Among Us Arena/Impostor/Strategy
Strategy
Summary
Due to the nature of the game's highly damaging combos, easy knockdowns, devastating okizeme and overall snowball potential, Neutral must be approached with extreme caution. A series of steps have been created to guide one in cases of peril as some games can be volatile.
Of course, if by chance you catch a slip-up or an opportunity, you should absolutely push your advantage and go in. Staying at gun range condemns you to a slow and painful war of attrition through chip damage, and if you successfully catch your opponent off guard and sneak a major hit in, any good combo will destroy half their health bar and leave you at a major advantage.
Keep in mind that these game plans account for all characters and thus may not account for color specific matchups and situations.
Neutral
Close Range/Pressure
While strong at all ranges, Impostor dominates close up. This is entirely the fault of 5L, a fast plus jab that can link into itself on block for easy, devastating pressure.
5L
2L
5K
If you can get your opponent to block even a single 5L, you’re free to hound them down. Lock them down by poking at them bit by bit with jabs. Once they’ve been forced to sit still, force whatever mixup you want. 2L is your fastest low, and comes with no added risk at all, since it's safe, and you can cancel back into 5L on block and continue your pressure. 5[K] is your fastest overhead. You only need a partial charge for the knife to hit overhead. Combined with the fact that your opponent will likely be blocking low 99% of the time on the ground due to the eternal threat of 2L, 5[K] becomes an extremely dangerous mixup tool once you become accustomed to the timing.
j.L
Grab
If you’ve got your opponent paranoid enough to not budge at all, even with considerable gaps in your pressure, then you’re free to throw tick throws and j.L crossups into the mix. Once that’s set in motion, you now have the entire toolbox at your disposal along with control of the match's pace.
If you instead found yourself blocking 5L first, refer to the defense section on pointers for survival.
Footsies/Mid range
You’re not going to be spending much time at all at this range, because either you’re dashing in or high-tailing it over into far distances. That being said, there are still things you can do here to grab some sort of advantage.
5H
2H
2K
Despite the range of your moves, this area is still devastating. The ability to dash straight into any of your moves creates a massive threat, and damage is just as high as hits close up.
5H, 2H and 2K are your primary buttons at this distance. They are strong whiff punishers at this range, but will require some quick reactions. 2H in particular is a long range, relatively fast low, which can get your opponent sitting still through crouch blocking in anticipation. If they're frozen, dash in and 5L.
If you find yourself losing out close up, jump away and j.G to bring yourself over into gun range safely.
Gun Range
This is likely where most of the round is played if it doesn’t end in 10 seconds. Both players are dancing for any sort of hit, throwing a hailstorm of bullets at each other until someone makes anything close to resembling a mistake. One knockdown and the entire match goes back to being a scramble, No knockdown and both of you will chip each other down until the timer hits zero. Thankfully the second outcome is very unlikely, but regardless you must come to terms with the inevitability of some form of fierce zoning in every round.
j.K
5G
j.G
j.G and 5G shut down a wide portion of the screen. You cannot approach having bullets shoved in your face, so your only option is to try and outdance them with your own guns until an opening shows itself. There’s a few options for this.
- j.G before they do. The first hit is one of the strongest air to airs in the entire game, and as such you can actually steal a turn if you adjust your jump timing and catch them jumping right after you do.
- j.K. j.K will almost always beat out j.G at any range with decent timing. However if they don’t shoot and you actually didn’t call out anything, you’ll feel bad and most importantly, eat a pretty hefty punish.
- Get closer and Block. Blocking up j.G(1) up close allows for a variety of punishes that put you in heavy advantage. The exact same thing applies to your opponent, so be careful with your shot placement.
Above everything else, do not be afraid to take it slowly when approaching. All the chip damage in the world is nothing compared to the potential snowball of momentum from running in blindly from full distance and constantly losing the upcoming exchanges.
Counter
At really far ranges, j.G doesn’t actually hit. If you think an opponent’s about to whiff their j.G, 5G to punish them, or wait and dash in right after they fire. Even if it looks like everything at range is simply firing your gun nonstop, Don't get to accustomed to firing blindly at any point. One bad shot is a change of momentum, and counter works on 5G and j.G all the way up to the tip of the muzzle flash.
Defense
Whenever possible, try and move your way out of pressure. While reversals are strong in this game, You can lose entire rounds if you guess wrong on anything like 2H, Counter, or a throw tech. It’s overall much safer under any circumstance to try and run away, with the only exception being when you’re cornered.
If you want to force them to back off, jump away and j.G. You bounce away, cover yourself safely, and it also hits overhead. However, If you find or get yourself cornered, get out of there immediately. Jump, j.K, whatever you need to do. Proximity to the corner is proximity to death.
Anti-Airs
2K
2G
Your main anti-airs are 2K and 2G. While 2G works from much farther away, 2K pushes the opponent back way farther on block. Your move of choice should depend on how close your opponent is, but also note that converting off of 2G hits are quite tricky.
Wakeups/Reversals
Your counter comes out frame one, and 2K’s startup has invulnerability. These are your only reversals.
2K
Counter
Super
Due to the risk and difficulty of timing a counter, you’ll likely only use it when you see a meaty, or when you catch a predictable gunshot at range, as the counter works up to ranges much farther than 2k. You'll likely use 2K for every other situation, as it is much harder to play around, along with benefits of potential full combos.
2K and Counter also have the tendency to whiff on well spaced cross up j.L. if you see them going for a jump in, make sure you know if they'll cross up or not before deciding what to do.
Super 1 (laser) works when all else fails to get yourself out of the situation. The threat posed may make the attacker hesitate slightly, but it can still be countered.
Passive Defense
When do I pushblock?
Pushblocking is one of the most effective defensive tools given to you, throwing your opponent away on block to free yourself from dangerous pressure. However, an attached 23% meter cost means you have to be exactly right on when you do it to make the most of your chances.
Pushblock
Knife Armor Dash Cancel (KADC)
The KADC is a technique that allows you to armor through moves and dash immediately after, allowing you to gain considerable ground on projectiles, open up new punishes, avoid chip damage, and much more.
5[K]
While charging 5[K], if your armor is hit once you are given the ability to dash cancel immediately afterwards. This is only available during the startup of the move.
While incredibly powerful, especially against moves like Gun normals, you are left vulnerable if your armor hasn't been hit, as you'll end up charging up and using 5K in what is likely wide open space. Up close, it's equally as punishable (assuming they blocked high,) So try using it when your absolutely know your opponent is throwing moves out.
A demonstration and Example uses of the KADC can be found here.
Okizeme
TBA
