How to play Mimic: rules, controls, meetings and how to win

Mimic is a free social deduction party game for 4 to 10 friends that runs in your browser. Everyone walks the Relay, a mountaintop broadcast station, doing quick tasks. One to three players are secretly the Mimic. They silence the crew one by one, crawl through ducts, sabotage the station and copy other players' faces. When someone finds a body or rings the bell, everyone meets, argues it out in the chat and votes someone off.

What do you need to play Mimic?

You need a browser, a name and a room code. There are no accounts, no installs and no recording. Meetings use text chat, so nobody needs a mic, though the game says it is best on a call with friends.

• 4 to 10 players. A room holds ten, and the host can't start a game with fewer than four.
• A keyboard and mouse, or a phone. On a phone you drag on the left of the screen for a stick and tap the big buttons.
• A friend group on a call, if you can. Discord or any other call works well next to the game.

How do you start a game of Mimic?

1. Open Mimic and type your name.
2. Press Start a room. You get a four-letter room code and land in the Green Room, the lobby.
3. Press Copy invite and send the link to the group. Friends who open it see Join room with your code. Anyone with just the code can type it under the name box and press Join.
4. While you wait, walk to the mirror to pick a color and a hat, and to the laptop to see the game settings.
5. Once four or more players are in, the host presses Start the game.

Whoever started the room is the host. The host is the only one who can change settings and start the game. The hosting guide covers every setting and how to run a full night.

What are the crew and the Mimic?

When the game starts, a short intro tells you your role. Crew players are told how many Mimics are on the station. Mimics see who their partners are, and partners show up with a red name tag.

How do tasks work?

Your task list sits in the top left, each line showing the room and the task, like 'Lounge: Swipe your badge'. Walk to the glowing station in that room and press E to open the task. Each task is a short mini-game, from swiping a badge to rebooting a server.

• By default every crew member gets one common task (the same for everyone), one long task and three short tasks.
• Long tasks can have two steps in two rooms. Move the footage starts in Archive and finishes in Control. The list shows your progress, like (1/2).
• The task bar at the top fills for the whole crew. When it is full, the crew wins.
• Silenced crew members keep doing their tasks as ghosts, and those still count.

The tasks and map guide lists all 15 task mini-games and where every one of them is.

What can the Mimic do?

The Mimic has four tools. All of them show as buttons in the bottom right, with the key on each.

• Silence (Q): take out a crew member who is in range and in sight. It leaves a body where they stood and starts a cooldown, 25 seconds by default. You can't silence another Mimic, or anyone from inside a duct.
• Duct (V): climb into a vent. Vents link three rooms each in three networks. Pick a room on the buttons or hop with the arrow keys, then press V to climb out. Nobody sees you while you are in a duct.
• Disguise (X): pick another living player and look exactly like them, name and all, for 15 seconds by default. Press X again to drop it early.
• Sabotage (Tab): open the map to kill the lights, jam comms, start a meltdown, or click a room to lock its doors for 10 seconds.

Mimics can't do real tasks. Their task list is fake, and the stations stay locked for them. A Mimic who is voted out becomes a ghost and can still sabotage.

What does each sabotage do?

Only one of the lights, the jam or the meltdown can run at a time, and they share a 30-second cooldown. If a meltdown runs out, the Mimic wins. A red banner and arrows at the edge of the screen point to where each fix is.

How do meetings work?

There are two ways to call a meeting:

• Report a body (R). Walk up to a body you can see and press R, or E when there is no station nearby.
• Ring the bell. It sits on the table in the Studio. Each player can ring it once per game by default. It cools down for 15 seconds at the start of the game and after every meeting, and it can't be rung during a meltdown.

A meeting stops everything. Any running sabotage ends and locked doors open. Then:

1. Talk time. 20 seconds by default to argue it out in the chat. Voting is locked.
2. Vote. 60 seconds by default. Press 1 to 9 to pick a player (or click their card), 0 to skip, and Enter to confirm. The vote ends early once everyone alive has voted.
3. The votes are shown. You see who voted for whom, unless the host turned on anonymous votes.
4. The ejection. The player with the most votes is ejected. If the top count is tied, or skip has the most votes, nobody is ejected.

With the default settings, the ejection screen says whether that player was the Mimic and how many Mimics remain. After the meeting everyone is back around the Studio table, the bodies are cleared, and the Mimic's silence cooldown starts over.

What happens when you are silenced?

You see the player who silenced you, then you become a ghost. Ghosts see the whole station with no fog, move faster and pass through walls. Crew ghosts keep doing tasks to help the crew win.

Ghosts can't report bodies, ring the bell, fix sabotage, use the cameras or vote. They can chat, but only other ghosts see it, both out on the station and in meetings. A Mimic ghost can still sabotage.

How do you win Mimic?

Ghosts don't count toward the numbers, and neither do players who leave mid-game. When the game ends, everyone sees who the Mimics were, and the host takes the room back to the Green Room for another game.

What can you see on the station?

• Fog of war. You only see what is in your line of sight, inside your vision range. Walls and closed doors block it. Players and bodies you can't see are not drawn.
• Cameras. The console in Security shows four live feeds of the halls. While anyone watches, a red light shows on the console, so everyone knows the cameras are on.
• The admin map. The table in Control shows how many people are in each room right now.
• Your map. Press Tab or M to see the station and the stations for your next tasks.

Mimic controls

Each task also shows its own keys at the top of its panel. On a phone, touch the left side of the screen and drag for a stick, and tap the big buttons to act.

Can you practice Mimic alone?

Yes. Press Practice alone on the start screen. You can walk the station and try every task as crew, or play as the Mimic against four dummies standing around the station. Nobody wins or loses in practice.

Frequently asked questions