Anime Zero runs on three modes, all selectable from the create-lobby menu where you pick the map, act and difficulty up front — with rewards and material drops previewed before you queue. This page maps all three; the deep dives live on their own pages.
Story
The progression spine: a chain of acts you unlock in order, across two maps at launch — Sakamoto (ending with an Uzuki boss fight) and HxH (rubble-gated areas, added October 1). Each act drops its own material list, so you farm specific acts for specific crafting needs. Full structure in the difficulty guide payout table.
Infinite
Endless wave survival with a boss every 10/8/6/5 waves by difficulty — bosses drop materials, and a most-waves-survived leaderboard tracks your depth. The mode’s home page: Infinite mode guide.
Defense
The hold-the-line variant (Sakamoto Defense is the shipped example). Watch your positioning — the October patches fixed several cases of players falling under the map or getting stuck behind rubble in these modes.
Combat basics that carry across modes
- Group enemies before spending AoE cooldowns — one skill on a clumped pack beats three skills on singles.
- The final wave spawns a boss with dedicated mechanics; keep distance when your skills are on cooldown and learn its pattern.
- Blocking runs on a guard bar: too many hits and it breaks. Perfect blocks cost no guard and knock enemies back.
- T swaps between your two weapon slots mid-run (key observed in pre-release footage; the switch itself is confirmed) — switching in grants +20% damage for 4 seconds.
- Only 2 enemies can attack you at once — funnel the pack instead of getting surrounded.