← All characters

Boffin

The Demon (even if drunk or poisoned) has a not-in-play good character’s ability. You both know which.

Stellar hydrogen, vast, inert; carbon, oxygen, neon gases, all ruined. Molecular chaos, entropy, yields new cosmic phenomena, rebirth from atomic chaos, dense matter collapsing. All in a teeny little bottle.

Storyteller cues

First nightWake the Boffin and the Demon. Show the THIS CHARACTER SELECTED YOU & Boffin tokens, then the not-in-play good character token.

Jinxes

Alchemist

If the Alchemist has the Boffin ability, the Alchemist does not learn what ability the Demon has.

Cult Leader

If the Demon has the Cult Leader ability, they can’t turn good due to this ability.

Drunk

The Demon cannot have the Drunk ability.

Goon

If the Demon has the Goon ability, they can’t turn good due to this ability.

Heretic

The Demon cannot have the Heretic ability.

Ogre

The Demon cannot have the Ogre ability.

Politician

The Demon cannot have the Politician ability.

Village Idiot

If there is a spare token, the Boffin can give the Demon the Village Idiot ability.

How to run it (Storyteller)

On the first night, privately confirm with the Boffin which not-in-play good character ability the Demon will receive, then inform the Demon (wake them together or separately depending on social deduction risks like Poppy Grower or Magician). If the chosen ability modifies setup — such as Huntsman or Bounty Hunter — adjust the bag and token distribution before the game begins, and make sure you execute any setup conditions correctly. The nastiest ruling: a Demon hit by Exorcist still wakes for the Boffin-granted ability even when silenced for their Demon kill, so do not forget to wake them. Watch for abilities that make the Demon functionally unkillable or wildly informative — Sweetheart and Recluse both persist through death, so inform the Demon proactively that they keep those abilities even after dying.

How to play

  • Coordinate with the Demon before the game starts on which ability to grant them — prioritize abilities that give the Demon survivability (Recluse, Sweetheart), information (Bounty Hunter), or disruption (Goon, Cult Leader) rather than offensive power the Demon already has.
  • Remember that abilities which prevent the Demon from turning good — Goon and Cult Leader — are safe picks if you fear Cult Leader or similar conversion effects on the Demon.
  • Claim a Townsfolk role that is plausibly in the bag and that you can bluff consistently; since your real ability is purely setup-phase, you will need to fake an ongoing information role convincingly for the rest of the game.
  • If you grant the Demon a setup-modifying ability like Bounty Hunter, be aware that a Townsfolk is made evil — use that to place early suspicion on a genuine good player who is now behaving oddly.
  • The most common mistake is over-coordinating vocally with the Demon during the day — you both know the secret, so you do not need to signal; any visible alignment between you and the Demon is a massive tell for the good team.

How to fight the Boffin

  • Boffin's presence means the Demon has an extra ability from a character not in the script — if you observe a power effect that no living player claims and that is not on the script, flag it as evidence a Boffin is in play.
  • Track which good abilities are NOT in the script; any effect that corresponds to one of those absent characters is almost certainly the Boffin-granted ability, which lets you deduce which character the Demon is mimicking and narrow down Demon candidates accordingly.
  • Boffin is a minion and does not kill, so if your death counts are clean and no Demon ability seems to account for the night kill, consider whether the Demon has a Boffin-granted ability that alters their behavior rather than adds a kill.
  • If Exorcist successfully targets the Demon, the Demon will still wake — if you are the Exorcist and notice the Demon woke anyway, that wakeup is for the Boffin-granted ability, confirming both that your Exorcist ability worked AND that a Boffin is present.
  • The Alchemist with Boffin ability does not learn what the Demon received, so do not waste time pursuing that angle — instead focus on observable in-game effects to reverse-engineer the granted ability.

Key interactions

Bounty Hunter

Granting the Demon the Bounty Hunter ability causes a Townsfolk to be flipped evil at setup, giving evil an extra ally beyond the normal minion count. Good players should watch for a Townsfolk acting suspiciously or voting erratically early — that player may be the Bounty Hunter-made evil, which is a strong indicator Boffin is in play.

Goon

A Demon with the Goon ability cannot be turned good by Cult Leader or similar conversion effects, making the Demon permanently anchored to evil. This is a strong defensive pick if the good team has a Cult Leader or conversion threat on the script.

Cult Leader

Like Goon, a Demon granted the Cult Leader ability cannot be converted to good, closing off that win condition for good entirely. However, the Demon also gains the Cult Leader's own conversion power, which can be highly disruptive if used on isolated good players.

Recluse

A Demon granted the Recluse ability retains it even after dying, meaning the Demon's corpse can still misregister as evil to investigative abilities post-death. This is especially dangerous because good players may waste reads on a dead Demon they think is a living threat.

Atheist

Granting the Demon the Atheist ability lets the Storyteller legally break normal rules and award good the win if the Storyteller is executed — but the setup condition of Atheist is not followed, so this is a high-variance pick that the Storyteller must handle carefully to avoid confusion.