Guide: Among Us on the Retroid Pocket 2

Last updated 10OCT2020 (see Changelog for details)

Among Us is a popular game on Steam and smartphones, and given that it isn’t very CPU-intensive, it seems like a perfect fit for the Android-based Retroid Pocket 2. The only problem is that the game is designed for touch controls. Luckily, there’s a very easy workaround to get this game up and running on your handheld device.

Note that this method will work for just about any touch-based Android app, so if you have a favorite game that you’re itching to try, this is your solution.

Table of Contents
What you'll need to get started
Setting up Octopus
Keymapping
Some notes on mouse mode

Changelog

What you’ll need to get started

Besides the free Among Us app itself, there are two things you’ll need to get running:

• Octopus, a free key mapping app available on the Google Play Store
• a bluetooth mouse or a USB mouse plugged into your device via an OTG adapter

You’ll only need the mouse to set up the controls; after that, you can control everything in the game without any extra mouse.

If using a bluetooth mouse, go to the Settings app on your Retroid Pocket 2, then go into the Bluetooth settings. Put your mouse into pairing mode, and then select it from the “Available devices” list. It might take a couple tries to connect. That’s it, if your mouse is connected then you can move on to the next step.

If using a USB mouse, plug the OTG adapter into your Retroid Pocket 2, and then plug the USB mouse into the OTG adapter. The mouse should start working immediately.

Setting up Octopus

Octopus is a key mapper that will translate your button presses into touchscreen taps on any game. This could be used for any number of touch-based games, but we’ll focus on Among Us for now. One thing to keep in mind is that you will open your games through the Octopus app. So in order to start up Among Us, you have to first open Octopus.

When you first open Octopus, make sure that the “Peripherals” section at the top shows “Connected: Playstation3”. If it doesn’t, go in and set it as such.

Under the “My Games” section, click on the “+” icon, and then navigate to the Among Us app, and select “Add”. Now the game will show up in your “My Games” section. Go ahead and click on it to boot it up.

Keymapping

Once you’re in the game, use your mouse to click on the “Free Play” option, and pick a map to load. Once you’re in the map, you’ll see that there are several buttons that can be tapped — a settings wheel, a map icon, a “Report” button, and a “Use” button. There is also an on-screen analog stick on the bottom-left side. What we need to do is use the mouse to associate these icons with button presses on your device.

Let’s start with the left analog stick. Using your mouse, click on the little octopus head that’s peeking out of the top of your screen. This will open the Octopus menu. Click the “+” icon, and you’ll see a bunch of different button mapping options. Click on the left analog stick icon and drag it until it covers the on-screen analog stick on the bottom-left of the screen. Using the setting on the top-right of the analog stick icon, you can adjust the size of the analog stick area to match that of the on-screen analog stick.

For the other icons, move the “Key” icon over to one of the spots where there is an action icon — like the settings wheel, map icon, etc. Once you have the key icon on that spot, press the button on your RP2 that you want to associate with that action icon. Note that the chat icon won’t appear in Free Play, but you can still map a key to that space (see the picture above for an idea of where to put it – you can always adjust it later). Here is how I have my keys mapped:

Settings icon: START
Map icon: X button
Report icon: ZR (R2)
Use icon: A button
Chat icon (not visible in Free Play): ZL (L2)

Once you have everything set to your liking, just click the up arrow and then the check mark to save everything. You can now disconnect your mouse. From now on, every time you open Among Us via Octopus your keymapping will be saved!

Some notes on mouse mode

While this keymapping will take care of the majority of your actions in the game, there are still going to be times when you need to imitate other actions on the screen. To do this, press HOME for a few seconds to enter mouse mode. So for example, if you need to refill a gas can, there is a certain on-screen button you have to press. Enter mouse mode and then use the cursor to click on that button, and then press the HOME button again for a few seconds to exit mouse mode.

This patten (entering mouse mode when you need it, exiting out when you don’t) will slow down your gameplay just a bit, but once you get the hang of it you can toggle in and out of this mode pretty quickly.

Additionally, the chat function can be a big deal in this game. Unfortunately, that’s something that is just about impossible when playing this game on the Retroid Pocket 2. You could always connect to a bluetooth keyboard and input your chat that way, but that kind of takes away from the portable fun. Just something to bear in mind!

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Changelog

10OCT2020
– published guide