Nec Mergitur

Nec Mergitur is ANKOU’s second map: the Paris Métro in December 1946, beneath a snowbound city, as the Seine rises without a drop of rain. Trains run with no driver, the Drowned walk the tracks, and a black train with blue lamps passes without stopping. You start at Châtelet and travel down Line 4 under the Seine, station by station, all the way to the ghost station of Cluny, the Bièvre sewer, the Crypt of the Boatmen… and Notre-Dame Square.

The map’s main quest, “The Last Metro,” has its own page: The Last Metro (Nec Mergitur Easter egg) (spoilers).

The story#

Three weeks after the events of Ker-Ys, the Seine rises in the dead of a winter night, without a drop of rain. The army has sealed the Métro entrances with the Civil Defense bulkheads; down below, the Company’s staff and the cordon’s soldiers have vanished. Dr. Mathis Keller recognized the signature of the Ys Element in the police reports: Dr. Élise Kervran, the soul of Project Morgane, had hidden crates of crystal in a secret annex at Cluny, a station closed since 1939.

Since Ys was freed, those crystals have been “singing.” Beneath Cluny flows the Bièvre, a river buried in the sewers, and with it the Vouivre has awoken: the dragon that Saint Marcel, Bishop of Paris, drove away with a blow of his crosier. She bears an Ys stone on her brow and wants to fulfill the old Breton saying: Paris drowned, so that Ys may rise again. And the Ankou is back: in Paris, his cart is a black train with frosted windows, the Last Metro.

The map is named after the motto of Paris, Fluctuat nec mergitur: “It is tossed by the waves, but does not sink.”

The start#

You spawn on the platforms of Châtelet. The line’s four public stations (Châtelet, Cité, Saint-Michel, Odéon) and the tunnels between them are open from the start and connect without doors: you can walk from one station to the next along the tracks, or take a train. Doors only close off side rooms and the secret sectors.

• Châtelet has two cheap wall weapons (M14 and Double-barrel shotgun, 500 each), the Second Wind perk and a Gumball dispenser.
• The Mystery Box starts at random at Châtelet (platform toward Porte d’Orléans) or in the Châtelet Corridors (ticket hall).
• Almost everything needs Power (perks, the Forge of Ys, the signal box, the third rail): the switch is in the Saint-Michel Substation, three stations away. It makes a good first goal.

The zones, one by one#

From the Bièvre Sewer, the Sewer service door (1000) opens a shortcut to the Saint-Michel platform. It can only be bought from the sewer side.

Châtelet#

The starting station, on Line 4. Wall weapons: M14 and Double-barrel shotgun (500). Perk: Second Wind. Gumball dispenser. Mystery Box location (platform toward Porte d’Orléans).

The Châtelet Corridors#

Ticket hall, transfer corridors and the Line 1 platform, where a stopped train waits with its doors open: the Quicksilver perk is in its red first-class car. Wall weapons: MP40 (1000) and Thompson M1928A1 (1200). Workbench, the “Town gas leak” trap, Mystery Box (ticket hall), service phone No. 1 and a barrel organ.

The Seine Tunnel#

Two arms under the river, in riveted cast-iron lining, with refuge niches along the track. North arm (Châtelet–Cité): PPSh-41 (1200). South arm (Cité–Saint-Michel): Kar98k (500) in the pump chamber, and service phone No. 2 at the back of a niche. Divers rise from the water in these tunnels.

Cité and its shaft#

Cité, the only station on an island, built in steel caissons: Remington 870 (1200), StG 44 (1400), Lead Hail, a dispenser and a box location (platform toward Porte d’Orléans). Behind the Shaft gate (1000), the Cité Shaft: BAR M1918A2 (1800), Carapace, a box location (bottom of the shaft), the stationmaster’s office and the caisson door that leads toward the Prefecture.

Saint-Michel and the substation#

Saint-Michel: MP5A3 (1100), M1 Garand (800), Mule, a dispenser, a box location (platform toward Porte de Clignancourt) and the third rail trap. Behind the Substation door (1250), Saint-Michel Substation holds the Power switch, Winchester M1897 “Trench Gun” (1300), St. Elmo’s Fire and service phone No. 3.

Odéon, its tunnel and the signal box#

The Odéon Tunnel (Saint-Michel–Odéon): Sten Mk II (1000), the maintenance workshop with Marathon and a workbench. Odéon: M16A4 and AKS-74U (1200 each), Menhir, a dispenser and a box location (platform toward Porte d’Orléans). Behind its door (1000, Power required), the Signal Box and its lever frame house Lynx Eye.

Cluny, the Bièvre and the crypt#

These sectors only open through the Easter egg: the flooded junction train is the only way to Cluny.

• Cluny (ghost station), closed since September 2, 1939 and turned into a Civil Defense shelter: the Forge of Ys (Power required), SPAS-12 (1500), a workbench, a box location (sewer vestibule), phone No. 4, a barrel organ, the lost and found, and the abandoned 1939 train.
• The Bièvre Sewer (1250 from Cluny): Mosin-Nagant M91/30 (700), a box location (Bièvre chamber), phone No. 5, a barrel organ, and the shortcut to Saint-Michel.
• Crypt of the Boatmen (1500 from the Bièvre): the Pillar of the Boatmen and a dark perk machine.
• The Préfecture Passage and Notre-Dame Square only open at the end of the quest: an MG 42 (2500) and a Gumball dispenser wait for you in the Prefecture courtyard.

Power#

The switch is in Saint-Michel Substation (Substation door, 1250). Power is needed for:

• all perks (except Second Wind solo);
• the Forge of Ys at Cluny;
• the Signal box door at Odéon;
• the Saint-Michel third rail trap;
• full train speed: 12 m/s instead of 7, bright lights and horn.

See also Doors, barriers and Power.

Métro trains#

Two three-car trains (a motor car, the red first-class car, a motor car) shuttle along Line 4 from the start of the match, even without Power. In normal service they run from Châtelet to Odéon and back, stopping at every station: 15 s at the platform, with a whistle 3 s before the doors close.

• Boarding: just step into a car. You travel with it, as do the Drowned, dropped power-ups and grenades placed inside.
• The Drowned board too: hounds, rats and Drowned follow their target aboard through the open doors and chase it down the aisle. Divers never board.
• A train crushes the Drowned, hounds and rats on its track (no points). Divers stop it: it brakes, honks, then creeps forward to push them off the track.
• A player on the track makes the train brake 2 m away; after 8 s, it creeps forward and pushes them. But if you step out too close to a moving train, you get hit: thrown aside, 40 damage.
• Parked trains never leave: the one on the Line 1 platform (with Quicksilver) and Cluny’s 1939 train.

The Last Metro#

The Ankou’s train: three black cars with frosted windows and blue lamps, at 16 m/s. It bursts out of the tunnel and vanishes further on. It is announced 6 s ahead (handbell, frost on the rails, “get off the tracks!”).

• Dog rounds: it pulls into the station closest to you, stops for 4 s, and the Ankou’s pack (3 hounds + 2 per player) pours out of its doors. On this map, hounds emerge from the frost instead of arriving with lightning.
• From round 6, it crosses a station near you without stopping in 85% of rounds, 18 to 60 s after the round starts (never during a dog round or a boss fight).
• Danger: a player on foot on its track when it passes goes down (with Menhir, you take 90 damage instead). Safe spots: the platform, the other track, a refuge niche, inside a train.
• It doesn’t crush the Drowned.

Wall weapons#

Perks#

Prices and effects: Perks.

Mystery Box, Forge of Ys and dispensers#

• Mystery Box: 8 locations — Châtelet (platform toward Porte d’Orléans), Châtelet Corridors (ticket hall), Cité (platform toward Porte d’Orléans), Cité (bottom of the shaft), Saint-Michel (platform toward Porte de Clignancourt), Odéon (platform toward Porte d’Orléans), Cluny (sewer vestibule), Bièvre (Bièvre chamber). It starts at Châtelet or in the Corridors. Its contents are the same as on other maps; Saint Marcel’s Crosier is not in it.
• Forge of Ys: at Cluny, with Power. So you can only upgrade your weapons once you have opened Cluny during the Easter egg.
• Gumball dispensers (Korrigan’s Gumballs): Châtelet, Cité, Saint-Michel, Odéon and the Prefecture courtyard.

Traps#

A trap stays active for 25 s, then recharges for 60 s. It kills the Drowned, hounds and rats that walk through it, but gives no points, and it also hurts players (20 HP per second in the burning gas, which you can get through; 60 on the rail). Divers and bosses are immune. The third rail is perfect for clearing a track: stay on the platform and let the horde step down.

Buildables#

• Métro Shield: an Enamel sign “CHATELET” (Corridors, Châtelet or Cité), a Carriage door handle (Seine Tunnels or Saint-Michel) and Leather straps (Cité Shaft or Odéon). It is assembled at one of the three workbenches: Châtelet Corridors, the Odéon Tunnel workshop, Cluny.
• Saint Marcel’s Crosier: the map’s wonder weapon, assembled at Cluny during the Easter egg (St. Marcel’s Crozier; see The Last Metro (Nec Mergitur Easter egg)).

How they work in general: Buildables.

The map’s enemies#

• The Drowned of Paris, with a look of their own on this map.
• The Ankou’s hounds arrive on the Last Metro or emerge from the frost (see Special enemies).
• The divers of the Seine rise from the water from round 12.
• Rats, unique to this map, from round 7: swarms of 6 to 10 rats burst out of air vents and tunnel mouths (one swarm per round, two from round 12, three from round 18, more in a team). They are fast (speed 7) and bite for 6 damage, but any hit kills them (bullet, pellet, shrapnel, knife) and each is worth 20 points. Only two rats bite the same player at once; they don’t count toward the round and never come during dog rounds.

The quest’s mini-bosses (the Switchman, the Thunderstruck, the Boatman of Lutetia, the Ankou’s Ferryman, the Bièvre Warden) and the Vouivre are covered in The Last Metro (Nec Mergitur Easter egg).

Side secrets#

Service phones#

Five service phones tell the story of the night the waters rose. Each can only be heard once, counts as a secret in the Barracks Archives. Only one voice on the line at a time: during a call, the other handsets give a busy tone.

On top of these come Dr. Kervran’s calls during the quest (the stationmaster’s phone in the Cité Shaft, then the porthole of her sealed chamber at Cluny).

The ticket inspector and the first-class ticket#

The Ankou’s Java#

The Carrier Pigeons#

Morgane’s Teddy#

When the teddy bear shows up in the Mystery Box and makes it move, the “Morgane’s Teddy” secret is logged in your Archives: it is the bear of Dr. Kervran’s daughter.

The Hideout: the service train#

In the Hideout’s extraction mode, Nec Mergitur has its own exit site, the service train: a train that dispatch sends when you answer the service phone on Cité’s west platform. The site’s tasks: restart the substation, throw the emergency levers of the Odéon signal box, light the signal lanterns on Saint-Michel’s west platform. The train is held at that platform (track 1) and carries you away into the Odéon Tunnel. During the siege, divers and chimeras attack. Crates to search are spread across the map (never in the tunnels or on the tracks).

Strategies#

• Power first: Châtelet → north tunnel → Cité → south tunnel → Saint-Michel → substation. On the way, the Kar98k in the south arm (500) is a good early weapon.
• Stay on the platforms when you can: trains and the Last Metro are the real dangers of the tracks. In a tunnel, a refuge niche protects you from the Last Metro.
• Let the trains work for you: lure the horde onto the track in front of an oncoming train.
• Third rail: at Saint-Michel, the trap covers the whole track; it’s one of the best spots to hold the middle rounds, as long as you stay on the platform.
• Watch out for rats from round 7: keep a fast-firing weapon or a shotgun handy, a single hit is enough.
• Get Quicksilver in the parked train in the Corridors: the map is long.
• For the Forge of Ys, you need to reach Cluny: start the Easter egg early (The Last Metro (Nec Mergitur Easter egg)).

Checked against the game on November 5, 2026