Your first match

This page walks through a first match step by step: from signing in to the end screen. If you just want to play right away, start any match: Training guides you through your whole first match. The Guided match, in the lobby, also offers it solo, on Discovery difficulty, with a reward.

Signing in#

ANKOU is played in Discord: launch the ANKOU Activity in a voice channel (🚀 Activities button, or the Play on Discord button on the ANKOU website). Sign-in is automatic: Discord only asks you to authorize ANKOU the first time (see Playing in Discord), and your name, avatar and progress are tied to your Discord account. If a friend sends you an invite link, it opens the website, which shows their lobby code: launch ANKOU in your voice channel, then enter that code in Play › Join a match › Join by code.

The main menu#

The main menu gathers:

• Play: your lobby, to play solo or with others, join friends by code or join a public lobby;
• The Hideout, the Shop, the Wiki (which opens in your browser) and Discord (the community server: Discord server);
• Progression: Battle Pass, Challenges, Barracks, Leaderboards;
• Gear: Loadouts (starting weapon, lethal, tactical, gumball pack) and Armory;
• Patch notes, Settings, then Close the Activity.

You can move around with the mouse or the keyboard (arrows or W/S, Enter to confirm). The menu also shows the news, your current challenges and, if you are already in a lobby, a Current lobby › Back to lobby shortcut. A gameplay tip rotates at the bottom of the screen, next to the Your full profile on the website ↗ link, which opens your public profile on the ANKOU website (Playing in Discord).

Very first launch: Play and Play with friends are active; Discord, Patch notes, Settings and Quit are always available. Play immediately starts an online quick match, with Training; Play with friends opens your lobby (below). The Hideout opens after a game of at least 3 rounds, the other entries with your player level: until then, they are greyed out, with a padlock and the level they need (full schedule: Levels, ranks and prestige). The Discord Activity follows the same path, but Play opens your voice channel’s lobby directly.

Play: your lobby#

Play takes you straight to the lobby: if you are not in any lobby, a private lobby is created for you, with the map and difficulty of your last matches (in the Discord Activity, it is your voice channel’s lobby). If you are already in a lobby, Play takes you back to it.

• Alone, Start match starts right away: that is the solo match.
• Guided match appears under Start match as long as you have not earned the “Ankou’s Recruit” achievement and have played fewer than 5 matches. See below.
• Join a match (top right of the lobby) opens a panel with:
  • Join by code — type the 6-character code a friend gave you;
  • Online quick match — “Find a match”: you join a public match in progress (as reinforcement: you enter play at the next round) or, if there is none, a public match opens and starts right away, and other survivors can join you;
  • Public lobbies — open lobbies, with their player count and status (waiting, starting, in match). The list refreshes on its own; “Refresh” does it right away;
  • in the Discord Activity, the voice channel lobbies at the top.
• For others to find you, make your lobby Public (More options › Visibility).

The map (Ker-Ys or Nec Mergitur) and the difficulty are chosen in the right-hand column of the lobby, and the game remembers them for your next lobbies. Nec Mergitur unlocks there at level 7, and the difficulty choice at level 10: until then, your matches are played on Normal and Easy stays locked.

The lobby#

A lobby brings up to 4 players together before the match. Everything is detailed in Lobby and match settings; the essentials:

1. Pick your loadout from your thumbnails: the starting weapon is shown large, with its class, its role, its gauges, its lethal and its tactical. Your character is changed by clicking your portrait: each survivor can only be played by one player in the lobby.
2. The host sets up the match: map and difficulty, then starting round, gumballs, join in progress and visibility under More options.
3. The other players click “Ready”. Once the whole squad is ready, the host clicks Start match: a 5-second countdown begins (canceled if someone is no longer ready, joins, leaves or if a setting changes).
4. Invite from the lobby: Invite to Activity (Discord invite), Friends button (or F), the lobby code to copy, or + Invite a friend on an open slot.

The lobby stays open while you browse the menus, and its Chat helps you get organized.

Entering the match#

While loading, the game shows the map name and who is still loading. Once ready, click in the window (“Click to enter the game”): the mouse is captured and Esc opens the menu. If Discord refuses the capture, choose Play with free mouse (see FAQ and troubleshooting).

The first rounds#

You start with 500 points, your loadout weapon (the M1911 pistol by default), the knife and your grenades. The first wave arrives about 6 seconds after the start; after that, a break of about 10 seconds separates each round. A banner at the top of the screen counts these breaks down (a bell tolls in the last 3 seconds) and the skull next to the round number counts the zombies still to kill (see Rounds and difficulty).

What to do, in order:

1. Earn points: every bullet that hits is worth 10 points; a kill is worth 60 points to the body, 100 to the head and 130 with the knife. In the very first rounds, a few bullets then a knife hit are the best way to fill your bank.
2. Rebuild barriers: hold F at a broken window; every board you put back earns 10 points, up to 500 points per round.
3. Buy a wall weapon: the chalk drawings on the walls are weapons you buy with points (hold F). Ammo is bought back at the same spot.
4. Open doors: doors, gates and rubble open with points. The map grows and gives access to more weapons, the Perk machines and the Mystery Box.
5. Turn on the Power: without Power, Perk machines do not work. See Doors, barriers and Power.
6. Drink Perks (the machine’s card tells you what the Perk does and whether it’s essential) and try the Mystery Box (950 points for a random weapon).

Zombies get tougher and faster every round: from round 2 some of them run, and from round 6 the first ones start to sprint. Sooner or later a special round comes (see Special enemies). The full numbers are on Rounds and difficulty and Points.

The guided match#

The guided match is made for a very first match. You start it alone, on Ker-Ys, on Discovery difficulty, from round 1:

• zombies have only 60% of their normal health, hit half as hard, are 30% fewer and start running two rounds later;
• the first hound pack is softened: 3 hounds per player, more spread out and even slower than usual;
• your health regenerates sooner and Power-ups drop more often (×1.5);
• doors are free while the power is off, then half price: save your points for perks.
• as soon as the power is on, Menhir is given to you: your character drinks it right away.

A friend who joins you during the guided match (same voice channel in the Discord Activity, invite or lobby code) arrives as reinforcement at the start of the next round: you finish the match together.

With friends, you don’t need the guided match: as long as none of you has reached round 10, your Normal matches are played on Discovery too (newcomer boost, see Rounds and difficulty) and the marker guides you to the lever (Menhir is given there with the power), then to a second perk; doors there are free until the power is on, then cost points again (a tip says so). After that, your matches are played on Easy as long as the host has never picked a difficulty (the choice unlocks at level 10); then, as long as none of you has reached round 10 on Normal, the newcomer step-up (doors cost points from the start, a tip warns you) gives you fewer and weaker Drowned, later sprinters and softened hound packs. Realistic difficulty, for its part, unlocks once you reach round 10.

For a truly simpler match, pick Easy difficulty in the lobby (the lobby recommends it to beginners): rounds just as crowded, but weaker enemies, 150 health, lighter extraction and Easter egg. It is unranked and loot is reduced; the Training panel follows you there until you have reached round 10 (see Lobby and match settings).

Training#

The Training panel comes with the guided match and with your very first match, whatever the map, alone or in a group (quick match, lobby, joining a match in progress). A card at the top left gives one instruction at a time: the step number (“Step 4 of 9”), the instruction and a short hint, plus an occasional tip; a blue marker (with its distance) shows where to go: the next door on the cheapest path in points, then the object itself. A chip shows the price of the door to open (“Free door” or “Door: 750 points”) and, when a door or a purchase costs more than you have, the points you are missing.

1. Kill 3 zombies — left click to fire, right click to aim, R to reload; aim for the head.
2. Repair a barricade — the marker shows the nearest broken window; hold F.
3. Buy a wall weapon — the marker shows the nearest weapon you can afford.
4. Drink Second Wind (solo only) — in solo, Second Wind works without power and gets you back up on your own when you go down.
5. Turn on the power — the marker follows the doors up to the lever (on Ker-Ys: four doors from the quay, 3,000 points in all, 1,500 in the guided match).
6. Drink Menhir — Menhir raises your health from 100 to 250: the first Perk to get. On Discovery, it is given to you as soon as the power is on and the step ticks itself.
7. Get a Korrigan’s Gumball — the marker shows the nearest dispenser: 500 points for a random gumball from your pack (built in Loadouts), then take it from the cup with F. If it’s blue, press B to use it. See Korrigan’s Gumballs.
8. Drink another perk — the nearest one you don’t have.
9. Try the Mystery Box — the marker follows the box when it moves.
10. Upgrade a weapon at the Forge of Ys — see The Forge of Ys.
11. Reach round 5.
12. Call the extraction — only while its window is open (round 5 on Discovery and Easy, see Extraction): the step then jumps ahead of the others for the round, and the door to open on the way to the call point is marked. No extraction in the guided match.

Steps already done (by you or, in a group, by a teammate who opens a door or turns on the power) tick themselves off. The first three are skipped automatically if they aren’t done by round 3 (4 for the wall weapon), so the rest stays in view. One-off tips also show up (Mystery Box, Perk machine, Power-up dropped, Power, going down, hounds coming from the end of round 4 — back into a corridor and aim low —, the pack arriving). Once everything is done, “Training complete!” appears: the match goes on as long as you survive.

In your next matches played with the newcomer boost or step-up (see Rounds and difficulty), the panel comes back with the “Turn on the power” then “Drink Menhir” steps, their marker and the tips; it disappears once you have drunk a first perk (any of them; solo, Second Souffle doesn’t count). On Discovery, since Menhir is given with the power, the “Drink another perk” step follows. The “Call the extraction” step comes back each time a window opens. The same goes for Easy after the boost.

In Easter egg matches, the same card, in gold, replaces the objective line: “Easter egg · Step 2 of 8”, a short instruction (“Ring the three bells”) and, below it, the objective hint. During Training (and while the beginners’ panel is shown), neither this card nor the Easter egg objective line appears: the rest of the secret shows up once Training is over.

In all your other matches (except Hideout visits), an Objective panel keeps the “Turn on the power” instruction (same card, same price chip), with a marker on the next door, then on the lever itself (with their distance). It disappears as soon as the power is on; after that, only the hound tips (pack coming, pack arrived) show up there, once each.

The guided match reward is paid at the end of the match as soon as round 5 is reached: the Ankou’s Recruit achievement and emblem, the “Ankou’s Recruit” title and 50 Ankou Coins (25 for the achievement, 25 for the training, once per account). See Achievements and Currencies.

Going down, getting up, losing#

At 0 health you are Down: you keep a pistol and can crawl. A teammate revives you by holding F near you (4 seconds, 2 with Second Wind). With no help, you bleed out in 45 seconds: you become a spectator and come back at the next round, with your loadout’s starting weapon and at least 1,500 points. Going down costs part of your points and the last Perk you drank; the others drop one by one, one every 10 seconds, until someone picks you up. In solo, the Second Wind Perk gets you up on your own, up to three times per match. Everything is detailed in Down, revive and death.

The match ends when no player is left standing. You can also stop it from the pause menu (Esc): End game (in solo, or for the whole lobby if you are the host) or Leave game (you leave alone; your teammates carry on). In solo, the pause menu pauses the match; in multiplayer, it keeps running while you are in the menu.

End of match and rewards#

The end screen sums up the match: rounds survived (and personal best), the squad scoreboard (kills, headshots, downs, revives, points), then the experience earned line by line, your level progress and next unlock, the levels gained by your weapons, the challenges advanced or completed, new unlocks, the Battle Pass, the Ankou Coins earned and the Moon Nectar earned.

After a defeat, a Next time line under the title gives a single tip drawn from your match: points kept in your pocket without any perk (drink Menhir), Second Souffle when solo if you went down early, doors never opened, or the Forge of Ys never used after round 12. Nothing is shown when the match has no obvious mistake, nor after an extraction or a completed Easter egg. On a Discord server that doesn’t have the bot yet, the host also sees Add to server there, to get the group’s recap every Monday (Playing in Discord).

Space, Esc or Enter speed through the animation; Enter then leaves the screen. Play again starts a new match with the same settings and squad: you are marked ready, and the match starts as soon as the whole squad has clicked it (solo: right away). Back to lobby lets the host change the settings first; Main menu leaves the screen; The Hideout opens the Hideout’s quick view straight away, with no loading, showing how many modules you can build. Once the animation is over, Join the Discord opens the invitation to the ANKOU Discord server (Discord server).

Your progress is saved on the server in every case, even if you leave the match before the end. Your stats and latest matches then show up on your profile on the ANKOU website.

If the match unlocked a menu for you (the Hideout after a game of at least 3 rounds, then one menu per level), it is revealed full screen before the summary. Back in the main menu, the entry glows with Ready to unlock: click it, then follow the bubble. For the Hideout, a tour leads you to the Stash, whose first upgrade is on the house (see Levels, ranks and prestige).

Checked against the game on November 10, 2026