Kill

* **Kill**
* Guide

**Kill** is an ability in *Among Us*, exclusive only to living Impostors. Killing is one of the main abilities Impostors have to defeat Crewmates and win.

## Usage

Impostors use this ability for killing Crewmates, turning them into ghosts (or ending the game, if the Crewmates no longer have a voting majority as a result). The kill cooldown ranges from 10 to 60 seconds, depending on the game options. Upon spawning in for the first time in the match, The Impostor's kill cooldown starts at 10 seconds from the beginning of the game. After an emergency meeting or The Impostor killing a character, the cooldown will change to that of the in-game options. The kill distance may be short, medium, or long, depending on the game's options. However, the kill cooldown pauses when The Impostor is in a vent and will only resume when exiting the vent.

While killing someone, The Impostor will teleport towards the target, slicing their body in half and leaving only a bone sticking out. The now-dead Crewmate will become a dead body, which Impostors or other Crewmates can report. Dead bodies will remain on the map until an emergency meeting is called, either by reporting a body or using the emergency button.

Kill cannot bypass through walls or obstructions, as it works for a given distance in a straight line of sight, such that if there is an object between the Crewmate and Impostor, the kill option will be deactivated. Some objects do not count towards this such as doors.

## Kill vision

### Impostor

* An Impostor killing a Crewmate from The Impostor's perspective.
* An Impostor killing a Crewmate by snapping their neck.
* An Impostor killing a Crewmate with a knife.
* An Impostor killing a Crewmate with a gun.
* An Impostor killing a Crewmate with their pointy tongue.
* An Impostor killing a Crewmate by shooting them with a laser.
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When An Impostor comes close to a Crewmate, a red outline marks the victim. The distance from which the red line starts depends on the options. When pressing the kill button, the victim's body is split in the middle accompanied by a blood splatter, with the entire upper half disappearing, and the dead body wobbles to the ground, with a single bone sticking out. This is the time for The Impostor to flee, hide in a vent, or report the body to try to accuse and eject Crewmates or feign innocence. Impostors cannot kill other Impostors.

### Crewmate

In the Crewmate's point of view, intense violin music starts to play while a short animation flashes on the screen, which consists of one of five ways An Impostor can kill the victim: snapping the victim's neck, stabbing them with a knife or a pointed tongue, punching and shooting them with a gun, or shooting a laser which incinerates their head (only if The Impostor has the Right Hand Man skin equipped, in which case this animation will show and not any of the others). Regardless of which animation shows, their body will show up split in the middle, exposing their bone on any other player's view and turning the Crewmate into a ghost. The controlled character cannot be killed in Practice.

## Hide n Seek

In Hide n Seek, The Impostor's cooldown is set to 1 second.

## Trivia

* The music that plays in the background of a kill animation was reused in another of Innersloth's games, *Fleeing the Complex*.
	+ Marcus Bromander also stated that the music was originally intended for said game only, but is instead used for *Among Us* as well.
* If a Crewmate has a pet equipped and is killed by An Impostor, the pet will stay at the spot they have been killed at, albeit only visible to ghosts and Impostors.
	+ Pets also react to the Crewmate being killed, each with a unique reaction.
* In previous versions, if An Impostor killed a Crewmate, the kill button would show the kill cooldown for a second on other Impostors' screens, as if they had just killed. This is no longer the case.
* The developers have confirmed that there are some unused kill animation sketches that were never fleshed out.
* In the beta version of *Among Us*, the kill sound effect was absent in local games to keep the identity of The Impostor hidden.
	+ This also applied to the sound effects played when An Impostor used the vent ability as well.
* In an older version of *Among Us*, the raw asset without The Impostor's color was visible on their left hand during the stabbing kill animation. This was fixed in version 2021.6.15 when the sprites were redrawn.
* When The Impostor teleports to their target, they can sometimes move through small obstacles.
	+ An example of this is on MIRA HQ, where killing can be done behind plants and tables. It can be also done behind the large glass tube that contains a panel for Oxygen Depleted in Greenhouse.
* The laser kill animation is a reference to The Good Gents option in a Henry Stickmin game, *Completing the Mission*. It can only be seen by a Crewmate whose killer is wearing the Right Hand Man skin.
* The laser kill animation had sound in The Airship's trailer, but used to be absent when it was released, and a Crewmate that was killed by An Impostor that wore the Right Hand Man skin would simply show them killing the Crewmate with only the dramatic violin music.
	+ This was fixed in version 2021.6.15, and the sound effect of the laser being blasted (which the developers amusingly call the "WEEEEH" sound) is now audible.
* The Right Hand Man skin's eye shines white before disintegrating the Crewmate. Other times, it is red.
* Only the killed Crewmate knows how The Impostor kills them.
* The sound the victim hears when their neck is snapped should not occur. This is because the sound comes from the vertebrae dislocating, but this cannot happen due to Crewmates only having a single bone in their entire body.
* Due to a glitch, the gun in the gun kill animation is not held correctly by The Impostor.
* In an earlier version of *Among Us*, a Crewmate's visor would crack when impaled by The Impostor's sharp tongue. This was removed in version 2021.6.15.
* Due to a bug, it is possible to kill someone before the game starts despite the kill cooldown by clicking where the kill button is before the character may move around.[*needs testing*]
* On April 1, 2022, the usual kill animations were replaced with The Impostor running through the Crewmate and the latter flipping onto their back. This was because the characters' sprites were modified to become horses for April 1, due to Horse Mode and the sprites did not have animations for the sole purpose of kill animations.
* In Hide n Seek, or sometimes in Classic, if The Impostor is suffering from a poor connection, they may not kill the Crewmate instantly, instead they will be killed with varied delay. This can sometimes relate to The Impostor teleporting long distance due to intense ping.

## Gallery

An animated clip of An Impostor snapping a Crewmate's neck.An animated clip of An Impostor repeatedly stabbing a Crewmate with a knife.An animated clip of An Impostor punching a Crewmate and shooting them with a pistol.An animated clip of An Impostor stabbing a Crewmate with their sharp tongue.An animated clip of An Impostor disintegrating a Crewmate with the laser in their left eye if impostor uses Right Hand Man: Reborn skinThe sprite for the blood that appeared when a Crewmate is killed.A Crewmate's body having just been killed.A Crewmate after being killed.A collection of kill animation sprites.The background that appears for the kill animation from the victim's point of view.A Crewmate during the gun kill animation.A Crewmate during the tongue kill animation.A Crewmate during the knife kill animation.A Crewmate during the neck snap kill animation.A Crewmate during the laser kill animation.An Impostor showing its sharp teeth during the tongue kill animation.Yellow's dead body in How to Play.A Crewmate with a pet being killed.The gun that Impostors use during the gun kill animation.The knife that Impostors use during the knife kill animation.Coral killing Olive with a knife in a promotional image sent on Discord.Coral killing Olive with a knife in a promotional image (Without Background)

## References

1. ↑ "The Henry Stickmin Collection Developer Commentary (Part 1)". *YouTube, PuffballsUnited*. December 1, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
2. ↑ "there are some unused kill animation sketches that were never fleshed out". *Innersloth Discord server, Buttery Stancakes*. March 4, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.