten players on The Skeld, two Impostors (secretly Red and Lime), visual tasks on, confirm ejects on.

1. Start. You are Blue, a Crewmate, with Swipe Card and Fix Wiring as common tasks. You head to Admin with Yellow and see Yellow swipe the card.
2. First kill. In Electrical, you find Pink's body. You saw Red leaving toward Storage a few seconds earlier. You report.
3. Meeting 1. You say: "Pink's dead in Electrical. Red walked out toward Storage just before." Red claims they were doing wires in Storage. Green says they were in Storage and didn't see Red. Lime quietly backs Red. Votes split; most skip. Nobody is ejected. Players left: 9 (2 Impostors, 7 Crewmates).
4. Sabotage. Reactor meltdown starts. You and Cyan run to the two Reactor panels and hold them. Meanwhile Orange is killed in Navigation. Cyan finds the body on the way back and reports; that report would have cleared the Reactor even if you hadn't fixed it.
5. Meeting 2. White says they saw Lime come out of the vent near Navigation. Lime denies it. Purple notes Lime defended Red earlier. Six votes go to Lime. Lime is ejected and confirmed as an Impostor. Players left: 7 (1 Impostor, 6 Crewmates).
6. Endgame. Red kills Green during a lights sabotage. Players left: 6 (1 Impostor, 5 Crewmates). Yellow has a visual task left, Submit Scan, and does it in Medbay in front of you and Cyan. Yellow is cleared.
7. Meeting 3. You recap: Red was seen leaving the first body and was defended by the confirmed Impostor. Red is voted out. All Impostors ejected: Crewmates win.

How a match is won, with a worked example

There are no points in Classic. The game watches two counts at all times: tasks completed and who is still alive.

• Crewmates win when every Crewmate, living or dead, has finished every assigned task, or when all Impostors have been ejected.
• Impostors win when only one Crewmate is left per Impostor, or when an O2 or Reactor countdown reaches zero.

The "one Crewmate per Impostor" rule is about votes: once Impostors match the Crewmates in number, they can always tie or win a vote, so the game ends.

At the "1 against 2" line, the Crewmates must find the Impostor at the next meeting or lose. That is why a wrong ejection late in the game is so costly.

Beginner strategy that actually helps

• Remember locations and timings. At a meeting, people want to know where you were, who was with you and where you came from. As a Crewmate, remember those instead of accusing someone solely because they walked alone.
• Respond to urgent sabotage first. An unresolved O2 or Reactor timer ends the match. Debate later.
• Report bodies during a critical sabotage. A report instantly clears O2 and Reactor, which also stops the Impostors' timer.
• Stick with someone, but not a crowd. A partner can vouch for you. A big cluster around one task, though, gives the Impostor a free kill.
• Learn the vents. On The Skeld, Electrical, Security and Medbay vents connect. Someone alone in Security when a body appears in Electrical deserves questions.
• Watch for fake common tasks. Common tasks are given to everyone or nobody. If someone claims a common task you don't have, they are lying.
• As Impostor: sabotage early and often. Innersloth's beginner guide says underusing sabotage is a bigger mistake than overusing it. Lights sabotage helps you pick off stragglers or escape.
• As Impostor: never fake a visual task when visual tasks are on. Other players will notice the missing animation.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

• Treating a missed task bar update as certain proof of an Impostor. Lobby settings can make the task bar update only at meetings, or never. Check the settings before using it as evidence.
• Presenting a custom-lobby role or Hide n Seek mechanic as part of ordinary Classic mode. Engineers can vent, for example, so "I saw them vent" is weaker evidence when Engineers are enabled.
• Ghost chat. The official answer: dead players can only chat with other ghosts. In a voice call, dead players telling the living what they saw is cheating, often called ghosting.
• "Fixing a sabotage proves innocence." No. Impostors can fix their own sabotages to look helpful.
• Pressing the button during a sabotage. It won't work until the sabotage is fixed. That is a rule, not a bug.
• Vote with no evidence. Innersloth's guide advises: don't ever randomly accuse, and don't vote someone out on one person's word before the accused can respond.
• Does an Impostor win simply by surviving a vote? No. The match continues until an actual win condition is met.

Popular variants and house rules

• Official mode: Hide n Seek. A separate mode with its own rules, where a revealed Impostor hunts Crewmates who must finish tasks and survive. Don't mix its rules into Classic.
• Official option: extra roles. Hosts can enable roles such as Engineer (can vent), Scientist (checks vitals remotely), Guardian Angel (a ghost who can protect a living player) and Shapeshifter (an Impostor who can take another player's appearance). New roles are added over time, so check Innersloth's current roles page.
• House rule: muted outside meetings. On a voice call, everyone mutes during the action phase and unmutes only when a meeting starts, so the call works like the in-game chat.
• House rule: no first-round button. Players agree not to call a meeting in the opening seconds just to reset the kill cooldown, which Innersloth's glossary notes is often considered poor form.
• In-person version: groups have played real-life Among Us with paper tasks around a house. Our Mafia guide covers the classic table version of the same idea.

Teach it in five minutes: a script for the host

1. "Most of you are Crewmates. One or two are secretly Impostors."
2. "Crewmates: check your task list at the top, walk to each task and complete it. Fill the bar or vote out every Impostor to win."
3. "Impostors: you can't really do tasks. You can kill, use vents and sabotage. If a red countdown appears, everyone run to fix it or we lose."
4. "Find a body? Hit Report. Something suspicious? Use the emergency button. We talk only during meetings."
5. "In a meeting, say where you were and who you saw. Then vote someone out, or skip if we're unsure."
6. "If you die, stay quiet. You can still do your tasks as a ghost. Let's start with one Impostor for the first game."

Age and group-size advice

• Ages 10+ suits the deception and fast reading in chat. Younger children often enjoy it with a parent in the room and a private lobby of friends.
• Public lobbies include strangers and open chat. For kids, private lobbies with a code shared among friends are the safer option.
• 4 to 6 players: use one Impostor and fewer tasks, or games end very quickly.
• 7 to 10 players: two Impostors is the classic balance. Innersloth's FAQ notes that in a typical 2-against-8 setup, each player has a flat 20% chance of being an Impostor.
• 11 to 15 players: two or three Impostors, longer discussion time and a larger map.
• First-timers in the group: let them say so in the lobby. Most groups will slow down and explain, and Innersloth recommends simply being kind to play with.

Among Us questions people ask

Check yourself

Sources and edition notes

Among Us Classic mode core roles, with custom lobby settings and added roles varying. Innersloth's official game overview describes 4–15 players; current role counts and map choices belong to the lobby. Win conditions, sabotage behavior, vent rules, visual and common tasks come from Innersloth's help center beginner guide.

Sources and stated format checked October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.

• Innersloth: Among Us rules and roles overview
• Innersloth Help Center: Beginner's Guide to Among Us
• Innersloth: FAQ (Impostor odds)
• Innersloth: separate Hide n Seek mode

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