Traitor

Oh boy, you're a Traitor! Wait, what are they?

Traitors, informally known as taters, tots, or tater tots, are thugs, thieves, saboteurs, and other criminals sent by a shadowy organization known simply as the Syndicate. Disguised as normal crewmembers, each traitor is given a special syndicate uplink hidden in their PDA which allows them to request unique and/or powerful items from the Syndicate by inputting a special code. Traitors can also access the Listening Post, which contains some gear and a Syndicate merchant, though entering it normally opens it up to attacks by the crew. They're otherwise normal human though, and once the heat is on, they must rely on their wits and Syndicate gear to make it through!

Traitors also get two or more Traitor Objectives, such as assassinating specific crewmembers, stealing items such as tasers or the aurora belt, and freeing Monsieur Stirstir from the Brig, among many others. While they're tracked, these objectives are more suggestions than anything else, and traitors are allowed to completely disregard their objectives to do whatever.

As a traitor, you have complete and total freedom to trick, coerce, maim, kill, and even experiment on the poor, clueless crew of Space Station 13. Please be aware that being a traitor does not prevent you from being punished for being racist or creepy! If you're selected to be a traitor, you get a giant popup that basically says HEY BUDDY YOU ARE A TRAITOR and using the notes command brings you Syndicate objectives. If you're not sure, ask in adminhelp (Hotkey: F1) if you're a traitor!

Syndicate FAQ

Potentially useful pages: Syndicate Items, Being A Better Traitor, Traitor Objectives

Oh god I'm a traitor for the first time, help!

Don't worry. It doesn't really matter if you don't win. Just make a valiant attempt at it. Remember, you don't have to get traitor gear right away, or ever if you don't want to, so don't get anything unless you know what you want to use it for. Nobody cares if you decide to ignore your objectives and cause a little chaos instead. Being a traitor is also a great opportunity to run gimmicks that could get you banned as a normal crewman. If the Syndicate tells you to steal a pair of optical thermal scanners and instead you kidnap the Captain and force the crew to answer trivia questions to save his life, you are not being a bad traitor at all!

I lost my code/objectives!

Crashed on roundstart or simply forgotten the code you need to enter into your PDA to get Syndicate Items? Use the Notes command. You can enter notes into your text parser at the very bottom of the screen or find it in your Commands tab on your right above the chat.

Who can be a traitor?

All jobs except for Captain, Head of Security, Nanotrasen Security Consultant, Security Officer, and Security Assistant are potential traitors, though antag selection happens BEFORE job selection, so you won't lose a fair chance of being a traitor. There can be multiple traitors in a single round.

Traitors are randomly selected from those who ready up before roundstart. It is also possible, under certain conditions, to become a traitor upon late-joining. Redeeming an antag token can also potentially make you a traitor. Not every game mode allows for traitors.

Can traitors work together/kill each other?

Traitors are free to team up with fellow traitors if they wish. Sometimes, it's a good idea to. Not only is being evil more fun and less stressful when you have a friend, but you can also complement each others' skills and loadouts, i.e. having a fellow traitor Medical Doctor or Quartermaster get you medicine while you get tools and weapons for a heist. At the very least, you have someone who're hopefully at least somewhat inclined to help you out of a sticky situation.

However, collaborations are quite fragile. Traitors don't know who else is a traitor by default, and it's difficult to find out who is one unless you've seen them wielding/using Syndicate Items, know their PDA has an Syndicate uplink, or have a Syndicate robot (who can identity traitors at a glance) tell you (i.e. same methods non-traitors have to use). It's perfectly within the General Game Rules (though maybe not the RP Rules for the RP servers) for traitors to murder their fellow traitors, whether for sweet traitor loot, convenience, or just entertainment.

Sleeper Agents

Also known as sleepers, sleeper agents are a special type of traitor with no uplink! Unlike regular traitors, sleepers are created through a specific random event. Without an uplink, they cannot order Syndicate Items directly (although they can find them in dead drops — more on that later.) No code, no PDA, no nothing; they must do their dirty deeds without them. They can of course still try to use Syndicate gear from regular traitors, certain merchants, and/or some Adventure Zone locations.

Sleepers may not get an uplink, but they've still got some useful tools of their own. Most notably, the Listening Post is accessible to sleeper agents, who can use a hand scanner by the door to open the airlock. You can stock up on whatever goodies C.A.R.L. is selling, or just use it as a safe haven to rest and prepare your schemes.

Dead Drops

If you're lucky, you might remember the location and access code of a dead drop some time after awakening — stashes of useful supplies hidden inside of station objects. An arrow near your character will point you towards your dead drop, like the one that appears when you're using a pinpointer; once you've found the right object, you can interact with it and enter the code (which should be conveniently stored in your Notes) to open the drop and retrieve your stuff! Nobody else can access the dead drop or verify that it's there, so barring certain exceptional circumstances, it'll remain there until you're ready to retrieve it.

Dead drops contain a handful of random illicit goods (typically including Syndicate items) such as agent cards, flash/cell assemblies, omnitools, and handguns. On the Classic server, you'll find lots of weapons, like syringe guns and bear traps; on the RP servers, the pool of potential items is larger and based less around overt murder and more around sabotage and sneakiness: radio jammers, light breakers, cloaking devices, and the like.

Remembering a dead drop is tied to an entirely separate random event, so it's up to chance whether or not they'll show up in a given round. Like a surplus crate, the selection of items might be very useful, or it might be basically useless for your plans. Making do with weird items can be fun in its own right, though!

Hard-Mode Traitors

In previous versions of the game, admins could assign you "Hard-Mode Traitor" (sometimes spelled "Hardmode Traitor"), a traitor without a uplink and therefore limited access to Syndicate Items. Admins can still do this, but now the game simply sees this as a traitor that wasn't given their job equipment and abilities, rather than its own separate role.

In the past, this was also used as a generic antagonist role. For example, before they got more specific roles, the Hostile Critter event antags were assigned Hard-Mode Traitor, even though they never get uplinks for Syndicate gear. Admins sometimes used this as a general-purpose antag role for special events, sometimes with a unique objective, when other antag roles might not be appropriate. For example, for a Blade Runner-inspired event, an admin might assign a few people this role and give them an objective saying that they're secretly an android on the run from bounty hunters. Nowadays, admins can simply opt not to give someone antag equipment and abilities when doling antag roles for events.

Top Traitor Tips

• Don't spawn your traitor gear where someone might see you do it! At best they will be stolen, and at worst you will end up with the sword you just ordered firmly planted in your chest.

• Try to be at least a little subtle! Don't murder your target in a room full of people with a sword. Don't mow down random people unless you feel you can take the heat.

• Make sure your target is dead! So you've caught your target or incapacitated him? Make sure he's dead and not faking! Make sure he does not get cloned, healed or revived. The easiest way is to take his corpse to the nearest airlock and fling it into the depths of space.

• Don't suicide just because you were caught by security. They'll probably let you go after a while unless you were on a murder spree. Also, someone bored might break you out if you make them think were imprisoned unjustly, or you could get the chance to escape on your own.

• Check out Being A Better Traitor.

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