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The latest patch in Among Us gave playgroups the ability to hide the taskbar, or have the taskbar only update during meetings.
While these changes offer some great new ways to play Among Us, imposters also don’t know how much time they have left.
Hiding the taskbar changes how players play Among Us
When players have access to a constantly updating taskbar in Among Us, they have access to another tool which can be used to identify crewmates and imposters. One of the tasks on Polus, the Chart Course task, is notorious for being positioned in a place where the entire team can watch you complete it, effectively confirming one player’s innocence at the start of the game.
As a result, Among Us players can use tasks to effectively clear crewmates and work backwards towards the imposters. However, when this information is hidden, it removes the ability to clear players using non-visual tasks, and sows more uncertainty within the crew as a whole.
But the taskbar is used for more than just clearing players. Players in Among Us can use the taskbar to estimate about how much time they have left in their game. For crewmates, this can inform their decisions to skip votes in favor of rushing whatever tasks remain. For imposters, this allows them to decide whether or not to take risks, and lets them know if they need to play faster or can afford to wait.
Having the taskbar update during meetings allows players to still estimate their time, but to a much less exact degree than the consistent updates.
Should my Among Us playgroup hide the taskbar?
Knowing whether or not a particular playgroup should use these options can be difficult without extensive hours of playtesting with the same players. In general, if you find your games of Among Us are being “solved” by specific crewmates, then you may find that removing their tools makes for a more fun game.
However, not all playgroups will have put in the time or effort to learn what each task is and the exact details of how they work and interact with the taskbar. If a playgroup hasn’t progressed that far, there’s no harm in playing Among Us with the taskbar fully active. Players should feel free to experiment and play around with the new options to find what works best for them.
