Fall Guys vs Among Us (Mediatonic vs Innersloth)

 

Fall Guys VS Among Us


“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”

- William Shakespeare


The Beans from Fall Guys, the squishy, hyper-competitive contestants from Planet Blunderdome’s televised gauntlets.


The Imposter from Among Us, the shapeshifting, cunning, and bloodthirsty alien scourge hidden amongst the Crewmates.


Since the dawn of time, deception and competition went hand in hand with party games meant for friendly sport. However, in 2020, two specific games took the gaming world by storm and altered the brain chemistry and stability of various friend groups. Whether through shouting matches or overly-ruthless platforming, one shape stood proud in the minds of many: the bean. Whether it be through murder mysteries or athletic minigame battle royales, Fall Guys and Among Us have left their mark on the gaming generation and naturally had comparisons drawn between them. Now, many people are asking whether the resilience of the Fall Guys or the cunning of the Imposter would win out in an all out brawl! Obviously, this is an extremely important question that could not be left unanswered! So, let’s find out!


DISCLAIMER: The Among Us TV show hasn’t come out as of the time of this blog posting, so feats from there won’t be counted for obvious reasons. Still images that aren’t backed up by the game or are just clearly memes won’t be counted towards either side of the debate as well, since the social media accounts (with consideration for whether something is a joke post or meant to expand on lore) for Among Us and Fall Guys were taken into account. In terms of sources, we’re keeping the games, the Among Us manga, both their various cinematic trailers, related interviews, ads, and official social media posts in mind. Crossover cosmetics will be given only the abilities and stats they’re shown to have in Among Us or Fall Guys.


Also, this won’t be a look at the version of their fight that includes crossover feats from other games, though I’ll mention some for fun later. The Imposters also won’t get access to the Skeld, since that’s more property of the Crewmates. But, you can include it for your own consideration if you consider this a team of Crewmates and Imposters fighting Beans in general. This fight will consider a 1v1 scenario and the idea of bringing multiple Imposters and Beans into it, but more on that later. We won’t be including Crewmate equipment. This is just a look at the Imposter.


Background

Fall Guys

“Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo!”


It’s a Knockout! Takeshi’s Castle. Wipeout. If there’s one thing people love, it’s watching other people on TV attempt to make their way through a ridiculous gauntlet of obstacle courses designed specifically to try and clobber them off course. Sure, some fans will actually root for the contestants to win, but we know most of us just wanna see these fools fall into the water. It’s hilarious and mostly safe, especially with all those padded traps cushioning most of the blows. This phenomena was popularized in various decades through those shows and even making its way into some water parks, since participating in these challenges was just as fun as watching.


Mediatonic surely knew this as they began developing a game that combined platformer action, wipeout physics, and an absolutely horde of players competing at once in the same online lobby. Taking place on Planet Blunderdome, an entire celestial entity was dedicated to running constant competitions between its inhabitants with the hopes of broadcasting their games across the universe. At the end of these games, only one Fall Guy could remain to wear the coveted crown, while the rest are cast off into the mysterious pink ocean beneath most games. This chaotic “racing” party game blew up in popularity around 2020 when gamers seeking a multiplayer fix could go to have fun with friends in a silly little party game. This happened enough that the game managed to win the team numerous awards in 2020 and 2021 for their fresh and purely fun take on a tried and true game show-turned-video game idea that even had its own lore.


See, in Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, as it was formerly known, there existed a team of Beans that worked as producers in a satellite orbiting the planet, led by a scientist and showrunner named Silent. They were on a mission to decode the secrets to the Digi Drive Belt, a mysterious piece of technology that they believed might lead them to the location of their missing friend. While producing their obstacle course game show, the team took the opportunity from their travels to set locations to build advanced tech that could hopefully decode these secrets. After traveling across the planet with numerous hiccups in their tech along the way, the team finally managed to activate the belt, which transported them to a pure, white void. In this realm, they finally reunited with their missing friend, Digi, as she introduced them to the long lost secrets of Creative Mode. With the now boundless possibilities before them and their satellite broadcasting their show across the cosmos, the Fall Guys all rejoiced as they entered a new golden era of unending fun and healthy competition!


The Imposter

"Idk man you’re looking kinda sus."


The shapeshifter. The doppelganger. The changeling. Centuries of folklore have conditioned the human race to fear the unlikely, terrifying possibility that the people around you are not who they say they are. Instead, they’re some cunning, predatory monster that’s out to get your guard down and brutalize you as soon as it gets the opportunity to. This concept has persisted throughout modern media as well, a testament to the paranoia-inducing thought of never being able to truly trust those closest to you. In 1982, John Carpenter’s The Thing solidified itself in popular culture as a classic horror flick by capitalizing on this very scenario. A fleshy, alien shapeshifter killed a member of a research team and took their place as doubts and accusations flew until they were killed off one by one.


This story must have been on the mind of Innersloth’s team as Among Us was developed and released back in 2018. Made as a mix of Mafia party games and taking place in an isolated spaceship known as The Skeld, little beans in astronaut suits wandered about the craft doing mundane tasks. Yet, unbeknownst to them, an alien had already killed off one of them prior to the game and has taken their identity. They’ve been biding their time until the opportune chance to strike presented itself. Then, suddenly, a Crewmate is found bisected on the ground, and an Emergency Meeting is called to try and suss out which among them is an Imposter! Meanwhile, the player attempting to blend in as the Imposter, a parasitic, shapeshifting killer possibly working with accomplice Imposters, must use their cunning to kill off players one-by-one, frame innocent crew members, and fabricate alibis in order to whittle down their numbers.


Surprisingly, this game didn’t actually take off until 2020, when gamers were truly craving a multiplayer party game to test the limits of their friendships. Out of nowhere, there was an enormous influx of players to massively boost the popularity of this once-obscure little phone game. Nowadays, Among Us is an icon of modern gaming culture, having won multiple awards back in 2020 and 2021. It not only solidified itself in meme culture thanks to its instantly recognizable sound effects, distinct silhouettes, and hilariously chaotic multiplayer debates, but in the hearts of many as a sci-fi horror/comedy fix that party gamers didn’t know they needed.


Arsenal

Fall Guys

Crown

The ultimate prize of every Fall Guy at the end of each brutal gauntlet of battle royale minigames. This crown can simply be worn atop the head of the champion Bean, or it can float in place and even carry a victor on it while it does its little anti-gravity routine.


Pegwins

These little, mechanical penguins are known as Pegwins, and are fast enough to home in on and chase down opposing Fall Guys. There are versions of them that can blow up and blast aways Beans, along with little rhino versions on wheels, called Party Crashers, that do the same thing. These are typically summoned via Power-Ups.


Hammer

Fall Guys can carry around big ol’ cartoon mallets based on Yeetus hammers that look padded, but are strong enough to knock Beans into the air or just strike Blast Balls away. 


Rubber Chicken

Beans can attack each other with Rubber Chickens in the Scrapyard Stumble Update. The longer they are charged up, the more power and knockback they have. Plus, they can trigger Blast Balls with their swings and destroy blocks.


Cubes

Sometimes the Fall Guys must yield the ever-boundless power of the obstacle course in their arms in the form of cube mechanisms. They can come in the form of strong fans that can push Beans or keep them in the air, or as hammer pistons that bounce back projectiles like Blast Balls or other Fall Guys.


Blast Balls

These happy little spherical guys usually wear a yellow, happy expression on their face whenever they’re rolling around. However, once a Fall Guy picks a Blast Ball up, it gets pissed off and turns red. Much like a Bob-Omb from Mario, it’ll begin a timer where it’ll explode after a few seconds or when making contact after being thrown. These concussive blasts are strong enough to knock back Beans in their featured minigames. If one of these are inserted into a specific, hovering device and are sufficiently stressed and shaken, they can charge up a large amount of energy before blasting a special beam fast enough to reach an orbital satellite in seconds and burn holes through certain materials.


Satellite

This giant satellite broadcasts the antics of the games across the galaxy while orbiting Planet Blunderdome, which was possible after its signal was amped by a special Blast Ball beam. While it has a control room for a team to operate, Silent, the head of the show, can simply operate and fix mishaps on it himself, along with having access to Star Trek-like devices that beam him up to it. In addition to a hatch that opens the floor up beneath occupants to eject them into space, there’s also an emergency button that can repair massive damage or technical issues done to the satellite if operated correctly.


As is the intention of the satellite, it can showcase footage taken on the planet within the control room, and vice versa by allowing Silent to view a live feed of the control room from a special tablet of his. There’s also a machine deep within the annals of the satellite that wound up incapacitating Silent once he reached his hands into its wiring, which then brainwashed and ensnared him. However, this unlocked his memories and opened up random wormholes all over the planet and the immediate space in its orbit. Additionally, they can own little laptops.


Hoverboard

Fall Guys also happen to own a hoverboard that can traverse through space, you know, just in case they ever need it if their big satellite goes haywire.


Fireworks

When the Fall Guys get super hyped up, they’ll bring out some multicolored pyrotechnics!


Giant Skateboard

These are skateboards but way bigger, obviously. Various Fall Guys can ride these at once.


Kaleidoscope Telescope

Silent once wielded a portable telescope with a kaleidoscope-like lens that was able to view the entirety of the malfunctioning Satellite from the ground back on Planet Blunderdome.


Tethers

While this mode is currently being made (as of when this was written), playing Fall Guys with a friend will let both of you play with a stretchy, rubber tether so you can’t move too far from each other before snapping back. Perhaps, this is what they use to make their tiny little parachutes?


Power-Ups

Power-Ups can be found on different courses and in many minigames that the Beans can use to wield powers or items. This includes the Bean Ball, which lets them speed and roll around like Sonic the Hedgehog, Party Crashers that can chase down and blast away other Fall Guys, and Sneaky Bean, which grants slightly more potent invisibility than the ability innately usable in other game modes.


Digi Drive Belt

This mysterious belt was the subject of Silent’s fascination and study throughout the run of the Fall Guys games and broadcast, where he traveled far and wide to find out its secrets. Eventually, the Digi Drive Belt finally became active and allowed Silent to teleport both him and Banana over to a blueprint-like voidspace of nothingness. There they found the long-missing Digi, who introduced them to a special Creative Mode tablet that allows any Fall Guy inside this place to make literally any artificial Fall Guys creation out of nothing!


From objects to entire obstacle courses, this special tech effectively gives them complete control of the voidspace they are transported to. This means they have access to literally anything inorganic from their arenas, obstacles, and tracks. Basically, it can teleport you to a Creative Mode dimension that grants access to any Fall Guys obstacle and Creative Mode powers.


Cosmetics

As many people might be aware, Fall Guys has tons of costumes and cosmetics and special animations that can be obtained through either hard work or a disposable income. While most of them don’t actually do anything, there are abilities that do appear to be usable considering this celebration shows the Star Trek beam up, which was later canonized. If they’re shown to be able to use them to do anything unique in-game beyond crossover promo pictures, then those cosmetics should be something the Fall Guys have credible access to. They have access to the following devices and abilities through certain cosmetics or costumes:


He-Man’s Power Sword: Fall Guys can wield and charge this authentic Power Sword from Masters of the Universe with a lightning strike that doesn’t seem to bother them.


Captain America Shield: Yes, Fall Guys can ricochet the shield and block with it with seemingly equivalent skill to Steve Rogers himself.


Mjolnir: The Thor costume can summon Mjolnir, is implied to still be enchanted to only be picked up by those worthy, and calls lightning.


Unstable Jetpack: A malfunctioning jetpack that they can’t fully control all too well.


Remote UFO: A remote-controlled UFO with a dangling claw that can slightly support the weight of a fully grown Fall Guy and lift them up for a few seconds.


Stilts: Fall Guys can use tall stilts that they’re not really skilled at balancing on or walking with.


Slimer Costume: By wearing this costume from Ghostbusters, Fall Guys can literally hover slightly above the ground, eliminating the need for their stubby legs.


Proton Pack: Wearing a Ghostbusters skin can also grant the Beans a functional Proton Pack with beams that can send them into the air, but its functionality against ghosts wasn’t shown off.


Pullcaster: Fall Guys have shown that they can use the Pullcaster, a grappling tool from Horizon Forbidden West, when using their Aloy skin to maneuver their environment quickly.


Hadouken: Fall Guys can, through the Street Fighter update, fire literal Hadoukens from their hands by making the appropriate arm movements and hand gestures.


Pac-Man Transformation: With this Pac-Man Celebration, they can turn into the yellow circle himself, becoming a 2D, floating sprite that has the ability to eat Pac-Man ghosts.


TARDIS: Fall Guys have used a literal, working TARDIS from Doctor Who, though all it’s been shown doing is phasing into place and none of the many other features.


TMNT Skateboard: The Beans can try to ride and also wield a skateboard themed after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, though they’re not exactly experts at riding it.


Star Trek Transporter: Fall Guys can use a Star Trek-like teleportation device on their lapel to beam themselves up to the satellite orbiting their planet from the surface, alongside a potential extra location where they found a crown.


Party Poppers: These party poppers the Beans have literally sent them flying, though it doesn’t seem to go off when they want it to, only as a misfire.


Glow Sticks: Incredibly important concert equipment for the Fall Guys to wave around.


Magic Wand: Fall Guys can use this magic wand to grant themselves antigravity and begin floating into the air from a misfire, though it doesn’t seem to work on what they actually aim it at.


Sparklers: Fall Guys can juggle a total of three sparklers, they’re talented like that.


Neon Constructs: Like the mini-gods that they are, Beans can simply create and manifest small, edible neon objects from thin air, though they’ve only ever created a hot ramen bowl, chopsticks, and a sauce bottle.


Kite: With sufficient wind, a Fall Guy flying a kite can be swept away into the skies.


Lightsaber: Fall Guys own a version of Darth Maul’s double-sided lightsaber.


Magic Hat: With a typical magician’s top hat, Fall Guys can pull out a black and white wand that they can transmute into a rose either with real, actual magic or through some magic trick.


Hockey Equipment: Beans can carve out thin ice with their ice skates and even use a hockey stick and puck with enough power to send it ricocheting around the area that they’re in.


Mr. Hyde Potion: By drinking a sinister, black concoction from a beaker based on the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a Bean can seemingly become an evil, more malicious version of themselves, but only in terms of their demeanor.


Avatar Elemental Bending: Fall Guys are shown using the air ball Aang uses to wheel around the ground in the original series, and they use traditional firebending themselves.


Venom Symbiote Costume: Fall Guys use a costume that gives them Venom symbiote powers like tendrils, sharp teeth, and black, adhesive webbing to swing around with.


Doom Slayer Costume: It does nothing, but it’s the Doom Slayer armor! Imagine if there was a Spartan armor around here, wouldn’t that be wild?


The Imposter

Knives

Imposters all come equipped with deadly weaponry, such as their iconic, murderous combat knife! They can stab Crewmates to death with it, sure, or they could just as easily bisect them or impale them with its blade in brutal fashion.


Guns

Only the toughest aliens come packing heat like this! Imposters can handle and wield a semi-automatic pistol that has the power to blast apart the entire upper half of a Crewmate’s body. In that way, it more so acts like a short range shotgun pistol up close, but it should carry the same bullets, range, and capabilities as a Glock in the real world, which it’s modeled after.


Fists

Much like the OG, Rayman, both Crewmates and Imposters have hands that vary between being proportionate to their size or as big as half their body and lack a physical connection to their torso via arms. Instead, they can float out while wielding weapons, to punch targets, use equipment, or just snap necks. Though, they don’t extend beyond just a little further than arms on a person normally could, so they can’t be sent far beyond themselves or anything.


Cybernetic Laser

Some Among Us skins allow for Imposters and Crewmates to be half-cyborg, which lets Imposters use a burning, disintegrating laser to entirely incinerate the upper half of Crewmates! This skin is based off the Right Hand Man from the Henry Stickmin games, and comes equipped with a fantastic, dastardly mustache to boot.


Pickaxe

In the Polus map for Among Us VR, Imposters can kill Crewmates with pickaxes to the back.


Crystal

Bludgeoning Crewmates with large gemstones is not off the table for improvising Imposters.


Lasso

During April Fools events, Among Us gets even sillier than usual by turning all the Crewmates into horses and reskinning the Seeker in Hide n Seek mode to the Rancher. This rancher is capable of using their rope to hogtie Crewmate horses in record time.


Tablets

After killing the Crewmate they replaced prior to the beginning of the game, Imposters have access to the tablet that they had. This grants them all the abilities these tablets have for Crewmates normally, such as voting or messaging others. These devices can, additionally, download or upload data at will, as shown by the tasks the Crewmates complete.


Megaphone

Yes, despite mostly being seen as the UI for reporting bodies in-game, Crewmates and Imposters do actually do this with a physical megaphone they own.


Summoning Circle

In the “Bone Bash” Limited Time Event in Among Us VR, Crewmates and Imposters together can briefly summon objects and little demons from a summoning circle before it dips back into whatever realm it came out of.


Cosmetics

While most cosmetics, skins, and pets only exist to support the developers and maybe cover up what color the player is, some do offer small pieces of equipment for the Imposter’s to play with. They’re canonized via the Cosmicubes, which allow them to swap cosmetics on the fly, so the following useful ones should be in play:


Stealth Visor: A set of Splinter Cell night vision goggles that don’t seem to work since Crewmates still have their visibility lowered during blackouts even while wearing them. But, the Lights Out event in Among Us VR seems to imply that they do actually work.


Right Hand Man: Reborn: The costume that makes Imposters half-cybernetic and gives access to their vaporization eye beam.


Vax’s Armor: Liam O’Brien’s Critical Role character’s outfit that gives Crewmates and Imposters access to extra knives.


Jinx’s Outfit: Available from the Arcane Cosmicube, which has promotional art that implies that Imposters or Crewmates have access to some sort of explosives resembling those Jinx uses.


Spartan Armor: Armor worn by SPARTAN-II soldiers, namely Master Chief, in Halo. Wouldn’t it be so wacky if a Doomguy outfit was nearby?


Blocks Toxics: A gas mask any player can wear that potentially blocks out gas-based poisons.


We All Float Here: A balloon hat a player can wear that pops upon being killed.


Rock Solid: A skin that encases the body of the Crewmate or Imposter in volcanic rock.


Ice to Meet You: A skin that encases the body of the Crewmate or Imposter in solid ice.


Squig: These things are small pets with three tentacles that can be seen restraining a Crewmate’s leg in promotional artwork, which seemingly opens them up to attack.


Bedcrab: These references to Headcrabs from Half-Life are shown attacking a Crewmate in their promotional art for the pet cosmetics.


Witch Broom: Merchandise from October 2021 shows a Crewmate flying on a broom.


Abilities

Fall Guys

Bean Physiology

Ah, the age-old question posited by the gamer community since 2020. Are Fall Guys tall, hideous, skeletal, chicken-man monstrosities on the inside? Or, are Beans just plump, diminutive airbag people with a squeaky toy heart? After some extensive research, the answer is actually a bit more nuanced than either answer being totally, definitively correct.


The first point against the horrifying anatomy is that the Senior Concept Artist put that idea forward, while the Principal Concept Artist, who outranks them, put the airbag anatomy out there afterwards as clarification. However, various trailers that use live action do actually support the idea that these Beans are 6 feet tall as opposed to being just 3 feet high. But, the horrific anatomy was deconfirmed by the initial artist as well. So, the consistent Fall Guy anatomy appears to support the airbag structure and the idea that they are 6 feet tall at the same time. But, later videos still show them at their more diminutive sizes, so it’s a point of contention. Plus, they can deflate their bodies in the gag manga.


Athleticism

Every single Fall Guy knows the neverending American Ninja Warrior life that they’re constantly leading through all their minigames and gauntlets. They are extraordinarily proficient in superhuman, athletic feats and abilities that don’t normally make a lot of sense too. For example, their jumping ability is just ridiculous, bordering on physics-breaking. This is evident thanks to how they can leap long distances, dive to boost and change trajectory mid-jump, and even double jump with a power-up. During these athletic feats, they rarely, if ever, show signs of getting tired as well.


When confronted with slick surfaces, Beans can slide across them efficiently, and when they ever need to duck and roll to get through a vertically closing door, they can do so without issue. Swinging from vine to vine, swimming through strange antigravity gelatin, and climbing incoming ledges are the kinds of things they do throughout their entire lives. Not even other Fall Guys can get in their way, since the more petty players can grapple other Beans to yank them back and mess up their flow. Through the Bean Ball power-up, they can curl up into a Sonic-esque ball and speed up when rolling downhill and ricochet off of walls. Literally nothing can stop their love for these challenges, so the average Bean typically excels at sports, competing in races, getting smacked around the arena, and completing obstacle courses from playing them constantly.


Intellect

Despite how they look, various Fall Guys and their little societies have accomplished insane feats of intellect. Creative Mode being canonized along with the games being crafted for entertainment, implies various degrees of creative and architectural prowess. The fact that giant satellites and space-dwelling obstacle courses exist also lends credibility to the fact that Beans have, in fact, surpassed us in terms of technology that operates in outer space. Especially when their show can be broadcast across an entire galaxy and their satellites have failsafes and control rooms easily run by scientists like Silent. Bean scientists can even hack Twitter accounts of all things, so just because they’re airbag entities doesn’t mean that they can’t wield engineering degrees. Oh, and they might know how Among Us works.


Flight

Yes, though these are sort of wonky and granted through skins or equipment they control, Fall Guys have been shown to be literally flying through the air sometimes, but not with proficiency. King Poseibean is also shown naturally floating a few inches off of the ground. They’re later shown levitating through their Halloween cosmetics through obstacle courses.


Invisibility

In the minigame, Sweet Thieves, Fall Guys can go fully invisible, though the more they move, the more visible they become. This can be used through the Sneaky Bean power-up as well.


Summoning

Imagine, if you will, being a Bean sitting at home and watching the Fall Guys games from the comfort of your couch. Well, if one of the competitors breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the camera while you’re watching, a blast of rainbow energy can erupt from the television and summon you into their arena! Similarly, Beans can simply spin around and suddenly manifest one of their cosmetic skins onto their person out of nowhere. Some celebrations even include the potential summoning of a giant, offscreen Fall Guy’s arms that can mess with Beans or even flick them away. In Sweet Thieves, competitors can grab invisible Beans to teleport them into a jail cell that can only be opened from a button outside, though this might be game mechanics. This power to summon with devices is shown again when the Steve Jobs stand-in Bean accidentally BFRs an entire auditorium into the mobile version of Fall Guys with the “iPhone”.


Fourth Wall Awareness / Hacking

One day, a Bean scientist hacked the official Fall Guys twitter account and took it over in an effort to send out a distress call when their satellite was falling apart. They are aware of the real world and all they can do is shout for help from a social media platform. How utterly haunting.


Resistances

In terms of the actual “toughness” of the Beans, there’s a lot to take into account here. For one, they seem to be able to survive in the vacuum of space just fine! Because why not? They’re seemingly unaffected by both the passage of time and drowning, as they fell into a suspended state for 2,020 years under their pink slime ocean without succumbing to aging or suffocation. They can be frozen solid and survive and, on the flipside, briefly survive sinking in lava during their Among Us animation. Similarly, Beans can run around in their Among Us costume when, on a rare occasion, only the lower half remains with the bone sticking out, though this might just be part of the cosmetic. Beans have the capability to eat things despite lacking any visible mouth of some kind, which is shown when they consume conjured neon ramen, chew gum, eat pizza, and interact with ghosts of all things! Finally, just in case reality goes awry, they’ve resisted being glitched out with no more than a shrug of the shoulders after it wore off. This trailer also implies that Fall Guys can time travel through the use of one specific machine into the past, but there’s not much evidence to support this is real time travel or set dressing, so acausality is a shaky resistance.


The Imposter

Imposter Physiology

Imposters are parasitic, alien shapeshifters that can appear perfectly disguised as a member of a target group on the outside. But, aside from their voice mimicry and speech, inside they’re a horrific, toothy, fleshy beast just aching to kill any crew they infiltrate. However, these beasts are also deviously intelligent “techno-aliens” that can innately manipulate technology and project holographic maps of their immediate vicinity to mess around with. Their clear and present danger to the “easy prey” that are the Crewmates are what necessitates the trials, since Imposters are explicitly left incapacitated or dead in the vacuum of space. However, they can survive, for the briefest of moments, in lava, and, for extensive periods of time, in extremely cold weather below 40 degrees Celsius. Additionally, they potentially don’t need oxygen to live. This is because their Oxygen Depleted Sabotage kills every Crewmate on The Skeld or MIRA HQ through suffocation aside from, presumably, themselves. This same apprehensive resistance could also allow the Imposters to possibly survive deadly radiation, considering setting off a Reactor Meltdown results in their victory after it kills off the remaining crew.


Horrifically, they also come equipped with a biological weapon in the form of their long, skewering tongue that behaves similarly to an elongated tendril to grant them extra range. It can pierce skulls, bisect prey, and even act as an extra limb of sorts. While their mouths full of sharp, fang-like teeth usually form out of their torsos, there’s been evidence to suggest it can basically form out of anywhere they want. The implication is that their eye takes the form of the Crewmate visor that they copied, and the disembodied hands might just be something they mimicked from the Crewmate’s biologies. However, something they do share with Crewmates is some sort of heartbeat that’s either the same as or manipulated to be close to a regular heart. This means, like Crewmates, they are 3’6” normally and weigh 92 pounds. As implied by the game’s recommended settings, Imposters have 1.5x better vision than Crewmates and can remain unaffected in darkness, suggesting night vision. In the Among Us TV show teaser, Imposters are shown growing to larger sizes in a more amorphous, tendril-heavy silhouette as well.


Shapeshifting

Described as “shapeshifting parasites”, Imposters can perfectly take the form of any organic or inorganic material they see, seemingly down to their fingerprints. While they can stretch their height to match cosmetics that make Crewmates appear taller, it’d definitely be a stretch to say that they can just grow to whatever size they want. Their speech in-game and in other media canonically mimics their choice’s voice as well, meaning they’d have to absolutely be sentient enough to hold a conversation properly. They can actively decide to take someone else’s form as well by incubating in an egg-like container complete with writhing tentacles for a few moments, so they aren’t locked into their first choice. However, doing this only lasts for a limited time and potentially leaves evidence behind before reverting back to their first choice.


Invisibility

As the “Phantom”, the Imposter can vanish in a brief, visible puff of smoke, though they can’t kill in this state. They remain fully invisible, though they can still be tracked and must manually reappear in a puff of smoke to commit murder.

Sabotages

Whenever necessary, a skilled Imposter can make use of their innate, biological capabilities to act as a dastardly saboteur! While having their personally projected map of the area does help for ranged Sabotages, they can also activate them without any telegraphed movements in the middle of a group. While most of the Sabotages Imposters have can affect and manipulate technology, they’re not restricted to just messing with machinery. In a sense, their options are always context sensitive to the environment that they’re in, but they do have some consistent patterns. Through their Sabotages, Imposters have had access to the following abilities, but they can only ever be used one at a time and act on cooldowns:



Deception

While their murderous and bestial demeanor might make some people assume that Imposters are mindless, barbaric monsters, they’re actually exceedingly devious and calculated. Their voice mimicry allows them to hold authentic conversations with Crewmates, which is assisted by their extensive knowledge of their typical habits and routines. Imposters can play long cons and remain as a replaced Crewmate for several missions waiting for the right opportunity to strike. Shapeshifting is also precise enough to copy down to a being’s fingerprints, and they knowingly blend in, pretend to run tasks, sneak around, entrap victims, keep track of their Sabotage cooldowns, sabotage and confuse the Crew, and lie excessively to avoid detection. This is especially impressive as they know the vital points to strike and kill their victims, and they can fool Crewmates that can run complex scientific facilities, maintain spacecraft, and survive and thrive while marooned on an island. Successful Imposters will have basically gotten away with murder for several trials while under interrogation, keeping up fake alibis, and framing others.


Venting

The infamous ability to Vent allows for impatient tactics in the form of swiftly traveling through ventilation systems, underground tunnels, or special plants in mere seconds. But, there’s no indication that Imposters can burrow this fast, so these places likely need to exist beforehand. Additionally, Crewmates that are Engineers or playing Hide n Seek can navigate or hide in these tunnels as well.


Seek

In Hide n Seek, Imposters operate a bit more like slasher villains and instead chase down and uncover hidden Crewmates. Once they’re in the “Final Hide” portion of the game or if they’ve killed over half the Crew, Imposters can use the Seek ability to pinpoint hidden prey on their map. However, this only works if they’re hidden in specific rooms, and not outdoors in Polus or in the hallways of the Skeld.


Martial Arts

In addition to punching with their freaky, giant hands, Imposters can kill with a single roundhouse kick or a 1-2 punch combo, alongside other attacks in Among Us VR.


Elasticity

For April Fools 2024, Imposters gained a new ability exclusive to this one-off, goofy event called Long Mode. This allows the aliens to control and extend their necks swiftly over long distances with enough force to bisect and kill Crewmates. There’s even an official Long Imposter plush.


Lycanthropy

Based on Travis Willingham’s Critical Role character, Chetney Pock O’Pea, Imposters were given the cosmetic ability to become a werewolf with large claws to briefly maul victims. Do note that, in the Infection Event for Among Us VR, Zomburritos similarly existed that could zombify chefs, but these weren’t designated as Imposters.


Ghost

When an Imposter or a Crewmate dies, they become floating, incorporeal ghosts! Imposters can still Sabotage like this, but otherwise can’t interact with physical living beings other than fungi. They can interact with other ghosts as well and even “Haunt” players to spectate them. On the other hand, Crewmates can still complete their tasks while dead, and they can even use Protect as Guardian Angels to shield their living allies.


Feats

Fall Guys

Overall


Power


Speed


Durability


The Imposter

Overall


Power


Speed


Durability


Weaknesses

Fall Guys

Despite running constant battle royale gauntlets, Fall Guys, if you’ve noticed, have no fighting experience at all. The closest they get to that is grappling each other during races or striking each other with the boxing glove boxes. Their minds happen to be shown as susceptible to manipulation, such as forcibly unlocked memories or brainwashing. There’s also this infamous feat that always gets brought up, one where they create a constellation with their creation powers. Except, upon closer inspection, they don’t actually do this themselves, the celestial dots just pop up, are simply poked by the Bean, and they happen to create this constellation.


Another infamous source is this interview that talks about “lore” or how powerful the Fall Guys are, except this interview is very clearly tongue-in-cheek and poking fun. None of these answers are being actually seriously discussed in regards to “canon” for Fall Guys. In fact, quite a lot of statements off-handedly called “canon” aren’t really official and are mostly jokes.


A lot of Fall Guys, even though they’re accomplished, veteran athletes, just happen to be not so smart and consistently clumsy, so the average Bean isn’t as smart as, say, Silent or as strong as the strongmen Beans. But, of course, we’re taking the Fall Guys at their best here. It should also be noted that the crossover items they have shouldn’t be given their full functionality unless they specifically are shown to be lore-accurate to the originals, otherwise, you know, the TARDIS would make this fight a no-brainer.


The Imposter

Even though it takes the full force of democracy to take these Imposters down normally, they’re not exactly invincible. In the vacuum of space, they’re left helpless and incapacitated, along with being burned alive and sinking into lava being good alternatives to take them down. It’s also implied that falling from a great enough height is enough to end them, as seen on the MIRA HQ and Airship maps. In addition, they’re used to prey that doesn’t fight back or just runs from them. So, despite their cunning and strength, Imposters aren’t exactly experienced with dealing with foes that fight back, sort of like pure assassins. Otherwise, if they felt the jig was up, Imposters logically would just try to kill everyone before they got ejected. Their Sabotages and Kill actions happen to have cooldowns too, though this might be a case of game mechanics here. Once they’ve revealed themselves, their options are rather limited too, since their arsenal isn’t exactly vast enough to compensate for the lost opportunities to deceive.


Summary

Fall Guys

"(Unintelligible Muffled Nonsense)"


Advantages:

= Roughly even in Power & Durability with conservative stats

+ Slightly faster if the Blast Ball reaction is used

+ Absurdly faster and tougher if the universal stretch is used

+ Digi Drive Belt, Satellite, and Blast Ball laser offer offensive advantages

+ Numbers advantage via Summoning & Moving Explosives

+ Capable of destroying Ghost Forms

+ Far more varied arsenal with cosmetics

+ Instant win possible through pulled off BFR options

+ Prep time possible if they teleport to the Satellite quickly

+ More mobility options with flight, levitation, and athletics

+ High endurance through taking constant punishment

+ Totally legit Spongebob scaling

+ Has that MrBeast and Ninja money


Disadvantages:

= Limited combat experience

- Slower at conservative ends

- Imposters are far tougher if they can survive the Skeld meltdown

- Most tech is negated by Sabotages

- Invisibility isn’t entirely reliable and could be detected with Seek

- Summoning and other activated abilities can possibly get Sabotaged

- Could be tricked by Shapeshifting

- No killing or fighting experience

- Yellow Team

- Amazing special effects


The Imposter

"DON’T MAKE FUN OF MY FRIED EGG!"


Advantages:

= Roughly even in Power & Durability with conservative stats

+ Slightly Faster using conservative ends
+ Possibly even faster with high ends of the frisbee or asteroid blasting task

+ Way more durable if the Skeld meltdown is counted

+ If the Skeld is a part of their arsenal, they could hijack and crash it

+ Sabotages negate most tech and possibly activated abilities

+ Shapeshifting and Vanish are more reliable stealth options

+ Deadlier arsenal

+ More cunning and patient

+ Far more murderous and fighting experience

+ Elijah Wood and Ashley Johnson

+ Among Us rifle


Disadvantages:

= Limited combat experience

- Blast Ball laser greatly outranges them

- Way slower if the Fall Guys have the universal stretching feat

- Pressured and outnumbered by explosives and summons even with 3 Imposters in play

- Lose if BFR’d through the Satellite, iPhone, or Creative Mode quickly

- Brute force is their only win condition

- Cooldowns and singular Sabotage uses limit Power Nullification options

- Ghosts can be destroyed

- Less mobility options

- Far less versatile arsenal

- “Sus” existed before Among Us

- Benoit Blanc sucks at being the Imposter


Verdict


Stats

Everyone wants to know: Where do Fall Guys and Imposters power scale stats-wise? Perhaps surprisingly, once we take into account the likely similar material to Wipeout that Fall Guys use for their courses, both Imposters and Fall Guys are about as tough and powerful as each other. The best the Beans have done involve smacking around giant golden eggs, assuming they’re solid gold, getting amped by the lightning strike that hits their Power Sword, and surviving a fall from low orbit. This caps the Fall Guys out at 0.127 Tons of TNT from the golden egg high end, and 0.191 Tons of TNT from the Power Sword and Mjolnir lightning strike. However, it should be noted that Fall Guys are taking constant punishment, so their endurance factor is way higher, especially considering the potential of the black hole feat.


Meanwhile, if we look at what both Imposters and Crewmates have done and tanked, we see that their best feats involve Imposters vaporizing half a Crewmate with their laser and surviving the outer explosion of the Skeld from either the escape pod or the nuclear reactor meltdown. This puts them at around 0.171 Tons of TNT, but them surviving the epicenter of the blast at 367.54 Tons of TNT as contended in the debatable durability feat comes across as a massive, pretty vague situation. So, to be safe, we’ll keep them at the outer explosion of the Skeld since they are stated to be resistant to explosives regardless, which backs that up.


Now, where it gets complicated is when we get to speed. Let’s lay it out, the Imposters consistently can get as high as 110.70 m/s from their cybernetic eye laser, with 375 m/s coming from them firing their guns but not necessarily from them being able to aim that fast. Their point of contention comes from the Crewmates being able to fling a frisbee into the horizon at 797.44 m/s, which kind of comes across as an outlier. But, the problem is, it’s a directly shown feat even backed up by the slabs of rock flinging a Crewmate into the distance the same way. Does this mean they can aim and track enemies going that speed? That’s debatable, but let’s talk about where the Fall Guys scale first.


Fall Guys don’t have absurd speed feats normally, since they’re ranking at around 23.72 - 27.31 m/s from them serving giant golden eggs like volleyballs and reacting to Big Yeetus revolutions. However, they also consistently dodge cannonfire, which they can do at a distance or as close as they want, which lands them at around 100 - 250 m/s. The Blast Ball device that fires out a disintegrating energy beam can get up to 1,000,000 m/s thanks to the speed it reaches the satellite, but, similar to the Imposters, this is as fast as it fires, and not necessarily how fast the Beans can aim. No, the debatable speed feat comes from Hypebean’s body reacting to the Blast Ball beam before it reaches the bleachers in the stadium, which would conservatively calculate at around 1,128.66 m/s. That’s a significant difference, and starts to similarly fall into “not an intentional feat” territory. Considering this was probably just the animators not really thinking about the math or intending this as a speed feat, let’s examine this feat with that in mind. This would likely mean that Fall Guys can have their bodies move that fast, but only so long as their body and brain can react to an incoming threat in time. So, at most this would give them decent wiggle room when reacting to something around as fast as cannonfire, but it’s not like they can dole out punches as fast as the Blast Ball beam since that’s not consistent with how they’re portrayed.


So, where does that leave us? If we use low ends without the frisbee or blast ball laser feats, Fall Guys would be about 2.3 times faster. But, if we consider the frisbee to be a consistent feat, then that makes the Imposter 3.4 times faster using those low ends. Meanwhile, if we include the blast ball reaction, Fall Guys would only be about 1.4 times faster. Considering the Imposter reliably tracks targets around 110.75 m/s at least, with Fall Guys tracking objects at 250 m/s at most, this would mean there’s a distinction in how fast they can fight or dodge. Imposters would be able to dish out attacks that might be missing a lot much more quickly, meanwhile the Fall Guys dodge more attacks on average. Personally, the frisbee feat feels much more consistent than the blast ball laser feat, meaning that Imposters should be consistently faster on average. This is especially important if they sneak in a gunshot every so often in their flurry of blows, so even if the Beans can track more attacks on average, a lucky hit would often land. 


However, if you do buy into the blast ball reactions, the Imposters blasting asteroids flying through deep space should create a similar gap to their previous conservative ends. Though, of course, there is that universe stretch tweet thread for those that believe in that, which makes this fight a blitz. And, even with the Skeld explosion counted, that universal stretch would also equate to durability just by virtue of surviving having their body stretch that much. But, let’s assume for now that the previous, more conservative feats are all we’re using for the sake of the argument. Even with the Skeld explosion counted through the supporting developer statements, there are still ways for Beans to win, since that would only scale to their durability.


Abilities / Equipment

This was one of those fights where the powers and arsenal of the fighters are kind of vague but also kind of decide who wins. So, let’s get into all the relevant factors at play by cutting down what the biggest advantages are and whether any counters are viable.


Numbers

Firstly, the Fall Guys do tend to have the numbers advantage with their set of Pegwins and Party Crashers that can home in on the Imposter and blow them up, or at the very least split their focus. As to whether the Summons would work, summoning other Fall Guys through the TV might be possible so long as their Satellite is up and running, though it kind of toes the line on outside help. Those giant Bean arms only really tend to show up whenever they want to, so it’s not really a reliable summon either. Meanwhile, the Imposter only really has Squig, their little pet that the Fall Guy can just punt away or step on. It’s pretty clear that the competitive little Beans would be able to put pressure and play keep away to help lessen the speed gap.


Closing the Gap

Next, let’s talk about stealth and their neutral game. The Imposter, obviously, has a distinct advantage when it comes to their Shapeshifting. They could turn into another Fall Guy during the confusion, Vanish and Appear to avoid detection, and get in close with their trickery, meanwhile the Beans kind of have an imperfect Invisibility that reveals them the more they move. However, considering the endurance and similar toughness they share, the Bean isn’t going to die in one shot like Crewmates do. And, while they both have ranged options with the eye laser, gun, Long Mode, Blast Balls, Blast Ball laser, and Hadoukens, the Fall Guys also have the mobility advantage through their athletics, more reliable flight arguments, and the ability to create leeway through overwhelming explosive equipment. to help them out with their lower speed as well. Although, their infamous grapples aren’t exactly going to help against a similarly strong opponent with literal detached hands, a possible broom to fly with, and their tongue acting as a third limb. So far, this area of the fight seems inconclusive.


Sabotages vs Tech

Alright, let’s get to the big questions. The Fall Guys’ tech and the Imposter’s Sabotage are going to be at odds right off the bat. The Digi Drive Belt and the Transporter to the Satellite are the aces in the hole for the Fall Guys, offering two paths to victory via their Creative Mode powers or ejecting the Imposter into space. Obviously, the Imposter would be more than capable of hacking or disrupting these pieces of technology, though the Satellite itself has fail safe buttons to prevent total meltdowns. Plus, their BFR through their iPhone is similar enough to the TV summoning, which operates through the satellite, except they’re more vulnerable to being shut down since they’re directly on their person.


This should allow the Imposter to shut down those instant win options and blast the Fall Guy with a laser before their blast ball laser can charge up, right? Well, there’s a bit of an important wrinkle. Not only are there cooldowns between individual Sabotages, but only one Sabotage can ever be active at a time. This is where the argument gets weird, because this applies even during multi-Imposter matches. No other media really gives them the benefit of the doubt to do this multiple times at once, but it’s also mostly game balance, so it’s a tough call. But, I lean towards their limitations. Even with three Imposters in the mix, the Beans transporter, smartphone, Digi Drive Belt, innate summoning through the broadcast, creative mode tablet, and satellite with failsafes can provide enough win conditions even if three of these are shut off or destabilized.


Plus, consider the idea that Imposters can sabotage as much as they like with no “one at a time” limitation. If this is the case, then canonically they shouldn’t be losing to the Crewmates at all if their equipment could be in constant haywire, especially the deadly ones. There’d be no need for strategy on their part if it could be spammed, so I lean towards there being limitations.


Win Conditions

Sure, Comms going down has nullified activated abilities before and the Transporter, iPhones, and Digi Drive Belt could be rendered useless for a time, but because that “singular activation” and cooldown limitation exists, the Fall Guy will always have a win condition open for them to make use of. Meanwhile, the Imposter’s option will always come down to brute force, an option that’ll likely take more than just a couple of tries thanks to the Beans’ durability, mobility, survivability, and endurance.


Additionally, high durability through the possible Skeld meltdown survival won’t matter if they’re beamed to the Creative Mode void, dropped into space in the satellite, mobbed by dozens of Beans, or absorbed into the iPhone anyway. It’ll always be an uphill battle for the Imposter regardless, since they have a much more limited arsenal. Even if they try to mess them up as a Ghost, Fall Guys have eaten ghosts as Pac-Man, touched ghosts as seen with Zero, and even have a Proton Pack that may or may not work. So, there’s options there too!


Tertiary Factors

Alright, let’s face facts. Despite the smartest of the Fall Guys being brilliant engineers, architects, competitors, and scientists, the same could be said for the Crewmates. Imposters have played long cons and consistently fool Crewmates for long periods at a time even after committing several murders. Their cunning is no stranger to beings like the Beans, although that can also be a double-edged sword. While they have more experience tricking and killing, they generally have no experience whatsoever actually confronting or fighting back against cornered prey. They rely on their ability to one-shot unsuspecting Crewmates who never really defend themselves beyond the use of democracy and deduction.


While Fall Guys have no real combat experience, they’re master athletes constantly competing with each other and dodging obstacles until only one remains. There are even strongmen Beans that have likely trained their bodies to get that much more resilient. It’s not a huge point, but it might help against a foe that can land kicks and blast them with incoming, fatal weaponry. Plus, they might have some slight prior knowledge of how Among Us works thanks to their Among Us cosmetics. Assassin techniques aren’t exactly going to work when your target won’t die immediately as you expect them to. They might come off as clumsy bean babies with jelly for brains, but they can’t be counted out quite yet.


Conclusion

This is a silly fight, where stats are surprisingly close between these two bean entities. They’re about as powerful as each other, with Fall Guys arguably holding more endurance and Imposters being faster and theoretically tougher. However, speed and durability aren’t exactly everything if they were to face off. Fall Guys shouldn’t be slept on, since they have the numbers, range, and mobility necessary to close the gap between them regardless of how fast they are with all of their wacky innate abilities and weaponry.


Sure, the Imposter is better at killing and could disable the powers and tech the Fall Guys have, but they can only do so one at a time, and they can’t get a one-hit kill on them. This leaves them open to one of many defeats, either via the Blast Ball laser burning through them, getting teleported to the dimension where Beans are Creative Mode gods, or getting transported to the Satellite where they can be ejected into space classic-style. Simply put, it’ll always be an uphill battle for the Imposters, and the sheer variety of options available to the not-so-little athletes simply gives them every edge they need to win more often than not.


The winners are the Fall Guys.


(Fan Art by @Justwharton)


Blog Written by: SpaceJellO

Research Consulting: Anita


Personal Calculation Links: Calcs can all be found right here.

  • I’m new to calcing so some might be goofy, thus any critiques or pointers are welcome.


Sources:

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