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Screams rang through the cold night and the Doctor burst out of his house, barely just grabbing his medical kit as he raced along the streets. Arriving at the source of unrest, he discovered a young boy, lying down, coughing and sobbing. Instinct made the Doctor cover his face with his trusty mask, and he was right in doing so. A closer inspection revealed the alarming truth. The red rash, the hacking coughs, and the huge black boils that had risen on the pale skin… this boy had the plague.

The Doctor should have been scared, worried, horrified, he knew this, but instead, he felt... fascination. How quickly could this disease spread, how many people could it kill? Hastily he took a sample, and commanded the boy’s family to be quarantined. Then, he hurried home to test this intriguing sample further.

A week, and the Doctor finally held the result he was looking for. All he had to do was drop the solution on the path outside everyone’s houses, and the fumes would infect everyone who ventured there. He started to question himself, but then he remembered the other Doctor who always took the credit for himself, the Investigator who always snooped inside his house, the Jailor who roughly threw him in a cramped jail cell, and he felt better. Quickly and silently, the Doctor grabbed his solution and got to work.

Inhaling the sweet scents of the herbs he put in his mask, the Doctor infected person after person, using his dark robes to blend into the night. But on the fateful night that the plague spread to everyone in the Town, the evil Doctor realized its power. And as the moon was concealed under rolling grey clouds and the panicked screams rose from the town, Pestilence, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, laughed so hard that tears rolled off his mask. (credit)

RoleIcon CovenLeader Circled This page describes content that can only be accessed in the Coven Expansion.

SpecialLabel Plague

The icon that displays next to Infected players in the player list

Mechanics[]

  • You may choose to visit someone each night, infecting them with the Plague.
  • You cannot choose people who are already Infected.
  • Anyone that visits you will become Infected.
  • Anyone who visits or is visited by an Infected player becomes Infected.
  • If the Jailor jails someone who is Infected and does not execute them, the Jailor will become Infected. (This also applies if the Jailor jails you.)
  • Players will not know when they have been Infected.
  • If all living players but you are Infected, you will become the Pestilence and the Town will be alerted the following day with a message saying "A plague has consumed the Town, summoning Pestilence, Horseman of the Apocalypse."
  • If you are killed on the same night everyone is Infected, you will not become Pestilence. No message alerting the Town will appear, and you will die.
  • If the last uninfected person is lynched, you will become Pestilence immediately after their role has been announced during the Day.

Notes[]

  • The Plaguebearer is a Unique Role, only one may exist at a time.
  • As if one healthy person visits an Infected person who visits another healthy person, the plague will spread, so it is possible to become Pestilence in five days or less without kills (meaning all 15 players alive).
  • If an Amnesiac remembers themselves as a Plaguebearer, they will not have to Infect already Infected targets, and rather Infect the rest of the non-Infected people.
  • If an Amnesiac Plaguebearer/Pestilence goes on to win the game, both the Amnesiac and the original Plaguebearer/Pestilence will win.
  • If an Infected Necromancer or Retributionist uses someone in the graveyard, their target will be Infected. This will not count towards becoming Pestilence, since they are dead (only all living players need to be infected).
  • If someone visits you but is intercepted by a Crusader or Bodyguard, they will not be Infected.

Strategy[]

  • Try to visit people that you know are going to have a lot of traffic, but less likely to die. For example, if someone says, "Investigate ____ tonight", you should probably Infect the person they are going to visit, as the Investigator, if visits the person, will bring the Plague to other people when investigating them.
  • Try infecting names that stand out at the beginning of the game. Since you don't attack your victim, you are safe from Bodyguards. The Crusader can attack you, but due to your Basic Defense, you will be fine, but they know one of their unknown visitors is immune. However, if a Tracker follows you or a Lookout watches the same target you Infect and isn't targeted by the Crusader, you are in trouble.
  • Try to Infect a revealed Mayor or the Jailor because most Town Protective roles will be on them. Or, Infect a Town Protective that is on a confirmed Town member. However, since a revealed Mayor and the Jailor is a high priority to evils, they will be targeting the Town Protective roles (which the Plague also spread to), then kill the Mayor and Jailor, wasting you a night.
  • You will know exactly who an Infected Jailor jails, since the jailed player becomes Infected at the end of the Day. Use this to strengthen your claims.
  • Infecting a Transporter can quickly increase who becomes Infected due to them being able to visit two people per night. However, they might transport the same person/people, but this is still a better infection than a role like Medium, who only speaks with the dead.
  • Werewolf strategies work well with this role - but make sure you don't visit the same target as a Werewolf as you will die.
  • Often times, going after Town Investigative or Town Support roles (i. e. Investigator, Doctor and Sheriff) can spread the Plague quickly. However, Mafia and Coven would often target them, as they can be a great threat to them.
  • You can always go to Infect suspicious people, as they tend to have a lot of visiting role attraction.
  • If you are role blocked by an Escort/Consort early in the game, you can always claim Tracker for an early cover-up.
  • As Plaguebearer, you usually want to participate in Town debates, talk and bring your help to the Town. If you stay silent, you will be spotted out of suspicion immediately after the Town receives the message stating that you turned into Pestilence and you will be lynched. Being active will help you claim a role easily afterward and survive until there are only a few players left, which you can finish off with your newly gained Powerful Attack. This does not stop another strategy of being to lay low and wait until there are 5 or fewer players alive, then start infecting. Becoming Pestilence should be easy because there will be only 4 or fewer people to Infect. Be wary that you do not wait too long, or you may be found by the Town and lynched, or killed by roles with a Powerful Attack.
  • Lookout is a good claim for this role, especially early on. You know who is Infected, and players spread Infection by visiting each other. By the same logic, Tracker is also a good claim. Be cautious about claiming these roles unnecessarily, as smart players will grow suspicious of you once you turn into Pestilence.
  • Early on, you want to Infect visiting roles so they spread the disease. Later on, you might want to target non-visiting roles yourself, especially ones that have been confirmed (and are therefore unlikely to be visited by anyone else) as they are most likely uninfected, and have low traffic and you are less likely to be seen or found.
  • A Veteran being in the game makes it unlikely that everyone will be Infected as long as they live, as the Veteran may often go on alert. The only way to pass this is to Infect someone who may visit the Veteran, or lynch the Veteran later in the game when evils have majority.
  • Try to Infect visiting roles early, and only go for non-visiting roles if you have no one else to go for.
  • You can win the game without infecting everyone, as long as only you, or with the addition of Survivors, are alive.
  • Once you become Pestilence, the Neutral Killing roles (i.e. Werewolf, Serial Killer) are completely harmless to you, as they are most likely loners that cannot harm you at Night as they will be killed trying to do so. Therefore, once you do become Pestilence, you should focus on killing off the Town, Mafia, Coven and Vampires, as they can easily lynch you during the Day (that is the only way Pestilence can die, except for leaving the game). Before that happens, however, the Neutral Killing roles pose a massive threat to you. The Werewolf and Juggernaut can just kill you outright, and the Serial Killer can still call you out for being immune. Therefore, it might be worth it to get rid these roles early on, to make sure you aren't killed at night or exposed through a Death Note.
  • You shouldn't worry as much about the Arsonist compared to the other Neutral Killings, as they most likely won't ignite before you become Pestilence, and Pestilence is immune to ignition.

Dealing with the Plaguebearer[]

  • If you are a Town Investigative role that is told to check upon another person's role, you might want to refrain from doing so if you know that the Town is vulnerable in the case of a Pestilence (for example, the Town only has the same amount of Town members as there are all evil roles combine). However, if you think you are already Infected, or if you think it is inevitable that a Pestilence will be coming soon, then you should continue visiting that person, as you would be helping catch Pestilence by narrowing down the pool of suspects.
  • The best way to stop Plaguebearer is to kill them early before they become Pestilence. If you are a Town Investigative role and you happen to find someone suspicious of being a Plaguebearer, it is not a bad idea to announce your suspicions of a certain person. Even then if the Plaguebearer becomes Pestilence, the whole Town will probably lynch Pestilence immediately. Announcing that you found a Plaguebearer earlier and then having them turn into a Pestilence makes your claim a lot more believable than if you just revealed it to the Town right when the Plaguebearer becomes Pestilence.

Becoming Pestilence, Horseman of the Apocalypse[]

  • If you do manage to become Pestilence, you are armed with Powerful Attacks, Invincible Defense, infinite "alerts" that are always active, and a devastating Rampage ability (similar to the Werewolf). However, you also become everyone's top priority as you can decimate every role there is with no worry about dying at Night. Refer to the Pestilence page on strategies once you transcend.
  • Unfortunately, your possibly suspicious claim that you might have had before will be thrown out the window and you will become a suspect. So it is crucial to have been a positive influence on the town and have a solid claim as Plaguebearer before the Town turns to you as the first suspect.

Trivia[]

  • Before the switch to Unity, the Plaguebearer would receive a list of everyone who becomes Infected at the end of each Night.
    • The message from the list was "(Player) has been infected with the plague."
  • The Plaguebearer is the only "dousing" role to not change their target's investigation results.
  • It is possible to become Pestilence without visiting anyone, however this can only happen if you are visited.
  • The Plaguebearer is the only role in the game which doesn't tell you all the ways to win, as it says you must infect everyone and become Pestilence, however, in the rare event that the Plaguebearer is the last player alive, they will win despite not infecting everybody.

History[]

  • 2.5.5.12200
    • Added a label to visually indicate Infected players for the Plaguebearer (SpecialLabel Plague).
    • Removed message "(Player) has been infected with the plague.".
    • The Plaguebearer's role icon has been changed. Old one was Achievement Plaguebearer.
    • Added Plaguebearer's circled role icon (RoleIcon Plaguebearer Circled).
  • 2.0.0.6582
    • Introduced.
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