Mafia.gg Do’s and Don’t’s by Wangalang

Hey, it’s wangalang back with another guide. If you’re relatively new, check out my beginner’s guide. This one is also for those that are learning the ropes of playing games on mafia.gg and don’t *quite* know all the metas and expectations that happen in-game. In this guide, I will explain some do’s and don’t’s when gaming, in the hope that you will take what I’ve said and apply it to your play.

Without further ado (or adon’t), let’s get started:

## DO: Claim your role as you’re getting voted

Picture this. You roll Charizard, the Medic. You think, huzzah! I rolled PR, I have a claim, let’s game. Unfortunately you’re being sussed on the second day and everyone begins to vote you. You don’t want to claim, and then you inevitably get hammered and you get condemned as Medic.

You should claim your role when you:

* Are being voted/bandwagoned by the people in the game
* Have enough information to help town (such as, having a couple of red checks on a Cop report)
* Someone is hardclaiming your role (a gamer move is not claiming and hope they get caught out, but this is risky)

It’s important to claim your role as you’re being voted by a few people. This way, they save a MISCONDEMN on you (outed Power Role) and vote someone else.

What’s a few people? I would say it’s around a quarter of the amount of players, or if everyone in the game is trying to push for you to be condemned and you’re worried they might last minute pivot to you. It’s also just a waste of time for people to sus you.

Some think that it doesn’t matter because they will die at night anyway. THAT’S FINE! Mafia can’t (usually) die at night… we can only condemn them during the day. Why would we vote a PR?

## DON’T: Say “why me”

Big perception that scum say “why me” when sussed. Not quite sure when why me = fry me became a thing, but I just know that as any alignment, just don’t utter these words or people will either sus you even more or use it as a reason for getting you condemned.

If you want to ask town why the votes are on you, here are some alternatives to “why me”:

* Are you able to explain why you guys are voting me?
* Why did the vote pivot from X to me?
* Why is everyone so content on voting me but not X?

Also, don’t say “how am I outed?” This often leans scum. Town knows they can’t be outed because they are town and Mafia wants to know why they are sus.

## DO: Talk to your mafia at night and strategise

So often scum will try and write a big paragraph at night to appear town and ignore their mafia meeting night chat. You should spend about a minute (at least) strategising the plan for the next day. Mafia is a team game on both sides. It’s good to go into the next day knowing what your mafia is doing so you aren’t blindsided and you can plan what your moves are around it.

## DON’T: Shoot your visitors as Paranoiac

A pie25/20/basic20 game will have around two/three Sleepwalkers, a Cop, a protective role (Bodyguard or Medic) and a Hooker. It works out to be mathematically 20% chance that the first visitor is the visiting Mafia role.

It is never wise to shoot visitors as the chance of them being town is significantly higher. **By all means shoot when it is mathematically inclined to do so** - such as two visiting roles alive, and 5050 chance it’s a visiting Mafia role.

## DO: Take action as both alignments

A mistake newer players make is when as town, they sit back, do nothing and don’t defend themselves. The same will happen as scum, again, they will do nothing. It is your job to take initiative as either alignment, whereas it’s to vote people as town or disrupt scum hunting and engineer miscondemns as scum.

Taking action means getting result. Sheeping someone else’s read can only get you so far, as they could be scum.

## DON’T: Assume people that MC are auto-scum and people that vote scum are auto-town

This is a common misconception that even I make as a player. It’s easy to assume someone that pushed for the miscondemn (MC) is scum, and someone who voted in favour of a Mafia is town. In my opinion, trajectory is more important than the result. As previously mentioned in my other guide, bad reads =/= mafia but bad reasoning (or even, no reasoning) may be.

They voted a mafia, WHY? A late bandwagon on their mafia could still mean they are scum. Remember - in a game, the only people that are confirmed are YOU (since you know your own point of view) and the confirmed Power Roles.

## DO: Take the time to read and go back to logs

Unless you are playing a Voice game, then this is a text-based social deduction game. Let’s deduce who’s mafia by actually taking the time to read what everyone is saying, and using night-time to read back on the game and see what you may have missed, acquire some “reads” and take notes. This goes both ways - as Mafia you want to be looking as towny as possible so quoting logs will make you seem towny.

## DON’T: Say “I’m so confused”

This is another one of those sayings that can get you in trouble - and it’s a lot more alignment indicative than “why me”. Often, an inexperienced Mafia will say “I’m so confused” because they are confused and don’t know what they should do or what’s going on.

However, town can also be confused as they don’t have as much information as Mafia do.

Instead of saying “I’m confused,” try to convey your confusion differently in the game, like “I don’t understand why you guys are doing this” or “can someone explain why this person is sus?”

## DO: Go back and read the logs of dead players

There's probably a good reason as to why someone has been night-killed especially if they weren’t outed Power Role or confirmed town. It is definitely worth it to go back and read their logs, see who they sussed and try and think which particular player/s had a reason to kill them.

There’s also a chance that they framed someone else for that kill. While that can be misleading, it’s still information and you should be trying to find information in this game.

Also, if you quote logs from prior days, you look very towny because the perception is that you’re trying to problem-solve - so, bonus points if you’re scum!

This also applies to dead Mafia’s logs. If they’re pushing for a particular person to be condemned, it’s likely that player is Town.

## DON’T: Assume that someone wanting to know PRs in MYLO/CYLO is scum

I encountered this in a game. We were in MYLO and I wanted to know who was Oracle. I was villager, but I was being sussed for wanting to know a confirmed in MYLO 4-3?

*“Wanting to know whos town in CYLO isn't scummy there isn't another f\*\*\*\*\*\* day to play i don't give a \*\*\*\* about "pr hunting"* is what I have written in my notes. I couldn't care less about PR hunting - I want a confirmed town in MYLO so I can talk and vote with them. It is not scummy to ask for PRs to out when they should be outing.

## DO: Vote with confirms in CYLO

This one is a very important rule to remember. CYLO is when if you condemn wrong, you lose. It’s relatively easy to lose in CYLO because the Mafia almost have majority, and they know who each other are.

Let’s say there is a confirmed town in a 3-2 situation. You should realise that if you don’t vote with the confirmed in this situation, the Mafia can tie the vote and then win. You end up with a 2-2-1 split and no one gets condemned. Then, Mafia nightkills and win.

In this situation, you should be appealing to the confirmed person (be careful to not come across as pocketing) and vote with them.

Also, I wrote a guide on this section called Wangalang Explains MYLO and CYLO Play so you can read about this further!

## Some more honourary do’s and don’t’s:

* DO use your sweep as Sweeper day one regardless what alignment the vote is to deny town flip information (unless there’s a reason to hold sweep, it’s situational)
* DON’T overturn as Governor or Sus Governor day one because it deprives town of voting information
* DO remember that this is just a game and it’s not ranked or anything, meaning no one needs to get hurt over it!
* DON’T AFK or FAKE AFK! Leaving the game for IRL reasons happens, but you should look at the timer and see if you can commit yourself to a whole game before playering up
* DON’T SPAM!