What is ANKOU?
ANKOU is a first-person co-op survival game in the tradition of Call of Duty’s Zombies modes. With 1 to 4 players, you hold out round after round against ever larger and tougher waves of the Drowned. Every kill earns points; those points open doors and buy wall weapons, Mystery Box spins, Perks and weapon upgrades at the Forge of Ys. Each map also hides a long secret quest: its Easter egg.
The game is played in Discord, on a computer, as a voice channel Activity: your friends in the voice channel join you in one click. The game requires a keyboard and a mouse; a headset is recommended.
The setting
Winter 1946. The war is over, but something is rising from the sea. In Breton folklore, the Ankou is death’s workman: he goes from house to house with his cart and carries off souls. “The Ankou, laborer of death, never goes home empty-handed,” says the proverb shown when the game starts.
In ANKOU, the Ankou is making his rounds: the Drowned walk out of the sea, the sunken bell of the city of Ys tolls, and four survivors are caught in the middle of it. Behind the walking dead lie the experiments of Project Morgane, which you can trace through the radio transmissions and archives left on the maps.
The four playable characters (detailed on the Characters page):
Each one has their own voice and lines. Voices always stay in French, whatever language you pick for the interface; subtitles follow your language.
The maps
ANKOU has two survival maps, each with its own Easter egg:
- Ker-Ys — Isle of Ker-Ys, Finistère, November 1946. A storm-lashed Breton island: fishing harbor, chapel, sailors’ graveyard, an Atlantic Wall bunker, a dark lighthouse… and, below the cliffs, the sunken ruins of Ys. It is the default map and the one used for the guided match. See Ker-Ys.
- Nec Mergitur — Paris Métro, December 1946. It is snowing, the Seine is rising without a drop of rain, and under the city the trains run with no driver. From Châtelet to the ghost station of Cluny, all the way to the square in front of Notre-Dame. See Nec Mergitur.
A storm-lashed Breton island: fishing harbor, Saint-Gwénolé chapel, sailors’ graveyard, Atlantic Wall trenches and bunker, a dark lighthouse… and, beneath the cliffs, the sunken ruins of the city of Ys.
Beneath snowbound Paris, the Seine is rising without a drop of rain: the Drowned walk the Métro tracks, trains run with no driver and a black train passes without stopping. From Châtelet to the ghost station of Cluny, under the Seine and up to Notre-Dame square.
Ways to play
Everything starts from the Play button of the main menu, which opens your lobby (details in Your first match); on your very first launch, it starts an online quick match directly, and the lobby stays behind Play with friends:
| Mode | For | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Guided match | Newcomers | Ker-Ys on Discovery difficulty, alone, with on-screen objectives and tips. Offered in the lobby, under Start match, until you finish it (and during your first 5 matches). |
| Solo match | Alone | Alone in the lobby, Start match starts right away on the chosen map. |
| Online quick match | Alone or as reinforcement | In the lobby, Join a match: drops you into a public match in progress, or opens one that other survivors can join. |
| Your lobby | Squad | Private (invite only or by code) or public (shown in the list, More options › Visibility). Up to 4 players. |
| Join a match | Squad | In the lobby: a friend’s lobby code, or a public lobby from the list. |
| The Hideout | Alone | Your bunker on the Ker-Ys cliff: modules to restore, workbench, stash, laboratory, and extraction missions. |
Round-based survival
This is the heart of the game: start at round 1 with your loadout weapon (a pistol at first) and 500 points, and survive as long as you can. There is no set ending: the match ends when the whole squad is down for good (or when you end it from the pause menu). Three difficulties are offered in the lobby: Easy (unranked, for beginners: lighter events, reduced loot, more health), Normal and Realistic (tougher, deadlier zombies, minimal HUD, 25% more XP). Discovery difficulty is reserved for the guided match. See Lobby and match settings. The difficulty choice opens at level 10: before that, your matches are played on Normal (Easy unlocks then).
The Hideout and extraction
The Hideout is a separate mode, played alone: a bunker on the Ker-Ys headland that you restore bit by bit. It opens on a quick view, with no loading (the bunker can also be visited in 3D). One click on Head out on a mission and you head out on extraction missions to Ker-Ys or Nec Mergitur: you pick up materials and francs, then must reach the boat or the train at the right time to bring your bag home. It is all explained in The Hideout and Extraction.
Platforms
- Discord Activity: launch ANKOU in a voice channel (🚀 Activities button › ANKOU, or the website’s Play on Discord button); the channel’s members join the same squad. On a computer, in the Discord app (Windows, macOS, Linux) or on discord.com in a browser. See Playing in Discord.
- ANKOU website (zombie.crabgang.world): it presents the game and shows players’ public profiles, the leaderboards and a search by Discord username. It does not start the game in a tab: the Discord Activity runs noticeably smoother than a browser tab.
- Mobile: not supported. The game needs a keyboard, a mouse and a desktop graphics card; launched from the Discord mobile app, the Activity shows “Available on desktop only”.
Account and progress
Your account is your Discord account: in the Activity, sign-in is automatic, and your name, avatar and progress are tied to your Discord account. Progress is saved on the game server: you get exactly the same progress on any computer, and on your public profile on the ANKOU website (the Your full profile on the website ↗ link at the bottom of the main menu).
What carries over from match to match: level, prestige and ranks (Levels, ranks and prestige), weapon levels, attachments and camos (Weapons, Camos), the Battle Pass, challenges, Achievements, gumballs and the Korrigan’s Workshop (Moon Nectar and the Korrigan’s Workshop), the Hideout, and your currencies (Currencies). Leaderboards only count ranked matches (Leaderboards, Barracks and Archives).
When you start out, menus open one by one: the Hideout after a game of at least 3 rounds, then Barracks, Challenges, Wiki, Loadouts, Armory, Nec Mergitur, Battle Pass, Shop, difficulty choice, referrals and Leaderboards, from level 2 to level 12. Most of them introduce themselves with a short guided tour, with a reward. See Levels, ranks and prestige.
Launch the guided match, take a look at the controls, then read our survival tips.
Checked against the game on November 9, 2026