Most traitors eventually have to commit homicide regardless of objectives, and knowing the right and wrong ways to do it can make or break your mission.
Easy points that you shouldn’t be forgetting regarding murder
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Always finish the job
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Aiming for the head generally causes more knockdowns than the torso
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Armor can be circumvented by aiming for areas not covered by the armor, e.g. if someone is wearing body armor and a helmet, maybe aim for the legs
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Know your enemy, like, say if your target is part of security or the command staff, expect to be fighting a heavily armored opponent, or if you know the target is a good fighter, it might be a good idea to use one of the less physical methods
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If you think you can kill somebody with an item, chances are you can. Even when you’re sure there’s no way this will kill anyone, it still might manage to
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When push comes to shove, you better be shoving. Fighting in this game is a lot like bull fighting, a lot of running and dodging and then direct physical confrontation. You’ll probably need to back off for a moment and then come back in again for another strike
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Walking around covered in blood like you’re fucking OJ Simpson is usually a good sign that you were in a fight. Dispose of the weapon or get to a bathroom or something. Remember to wear gloves when you kill someone. Not only does it leave your hands clean (so you don’t have to wash them before you eat tonight), it prevents fingerprints from giving you away.
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Having the element of surprise on your side ALWAYS makes for an easier time
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Your instincts might tell you to avoid security and leave your suit sensors all the way off to not draw attention to yourself. This is guilty behavior. Be polite. You’d be fucking surprised at how easy it is to complete your non-murder objectives by just talking to people.
How to commit homicide
Stationside weapons
The easiest way to end a mans life by far. This can be done with your bare hands, tools, tool boxes, stun batons, or any item in the game really. Quite simple considering how this is a space station and construction tools are readily available no matter where you are on the station.
However, unless you’re a robust fighter, beating is not always a viable option because it’s somewhat easy to defend against, after all, armor exists, and there’s nothing stopping them from yelling for help on the radio
Strangulation
Another simple option. Anybody who’s not handcuffed can strangle somebody. Since it only requires your bare hands, it’s readily available, just keep hitting them with grab intent. Once you have them locked in, the amount of stamina damage they’ll be taking trying to resist out will leave you with enough of a window to punch them with harm intent into stamina crit.
However, unless they’re stunned or handcuffed, it’s very easy to break out of and it leaves you in a vulnerable position.
Guns and syndicate weapons
Simple to use and most effective in close confrontations. This includes anything from lightsabers, to axes, to literal JoJo stands, to the energy gun disable blast, and last but not least, a good old fashioned handgun. A rather quick kill and can be concealed (relatively) easily. Depending on what weapon you choose, it can swiftly kill your target or silence your target to kidnap. Some weapons such as the mini energy crossbow, stechkin handgun, energy sword, or holoparasites can be concealed in your pockets or in your bag (or in your body). Some weapons like the sleepy pen can also be pretty much completely silent too.
However, the only people who are gonna be having weapons like these are either security or traitors. It usually leaves a big mess after the fight. And some weapons, like the fire axe or the chainsaw are bulky and cannot be fit in bags. If a witness sees this, you (or the witness) are most likely screwed, and in case you forgot, an un-suppressed .357 gunshot can be rather loud.
A very effective and efficient means to kill, but weapons like these are usually not available to the general public, so if you’re caught with them it’s usually game over.
Drugs
Killing aided by medical supplies such as toxins, morphine, poisons, and various other chemicals. Many of these will merely incapacitate the enemy, some will do significant damage, and enough of any of them can be deadly. They’re readily available in the medbay or from your syndicate poisons kit, and leaves little physical evidence.
However, it does take some time to work, and as mentioned earlier, most poisons are not deadly unless extreme doses are administered.
This method is effective to incapacitate people if you don’t have any means of properly restraining them, but unless you’re a chemist or buy the poison kit, the bottles of morphine you looted from the medical doctor’s locker is probably not effective enough to kill someone outright.
Spacing
The act of forcing somebody out of an external airlock. The ones in departures and arrivals are all-access, meaning anyone can open these. Aggressive grab and throw them while they are under or in front of the airlock, or try to shove them out. Airlocks are available across the station (and you can always make your own with a welding tool), pretty much a guaranteed kill, and usually leaves no physical evidence.
However, smart opponents might be able to dodge out of the way or pull you out with them, and they will probably be able to scream for help before they kick the bucket. You’ll want internals equipment too. Don’t forget that the body can land back on the station.
Spacing can be a plausible option for people with the proper equipment, but it can also be just as dangerous to you as it is to your target.
Gassing
Simple enough; while wearing internal gear, release toxic gases into a room with your opponent. It leaves no physical evidence besides the tank/canister and is reasonably fast to boot.
However, the kinds of toxic gases that you’re going to want can be difficult to acquire depending on your job. Trapping your target in a room of toxic gas is a problem in itself. Don’t forget that they may have internals of their own. Also, the evidence that does stay behind is long lasting, as the area is basically contaminated until somebody comes to clean it up.
The silicons will also receive an atmospheric alarm for the area and can immediately jump to a camera there, making escape difficult unless you can hide in a locker or something.
Suffocation is not a good option for many parts of the station, but it’s relatively easy to use in areas like engineering, the toxins lab, and atmospherics.
Gibbing
Using the chef’s gibber for killing personnel. Probably the best if you’re the chef, but if the corpse is knocked out, the chef won’t give a shit about killing them. It basically leaves no evidence, and you can eat them to get your health back (unless they’re a plasmaman, for obvious reasons).
However, your target has to be nonresponsive to gib them (or emag the gibber). You might want access to the kitchen, or you will end up having at least one person who knows that you ended someone. Don’t forget that the body has to be brought to the kitchen somehow, and someone will most likely notice, depending on how you do it.
This is probably the best as chef, as it doesn’t appear as traitorous.
Cremation
Using the crematorium is a must as a chaplain traitor. There is literally no chance of survival, and leaves literally zero evidence, and compared to the gibber, you don’t need to strip them down first.
However, you can get spotted, need to make sure the person is out cold / dead and you got rid of the camera in the crematorium. The crematorium destroys items completely, and doesn’t leave anything behind if you don’t strip them. Be careful of blood trails. Unlike with the gibber, only people with the crematorium access can use the “burn” button on the cremator. Don’t forget that the crematorium also destroys items! Nothing is worse than broiling the head of security and realizing that all that remains of your steal objective is a charred hunk of energy gun.
The mini-crossbow helps here, as does the sleepy pen. You can knock people out constantly, and then pelt them with toxin arrows until they pass out and are at your mercy.
Fire
Lighting a fire into plasma leak (and other ways) to is a very dangerous way to murder somebody (or yourself, if not careful), yet effective.
Fire is intimidating and dangerous to other people, people who are burned will likely be husked, damages much of the station (if you want it) and is also effective against certain races, such as the IPC. It also does not leave much physical evidence, but the downside is…
…it is literally the exact opposite of stealth. The AI will immediately notice the multiple fire alarms, gives some time for the victim to cry for help, fire is hard to obtain and only available to high-risk types of rooms such as atmospherics, toxins, and other medium security areas. And unless if you find away how to endure fire (like a boss), the danger level of murdering somebody with flames is quite high. Plus, fire is easy to disperse, using a fire extinguisher.
Killing somebody with fire is something dramatic and dangerous, and is good for getting the shuttle called.
Baiting
A fairly advanced tactic, if only because it doesn’t always work. Basically, you talk security into attacking somebody for committing some kind of crime. The crime ostensibly committed can range from breaking windows to breaking doors into the bridge - it doesn’t matter, they’re gonna die for it anyways. This can be especially useful when the security team have proven themselves incompetent and are unlikely to challenge your accusations. It relieves suspicion of you (if it exists), a very good way of getting the station’s legitimate members to do your dirty work, distracts security, and last but not least, it makes for nice roleplay.
However, this method is unpredictable, and can really backfire in your face.
Man oh man, is it a fucking meme when it works, but it is also hard to pull off and risky for yourself, to boot.
Make sure you always wear gloves, and try to use people’s ignorance to your advantage; asking some random assistant to hold something like a fire extinguisher for you at the start of the round, then leave it near the victim’s body, for example.
Where to hide the body
Now that you’ve picked your method of slaying, you will need to pick somewhere to do this. Several obvious factors play into this decision.
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Are the facilities available in this area? You probably won’t be able to shove someone into the orange electricity rock if you’re the bartender.
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How frequently does the subject access this area? Camping out in the cargo warehouse for your target probably won’t work if your target is the warden, who has everything he needs in his office.
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How heavily populated is the area? You might not want to brutally shank someone to death with your energy sword in the medbay or in science, which are usually high traffic areas and are most likely to have a witness.
After looking over these, you can tell where you should commit the crime. Several more specific factors play into this…
- How hard is the area to access?
- How secluded is the area?
- How much camera coverage is there?
- Is the area your workplace?
It would be unwise to kill somebody in the toxins lab if you are a scientist, but it would be rather sharp of you to murder someone in the toxins lab if you are a cargo worker.
Properly getting rid of the evidence
Most of the methods of killing people leave behind a body (potentially) covered in evidence, and more importantly, able to be brought back from the dead.
While the specifics of resurrection aren’t important, the requirements of these methods are.
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Defibrillation needs a mostly intact body which has been dead less than a certain amount of time. The easiest method of rendering it impossible to defib someone is to smash their skull in a bit more thoroughly. Just keep beating/shooting them while they’re dying.
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Cloning requires the brain. All you need to keep is the brain so cutting that out and keeping/spacing should suffice. Be aware cloning can have saved scans.
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Botany is probably the most difficult to prevent but the least likely to happen. So long as genetics is intact Botany is unlikely to start planting clone pods. Fortunately they need a blood sample from the body.
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Robotics doesn’t actually bring the dead back (they still count as dead even if borged) but most cyborgs that aren’t one-humaned to you are going to rat you out the moment they can speak. Fortunately for your case, they need the brain.
So how do you actually prevent your victim being resurrected?
Most of the methods of killing people without leaving a body work on those who are already dead.
Cutting someone’s brain out or beheading them counters almost every method listed.
Your common toolbox contains most of the tools you need for organ manipulation, and substitutes for the rest are in low security areas.
A quick trip to cargo will get you a full set of tools or the ones you were missing, breaking a window or hopping the kitchen table will get you a knife, and breaking into the botany backroom will get you a hatchet to replace the saw.
A brainless body is suspicious and bleeds everywhere so be prepared to ditch it right away. A quick disposals ride should be enough to prevent your location from being identified.
You were wearing gloves, right?
If you have access to body bags, you should use them. People ask a lot fewer questions about people using body bags in public compared to, say, lockers.
Expect to get stopped several times by assholes opening the bag and make sure it looks like your heading for medbay.
Space people out of the airlock at an angle, as most of the places where people check for bodies are in straight lines.
Strip people of their jumpsuit if you can’t dispose of them elsewhere and hide them in a locker that locks, preferably to an access that is uncommon.
Remember your new access is your access plus whatever your victim’s access was.
If all else fails, buying a syndicate mini bomb, dropping it on the body, and skedaddling will prevent them from coming back.
Getting Caught
Things never go that smoothly. Getting arrested is a way of life on this station of ours, and knowing how to go through it unscathed is very important.
And the best way to do that is to lie so much you believe yourself. Lie to everyone and everything that talks to you.
Agree to any searches that won’t get you busted for corpses or traitor items. Do anything to deflect the blame on to others.
If you run around wordlessly dragging a locker of corpses around, that is ultra fucking suspicious. If you drag around that body bag of corpses saying you were cleaning up maintenance and you are going to give the chef some meat, you may have a chance of not getting robusted by security.
Note that your chances of this bluff being a success is next to nothing if you get caught with any syndicate items on you. As soon as that first emag or EMP grenade is spotted in your bag, you’re getting sent to fucking pound town and you know it.
Tips on how to not get caught in the first place
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Store stolen items out of the open, the best way is in a box that’s in a locker (even better if the locker locks, such as the ones in the dorms or the locker room).
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Get rid of evidence. A bottle of space cleaner goes a long way to clean up blood. And don’t forget to hide those bodies.
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I hope you were fucking wearing gloves.
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A sleepy pen is a great stealth weapon. When they’re out cold, they’re at your mercy.
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Wear a disguise. Be an Unknown.
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Try to avoid killing innocents so you don’t have to deal with more than security.
Other notes
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Not all roles can be traitors at roundstart, the Captain, all Nanotrasen VIPs (CentCom) and all of Security (Including the detective, but NOT the lawyers) have mindshield implants at the start of the shift. Meaning they cannot be traitors and other role-based antagonists.
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Sometimes, in some gamemodes where changelings are also in the station with traitors, one can become a traitor and a changeling at the same time (although I’ve never seen it happen myself).
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Having a spare ID always helps. If you don’t have that, then just wear a mask and run around as unknown, using your ID in your hand to access the doors that you need. Knowing the access each job has makes certain IDs more valuable than others.
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There may be other traitors on station. You have code words to find them. You can work together, kill them for their telecrystals, or simply not get in eachothers way. A syndicate encryption key inside a headset, or an internal syndicate radio implant will also help in finding them too.
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Being a traitor is not a free ticket to ruin everyone’s round (although there’s nothing stopping you from doing it anyways).