Buy Cradle of Ash PC key

Cradle of Ash is a survival horror game set in Ashbrook, a company town sealed behind a chemical-spill quarantine. You wake in a wrecked coach and face residents carrying things that should never have had bodies. They walk, pray and rise again stronger, faster and angrier unless their remains are burned. Beneath the hospital’s maternity ward, something is assembling itself from every body it has ever owned—and it has known your name since before you were born.

The campaign

The six-act story takes you through Ashbrook’s suburbs, hospital, research levels beneath the campus, flooded tunnels, old village and abbey on the ridge. Documents and tapes found along the way reveal a truth that reaches further back than the company.

Survivors and co-op

You can play solo or with up to three friends, but every run always has four survivors. Any unoccupied seats are filled by companions who fight beside you, revive you when you go down and have opinions of their own. A friend joining mid-run takes a companion’s place. The campaign does not scale down to match fewer human players, so a body left unburned can become a problem for whoever is nearby later.

Play as demons

In Bloodthirsty Demon Baby Mode, a host can leave seats open for up to eight players to join as demons alongside the four survivors. Demon players become Crawlers, played in third person and placed somewhere near the party; a little girl whispers instructions to them. You can also select “find a match” from the title screen to join an open run with room.

Crawlers can stalk the survivors, target stragglers and attack in groups. A downed demon gets back up a few seconds later somewhere nearby, and fire is the only way to keep the litter off a survivor for good. Survivors have guns, grenades, molotovs and doors they can shut; demons have numbers.

Fire and survival

Guns can put enemies down, but fire is needed to finish them. Anything you down rises again in a minute or two, stronger than before, unless its body is burned. You can use a lighter or a bottle; bottles are common, while rags are not. A half-burned body returns as something that no longer fears fire.

Enemies that catch you grab and drag you toward the source of the noise instead of shooting you. You can fight to escape or hope someone comes to help; every second brings you closer to the nests. Fire is dangerous to both sides: molotov flames burn anything in their path, and fire spreads along spilled fuel, dropped items and the ground beneath you. It can become a threat to your own team.

Every enemy can be heard before it is seen, with sound giving you a sense of direction and distance. Calls grow slower and shorter as their source draws nearer. The Director responds to your noise, light and fuel, as well as how long it has been since you last saw something, and directs threats toward where you are going rather than where you have been. Encounters do not follow scripted jump-scare loops.

The residents of Ashbrook

• Carriers: Infected residents who move slowly, murmur prayers and cannot climb. They drag the fallen home.
• The Vessel: A nine-foot-tall figure that does not hunt, but keeps its distance along the route you need. What it carries is a question nobody in Ashbrook will answer.
• The Midwife: She cannot be hurt or caught, and follows the mother with a bassinet she never sets down.