Guide to Roles

• 3 (2.0%): BodyGuard
• 1 (0.7%): Doctor
• 2 (1.3%): Escort
• 9 (5.9%): Investigator
• 34 (22.2%): Jailor
• 1 (0.7%): Mayor
• 6 (3.9%): Medium
• 1 (0.7%): Retributionist
• 1 (0.7%): Sheriff
• 16 (10.5%): Spy
• 8 (5.2%): Transporter
• 5 (3.3%): Veteran
• 3 (2.0%): Vigilante
• 10 (6.5%): Consigliere
• 1 (0.7%): Disguiser
• 11 (7.2%): Godfather
• 3 (2.0%): Amnesiac
• 4 (2.6%): Arsonist
• 6 (3.9%): Executioner
• 10 (6.5%): Jester
• 13 (8.5%): Serial Killer
• 1 (0.7%): Survivor
• 4 (2.6%): Witch

The bodyguard is a pretty nice deal. If a person you choose to protect has someone attempt to kill them at night, you will die in their place and also kill their killer. Keep in mind that this includes vigilantes.

Protective roles work a lot like lookout in that you should think about who draws the most attention. A person revealing a major role like an investigator or jailor would be very handy.
At the start of the game, you can often protect the first person to speak for good measure, (bar a veteran trying to draw in attention) a person that has to reveal themselves like a jailor, or a person that is a confirmed town member like mayor or Spy. A person revived by a Retributionist makes for an excellent protection target since they can gather roles safely. This applies even if they aren’t the most important role to the town. The fact that you have a confirmed town member on your side is a huge asset in itself because they can whisper and gather roles for the town.

See most of the tips that apply to the bodyguard, like the double healing technique, picking conspicuous roles, etc. The key difference is that you don’t die nor do you kill anyone when your target is attacked. Protect whoever you can, but you still need to search out who you think is mafia members and checking around using basic logic. If the serial Killer manages to pick a mafia member, there’s no point in saving that person, after all. The doctor isn’t just about healing people, but in the cases of serial killers killing mafia members, deciding if that person is worth healing at all.

Scout out and get an idea of what everyone is. You do not have to use your ability every night. You could potentially block roles like doctors, jailors, and retributionists and prevent them from making critical plays.

Write down everyone you block, that way if you draw in the serial killer, the town can know who to start looking at. The worst situation is if you get killed by the serial killer, but they were not the person you visited. I often find that writing “this person is not necessarily SK if I die from SK, but check them first” prevents town from being as rash since most will always assume the person is the Serial Killer.

If you see that a vigilante has been controlled by a witch, but they did not kill a town member, ask the vigilante to reveal themselves and tell everyone that if there is an escort, they should roleblock the vigilante. This will buy you a little bit of time so that the witch can’t potentially kill two town members.

Figure out if there is a veteran around. You typically don’t want to reveal yourself if you can avoid it knowing there is a witch around, because by forcing you to block another town member, the witch negates two town roles. You also leave yourself as an open target to the Serial killer, who would try to cast suspicion on someone else you block.

The escort can prevent the mafia from attacking and prevent arsonists from igniting. Figure out if mafia has access to a mafioso and a Godfather, as this can screw with your findings. Keep blocking to buy investigative roles more time to scout out everyone’s roles. This is a wonderful tactic to do if you have eliminated the arsonist and the serial killer–suppose the only remaining mafia is a Consigliere, a Godfather, and a Janitor.If you manage to find and block the godfather, but town still hasn’t identified the remaining mafia yet, it can be a smart move to say that you are an escort and you believe you’ve found the godfather, and that you should NOT lynch him yet so that the investigative roles can safely find everyone else. You’ll eventually have the game end in a draw if you do not kill, so use this with caution. Also make sure the person you’re blocking is the killer. If not, the real godfather can use this to his advantage and not attack while the mafia gathers information of their own.

Make sure to keep track of when attacks happen. If a kill get prevented, it’s not necessarily your doing, nor are people always honest about what happened at night. It’s possible the jailor has found a killing role and not you, it’s possible a killer hit an immune role or simply didn’t attack, and it’s possible someone was attacked and healed by a doctor. Jailors and doctors won’t reveal themselves unless it’s an absolute last resort, so don’t expect any information from others besides maybe a lookout.

Investigator is pretty straightforward, so the strategy behind it is less about gathering information and more about how you should present it to the town. Just scout as many people as you can. If you think someone is lying, make sure you confirm roles. The transporter is listed because they can potentially mess up your findings. If people get transported, I usually suggest encouraging the town to have transporter say who they move around every day. (More on this in the Transporter’s profile) People who constantly ask for leads, act like jesters, people who stay very quiet, people who claim multiple roles, insult the mafia (ex. “We’ll get those mafia scum.”) and people who point out the mafia’s action (ex. “Wow, I’m surprised mafia did that! No deaths!”) are often good starting points.

The blackmailer poses a big threat to you because it allows mafia to silence you without actually killing you, meaning you can’t share your findings with town. Even worse is if this happens before town knows you’re an investigative role. Be careful about revealing yourself as you become a target for consorts and blackmailers.

Janitors are a threat since they can remove all the information you gathered for the town. Consiglieres will often try to either convince town that they are legitimate or even work with you.
Be careful in when you decide to out someone with your findings. You can end up doing more harm than good sometimes by saying “that guy is doctor or serial killer” and blowing someone’s cover. You not only reveal that person, but you also reveal yourself. Confirm as many roles as you can before resorting to this, unless the person’s behavior suggests something otherwise. Before you reveal to the town, make sure you use a bit of reasoning so you don’t throw your teammates under the bus. For example, assuming you’re playing custom classic (see the setup above) if you see that a veteran has killed someone else in the town the same night you investigated someone and found them to be a Vigilante/Veteran/Mafioso, they are more likely to be a mafia member than they are the any role. Context is key when you investigate. If that person was in fact a vigilante, they are not only a prime target for mafia now, but a witch could take advantage of your finding and end up killing two town members.

In the case of revealing neutral roles like werewolves, arsonists and Serial killers, be very careful of your level of trust with the town. If you get people like this lynched, especially early on, you run the risk of being suspected as a Consigliere.

The jailor is often regarded as the silent leader of the town. it’s by far one of the best roles in the game for clearing damage and entire games can easily be won by the jailor alone. That said, it’s still tricky business being a jailor.

Write down who you jail every night. Even night one. Especially night one. Since you can’t kill the first night, if you pick a serial killer, the town will want to know who you picked to see what they are. Some go as far as not jailing anyone night 1 to avoid dying to the Serial killer if they get unlucky.
When talking to people, be very careful of your speech patterns, grammar, etc. Being a grammar nazi can backfire in this game. I’ve been able to find out jailors because the way they write stands out compared to other people in the game. This means watch capitalization, how good your grammar is, emoticons, references to things, and so on. When I’m jailor, I don’t use any punctuation, capitalization, nor do I act nice or mean. I just ask “role.” Use a different writing style while jailing versus speaking to the town to keep people from guessing who you are.

Always ask for a role. Follow up what they did with it. If a person claims to be doctor, immediately ask who they healed each night. Extra points of suspicion can be drawn if all the people they visited are dead. That’s not definitive, but it’s a common thing killers resort to so nobody save for a medium can confirm anyrhing. With mafia, claiming investigator is a common strategy thanks to the presence of a consigliere or mafia rattling off other mafia members. (ex. claiming the janitor is either medium or janitor)

Keep track of things that happen to you at night. For example, if you get transported the first night, that can prove to be wonderful information to use later on. I’ve killed a serial killer this way before. Ask, “who did you transport night 1” and if there are no other transporters, they should know that you were one of the people in question.
If you jail someone claiming a neutral role, don’t be afraid to kill them, even if it’s a survivor. It’s not your job to protect them, and while it uses up one of your three executions, the benefit outweighs the potential risk of letting a bad role go. Killing survivors is especially important if you’re playing in all any.

Do not ask for attributes. If you do, realize that this is generally an unreliable way of gathering information. If a role like mayor or spy starts to self confirm, then tell them who you are and ask for any information they have.
You can jail to shield others from attacks, but keep in mind the time spent doing this can be use finding more people out, so you have the opportunity cost of gathering information. It’s often the best choice if there’s a confirmed town member that can gather roles by whispering during the day faster than you can by jailing one person at a time. In situations like this, jailing for protection is better. If not, leave it to the town protectives or someone else.
Be wary of people that claim investigator (any mafia, but usually Consig), transporter(arsonist), doctor (Serial Killer), Lookout (Various), Retributionist (Various), Sheriff (jester/exe and sometimes mafia), Bodyguard (Godfather) medium (various), and vigilante (mafioso). These are the most common claims I’ve seen. Having said that, seeing roles like this does NOT mean they are automatically bad.

Often, bad people will stress the point that killing them will rob you of your ability to kill anyone else, while innocent town members will simply throw as much information at you to prove themselves innocent. This is especially the case with killers pretending to be retributionists, who not only stress the importance of your killing ability, but say they’ll revive you.
If you find someone, you can also write down any information they give you, like a doctor saying they healed Kuudere Kermit night 3. It can prove to help the town out even if it doesn’t seem like much, especially when you compare information with people.
If a person you jail claims to be attacked or doused, you can check multiple times to see results. Make sure that you don’t fall into the possible trap of killers not attacking to make you think you jailed a bad person. A spy can work wonders for this. If they say the person you jailed was visited by the mafia the same day mafia didn’t attack, they have a better chance of honesty. That said, they aren’t necessarily good though.

Be wary of when mafia has a mafioso that can kill in the Godfather’s place and vice versa. This can throw off some of the logic involved in determining who someone is, and it means you can’t say that the person is innocent simply because they was or was not a killing.
If you die and you don’t know what the any role or the town supports are, Stay in the game because jailor is one of the most likely candidates for revival from retributionists.
Like the escort, if you are down to just mafia and you happen to jail the godfather, you can keep jailing him without killing him while the town safely locates the rest of the mafia. Be careful of arsonists and mafiosos though.

Point and shoot. It’s usually a good idea to go for whoever draws the most attention to themselves during each day, thinking about people that are forced to give away their role with no means of protection, like a jailor that almost gets lynched will likely be visited by a town protective and/or a killer trying to take them out. The first people to speak day 1 are often good targets to look for killers or protective roles, but be wary of people that claim specific roles like “I’m the jailor” as these are commonly veterans (very poorly) trying to draw in killers.

In addition to finding killers, you should also think about what kinds of things people are claiming. For example, if someone says they are doctor and someone you suspect as a godfather visits them, it’s possible they are actually a serial Killer and they were attacked, but immune.
Like the other investigative roles, transporters can mess with your findings, so make sure you get in communication with them.

If you’re feeling extra devious, one of my favorite tricks is flushing out killers that claim protective roles by saying “hey, Yandere Kermit is gonna need protection tonight. Heal him please.” Then I visit the person that night to see if they really visited. This usually only works if you have built trust with the town already. Often, killers will dodge the person or even not attack and just say they healed that person.

If you find the veteran, make sure you stay in communication about when they go on alert. This isn’t just for your own protection, but you can get an idea of when people claim things to you. For example, if someone claims they investigated Kuudere Kermit night 4 and you know that Kuudere Kermit the veteran alerted that night, something is up.

It might also be good to check for something that is consistently happening. For example, if the same person appears to be getting blackmailed multiple times, you can visit that person and see who it is causing the problem…or if you find nobody is visiting, you can see that they’re faking it.

The mayor’s biggest asset to me is not the voting power, but the trust it grants you. Mayor is one of the few roles with the ability to instantly confirm itself to the rest of the players. The moment you reveal, everybody knows without a doubt that you are town. This can be abused, but it also gives you a great amount of power. Using the trust you get over the voting power is the key to the mayor. If it isn’t its own specific role, the mayor will also confirm one of the town support roles for the town without having to kill anyone. Even if there is no need for a mayor, revealing simply to confirm a role can prove very helpful for a town. Imagine If both town support roles are dead, and somebody claims to be the any role as an escort. If you reveal, you instantly out that person as a liar since you have to be the any role.

Demand everyone give you roles by whispering. Make sure you reveal at the start of the day rather than the last minute if you’re going to do this so that people will have a sufficient amount of time to answer you. Since you are a confirmed town member, nobody should have any reason to withhold information from you. Be wary of people that are blackmailed and cannot speak to you, as well as fakers that pretend to be blackmailed to avoid talking to you.
Compare notes with the jailor. Often, I will whisper to both the jailor and the veteran so that the mafia doesn’t catch on to the fact that the person I’m whispering to is taking orders from me and might be a jailor. Giving orders to a vigilante is also an excellent tactic, but make absolutely sure the person you tell them to kill is bad. I suggest only talking to jailors, spies, or veterans that have already been revealed because there is a smaller chance of your findings being abused. If you talk to an investigator, you could be talking to a consigliere that gives all of your findings to the godfather.

Do not randomly pick people. Don’t force them up to the lynching stand and then ask them for their role either. Not only does this force them to reveal their role to everyone, but it also means that killers might try to outvote them and kill a town member even when that person turns out to be innocent. Demand people tell you their role, but you should keep your town safe and have them whisper you their roles. The only other person who can see what you’re saying is a spy, so there’s no danger in enemies seeing.
when you gather roles, have the jailor sort out what people say as process of elimination and try to figure out what the any role is as soon as possible. If three people claim to be an investigative role and you already see that the any role is a doctor, then you know one of those people is lying. You can also ask for information like “who have you healed each night” as a cover.
This is very rare, but I’ve seen it happen…If multiple people claim to be a jailor, tell both of them to jail and kill the other person to kill that person. Aside from the dying player possibly revealing the jailor in their will, the problem will take care of itself.

Be very careful of jesters that try to take advantage of the situation and intentionally lie to get themselves lynched. I think the ideal time for mayor to reveal is when the serial killer and the neutral evil are dead, but there’s at least one town protective left, so if you vote people up, even though you have the most voting power, make sure you abstain if there is still a chance of a jester. A retributionist that has already revived someone would make a good candidate for taking the fall.
Remember that you have a lower chance of being attacked if there are more town protectives around. Even if you don’t actually get protected, killers will likely avoid you. Use that wisely. if you’re going to reveal, make sure you have fewer bumps in the road like neutral evil roles or serial killers. If the mafia can confirm that there are only doctors left, they’ll probably go after you even if there is a protective left.

Medium curse. Medium is only a decent role if people actually stay in the game after dying, so it’s no surprise how anticlimactic it is to get this role. Not only that, but it’s very difficult to earn the town’s trust as a medium, as you have no way to confirm yourself as a town member. Not fun enough?

Medium also a very common role for killers or mafia to claim, especially janitors. The janitors in particular can also clear out your own wills, meaning all your work is pointless if they clean you.
When you’re medium, I suggest hunting down a trustworthy investigative role or something so the town will believe you to be town. This will actually make your words stick. If you can see that you’re going to die, don’t be afraid to spill the fact that you’re a medium and give any incriminating info you can at the last minute. Remind the town to check the chatlog if you’re honest.

If bad roles are dead, take anything they say with a grain of salt, even if it’s a serial killer or arsonist they identify. If it looks like the mafia is going to lose, for example, they could easily just try to throw off the town by giving false information.

Every time a new town member is in the graveyard, make sure you reveal your name to them. That way in the event that someone in the graveyard is revived by a retributionist, they know who the medium is and who a last minute liar is. It’s very important for when the mafia gets cornered. If there are multiple mediums, make sure to keep that possibility open too. I find this is the most reliable way to gain trust as a medium.

The Retributionist is incredibly powerful because who you choose to pick and when you choose to revive them can be helpful. Like the mayor, that person becomes a confirmed town member, so they can do all the same things a mayor or spy can do by gathering roles. Jailors and mayors are common candidates for revival. Investigators and sheriffs are good for confirming what people claim when gathering roles. You can also pick a bodyguard or doctor because if you have another town protective role around, they can protect each other, and the veteran can be an excellent choice since the killers aren’t usually going to attack him for fear of him alerting, meaning he’d last longer than any other role you can revive if there are no protective roles to cover who you revive.
When you revive, whisper that you revived them as soon as possible. The best time to do it is during the “____ has died” animation. it. Saying something like “I’m the retributionist that revived you; get everyone to whisper roles to you since you’re confirmed town” before the message saying that the person is revived comes up is excellent because most don’t notice that someone from the graveyard is back in the town during the animation clips. Since you knew it, you can bypass that and use it to your advantage. Prepare your message the night you’re going to revive someone so they can instantly see who the most likely person to revive them was. When you revive someone, you also confirm one of the town support roles for the town and tell them to get everyone to whisper them roles. Killers will often claim retributionist when backed into a corner. If you whisper to them during that time, it means you were expecting them to get revived since you were the one to do it.

Avoid revealing yourself to anyone, even if there is no consort around. This can be particularly grating when good candidates for revival continually leave the game. Like the medium, if you tell people to stop leaving because there might be a medium or retributionist, people are likely to assume you are one of the two roles.

Write in your will that everyone should whisper roles to the person you revive just to get the idea in peoples’ heads. That way if you die, your strategy will still take effect and nobody will waste a confirmed town member. Ask protective roles to cover that person if applicable too, even if they aren’t the best role for the job. If a mayor is revived and he has not revealed yet, tell him not to reveal until absolutely necessary so he can still benefit from doctor protection while still getting the full trust of the town.

The Spy is one of my personal favorite roles to play as. There are also a number of ways to utilize the abilities of the spy.The biggest thing here is to write down everything for people to know since you have access to such a large amount of information.

When the mafia speaks at night, take notes of speech patterns like spammers, all caps, emoticon use, and role players staying in character. Of course, take this with a grain of salt because mafia can use this to their advantage and feed you false information. (more on this in the mafia section) I managed to catch a mafia member once because they said “Shakes ass” in the mafia chat when nobody else in the game did, and they repeated it again during the day. Pay attention more to knowledge only certain mafia members would have instead of names they say.
A really common trick mafia tries to do is to say “no names” and then say the name of someone who isn’t mafia in the hopes that a spy will believe it. On occasion, I see people do a double bluff and explicitly say the names of mafia members in all the times I’ve played, but this is rarely the case.

Take a grain of salt with mafia conversations. When you’re a spy, you only see the word “mafia” for the names. It’s possible one person is having a conversation with themselves to throw you off. I usually find that the less the mafia talks, the smarter they play. If some of the mafia sounds frustrated from a Godfather/mafioso that is AFK from saying things like “kill someone already, ugh” this rarely tends to be a lie, from my findings.

Check the patterns of people being visited. If Yandere Kermit gets visited night 1, then dies night 2 to mafia, and this pattern keeps happening with people, there’s a good chance of a consigliere. Likewise, if someone gets skipped and the pattern breaks, that person checked is likely a neutral role like survivor or amnesiac that the mafia has no interest in killing. It could also be that the person is a Serial Killer or arsonist, but mafia will usually present this in death notes or have someone pretend to be a different role and cast suspicion on them. If the mafia says “Miss Piggy is immune” and you know that Miss Piggy hasn’t been visited by anyone, then you know they’re probably just trying to pin blame on her. Be sure to check into what’s happening to people that repeatedly get visited, as these are common for framers, blackmailers, and consorts.

Make sure to record which people get visited by mafia. Barring transporter and witch interference, this information allows for process of elimination and tells the town who is not mafia.
One of the best techniques every spy should know is the spy test. The spy is one of the few roles in the entire game that can broadcast its role to everyone in the town and make everyone know you’re a spy. It’s similar to the mayor revealing. If you get in a situation where you’re up for lynching or something, say you’re a spy and demand a spy test. It’s usually better to spy test before getting voted up to the stand to avoid stupid people not actually testing you. (Town, under no circumstances should you ever vote someone claiming spy without spy testing, no matter how much you think they’re lying. You lose nothing by testing and it only confirms if they’re honest or not) Since the spy can see every whisper, it means that you can see things Person A whispers to Person B. Make sure to have multiple people test you. If a mafia member tests you, they might try to say you were dishonest by whispering to another mafia member that will only confirm what they say. It’s a pretty risky move on the mafia’s part, but I’ve seen it done before. If you’re being lynched, make sure to demand a test right away so that you’re not at the mercy of people not testing until the last minute. Even better, if someone like mayor has revealed or if you have someone you trust, call them out by name so somebody specific knows to whisper. Often, nobody really steps up to give a spy test and that’s what causes a last minute spy test when everyone has already voted guilty.

There are a number of players that believe this should be a neutral role rather than a town roles. In my guide,you’ll notice that transporters appear on nearly every single threatening role list. Transporters are chaotic and can save a hopeless town or run it straight into the ground. The transporter requires a great deal of logic and deduction to effectively play as, as well as a bit of patience. The fewer players there are remaining, the more of a threat the transporter poses to people.

Just because you have a role doesn’t mean you have to use it. If there happens to be an arsonist in the game, you can move two people at the start of the game and then announce that you’re a transporter the second day and confirm it by saying who you moved. Then from there, share who you moved so that investigative roles know to correct their findings. I find that killers are afraid to attack you for fear of attacking a different target. You also confirm one of the town support roles by doing this, not to mention you prevent a potential arsonist from claiming they got transported themselves.

Think about general patterns to figure out who mafia members, killers, town members, and so on can be. For example, people that keep asking “any clues” are often bad people trying to create conversation and not seem suspicious. it’s not definite, so it’s important you get any information you can from people.

Transport people with players that leave the game. In all the games i’ve played, i’ve only seen one mafia manage to get me with this, and even then it was a blackmailer. Make sure you only pick leavers that don’t leave at the last second, because a killer might not have enough time to change their decision.This can also backfire a bit, like if you transport a serial killer that left in the path of an escort. It rarely has issues and is pretty much insurance whoever you move. It also ensures that you won’t mess with investigations, as people probably won’t check someone who’s leaving, and you can jump around and say who you moved to confirm yourself. Take Caution though: while this route is pretty reliable for survival and not interfering with investigatvie roles, it means you’ll be transporting fewer people, and thus fewer people will have been transported to trust you.
If you can, hold off from doing anything until you get more information. The first few turns of the game are just going to be players doing things almost completely at random since nobody has a good starting point for how they should win. Pay very close attention to who votes people up randomly, the order people vote up in random votes, how quickly they vote, and whether they vote innocent, guilty, or abstain. This can give you information on who you should move.
You also have to think about who the jailor will imprison because the transporter will fail to move anyone if one of the people you select happens to be transported. The transporter revolves around thinking about what moves are in the best interests of each group and manipulating that to the town’s advantage. It’s not enough to hunt down bad roles and put them in harm’s way.
If you have someone reliable that knows who the vigilante is, you should work together to keep from stepping on each others toes. Moving a person a vigilante intended to shoot can be disastrous.

Don’t do the job of other roles unless they are no longer alive or if the player with that role is too dumb to use it properly. If a mayor has revealed himself, he becomes a huge target and you can protect him, but if both town protectives are still alive, you should leave the protecting to them. You can actually move him out of safety and can potentially get him killed. If you know both protective roles are down and the mayor’s voting power can save the town, then it’s a better idea to hide him by moving him with someone else. This also adds to the number of people you shouldn’t transport, thereby increasing your chances of making a beneficial move for the town.

Sacrifice neutral roles for the town.If they are disguiser/jester, don’t move them since there’s a good chance the vigilante will want to shoot them down. Use yourself to take an attack if you know who the most likely candidate for a killing is. It’s not as fun to be in the graveyard, but your goal isn’t to survive, but to take out all the roles that oppose you, so if sacrificing yourself benefits the town, go for it.

Think about who the “too obvious to attack” person is going to be when thinking about moving someone. When you move someone who was suspicious that turns out to be innocent, killers will often leave them alone unless they’re a large threat because they know that the town has a better chance of lynching that person.

You can also use the transporter to mess with certain plans of non-killing groups. If you see someone is continually being blackmailed, switch them with something like a survivor to let them speak up. Often, these are investigatives killers want quiet, but can’t kill because they have information against them. Same goes for someone claiming to be role blocked or controlled multiple times.

If there is an arsonist, keep track of who people claim get doused. Move that person with likely candidates for future dousings (including yourself) so the arsonist wastes time hitting the same person. You can also use neutral roles for the same goal.

Be wary of veterans because they will not only kill you and mess with your movement, but your will would give them away to killers.

If a jester is lynched, you have the ability to move that killing over to someone else. If you’re not sure on who a bad person is, you can move it to someone that would have been killed anyway to minimize the damage to the town, or ideally, you can use that guilt death to kill off a bad person. This is excellent when a single person votes guilty against a jester.

If there’s a role I would a lot of disagreement on, it’s this one. I consider the veteran the one of the most overrated town roles around. I think the it plays into two mindsets with the players that causes problems. Nobody likes dying, so a lot of players treat the veteran like a survivor because they want to stay in the game and out of the graveyard. The second is that people are overly optimistic about the capabilities of the veteran and try to picture the night they choose to alert and see all the bad role being slaughtered. This certainly does happen, especially when mafia members are mostly inexperienced, but more often than not, most nights of veterans alerting without much thought end either with no visits and a wasted alert at best, or the town losing core roles at worst.

First tip as veteran: your ultimate goal is to get bad roles killed. Not to survive until the end of the game. So don’t intentionally spam, say something like “I hate being jailor,” or draw a lot of attention to yourself in the first few seconds of the game just to alert night 1. By doing this, you invite investigators to see if you’re a jester, you invite protective roles with no leads the first night to protect you in case you’re being honest, and you push killers away by doing this. From the perspective of a killer, there is no benefit in targeting you. If you are lying, you are likely a veteran and they would get killed. If you are being honest, they’d likely have a protective role covering them anyway. It’s highly improbable to have a situation where an honest role like jailor or something speaks up the first few seconds of the game, nobody decides to protect them, and somebody decides to take a risk and attack them.

In general, alerting night 1 is counterproductive in custom classic as the majority of players at that time are town roles capable of visiting people. You have a better chance of doing collateral damage than you do sniping down bad roles. The longer you wait in the game, the higher chance you have of taking out a bad role. In all any, alerting night 1 has a higher chance of success since there tend to be fewer town roles and you have large mafias, but even here, use it cautiously.
Before trying to strike down people as a veteran, you start by observing what kinds of mafia members there are out there and think about how to draw in attention from them in different ways. For example, if you see that there are people being blackmailed, you can try by speaking up a lot yourself in favor of the town so that you get the blackmailer to go after you. Likewise, if an investigator outs you, you can claim to be a vigilante, which would draw in more attention to people that might get shot and definitely witches. I can’t give exact tips here, since how well they’d work and how much danger you put townspeople in varies by who is left, but like the transporter, the veteran needs to think in terms of each group.

Don’t be afraid to die if it means you didn’t kill, especially if there is a retributionist. The retributionist can let you go more turns without being in play, meaning you can jump in later in the game with most if not all of your alerts. Since you’re confirmed town, everyone can trust you and send you information, and while killers obviously won’t go after you, that proves to be an advantage since it means you’re a confirmed town member able to defend yourself without the need of town protective roles. As long as the town can maintain a majority (which is easier with a confirmed town member) you can stay safe and make better use of your alerts.
If you do end up killing an innocent person, your cover is pretty much blown because that person will likely have your name written down in their will, meaning you not only killed a teammate, but you broadcasted who not to kill to everyone. This is one of the most backward opinions I see people have about the veteran. Vets are not saviors to the town. It’s not the town’s job to avoid the veteran, it’s the veteran’s job to not be stupid about who he draws to him. You could use this to your advantage and indirectly act as a confirmed town this way and get people to whisper you roles. However, with the incoming forger role, I don’t know how this strategy will be affected in the future.

With the mafia in particular, keep in mind that if you kill a mafia member, the mafia will know who visited who, meaning that the remaining mafia will probably not try to attack you. There are some players that will use the logic of “nobody will expect two hits in a row,” but I find this happening more with less experienced mafia. Mafia avoiding you means that you have smaller number of desirable targets willing to visit you, and thus you have a smaller need for alerting. That’s why it’s smart to hold off on alerting, especially if there is no serial killer left or something. If only mafia is remaining and they know who you are, they’re most likely going to try killing roles that have a better time finding them out instead of risking a member to kill you. they’ll resort to lynching you if they gain the majority at the end of the game to avoid you alerting. If the only people willing to visit you are town at that point, it means you’re only a liability, so it’s better to save your alerts and be less willing to do it when you’re found out by a group of enemies like the mafia. If they can’t get the majority at the end of the game, they’ll have no choice but to try and kill you at night, meaning saved alerts help.

Vigilante is simple, but it’s the worst role an inexperienced player or troll can be given. Follow this one tip and everything else will fall into place.

DO NOT GUESS UNLESS IT’S THE END OF THE GAME WHERE TOWN WOULD LOSE FROM INACTION. SOMEONE BEING QUIET DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THEY ARE YOUR ENEMY.

Jailors and doctors are quiet. Keep that in mind when you go to people that don’t talk.
Do not reveal yourself, especially if there is a witch around. You’ll be incredibly dangerous to everyone around you.

Don’t guess.

Find out right away if there is a transporter and figure out who they are moving.

Don’t blindly guess.

Write “If you are reading this, I have been controlled by a witch” or something as your death note and then change it when you plan on killing someone in case you die too. If you get controlled and didn’t kill town, inform the town that you’re vigilante and that you should be blocked by an escort if the town has one to prevent an innocent death. With any luck, you’ll get killed by someone like mafia so that only one person dies instead of losing two.

Do not pick a random person.

If you find a trustworthy person, make up some kind of codeword or name to include in your death note. If you shoot, the person you’re talking with will know you are a vigilante without informing potential killers and drawing attention to yourself. This not only prevents you from being accused of being a mafioso, but it prevents other people from claiming vigilnte.

Okay, you can guess…but only in the rare scenario at the end of the game. In this situation, it’s often at the end of the game when most of the people are gone, meaning your chance of success is about 50/50 if it’s just two people. Compare this to just a night 2 guess when there are more town members alive than mafia. Don’t shoot without reason. If it’s the end of the game and town is going to lose if nobody died anyway, sure, take a guess, but the cost of guessing is much higher when you have a larger town. The odds are not in your favor.

Don’t be afraid to take out neutral roles.