Town of Salem: The Coven New Roles Guide

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 07 Jun 2017

The Coven introduces 16 new roles into play, plus a new faction: The “Coven.” The best way to think about the Coven is that, basically, it’s another Mafia with some different mechanics. It is for the most part the informed minority of the game and their primary target is the Town, as well as rogue neutrals.

Of the new roles:

6 are Coven.

4 are Town.

2 are Mafia.

4 are Neutral.

HEX MASTER (Coven)

The best way to think of a Hex master is an Arsonist that automatically ignites when everyone who isn’t a teammate is doused. Hex masters need to “hex” other players, which has no immediate effect on them and does not alert the victim. Once all players are hexed, a deadly attack is dealt with, killing almost anyone that was hexed. Hex masters will not use their power if they are dead. With the Necronomicon, you will not appear to visit anyone you hex.

STRATEGY: Hex masters are especially a factor late game if they have hexed most of the remaining town. As any non-coven role, Hex masters should be an absolute priority to take out late in the game. As coven, do everything in your power to help a hex master achieve their goal if you believe they can accomplish it.

POISIONER (Coven)

A poisoner is a role that can kill victims 1 day after they have been poisoned; meaning that if a Doctor heals the poisoned victim at any time after the poisoning, the victim is cured and will not die from poisoning. With the Necronomicon, the poison is uncurable.

STRATEGY: As a poisoner, you should try to target players who you believe aren’t as “valuable.” In other words, go for players who you think there’s a chance the Doctor would not use the time to try saving. If the Doctor does try to save them, it buys your Coven time to attack a higher-priority target. As an other role, communicating with the Town and your Doctor is crucial for your survival. Not only can it save your life, but also confirm you as a non-Coven.

POTION MASTER (Coven)

Potion Masters have a variety of tools and tricks at their disposal. They are given 3 potions, each with a 3-night cooldown (unless they possess the Necronomicon, in which case it is only a 1-night cooldown.) The Potions are:

-Healing: Heal a player as if you were a Doctor.

-Revealing: Investigate a player as if you were a Consigliere.

-Attacking: Attack a player as if you were a Serial Killer.

STRATEGY: The Potion Master is a role that is crucial to the Coven’s success. If you have an accomplice Coven that focuses on killing, such as a Coven Leader or Poisoner, you should focus more on Healing and Revealing potions. As a non-coven, Potion Masters are one of the more important Covens to kill, due to their supportive ability; but not as important as a Hex-master late game or a Necromancer in some situations.

MEDUSA (Coven)

Medusa can turn anyone who visits them to stone, much like a Veteran kills anyone who visits them on alert. This will erase their role and will, like how a Janitor can clean its target. Anyone unfortunate enough to visit Medusa during a gaze will appear as “Stoned” in the graveyard. Medusa has unlimited gazes. With the Necronomicon, Medusa can visit others and stone-gaze them instead of staying at home.

STRATEGY: Even though you have unlimited gazes, you should be careful about gazing all the time. For instance, if a Doctor swears to heal you every night and gets stone-gazed, you’re going to look awfully suspicious. However, for the most part you should be fine stone-gazing most of the time to defend yourself. As a non-town, Medusas are lower-priority Covens, since they can’t actually leave home and actively harm the town without the Necronomicon.

NECROMANCER (Coven)

Necromancers are deadly roles that can “reanimate” corpses from the graveyard and force them into following the Necromancer’s orders. Necromancers can control anyone who has died the previous night and force them to perform their ability on anyone who is still alive. For instance: a Necromancer can reanimate a dead Serial Killer and use them for one attack on the Mayor. With the Necronomicon (not the same thing, even though they both start with necro!) anyone controlled by the Necromancer will attack its target.

STRATEGY: The Necromancer is a great way to eliminate Traps and bodyguards and launch no-risk attacks. You should always choose killers first. If you can’t, you can use Doctors and Bodyguards to guard your Coven members. If you’re fighting the Coven, Necromancers are deadly and need to be dealt with quickly. With the Necronomicon, the Necromancer becomes arguably one of the deadliest roles in the game.

COVEN LEADER (Coven)

The Coven Leader is like the Godfather, except instead of being the head of organized crime you’re a crazed psycho-demon who can suck the life out of people and force them into doing their bidding (not much difference there.) Without the Necronomicon, you function like a normal Witch, but without the ability to see the role you’re controlling. With the Necronomicon, you can do the same, but also kill the people you control.

STRATEGY: As a Coven leader, you are expected to lead your faction just like a Godfather would lead the Mafia; by leaving the game! (Just kidding, don’t do that.) You are usually the main killer alongside a possible Poisoner and you can also support your Coven by using your controlling ability wisely. Be careful who you control; you don’t want to kill anyone who could help you eliminate your main threat, the Town. When not on the Coven, Coven Leaders are generally your primary Coven target, except for late game Hex-masters and Necromancers.

CRUSADER (Town)

Crusaders can protect people like a Bodyguard can, but instead of taking out killers, they will kill a person at random who visits the person they’re guarding. So, if a Sheriff and Serial Killer both visit your target, you could be a hero or a villain. You don’t die when you guard your target, but will die from werewolf attacks.

STRATEGY: As a Crusader you have to be very careful about who you protect. If you can help it, try to not random protect people, since the odds of them being attacked are probably the same or worse as them being harmlessly visited by a fellow Townie. If you’re going to guard someone, make sure other confirmed townies know about it. When combatting the Town, Crusaders are a mid-priority target. They’re low priority if you think you can predict who they will be guarding.

TRACKER (Town)

A Tracker is, as everyone describes it, an inverse lookout. You choose someone at night and see who they visit.

STRATEGY: When choosing between a Tracker and a Lookout, a Tracker has a slightly higher priority. Almost all evil roles visit people, so anyone who doesn’t do so can be safely assumed as a Townie. As a Tracker, rather than guard people like a lookout, you want to watch suspicious people. Trackers are mid-priority targets since they are also a very common Executioner claim.

TRAPPER (Town)

Trappers are Town Protectors that can guard someone without technically guarding them. To do so, Trappers can build a Trap (which requires a night) and then place it at a person’s house. Players who attack a trapped house will fail to attack their target and will instead be attacked themselves, as well as having their role revealed to the Trapper (A Serial Killer triggered a trap!) Players who visit the house but didn’t attack the player will only have their role revealed to the trapper. Note that names are not revealed.

STRATEGY: Try to trap the most confirmed Townies you are aware of. Remember: There’s no penalty like a Crusader for guarding someone as a Trapper. Trappers are a key target as an evil role. A Trapper can never trap himself, so you can use that to your advantage. Also, if a Trapper leaves a will, be careful not to visit anyone he lists- Traps persist through death.

PSYCHIC (Town)

Psychics gain information each night that the game provides them. On odd nights (1, 3, 5 if you never passed algebra,) you will be told 3 players that are alive. At least one of them will always be evil (“evil” meaning any non-town role, even Amnesiac!) On even nights, you will be told the name of one player, who is always a Townie.

STRATEGY: The strategy of a Psychic is very simple: Report everything you find. Psychics, as they currently stand, are incredibly powerful and cannot have their results falsified. If even one player in an evil revelation dies, that already narrows it down to a this-guy-or-that-guy-is-evil scenario. And most of the time, you will be able to figure it out pretty easily. You can also confirm townies, erasing doubt and providing more allies. Psychics are absolute priorities as an evil role- if the Psychic knows what he’s doing, your faction is doomed unless you knock him out early. Beware though, because the Townies know this as well.

AMBUSHER (Mafia)

The Ambusher can camp outside a person’s house at night and randomly kill one person who visits that player. Unfortunately, the ambusher’s name is also revealed to anyone else who visits the ambusher’s target. So, yes- it is possible for the Mafia to kill 2 people in one night with an Ambusher.

STRATEGY: Ambusher can be especially tricky to play as, not only trying to find a good person to camp at but also make sure they aren’t visited by more than 1 person. Remember, if you ambush someone when 2 people visit your target, you’re screwed. To counter an ambusher as a Townie, find someone you can trust and visit the same person each night. If one of you gets ambushed, the other person will hopefully not also be killed and live to cry the Ambusher’s name.

HYPNOTIST (Mafia)

Hypnotists can hypnotize people into believing false messages received by the game. For instance: “You were attacked but nursed back to health!” “Someone occupied your night. You were roleblocked!” You can’t choose which message people receive.

STRATEGY: The Hynotizer is also a tricky role to play as, but can also confuse people into believing in the existence of a role that was never there. Try and find out what message the person recieved (without being too obvious). Then, claim the corresponding role, and use it to your advantage. When fighting Hypnotizers, try to find out who affected your night. The person who claims they did could be a Hypnotizer- keep this in mind.

GUARDIAN ANGEL (Neutral)

Guardian Angels are pretty much the opposite of Executioners. Instead of killing your target at any cost, you have to protect your target at any cost. They can be of any alignment or faction. If they die, you become a Survivor. You also have the ability to “heal and purge” (that’s 1 ability, not 2) them twice a game. This makes them immune to voting.

STRATEGY: The first step is to learn more about your target- their faction and, if you can, their role. Don’t be obvious about it, just see if you can figure it out based on their behavior and patterns. Then side with them and stay faithful to their faction. But sometimes, the best thing to do is to accept that they’re going to die. Remember, if they die, you become a Survivor, so if they are the last evil player standing, lynching them will win you the game still.

PIRATE (Neutral)

The Pirate is a scallyw- I mean role that has to “plunder” 2 players to win. During the day you pick someone to duel at night. That night, a rock-paper-scissors type minigame appears to both the pirate and the defender. If the Pirate loses, nothing happens. If the Pirate wins (which is technically a 1/3 chance,) he attacks the defender and it counts as a plunder.

STRATEGY: There’s really no strategy for Pirates…most of it is just luck of the draw. However, do a smart thing and don’t visit Veterans.

PLAGUEBEARER / PESTILENCE (Neutral)

These guys are unique disease carriers. They can visit someone each night, spreading the infection to them. Infections also spread through visiting or being visited by an infected person. No one knows they’re infected, and being infected has no detriments. Once everyone is infected, the Plaguebearer transforms into a god and becomes “Pestilence”, which is in mythology one of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. When you are Pestilence, you are invincible at night and have a deadly rampage attack. Nothing can kill you, not even a Jailor execution. The only way you can die is by being lynched.

STRATEGY: There are a lot of luck elements to playing as Plaguebearer, but for the most part, you want to visit Townies. If you find a protector, visit them first, because they will spread the infection to more important Townies. Spreading the infection to the entire Town is actually not as difficult as it sounds. The hard part is staying undercover long enough as Pestilence to wipe out the opposition. On the other side, Plaguebearers are not a priority threat until late in the game. Usually by around 5 nights, almost everyone will be infected, so if you haven’t found the Plaguebearer yet make it a central goal.

JUGGERNAUT (Neutral)

This role was released as a “Mystery role,” meaning that the devs acknowledged it but didn’t specify what it was. The Juggernaut is very rare and can’t be added directly in a custom game. As a Juggernaut gets more kills their abilities upgrade as follows:

0 kills: You may only attack on full moon nights

1 kill: You may attack every night

2 kills: You gain Basic Defense

3 kills: Your attacks are now Rampage attacks

4+ kills: Your attacks are now Unstoppable, they pierce all forms of protection (except Invincible Defense)

STRATEGY: You can do almost nothing without upgraded abilities, so getting those abilities is an absolute priority. If you have to, avoid killing Townies at first just to get easy kills- go for targets like Jesters. Your first goal should be to get to 2 kills and get Basic Defense, which will give you some breathing room.

THE NECRONOMICON

Think of the Necronomicon as being a “power-up” that one witch in the Coven at a time can possess. The Coven Leader always starts with the Necronomicon, but if anyone who has the Necronomicon dies, it gets passed on to another living member of the Coven. It takes the Coven 3 nights (until Night 4) to get the Necronomicon. Know what your coven role and your teammates’ roles can do with the Necronomicon and strategize accordingly.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.

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