Assassin's Creed Infinity: Everything you need to know about the Animus Hub

Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The Assassin's Creed Animus Hub is officially, is now available to use within the latest RPG, Assassin's Creed Shadows. Formerly known as Assassin's Creed Codename Infinity, The Animus Hub is not a standalone launcher, and is instead integrated into the latest RPG, with a variety of features within its menu to try out.

You may have found yourself asking: what is the Assassin's Creed Animus Hub? Well, we're here to help you get the lowdown on how it works, what it does, and everything you need to know about the neat in-game menu themed around AC's iconic virtual reality machine.

As well as bringing together some of the best Assassin's Creed games, it also provides a place to access more quests and rewards, as well as some story content. While Shadows is the first game to make us of this feature, it may be well be future upcoming Assassin's Creed games, too - with it looking like we can expect to see it in the likes of Assassin's Creed Hexe, too. For a helpful overview explaining the ins and outs of the Assassin's Creed Animus Hub, read on below.

The Assassin's Creed Animus Hub is now available

The Animus Hub from Assassin's Creed Shadows highlighting the game's Memories for Naoe and Yasuke

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The Assassin's Creed Animus Hub release date coincided with the launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows on March 20, 2025, and is now available to use within the latest RPG.

You'll be able to access the Animus Hub when you boot up Assassin's Creed Shadows, which partially acts as an in-game menu to start up the game.

What is the Animus Hub?

Naoe and Yasuke walk in the sunset in a screenshot from Assassin's Creed Shadows

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The Assassin's Creed Animus Hub is described by Ubisoft as a "seamless entry point to the latest games in the Assassin's Creed franchise" that's fully integrated into Assassin's Creed Shadows. It essentially acts as Shadow's in-game launcher, as well as a space to access rewards and additional questlines.

When you load up Assassin's Creed Shadows on any platform, you'll be drawn into an interface styled after an Animus that acts as the in-game home menu. A timeline showing protagonists from the latest games in the series is a core part of the hub, which is where you can start up Shadows, or be taken to store pages for other games in series, including Assassin's Creed Mirage, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Origins.

Animus Hub gameplay

A screenshot of the new Animus Hub features, shown during a reveal video.

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The Assassin's Creed Shadows Animus Hub menu has four main features that give you access to rewards, quests, the game itself, and some additional story content geared around encrypted Animus data files you unlock throughout the story. Below, we've broken down what each section of The Animus Hub is for and what they all do.

Memories
The memories section of the Animus menu is the central launcher for Assassin's Creed Shadows, and it's where you can access a timeline that lets you actually boot up the RPG and continue playing. The latest games in the AC series are also on the timeline, with each one including a brief story summary. Launching any one of the other games on the timeline will take you to its respective store page where you can buy the other adventures in the franchise.

Projects
The Projects section of the Animus Hub is where you can access additional playable missions known as "Anomalies". These timed objectives will get you to do specific things in the world - such as killing a Samurai - to earn data fragments, which is a form of in-game currency that you can redeem within the Projects menu for rewards - including new weapons and armor, and another form of currency known as "Keys". For more in-depth rundown, check out our Assassin's Creed Shadows Projects and Anomalies guide.

Exchange
Exchange is where you can purchase special Legendary gear, as well as unique pets. In order to buy these unique items, you need to earn Keys through the Projects and Anomalies quests (they cannot be purchased with real-world money).

Vault
The Vault ties into the "Modern Day story" of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which is essentially any of the big story moments that you've encountered that relate to Animus and the mysterious "guide" you'll encounter at the opening of the game. The Vault brings together these moments as Encrypted Data Files that can be revisited here once you've unlocked them.

How does the Animus Hub work?

Assassin's Creed Animus

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed's executive producer Marc-Alexis Cote previously said that it's "a hub that will unite all our different experiences and our players together in meaningful ways," and we know now that rather than being a standalone launcher, it works within Assassin's Creed Shadows as the central menu themed around the iconic virtual reality machine developed by Abstergo Industries, which allows a user to tap into and explore a genetic memory.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the first game to include this hub, but Ubisoft has stated that it has "ambitious plans for the Animus Hub and hopes to create new opportunities to tie together the Assassin's Creed universe, our Modern Day story, and your favorite Assassin's Creed games."

"Launching within Assassin's Creed Shadows is merely the first step of a long journey together. The Hub will continue to evolve and grow with new features, new content, and new rewards rolling out in the months and years to come."

Which Assassin's Creed games have the Animus Hub?

Assassin's Creed Infinity

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the first game to feature the Animus hub, but the second is set to be Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe, a game said to explore Europe's infamous witch trials from Ubisoft Montreal – with development led by Clint Hocking, the creative director of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Far Cry 2, and Watch Dogs Legion.

Assassin's Creed multiplayer

Assassin's Creed Unity screenshot

Assassin's Creed Unity is the only game in the series to feature co-op, while AC 4: Black Flag was the last to include multiplayer. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

On the subject of whether multiplayer features will be implemented as part of the Animus Hub, Marc-Alexis Cote, Assassin's Creed's executive producer, said in the past that, "We're actually investigating how we bring back standalone, multiplayer experiences into the Assassin's Creed universe – all connected to the Infinity Hub."

However, no multiplayer features are currently available on the Animus Hub as of right now, but who knows, perhaps a new feature could be added in a future game or project.


Next, check out our list of the best games like Assassin's Creed, or our guide to all the upcoming Xbox games.

TOPICS
Heather Wald
Senior staff writer

I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at 12DOVE. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I'm not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good. 

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