Among Us is a game about lying to your friends. Up to fifteen players wake up aboard a spaceship or base as Crewmates, a few of them are secretly Impostors, and everyone has to work out who before it's too late. Crewmates win by finishing their tasks or voting out every Impostor. Impostors win by killing enough of the crew or letting a sabotage run out the clock.
Because everyone looks the same, the "characters" in Among Us aren't heroes and villains with names. They're the roles you're given, the colors you wear, and the hats and pets you show off. That simplicity is why the little bean-shaped astronaut became one of the most recognisable game designs of the 2020s. This page covers all of it.
- Developer
- Innersloth
- Released
- 2018 (breakout hit in 2020)
- Players
- 4 to 15 per lobby
- Colors
- 18
- Maps
- The Skeld, MIRA HQ, Polus, The Airship, The Fungle
The Crewmate and the Impostor
Every game starts with these two. Everything else is a variation on them.
The Crewmate
Default character · Crew team
The Crewmate is a small astronaut with a rounded body, stubby legs, a backpack and a wide visor. Your job is to run around the map doing simple tasks, like fixing wiring, emptying rubbish chutes or swiping a card that never quite works on the first try, while watching everyone else. When a body is found or someone calls an emergency meeting, you talk, argue and vote. Crewmates win together, so trust is the real resource.
The Impostor
Hidden killer · Impostor team
The Impostor looks exactly like a Crewmate until the moment it kills, when the game shows what's under the suit: a creature with a mouth full of teeth or a tongue that strikes like a spear. Impostors can kill on a cooldown, travel through vents and sabotage systems like lights, oxygen and the reactor. They pretend to do tasks and steer the conversation away from themselves. Playing well means lying with confidence.
All Among Us roles
The Roles update in late 2021 added special abilities on top of the basic Crewmate and Impostor, and a 2024 update added more. Hosts decide which roles appear and how often, so many casual lobbies still play with just the basics.
Engineer
Crew role · Vents
The Engineer can use vents, which used to be an Impostor-only move. Time inside is limited and there's a cooldown between uses. It makes the classic accusation "I saw them vent" less certain, which is the point: every role is designed to muddy the evidence.
Scientist
Crew role · Portable vitals
The Scientist carries a portable vitals monitor showing who's alive and who's dead, from anywhere on the map. The battery drains with use and recharges as you complete tasks. A good Scientist can tell the meeting exactly when someone died, which can break an Impostor's alibi.
Guardian Angel
Ghost role · Protection
When a Crewmate dies, they may become a Guardian Angel. They can place a temporary shield on a living player, blocking any kill attempt while it lasts. It gives dead players a reason to keep paying attention.
Noisemaker
Crew role · Death alert
When the Noisemaker is killed, an alarm goes off and everyone gets a brief indicator pointing to the body. It turns a silent kill into a loud one and gives the Impostor much less time to get away.
Tracker
Crew role · Location tracking
The Tracker can tag another player and follow their position on the map for a short time. It's useful for confirming alibis, or for catching someone who claims they were in Electrical when they weren't.
Shapeshifter
Impostor role · Disguise
The Shapeshifter can transform into another player for a limited time, then shift back. Kill in someone else's colors and the witness blames the wrong person. Hosts can make the transformation leave visible evidence to keep it fair.
Phantom
Impostor role · Invisibility
The Phantom can turn invisible for a short time to slip away from a crowd or reach a target unseen. It can't kill while vanished, and it reappears with a visible fade, so timing is everything.
All 18 Among Us colors
Your color is your identity. There are no faces and no names on the suits beyond the nickname above your head, so "Cyan was in Electrical" is how every argument starts. Each player in a lobby needs a different color.
| Color | Added | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Original | The face of the game and the "Red sus" meme |
| Blue | Original | Another poster color, common in official art |
| Green | Original | Darker green, easy to confuse with Lime at a glance |
| Pink | Original | A bright, popular pick |
| Orange | Original | Classic original color |
| Yellow | Original | Easy to spot, hard to hide in |
| Black | Original | Blends in when the lights are sabotaged |
| White | Original | Stands out against most maps |
| Purple | Original | Classic original color |
| Brown | Original | Often the last pick in a full lobby |
| Cyan | Original | Light blue; check you don't mean Blue in a meeting |
| Lime | Original | Bright green |
| Maroon | 2021 | Dark red |
| Rose | 2021 | Pale pink |
| Banana | 2021 | Pale yellow |
| Gray | 2021 | Neutral grey |
| Tan | 2021 | Light brown |
| Coral | 2021 | Pinkish orange |
The six newer colors arrived as lobbies grew to fifteen players and twelve colors were no longer enough. Some pairs, like Red and Maroon or Pink and Rose, are close enough that callouts now need a little more care.
The maps
Among Us has five maps, and each one changes how the characters play: where you can vent, which tasks are where, and how far you are from help.
- The Skeld: the original spaceship and the one most people picture. Compact, with Electrical as its most infamous room.
- MIRA HQ: a sky-high headquarters with a connected vent network and a central decontamination area.
- Polus: a snowy planet base with spread-out buildings, lots of outdoor walking and plenty of places to be alone.
- The Airship: a large, multi-level ship from 2021, themed around Innersloth's earlier Henry Stickmin games, where you choose your starting room.
- The Fungle: a 2023 jungle island map with mushrooms, campfires and a lot of cover.
There's also a Hide n Seek mode, added in 2022, where a single revealed Impostor hunts the crew against a timer. It plays more like a short horror chase than a mystery.
Pets, hats and visors
Cosmetics are how players turn a generic Crewmate into a character. Hats, skins and visors change your silhouette, and pets follow you around the map. The tiny Mini Crewmate pet, a little version of your own character trotting behind you, is the best known, and others include a hamster, a dog, a small robot, a UFO and a brain slug. Cosmetic bundles have also brought crossover outfits and pets from other games. None of them affect gameplay, but a distinctive hat makes you easy to remember in a meeting, for better or worse.
Why such a simple character works
The Crewmate is a lesson in minimal character design. It has no face, so you project whatever you like onto it. It has a strong, simple silhouette you can draw in five seconds, which is why it spread through memes, fan art and craft projects so quickly. And it's identical to the villain, so the whole story of every match comes from the players.
That's the opposite of games with big named casts like Pokémon or Fortnite, and closer to the customisable avatars of Roblox and Minecraft, where the character is a canvas. The difference is that Among Us gives that canvas a secret.
Among Us characters and roles A–Z
C–E
- Crewmate — default character
- Engineer — crew role
G–I
- Guardian Angel — ghost role
- Impostor — hidden killer
M–N
- Mini Crewmate — pet
- Noisemaker — crew role
P–S
- Phantom — Impostor role
- Scientist — crew role
- Shapeshifter — Impostor role
T
- Tracker — crew role
Frequently asked questions
What is the Among Us character called?
The default character is a Crewmate: a small, bean-shaped astronaut in a spacesuit with a visor. Players are identified only by the color and name they choose. The Impostor looks exactly like a Crewmate, which is the whole point of the game.
What are all the roles in Among Us?
Crewmate-side roles are the basic Crewmate, Engineer, Scientist, Noisemaker and Tracker, plus the Guardian Angel for players who have died. Impostor-side roles are the basic Impostor, the Shapeshifter and the Phantom. Hosts choose which roles are enabled and how often they appear, and Innersloth has kept adding new ones in later updates.
How many colors are there in Among Us?
Eighteen. The original twelve are Red, Blue, Green, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Black, White, Purple, Brown, Cyan and Lime. A 2021 update added Maroon, Rose, Banana, Gray, Tan and Coral. Each player in a lobby must have a different color.
Why is Red sus?
"Red sus" was a running joke from Among Us's 2020 boom, when the game was everywhere on streams and social media. Red is the default color for many players and the one in a lot of the official art, so it became shorthand for accusing someone with no evidence at all.
Who made Among Us?
The small American studio Innersloth, founded by Marcus Bromander, Forest Willard and Amy Liu. Among Us came out in 2018 and became a global hit in 2020, when streamers picked it up during lockdowns.