This guide will be updated to 1.3, and future versions for as long as I am still active in the USM community. If new information shows itself before a patch drops it may also be added here, but will be subject to change when the final version is released.

This guide is divided into various sections each dedicated to a separate focus of playing the role of a detective, shown below;

Basic Perkless Tips: This covers most basic tips for becoming a better detective that don't require certain perks to use.

Shuttlefever: This covers how to handle the shuttle and kill the monster.

Tribunal Time: This covers how to most effectively utilize the tribunal.

Is Your Security Bot Real: This covers who to determine fake and real security bots from each other.

How To Use Cameras: This covers how to utilize cameras and which cameras you should prioritize watching along with at least one example for maps worth watching cameras on.

Tracking the Monster: The monster can change colors, so coming to your coworkers with a color is not the best plan, but there are ways to track a monster across disguises.

Testing: Sometimes you cant be sure on a suspect, so how can you be sure?

What Perks Does The Monster Have: This explains how to determine the monsters perks and what you are up against.

Perks: Short section dedicated to explaining which perks will work well in a detective build.

Footprint Table: This covers the various footprints/tracks you can follow and utilize.

Subclasses Tips: These 2 short sections will cover tips on 2 play styles/professions that work well with a detective play style, Cultist and Investigator.

This will cover the basic tips to beginning to become a detective that require no specific perks to achieve.

Always remember who has been voted at tribunals, all dead colors are also marked at the end of a tribunal. If you see a color tagged 'suspect' who you know you didn't vote on, they are the monster.

Always keep an eye on people going behind transmitters, if it goes off they are most likely the monster.

If someone goes to a weird spot; behind a transmitter, comm station, or power switch, check to see if they left a remote arm behind.

Report all bodies that you find.

Use Vision Enhancer to track monster if they are hiding in a burrow or vent as long as they do not have membrane.

Map Scanner shows a monster icon on the map when the monster is in monster form, and if they are isolated you might even be able to track their spaceman icon when they change back.

Map Scanner shows dead players too, but they look alive. If you see a spaceman icon not moving on the map, go see if they are dead.

Always test suspects unless you know that color is deceased 100%.

If you see a lot of blood around but no body or remains, then monster probably has the corpse lord perk and ate the body.

Try to deduct what perks a monster has, more on this in the tracking section.

Map Scanner can identify where burrowed monsters are.

Sometimes if you find info on a dead body no one knows about, keep it secret for a little bit. The monster might show up as that color to a tribunal thinking they got away with it.

Check for remote arms before using a health station.

Colorblind Jars are loud when they are broken, if you are near it when it breaks, use proxy chat to alert everyone and go see if anyone is in the room with the jar.

Just take mental notes. Did someone just go by a transmitter or sample without sealing or activating it? Remember it. Someone is going away from the tribunal? Remember it. It will all add up by the end.

Radios provide a marker on anyone carrying one that is turned on that other radio holders can see. Who knows, maybe the monster is one the other end. Also if you suspect this is the case, turn yours off they can't listen in on your findings or track you.

Vent Occupation: Vents can give you various minor clues to if a monster is inside of them.

The lights on the vent turn off if a monster is inside of it.



The audible airflow coming from the vent will stop if a monster is inside of it.

The 2 above clues are negated by a patience monster.

When a monster travels to a vent, you can typically hear strange noises from the new vent location.

Ghosts aren't the all deciding gods of suspicion, never call someone 'sus' because the lights flickered when they walk by. All you should do is keep an eye on them and maybe watch them for a bit.

Don't go around throwing 'sus' like it is nothing, try to limit yourself to 1-2 suspects and keep an eye on what they are doing. If you start marking too many people as 'sus' in your mind you will get distracted trying to watch all of them.

Paranoia will spread fast on a shuttle if a monster gets detected by the shuttle scanner if noone knows who set it off.

You should always discourage any executions and try to convince everyone to rather wait out the monster's disguise until they are forced to transform. Assign trusted spacemen with good weapons to watch over the major suspects and assign another strongly armed spaceman to watch the door.

If any tests are available, tell people who or where to use it based on your suspects. In your time while waiting check everyone's voice, gear, and weapons and see if they ring a bell for the monster.

Eventually either you will find the monster off of your investigation or their disguise will run out. The most important thing you can do on a shuttle is keep peace, make this your major focus.

This short section will mainly cover various tips that I use at tribunals to help find the monster.

Check cameras once you reach the safe zone and look for anyone not at the tribunal or doing strange things. Power switches are one of the best to watch as monsters commonly go there during tribunal to put down a remote arm.

Try to determine who isn't at the tribunal or you haven't seen all game and ask people if they have. Don't go off of one person saying they have as they might be the monster covering for their original color. Once you compare all the options tell everyone to vote for the one you choose.

People who leave tribunal early are not the monster, if they have voted already they are probably just going to work on tasks or going to hunt the monster.

Its a good idea to leave tribunal early after you convince people to vote on your suspect and check power switches. Breaking a remote arm there left during tribunal can seriously ruin or delay the monster's plans.

Keep the voting screen open as the voting ends if you decide to stay at tribunal as you can see who everyone voted for, if someone did an odd vote keep an eye on them.

Shapeshifters are equipped with the ability to disguise as security bots. However due to their behavior, you can deduct if one is a real or a monster.

Security Bot Shown Here;


Security behavior is very limited, and below will be a list of everything they do and don't do.

Security Bots now spawn with a 50/50 chance to have a blast shield.

Security Bots only carry a pistol and never pick up another weapon.

Security Bots pistol is the default skin, however the color is randomized.

Security Bots never have gear.

Security Bots never jump.

Security Bots will always shoot back when attacked or will shoot a suspect on sight.

Security Bots don't use voice chat, but can randomly throw out emotes and set strings of dialogue through text chat. Security Bots are able to spit out text chat while moving, unlike players.

Security Bots also have odd movement patterns and typically stop every few seconds and then start moving shortly after. Their aim is very 'flicky' and they will spin around to face who shoots them. Movement isn't something you should watch out for other than jumping, but it is good information to have.


Important Information: There are player suits that look extremely similar to this, so make sure not to confuse these players for security bots. If you hover over a real or disguised security bot it will say 'security' while players with a skin will say their color instead.

Cameras are a complex mechanic that can become potent when used correctly.

When playing as a detective there are 3 ways to use cameras that will be effective and worth your time.

During most times during a round you shouldn't be watching cameras, you want to use them a little but not sit in a room only watching cameras, practice finding this balance.

The most effective way to use cameras is to press 4 to open them when an alarm is being set off. You will be brought straight to view through the camera that is setting off their alarm. If you are viewing through a camera with an alarm going off and a new alarm on a different camera goes off, you won't be switched to that camera until the alarm on your current camera stops.

Example Alarm:


During tribunals get there as fast as you can unless you are occupied with something else, and once you are in the safe zone, open up cameras and flick through them. You can also use proximity chat and share your discoveries while doing this. Leave some people at the tribunal to try to assess who is present and missing. Stealthy monsters will typically use this time to set up remote arms on power switches, break colorblind jars or cameras, activate comm stations, or use health stations. Use cameras at this time to catch them, get everyone to vote them, and send out a hunting party.

Finally one last tip I frequently use for cameras are setting up a go-to camera at some point near the start of the match. This camera will most likely want to overlook a POI (Point of Interest), Vents, Health Stations, Power Switches, Comm Stations, and Colorblind Jars. Occasionally check these cameras for info, but only really stay in them for about 5-10 seconds at a time. You will have to reset these from time to time if alarms are resetting your saved camera, but just try to remember the number you use and quickly switch to that one.

POI: A POI in Unfortunate Spaceman is typically an isolated area where a monster can easily split up spacemen and get easily kills, and are typically in small rooms or near the edge of maps.

Example go-to cameras for every map along with reasoning, best for each map are first;

Echo:


Health Station on the edge of the map along with a colorblindness jar.

Overall great POI, common pathway used by monster and spacemen.

Vent and colorblind jar in the glass cage below.

Tidal Lock:


Power Switch, Along with decent view of lowest floor.

Good coverage, and colorblind jar.

This is not one you should watch, but should check on every once in a while if you have welder to make sure it is operational. Can easily spot and cause an alarm if a monster uses the vent there, which is commonly used as an exit vent.

Spaceburbia:

Spaceburbia doesn't have the best camera's but these will do.

Health Station right below, colorblind vial and a decent POI.

The health stations shown in these 2 cameras will most likely by used by a monster over the others.

Snowswept:



Power Switches, first also contains a common exit vent.

Good view of central area, its sister camera one digit above views the other side.

Colorblind jar.

Recruitment:


One of the best cameras in the game, this map shows the current rough location of the monster divided into a few sections. This can be viewed in person or over this camera, if monster has membrane it will block this effect. The monitor will tell you if membrane is blocking it and if it is, use a different camera.

Good POI and vent.

Outpost 13:


Comm Station.

Good POI and could catch people leaving power shed.

Hypertrain:


Only power switch on the map is right below the camera.

The 2 ends of the train, main POI's of this map and colorblindness jars.

H2O:


Only power switch on map is watched by this camera.

Gardens:


Most cameras on this map are blocked by bright light, but this one can watch over a health station.

Experiment:

Don't even bother this map is so small you will hear everything.

Duress:


Good spot for monster to shove spaceman off edges, into the eme, or activate the dropbridge and for you to catch them in the act.

Common pathway, and Comm Station.

Containment:


Somewhat watches over a vent, power switch, and health station in a very isolated area the monster feels safe in.

Health Station and Colorblind Jar.

Decent Viewing Area.

Space Bar:


Power switch, along with a vent and colorblind jar the other way.

Good view over middle area along with Comm Station and Colorblind Jar.

Architects:


Personally I think this is the best POI on this map, the rest of the cameras share the similar lighting issue as Gardens.

Abduction:


Decent POI, most cameras on this map are good except for the Stalks camera as you can't see much through the cornstalks.

General Camera Tips:

If your go to camera watches over the comm station or the power switch and power or comms go out, quickly check it and see if anyone is nearby.

If a monster is pinned down in a burrow and no one has explosives, a flamethrower, or the brawny perk you are given 2 choices. Leave them to hide and try to get tasks done without them bothering you, or try to wait them out and kill them when they emerge. If you pick the first option, a niche trick is that once everyone leaves the area, open up a camera that overlooks that area (if any) and wait. Soon, the monster will emerge and disguise themselves as a spacemen. You have caught them on camera and most likely know their current disguise, gear, and weapons.

If you come to a group or the tribunal and say "Its [color]" you have almost definitely failed. Its a shapeshifter, and a smart monster will change colors after that. However while they can change their color, they might not drop or swap out their weapons and gear. This is a skill a detective must learn, if you see the monster in human form, take note of what they have. Depending on the item this could allow hunting parties to shoot the monster on sight regardless of color.

Below Contains a "Tier" List based on how strong an item is regarding evidence to prove a suspect. The higher an item, the better it is to track. It is a good idea to gather as it makes it far less common that an innocent will have a combination of stuff versus one item.

GLOWLY STUFF IS VERY GOOD TO TRACK, EASY TO SEE FROM A DISTANCE AND PEOPLES EYES ARE ATTRACTED TO THEM.
These include: Flamethrower, vision enhancer, map scanner, post-milk particles, astro pistol skin, and medical fabricator.


S Tier:This tier mainly includes power weapons that have no duplicates and undroppable perk specific items.

Rocket Launcher: Always 1
Auto Shotgun: Always 1
Nuke: Always 1

If you have information of what is or was in the vending machine, the power weapons that weren't in it (railgun, flamethrower, shotgun): Only 1 IF not in vending machine

Blast Collar: Perk Specific, commonly used on monster and rare on spacemen. Can be broken by lethal explosive damage, but monsters typically wont break their collar. Make sure people tell you if they did break it with a grenade or rocket. PD can reveal people who had their blast collar broken.


Action Hero Backpack: Unremovable and perk specific.


Pocket Detective: Undroppable and perk specific.


Medical Fabricator (Doctor Gear): Unremovable and perk specific.



Space milk/Purple particles around the head (Post-space milk effect): Unremovable and perk specific.



Magnetic Boots: Unremovable and perk specific (Visible on feet).


A Tier: Pretty good to track, 2 can basically narrow it down to 1 person.

Duplicate Power weapons: Canister and Vending Machine.

All Ground Gear Items: Oxy tank, map scanner, vision enhancer, radio, sentry, tripmine.

Ground Weapons: Smg, Lmg, Revolver, AR.

Noticable Gun Skin: Somewhat rare (Deathproof Pistol and AR, Astro Pistol, etc.)

Welder: Perk specific.

Stun Baton: Perk specific.

Grenades: Just like ground gear and weapons.

Fire Extinguisher: Not very common but relatively easy to track as most people drop them early on for something else.

Colored Pistol: If you can catch the color of a monster's pistol it becomes much better to track.

C Tier:

Pistol: Everyone has one, only track this if its endgame and you know all the spacemen are decked out with power or ground weapons and the monster isn't.

Voice: Can be useful if the monster likes taunting, and if they have a very distinct voice.

Testing is a important feature of the game, it allows you to find out who's innocent without killing them. However you may be asking, how do I do this??

There are multiple ways to test a spaceman to see if they are the monster, and each can be blocked or nullified by perks.

Health Station: Bring the suspect to a health station and tell them you will shoot them a little unless they are already hurt. Proceed to shoot them, and try to do around 40-50 damage. Once they are hurt have them use the health station. If a different screen (shown below) and strange audio plays, they are either the monster or the station was rigged with a remote arm. Remote arms are found under the keyboard of a health station, check there before testing. If there is a remote arm, shoot it until it is destroyed and continue with the test. Be careful as monsters with membrane can pass this test.
Monster Screen:



Health Syringe:I would call this the best monster test, as the only perk that protects against it is antibodies. When you inject a monster with a health syringe, they will be forced to transform into monster form. However antibodies instead makes it drain 75% of their disguise energy, so they will be close to transforming. Keep an eye on injected suspects for around a minute and make sure they don't use health stations (Monsters with Patience can recharge their disguise energy with them), if they don't transform by then, they are not the monster.

Tripmines: Very good for group testing, place it down and have everyone walk through it. If the laser turns orange and plays a quip similar to "Monster detected" you found your monster.

Stun Grenade: Stun grenades force any monster without the membrane perk to transform into monster form. They will also be blinded for a longer duration than humans. Membrane blocks both of these effects. Be careful as a smart monster might burrow until they are no longer stunned.

Duress: This map contains special testing areas which will take a few healthpoints from those that walk over them and cause a somewhat quiet alarm if that person is a monster.


Shuttle Scanner: Once the rescue shuttle closes, a scan will begin. A blue scanner will start from the cockpit door and travel to the other end and back. It will beep and turn red if it detects a monster in its scan area.

Extra tips:

Watch out and try to deduct if a monster has any stealth perks. If you have a thermal scanner and know where a monster (monster form) is but can't see them with heat vision, they have membrane. If you see 2 monsters, they have decoy. If you see a spaceman vent, they have patience. Knowing this allows you to more reliably trust tests.

If a spaceman is infected with a timebomb parasite, they will show negative results on tripmine and health station tests.

This section is dedicated to using clues to find out which monster perks the monster has equipped. These won't really help you catch a monster, but it is very helpful to know what stealth perk the monster has and overall what kind of monster you are fighting.

Mutations:

Fresh Meat: You can determine a fresh meat monster only by the eggs they leave behind.



Void: You can identify a void monster by their eggs and appearance as they glow purple, have a black hole effect near their feet, and leave purple mist in their wake.




Acid:You can identify an acid monster by looking out for their green glow, acid bombs, and acid spit.





Crumerian Host:You'll know when you are dealing with one of these by the hatcheries or crumerians roaming around. Do note that on containment, dead crumerians are scattered around the map as decoration.


Hatchery varies in size based on tier.

Crumerian drone, you can also find explosive variants which have a similar build but different colors, and chonkers which are much larger and are dark blue-ish colored.

Corpse Lord: You can identify this by their eggs, and the limping zombies around the map. Zombies look like whoever they were before they died but have no weapons or gear and a noticeable limp.



Aggression:

Claws Upon Claws: Monster will have increased air mobility, easier to find by process of elimination.

Lockdown: A voice line will play over the map saying "Lockdown initiated" and all the lockable doors on the map will lock when the monster uses this ability.
Below is an example of ripped wires left behind from where a monster used lockdown.


Nocturnal: Power outages will be more frequent and with a nocturnal monster, generators will be locked for 45 seconds when an outage starts, compared to the normal 30.

Defense:

Chitin: Shapeshifter will have magma-rockish armor when it is not broken.


Toxic Ink: Everytime the monster transforms they will leave behind green ink clouds.


Fluid Sac: Process of Elimination, or wait until you trigger it and the monster glows red.

Stealth:

Patience:If you see a spacemen exit a vent or find a partially invisible remote arm, the monster has patience.

For comparison to normal remote arm;


Decoy: If you see two monsters at once, the monster has decoy.

Membrane:Best to find by process of elimination or if you can't find a monster on thermals even though you know they are there.

This also isn't some sort of meta list, this just goes off of which perks enhance your ability in the detective field, you don't need all your perks to match this list to be a good detective.

Profession:

Investigator: This profession gives you the ability to use your device, the PD, to find clues about broken or operational doors/cameras, comm stations, power switches, colorblind jars, dead bodies (normal/burnt/eaten remains), alive spacemen. With equipment you will be able to decipher what color broke it and interacted with it last. It will allow you to identify burnt and eaten remains, and get interesting clues about spacemen. You are also able to track monster-form tracks and the footprints of suspects.

Cultist: This profession gives you space milk, a permanent gear item until you use it. By using it you teleport after a brief period with 75% damage resistance in this state to a random location on the map. Your comms are permanently jammed, and your current hp when you started drinking your space milk is your new max hp. There are still ways to communicate when your comms are jammed, and I have a separate guide, Cultist Communication 101, dedicated to covering this. This detective will most likely stay alone and take risks for information as they have a second chance, after your space milk is consumed try to locate a group to tell them via charades who the monster is. This is presuming you got info on the monster before they transformed and made you activate your milk.

Utility:

Welder:Gives you the ability to keep cameras online by repairing them when broken. You are also given map icons for every broken door or camera on the map, allowing you to easily fix them. In future patches you will also be able to reinforce cameras and increase their max hp.

The yellow dots on the map represent broken doors/cameras when having the welder perk equipped.


Defense:

Antibodies: Gives you handy immunities to some monster effects. Main taker here is the ability to become immune to colorblind. Don't stop working because the monster broke the company cookie jar!

Mag Boots: Hide yours footprints from the monster, also keeps you safe from eme and airlock incidents. Do note this only hides footprints from the monster, but not investigators.

Security:

VIP Keycard: This is good for a detective who stays with the pack, you can help contain the monster easily or pursue any suspects who look doors on you. This also works well for a lone wolf player, as you can either lock 2 doors on the monster to get away, or unlock one they locked on you, get to the other side and lock it again.

Nimble: This is very good with lone wolf players, you can hide your footprints while sneaking if the monster comes near you and can avoid triggering eggs. This can allow you to enter dangerous positions to get valuable info, and raise your chances of survival. In this case, while sneaking footprints are hidden to monsters and are always hidden to investigators.

Brawny: The 25% melee damage reduction on brawny is pretty good as most times a detective won't have much protection so this can help make you feel a little safer.

There are various footprints that investigators and the monster are able to track, and below contains images relating to each.

Monster Thermal Footprints: These footprints are only visible to the monster and are created by spacemen without mag boots or crouch walking with the nimble perk.


Suspect Footprints: These footprints are only visible to Investigators and are created by anyone marked as a suspect. Nimble prevents this.


Monster Tracks: These footprints are only visible to Investigators and are created by the monster in monster form. Investigator perk on monster prevents this.

Cultist Detectives are typically at there strongest going around alone and doing lots of tasks. You will most likely be attacked by the monster as you are making yourself an easy target as bait.

Do your best to remember what everyone that walks by you has (guns and gear) in case they transform behind you and force you to milk. If you can't get information on the monster, you really won't be able to do much as a detective. Usually try to shout something out about what the monster has before you milk. Now that your comms get jammed the second you activate spacemilk, not after you teleport.

Always try to make a quick decision in your mind when attacked to decide if it is possible to escape the monster without milking. It is typically difficult to communicate after using your milk as many people don't understand what you are trying to say, so being able to talk is very helpful.

My other guide covers various forms of communication you can use after your comms are jammed.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2263206354

Just be aware that the only things limited are text and voice chat. Emotes, flickering your flashlight, and just shooting at things you want people to look at can work well.

The Investigator profession spawns you with a pistol and pocket detective (PD), which you can use to scan various things.

Investigators also gain various buffs not relating to your PD, listed below;

Being notified when half of the spacemen have been killed. (Currently Bugged)

Being able to track monster tracks left by the shapeshifter in monster form (Blocked by Investigator Monster).


Being able to track the footprints of any suspect that doesn't have nimble.


Decoy monsters will appear as various colored balloon versions of the shapeshifter which explode into confetti when it is destroyed.


What can I scan with my PD?

Teleporters; reveals who last used it.

Power Switches; reveals who interacted with it last.

Comm Station; reveals who interacted with it last.

Colorblindness Jar (if broken); reveals who broke it. (Currently bugged to all but the monster)

Vending Machine (if bought); reveals who bought a weapon from it, what weapon they bought, and how much it cost.

Health Station (if on cooldown); reveals who used it last.

Welded/Locked Doors; reveals who welded/locked the door.

Airlocks; reveals who armed it last.

Corpses (Normal/Burnt/Remains); reveals identity, cause of death, and their killer.
Causes of Death:
"Blown up" Killed via explosives
"Murdered" Killed by a spaceman/monster in spaceman form with a gun.
"Immolated" Killed by fire damage
"Embarrassingly Pummeled" Killed by a spaceman/monster in spaceman form with their fists.
"Toxic Gas" Killed by toxic ink/acid spit splash.
"Ripped To Shreds" Killed by shapeshifter claws/burrow trap.
"Acid" Killed by an acid bomb.
"Killed By The Guardians" Killed by crumerians/zombies/generator black hole.
"Suffocated" Oxygen loss
"Vacuum of Space" Canned in EME

Vents; reveals the current status of the airflow.

Broken Cameras; reveals who broke it.

Heads From Dead Spacemen; reveals the owner of the head.

Spacemen/Security; reveals identity,certain perks if they have them equipped, and health level. Also reveals if they have a parasite timebomb inside of them.

When you scan alive spacemen, it can tell you some of the perks they have using special text/lines that relate to various perks. A scan will tell you the line of every perk they have that has a line.

Credit of these lines goes to zRoxas for letting me use this information, go check out his guide on this at https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2303729272

Recruit: "Smells Fresh"
Soldier: "History of Violence"
Doctor: "Has a Medical Degree"
Post-Milk Cultist: "Only Speaks Gibberish" "Anomalous Readings Detected"
Janitor: "Smells Like Garbage"
Warden: "Strong Sense of Authority"
Investigator: "Fellow Investigator"
Springy Step: "Abnormally Elastic Tendons"
Antibodies: "A Strong Immune System"
Blast Shield (Broken): "Explosive Residue Detected"
VIP Keycard: "High Security Clearance"
Brawny: "Increased Callousing On Knuckles"
Infected With Timebomb: "Parasitic Infection Detected"

Misc Tips:

Remember that the monster can change colors, so don't treat the PD like the all knowing tool that is never wrong.

Scanning an unreported body/remains auto reports it.

Remember who gets voted at tribunal, because if someone else is leaving footprints they are the monster disguised as someone dead.

Once the button is pressed at the animation, you can move away from the thing you scanned and you will still get the information.

When decoy monsters explode, if you are an investigator it will make the confetti sound that goes along with EoTM. This allows you to figure out that a monster has decoy without ever seeing it.

Thank you for reading this, again I will try my best to keep it updated as long as I play. If you have suggestions or information I missed feel free to tell me!

Contributors:
Guide Icon created by the wonderful Scrubby/Scrubstar.

For helping gather screenshots:
Stupid_Fox
8bit2slow
Minion of the Void
Get_Gamed
BronzeWolf

zRoxas for allowing me to use the information on his guide about perk related scan lines.