Day 1 Survivor Claims: Good or Bad?

[DarknessB]

Recently, I've seen many players who receive the role of Survivor make a unprompted Day 1 claim that there are in fact the Survivor in order to reduce the chances of being attacked. Would appreciate everyone's thoughts on whether this is a good or bad strategy, generally speaking.

Personally, I'm in the "bad strategy" camp for the following reasons / observations (feel free to agree or disagree with any of these):

1. Many town players are overly antagonistic toward Survivors since they often end up siding with Mafia / Neutral Evils in order to stay alive late in the game. This puts a giant target on the Survivor's back from the beginning of the game -- i.e. why not lynch the role that might turn on the Town if you don't have any other leads?

2. Many players are either trolls (think: "lynch the surv!") or simply don't want to reward a neutral claiming on Day 1 because they consider it a cheap way to stay alive. In my experience, this has often resulted in the Survivor being lynched on Day 2 or subsequently targeted by, for example, a Jailor, a Vigilante (if the Survivor doesn't vest), or a Bus Driver (attempt to bus the Surv with confirmed Townies who are likely to be targeted).

3. People are aware of the early Survivor claim strategy so it's often used by valuable Town who don't want to get killed on Night 1 -- for example, Sheriffs, Mayors, Marshalls, etc. Therefore, the Mafia / Neutral Killers don't necessarily have a reason to believe the Survivor and might target him out of paranoia.

4. An early Survivor claim also can be used by Evil Neutrals not wanting to die as well, such as Judges or Witches, so the Town would have further reason to doubt the Survivor's honesty, which might result in an unnecessary lynch.

Overall, I just don't see a lot of value in a strategy that puts a giant target on the Survivor's back, especially as the Survivor usually has 4 vests -- that's more than enough to keep the Survivor alive through the early rounds until a more appropriate time to claim. When I play Surv, I try to keep a low profile early and use vests to stay alive until it's clear who will win, and then I claim. I feel like that works better versus being too chatty and drawing attention. Curious if other people agree or disagree though.

[ISmackKids]

Well, I think claiming Survivor day 1 is a fine strat.
Scum tends to play passive and more careful, claiming survivor day 1 nets you a bunch of attention, which scum usually wants to avoid.
Furthermore, claiming survivor makes other people not want to target you, since it is likely that you might vest up and just waste one of their precious night actions / you could just be trolling and seeking attention as a vet. In my personal experience, everytime I claimed survivor Day 1 I was neither attacked nor lynched.
Avoid spamming, accusing and bandwagon voting and your survival is guaranteed 60% of the time all the time.

[Cryptonic]

Bad witches always claim surv early. If there are no better lynches available, it's super easy to get a Survivor lynched. It's also better to be safe it's not scum claiming surv. Also, the people defending the Survivor are usually non-town, hoping to win an extra vote late game.

Plus, day 1 surv claiming is so fucking boring.

Also, why would a vet claim surv for attention? Only people that would target them is investigative or BD lol seems like a horrible strategy for veteran

[ISmackKids]

Also, why would a vet claim surv for attention? Only people that would target them is investigative or BD lol seems like a horrible strategy for veteran

I'm not saying Vets claim survivor, I am saying that in general anyone who draws attention D1 is usually suspicious and might be thought of as a vet.

[Cryptonic]

I'm not saying Vets claim survivor, I am saying that in general anyone who draws attention D1 is usually suspicious and might be thought of as a vet.

I know, and I'm saying why would someone think that because it doesn't make any sense. Someone claiming Survivor is trying to avoid being targeted, the opposite of what a Veteran is supposed to accomplish.

[Mentar]

i find revealing day 1 tends to indicate that they're leaning more towards siding with town than mafia. Tho even if they're not their revealing still helps town because it accounts for the neutral benign slot. You can then follow leads and lynch freely without fear of jester/exec. And if someone DOES turn out to be jester/exec it confirms the survivor was a fake and you get to lynch an evil the next day anyway.

[CoopaDoop]

I tend to execute my captive If I roll as Jailer and get a survivor claim on night 1.

[Cryder]

Day 1 claiming Survivor is super risky and also "the safe" tactic at the same time. Which is why it's probably not a too good idea, but it's a good idea at the same time.

I would say depends on the game and role list.

[DarknessB]

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this question. Seems like the general consensus (more or less) on Day 1 Survivor claims is as follows:

1. The strategy makes total sense on paper -- discourage the Mafia / Triad / Neutral Killer from attacking you so you won't need to waste vests and have an increased chance of survival. However, scum will take advantage of this and often claim Survivor as well -- therefore, you can't necessarily trust a Day 1 Survivor claim. Mafia is a deception game so unverified role claims should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Also, in my experience, players who are chatty on Day 1 seem to get visited more often than silent players so the strategy may backfire, in terms of avoiding attention.

2. Whether effective or not, the strategy is "boring" -- many players find it a cheap way to win as a Survivor and will therefore be hostile toward Day 1 Survivor claims. In addition, some Jailors will execute anyone claiming Survivor on Night 1 and some Marshalls tend to execute anyone claiming Survivor in case he or she is lying. Also, some players will troll and kill the Survivor simply to deprive that player of a win, especially if they believe the player is trying to "win cheap".

3. Out of necessity, Survivors usually end up siding with the Mafia / Triad / Neutral Killer instead of the Town -- i.e. "if you don't side with me, I'm going to attack you". Therefore, town who have been previously burned by a Survivor helping out the Mafia / Triad / Neutral Killer may be inclined to lynch the Survivor just based upon those types of past experiences, especially if they have no other leads that day.

Overall, I still tend to think that it's a bad tactic, both for the reasons above and in terms of actual results I've seen in games. Most of the recent Day 1 Survivor Claims in my games were either other Neutral Benigns (e.g. Amnesiac trying to avoid attention while he waited for a role to switch to) or scum (Witch, Judge, Mafia / Triad Members, etc.), which leads me to distrust any such claims and advocate for a lynch, which is usually successful.

[Cryptonic]

It's a good strategy if there are no Evil Neutrals.
Cause Town will have no reason to kill you w/o checking you.

[BananaCucho]

I'm in the camp of those that lynch an early survivor claim, because a) they are likely to side with mafia, or b) they are an evil role claiming survivor to try to appear innocent. Be warned that if you claim survivor day 1 and I'm jailor, that's an auto execute for me lol

[Balthy]

I agree with BananaCucho. I think that a Survivor should never claim day 1. People often forget that a Survivor alive is ALWAYS a threat for the Town since he can side with the mafia or the evil neutrals. I saw too many games lost for the Town because the Town refused to lynch the Survivor early in the game for a stupid reason such as “He said that he will side with the Town. Who would lie in Mafia anyways, lol? Wait, what? The survivor is voting against us. B-but... He is betraying us!? What a faggot! This game makes no sense anyways. I did everything right and I still loose. Mafia sucks. Fuck this game. Lets play some better games such as Call of Duty.”. Even experienced players do this mistake but that is still WRONG.

The good moment to claim Survivor is when you are sure that the Town has a higher priority than lynching you that is late in the game.

[Cryptonic]

A Survivor who has the king maker vote will always side with the faction that didn't attack him. Unless you encounter one of the weird guys that's against all non town basically every game lol.

And even then, it doesn't take into account all the people who lie and claim surv.

As survivor, I just try to troll the game as much as possible so people think I'm Jester. Ie claim mayor, lead random lynches, ect
People tend to leave you alone. Jailor or a town that wants to give jester the win is always a risk lol.
This is how I play neutral benign:
Solo win > neutral team win > faction who doesn't have a dbag alive win > team whose win ends the game fastest win