Among Us Venting Guide

Ah, Among Us. The gaming sensation captured the attention of players everywhere and gave a new meaning to viral. This incredible success story went from a tiny indie game that nobody had ever heard of, to one of the most popular games in the world. It’s still hard to believe that Innersloth was just a small indie developer and they made Among Us with just three developers! Whilst nobody could ever have predicted the way it entwined itself into the popular gaming sphere, I’m so glad it did.

This social deduction game has given me hours of entertainment and it’s great for killing time when you don’t have enough free time to load up a console and play a triple-A game.

There are many really interesting facets of the game, including customization, killing, and completing tasks. Each one has several features to consider, and knowing the basics will help you triumph in the game. However, this particular Among Us Venting guide is going to focus on one specific game mechanic – vents.

What are Vents in Among Us?

So, what exactly is venting, anyway? Among Us is set in space, and each map features a layout whereby you move around to each area and complete tasks. Now and then, you’ll come across a floor tile that looks like a grate. It’s silver in color and has slats to show that it’s hollow underneath. This is a vent. Vents serve two main purposes in the game.

Firstly, they can be used as a means of hiding from other players. Once you’re inside the vent, none of the players above the ground will be able to see you in any capacity. That includes your player label.

As far as they can tell, you’ll be non-existent, and they won’t have a clue that you’re there. This is great if you don’t want to be spotted in a certain area, or if you want to try and sneak up on someone to kill them. It’s also really convenient if you’ve just killed someone and want to make a quick getaway.

The other usage is as a means of fast travel between areas. Vents aren’t just a handy hiding spot, they’re also an interconnected underground web. Once you enter a vent, you’ll be able to instantly travel to another nearby vent with a simple click of a button. This process is more or less instantaneous, and you can zip between vents in a split second.

There’s no cooldown on moving between vents, so you’re able to quickly move to one area, hop out, kill someone, then quickly move back to another area. This can be handy if you’ve locked a door and want to go in and out without being seen. Most maps have several vent systems that are in a closed loop with each other.

For example, on The Skeld, you can move to Medbay or Security from Electrical, but you wouldn’t be able to move to Lower Engine. Knowing these vent systems can be especially handy if you’re an Impostor, and I go into more detail on the locations later on in this guide.

Who Can Vent in Among Us?

Although every player can see vents, not everybody can use them. For Crewmates, nothing will happen when they stand over a vent. It’s treated the same as any other floor tiles. However, some players will be able to interact with vents. Impostors are allowed to vent and will get a notification when they’re stood within range of one.

A button will glow in the corner of their screen and when they press it, they’ll enter the vent. However, with the introduction of special roles in the November 2021 update, it is technically possible for a Crewmate to vent.

The Engineer role allows a Crewmate to enter and use the vent system the same way that an Impostor would. However, whilst Impostors have unlimited usage, Engineers have to pick their moments. Once they vent, they have a limited amount of time until they’ll pop back out again.

After their time is up (the exact amount depends on the lobby settings, but is usually around 30 seconds), they’ll automatically leave the vent, and will have a cooldown (again, dependent on the lobby settings) until they’re able to enter the vents again.

It’s worth noting that only living players can use the vents. If an Impostor or Engineer dies, they will become a ghost-like any other character. Impostor ghosts still have access to the sabotage function but are no longer able to kill or use the vents. If they stand over a vent as a ghost, they will no longer see the vent option on their screen.

The same is true of Engineers. However, seeing as ghosts move so quickly anyway, and Crewmates are unable to see them, there would be no real point for a ghost to use a vent.

When Should You Vent in Among Us?

Picking your moment is crucial, as venting at the wrong time can result in you being voted off the ship. Even if you’re an innocent Engineer, it can be hard to convince the other Crewmates of this.

If you’re an Engineer, you could potentially try announcing this in a meeting, so that if someone sees you venting then they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. However, by telling everyone, you risk the Impostor deliberately targeting you. After all, Engineers pose a great threat to Impostors as they can catch them in the act by waiting in a vent.

If you’re the Engineer, you need to be aware that you have limited time in the vents. Theoretically, you could just use it to fast travel to a different area, but this would probably be a waste. The best way to use vents is to try and catch the Impostor.

If you’re suspicious of a certain player, you can follow them from a distance, and then enter a vent near where they are (assuming they haven’t seen you). Then move between the vents to try and keep them in your sights. You might catch them killing someone, or you might see them enter the vents themselves. Either way, you can lie in wait and catch them in the act.

Like an Impostor, you don’t want to overuse vents. Unlike the Engineer, you have unlimited venting capabilities, but that doesn’t mean you should be hopping in and out like there’s no tomorrow. There’s an animation when you enter the vent that lasts for about half a second.

This doesn’t sound very long, but it’s long enough for a Crewmate to walk into the room and see you. Even if a room is empty at the point you click the vent button, it doesn’t mean it will be empty by the time you’ve finished the animation. As such, you should be certain that the coast is clear before entering or exiting a vent.

Also, try to only do it when you’re not on kill cooldown, that way, if someone does see you, you can try and kill them before they have a chance to call an emergency meeting. Vents are also really useful as a quick getaway after you kill a Crewmate.

Try to get kills in rooms that have a vent, and then you can go straight from the dead body to a vent. Once inside, you can either move to a different location or just hide in the vents until someone finds and reports the body.

What Should You Do If You See Someone Vent in Among Us?

First of all, don’t panic! You need to be prepared for this to happen, and react immediately, otherwise, you could be in danger. If you see an Impostor venting, they may well try to jump straight back out and kill you before you can alert anyone

. Your best bet is to immediately run away from the vent and try to get to the emergency button. However, the Impostor may try to sabotage the doors and kill you to stop you from reporting them.

As such, if you see another player whilst on your way to the emergency button, it’s safest to stop and stay with them. The Impostor can’t kill you if there’s a witness right there.

Assuming you make it safely to the button, call a meeting immediately. It’s worth noting that players hate when the game gets interrupted by a meeting, so they’ll probably be quite hostile at first. So it’s important to get the information out as quickly as possible. Send a message straight away simply saying “X vented”.

Once you’ve ascertained why you’ve called the meeting, you can then give more details. For example “I saw X vent in Security”. People will ask if you’re sure, and may still doubt you, so you need to let people know that you’re confident. Use phrases like “definitely” and “I’m 100% sure” so that people are more likely to believe you.

Also, give the person a chance to defend themselves. Ask whether they’re an Engineer. Even if they’re an Impostor they’ll probably say yes, but this is a good thing as the real Engineer will probably call them out. Plus, it may be that the lobby you’re in doesn’t even have an Engineer, so you can point out that this is proof that X is lying.

For this reason, make sure to check the lobby settings before you join a game. If it seems likely that they’re the Engineer, then suggest to the group that they should skip. You want to make sure they’re not tempted to vote for you instead.

Finally, before doing any of that, make sure that you saw them vent. You want to specifically look for the animation. If they went into a room and disappeared then that makes them very sus, but you can wait until a dead body is found and bring it up during that meeting.

Also, sometimes a player will just disappear off your screen. This is a glitch and doesn’t mean they vented. You should only call an emergency meeting when you’ve seen them vent with your own eyes.

Vent Locations in Among Us

Each map is unique in numerous ways, and vents are no exception. Every map in Among Us has its rooms and locations, and not all of them will have a vent. It’s important to know not only the vent locations but which vents they connect to.

That way, if you’re an Impostor, you can easily plan your moves when sneakily moving between locations. This guide will break down all the vent locations in each map.

The Skeld

The Skeld is easily my favorite map on Among Us, and I know many other players feel the same way. It’s small and easy to memorize, with plenty of varied tasks to complete. It also has the most vents of any of the maps, making it perfect for Impostors that like to travel around the ship.

The vent system on The Skeld consists of 6 closed loops of 2 or 3 vents. These closed loops allow you to immediately travel to any of the other vents in the system. Here are all the loops:

• Security – Medbay – Electrical
• Reactor – Upper Engine
• Reactor – Lower Engine
• Admin – Cafeteria – Corridor (between Navigation and Shields)
• Navigation – Weapons
• Navigation – Shields

It’s best to avoid using the vent in the corridor as that shows up on cameras and gives the highest risk of you being caught. Navigation itself is pretty safe as it gets low foot traffic from other players, but both Weapons and Shields are quite common locations and risk you being seen.

The best-closed loop is Security – Medbay – Electrical, as all three rooms are excellent places to kill someone. Electrical has four tasks, and so there’s a good chance of Crewmates walking in. The best plan is to kill in either Electrical or Security, and then vent to Medbay to make a quick getaway.

Mira HQ

This map is unique in that instead of having a series of closed loops that only connect, every vent is connected to every other vent via one large closed loop. However, you can only move to the adjacent vents, so you’d have to travel between several vents to reach a location on the other side of the map. Here are all the locations in Mira HQ that contain a vent:

• Launchpad
• Reactor
• Laboratory
• Office
• Greenhouse
• Admin
• Corridor (just above Cafeteria)
• Balcony
• Medbay
• Corridor (to the left of Locker Room)
• Decontamination

Most of the locations only connect to two different rooms, however, Corridor (to the left of Locker Room) and Reactor both connect to three. This is because they connect to their adjacent rooms, as well as Decontamination.

Decontamination is great for venting into and out of because when Crewmates enter, the doors lock behind them, so they have no means of escape, and you can jump out, kill them, then go back inside the vents and move to a different location.

Something to keep in mind with Mira HQ is that there is a door log that players can keep track of. This shows every door that every other player has passed through. If you pass through a door to one location, use a vent to move to a different location, and then leave that location through a door, an astute Crewmate could pick up on this.

It’s probably wise to double-check that nobody is looking at the door logs before you vent into somewhere. The door log is found in Communications.

Polus

Polus is one of the larger maps on Among Us, but it only has 12 vents in total. These are spread out pretty unevenly, meaning there are large swathes of the map with no vents, and small spaces with several vents. It has three closed loops, one with 2 vents and two with 3 vents.

It also has a 4-vent system that connects in a line. You can move between all the vents in that system, but the first and last locations don’t connect. You should note that the vents on this map don’t look like grates. Instead, they have the appearance of cracked holes in the ground. The locations and connections are as follows:

• Electrical – O2 – Outside (above and to the left of Communications)
• Storage – Corridor (between Office and Admin) – Outside (to the right of Communications)
• Outside (above Electrical) – Outside (above and to the right of Storage)
• Outside (to the left of Admin) – Admin – Outside (below Laboratory) – Lower Laboratory

As you can see, a lot of the vents are outside, meaning there’s a higher chance of someone walking past you. However, the risk isn’t too high due to Polus being such a large map compared to the previous two. Either way, it’s worth being cautious about entering and exiting those outside vents.

The most convenient system in terms of getting around the map is the one between Admin and Laboratory. There’s a large gap between those two buildings, so being able to instantly travel between the two is really handy.

The Airship

Added in March 2021, The Airship is by far the largest map in Among Us. It not only features a multitude of rooms, but it even introduced ladders so it could have an upper and lower level. Each round also allows players to pick their starting locations, which can be convenient for Impostors as they can pick a room with good connecting vents.

There are 12 vents in total for The Airship, which consists of three 3-vent closed loops, and one 3-vent system where the first and last locations don’t connect directly to each other. The locations and connections of the vents look like this:

• Vault – Cockpit – Viewing Deck
• Engine Room – Kitchen – Lower Main Hall
• Left Gap Room – Right Gap Room – Upper Main Hall
• Showers – Cargo Bay – Records

The link between Vault, Cockpit, and Viewing Deck is the one in a line rather than a loop, so if you wanted to move from Vault to Viewing Deck then you’d have to first go through Cockpit.

Honestly, The Airship is so large that there’s very little chance of getting caught venting, and even if a Crewmate does see you, you’ll probably be able to trap them by locking doors and kill them before they could get to the emergency button.

The good thing about the vents in The Airship is that although there aren’t that many of them, they’re well-spaced. So you can move around the ship relatively quickly and get to multiple areas in a short space of time.

FAQs

Conclusion

As you can see, vents are a vital part of Among Us and add to the tactical strategy of the game. They serve several purposes, and since the introduction of the Engineer role in the November 2021 update, it’s added a new level of interest.

Whilst Crewmates always have to be vigilant around vents in case an Impostor is hiding inside, now Impostors also have to be careful in case an Engineer is hiding inside. Hopefully, this guide has given you a good idea of when to use a vent, how they affect the game, and where they’re located!

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Melika Jeddi

Melika, a Co-Host of the Indie Game Culture Podcast, is someone that almost exclusively plays indie games. With Spyro and Crash being the exceptions to the rule. She is a lover of cozy games, with bright colors and shiny objects often being the primary selling point for all games in her wishlist.

She also runs her own Pop Culture site called Screenhype, is a skilled Rock Climber, and needs put on a merch-buying ban due to the abundance of cons she attends.

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