Identity V

Did You Know?

• Call of Abyss is an annual global esport competition for Identity V and is the most important competition of the year.
• Tournaments and esport competitions hosted by NetEase since 2018 include global competitions such as COA and IVS, and regional professional leagues such as IVL for mainland China and IJL for Japan.

Gameplay

A match in Identity V brings together five players, split into a single Hunter and four Survivors. The Survivors’ goal is to decode five cipher machines, which opens the exit gates and allows them to flee. The Hunter, meanwhile, tries to take down Survivors before they can get out. The Hunter wins if at least three Survivors are eliminated. The Survivors win if three or more of them escape. If exactly two get away and two are taken out, the match is a draw. Players who are eliminated can watch the rest of the match as spectators.

Players choose their roles from a roster of characters, each with their own unique abilities. Hunters also have access to secondary skills, while Survivors must depend on teamwork, using the environment, and their character’s specializations to succeed.

Identity V uses several in-game currencies for progression and cosmetic items: Clues, Fragments, Inspirations, and Echoes. Clues are earned by playing and can unlock new characters. The other currencies are mainly for buying cosmetic items. Echoes are a premium currency bought with real money. None of these systems affect how the game plays competitively.

The Intrinsic Persona Web, often called the Persona system, lets players spend talent points to get passive or situational bonuses during matches. There are separate persona trees for Hunters and Survivors. Players can allocate up to 130 points, which are unlocked permanently through gameplay.

The game has two ranking systems: Character Points and Tier Divisions. Both are only used in Ranked Matches, which are available during specific times each day. Character Points are earned by playing ranked matches with a particular character and determine your spot on that character’s leaderboard. These points are unique to each character and can slowly decrease over time. They also reset at the start of a new Season. Based on Character Points, players can earn placements that come with badges. Badges are given out each week according to points. Survivors can get C badges (top 500), B badges (top 200), A badges (top 100), and S badges (top 10).

Setting

The game begins with the player controlling Orpheus, a detective who has lost his memory and travels to the Oletus Manor. This large estate, owned by a shadowy figure, is the setting for contests between Hunters and the Hunted. While staying there, Orpheus gathers clues from diaries, which let him experience past games through the eyes of those who took part. A major expansion, Time of Reunion, was released on October 28, 2021, delving deeper into Orpheus’s history and his connection to the manor’s events. Later, on April 20, 2023, the Ashes of Memory update shifted the protagonist to Alice DeRoss, a journalist whose own inquiries bring her to the Oletus Manor.

Crossovers

Identity V has hosted numerous crossover events with a wide range of media. Collaborations include the video game series Danganronpa and Persona, the film Edward Scissorhands, and the anime and manga properties The Promised Neverland, Death Note, Junji Ito's Tomie, Mitsuji Kamata, Bungo Stray Dogs, Case Closed, and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Several crossovers have been exclusive to the Chinese servers, such as those with Crazy Alien, McDonald's, Fei Ren Zai, and KFC. In mid-2022, a crossover with the Chinese series Link Click ran for a month. A collaboration with Project Zero II took place in late 2023, and from early 2025, the game partnered with the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate.