Most players unfortunately think Among Us is a casual game where crewmates do repetitive manual labor tasks while reporting on imps if they happen to see a body or get lucky and see an imposter kill in front of them. This is often a source of conflict when players who are laser focused on task completion fail to provide any useful input during meetings, and sus other players who are not doing tasks. A lot of players also get mad when meetings are called and say, "Just let me finish my tasks!" I'm not too sure what's so attractive about doing mindless rote mouse clicks and why these players don't just go do the dishes. Thankfully, Among Us is not about doing tasks. It is so much more than that.

At its core, Among Us is an optimization problem. The two sides being weighed are:

1. Can crewmates finish tasks faster?
   
2. Can imposters kill faster?

A proficient player's task is to identify, under current game conditions, which side is set to complete their objective first. If task completion if finishing at a rate faster than the rate of killing, then players should focus on tasks. However, if the rate of killing is going faster than task completion, then a good player should abandon doing tasks and focus on trying to find and catch imps! This is a concept a lot of players have trouble with. If the task bar is half filled and only 2 more kills lose the game, then anyone insisting that they are doing tasks, skipping during meetings, or asking for people to watch their visuals are a disadvantage to the team.

The goal to Among Us is to win, not just to do tasks.

And sometimes winning involves doing tasks, but often it doesn't.

There are various factors that could cause crewmates to finish tasks faster, or imposters to kill faster, and we will explore these next.

• Unskilled imposters that are afraid to kill, or waste time sitting on cams, etc.
  
• Lower number of imposters relative to players
  
• Short task list
  
• Long kill cooldown
  
• Roles that make it easier for crewmates, such as engineers.
  
• Visual tasks that clear crewmates and isolate imposters
  
• Task bar updates that make it harder for imposters to fake tasks
  
• Anonymous voting off that makes it harder for imposters to instigate conflict
  
• Higher crewmate vision
  
• Higher emergency meeting count so that imposters can be reported when they are caught

• AFK crewmates (!!)
  
• Proficient imposters that kill as soon as their kill cooldown expires
  
• Higher number of imposters relative to players
  
• Longer task list
  
• Short kill cooldown
  
• Roles that make it easier for imposters, such as shapeshifters
  
• No visual tasks or task bar updates
  
• Anonymous voting on so that imposters could vote crewmates and say they skipped
  
• Higher imposter vision
  
• Zero or one emergency meetings, long emergency meeting cooldowns
  
• Long shapeshift durations relative to kill cooldown so multiple kills can be made without shifting back

At any time if a player prioritizes the wrong thing with regards to doing tasks or catching imposters, they become a disadvantage to the team. A player's first and foremost role is to accurately identify which phase the game is currently in, and this could change back and forth throughout the game. For example, if a skilled imposter is voted out, then maybe the crew could breathe a collective sigh of relief and go back to doing tasks. But if there's a good shapeshifter or double kills are happening due to good teamwork, then every player should stop doing tasks.

There is a continuum of threat. If the threat is mild, then players can do some short tasks while investigating. If the threat is immediate, then it may even be the case that anyone stopping to do wires becomes a risk to the team.

This is the most important rule in Among Us -- and also the rule that almost no one follows.

Below, we will do a case study on when this often goes wrong.

When there is 1 imp out of 3 players, 2 imps out of 5 players, or 3 imps out of 7 players, just one more kill finishes the game. Yet, many (or dare I say most) players are completely unaware of this predicament and still distract meeting conversations with requests to watch them scan. What's the point of scanning when someone killing you while you scan ends the game? Many players will still skip votes at this time, which is losing behavior. Even making a completely random guess might have 20% of winning, but not voting with one kill on the horizon is a 100% loss. Players that are not comfortable with risk or voting with "no proof" simply don't know how to play Among Us. They don't understand the concept of expected value. If you have the chance to flip a coin to win triple the money, the correct move is to take the bet even if you end up losing (unless you need that money to survive). Mathematically, E[X] = (0.5 chance of heads) x (3 value if won) = 1.5. That means for every dollar you put in, on average you'd get 1.5 back.

The same thing happens in Among Us. If 6 players are left with 2 imps and 2 crewmates are cleared from visuals, then there is a 50% chance at "winning" a guess between the rest. You have to ask yourself, is this 50% higher than the chance of catching an imp on the next kill. Be honest. If the imps have so far gotten away with killing, then they likely have higher than 50% chance of killing and getting away with it. So your expected value is higher if you roll the dice. Even if you happen to guess wrong and lose the game, you will win more games overall.

Often times players will engage in wishful thinking and plead with you to skip in the meeting and finish tasks, but when there is more than one bar empty because a crewmate or ghost is AFK or not doing their tasks, then this is impossible. These players are just waiting to die. Always be an active players rather than a passive player. Properly assess whether finishing tasks really would take less time than getting killed, and avoid these totally hopeless situations. Crewmates that actively encourage others to lose should be admonished, and if the host leaves a bunch of these players around, maybe it's time to find another room.

Some players will be on 100% detective mode without paying attention to the task bar. The task bar might be down to its last bar, such that if the detective or cams camper finish their last tasks, the game would finish. But these players will still be running around looking for people to accuse. If you notice anyone in these situations, encourage them to complete tasks. But never tell anyone to finish their tasks when the parameters aren't there. If the task bar isn't anywhere near full, then a person not doing tasks isn't going to make any difference.

Players often mindlessly do their tasks without a care, completely ignoring the team and the circumstance. Even when a sabotage is going off, the crew would still be dancing around med for attention, or "just doing my tasks". These players are likely to get picked off by imps roaming the hallways when the good crewmates are taking care of the sabs. This is especially relevant in endgame. When there are less than 4 players and the imp calls O2 or reactor sabotages, every player should be fixing that right away. One player running off to do their own thing would be the easiest way for the imp to start picking off crewmates one by one. It's literally the difference between winning and losing. These clueless players usually act innocently by claiming they're just doing tasks, but personally I ban them from my games. Among Us is a team game. If you don't want to interact with other players, then go play single player.

Even when you're doing tasks, you should be mindful of the colors you run into, or who you've seen in the room with you. Then you'd have valuable information to contribute if someone is killed while you're in the room. There's nothing more frustrating for a crew than to be killed right in front of another crewmate that doesn't see or remember anything. Some of these crew even ignore bodies or don't care when someone kills right in front of them. Some players report and don't say who killed, because they are "just doing my tasks". These players are dead weight and would likely get voted themselves for being sus. Having more than a couple of these players in a game is a surefire way to lose every single game. If you're host and you like winning, ban them. If you're not host, then join a different room.

Every other guide covering basic rules will give detailed descriptions of tasks and teach you how to do tasks quickly. I think they're missing the forest for the trees. Doing tasks quickly will make you an average player at best. Accurately identifying the parameters to this optimization problem will make you at the very least a good player, maybe even a great player.

Accurately identifying the optimization problem that pertains to every problem in life will make you more successful in life than merely doing rote tasks quickly.

Perhaps more details could be said on how to identify imps when you're not doing tasks, but that will be left to another tutorial. If you've read through this guide, understand it and apply it, you will be better than 90% of Among Us players. If you think I'm taking this too seriously, then you are probably part of the problem. You wouldn't be in a ball game refusing to pass the ball because, "Bruh, just let me shoot my ball!" Don't be self-centered Karens here either.

It bears repeating. Among Us is a team game. It's a game where you work with the other crewmates to win. It's NOT a game about being off in your own little world doing tasks. Sacrificing the team for your satisfaction is not something to be proud about. Don't misunderstand what it means to be a part of the team.