Impostor (Among Us)

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 Alignment | Chaotic Evil

The **Impostor** is the player-controlled main antagonist of the popular online multiplayer social deduction game *Among Us*.

## Background

Doppelgängers of the friendly Crewmates found among their group, the parasitic shapeshifters known as Impostors have only one goal: wipe out the helpless Crewmates on a science ship, be that through tricking their friends into tossing them out the airlock, running down their oxygen supply, causing a reactor meltdown, or murdering them all. However, if the Crewmates catch on to their suspicious behavior, they can be tossed out the airlock themselves.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Alien Physiology:** Being an extraterrestrial creature, the Impostor possesses several unnatural attributes.
	+ **Enhanced Strength:** The Impostor displays impressive physical abilities, being strong enough to easily snap the neck of a Crewmate and knock them to the floor with a single punch.
	+ **Enhanced Speed:** The Impostor is very fast too, able to cross a short distance within less than a second to get the kill and quickly travel around the area in either vents or holes in the ground.
	+ **Shapeshifting:** Impostors are able to shapeshift into their victim's form and pose as them, effectively standing amongst the crowd.
	+ **Oxygen Independence:** The Impostor is implied to be able to survive without oxygen, seeing as how running the ship's oxygen out is a viable win condition for it in the game.
	+ **Superhuman Eyesight:** With its keen of sight, the Impostor can see in dark areas better than Crewmates can.
	+ **Teeth and Barbed Tongue:** The Impostor can split itself in half at the waist and shoot out a long, spear-like tongue that can easily pierce through a Crewmate's head and visor.
	+ **Ghost:** Even when the Impostor dies, it just becomes a ghost and retains its ability to manipulate technology in its spiritual state. When in ghost form, the Impostor is granted flight, invisibility, and intangibility; the ability to go through solid objects like walls.
* **Deception:** The Impostor is very cunning and good at playing with its victim's minds, sneaking around without worry and framing other Crewmates for its grisly murders.
* **Technological Knowledge:** The Impostor knows how to sabotage just about any machine with ease. It can sabotage mechanical doors so they close shut for a time, sabotage the lights to leave the crew in complete darkness, sabotage the reactor so it begins to melt down, sabotage the oxygen control so it begins to run out, and sabotage the communications, which causes the task lists for Crewmates to disappear.

## Equipment

* **Knife:** Used for stabbing other players.
* **Pistol:** Used for shooting other players.

## Feats

### Strength

* Is strong enough to break a Crewmate's neck with ease.
* Can impale a Crewmate through their head and glass visor with their tongue.
* Can knock a Crewmate to the floor with a sucker punch.
* Can decapitate Crewmates.
* The holes in Polus show that the Impostor removed the vents, and created the holes in the map.

### Speed

* Can travel through the vents of an entire space ship and bases faster than walking.
* Crewmates can’t react to them until after they kill.
* The Impostor disappears after killing someone for a second and reappears by the dead body, so should be somewhat faster than they can perceive in combat.
* Comparable to other Crewmates, who are can react to and shoot down meteors.

### Durability

* Might be able to survive the reactor meltdown, as seen in the victory screen for if the Impostor wins via the reactor meltdown.
* Can roam icy planets and be just fine.
* Can stand near lava.
* Implied to survive without oxygen. (Also by the victory screen)

### Skill

* Prior to the events of the game, killed a Crewmate and shapeshifted into its form to blend in with the crew according to a developer.
* Is (intended to be) an amazing liar and manipulator, and an expert at blending in with the other Crewmates.
* Smart enough to sabotage an entire spaceship's and bases' oxygen supply, communications, lighting systems, overload their reactors, and doors.
* Intelligence and skill should be similar to average Crewmates who are able to fix wires and do multiple complex tasks regarding advanced science equipment.
* According to a dev, the idea behind the MIRA base map (which takes place on the home planet of the Crewmates) was that an Impostor was able to make it all the way there somehow, presumably by tricking the inhabitants of a ship.

## Weaknesses

* Hasn't shown anything above human durability. That is, discounting the ability to stand near lava, roam icy planets while seemingly naked (while crewmates lose their hats in all of the kill animations, their hats stay firmly attached to their head. Including the animation where their abdomen area opens into a giant maw. Crewmates’ hats fall off with roughly equivalent/slightly less force, implying that the Impostor’s clothing is part of their body) and maybe survive a reactor meltdown/without oxygen.
* Can be known to fumble up when it ends up getting caught.
* Kills or prefers to kill its victims one by one so a group can give them quite a challenge.
* Can (sometimes) be a horrible liar, manipulator, and terrible at blending in with other Crewmates.
* As a ghost, it cannot physically hurt anyone.
* Cannot do any MedBay scans, so the MedBay scanning can reveal the Impostor's identity to the Crewmates.
* Impostors are sometimes not collaborative, and are heartless to one another.
* Most of its offensive sets are usually close-ranged.

## Fun Facts

* Most artwork depicts Impostors as Crewmates with a red sparkle coming from their visor.
* The chance of any player being an Impostor is dependent on the numbers of players that are at the beginning of a round (with examples including a twenty percent chance if five players exist at the start of the game and a ten percent chance if the maximum of ten players exist in the start of a game), and the number of Impostors allowed in a game.
* The Impostor may have been inspired by the Thing from the 1982 horror film of the same name.