Murder

This page needs revising!

The following page is out of date and/or needs to be revised. If the page's guide needs revision, see here for an example.
The revision reason is: "Split off from Traitor, which needs its own work. This needs better organization."
Marked by: "MrHorizons (talk) 23:29, 6 October 2020 (UTC)"

Murder 101

Most traitors eventually have to kill someone, regardless of objectives, and knowing the right and wrong ways to do it will make or break your mission.

General Tips & Advice

Always finish the job.
Aiming for the head generally causes more stuns and knock-downs than the torso.
Armor can be circumvented by aiming for areas not covered by the armor. If somebody is wearing a helmet, aim for the torso. For body armor, aim for the legs.
Know your enemy. If your target is part of the Security team or one of the Heads, expect to be fighting a heavily armed and armored opponent. If you know the target is a good fighter, it might be a good idea to use one of the less physical methods.
If you think you can kill somebody with an item, chances are you can. Even when you're sure there's no way this will kill anyone, it still might manage to. Experiment with different items and tools so that you're always a threat.
When push comes to shove, push back. Fighting in SS13 is a lot like bull fighting; a lot of running and dodging and then direct physical confrontation. Never be afraid to back off for a second and get ready for a charge.
Keep in mind that the best methods of killing are combinations of the ones listed below.
Blood on your weapons, hands, and on floor are dead giveaways that you have beat somebody up. Dispose of the weapon and/or clean them if you have the supplies or can get to a sink and/or shower. Always try to wear gloves when you kill someone. Not only does it leave your hands clean, it prevents fingerprint evidence from giving you away.
Having the element of surprise on your side ALWAYS makes for an easier murder. Don't give your opponents a chance to run away or defend themselves if you can.
If you act suspiciously, you'll be treated suspiciously. Your instinct might tell you to avoid security and try not to draw attention to yourself. This is guilty behaviour. Act casual. Be polite and engaging with people you talk to. You'll be surprised at what you can get away with when people like and trust you.

Methods

Beating


Description
Beating	Pros: Easy to do, "tools" are readily available. Cons: Gets bloody fast, gives time for them to call for help, most objects don't do much
Typically the most readily available murder option. It involves a blunt object such as your fists, tools, toolboxes, stun batons or almost any other item in the game.
Notes
Unless you're a robust fighter, beating is not always a viable option because it's somewhat easy to defend against. A few objects, like batons, will require harm intent.

Strangulation

Another simple option. Anybody who's not handcuffed can strangle somebody.

Pros: Always available option, after you have it locked in it's GAME OVER, doesn't leave any blood

Cons: Unless they're stunned or handcuffed, it's very easy to avoid and it leaves you in a vulnerable position, unless you quick choke.

Notes: Strangulation is most useful against downed opponents. Tabling is a common precursor to strangling.

Suffocation

Simple enough; while wearing internal gear, release toxic gases into a room with your opponent.

Pros: Leaves no physical evidence besides the tank/canister, reasonably fast!

Cons: Toxic gases can be difficult to acquire depending on your job; trapping your target presents a problem in and of itself; the area becomes contaminated until somebody comes to clean it up, and the AI will also receive an atmospheric alarm for the area and can immediately jump to a camera there making escape difficult unless you can hide in a locker or something

Notes: Suffocation is not a good option for many parts of the station, but it's feasible to use in areas like the Engine, Toxins and the Atmos lab.

Intoxication/Overdose

Killing aided by medical supplies such as toxins, morphine and rejuvenators and medication like epilepsy pills. Some of these will merely incapacitate the enemy, some will do significant damage, and enough of them can be deadly.

Pros: Readily available in the Medbay or from your uplink, leaves little physical evidence

Cons: Takes some time to work, is most likely not deadly unless extreme doses are administered

Notes: This method is effective to incapacitate people you've already caught if you don't have any means of handcuffing them, but unless you're a chemist what you've got is probably not effective enough to kill outright.

Weapons

Simple to use and are most effective when you're directly attacking the enemy. This includes swords, axes and revolvers.

Pros: Almost a one-hit-kill, can be concealed

Cons: Only available to the traitor, makes a bloody mess, anybody who sees you with them will assume you are the traitor, unsupressed weapons can be heard from adjacent rooms

Notes: Very effective and efficient means to kill, but these weapons are not available to the general public so if you're caught with them it's usually game over.

Spacing

The act of forcing somebody out of an external airlock. The ones in the Escape Shuttle Hallway and Arrivals are all-access, meaning anyone can open these.

Pros: Airlocks are available across the station, guaranteed kill, leaves no physical evidence

Cons: External airlock access isn't granted to everybody; Smart opponents might be able to dodge out of the way or pull you out with them, they will probably be able to scream for help; You'll need internal equipment

Notes: Spacing can be a plausible option for people with the proper equipment, but it can also be dangerous.

Fire

Very dangerous and should only be used if a dramatic death is desired.

Pros: Very intimidating and dramatic, high chance of death, destroys the station (if that's a good thing), and leaves no physical evidence except a charred body and burnt floors.

Cons: The equipment required to start a fire is only available in certain rooms such as atmospherics, toxins lab or the engine.
Does not work against people with certain clothing on, especially some hardsuits that are immune to heat and fire.

Notes: Fire has high style points but it can be permanently damaging to the station and may interfere with your objective.; The singularity engine can also be used as an effective murder weapon and shares many of the pros and cons stated above, but the danger is increased tenfold.

Genetic Murder

Makes up a fraction of murders on SS13, but it has its advantages.

Pros: You can change the person's identity completely, you can mask your murder as an attempt to help give them powers or do research or backup DNA, and once they're in the pod you can lock it where they have no chance to call for help or fight back.

Cons: It's hard and generally suspicious to access the genetics lab unless you're cleared to enter.

Notes: This method can be risky and it is generally not easy to accomplish unless you're the researcher.

Baiting

A fairly advanced tactic, if only because it doesn't always work and is difficult to pull off correctly. Basically, you talk Security into attacking somebody for committing some kind of crime. The crime ostensibly committed can range from breaking windows to breaking faces - it doesn't matter, they'll die for it. This can be especially useful when the Security team have proven themselves incompetent and are unlikely to challenge your accusations.

Pros: Relieves suspicion of you (if it exists), a very good way of getting the station's legitimate members to do your dirty work, distracts Security, makes for nice RP

Cons: Unpredictable, occasionally backfires, not always easy to pull off.

Notes: It is great when it works, but it is also hard to pull off and risky. Make sure you always wear gloves, and try to use people's ignorance to your advantage; asking some random Assistant to hold something like a fire extinguisher for you at the start of the round, then leave it near the victim's body, for example.; Another tip-Have a good weapon on you, DON'T MAKE THINGS UP ON THE GO, have something your target can get knocked out by.

Gibbing

Using the chef's gibber for killing personnel. Probably the best if you're the chef, but if the corpse is knocked out, the chef won't give a shit about killing them.

Pros: Leaves no evidence, and you can eat him to get your health back.

Cons: Target has to be nonresponsive to gib them. Access to the kitchen is needed, or you will end up having at least one person who knows that you killed someone. Body has to be dragged to the kitchen.

Notes: This is probably the best as chef, as it doesn't appear as traitorous.

Cremation

Using the crematorium is a must as a Chaplain traitor. You can also mass drive people if you don't want to cook them (obvious to anyone going to derelict).

Pros: No chance to survive, leaves literally zero evidence if you pick up the ashes, no need to strip them down.

Cons: You can get spotted, need to make sure the person is out cold / dead.; Crematorium destroys items completely, and doesn't leave anything behind if you don't strip them. Obvious if you mass drived them (and people going to the derelict will notice this). Careful of blood trails!; Only people with the crematorium's access can use the crematory devices.; Remember, the crematorium also destroys items! Nothing is worse than broiling the Captain and realizing that all that remains of your objective is now a scorched piece of jumpsuit.

Notes: The mini-crossbow helps here, as does the sleepy pen. You can knock people out constantly, and pelt them with arrows until they pass out and are at your mercy.

Where to Commit Murder

Now that you've picked your method of slaying, you will need to pick somewhere to do this. Several obvious factors play into this decision;

Are the facilities available in this area? You obviously won't be able to push somebody into the engine from the Chapel.

How frequently does the subject access this area? Waiting in the Medbay for your target won't result to anything if he never leaves his office.

How heavily populated is the area? You won't want to kill somebody in an area like the Medbay because there is almost always somebody there.

After looking over these, you can tell where you should commit the crime. Several more specific factors play into this;

How hard is the area to access?
How secluded is the area?
How much camera coverage is there?
Is the area your primary post?

It would be unwise to kill somebody in the Toxins Lab if you're the only toxins researcher. On the other hand, it would be incredibly wise to kill somebody in the Toxins Lab if you're not the toxins researcher.

Getting Rid of the Body

Most of the methods of killing people leave behind a body (potentially) covered in evidence and more importantly able to be brought back from the dead. While the specifics of resurrection aren't important the requirements of these methods are.

Defibrillation needs a mostly intact body which has been dead less than a certain amount of time. The easiest method of rendering it impossible to defib someone is to smash their skull in a bit more thoroughly. Just keep beating/shooting them while they're dying.
Cloning requires the brain and a body to put it in. Note that it might not be the same body or they might get their identity hidden so its especially important to prevent this. All you need to keep is the brain so cutting that out should suffice. Be aware cloning can have saved scans so ensure you check
Botany is probably the most difficult to prevent but the least likely to happen. So long as Genetics is intact Botany is unlikely to start planting clone pods. Fortunately they need a blood sample from the body and RP rules(usually) protect you from blood taken from before your attack.
Robotics doesn't actually bring the dead back(they still count as dead even if borged) but most Borgs that aren't one-humaned to you are going to rat you out the moment they can speak. Fortunately they need the brain.

So how do you actually prevent this? Most of the methods of killing people without leaving a body work on those who are already dead. Cutting someones brain out stops almost every method. Your common toolbox contains most of the tools you need and substitutes for the rest are in low security areas. A quick trip to cargo will get you a full set of tools or the ones you were missing, breaking a window or hopping the kitchen table will get you a knife, and breaking into the botany backroom will get you a hatchet to replace the saw. A brainless body is suspicious and bleeds everywhere so be prepared to ditch it right away. A quick disposals ride should be enough to prevent your location from being identified. You were wearing gloves right? If you have access to body bags you should use them. People ask a lot fewer questions about people using body bags in public. Expect to get stopped several times by assholes opening the bag and make sure it looks like your heading for Medbay. Toss people out of the airlock at an angle as most of the places where people check are in straight lines. By the way the proper way to space someone is to aggressive grab and throw them while they are under or in-front of the airlock. Strip people of their jumpsuit if you can't dispose of them elsewhere and hide them in a locker that locks preferably to an access that is uncommon. Remember your new access is your access plus whatever your victims access was. If all else fail dropping a mini-bomb on the body will prevent it from coming back.

Getting Caught

Things never go that smoothly. Getting caught is a way of life on Space Station 13 and knowing how to get out of it is very important. And the best way to do that is to lie so much you believe yourself. Lie to everyone and everything that talks to you. Agree to any searches that won't get you busted for corpses or traitor items. Do anything to deflect the blame on to others. If you run around not saying anything dragging a locker of corpses around, you will end up dead. If you drag around that locker of corpses saying you were cleaning up maintenance and you are going to give the chef some meat, you may have a chance of not getting killed. Note that your chances of this bluff being a success is shot to nothing if you get caught with any traitor items on you. As soon as that first emag or revolver is spotted, you're getting a face full of a harm baton and then the embrace of hard vacuum.