User:Solmization/strategy drabble

Since a handful of people have said that I'm one of the best candidates to make a strategy guide on Werewolf, I've done so here, perhaps not in the most visually appealing or engaging fashion (but hey, I did it). This guide assumes that you know the basic mechanics of lykos's Werewolf game, and that you are playing on Freenode or a server with similar rules. It also assumes that you're a decent player already but want to learn some theory or find a more optimal way to play.

If you're a newer or inexperienced player, it would probably be more beneficial to follow these links:
 * Roles - Read up on these. There are a lot of roles in Werewolf, many of which are not present in other versions of the game or IRL, and new players can quickly find themselves overwhelmed and not knowing how to even play out the game. Getting some background on the workings of each of the roles will help you understand what the role is meant to do for their team and help you begin to formulate strategies around them.
 * Freenode:Terminology - If you're playing on Freenode, some of the jargon/shorthand we use to refer to things may not be immediately intuitive or obvious to you. That's why you should read the terminology to understand what we mean when we say certain things.
 * Iovoid's basic guide - Some basic strategy tips for various roles to help you get going. It's not in-depth, but will help you avoid a lot of noob mistakes, or inform you about some safe plays you can make while you're still learning the ins and outs of the game.

Claiming priority
Read these from top (best claim) to bottom (worst claim).

General rules for claiming/PMing
 * Roles that cannot easily be targeted (harlot) are usually the most ideal lead safes.
 * Roles that only perform their jobs once (i.e. matchmaker, hunter) are also ideal lead safes.
 * Someone who was attacked, but protected by a protection totem/GA, is also likely safe. However, in modes with lycans and matchmakers, make sure that these individuals do not gather all of the safes and then backstab the village.
 * Matched safes should not be trusted to claim unless both partners are safe roles. If a matched person claims a safe role, the matchmaker should immediately point out their lover status and gather safes before others are fooled into PMing them.
 * Village-gunners should always PM the lead safe about their identity. If a villager-gunner is skilled/lucky enough to shoot a wolf immediately before a safe claims, they can lead in lieu of a "true" safe. However, if the amnesiac is present, be extremely careful about trusting them if you don't think you can end the game quickly, because they might turn into a wolf.
 * If hags, sorcerers, warlocks, etc. do not appear when the assassin template appears, assassins are always village-aligned and are encouraged to PM the lead safes about their identity. They should generally not claim in case they're targeting a villager.

Default

 * harlot (8p)
 * matchmaker (11p)
 * hunter (15p)
 * bodyguard (18p)
 * shaman (7p)
 * seer (4p)
 * detective (12p)
 * augur (20p)

Foolish

 * harlot (8p, 17p)
 * hunter (9p)
 * shaman (11p)
 * oracle (8p)
 * augur (15p)

Mad

 * harlot (15p)
 * village drunk (10p)
 * hunter (18p)
 * seer (7p)
 * mad scientist (7p)
 * detective (12p)

Due to the low number of true safe roles in this mode at lower counts, a villager-gunner should ideally be the one claiming if at all possible; however, this is much harder in mad mode as they only have one bullet and cannot be fully trusted if they shoot a villager.

Lycan

 * matchmaker (15p)
 * bodyguard (11p)
 * hunter (7p, 10p)
 * seer (7p, 19p)

Aleatoire

 * matchmaker (10p)
 * hunter (17p)
 * seer (8p)
 * guardian angel (13p)
 * shaman (8p)
 * augur (15p)

Alpha

 * harlot (8p)
 * village drunk (8p)
 * matchmaker (14p)
 * doctor (10p)
 * oracle (7p)
 * guardian angel (11p)
 * augur (17p)

Remember that the last three of those safe roles can turn into powerful wolfteam roles (doomsayer and fallen angel) if bitten by the alpha wolf, so immunizing them is a top priority.

Noreveal
This mode is trash.
 * mystic (8p)
 * hunter (10p)
 * seer (4p)
 * guardian angel (12p)
 * detective (15p)

Make sure to distinguish real claims from fake ones. If someone takes a long time to claim or give results of their findings, they're probably a wolf masquerading as a safe that they killed. Another trick as hunter and seer (if you want to claim as either role) is to announce in channel late that you're ending night.

Evilvillage
The minion should always PM the wolf as soon as possible and lead the cult. Remember that when the number of cultists equal the number of villagers, villagers automatically win regardless of whether there is a wolf still alive or not.
 * minion (10p)
 * wolf (6p, 15p)

For villagers, the seer should focus on trying to find other safes, hinting the wolves when necessary so that the shaman and hunter may pick them off.

Charming

 * harlot (8p)
 * bodyguard (14p)
 * shaman (10p, 22p)
 * seer (5p)
 * detective (12p)

Sleepy

 * harlot (18p)
 * village drunk (21p)
 * seer (8p)
 * vigilante (12p)
 * detective (15p)
 * prophet (10p)

The best role to receive a blessing is undoubtedly the vigilante, as they cannot turn when the priest dies, and can kill any wolves that the seer and prophet see every single night. If the prophet sees a villager on the first night, they should have that villager claim in lieu of an actual safe role, to further keep the wolves and dullahan in the dark.

Role-specific advice
Incomplete

Villager

 * The most useless of all village roles. However, they can still play an important role.
 * Villagers should try to passively act like they have privileged information. Outright claiming that you're seer as villager is stupid and will probably get you lynched, and no one will believe you anyway. Instead, try to be subtle about it and do things that seem like what a person with a role would do. Some examples are: voting immediately after a safe does (or even better, having a safe follow you on a seemingly random lynch) and fakehinting at night.
 * If you are a villager and are attacked and protected by the GA or shaman, and you know there are no lycans in play, you should claim immediately. If you're matched, the matchmaker will call you out anyway, so if you're not it's probably a safe bet to begin coordination.
 * If you have a template, you should generally always claim to the lead safe. Villager-gunners are especially powerful since the safes now know one more guaranteed good player than they should.
 * Things to avoid as villager:
 * Idling. Yes, we get that you're a villager. We get that your job is to lynch all of the wolves and that you have no special powers and ugh you'd rather be playing a more crazy mode like random or maelstrom where you're usually guaranteed a role. But you are a player in the game, and you should actually participate in the channel and help your team win. Idling just makes you look detached from the game and can even potentially draw suspicion from the safes because of how quiet you are.
 * Complaining about how out of all the roles you could've gotten, you're villager. That will encourage the wolves not to kill you and looks suspicious all on its own if you overdo it.
 * Saying "v" at night or something similar instead of fakehinting. This is especially prevalent in smaller games where the seer will inevitably hint, making them an easy target, especially if they see a villager instead of a wolf.
 * Blindly following wagons. You need to use your presence of mind and discern the fake claims from the real ones, especially in more difficult modes like aleatoire and sleepy. If someone is being voted with no rhyme or reason by someone other than the lead safe, other than "random" or "gut feeling," you should not follow the wagon. Instead, you should note who is voting with them.


 * Gambits you could try as villager include the "villager channel" (where you ask for villager PMs and lynch people who don't reply), and various in-channel baiting of suspicious people to draw their attention towards you and force them to defend themselves. Neither one of those are very sound and can be refuted or even make you look suspicious.

Seer

 * Probably one of the most important and powerful village roles. Be careful when you're playing as seer, as one suspicious move can mean your death.
 * You have privileged information that other people do not have. Be quick; hint your findings at night so that the village team makes more informed decisions even in the event of your death. Make sure to make that point very clear if you're coming into the public eye as a seer. Be ready to deconstruct any false seer claims.
 * You should experiment with subtle hints. Gear your hints so that they are not immediately obvious, but that the rest of the village will understand what you're trying to convey in retrospect. If villagers are not hinting for you (which is a misplay on their parts) and you saw a villager, you might want to try copying their antics and typing in "v" or something similar instead of fakehinting, as to not immediately get sniped off.
 * If you have a template, it is generally not a good idea to act hastily. If you're seer-assassin, you should always see before targeting. If you're seer-gunner, you should not immediately shoot any wolves you find right after night ends, especially if you hinted at night who the wolf was. That is an obvious seer move, and will get you killed the second night more often than not unless you have the resources on the safe team to protect you. Also, it is not always a good idea to immediately have other gunners shoot players that you saw wolves as well, or immediately vote wolves you saw in larger games, as smart wolves can find your hint from the first night and kill you off. If you have no other leads, though, you should probably go for it.
 * Things to avoid as seer:
 * Hastily PMing people who you saw as villagers. While in smaller games this is the correct play, as there are no wolfteam roles that are seen as villager, in larger games, this is a huge risk to take. Villagers will generally tell you the truth about their identity (while also scolding you about making a risky play), and if you're still alive after that gambit you can rest assured that they are probably a villager, unless they're double bluffing. However, you could be inadvertently PMing the cultist, hag, or traitor and letting them know your identity, allowing them to leak your identity to the wolves and have you killed before you even get a chance to play the game, and crippling the village team which now has no useful privileged information from you.
 * Ending the night in smaller games. Seers should see quickly on the first night since they don't know how fast the wolf will end night. Being an idle-seer in this situation allows the wolf to deduce who is holding up the night phase and switch their targets accordingly, giving you no chance to report any of your visions.
 * On that note, in larger games, other safes should give you time to conduct your visions. If you inadvertently end night because all of the other safes hastily performed their roles to get them over with, and you get killed and you have no time to relay your information, that is not your fault, but theirs. Other players should know that the seer is a very fragile role and adjust their game plans accordingly.

Oracle

 * You're a weaker seer. That's all there is to it. The caveat of the oracle is that you can't see the specific role of other village safes; you can only see wolf or not wolf. Adjust your game plan accordingly if you enjoy coordinating with safes that you saw during the first night.

Harlot

 * One of the most popular and fun roles to play in the game for most players. I mean, you get to sleep with people. How amazing is that? But with great fun comes great responsibility, because you will be the one to lead more often than not. Knowing effective ways to play as harlot is crucial to the village's victory.
 * You want to hint who you'll be doing sexytime with each night. There are two main ways to go about this, which I will cover below:
 * Hinting early, visiting late - This strategy is usually used to direct the wolves' attention towards you. The general premise is that you act like a seer by hinting someone as wolf or villager, and then when night is almost about to end, you visit them. If your hint was correct, the wolves will target you, but since you aren't seer you will dodge the attack and can then safely claim. And of course, if you visit a wolf, everyone will be able to find that hint and quickly take out the wolf.
 * Hinting late, visiting late - This strategy is usually used to make sure you do not visit the victim, and to confirm to everyone that you are the harlot. There are multiple ways you can go about this. One way is to hint more than one person, confusing the wolves about who you are or who they should kill. Then, as soon as night is about to end, you declare that you are visiting a completely new person, who will often not be targeted due to the confounding hints. This has the added benefit of guaranteeing that you are harlot, making it difficult for visited traitors to fakeclaim "not visited" with any authenticity.


 * As harlot, you will often be the lead safe, since the wolves cannot directly target you. This makes you the best person for gathering safes and relaying information, as you probably won't be the one dying. As soon as day begins, declare who you visited, claim harlot, and ask for safe PMs. Do this even if you are not confident in your ability to lead, since more experienced safes will PM you with guidance on what to do.
 * Things to avoid as harlot:
 * Visiting early. You want to give the seer ample time to conduct a vision, and ideally you will be the one ending night, confirming that you're a harlot, and getting those safe PMs out. Visiting early runs the risk of the seer not being able to hint in time if the shaman is similarly hasty.
 * Making it painfully obvious who you're going to visit combined with visiting early. If you publicly announce that you're visiting someone else after 25 seconds pass in night, and then you actually visit them, they will probably be the victim, and village team will go -2 for nothing. As such, making your visit target immediately obvious is a huge blunder, and gives the village no information unless you hit a wolf. Follow the "hint early, visit late" or "hint late, visit late" strategies listed above instead.
 * Not recognizing the risk of losing by majority. Remember that at any time the wolves have the same number of players as villagers, they automatically win, regardless of how much information you have. If you're at the point where going -2 will incur a loss, you should not visit anyone. The risk/reward is heavily skewed against you; at best, you'll be visiting someone who might be a villager, and at worst you instantly lose the game. That's not a good trade-off.

Shaman

 * The most fun role to play in my opinion. The shaman tests your situational awareness of who to give totems to at what times, similar to plot cards or Lady of the Lake if you've played resistance/Avalon before. They also have the most opportunities to play ~mastermind logic games~ mind games with the wolves, besides the harlot. However, as totems are random, they can also get very unlucky at times, so tread carefully.
 * General tips per totem you might get:
 * Death ("DT") - The absolute worst totem to get n1, but one of the best totems to get in subsequent nights, especially later on in the game when you have more information. The DT is what makes the shaman so much of a threat, as at any moment they can heavily skew the game state and force the disadvantaged team to change their strategies. In aleatoire, because shaman receives the DT more frequently, they're even more of a power player to the village team; this is one of the reasons why shaman claims after most roles in that mode.
 * If you get a DT on the first night, I'm sorry; you just had bad RNG. If you can, try looking for a seer hint that seems correct. You want to try to find a wolf hint. If someone is hinted as wolf and they're barely talking, chances are they're wolf (or an idle safe, but that's their fault), so you should try going for them. Be careful in modes with more cursed villagers or vengeful ghosts (i.e. aleatoire), however, as you have a higher chance of hitting a legitimately cursed safe or making the VG side with the wolves.
 * In default mode, if you have no leads at all, DT the crazed shaman. Although the general rule is to keep them alive, they're someone who you know can betray the village, so if nothing else, they should die so as to not risk killing a safe.
 * Otherwise, if you're in contact with the seer or other safes, make sure to collaborate with them before giving a DT.
 * Revealing - This is more of a utility totem; it basically acts as a detective that costs a day lynch. If you have revealing, feel free to give it to anyone but yourself. If that person is a safe, oh well - no big loss. If that person is an unsafe and you don't have a good lead, and lynching them won't cause the village to lose majority the next night, it behooves you to lynch that person even if you don't think they're particularly suspicious. That way, they are either confirmed a villager or a wolf, and if you haven't used gunner shots or hunter kills, or get a DT the next night, you know who to avoid or target.
 * If you're playing with a lot of new players who are unfamiliar with online Werewolf and prefer to lynch anyone being "quiet" or attempting to guide the village (as these are signs of mafia/wolf behavior in most cases IRL), it may be helpful to give revealing to yourself. Although it makes you a wolf target, it will at least give you another night should they bandwagon you without a real reason.
 * Silence - Another bad totem to receive n1, but very useful in the end game. On night 1, if you get silence, give it to anyone but yourself. If you silence a safe, it will set you back, but it's not a significant loss. If you silence a wolf role, it'll probably annoy them and decrease their power for a day at least.
 * Silence totems later on can give you significant information. If you gave someone silence one night, and you eliminate all the wolves but one that can kill, and there were no idlers but no night kills, you immediately know that the person you gave silence to couldn't kill that night, definitively revealing the identity of the last wolf.
 * Also note that silence totems also work on vengeful ghosts, so if you have no good leads and you lynch a silenced VG, it's not the end of the world.
 * Desperation - A decent totem all around that can generate significant advantage. Feel free to give desperation to any random unsafe in most cases, though there are special cases covered later where you'll want to give it to yourself.
 * An unsafe target with desperation should be lynched, and lynched very quickly as to not risk accidentally dying. Inform the safes you're in contact with (if any) to all quickly vote the person who received the totem, down to 1-2 votes left. This will ensure that none of you die from the effects of the totem, while forcing unsafes to vote out the target to end the day, giving you essentially two kills that day to narrow down the board. The fact that wolves usually reluctantly lynch towards the end of a vote, especially on fellow wolves (as to not seem suspicious by not voting), helps this strategy greatly because their slowness can backfire on them and incur multiple minuses to the wolf team.
 * Situational gambit: If you know you're outnumbered by wolfteam members and that they will lynch you next (i.e. wolf and cultist/CS v.s. you), you should give desperation to yourself and vote yourself immediately. That way, if the wolf foolishly lynches you as soon as they see that you're "giving up," they will die and villagers will win. However, this will not work if the secondary wolfteam member votes you instead, but at that point you're basically going all or nothing, so it won't really make a difference if you lose there anyway.
 * Protection - Probably the best totem to get throughout the entire game. Protection can guard vulnerable safes, save yourself, and even create 75%-100% safe players if a random unsafe with protection is attacked. However, whiffing a protection totem on yourself is very risky; I'll cover that more below.
 * As shaman, you do not always want to protect yourself n1, unless you're employing a fakehinting gambit, or have a template and do not want it to go to waste. Protecting yourself n1 isn't a bad play, but it has many vulnerabilities against a seasoned wolf team, for these reasons:
 * Unless you're me and the wolves love killing you for no reason, the probability that you will specifically be the one to die n1 compared to another person is very low (and practically zero if you're cursed), so you will more often than not whiff protection.
 * The recipient of a totem is public knowledge. Someone who receives a totem the first night is unable to be protected again on the second; if the wolves are looking for a guaranteed kill, they will gravitate towards the person who received a totem, usually inferring that it was the shaman who protected or retributed themselves. This is significantly worse if you have to be the one to claim, since the wolves will know to target you and you can't do anything about it.
 * In aleatoire mode, the shaman is the most powerful role, but also receives protection more often than any other totem. A non-wolf who receives a totem, is not lynched, generally stays quiet, and follows the safe is the shaman in their eyes. If they're right (and most of the time, they are), you will be taken out almost instantly, which is why you should actually stay away from protecting yourself n1 in that mode unless you have a template.
 * Instead of auto-clicking "give " when you see protection n1, try looking for seer hints, especially in aleatoire mode. If you can catch one person hinting cleverly, or only one person gives a hint that makes sense, they might be better candidates to receive protection. It's best if they aren't actually seer, as you might protect a villager who hinted correctly, which can give you significant advantage when trying to figure out the board.
 * Otherwise, give it to any safe that you feel needs it (usually after collaborating with safes - make sure to always talk things over with safes before doing anything), or protect yourself if you think you've been too quiet on a certain day and that the wolves will come after you.
 * Impatience - The totem that is best given to people who might not vote with the village. Impatience is a tricky totem to get used to because the description is kind of confusing and it's generally non-intuitive; it's not immediately obvious who should get it in certain situations, and even if you give it to the right person, it still might not work out in your favor. But hopefully this explanation will help you understand how to use this totem more and take advantage of its effects to the fullest.
 * Impatience is only a useful totem for the safes in situations where you need two votes but are not guaranteed (or cannot) get those votes. Think of, say, a 3p situation with wolf, cultist, and some random villager, where the shaman was just killed the previous night. The wolf and cultist will obviously team up to vote the villager and win, or they might play it safe and vote the cultist to win. There is no chance that villagers will get the votes needed to take out the wolf, and that's where impatience comes in. Always keep in mind that impatience should always go to the wild card (wild card = not wolf but wolf-sided). This has two positive effects. One, it blocks off the safest play for cultists and minions (lynching themselves) because players with impatience can't vote for themselves. Two, it will give you that one extra vote necessary to take out the wolf, if you vote fast enough on the wolf. The speed necessary to win is exactly why you should communicate with anyone remaining on your team in case you die if you are about to enter such a situation, and not make it public knowledge that you are giving impatience to the cultist, minion, or CS.
 * A common mistake with inexperienced shamans is that they will give impatience to the confirmed wolf. This does nothing to help the village at all and will result in a guaranteed loss.
 * Otherwise, if you're not in these situations, impatience is a mediocre totem and can pretty much be given to anyone, even yourself, with no real harm or benefit.
 * Pacifism - This is the absolute worst totem to get, period. If given to a villager, their vote won't count, giving wolves more time to mislead the village, and starting from n2 wolves can force an abstain and take control of the game in certain scenarios. The only benefits arise from when a wolf is given pacifism. A wolf who can't vote will be unable to force wins, and might be outed if their playstyle revolves around waiting for other people to vote and jumping on the wagon at the last second. However, pacifism is nearly completely outclassed by silence for this purpose, which has the same benefits of outing the wolf (outside of 3p situations, where it still can't force a win and impatience/influence are better) but with much less risk involved concerning wolves manipulating votes or abstains. Also, why pacify them when you can just DT them outright? There's almost always a totem that does pacifism's job better than pacifism itself. If you get pacifism, feel free to give it to anyone but yourself n1, and to any seen wolves in subsequent nights (to avoid them forcing an abstain in most cases), not that it'll make that big of a difference.
 * Influence - Failed your request for bureaucratship on Wikipedia? Well, the influence totem is for you. Influence essentially turns anyone into a bureaucrat for a day, which means it has many of the same benefits as impatience for wild card situations, and generally helps out the village by making lynches faster, possibly circumventing the lack of votes from wolflovers or bad villagers.
 * If you get influence n1, feel free to give it to anyone. It honestly won't make a difference that early barring gunner shenanigans, but make sure not to give it to yourself, because then you can't protect yourself the next day if needed. On subsequent nights, feel free to give it to yourself or any other safe if you're in the lead.
 * Influence is also a very useful totem for 3p wild card situations, similar to impatience. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Impatience is a "guaranteed" way to take out the wolf, because you give it to the wild card, who will presumably survive since they're siding with the wolf. Then, the remaining village team member can simply vote the wolf to win. The problem with impatience is that it depends on speed, so a fast wolf will win the game before you can. Influence solves that problem by forcing the wolf and cultist to vote either you or the cultist, giving you more time to simply vote the wolf to win (as you need one vote, while they still need two). However, as shaman, you do not know whether the wolf will target you or the remaining villager. This makes influence more luck-dependent in these situations as if you give it to the person who dies, you automatically lose the game.
 * Pestilence (aleatoire only) - You will probably never see this totem in play as a regular shaman. The chances of you getting pestilence, even in the one non-random mode where it's available, are extremely slim. If you get this n1, however, you might actually want to give it to yourself. The wolves will think you've made a blunder by whiffing protection, only to kill you and find out they can't kill the next night (well, at the cost of losing you, of course). Otherwise, give this totem to the lead safe, as they're the biggest targets and will be a great way of floodgating the wolves.
 * Retribution (aleatoire only) - Another way to punish wolves who go after the lead safe. You generally do not want to give this to yourself n1, as not only will you not survive (unlike if you protect yourself n1), but the resulting trade will only benefit the wolves, especially in lower aleatoire player counts where the village lacks real power players. Otherwise, retribution should always go to the most likely wolf target per night.


 * Things to avoid as shaman:
 * DO NOT CLAIM BEFORE THE SEER IN ALEATOIRE MODE OR DEFAULT 7P. I don't care if you think the seer is always the most powerful role and that the shaman just "follows" the seer or whatever. Fact of the matter is, in default 7p, if the cultist is still alive and you lynch wrong, you cannot win without the shaman's totems manipulating the cultist and wolf. In aleatoire, the shaman gets much better totems and can protect the seer if they're alive, and the seer is weaker because there are many more cursed villagers. Read the claiming priority for aleatoire and default if you want more details.
 * As stated multiple times above: Always giving beneficial totems to yourself on the first night. This is a very common habit, and many shamans have died because they protected themselves the first night, didn't get killed, and was found by the wolf with very little evidence other than the fact that they received a totem. It's especially bad in modes with better totem ratios like aleatoire, because you are the most powerful role, but the wolves will probably guess that the person who received a totem last night was indeed the shaman who gave themselves protection/retribution/influence/what have you, and kill you. Unless you're confident that you and the other safes can end the game quickly, or you feel like the wolves will target you and you have to stay alive, you should generally not protect yourself, fearing the 1/(7+) chance that the wolves will eat you, and risk being instantly killed the second night.
 * Fakehinting. As villager, you want to fake hint, but be VERY careful when fakehinting as shaman. There are times when this is appropriate, such as if you're doing a gambit where you give yourself protection and bait out a wolf attack by hinting like the seer would. However, this will only draw the wolves' attention towards you, and if you're not being protected you will probably be one of their likely targets.

Difficulty Levels
Here, I've gauged the relative difficulty of each standard mode based on my own experiences with the rolesets.
 * Default: 4/10
 * Foolish: 4/10
 * Mad: 5/10
 * Lycan: 6/10
 * Aleatoire: 9/10
 * Alpha: 7/10
 * Noreveal: Fuck/Noreveal
 * Evilvillage: 8/10
 * Charming: 5/10
 * Sleepy: 10/10