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# Imposter tactics (crewrift) — guide

Reference notes, design rationale, and negative results (12) for imposter tactics (crewrift). Read when working in this area.

#### 1. Audit the imposter kill-cooldown timeline before chasing a 'behavior bug'
`crewrift` · **negative result** · ⚠ _session-derived, unverified_

Imposters start on a full initial kill cooldown: kill_ready is False at game start (~tick 240) and flips True only at ~tick 1140 (240 + killCooldownTicks of 900), so a ~2118-tick game gives each imposter exactly one kill-ready window and 'got 2 kills and still lost' may be a mechanics ceiling, not a conversion failure. Always compute whether an aggressive action's cooldown is even reachable in a realistic episode (cooldowns decrement only during active play and reset on every vote/ejection, so a 1200-tick cooldown needs 1200 uninterrupted play ticks most episodes never reach), gate opt-in plays on the observed/configured cooldown vs the action's worst-case route budget rather than a hardcoded default, and re-audit every cooldown-dependent behavior whenever a balance constant changes. If self_kill_ready / kill_ready_since_tick / last_kill_tick live in belief state but nothing emits them, add explicit kill-readiness/cooldown tracing first so logs can distinguish 'on cooldown' from 'ready but no victim adjacent'.
  <sub>sources: claude-code:25488cd9-61d5-4231-bd87-e2744b6db043, claude-code:4ec865f5-bcbc-44f1-b109-a27d69f55506, codex:019e7174-3079-7351-b8ea-b1bfcb917ff4, codex:claude-code:ff9f693c-b88a-419d-be7a-efc46750dc23</sub>

#### 2. Use the cooldown as setup time: pre-position and stalk-and-strike instead of waiting for perfect alignment
`crewrift`

An imposter Hunt that fires only when a victim is simultaneously visible, reachable, AND already isolated converts only ~1 kill/game, because the policy spends 54-74% of ticks faking tasks and only 0.1-2.9% hunting, leaving 764-983-tick idle gaps far past the 500-tick cooldown. Redesign the reactive cascade into an explicit phase machine (ALIBI/Pretend -> SEARCH -> STALK -> STRIKE -> POST-KILL/Evade), since cooldown play (build alibis, be seen publicly) is the OPPOSITE of ready play (seek isolation) and one mode treating both identically does neither. Enter Search at the cooldown MIDPOINT to already be shadowing the most-isolated reachable straggler, navigate to its PREDICTED position (use velocity from the sighting trail, not tail-chasing), and relax the isolation/witness bar toward zero as urgency grows so a perpetually-shadowed kill eventually fires. The confirmed winning change moved SEARCH_LEAD_TICKS 100->250 AND held fake tasks ONLY while a crewmate is visible: +0.21 kills/game (1.37->1.58, p=0.027) at zero ejection cost. Make the lone-crewmate kill an aggressive reflex that fires from any cover sub-phase without LLM approval; to deliberately skip kills for alibi-building, select a dedicated alibi mode rather than cover (cover carries the kill reflex).
  <sub>sources: bitworld/among_them/bot-policies/sidecar/prompts/imposter.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/WORKING_CONTEXT.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/crewrift/crewborg/design.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/crewrift/crewborg/version_log.md (+8)</sub>

#### 3. Follow-and-swap beats follow-one or pure wander, but break the end-game orbit deadlock
`crewrift` · **negative result**

For a hide-in-plain-sight imposter, 'follow a crewmate, swap targets only when 2+ are visible' beats both follow-one (lone-stalker tell) and pure wander (no kill chances); stick with one followee for a minimum ~240-tick window before a swap is eligible to prevent thrashing. But this deadlocks in the end-game: when all crewmates finish tasks and idle in pairs around the emergency button, 2+ are always visible so the lone-kill condition never fires and the imposter circles forever in a suspicious orbit. Fix with central-room stuck detection at the right priority altitude -- count consecutive ticks in the button room with >=2 visible non-teammates, and past ~360 ticks (~12s) latch a forced-leave window (~240 ticks / 8s) that routes to the farthest fake target to peel a crewmate off alone. Inject it BETWEEN the tiers it must beat and those it must not (above follow/wander, below kill/hunt/spot-body, i.e. 'priority 4.5') so anti-loitering never costs a real opportunity; it self-limits because the window expires. The placement decision IS the design.
  <sub>sources: bitworld/among_them/players/evidencebot_strategy.md, opencode:ses_22471b226ffenRlDDhVInMddZg, opencode:ses_224eeb40bffeZqmBRcrjFgPFul</sub>

#### 4. Model the other imposter explicitly; you cannot rely on roster determinism or control a partner
`crewrift` · **negative result**

Imposters clustering is a real strategic flaw that cannot be fixed by leaning on the round-robin determinism of an all-our-policy lineup, because non-our-policy teammates break that determinism -- each imposter must model the OTHER imposter and actively stay away from it. For lightweight coordination without shared state, when Hunt picks a victim prefer one NOT already claimed by a recently-seen teammate-imposter closer to another victim within a claim radius (this also helps against non-cooperating teammates near the same target). You still cannot control a partner: a reported body resets EVERY imposter's kill cooldown, so a careless co-imposter whose body is reported fast costs YOU your ~500-tick window (you lose the window, not a 'stolen' victim). The only lever on your side is to bank your kill ASAP once cooldown is ready -- leave Pretend earlier, never idle the cooldown without an audience.
  <sub>sources: personal_labs/crewrift_lab/WORKING_CONTEXT.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/crewrift/crewborg/design.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/lessons_archive/TENTATIVE_LESSONS-20260612-, claude-code:f70c9801-7ee7-499b-97f9-4fd0848a6b8e (+1)</sub>

#### 5. Add venting before incremental tuning, gate it on no witnesses, and know the kill/vent sim rules
`crewrift`

A new escape/movement affordance is often the highest-leverage missing feature: venting was ranked the single highest-impact change because it collapses the entire vulnerable flee-from-body-on-foot phase, so when a player navigates only on foot but the game offers teleport/escape, wire it in first. Only vent when no opponent can see it (reuse the visible-crewmate / line-of-sight helper) -- venting in view hands opponents proof of guilt. Sim mechanics to build against: tryKill targets the NEAREST alive non-imposter within KillRange (20 world px), only when imposter+alive+killCooldown==0, and spawns a body at the victim's position carrying the victim's color and slotId (bodies are color-identifiable); a kill yields +10 even in a loss. tryVent teleports to the NEXT vent in the same group (groupIndex+1, wrapping), zeros velocity and carry, imposes a 30-tick vent cooldown, and works only within VentRange. Either side reports a body by standing on it and pressing action.
  <sub>sources: coworlds/coworld-crewrift/src/crewrift/sim.nim, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/docs/crewrift-gameplay.md, opencode:ses_21ffeb5ffffeA1Pk6sdyHDzwQW</sub>

#### 6. Crewrift imposter kills are at a structural ceiling (~1.27/game) -- the kill lever is exhausted
`crewrift` · **negative result**

Multiple independent A/Bs confirm imposter kill rate is bounded by the 500-tick cooldown plus victim isolation/range, NOT by caution, blending, or positioning: (1) BE_DUMB pure aggression (pretend 68%->0%, search 24%->97%) nudged kills only ~+10% (2.25->2.47/g) but TRIPLED ejections 14%->40% and had the LOWEST imposter mean (15.60) and win rate (5%) of eight players across 200 episodes -- it is a diagnostic, not a default; (2) dropping the isolation gate (force unwitnessed) left kills 1.27->1.24/g (p=0.80) because Hunt already spends ~96% of ticks closing distance, not waiting out witnesses; (3) a STANDING bridge<->Hydroponics corridor positioning bias to intercept button-runners REGRESSED kills 1.27->0.91/g (-28%, p=0.000, d=-0.58) and tripled zero-kill games (7%->23%), because the Bridge is saturated with crew so the isolation gate vetoes kills exactly where runners pass. Conversion is already ~100% and league debut showed field-top ~1.79 kills/game yet trailing win rate, with most imposter losses occurring already at 2 kills. Conclusion: in a 2-imposter game the win ceiling is ~2 kills/imposter (crew loses at parity), so move effort from kills to imposter CONVERSION -- survival, meetings, vote restraint, and engineering crew mis-ejections.
  <sub>sources: personal_labs/crewrift_lab/WORKING_CONTEXT.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/crewrift/crewborg/docs/designs/button-runne, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/crewrift/crewborg/version_log.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/lessons_archive/TENTATIVE_LESSONS-20260613- (+6)</sub>

#### 7. Win on the parity clock: engineer mis-ejections, and let the kill/lose math set endgame aggression
`crewrift`

2 kills + 2 crew mis-ejections wins faster than 4 kills, so mirror the crew's parity tactic (top crewmates burn the emergency button roughly every game -- it resets imposter cooldowns but stalls the parity clock, with canned chat 'just resetting imposter cool downs') by engineering crew MIS-EJECTIONS rather than grinding kills. Let the asymmetric endgame math drive aggression: with 3 players left (1 imposter, 2 crew) you MUST kill to win because a single vote ejects you, but when being voted out means imposters lose, play extremely safe.
  <sub>sources: bitworld/among_them/bot-policies/sidecar/prompts/imposter.md, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/lessons_archive/TENTATIVE_LESSONS-20260612-</sub>

#### 8. Watch for a distance term dominating the imposter patrol scoring function
`crewrift` · **negative result**

A station-patrol score that subtracts a distance penalty (e.g. score = killSiteScore*3 - roomTraffic - dist/6 - memoryThreat*70) can be DOMINATED by the dist term at moderate ranges, collapsing patrol to the nearest station cluster (e.g. Cafeteria) and starving the imposter of isolated targets. Fix by lowering the distance weight, adding a revisit-diversity penalty, or using a fixed low-traffic patrol circuit.
  <sub>sources: players_checkouts/players/users/james/personal_cogs/among_them/guided_</sub>

#### 9. Give no-ability roles an active job; time-wasting is itself a tactic against a clock
`crewrift` · ⚠ _session-derived, unverified_

Do not write off grunt / no-special-ability roles as filler. Even roles with no unique mechanic are force multipliers via leadership control, decoy duty, and deliberate disruption against a brutal clock. Give every role on the policy an active job, and in time-limited games treat wasting the opponent's clock as a tactic in its own right.
  <sub>sources: opencode:ses_1fbfc5c8fffesCp5Ilc2Hs3Q6X</sub>

#### 10. Persephone's Escape: protect key-role identity, and exchange reactively (decoy exchanges are useless)
`crewrift`

Persephone's Escape is a hidden social-deduction game with key roles Hades, Persephone, Cerberus, Demeter, plus grunts/Spy/Nymph. Key roles must protect their identity above all, because the enemy's optimal counter is purely positional once they know who/where you are: Hades has the hardest win (mutual role-exchange with Cerberus AND end in the same room as the enemy Persephone), so knowing Hades's room lets Nymphs win the positioning battle. Mechanically, mutual role exchange checks whether the key PAIR exchanged with EACH OTHER (not with anyone), so you CANNOT 'use up' an enemy key role with decoy exchanges -- the only effective tools against an enemy pair are time-wasting and misdirection. Key roles should minimize color exchanges, never do a one-way role reveal unless certain the audience is all allies (a team reveal narrows you to one of two key-role candidates), and prefer REACTIVE color exchanges (accept another player's C.OFFER, assess the whisper first) over proactive ones. Deception is EV-positive only when P(believed)*V > P(caught)*C(exposure): grunts have the most freedom (caught costs nothing) while key roles prefer camouflage-by-omission over active lying and never contradict a mechanical reveal already made.
  <sub>sources: players_checkouts/players/users/james/personal_cogs/persephone/agents/, personal_cogs/persephone/agents/eurydice/DESIGN.md, personal_cogs/persephone/agents/eurydice/HADES_STRATEGY.md</sub>

#### 11. Persephone's Escape defense: force a draw, decoy with a grunt, and burn the enemy's interaction budget
`crewrift`

When your own win is blocked, force a draw ('nobody wins') over a loss: locate the enemy key roles, time-waste them in whispers to burn their limited per-round budget, and if you hold leadership send them to opposite rooms or usurp to gain that control. A grunt can safely impersonate the protected key role as a DECOY (chat lies cost nothing and a grunt can decline role exchange with no mechanical contradiction): claim the key role in global chat, accept enemy whisper requests, then STALL and ask questions to burn time -- but never perform a role reveal or mutual exchange while decoying (both expose the true grunt role); worst case a caught grunt just stops drawing the enemy's attention. Keeping an enemy key role talking 10 of 15 seconds is 10 seconds it cannot coordinate, which is decisive because offense needs active coordination to win while defense needs only to prevent it. Feed misdirection (announce a false room for your protected key role), never name your own protected key role in mixed company, and mine enemy grunt slips like 'I've already talked to everyone in my room' for room composition.
  <sub>sources: players_checkouts/players/users/james/personal_cogs/persephone/agents/, agents/eurydice/NYMPH_STRATEGY.md, agents/eurydice/PERSEPHONE_STRATEGY.md, personal_cogs/persephone/agents/eurydice/DESIGN.md</sub>

#### 12. Persephone's Escape Spy: color exchange reinforces cover, role exchange breaks it -- spend intel in one decisive action
`crewrift`

The Spy appears as the ENEMY team in color exchange (inverted cover), so color exchange REINFORCES the Spy's fake-team cover while a one-way role reveal or any mutual role exchange with an enemy BREAKS it (shows 'Spy'). To find a real ally without self-exposing, skip color exchange, go straight to mutual role exchange, and prioritize targets whose color (from OTHERS' exchanges) matches the Spy's FAKE team -- inversion means those are actually real allies, raising first-exchange ally-hit from a coin flip to ~65-75% once a color exchange is observed; the first such exchange is the highest-risk moment but a Spy without a verified ally is useless. The central tension is that USING intel requires communicating with the real team (high cover-risk after being 'confirmed enemy'), so maintain cover until a decisive moment then spend accumulated intel in one high-impact action (win a hostage selection, usurp, or critical reveal). Exploit fake enemy trust: enemies vote to support the Spy's leadership during a usurp -- become leader then turn it against them at hostage selection; and waste an enemy key role's time by eagerly proposing role exchange as its missing partner (when they accept and see 'Spy' the interaction is spent). Break cover only when it no longer matters: in the final round if the action wins, or when a losing team with critical intel is better off shouting it publicly.
  <sub>sources: players_checkouts/players/users/james/personal_cogs/persephone/agents/, personal_cogs/persephone/agents/eurydice/DESIGN.md</sub>
