How do I play Among Us?

THE murder mystery on a spaceship game, Among Us, has soared in popularity since its 2018 release, with over 60 million daily players.

But just what is Among Us, and how do you play it?

Among Us was released in 2018 and developed by gaming company InnerSloth

What is Among Us?

Among Us is a murder-mystery game where a team are preparing a space ship for takeoff – but some of the players are imposters intent on thwarting the mission.

It’s a four- to ten-player game, played online, but increasingly people use a VPN (Virtual Private Network), to alter their IP address and location.

It’s compatible with iOS, Android and PC within the same game group, and there’s an in-built chat platform.

Among Us was released on June 15 2018 and developed by InnerSloth.

How do you play Among Us?

Players can choose to be a legitimate crewmate, or play as an impostor.

To play as a crewmate:

While you go about preparations for take-off, use the Admin Map and security cameras to watch other players to try to identify which are the impostors.

It’s important to react quickly to undo each bit of the impostors’ bad work, and to identify them as fast as possible.

If you have spotted something suspicious you need to have a discussion in an emergency meeting and vote to eject those you suspect.

You win the game by ejecting all the impostors or completing tasks to prepare your ship.

To play as an impostor:

The aim of your game is to kill of the legitimate crewmates and ensure this ship is never ready for take-off.

Sabotage the build up to take-off by creating as much mischief as possible.

This can include trapping and killing crewmates and framing the others, or pretending to blend in by performing fake tasks, or saying you will perform them but don’t.

The Among Us characters are humanoid beings wearing spacesuits

You can sneak through vents to move around more quickly and secretly.

Who are the Among Us characters?

The Among Us characters are humanoid beings wearing spacesuits, which you never glimpse them without.

They weigh just under seven stone and are three foot six inches tall.

The Among Us characters basically all look the same, but can be customised with different colours, hats, and other cosmetics.

The different colours give no particular powers, and there seems to be nothing substantial to tell them apart in terms of character.

That said, fans of the game often ascribe different meanings or personalities to the characters, sometimes based on how InnerSloth have used them in promotions or their appearances as icons.

Red is often believed to be the impostor, and is even often the impostor on game promotions;Blue is one of the main colours, but isn’t generally used for promotions;Green has a bit of a trustworthy character to it, as it’s often the one used as an icon for an emergency meeting or after the report of a dead body;Yellow was patting a little robot once in a promotion, and is used in the Admin Map, so is also mostly trusted;Orange unofficially stands for discussion, as it appears at the start of an emergency meeting;

Black is used as an icon on the instructions tab, and also for the sabotage button; White appears as an icon for announcements and also for the vent button;Purple is used a lot promotionally;Cyan and Lime were added after Orange and Green in 2019. Some say Cyan, which is smaller than the others, is a child of Orange and Green.

The only thing that differs between characters is whether you are playing as a legitimate crewmate or an impostor, and that may change with each game.

Is Among Us a free game?

Among Us is free on the mobile apps for iOS and Android, but the PC edition costs £3.99 in the UK – or $4.99 in the US.

The mobile edition offers 12 colours and 40 hats for free, but you have to pay for any other hats or cosmetics after that.

All colours and cosmetic customisations are free on the PC platform.