Looking for the Town of Salem 2 role? This role appears in Town of Salem 1 and 2. For the ToS 2 counterpart, see Investigator.
Working as an undercover genius underneath the Sheriff, the Investigator sets off on his quest to bring the Mafia and the Serial Killer to justice. Hiding behind a mask and large fedora, he searches the night for clues towards the end of the dark days. Alone, just like how he's always preferred.
However, it seems that his time was short lived, for he never had enough evidence to convict the town Doctor of being the Serial Killer.
He had, last night, spied a large knife left all on its lonesome, on a worn wooden workbench. The Janitor had cleaned up so many bodies that he had no idea if the Serial Killer was dead or not. Eventually, he went in with all guns blazing, putting his luck on the line, accusing the Doctor of being a Serial Killer, to no avail. They lynched him, and the Investigator was surprisingly quiet after that. (credit)
When investigating someone, the Investigator receives a message which includes a target's possible roles. Below lists the possible investigative results in the game (in both Classic and the CovenExpansion).
NOTE: For a simpler, more copy-paste friendly version of the tables below, click here (Classic) or here (CovenExpansion).
Always consider if it's worth exposing yourself as an Investigator and how many players are left in the game as well as what roles are left. Once other players know you are an Investigator, you will become a target or some sort of priority to the Mafia. However, if you know that there are TownProtective roles, revealing yourself as an Investigator early and giving everyone information about suspicious evils can help the Town win.
Make sure to do your best not to reveal who the Townies are as you could end up making them a target for kill-capable Mafia and NeutralKillings. Remember that simply posting in your LastWill that someone is good may lead experienced evil players to conclude that the said person is important (e.g. you put that someone is a confirmed Townie).
Always investigate people who claim any roles that seem suspicious. Evil roles tend to claim roles that will usually be ignored to escape questioning. Some may pose as a victorious Executioner or a Jester.
The Investigator is much more powerful in Classic Mode due to not all the roles being available. Here is a list of all results in Classic Mode that reveal more than you think:
If there is a Sheriff, find each other and work together. During the Day, discuss with each other about who you are both going to visit. At Night, both of you choose the same person. For example, if the Sheriff's investigation says your target is seems innocent and yours says that they are a Vigilante, Veteran, Mafioso, or Ambusher, that person is either a Vigilante, Veteran, or Disguised member of the Mafia (assuming no other roles intervene, such as a Transporter).
However, this can backfire as a Transporter, Witch, Escort, Consort, or Jailor can interrupt your plan. Also, if you both visit a Veteran on alert, both of you will die. A Blackmailer can also use your information to help the Mafia.
Because there may be a Consigliere in the game, the Mafia can try to trick real Investigators to make Townies think you are Consigliere instead. To avoid this, make sure you wrote your LastWill properly and in the exact order of your investigation result. Writing investigation results in a different order may lead other Townies to think you are a poorly-played Consigliere.
Write the best LastWill you can. You can make or break a game depending on your LastWill. Consider leaving out important roles though as the Mafia will probably target them the second they see your LastWill in a way such as a Janitor's cleaning (or when you die).
If you receive a result with possible good and bad roles, try to ask what their role is. For example, if you received something like Lookout, Forger, or Witch, ask the person their role. If they say a role you didn't get, (e.g. that they are a Medium), they might be a Forger or Witch trying to keep suspicion off of themselves.
You should write down any claims people make about their roles, and investigate them later; catching someone lying about their role is an easy way to determine that they're evil.
Ask the person you investigated for their role without posting your results. This is useful as evils don't always claim inside their investigative results and you can catch them lying.
Be very careful if there's an Arsonist. A significant push against them can put you under a lot of suspicion as a Consigliere or Witch, especially if the suspected Arsonist claims they were controlled by a Witch, as Witch ascertains exact roles regardless of their target being Framed or Doused.
On the other hand, an Arsonist can mean the difference between a Town win with you being dead, or everyone being dead and an Arsonist victory. You should determine the worth of your own life by comparison to an Arsonist, especially if another role can kill them at night instead (i.e. Jailor).
Dealing with Investigator Results
The first thing you need to know is that you need to keep up with the updates. For example, a player who last played in 2014 would be confused about the new changes and will ask questions to the town, which will be a giveaway to evil roles that this player is an Investigator.
Even if you find a Mafia or NeutralKilling on the first Night, don't immediately tell the Town about it. Claims on the first two Days make anyone seem like an Executioner, and even if you manage to hang the player, the Mafia or a NeutralKilling will try to attack you as soon as possible, preventing you from discovering more. It is best to wait, writing everything in your LastWill and whispering to known Townies. You can decide to reveal yourself on Day 3 or later, but a Day 2 reveal is generally unwise due to many Executioner baits happening on Day 2.
A Janitor can be the downfall of an Investigator since they wipe out LastWills, revealing them only to the Mafia. If this is a threat to you, try to find good roles. Finding a Spy or a TownProtective and whispering your findings to them will allow the Town to retain your findings even after you are Cleaned (if the person you whisper to is trusted by the other Townies). This works especially well with the Jailor; an informed Jailor is a lethal one.
In the CovenExpansion, Investigator results tend to be much broader due to the added roles, therefore making it harder to deduce what specific role your target may be.
Again, you can work with a Sheriff to see if your target is evil or not.
Another big threat are Disguisers as they are, most likely, randomly disguising Mafia members as people, and the fact that if they do in fact random Disguise, their investigative results shift to that of who they Disguised as. If you suspect someone as being a Disguised member of the Mafia, it is recommended to check them two Nights in a row. If their results change, they were either transported, or are a member of the Mafia.
Remember to record the roles people have "claimed" in your LastWill, not just what you discover through your investigation; catching lies is one of your main roles. Under most circumstances, Town members have no reason to lie about their roles.
If someone is shown as "Framer, Vampire, or Jester", remember that they might be Framed. If you're unsure, you can visit them later to see if you acquire the same result.
However, know that sometimes the Framer might frame the same person throughout the entire game. If you do think that they are Framed, tell a Lookout to check him and see if anyone visits him, as you check him again or ask a Spy if they have been visited by the Mafia on Nights before you investigated them (keep in mind a Disguiser can mess with both the Lookout and Spy results by simply disguising the Framer).
Framed people always come up as suspicious to a Sheriff. Therefore, if a Sheriff investigates someone and finds them not suspicious the same Night that you investigate them and receive a result of "Framer, Vampire, or Jester", then they must be a Vampire or Jester; they couldn't have been Framed.
If it's impossible for there to be a Framer, it is dangerous for the Town to lynch them, since they might be a Jester. However, a Jailor or Vigilante can bypass this by executing or shooting them; provided it's impossible for there to be a Framer, there's no risk of them being a Town member.
In the CovenExpansion, this result becomes even riskier with the addition of Hex Master, who can Hex people and have them permanently appear as this result for the remainder of the game. If you suspect that someone is Hexed, ask a Spy if they have been visited by a member of the Coven. This could have been a visit by a Potion Master healing their Hex Master but this is unlikely due to the Potion Master having other priority things to do. You can also request for a Sheriff to investigate them after the Coven Leader dies, as if the Hex Master gains the Necronomicon, they will become detection immune to the Sheriff and will be outed as a Hex Master since they now "seem innocent". Keep in mind they can still be a Jester that simply remained unhexed throughout the game.
If someone has come up as "Survivor, Vampire Hunter, or Amnesiac", and has started to whisper to seemingly random people, investigate the people they whisper to. It could be an Amnesiac unknowingly leading you to the people they are planning to join later.
If someone claims Survivor, you can investigate them to catch them trying to escape suspicion easily to the end. If someone claims Survivor but comes up with Bodyguard/Godfather/Arsonist/Crusader, they are likely a Godfather or Arsonist trying to hide their night immunity (however, it is possible that they are Doused).
If your target was purged by a Guardian Angel, all Hexes and Douses will wear off, giving you more accurate investigation results and signaling that they did not have Doused or Hexed investigation results. However they could still be Framed, since a Guardian Angel cannot remove Frames.
If someone claims and posts their LastWill, check the order of the results. If they are not in the correct order (e.g. Framer, Vampire, Hex Master, or Jester) that player is most likely a Consigliere who forgot the order of investigation results for people they have investigated.
Fake-Claiming Investigator
Investigator can be a relatively easy role to fake-claim (in terms of difficulty to fake, it is comparable to Lookout), as many Townies will out themselves and their role to throw suspicion onto someone else or even have someone lynched. It is an especially powerful fake-claim as well because people expect evils to claim easier fake-claims, and you can throw suspicion onto someone claiming Sheriff, Medium, or another hard-to-prove, easy-to-claim role, and in some cases, force miss-lynches.
Claiming that most of your targets are Doused is a viable strategy. The Town will be distracted on finding the Arsonist that may or may not exist, and you can have an excuse as to why you have plenty of people's investigation results wrong.
If there is a NeutralKilling other than Arsonist confirmed in this game, do not use this strategy.
If someone announces "X is suspicious" in a binary fashion, they are probably a Sheriff or an Executioner fake-claiming Sheriff. Pay attention to people whispering a lot and asking for roles as this is common behavior for Investigators trying to narrow down results (you may use this strategy to your advantage if you prove yourself as Investigator - claim you are narrowing down investigative results, and they will most likely go along with it). Silent players are most likely the Jailor, Godfather, or a Neutral role trying to stay under the radar, but they may be just a player who is normally silent.
Another useful tool for Investigator fake-claims is when Townies out themselves as their role to try and have someone lynched. If the lynch is not successful, or suspicion is cast on them for bussing, you can "confirm" their claim. A problem with this is that when the person dies and their role was false, you may be outed as a fake.
Great help for fake Investigator claims that aren't a Consigliere is a Mayor revealing. Claiming to have investigated them before they revealed puts a confirmed bit of information into your LastWill which nobody can claim is false.
One way to fake claim as Investigator is by using the graveyard. Use the graveyard to observe their roles and scramble up when you investigated them so you can have investigated them on different Nights when they were alive. Of course, smart Townies will see that your LastWill lists only dead Townies and may call you out. Another way of doing this is through a mix of graveyard and claims. When someone claims, it normally is in their investigative result, so you should be safe there. But if you are not sure, just list them as Framed, Hexed or Doused.
If you aren't sure on what to put for a certain player's role (e.g.: you were asked to investigate player X to prove yourself), put in the Framed results ("Framer, Vampire, Jester, or Hex Master"). You can then pretend they were Framed, which can buy you another Day if there is no Spy. If you are asked to investigate them again you can pretend the "Framer" is framing whoever you are asked to investigate so you can't prove yourself to the Town. Similar strategies can be used for Hexes, Douses, and Disguises.
Trivia
Prior to Version 1.5.11.5389, there were different investigative results. They were replaced because they were considered unbalanced and made gameplay difficult for certain roles.
According to a poll made by Naru2008, the Investigator is the fourth most loved role in Town of Salem with 192 votes as their favorite, the main reasoning being that those users loved validating claims and opening (or closing) claim space.
