This paper aims to present a detailed, analytical review of five prominent theory for various factors of off-record indirect speech acts: Horn`s (1984) R-implicature-based account, Levinson`s (1983) conversation analytic ellision theory, Brown & Levinson`s (1987) Politeness Theory, Pinker and his colleagues` (Pinker 2007; Pinker et al. 2008; Lee & Pinker 2010) strategic speaker theory, and Terkourafi and her colleagues` (Terkorafi 2011a; 2011b; 2013; Soltys et al. 2014) multi-component theory. We begin by introducing conflicting theories on general speech acts: speech act theory and conversation analysis approach. We then discuss the scope and limitations for each of the five theories. We conclude the paper with our proposal that the multi-component theory, with some modification, is on the right track. Their original data, concerned with factors of intimacy and immediacy, can be subsumed under Horn`s (1984) economy-based account. However, their eclectic view provides an exhaustive and empirically supported approach to off-record indirectness.