Guide to Traitor

Traitoring (specifically the "Traitor" role) involves completing a randomly assigned set of objectives while roleplaying as an antagonist employed by a hostile corporation. Your objectives can be viewed by opening your character information panel, which is by default hotkeyed to "C."

Note: Playing an antag role does not allow you to ignore the Antagonists rules:

• The damage antagonists cause should be roughly proportional to their objectives, and contribute towards achieving them in some way.
• Exploits, arrivals camping, and other extremely lame behavior are forbidden. For a certain set of objectives, most other things have a place.

As a traitor, your primary focus should be completing your objectives. Simply griefing atmos and power or killing people unrelated to your objectives without actively pursuing them is highly discouraged.

Objectives

Objective	Description	Difficulty	Notes
Steal	This is one of the most common objectives. Objects for theft range from the Psionic Mantis' knife, the Captain's jetpack, advanced magboots, and so on. This can be extremely variable in difficulty, and it's your job to make the best of a bad situation.	Easy to Very Hard	A list of these items is available here.
Kill or Maroon Crewmember	The difficulty of this objective varies, you can have someone SSD and leave them on the station. In general, running up and whacking your target with an energy sword will work, but if you can roleplay with your target beforehand, it's appreciated as well. You can also try a more stealthy approach if you want to.	Medium to Hard	Sometimes you'll be assigned to kill other traitors without knowing beforehand, so watch your back. Note that the target also needs to 'remain' dead or left behind on the station for you to succeed - if they're cloned, and provided you don't finish the job, you will fail the objective come round end.
Kill Head	This is a tough one. Heads are more likely to be cloned. In general, running up and whacking your target with an energy sword will work, but if you can roleplay with your target beforehand, it's appreciated as well. You can also try a more stealthy approach if you want to.	Hard to Very Hard	If the target survives the shift, you will fail the objective. Leaving them on the station doesn't count as a success compared to the other kill objective.
Escape Unrestrained	This is going to be one of the most common "escape" objectives for the traitor, reaching centcom alive and not in cuffs. This is fairly simple, but if you're wanted or there's a big threat to the station then escaping alive might become trickier.	Medium to Very Hard	You will fail this objective if you are in handcuffs or don't arrive at centcom.
Protect fellow Traitor	This is very variable in difficulty. On the one hand, if you have to protect the Musician it's unlikely that they're going to any really dangerous situations. On the other, if you have to protect a Salvage Specialist, you might fail before the shift really starts. If possible, drag their body to medbay as quickly as you can and make sure they get cloned.	Easy to Medium	Do note that some other traitors may have your 'Protect' target as their 'Kill' target, and so you might have to intentionally disrupt their work to succeed.
Assist fellow Traitor	An objective that depends entirely on the objectives of the other traitor. All you need to do is to have them achieve half of their objectives.	Easy to Hard	Do note that it is entirely possible that your target has you has their 'Kill' target and it can get awkward.
Raise Glimmer	Ensure glimmer reaches a certain Ψ threshold and keep it that way.	Easy to Hard	You need to have it reach but it can go above. You fail the objective if the shift end under the threshold.

Codewords

You can see your codewords and tasks by pressing C

Memorize your codewords! Codewords are a set of random words shown under your objectives that are given to all traitors in the round. You can use them to discreetly identify yourself to other traitors, allowing you to work together.

Uplink

Syndicate Agents have access to an Uplink in their PDAs that allow them to purchase various items to help them complete their objectives. These items cost Telecrystals (TCs). Traitors start with 20 TCs and Nuclear Operatives start with 40 TCs. Telecrystals can be removed and inserted between PDA uplinks, allowing you to pool your funds with other traitors to purchase more expensive items.

Uplink menu

Traitors, by default, have their PDA serve as their uplink. However, you can buy a Uplink Implanter to access the uplink without the need of a PDA. Remember to eat your TC.

The shop page is hidden for stealth purposes, and to unlock it you will need to enter the special code you receive at roundstart as your PDA's custom ringtone.

Tips

• Buying from the uplink makes a "cha-ching" sound. Contrary what some may think, this sound is not audible to nearby players.
• Since traitors only start with 20 TC, they must neutralize collaborate with other agents in order to purchase high-value uplink items.
• Certain jobs get a reduced amount of TC when they are traitors.
  • 19 TCs: Service Worker
  • 18 TCs: Lawyer, Paramedic, Cargo Technician
  • 17 TCs: Salvage Specialist, Engineer, Technical Assistant
  • 15 TCs: Psionic Mantis
  • 10 TCs: Atmospheric Technician
• Purchase what you need only when you need it. Security cannot discover your uplink if you turned it off, but they can certainly find a weapon or grenades in your bag.

Strategy

Traitoring provides a wonderful opportunity for creativity, but success always depends on the quality of planning and execution. When starting a round as traitor, make sure you understand what your objectives require, and ask yourself how to want to approach those objectives. If you have to steal the Nuke Auth Disc and an ID board, do you have to kill anyone? If you just need the Captain's ID card, do you need to destroy atmospherics or release the Singulo? Conversely, do you think you can get the Antique Laser Gun off of the captain without killing them? Can you take the Head of Security on in a firefight? The answers to these questions depend on your playstyle, skill level, and preferences as a player, but keep in mind that the goal is to (often) finish the round alive. The following will discuss tactics for assassination, sabotage, burglary, and manipulation.

Please note; it's important to factor in that regardless of your goals, it is crucial to factor in concepts such as what evidence you leave behind.

Assassination

"HELP MAINTS!"
-Common SS14 saying

Since the objective will tell your their job, you'll want to figure out where they will be spending their time on the station. Chemists tend to stay around medbay, but civilian roles like chaplain and librarian more commonly float around social areas like the bar. Once you've tracked your target down, consider where you want to kill them. Maintenance shafts are out of sight, but most people rarely just hang around in them. The main hallways are crowded so you'll have to neutralize bystanders and extract or gib the body so it doesn't get cloned. Finding the balance of convenience and opportunity relies on your knowledge of where the target will be.

Next up is your weapon. How will you acquire it? How effective is it? The Mandella kills quickly at point blank range, but too many stray bullets at longer range will give your target the opportunity to fight back or call over the radio for help. Explosions can devastate the entire room that a target is in, but it'll draw attention and possibly injure you. Poison takes more than a few seconds to take effect - will that be fast enough?

Assuming it all worked out, you will want to ensure the body doesn't get cloned. Hiding it in a locker is quick, spacing the body takes more time and risks exposure, and gibbing the body is messy and loud. If medbay is miraculously checking suit sensors, consider taking their jumpsuit somewhere else. Killing another player and getting away with it is all about preparation, opportunity, and execution.

Sabotage

"Someone blew up AME"
-Common SS14 saying

Sabotage is effective for changing the behavior of people on the station, but one should always consider the consequences. If you feel the need to grief the entire station as much as possible just to steal a disk, you might want to spend more time strategizing or risk the ire of your fellow players, or worse, an admin. Sabotage can be very effective in surprisingly small doses if done correctly, and can backfire horribly in larger doses. Keep in mind that the more crippling your sabotage is, the more people will try to get it fixed faster.

Sabotaging power can be done centrally or locally. That is, you can sabotage power generation or power distribution. Power generation is usually distributed across the AME, Singulo, and Solars, so to cripple power station wide you have to hit all three targets hard and quickly. The AME can be blown up with explosives, overinjected with fuel, or deprived of fuel to hamper the station's power generation considerably. The Singulo is an extremely vulnerable target as it can be accessed from space and tampered with in a variety of ways. Simply turning off or cutting the wires to the emitters will power down the containment shield, allowing the Singulo to gobble up the station and nearby people before drifting into space. More subtle approaches involve disabling the particle accelerator or the radiation collectors. Solars is simply a matter of cutting HV wires or messing with the computers. Sabotaging power locally involves cutting wires going from substations to APCs or just destroying substations, and is a faster and more surgical approach that is also easier for the crew to fix. Sabotaging power will probably make everyone very angry at you.

Sabotaging atmospherics is either very simple or very complicated. You can either spend some time messing with mixtures and pressures to flood the station with carbon dioxide or plasma or just blow the whole works up. You can also ruin the air by opening tanks of CO2 and Plasma at max pressure. Sabotaging atmos will probably make everyone very angry at you.

Other forms of sabotage include spacing rooms, messing with doors, and blowing up or stealing important equipment like the cloning pod or cargo pad. If these disruptions are worth the time and risk they involve and end up helping you complete your objective, go for it. Otherwise, reconsider your strategy for other player's sake as well as your own.

Burglary

"Someone broke into Cap's room"
-Common SS14 saying

Most objectives don't require violence. The Cryptographic Sequencer is a fantastic tool for gaining access to otherwise secure rooms and lockers. If you're light on telecrystals, a utility belt with a full set of tools can get you through almost any door, wall, or window. Swiping an ID with relevant access is great if you don't get caught doing it, and asking the HoP to let you change jobs can work on occasion. Breaking into lockers is usually time consuming, but a great trick to drag the locker in front of an emitter in maintenance and let it fire 4-5 times. Generally the hardest part of breaking in somewhere is avoiding being seen. You want to ideally spend the least amount of time possible in places where you shouldn't be, so staking out the layout before hand is recommended. While arguably excessive, putting on the right uniform or a different outfit can be the difference between being identified or not. Be sneaky, be bold, be quick.

Manipulation

Some traitors can lie and charm their way through all their objectives. Helping the crew and maintaining your cover will make you trustworthy and give you the element of surprise. Yell "Sec to Engineering" over radio before committing a crime on the opposite side of the station. Frame other people for crimes, start a worker's revolution, or assume another identity. SS14 is a roleplaying game, and the relationships you establish with other characters will affect the outcome of every round.