Template:Story Arsonist
Mechanics
- You can select a target each night to douse them in gasoline. Selecting yourself will ignite all doused players, dealing an Unstoppable attack on each of them.
- Players will not know if they are doused unless they are another Arsonist.
- You are immune to the detection of a Sheriff.
- All doused players will show up as "Bodyguard, Godfather or Arsonist (plus Crusader in the Coven DLC)" to Investigators, while Consiglieres see all doused players as an Arsonist. Witches or the Coven Leader aren't affected by your douse.
- Choosing no action at night will clean gasoline off of yourself. If you select this option, you will not be able to be ignited that night. This is useful if there are other Arsonists in the game.
Side Notes
- A Guardian Angel can purge the gasoline from a doused target.
- Anyone who is revived by a Retributionist will no longer be doused.
- A Spy who is bugging you can easily detect you if you ignite your targets or clean gasoline from yourself, so be wary.
- A Veteran will be doused even if on alert, although you yourself will be killed.
- If another Arsonist is in the game, igniting your targets will ignite all of their targets as well.
- Doused targets who have died in some other form can still be ignited. This can help to gain the "Disco Inferno" achievement.
- No Town Protective roles have an effect on your douse, and cannot affect you when igniting either.
Strategies
As an Arsonist, you are a massive threat to all opposing factions, as you break through all common forms of defense, can not be detected, and can not be killed by any forms of protection, such as a Bodyguard. You also permanently change the investigative results of all targets you have doused, making you a headache for an Investigator or Consigliere. Therefore, most factions will try to get you killed as they have no way of knowing who is and who isn't doused.
Who to douse
- Your ideal situation is to reach the end of the game with as many people as possible doused. Therefore, your goal is to figure out who is likely to live until the end of the game and douse said people, avoiding the ones who are likely to die by other means. Somebody just revealed themselves as the Sheriff, Doctor or another important Town role? Chances are this player will be dead the following day without you intervening.
- Dousing people who are quiet has a lot of advantages. They're often evil roles, (who tend to live longer) and they're less likely to attract the attention of other killers.
- If you find a good lead that somebody is a Mafia or Coven, douse them because Mafia and Coven members cannot hurt each other (Minus the use of a Transporter, Witch or Coven Leader)
- You don't need to douse absolutely everyone, the Arsonist wins in some one versus one situation. Eliminating the following roles listed down below is essential for victory, though you may want to delay on some of them and hope that they're eliminated by someone else.
- A Werewolf can maul you and win if you haven't doused them yet and a full moon night is coming next. They could also cause a draw by killing you when a full moon night is coming even though you doused them. Your only chance is to have them doused and its a non-full moon night.
The Arsonist Character Promo
- A Mayor can easily lynch you with their voting power when the day comes around.
- A Veteran with alerts left is a risk for you, and a mind duel between the two of you will determine the winner, or cause a draw.
- A Jailor with executions won't even give you a chance to douse him, let alone give you a win.
- A Retributionist who's doused but can still resurrect someone could revive a role that can kill you, such as Mayor or a Jailor with executions. It's even worse if he's not doused because he can revive any Town role and lynch you.
- A Hex Master can have you hexed and killed before you can claim your win. Her long term hexing attack breaks through your basic defense too.
- A Medusa with stone gazes left or a Necronomicon can break through your defense easily. You'd rarely end up in a 1v1 situation before night 3, which means she'll have the Necronomicon and guarantee you not winning.
- A Necromancer could prevent you from winning if the right roles are in the graveyard and haven't been used yet, such as a Werewolf in a full moon night or Pestilence.
- A Plaguebearer can infect you and become Pestilence before you can get them killed, dooming you for death. If they're already Pestilence, you lose. Your only hope is to leave one person alive to lynch them and choose their fate.
- Even a Juggernaut before his first kill can pose a risk to you. If he already has executed his first kill, you're guaranteed to lose.
- A Werewolf can maul you and win if you haven't doused them yet and a full moon night is coming next. They could also cause a draw by killing you when a full moon night is coming even though you doused them. Your only chance is to have them doused and its a non-full moon night.
- You don't need to douse and ignite in large chunks. Depending on the roles, it is normally a viable strategy to only douse 2 or 3 targets then ignite said targets. If you know who certain roles are, you should douse and ignite said roles first, to gain some breathing room after your first and possibly second ignition.
- In particular, while you need the Mayor dead to win, you may want to avoid dousing them yourself in the hope that someone else will kill him for you as he's likely to be protected by Lookouts.
- The Survivor and the Witch can win together with you, so avoid dousing them unless you think an evil role is claiming them. Likewise, dousing a Jester is pointless because they're trying to die anyway (and because their goals coincide with yours, provided you don't vote guilty or abstain on them); dousing an Executioner is also pointless because their goal doesn't conflict with yours either. If you're certain you've identified any of these roles, don't bother dousing them. Avoid dousing Witches in particular as it's important because they can prevent you from igniting if they identify you.
- However, remember that evil roles often claim to be a Survivor or pretend to be a Jester or Executioner. The last thing you want is to ignite your doused targets, only to find that you're alone with a Werewolf who kills you the next night, or that the Jester and Survivor you spared are actually members of the Mafia who proceed to lynch you. Additionally, remember that Survivors, Jesters, Executioners, and Witches might vote unpredictably; if you ignite with one member of the Mafia or Townie left and a Survivor or Neutral Evil, you run the risk of the swing vote turning against you and lynching you.
- The Arsonist can be a big threat to Survivors, Amnesiacs, Witches and Executioners, so these roles might lynch you even if the fact of you being known as an Arsonist is revealed. This is because a Survivor and Executioner know that your attack goes through Basic and Powerful Defense, and may lynch you if they believe you doused them. An Amnesiac may lynch you so they are able to remember your role, and a Witch may want to side with another rival faction or evil role. If they are showing any of these plans, your best bet to survive is to douse (if you haven't already) them and ignite. You may lose a possible ally, but it's better than dying right off the bat. Remember that you should only kill these roles at the last resort as they can't do as much harm to you as other ones.
- However, if an Amnesiac remembers your role and wins, you also win.
- Avoid dousing famous or controversial names. They will be likely to be killed by other killers, wasting a night.
- It's important to track who is doused to avoid messing up at your game-finishing ignite (A great way of doing this is writing everything in your Last Will).
- While not foolproof, it is possible to not douse anyone until very late game. This prevents you from being killed or exposed by Veterans, Jailors, and Lookouts. If you are certain all Town Investigative roles are dead, then you can claim a role before dousing. You must find a happy medium between remaining completely silent and talking too much.
When to ignite
- Ideally, you only want to ignite when it would win you the game; this means leaving you with only one other person alive, at most. If you're in a Pestilence game, igniting with you, another role and Pestilence alive is your best shot. Igniting before that both causes you to waste a chance to douse, and drastically reduces the number of people who could be the Arsonist, making you easier to find. Depending on who's left, they might even identify you instantly, especially if an Investigator investigates you the night you douse.
- Another disadvantage to igniting too early is that it exposes Last Wills. Since Townies' Last Wills provide confirmed evidence, it's to your advantage to avoid making them appear. (On the other hand, remember that very few Last Wills are likely to outright expose you; you are immune to Sheriffs, and even if an Investigator investigates you, you are functionally indistinguishable from a Bodyguard).
- If you are doused by another Arsonist, wait a night and stay idle. Doing so will clean the gasoline off of you, making you unable to be doused and revealing yourself to the other Arsonist. However, this could backfire if a Spy bugs you. This will confirm you as Arsonist As no other role gets this message.
- It can occasionally be worth igniting early if you have a number of dangerous threats doused (such as the entire Mafia, the Serial Killer, Vampires, the Werewolf, and so on). Try to figure out who will be left after your ignition, and determine if they'll be able to catch you before you can douse and ignite the remaining targets; weigh the risk of getting killed by the threats you've already doused vs. the risk of getting caught by the people you haven't doused yet.
- If you know for a fact that there are multiple Arsonists, it may also be advantageous to ignite early. This is because Arsonists will definitely kill through Basic and Powerful Defense, and with multiple Arsonists you will have a lot of people doused in a short amount of time - rather than giving the Town time to figure out who the Arsonists are and having them lynched, killing 5 people during Night 3 (for example) is a good way to silence a lot of people who pose a threat, and this will help cement an Arsonist's win.
Threats
- Even though you have Basic Defense, night killers like the Serial Killer, Mafioso and a Godfather are still the greatest threat to you. Most of the time, all it takes is one hit from one and a Death Note outing you to get you lynched. If you do get hit, you need to have a strategy to deal with the accusation; note that there is no strategy that works reliably.
- You can claim you were transported, but most of the time the Town will expect a Transporter to come forward to confirm this, which means it is not a reliable strategy.
- You can claim Survivor (or imply that you're an Executioner), but this is unlikely to save you after you've been accused; it's better used as an early claim to avoid getting attacked in the first place.
- You can claim you were healed by a Doctor (Doctors are less likely to reveal than Transporters, and the Town won't expect it). But be warned that a Doctor's healing does not produce the message for the attacker, stating that the attacked had a higher Defense value than the attacker's Attack value, so your attacker will know if you're lying; however, unless they're a Vigilante, they can hardly say so publicly.
- You can claim that you're a Bodyguard, but since they only have one bulletproof vest (and therefore the chance of it getting hit is low, especially if you haven't been publicly revealed as a Bodyguard earlier), this rarely works. A Death Note can leave you hanging in the case you claimed this, however.
- You can simply say that your accuser is lying, especially if it's a Death Note from an evil role. However, the Town usually accepts accusations of people having a higher Defense value than the attacker's Attack value in a Death Note.
- You can deny that you are immune and that a Consigliere must have revealed you to be an important town role, and that the Mafia is attempting to get rid of you.
- If there is someone else that the Town regards as suspicious, it is good to focus attention on them and off of yourself. Most of the time the Town will not pay attention to Death Note, but when they do it is important to shift focus away and putting it on someone who is already considered possibly evil is a great way to make people forget about you. Try not to make it too obvious though. Remember to use commenting to drown out the smart Townies who've brought up your immunity.
- Role blockers like Escorts, Consorts, and the Jailor can prevent you from dousing people and igniting, even if they only find you very late in the game. It can sometimes be worth an early ignite to kill them.
- The Jailor can also, of course, execute you. It's important to have a claim ready for if you're jailed; Bodyguard is a logical claim since it's the Town entry in your investigative result, but since you share it with the Godfather and since it's such a convenient claim, it may make the Jailor suspicious. Other roles with easy-to-fake Last Wills, such as the Sheriff, Escort, Vigilante, Medium, and Doctor, are all decent claims as well provided you're not worried about Investigators. You can claim doused if an Investigator comes to falsify your out-of-result claims.
- On top of this, anyone jailed by a Jailor will NOT survive if you ignite that night, even if they were doused. So feel free to ignite! Pestilence is the only one will survive after your ignition, after all.
- Consiglieres can be a threat since they can identify you if not many people have been doused. They could also alert the Town in a Death Note, and instruct any Consorts to role block you. However, they can be thrown off if they investigate someone who has been doused themselves because they will get the Arsonist result and might go for them instead.
- Investigators are no longer that dangerous to you, because all doused targets show up as Bodyguard, Godfather, or Arsonist to them, preventing suspicion to you. Still, though, your investigative result is still suspicious, especially if it's the beginning of the game or you have just ignited (since not many people have been doused). If you are accused by one, you could claim to be doused yourself, but when you ignite and are still alive, Townies that remembered your douse claim will likely lynch you.
- The Werewolf can ignore your Basic Defense and can catch you by targeting people who haven't yet been doused. Of course, if you know who the Werewolf is, you can often just get them lynched or douse them on a non-Full Moon night.
- The Vampires are a threat because they can both identify you by failing to convert you, and can identify you by process of elimination if they take over much of the Town. They're one of the reasons it's a bad idea to ignite early since even if you thought the non-doused targets were harmless Doctors and Sheriffs, you might find yourself surrounded by Vampires who will immediately deduce your identity.
- Transporters are dangerous because they can make it hard for you to figure out who was doused. You won't get any indication that your target was swapped, which can lead to you dousing the same person twice and ending up with one more person alive after your ignite than you counted on. Additionally, a Transporter can keep you from igniting.
- The Mayor can kill you one-on-one, and can force you to claim a role; but since they're also a major target for the Mafia (and will often prioritize them over you, especially if they haven't personally been doused), they're often not your first concern. Additionally, one advantage to having a confirmed Mayor is that you can easily douse them as nothing can stop you.
- A Retributionist can screw up your calculations by reviving someone on the night you ignite. Additionally, note that currently, anyone that a Retributionist revives is cleaned of dousing (regardless of the way they died). This possibly is a bug.
- The Veteran is an obvious threat in which they can kill you if you try to douse them; worse, your usual strategy of waiting for the Mafia or the Serial Killer to kill them for you might not work here, since the Mafia and Serial Killer want to save the confirmed Veteran for last as well (and that means they're probably going to hit you first). And worst of all, you don't automatically win 1v1 against a Veteran, so you need to eliminate them somehow. Your best options are to wait and hope someone else takes a potshot at them despite the risk or to eventually douse them near the end and hope they wasted their alerts.
- The Spy, Bodyguard, Trapper, Sheriff, Vigilante, Doctor, Vampire Hunter and Medium are usually not threats to you. The Spy can confirm themselves to narrow down the suspect list, the Medium can bring back logic and information from the dead, and a Vigilante can discover your Basic Defense with a potshot, but these are not normally major threats compared to the above. If you're reasonably certain that everyone you haven't doused is one of these roles (plus unaffiliated Neutrals), then it might be worth igniting early, since unless you screw up, a Town composed only of these roles will have a lot of trouble catching you.
What to Claim
The Arsonist is a powerful role, but you dousing many people could be a waste if you're just going to be lynched (or executed) anyway. There are ways your role could be revealed like investigation, but you need to have a backup story if you are investigated, a role, of course, is the most believable, there are claims that could potentially fool other players if used correctly.
- One option is to claim to be a Survivor, which explains your Basic Defense; this is more likely to get you lynched if people are getting killed by a Neutral Killing, because Survivor is a common claim for Neutral Killing, whom both the Town and the Mafia want dead. If you do claim to be a Survivor, it's important to do it early, before you get attacked; claiming it after you're accused of having a higher Defense value than the attacker's Attack value will almost certainly get you lynched since the Town has no real reason to keep a Survivor alive. If people are saying that they got controlled by a Witch, the Town will often lynch a Survivor claim, so be careful.
- Another option is to imply that you're an Executioner; accuse someone at random, and (assuming they're Town) thank the Town after they're lynched. You can even just thank the Town after a random lynch of any innocent Townie. This will both divert attention and explain your Basic Defense. You can also explain your investigative results by claiming you were transported. This is believable as Transporters often transport themselves with roles with a Defense value to ward off suspicion or claim you might be doused. However, it carries several risks; you may be executed by a Jailor or lynched by a vengeful Town, and Investigators and Consiglieres can still identify you. Also, if you delay on dousing to reinforce your disguise, you may find the Town turning their suspicion back to you, with no real way of ending things quickly.
- If you're going to claim a Town role, Bodyguard is the logical choice. Aside from that, you can almost always fake a Last Will to improve your chances of people believing you. However, claiming to be a Bodyguard after a revealed Mayor or confirmed Townie died can be extremely suspicious, since the Town will wonder why you weren't protecting them. You can even claim to have to use your vest if attacked, but this forces you to stay with the fact you have already used your vest. If you are attacked again, there's nothing you can conclude overall other than hope you aren't outed.
- Additionally, Bodyguards and Arsonists share investigation results, and Bodyguard is a common Arsonist (and Godfather) claim. Claiming Bodyguard may raise suspicion and may cause you to get lynched.
- Claiming to be an Investigator with a Last Will that shows everyone you doused as Bodyguard, Godfather, or Arsonist can work well, as you can also claim you were doused yourself. However, you can be busted by a Lookout who notices the shift between everyone that has been doused. This works in situations where you need to claim a role and otherwise you get lynched.
- However, this has a downside of revealing who was doused, which can create many other problems for you, like people panicking and making you the top threat. To counter this, change some names to quiet people to create more confusion and less panicking.
- Claiming to be a Witch with only Mafia or Neutral roles alive can help your chance of survival. However, if no one has been controlled, the Neutral Evil slot is taken by Executioner or Jester, or you have ignited, then this will not work. If you claim to be a Witch in a 1v1v1 scenario, you can cause the Mafia, or any other Neutral role to lynch the last remaining opponent, thus winning all other match ups. However, experienced killers will ask who you have controlled and their exact roles, so are wary. This works best if you haven't doused.
- If an Investigator lets out your investigation result and attracts suspicion to you or if you're directly accused by one, you can claim any believable Town role and then claim you must've been doused and thus, framed. Although this tactic does not always work and the Town wouldn't usually believe you, it's more effective in the start of the game or mid-game when there's a good number of people that could possibly be doused and the Town doesn't have their suspicions confirmed or fully locked on to you.
- Careful, though, if the Arsonist ignites and people remember you claimed doused, you will be cast under extreme suspicion from the Town causing you to likely be lynched.
- Claiming Investigator dramatically decreases suspicion—listing down doused targets will convince players that you're really an investigator, and other Investigators can no longer be a threat to you, for you can claim that you are doused as well. Additionally, Investigator is hardly ever a role claim by evil roles.
- If you feel more comfortable in a Coven match claiming within your investigation results, Crusader is also viable. People expect this as an Arsonist claim less, as they are usually more accustomed to Classic.
- Claiming a powerful Town role such as Mayor or Retributionist can give you an extra night to ignite. This is high risk, high reward - if you do this, be sure you are ready to ignite the next day.
- Another tactic is if you are investigated after d4, claim outside your invest results and claim doused.
Playing against Arsonists
- If multiple people are showing up as an Arsonist's result, then they might be doused themselves. To use this tactic, you will need to refer to the role list and your gut to find out who is doused and who isn't, since you will have no way of knowing otherwise.
- Anyone who contains the investigative result of the Arsonist and are still alive after an ignition can be an Arsonist themselves.
- If you are an Investigator and a Lookout has died with the name of a visitor that visited on of your previous targets, it may be worth checking the same target again. If they show up as a Bodyguard, Godfather, or Arsonist instead of the result you had previously, they have been doused and the person in the Lookout will is more likely the Arsonist.
- If you are a Jailor, take your claims very seriously. Someone that is doused has a completely different investigation result, and talk with their claim. If they were shown to be doused, think about their claim and the role list. The Arsonist might have doused a Consort who claims Escort in jail, and you not executing that Consort gives the Mafia another chance. Depending on the role list, sometimes you might have to go with your gut feeling and execute that person.
- As a Consigliere, if you find a possible Arsonist it's best to out them in the Death Note in any Mafia Killing roles to put suspicion on them. If they turned out to be a doused target, their credibility decreases and you can kill them if they turn out to be an important role to kill.
Trivia
- You were able to tell if you were doused by an Arsonist prior to Version 1.5.11.5389.
- According to a poll made by Naru2008, Arsonist is the third most hated role in Town of Salem with 171 votes, saying the role was too slow and was boring for taking too long to get anyone killed. (Similar to Framer.)
- Prior to Version 2.3.2.9706 Arsonists would die to Bodyguards and Trappers traps.
- If you get Arsonist or any NK role, in ranked, the best idea is to leave and join another game as fast as possible. That way you only lose 1 Elo for leaving, and you can get more very quickly. Many top ranked players do this.
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