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, so the guide is written for intermediate players. I won't define terms on this page, but will link resources for you to find those terms.

If you're a newer or inexperienced player, it would probably be more beneficial to follow these links:
 * Freenode:Terminology - If you're playing on Freenode (or being hosted by someone who comes from Freenode ##werewolf and follows their rules), some of the jargon/shorthand we use may not be immediately intuitive or obvious to you. That's why you should read the terminology to understand what some of our shorthand or phrases mean.
 * 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.

Here are some useful guides created by other Werewolf players aimed at newer players:
 * Minerva's guide - This is an absolute godsend and I wish I had something like this to refer to when I started playing Werewolf. It goes into pretty much everything you need to get started and fundamental strategies that you'll need to employ to be successful at the game. It also elaborates on some of the terminology linked above, including a full explanation of halfsafes and the importance of fakehinting.
 * Iovoid's basic guide - Some quick strategy tips for various roles to help you get going. It's not in-depth, but will help you avoid mistakes, or inform you about some safe plays you can make while you're still learning the ins and outs of the game.

Now without further ado, let's jump right into the guide!

= Things to Consider When Approaching Wolfgame =

Is Intuition Still Important?

 * In my opinion, lykos's Werewolf game is equal parts intuition and situational awareness. A lot of people coming into lykos!Werewolf from other mafia games (such as mafia.gg or IRL mafia) often get confused or discouraged when starting out, because although they may have good reads, they can often find themselves in losing situations because they didn't understand what a certain role was capable of doing. This may give the impression that reads are not important in this game. Indeed, many players who only play lykos!Werewolf can fall into the trap of just not using their intuition at all, because they were so used to making random decisions/PMing the lead safe and following along with their decisions. However, you absolutely need both to succeed in this game.
 * You need situational awareness to understand when your team is in danger, how risky you need to play at any given moment, and when it's appropriate to say certain things. For example, it won't help you at all to be the godliest mafia player of all time with 99% accurate reads if you out every safe along the way (safe and wolf tells tend to be similar), get suspicion thrown on you, and get lynched immediately. Situational awareness also helps you convert good positions into winning games. This could be simple things like just knowing you can play it safe because you have enough days to get info on all of the unknowns, or more complicated plans to get the maximum number of winners in modes like sleepy and mudkip.
 * You need good intuition primarily to get your team out of bad situations (ie. a low wolf count, or multiple safes dying within the first few nights). Players with better educated guesses or reads will be able to successfully kill off key members on the other team, bringing their own back into a playable position, while players who just vote randomly between the unsafes in that situation (or just kill the lead safe) will lose more often than not. Having good intuition on the first day is also extremely helpful, especially in medium player counts like 8-9p. You can often just get one good read, and then convert that into a straightforward win.

Common Tells for Power Roles/Wolves
These are the most common tells for each team that I've observed in my time playing Werewolf, which can help you in making reads during low-information situations. Pretty much everyone, even the most experienced veterans, will exhibit at least a few of these habits; recognizing them and working to minimize how often you fall into them will help you become a much better and more unpredictable player.

Both teams

 * Not talking at night, especially after you voted to !start the game, then starting to talk right after the kill.
 * Obviously, power roles are going to have something to do during the night, but make sure to fakehint in the channel or at least say something after you're done. In smaller games, you have to be extremely quick to pull this off; start the game facing lykos so that you can see what role you are, do it on reflex, and then drop a message into chat right after. Not talking during night and then talking immediately after is a dead giveaway that you're a safe role or wolf who focused all their attention onto lykos PMs.
 * If you !started the game, that's even worse- people know you're active, and yet you still didn't say anything during the night. Thus, your attention must have been diverted elsewhere (lykos PMs) and you will become a prime kill or lynch target.


 * Barely talking during the day, then coming back just to vote with the lead safe.
 * Again, not talking in the main channel suggests that you're focusing your attention elsewhere. Of course, some villagers get bored and do other things when they learn they don't have a role, but they generally just stay idle, and actually aren't paying attention to the game. Putting in votes, though, shows that you are paying attention and can serve as a tell in combination with day activity.
 * Coordinated safes tend to vote right after the lead safe because they know ahead of time who's being lynched that day. Said players will usually not talk very much in the main channel because they're busy juggling PMs with other safe roles, or talking in a safe channel.
 * Conversely, wolves will often be the last ones to vote. Often times, wolves feel obligated to put a vote in as to not look suspicious, especially against their own team. However, since most of their attention is focused on the wolf chat, they won't realize the lynch is happening right away and will hastily put in a vote at the end to try to dispel suspicion for not participating.

Village team

 * Looking up information about roles in the channel.
 * This is a common new player tell. They may not understand the nuances of certain roles, whether the one they have or the ones they have to fight against, and will type in "!wiki " right into ##werewolf to get that information or even ask publicly at times.


 * As the lead safe, overreacting when someone they know to be a power role gets any sort of vote.
 * Obviously, when three or four votes go onto the table against a special villager, you should put a stop to it right away. (Use bold face and caps lock all you want to get the point across, of course.) However, some lead safes are super jumpy and yell at completely joke/random votes that land on their safes, even if it's clear no one will follow up on it. This only signals to the wolves that the lead safe considers that player to be worth protecting, and will often result in their death the next day.

Wolf team

 * Saying things that don't actually contribute to meaningful conversation ("talking for the sake of talking").
 * This is something that pretty much everyone playing as wolf does at some point, subconsciously or not. Players know that being quiet in social deduction games (including lykos!Werewolf) is suspicious. Even considering this fact, players on the wolfteam are still usually afraid to speak out, fearing they may be seen as aggressive and not wanting too much attention drawn to themselves. Thus, many wolves will opt to instead speak in generic, short messages that either reaffirm what everyone already knows (" lead us to victory!") or ask obvious questions to distract the village from the task at hand ("is  in this mode?") The questions in particular can highlight certain inconsistencies in their speech patterns- make sure to pay attention to them. Also pay attention to players who try a little bit too hard to lead the village, too quickly.
 * This is actually how I outed belugawhale (whalewolf) in this aleatoire game posted on my userpage. I was matched with another safe and the usual lead safe (matchmaker) was killed n1, so we had to make reads to have a chance. Minerva was my n1 vision, so they were shot first. Afterwards, I noticed that immediately after night ended, belugawhale reminded the village about what the claiming priority was for aleatoire, completely unprompted. After giving this information, he then went on to ask whether there was a gunner (something you should presumably know if you know the claiming order). I then told gunner to shoot him, and he was in fact a wolf. We went on to win the game after voting Toaster2000 for not talking during night (also an example of the !start tell covered above, though I didn't realize it at the time). Some players accused this win of being extremely lucky, but it was in fact the result of two correct reads using common wolf tells.


 * Taking too long to respond to messages or accusations.
 * This is the one I personally have trouble with, although it's gotten a little bit better over time. Coming up with lies or explanations on the spot can be difficult. If you're a villager, you can just talk in a straightforward way, and respond to any questions quickly. However, as a wolf, you have to fabricate something if you don't already have an excuse in mind to use. Aggressive villagers can abuse this and put pressure on you quickly as you struggle to respond to the accusations and keep up with the ongoing conversation at the same time. My advice would be to just try to play each round as if you were a villager, and be able to back up your own claims smoothly.


 * During fakeclaims, saying things that exhibit a misunderstanding of the game.
 * This is a common tell among new players trying to fakeclaim. They will often get caught up in the heat of the moment and their own fakeclaiming, and say things that would be completely impossible to mistake if they actually had that role and did what they claimed to have done.
 * One situation I see a lot is that a cultist fakeclaiming seer in default 7p will claim that they "saw" the real seer as a cultist. This is clearly not possible, as cultist is seen as the default role (which is villager), which is something they would have seen if they actually conducted their alleged vision (even if they didn't know that before).

= Role-specific advice =

Claiming priority
Typing out all the claiming priorities for each mode takes up a ton of vertical space on the page that I didn't really want to scroll through, so I've separated it out here: User:Timson/Claiming priority.

Villager
With no special powers, it's no surprise to see why people dislike being assigned this role. However, you still play a very important role in the game as one, and should know how to help out your village leaders.

General Tips

 * Be careful and punctual with your votes.
 * Villagers are often the "swing votes." Since you have no privileged information, you are easier to trick, and you can be sure that the wolves will jump on even a few incorrect villager votes to kill that person and bring themselves one step closer to victory.
 * Wait for the known safes to coordinate and follow them, and be sure that a lynch you're following is correct.
 * When in doubt, always question the intentions behind a lynch; it's better to be safe than sorry.


 * Always claim to the lead safe if you have a template.
 * Templated villagers are extremely powerful, since the safes now know one more guaranteed good player than they should. Villager-gunners can easily prove themselves to be safe by shooting multiple times, or shooting a wolf. Villager-assassins are not always safe, as certain wolfteam roles (such as the hag) can be assassin. You should still claim, but don't expect the lead safe to give you as much information.
 * If you're villager-gunner or villager-assassin, don't be as aggressive as you would be if you were a normal villager, as the wolves will often benefit off killing you (by either getting a gun, or killing off two players in one night instead of one).

Strategy

 * I'll preface this section by saying that if you are a villager and you die off successfully baiting the wolfteam, you have done your job. Not only have you protected the safes, but there's also now one fewer unconfirmed player they have to worry about when considering day votes.
 * Act like you have privileged information, and subtly trick the wolves into thinking you're a safe.
 * Fakehinting during the first night is probably the easiest and most common example of this. Fakehints from villagers during the first night protect the seer; they prevent the seer's message from sticking out and, if multiple fakehints are correct, the wolves will have to make a decision between all of those people who hinted correctly to kill, lessening their chances of hitting anyone more important.
 * Aside from that, there are other situations where you can try to subtly draw the wolves' attention towards you:
 * For example, you can vote immediately after the lead safe during the usual lynch. This is something that coordinated safes usually do; they'll know who the target is beforehand and will all swarm in to vote after the lead safe does. If wolves are at a disadvantage and need to kill a power role (such as seer or shaman) to stay in the game, they'll often look to the second or third voters during the day for leads. Putting in the second vote as a villager and then getting killed for it completely throws off this strategy and can put the wolfteam even further behind.
 * You can also bait the wolves by feigning frustration, to help villagers recover from a misplay. I once played an aleatoire game where I saw myself as villager, and the village team fell behind after shaman was killed. Not only that, but there were no gunner shots during the first day as village made their lynch. During the following night, I said in chat that "ok so I wasn't told to do anything," thus drawing attention to myself as an apparent gunner who was angry at the lead safe. I intended to do this to make wolves waste a kill; indeed, they took the bait and went after me that night. That would've been good on its own, but I also turned out to be the VG (even better!) and pretty much allowed village to destroy the wolves afterwards.

Mistakes to avoid

 * Don't recklessly fakeclaim without discretion.
 * Some players, often inexperienced ones, will do things like outright claim that they're seer (or even wolf) as villager, in order to alleviate their own boredom. This is a poor play and will most likely get them lynched. Only fakeclaim a safe role if that player trusts you enough to give you permission to.
 * Fakeclaiming wolf roles can also be helpful in dire situations. For example, if wolf and cultist are about to control the votes and win the game, it is recommended that you fakeclaim cultist. Since wolf and cultist don't know each other, these claims can confuse the wolfteam long enough for villagers to steal the win back.


 * Don't idle, or whine about your role on the first night, because you were given villager.
 * Everyone gets that being a villager is not the most exciting thing, but you still joined the game, and you should participate in the channel and help your team win. Not doing so is a sign of poor sportsmanship.
 * Complaining about being villager will do nothing but encourage the wolves not to kill you, or allow them to throw shade on you if you overdo the complaining to a point where it becomes obnoxious.


 * Don't blindly follow wagons, as stated above, or create your own.
 * 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 where certain roles are unsafe to kill.
 * 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, and throw suspicion on them for following the vote.
 * Similarly, even if you suspect that someone is wolf, you should generally not vote them outright unless you've discussed it with the lead safe. Remember that wolf tells and safe role tells tend to be similar, and you could be outing the seer, shaman, etc. to an otherwise passive wolfteam.

Seer/Oracle
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. The same goes for if you're oracle, but you do not have the advantage of being able to see safe roles then, so be even more wary.

Do:

 * See quickly (especially in smaller games) and hint what you see in channel. 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. Fake seer claims usually involve wolves "seeing" who they killed, or saying that you're wolf only after you do the same to them. Always have arguments ready so that the villagers are not tricked by the wolves' antics.
 * 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.

Don't:

 * Immediately vote who you saw as wolf in larger games. This is a very common mistake that new players make; they get too excited about seeing a wolf and will always vote them right after night ends. However, not only is there the possibility of a cursed villager in large games, but even if you successfully take out a wolf, you are now left wide open for being killed by wolves. The seer should not be the first claim when other, less valuable/targetable safes (such as the harlot or village drunk) are available to claim. Instead of voting seen wolves right away, coordinate with safes first so that you don't become an obvious target.
 * PM people who you saw as villagers in larger games. This is also a very common beginner mistake, usually done after they find out that this version of Werewolf allows you to message people outside of channel. While in smaller games (4-6p default) this is a good play, as there are no wolfteam roles that are seen as villager, this is a huge risk to take in larger games. You could be inadvertently PMing a wolfteam role that is seen as villager, such as the cultist, hag, or traitor, and letting them know your identity, allowing them to leak this information to the wolves and have you killed before you even get a chance to play the game.
 * Act hastily if you have a template. 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.

Other:

 * 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.

Village Drunk
Also a role that usually doesn't have any powers, despite being easily identifiable. However, drink responsibly, because the responsibility you will hold in the game can be very high.

Do:

 * Be ready to coordinate. As village drunk, the wolves gain very little out of killing you, so you will often be in the public eye gathering all the more important safes. As soon as day begins, unless there is a harlot present, you will usually be the first to claim 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.
 * Be careful if you have a template. If you're a drunk gunner, you'll have more bullets but a greater chance of backfiring. If you're a drunk assassin, you can't control who you target. Adjust your game plans accordingly.

Don't:

 * Be an idiot and/or "roleplay" being drunk. Some people seem to think that the village drunk is a neutral role and just screw around and fakeclaim everything (without the actual role's discretion). You will probably be downvoted and asked to learn how to play the game. Additionally, there are also people who type in that they're "stumbling" or act as if they're drunk on the first night, which is an obvious sign that they're the village drunk. Avoid these things at all costs.
 * Publicly question the template changes. The wolves would love to learn that you're confused about being a drunk assassin targeting a random person, and will take you and possibly another villager out in one fell swoop. Instead, if you're confused about something, ask the safes that PM you instead.

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.

Do:

 * Hint who you'll be doing sexytime with each night. There are two main ways to go about this:
 * 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.


 * Be ready to coordinate. 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.

Don't:

 * Visit early. You want to give the other roles, particularly the seer, ample time to perform their jobs. Visiting early runs the risk of other players not being able to hint their actions in time.
 * This is even worse if you make it painfully obvious who you're going to visit and also visit 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.


 * Visit when the village team can lose majority with your death. 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 anymore. 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.

Do:

 * Follow these 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), while also creating a target for villagers to go after, if they're smart enough to recognize that pestilence was given. 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. Retribution should always go to the most likely wolf target per night. It can also go to yourself, but this is risky as the totem will be wasted if the wolves do not target you.

Don't:

 * Be an idiot. If you're the regular shaman, you should not be asking people if they want totems. That's a gigantic red flag and you might as well just be asking the wolves to kill you.
 * 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.
 * Always give 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. If the guardian angel is in the picture, however, this changes things slightly as it is more safe for you to give yourself a totem, then become protected the second night.
 * Fakehint. 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 by another role you will probably be one of their likely targets.

Matchmaker
Love is in the air, and you're responsible for making it. A good game can be completely and utterly destroyed by rogue lovers, so tread carefully.

Do:

 * Be ready to lead. The matchmaker is the best lead in certain game modes such as aleatoire, since they only perform their job once and it's not a hit to the villagers at all if they die past the first night. Be ready to come out into the open and get safe PMs, while staying wary of lovers who claim safe roles or villagers to you.
 * Consider subtly hinting who the lovers are in case of your death. While this can be risky, it helps keeps the village informed. It's really up to preference on this point but I would suggest it.

Don't:

 * Be an idiot. Some matchmakers in the past have PMed the lovers and gotten promptly killed without a chance to relay to anyone who the lovers are, leading to safe channel sabotages and a quick village defeat.
 * Trust the lovers. Unless both are the only safe claims of their respective roles, you should always be skeptical when a matched seer, shaman, etc. tells you that their partner is a "villager." Keep lovers out of the safe channel and out of contact with other, unmatched fullsafes; relay them instructions instead, and note if they give you false information or hesitate to follow your orders.
 * Match yourself, unless it's in random or maelstrom, or you have a very good reason to (and more often times than not, you won't). This is mostly dependent on playstyle, but self-matching objectively makes for many more difficult games than otherwise. I get that being a wolflover and backstabbing the village is very appealing, but you are more likely to match yourself to a villager than a wolf, and if you do, you're basically screwed because now you can't ever be fully guarded and no one will trust you. The probability of catching at least 1 wolf in a group of 2 other lovers is higher than trying to match yourself to a wolf.
 * Tell who the lovers are to random people. Make sure that the people you tell are other safes; often times, people who demand to know who's matched without claiming a role are on the wolfteam.

Hunter
One of the village's signature "power" roles, hunters can make or break the tide of a game, and are effective village leaders. Skilled hunters are a threat to all wolves, while bad hunters are a threat to the progression of the game. It's up to you which one you'd rather be.

Do:

 * Be very deliberate with your shots. You can potentially make the village go -1 and waste your shot, or take out an important wolfteam member. Generally, you want to wait until you have a narrowed board and safe PMs so you can make a more educated decision on who to shoot.
 * Be ready to lead and/or claim. In some rolesets, the hunter is the best leader, since they only perform their job once and are less powerful than the seer overall. This isn't the case most of the time, but in the event that the matchmaker, harlot, etc. dies and you're left with seers and shamans, you will lead in their place.

Don't:

 * Shoot without abandon. You should be one of the last people to perform your job in a given day so that the seer and other roles have ample time to do theirs first. Remember, the hunter is a volatile role and thrives when more of the board is figured out. Get as much information as possible first instead of hastily shooting someone who acted suspicious the day before.
 * Shoot the first night. Sometimes this might work out, but the odds of you hitting a wolf or lycan with little to no information on the very first night is much, much lower than hitting a villager. Unless the seer is being super obvious and pointing out the wolf they saw (in which case it's probably a fake seer anyway), avoid shooting right away.

Various tips that can later be incorporated into specific role sections

 * If you're the guardian angel, you should consider guarding yourself on the first night. Unlike the shaman, it is not public knowledge who you guarded each night, so if you were protected and you whiff protection, nothing happens that indicates that you might be the GA. Of course, you should definitely look for legitimate hints at night and guard likely targets, and of course, guarding a villager and having them take a hit is a great way to attract wolves' attention to them instead of the lead safe. And of course, if you guard yourself and take a hit, you can always ask for protection the second night in case the wolves deduce that you're GA.
 * Playing as a lycan who intends to side with villagers is extremely difficult. I know from personal experience. If you're lycan and you want to side village, ask the doctor to immunize you if there's a doctor. Otherwise, PM the lead safe telling them your identity, and they may try to defend you. The good thing about playing village lycan is that the wolves are usually used to the lycan always wanting to be bitten, so they will trust the lycan if they PM them or asks for their help in channel. However, all this will do is reveal that they're wolf, making them easy targets. This is especially good if the only wolf left tries to target you after an abstain, and you get guarded, basically exposing them.
 * If you're vigilante, please don't shoot the first night. Seriously, you'll just die.
 * If you're MS targeting two people, don't claim. Potentially making the village go -3 in a single day/night is not worth it.
 * Be careful of mystic and village drunk claims in random, as they are never sound.

= Game Modes: An Overview =

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
 * Evilvillage: 8/10
 * Charming: 5/10
 * Sleepy: 10/10

4p-5p: The Lightning Round
Speed is of the essence, as the seer and wolf race to be the first to either convey their information or get the kill before seer can say anything.

Strategy
 * Both seer and wolf should do their night actions on reflex. It's more important to be fast and convincing than slow and accurate; the other party will easily overpower you and build up their own trust in the time you take to get your act together.
 * Villagers will often be the tiebreakers in this mode, especially if the seer or the person they saw dies. You have to use logic and tells to determine the fake arguments from the real ones. For example, if someone didn't talk during a short night but comes back right afterwards giving a generic response to the kill, they're probably the wolf.
 * If the wolf isn't fast enough, but saw that someone hinted them as wolf, they may purposely drag out the night so they can prepare a fake seer claim to throw you off. Be aware of when this is happening.

6p: What's a Seer-Safe?
Many of the tips from the section above still apply here, but now there's a cursed villager to watch out for.

Strategy
 * If seer sees villager in 6p and doesn't die, they should PM that villager. This is the only natural instance in default mode of a seer-safe, since there are no hidden wolfteam roles that show up as villager. Ideally, the seer-safe should lead the village; this will at least make it more annoying for wolves to try to figure out the seer, as they'll have to look back on the fakehints- giving a window of opportunity for the seer to see again.
 * If seer sees wolf, they should claim, vote that person, and then immediately go back to lykos DMs. If that person turns out to be a cursed villager (which is the worst possible situation), this will let the seer immediately check another person as soon as night begins. Likewise, the wolf should pre-type out "kill " as soon as the seer reveals, and then kill them as soon as possible. In this situation, n2 is generally a race in the wolves' favor.

7p: I'm Cultist Wolf PM
This player count introduces the cultist and shaman, who provide an interesting dynamic to the default mode that isn't often replicated elsewhere.

Strategy
 * Night 1:
 * Say "I'm cultist wolf pm" for the culture. Do it. You'll get a free goat from lykos if you do.
 * The seer should see quickly as usual, but there's not as much pressure to be faster than the wolf compared to 4p-6p. Do not PM someone you saw as villager, as the cultist is also seen as such and could easily mislead you or leak your identity. The shaman should wait (usually about 45 seconds or longer) to give out their totem in order to allow the seer to report their findings, taking a lot of pressure off of them. However, since nights will last longer, it's now much more imperative for villagers to fakehint.
 * Conversely, if you're wolf, you now want to slow down with your kill a little bit and read all of the hints. Determine the fake ones from the real ones, and make your decision off of that. If you suspect that someone is shaman, however, you should go after them instead. The shaman is more important than the seer when cultist is still alive (more on that below).


 * Day 1:
 * Seer claims if cultist is alive; shaman claims if cultist is dead. While the seer is usually more powerful than the shaman, the seer can't do anything to stop the cultist and wolf during the second night if the first lynch is wrong. This example game from Discord (using the Discord-Werewolf bot that was inspired by lykos) illustrates the dangers of shaman revealing themselves early at this player count.


 * Night 2:
 * incomplete