How to Win the New Traitors Game

A spoiler-free guide; including the Secret Traitor twist

How to Win the New Traitors

At first glance, The Traitors looks like a game about spotting liars. Watch a little longer and you realise it’s something else entirely. It’s a game about how people react to uncertainty, who feels safe to keep around, and when being right actually makes you dangerous.

The latest UK format adds an elegant complication: the Secret Traitor. Alongside the familiar, visible (to viewers) Traitors, there is now one extra player who knows who the Traitors are, but is unknown to everyone else, including them. This Secret Traitor provides a shortlist of candidates for the visible Traitors to eliminate from. This twist doesn’t just add drama. It changes how the game should be played.

1. Stop Playing Detective

The most common mistake, especially among Faithfuls, is treating the game like a puzzle to be solved. That instinct is understandable. It’s also usually fatal.

You don’t win The Traitors by proving who the Traitors are. You survive by not giving the group a reason to get rid of you. Those are very different skills. Players who sound sharp, confident, and decisive often leave early — not because they’re wrong, but because they look like future trouble. Being useful is safer than being impressive.

2. Confidence Is Riskier Than Being Wrong

Nothing raises eyebrows faster than certainty.

• Confident Faithfuls look like they might organise votes later.
• Confident Traitors look like they know more than they should.
• Confident Secret Traitors don’t stay secret for long.

The safest tone is calm uncertainty:

• Ask rather than accuse.
• Share doubts instead of conclusions.
• Be willing to change your mind out loud.

People rarely banish someone for being unsure. They often banish people who sound settled.

3. What the Secret Traitor Changes

The Secret Traitor quietly removes a comforting illusion: that the Traitors are a tight, informed unit acting with shared purpose. They aren’t, and this has three knock-on effects:

Strange behaviour is harder to interpret

Not every odd move is a “tell” anymore. Some confusion is baked into the structure.

Traitors have less control than they did

Knowing that someone else has influence, but not knowing who, makes bold play risky.

Blending in becomes even more powerful

Players who don’t dominate discussions or force narratives are harder to justify removing. The game shifts away from detection and towards social equilibrium.

4. How to Play the Secret Traitor

The Secret Traitor sits in the most powerful position, and the most precarious one.

The key is restraint. Don’t look clever. Your strength is invisibility. The moment others think you’re steering outcomes, you’re vulnerable. So make decisions that feel obvious. When influencing eliminations, aim for choices that don’t spark debate. If no one talks about your move, it’s probably a good one.

Let others absorb the drama. If tension follows a decision, allow louder players to carry it. Stay adjacent, not central. Think in weeks, not days. Short-term manoeuvring is tempting. Longevity comes from patience. The best Secret Traitor move is often the one nobody notices.

5. Likeability Outlasts Insight

The players who last tend to do small things well:

• They listen.
• They acknowledge others’ worries.
• They soften disagreements instead of sharpening them.
• They don’t insist on being heard.

Someone who’s “probably right but irritating” is far more at risk than someone who’s “possibly wrong but calming”. In this game, people vote out threats, not errors.

6. Why Players Really Get Banished

Most banishments aren’t about guilt or innocence. They happen because someone is:

• Too intense
• Too articulate
• Too eager
• Too early

There’s a real paradox here: good reasoning increases danger unless it’s carefully disguised as reflection. Often, the smartest thing to do is stop just before you land the point.

Final Thought: It’s Not a Mystery — It’s a Social Test

The Traitors isn’t about uncovering truth. It’s about managing fear, comfort, and trust in a group that never has enough information. The Secret Traitor twist simply makes that reality harder to ignore.

If you want to survive, and maybe win:

• Be understandable, not dazzling.
• Be flexible, not fixed.
• And remember that how you make people feel matters more than what you know.

That’s the real game, secret or otherwise.