The investigator has the ability to investigate one person each night and is one of the most important roles in the game. The investigator belongs to the town group, and his task is to lynch as many mafia members as possible. The investigator needs to pay attention to little things like who is visiting who, and which characters in the game have weapons. The character with a weapon can be a veteran, vigilante, or Mafioso.
Importance of Investigator’s Will
It is undeniable that the investigator’s will is the most important piece of information in the game which the town community can use to lynch maximum people. For instance, if an investigator is investigating someone, there are high chances that mafia community will try to kill him. Therefore, if the investigator puts everything in his will, that which person he is going to visit tonight, then even after he is killed, he will be able to communicate his message to the town community through his will.
I suggest you write an as much detailed will as you can because this information will be vital to the town. Investigators also play a crucial role in the classic mode of the game because there are very little random roles to create confusion in the game, and hence in the classic mode, the investigator is much more powerful. In the classic mode, you can easily narrow down the number of people who you think are suspicious, and it will be lot quicker to lynch the mafia community. It doesn’t mean at all that the investigator’s role isn’t important in other modes of the game, the point is, it is much more crucial in the classic mode.
Revealing Your Identity
One of the most fundamental dilemmas that all the characters in Town of Salem are confronted with is that whether to reveal your identity or not. For some characters, it is to the best of their interests to reveal their identity, while for others, it depends on a particular situation. However, there are few characters that if they reveal their identity, they will be lynched immediately no matter what the situation is.
When you are playing as an investigator, always consider that whether it’s worth revealing yourself as an investigator or not. As already mentioned, the information you provide to the town community is extremely important, but when you reveal your identity, you put your life in extreme jeopardy. The threat to your life is not the only problem that you confront when you reveal your identity. For instance, if everybody knows you are the investigator, they will be conscious and careful whether you are around or not. Thus your prospect for getting information in the future will also be lost.
Relying on Judgment
As an investigator, most of the times, you will have to rely on your judgment. It means that at times you will have to be intuitive when selecting characters to investigate. It is a general perception among the players of Town of Salem that whoever is making too much noise in the game belongs to the mafia community. It happens most of the times, but it is not a hard and fast rule, and you cannot simply rely on this. If you are trying to select a target for the investigation, the best thing you can do is read the conversation in the chat box. Here, you will be able to get little clues regarding who belongs to mafia community and who belongs to town community. And, it is always a matter of practice too. The more you practice the game, the more you will be able to identify the roles of different members. A true judgment comes from practicing the game, but always keep the risk and reward dilemma of revealing your identity in the back of your head.
Ask for Roles
If you are suspicious about someone and you think he is an evil role, then investigate him. Once you have chosen a target to investigate, ask that person what his role is, and this is the best tool that an investigator can ever use. When you ask somebody about his role, there are three possibilities. Either the person will tell you the truth, or he will try to hide his identity and will tell you a lie that he is someone else. But, there is a third possibility here which is rather confusing and that is, most of the times, people will refuse to tell you their role even when they belong to the town community. Thus keeping these three possibilities in your mind, you have to make the decision.
If you think the person is telling you the truth, then let him go. If you think the person is lying, then he is certainly a bad character; all you need to do is collect evidence against him and get him lynched. However, if any person refuses to reveal his identity, there are 50-50 chances that he can be good as well as bad. Thus, in this situation, you need to keep an eye on that character. From that moment onwards, that character should be the focus of your attention. It will be soon revealed to you whether that person is good or not.
Find the Sheriff
The best partner that an investigator can ever find in Town of Salem is the sheriff. A sheriff is also the person who can see the suspicious people and whose duty is to get the bad people lynched. A sheriff can contribute three votes in one instance, so he is also a very important role. However, there are lots of disadvantages for sheriff too if he tries to reveal his identity.
What you need to do is that, try to find the sheriff early in the game and make a partnership with him. As mentioned earlier, the sheriff will try to keep his identity secret; you need to find it on your own. You can focus on the conversation and try to comprehend who is saying what, and probably you will be able to identify the sheriff. Once, you have found who the sheriff is, and once you have built a strong partnership with him, both of you can communicate during the day time. During your conversation, you should discuss mutually who your target for investigation should be. It is best to choose the same target, for instance, if you have chosen a target and you are confused whether he is the mafia or not, then the sheriff can tell you whether that particular role is suspicious or not because a sheriff can see it. Thus, the culprit would be caught immediately.
Leave important people Out of Your Will
As mentioned earlier, the will of the investigator is highly important, but there are few roles that you are supposed to never mention in your will and these roles are highly influential town support roles like a sheriff and a jailor. The reason behind not mentioning these roles in your will is that, if you mention these people in your will, and if you die, each and every person in the town will be able to see your will, and that includes mafia community as well. Thus, once the mafia members read your will, they will know immediately who the jailor and sheriff are. Thus from now on, they will be attacking these town support roles. This is very bad and disadvantageous for the town community.