Was that game too quick? Here’s how to spot a hacker in ‘Among Us’

No game is immune to hackers. When a game builds enough notoriety, there will always be some irksome fellows inclined to cut corners to get ahead. Hackers ruin the game for everyone playing and themselves because they’re not playing the game as it was originally designed. 

After dominating Twitch with its insane popularity, it’s no surprise that Among Us attracted its own crew of hackers. Keeping its place as the most commonly streamed game tends to turn some heads.

The social deduction game – inspired by Mafia – unites anywhere from four to ten players (the more players the more elaborate the game.) Among these players are deceitful “impostors” who pick off the “crewmates” one by one. At the insanely low price of $4.99, everyone seems down to give it a try – who doesn’t enjoy deceptively murdering their friends?   

If it can be helped, it’s worth protecting the fun spirit of Among Us – which means warding off those pesky hackers who have set their eyes on the beloved multiplayer game. Here’s how to eject the IRL impostor in Among Us – the hacker.

What kinds of hacks are there?

From what we’ve gathered, there are two main cheating methods in Among Us. And as you could have guessed, they both totally suck the fun out of the game. 

One way is to join public lobbies with friends in order to spoil the mystery of who the impostor is. Using a backchannel to share restricted information defeats the deductive purpose of the game. The identity of the impostor is hidden for a reason. If dead crewmates blab about who killed them, there’s no point in gathering clues. It’s easy to cheat like this by using third-party chats on Discord voice channels. 

This is the POV of an Among Us Hacker.

(yes i used the hacks, dont worry i deleted them after.) pic.twitter.com/jzPRZfJsRb

— this is poco🎃 (@Poco_BrawlStars) September 29, 2020

The second and more concerning way to cheat has to do with game mods that give game hosts & players advantages, swaying the outcome of the match. There are lots of these mods swimming around. One of them (as you can see above) always assigns the host as the impostor. It also can turn off the kill cooldown which makes it way easier to win as the impostor. 

Hundreds of other mods have been identified and shared in video clips on Twitter. Other forms include sped-up movement, mass kills, insta-kills, & curtailed voting periods. If a player seems to be winning a little too quick, that’s pretty dang sus and they’re likely hackers.

Is there a fix?

InnerSloth (the Among Us developer) has a very small team of people on the job – but they’re doing everything they can to fix the problem. In an interview with Kotaku, InnerSloth’s Forest Willard reassured players they’re on the case. He said:

“We’re rushing to get an account system in place so we can have better moderation and reporting systems built around that. Also getting help with making the servers better at detecting and blocking hacks.”

Lead programmer & business head, Willard confirms there’s a plan in place to tackle the issue. The Innersloth team is working on an account system in conjunction with a server & client-side hack prevention.

“I’m sort of scrambling to get all the right people in place, but I’m attacking it from multiple angles so it can get better in many ways hopefully all at once,” Willard shared.

While cheats are always a problem, it’s unlikely to ruin Among Us entirely. The comradery in Among Us has been one of its greatest successes. Players are completely able to hold fellow players accountable for hacking. It’s pretty simple to just not play with that person ever again. Eject them from your friend’s list.

Where’s the incentive?

Hot multiplayer games like Fall Guys have been ravaged by greedy cheaters. Even featuring visually similar cartoon avatars, Fall Guys is an indie multiplayer game like Among Us. It reached its stride just before Among Us (which promptly stole some of its hype.) 

Hackers particularly targeted Fall Guys because succeeding in the colorful battle royale game earns you fun points & rewards. The tricky party game makes you work hard to win – a notion cheaters circumvent in order to steal the crown and purchase those extra cool costumes. Cheating became such a problem in Fall Guys that the developer Mediatonic released a whole update fighting back against hacks.

Among Us hackers, on the other hand, are perplexing. Because Among Us offers no in-game reward for winning, the incentive for cheaters in Among Us is purely rooted in the desire to aggravate everyone playing. 

If anyone is considering using cheats or hacks to get ahead in Among Us – just know you’re the worst of the worst. Hackers are the true bane of joyous multiplayer games – they deserve to be thrown out of the spacecraft and into the boiling lava.