Well, it’s been a moment or three, but it’s good to be back.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

• Plot: An epic four book fantasy series chronicling the adventures of Severian of the Torturer's Guild.
• Page Count:
  • The Shadow of the Torturer: 304
  • The Claw of the Concilliator: 303
  • The Sword of the Lictor: 302
  • The Citadel of the Autarch: 330
• Awards:
  • The Shadow of the Torturer: 1980 World Fantasy Award
  • The Claw of the Concilliator: 1981 Locus Fantasy and 1981 Nebula
  • The Sword of the Lictor: 1982 Locus Fantasy
• Worth a read: Yes, but it's an investment.
• Primary Driver: Plot, World, or Character
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: Both Technobabble and Fantasybabble in moderate quantities.
• Review: There is no denying that these books are remarkable. The attention to detail is astonishing, the writing is crisp, the characters are complex. Locales have their own personalities, the world is fleshed out, side characters and side stories are both brilliant. It's an intricate and well crafted work. On the other hand, to quote one of the characters: "...You talk about it to me as someone else might talk about the weather." Can be dry and a bit of a slog; some of the side stories, while interesting, feel forced into the broader narrative. Books do not stand on their own at all as individual stories. In terms of quality, I would probably say: 3, 2, 4, 1.
• Full Review

Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg's

• Plot: An amnesiac wanderer goes on an epic quest to reclaim his identity.
• Page Count: 506
• Award: 1981 Locus
• Worth a read: Yes
• Primary Driver: World, Character
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: Minimal.
• Review: Despite it's sluggish pace and constant meanders there is something absolutely engrossing about this book. Tapdances right on the border of SF and Fantasy - and successfully balances both. Character interaction and conversations are solid throughout. Remarkable establishment of side-character personalities - including minor characters having their own arcs. Excellent use of power crawl and believable evolution of Valentine from passive to active protagonist. Got pretty tired of reading about juggling.
• Full Review

Timescape by Gregory Benford

• Plot: The only way to stop environmental and societal collapse is to contact the past to stop it from happening.
• Page Count: 499
• Award: 1981 Nebula
• Worth a read: Oof. Somewhat?
• Primary Driver: World, Character
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: To the max.
• Review: I cannot figure out why I enjoyed this book, but I did... until the truly interminable final 20%. Interesting applications of paradoxes, time loops, determinism, and everything else that fits in a good time-based story. That said, it's unbelievably slow. The majority of drama and action is about academic clashes, but I was somehow invested nonetheless. Some excellent character work; this does not apply to the women, who are all philandering, repressed, nymphomaniac arm-candy for the men involved. I hope you like the word "Tachyon" because you're going to see it a lot.
• Full Review

The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

• Plot: The backwater planet of Tiamat has been under the control of the Snow Queen for 150 years. Summer is coming.
• Page Count: 448
• Award: 1981 Hugo
• Worth a read: Yes
• Primary Driver: World, Character
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: Minimal.
• Review: A delightful mix of fantasy tropes with science fiction twists. Tiamat itself feels solidly fantasy; the ageless Snow Queen, The Lady who gives some people visions and helps them, the separate regimes of Summer and Winter. Yet it is but one planet - and the rest are technologically developed. It's a remarkable balance that works surprisingly well. Side characters are great; distinct justifications, backstories, history together. Protagonists are... fine. The driving motivation being, once again, cousins in love... not great. They're also quite passive, which gets tiresome.
• Full Review

The Many-Colored Land by Julian May

• Plot: There's a portal that goes back six million years into the past and it only gets wackier from there.
• Page Count: 433
• Award: 1982 Locus
• Worth a read: Yes
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: Moderate.
• Review: This book is delightful. The premise is ridiculous, the explanations of "science" to explain what happened are pretty much nonexistent... but it's just so fun. Every opportunity where this book could go off the rails it does so. The characters are fun, though shallow. This book is what happens when you throw a sack of different world-building related nouns into a blender and say, "Sure!" Are the rules consistent? Yes, in that there are none. I was regularly surprised by things to the point where I was laughing out loud.
• Full Review

No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop

• Plot: If you think hard enough, you get to the past!
• Page Count: 397
• Award: 1982 Nebula
• Worth a read: This is one of the worst books I've ever read.
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: Fail(?)
• Technobabble: Moderate.
• Review: Look, he uses his chance to go back in time to have sex with proto-humans. And yes, the pacing is awful, but at least the prose is terrible. I have nothing positive to say about this one, except that I've never seen the word "beshat" in a book. This is one of the very few I've encountered with an African American man as the lead - and holy guacamole is it an insulting portrayal.
• Full Review

Sundiver by David Brin

• Plot: Somehow, the Galactics missed a species - sentient creatures living at the edge of the Sun. It's up to humanity to investigate.
• Page Count: 340
• Award: Book 1 of the Uplift Trilogy - Books 2 and 3 won awards.
• Worth a read: Skip this one but read the next two.
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: Fail
• Technobabble: Frequent.
• Review: At the core of this book is a great theme: to join the broader galaxy of enlightened species, populations must be "Uplifted" - brought into the fold via a sponsor, and civilized. There's a key question - which race Uplifted humans? All of this is fun, and well done. It is also still at the heart of the sequel, which is a much better book. The plot of this is... fine. Characters are bland, interactions are stilted, relationships unbelievable. This isn't exactly a bad book - but it has nothing on the sequel, and is not necessary reading to understand it.
• Full Review

Startide Rising by David Brin

• Plot: Things quickly get out of hand when a ship crewed by humans, dolphins, and a chimp stumble upon a massive armada of abandoned spaceships, escalating to galactic-level drama.
• Page Count: 498
• Award: 1984 Hugo, 1984 Nebula, 1984 Locus SF
• Worth a read: All aboard the hype train! Toot toot!
• Primary Driver: Plot, World, or Character
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: Moderate.
• Review: Sweet kittens and milk is this thing excellent. It's not a perfect book - characters can be hard to keep track of, relationships can be forced, some parts drag, and the machina has a whole bunch of deus. But there are so many good ideas in here. Uplift is brought to the fore: that a species needs another to bring it to the galactic scene. But what does that mean? How do we recreate other species in our own image? What debts do we owe each other? What if attempts to help a species fail? It's pure delightful science fiction - a masterpiece of speculation and technology and species and politics.
• Full Review

The Uplift War by David Brin

• Plot: It's all-out war pitting the Earthlings (both human and chimp) and their allies against the Gubru, a race of birdlike aliens... with no sense of humor.
• Page Count: 638
• Award: 1988 Hugo, 1988 Locus SF
• Worth a read: Yes
• Primary Driver: Plot, World, or Character
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: Moderate.
• Review: Everything that makes the concept of Uplift delightful is still here. This is a good follow up to Startide Rising - but not a necessary one. Quality of writing is better, but pacing fluctuates, an overwhelming cast of characters can be hard to track, and deuses jump out of machinas frequently. This does add more depth to the mechanics of Uplift, but not to the broader ideas that made Startide Rising so cool.
• Full Review

Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea.\*
\The Incompleat Nifft,* which is the original and it's sequel.

• Plot: Nifft is a brilliant thief and an accomplished grifter. He'd probably be rich already, if his luck was a bit better. But the next score will be the big one!
• Page Count: 576
• Award: 1982 World Fantasy Award (Nifft the Lean)
• Worth a read: Absolutely
• Primary Driver: Plot, World, Character
• Bechdel Test: Fail
• Technobabble: Minimal to moderate (if we're including fantasy babble).
• Review: What an absolute joy to read. It's classic sword and sorcery in the best way. A number of shorter tales linked together throw Nifft all over the globe - and to hell and back - allowing the reader to see all sorts of different things. Pacing is quick, humor lands well. Character tropes are used to good effect, allowing quick 'n' dirty introductions to lots of different players. That said, there are a number of truly engaging characters and surprising twists. It's a light, quick, and delightful read.
• Full Review

Little, Big by John Crowley

• Plot: A multigenerational family drama mixed with a healthy dose of magical realism.
• Page Count: 627
• Award: 1982 World Fantasy Award
• Worth a read: No
• Primary Driver: World, Character [Charitably]
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: Moderate Fantasy Babble.
• Review: I loathed this book. Pacing could be charitably described as dreamy - but more aptly as between lethargic and catatonic. Characters are as plentiful as they are unimaginative and disposable. Plot is not really a feature: all of the standbys for family drama are here, from "You're Not the Father!" through "A Surprise Same-Sex Encounter?!" with a bit of "But She's My Sister!" thrown in for good measure. Quality of writing is decent, but some striking phrasing and evocative images are nowhere near enough to redeem this one.
• Full Review

Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh

• Plot: It's politics! In... SPACE!
• Page Count: 526
• Award: 1982 Hugo
• Worth a read: No.
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: ...I'm not sure.
• Technobabble: Moderate.
• Review: The fact that I did not out and out die of boredom while reading this is all of the proof I needed to confirm that I have, in fact, been dead the whole time. It's an epic space opera with emphasis on the opera portion (for length and pacing, that is). A hefty cast of forgettable and interchangeable characters existing in a generic SF setting coupled with truly glacial pacing made this an absolute chore to read. Even scenes that should be exciting manage to be completely bland due to style choices. A smattering of neat ideas (clever uses of mind wipes in particular) are nowhere near enough to redeem this dud.
• Full Review

Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

• Plot: Psychohistory: The use of mathematics and psychology to predict the course of human events.
• Page Count:
• - Foundation: 244
• - Foundation and Empire: 256
• - Second Foundation: 279
• Award: Hugo for Best All-Time Series. Book 4 (next post!) won a Hugo and Nebula.
• Worth a read: Yes
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: Fail
• Technobabble: High but plot relevant.
• Review: A set of nine interconnected stories that demonstrate the power and pitfalls of Psychohistory. Generally good writing and clever twists keep things engaging. A whole lot of exposition dumps. Characters are all flat. Concept is excellent, and each story highlights a different aspect. Feels like each segment successfully treads new ground, as opposed to rehashing. Some diminishing returns by the end, but absolutely worth a read as a whole. And the stories have aged astoundingly well.
• Full Review

Foundation's Edge Isaac Asimov

• Plot: Did you want another story set in the Foundation universe? You got one. It's a hunt for the Second Foundation, controlling things from behind the curtain.
• Page Count: 450
• Award: 1983 Locus SF and 1983 Hugo
• Worth a read: Please don't kill me, but No
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: Fail
• Technobabble: Moderate to high.
• Review: Some interesting moments mixed with some truly bizarre choices. Plot seems to constantly be a scene where one character says, "Ah, I knew he would do that, and instead..." and then the next says, "Ah, I knew you would counter that, so I..." and on we go. I did not enjoy the conclusion of this; in a universe with a number of interesting concepts, throwing in another in Act III of another book is an odd move. I hypothesize that this won because the previous three did not. Does not add anything interesting to the Foundation Universe; instead undercuts the core concepts that make the first three appealing.
• Full Review

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

• Plot: The legend of King Arthur often ignores the importance of the women who put him in power and kept him there.
• Page Count: 1009. One Thousand and Nine. One one, two zeroes, and a nine, in that order. In binary: 1111110001
• Award: 1984 Locus Fantasy
• Worth a read: Nope.
• Primary Driver: World, or Character
• Bechdel Test: Pass
• Technobabble: N/A.
• Review: For a book that is about the strong women surrounding King Arthur, dang are all the female characters weak. They are almost all motivated by some mix of: love, forbidden love, lust, desire for children, marriage, envy of beauty... every entry on the "women's reasons" list. Characters either blend together or eventually become caricatures of themselves - especially Gwenhwyfar, whose presence makes a scene unbearable. There are some really exceptional moments here, and some genuine surprises. But too few and too far between in a 1000 page epic.
• Full Review

The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford

• Plot: Shifting alliances butt heads in this alternate history, including England's Richard III, the Medici, the Byzantine Empire, and also vampires.
• Page Count: 368
• Award: 1984 World Fantasy Award
• Worth a read: If there were no other books left on Earth, and I had an unlimited supply of kindling, lighter fluid, and firewood, I'd still burn this.
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: Fail.
• Technobabble: None.
• Review: This book is just well and truly awful. The haughty condescension from the author about how grounded the historical aspects are clashed with some painfully bad attempts at changing the past. Mix in some truly baffling choices as to when to adhere to actual historical events and when to veer away, and you've got yourself a stew. Characters have no traits that aren't explicitly stated, and, in the name of "subterfuge" these characteristics can change on a dime. Pacing is abysmal - switching at random from plodding discussions to sloppy action. Fantasy elements are handled with the grace of a baseball bat to the stomach.
• Full Review

The Integral Trees by Larry Niven

• Plot: The Smoke Ring has everything needed for survival - except for ground. Survival itself is a struggle in constant freefall.
• Page Count: 272
• Award: 1985 Hugo
• Worth a read: No
• Primary Driver: World
• Bechdel Test: Fail
• Technobabble: You betchya.
• Review: A fascinating and cleverly constructed world full of unique fauna and striking vistas. Unfortunately it is populated by a bland, interchangeable, and generally uncompelling cast of characters. This is a striking downfall in a survival story; tragedy and difficulty mean little if one is not invested in any of the players involved. Worth skimming at a library for a taste of the world, but that alone does not carry a novel - this felt much longer than its 270 pages.
• Full Review

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

• Plot: Number Ten Ox sets out to help his village and ends up wrapped up in a centuries-old conflict.
• Page Count: 271
• Award: 1985 World Fantasy Award
• Worth a read: Yes. Right now.
• Primary Driver: Plot, World, Character
• Bechdel Test: Fail
• Technobabble: Fantasy Babble - yes
• Review: A gem. Excellent writing, charming characters, engaging plot. Many books use Greco-Roman or Norse Mythology and it's a breath of fresh air to see an unrelated mythos and fables in a book. The world as depicted is both complex and fascinating. One of the most fun and novel books I've encountered. I was constantly surprised, but it never felt like cheating. At points heartbreaking, at points laugh-out-loud funny.
• Full Review

And a bonus! A fellow Redditor asked me to check out his book, and kindly sent me a copy:
Constructors by Russell Libonati

• Plot: Colonization is a difficult enough prospect, but we definitely didn't do enough research on the resident life before we started.
• Page Count: 203
• Worth a read: Yes.
• Primary Driver: World, Character
• Bechdel Test: Fail
• Technobabble: Mild to Moderate
• Review: Surprisingly enjoyable and a breeze to read. Humor is executed well without being overwhelming, characters have distinct personalities, dialogue is generally crisp. Relies at some points on tropes, but has enough novel ideas to be worth a read - especially at this length. It's a fun afternoon. Even after reading everything else, it's nice to get a new take on alien life - which is, in its own way, an impressive feat, given just how much SF material exists already.
• Full Review

If you haven’t seen the others:

• Vol 1: 1950s
• Vol 2: 1960s
• Vol 3: 1970s Part 1
• Vol 4: Late 70s~1980

Any questions or comments? Fire away!
A truly massive thank you to u/gremdel for mailing me a bunch of books! People like you are what make this endeavor worth the effort. And some of these books are dang near impossible to find, so… invaluable aid!
Some of the above are a bit out of order to maintain series cohesion - it seemed silly to leave off The Uplift War, for example, while doing this batch.
I’ve been using this spreadsheet, as well as a couple others that kind Redditors have sent. So a huge thanks to u/velzerat and u/BaltSHOWPLACE
At the request of a number of you, I’ve written up extended reviews of everything and made a blog for them. I’ve included the links with the posts for individual books. I try to put up new reviews as fast as I read them.
Also, yes - these are only the books that won “Best Novel” and not any version of First Novel/Short Story/Novella or anything else. I might take a breather at some point and do some short stories, but that is a task for another day.
The Bechdel Test is a simple question: do two named female characters converse about something other than a man. Whether or not a book passes is not a condemnation so much as an observation; it provides an easy binary marker. Seems like a good way to see how writing has evolved over the years. At the suggestion of some folks, I’m loosening it to non-male identified characters to better capture some of the ways that science fiction tackles sex and gender. For a better explanation of why it’s useful, check out this comment from u/Gemmabeta

Updated for Investors Day and Legends

Legends - January 8th 2021

Synopsis

Post-Investors' Day, Marvel announced a new series focused on iconic moments and characters of the MCU, with the first two episodes focusing on Wanda Maximoff and The Vision, recapping their stories a week before WandaVision premieres

Wandavision - January 15th 2021

Synopsis

The very first Marvel Studios series on Disney+, and the first content of Phase 4. With 6 episodes, this series explores the powers and capabilities of two of the most powerful heroes of the MCU, exploring their relationship and new marriage through the medium of various sitcoms throughout the decades, as well as dealing with Vision's sentience, after being killed when Wanda destroyed the Mind Stone, only to be brought back to life by Thanos and the Time Stone and killed again when Thanos ripped the Mind Stone from his head.

Links

Following directly on from Avengers: Endgame, the series pulls in characters from all over the MCU, specifically Darcy Lewis from Thor and Thor: The Dark World, Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and The Wasp and Monica Rambeau from Captain Marvel.
Elizabeth Olsen will transition from this series into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, while Monica Rambeau will go from this series into Captain Marvel 2.

Crew

• Director: Matt Shakman (The Boys, Game of Thrones)
• Cinematographer: Jess Hall (Hot Fuzz, 30 Minutes or Less)
• Head Writer: Jac Schaeffer (Black Widow, The Hustle)

Cast

• Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch)
• Paul Bettany (The Vision)
• Kat Dennings (Darcy Lewis)
• Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau)
• Randall Park (Jimmy Woo)
• Kathryn Hahn (Agnes)
• Fred Melamed (Arthur Heart)
• Debra Jo Rupp (Mrs. Heart)
• Jolene Purdy (Undisclosed Role)
• Asif Ali (Undisclosed Role)

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - March 19th 2021

Synopsis

Originally meant to be the first series of the MCU, the show is described as a movie played out over 6 episodes. The series follows Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes as they cope with Steve Rogers' retirement and the legacy of Captain America, with Sam Wilson being passed the mantle while the U.S. government try and replace him themselves.

Links

Leading from the fallout of Avengers: Endgame, the show brings back feature characters originally from the Captain America series, specifically Sharon Carter of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War and its villain, Baron Zemo as well as a minor character from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Georges Bartoc, better known as Batroc the Leaper.

Crew

• Director: Kari Skogland (The Handmaid's Tale, The Punisher)
• Cinematographer: Zoe White (The Handmaid's Tale, Westworld)
• Head Writer: Malcolm Spellman (Empire, Our Family Wedding)

Cast

• Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/ The Falcon)
• Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier)
• Emily van Camp (Sharon Carter)
• Daniel Brühl (Baron Zemo)
• Wyatt Russell (U.S. Agent/John Walker)
• Georges St-Pierre (Georges Bartoc/Batroc the Leaper)
• Noah Mills (Undisclosed Role)
• Adepero Oduye (Undisclosed Role)
• Desmond Chiam (Undisclosed Role)
• Miki Ishikawa (Undisclosed Role)
• Carl Lumbly (Undisclosed Role)
• Erin Kellyman (Undisclosed Role)
• Danny Ramirez (Undisclosed Role)

Black Widow - May 7th 2021

Synopsis

The solo movie for the first female Avenger, this movie was intended to be the first content of Phase 4, but still holds the title as the first movie of Phase 4. The Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her history when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her arises, bringing back faces from her past.

Links

Set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, the show brings back General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross from The Incredible Hulk, seemingly in a flashback.
The movie will connect to Hawkeye with Florence Pugh recently joining the show's cast, and touches upon the long awaited Budapest story, first mentioned in The Avengers.

Crew

• Director: Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome, Lore)
• Cinematographer: Gabriel Beristain (Agent Carter, Item 47)
• Head Writer: Jac Schaeffer (Wandavision, The Hustle)

Cast

• Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow)
• Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova)
• David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian)
• Rachel Weisz (Melania Vostokoff)
• William Hurt (General Thaddeus Ross)
• O.T. Fagbenle (Rick Mason)
• Ray Winstone (General Dreykov)
• Olivier Richters (Undisclosed Role)

Loki - May 2021

Synopsis

After Loki escapes capture and escapes The Avengers, he uses The Tesseract to travel human history and alter the past, when he is captured by the Time Variance Authority in a 6 Episode Crime Thriller, exploring some mysteries in human history that were never explained.

Links

Following on from Loki's escape in Avengers: Endgame during the events from The Avengers.
This show will link directly to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Crew

• Director: Kate Herron (Sex Education, Daybreak)
• Cinematographer: Autumn Durald (Mainstream, Beastie Boys Story)
• Head Writer: Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Rick and Morty)

Cast

• Tom Hiddlestone (Loki)
• Owen Wilson (Mobius M. Mobius)
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw (TVA Judge)
• Wunmi Mosaku (Unknown Role)
• Sophia Di Martino (Undisclosed Role)
• Sasha Lane (Undisclosed Role)
• Richard E. Grant (Guest Role)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - July 9th 2021

Plot

In the second movie of Phase 4, Shang-Chi must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.

Links

The Ten Rings have popped up infrequently in the MCU, but they were the first villain we saw all the way back at the start. The Ten Rings kidnapped Tony Stark under Obadiah Stane's orders in Iron Man. They also assisted Ivan Vanko in reaching Monaco in Iron Man 2, something not well known by fans who don't read the canon comics. However, after two films of teasing, it appeared in Iron Man 3 that Tony Stark would go against The Mandarin himself, only for it to be an elaborate ruse, orchestrated by Aldrich Killian himself, using Trevory Slattery to pose as The Mandarin and take responsibility for Killian's terrorist attacks.
Trevor Slattery was last seen in Marvel One Shot: Long Live The King when he was kidnapped by The Ten Rings.
The Ten Rings were last teased in Ant-Man, when a member bearing the group's insignia were present at the Yellowjacket suit presentation
The group was also mentioned in Daredevil, a WHIH Newsfront Special and various canon comics.

Crew

• Director: Destin Daniel Crettin (Just Mercy, The Glass Castle)
• Cinematographer: Bill Pope (Baby Driver, The Jungle Book)
• Head Writer: Dave Callaham (Wonderwoman 1984, Zombieland: Double Tap)

Cast

• Simu Liu (Shang-Chi)
• Tony Chiu-Wai Leung (Wenwu/The Mandarin)
• Awkwafina (Fah Lo Suee)
• Florian Munteanu (Razor Fist)
• Michelle Yeoh (Jiang Nan)
• Falah Chen (Jiang Li)
• Meng'er Zhang (Xialing)
• Ronny Chieng (Jon Jon)

Marvel's What If? - Summer 2021

Plot

In Marvel Studios' first animation, this show explores what could have happened given a big or small tweak in the movies. The show will explore different storylines while staying in keeping with the characters and movies from the MCU, with voices and storylines from the first three phases of the universe.
Episode Details

• What If... Peggy Carter has been given the Super Serum? (Captain Carter)
• What If... Captain America had turned into a Zombie? (Marvel Zombies)
• What If... TChalla had been kidnapped by Yondu and became Star-Lord?
• What If... Loki's plan succeeded in Thor?

Cast

• Director: Bryan Andrews (Jackie Chan Adventures (Animated), Men In Black: The Series (Animated))
• Animation Studio: Squeeze (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Transformers: Age of Extinction)
• Head Writer: A.C. Bradley (Arrow, Tales of Arcadia)

Cast

• Jeffrey Wright (Uatu the Watcher)
• Josh Brolin (Thanos)
• Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
• Tom Hiddleston (Loki)
• Natalie Portman (Jane Foster)
• Taika Waititi (Korg)
• Jeff Goldblum (Grandmaster)
• Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner)
• Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury)
• Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton)
• Michael Rooker (Yondu Udonta)
• Karen Gillan (Nebula)
• Paul Rudd (Scott Lang)
• Michael Douglas (Hank Pym)
• David Dastmalchian (Kurt)
• Michael B. Jordan (Killmonger)
• Chadwick Boseman (T'Challa)
• Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes)
• Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter)
• Stanley Tucci (Abraham Erskine)
• Toby Jones (Arnim Zola)
• Neal McDonough (Dum-Dum Dugan)
• Sean Gunn (Kraglin Obfonteri)
• Djimon Hounsou (Korath )
• Dominic Cooper (Howard Stark)
• Chris Sullivan (Taserface)

Eternals - July 9th 2021

Plot

In this group origin movie that dates back to at least 800BC, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. An unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, The Deviants.

Links

Marvel have revealed the events of Avengers: Endgame cause the events of this movie to unfold.

Crew

• Director: Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, The Rider)
• Cinematographer: Ben Davis (Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy)
• Head Writers: Kaz and Matthew Firpo (Luckboxes, Child's Play)

Cast

• Kit Harington (Black Knight)
• Richard Madden (Ikaris)
• Kamail Nanjiani (Kingo)
• Angelina Jolie (Thena)
• Salma Hayek (Ajak)
• Gemma Chan (Sersi)
• Lauren Ridloff (Makkari)
• Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos)
• Lia McHugh (Sprite)
• Don Lee (Gilgamesh)
• Barry Keoghan (Druig)
• Haaz Sleiman (Phasto's Husband)

Untitled Spider-Man: Far From Home Sequel - December 17th 2021

Plot

The last in the Sony/Marvel trilogy leads on from Far From Home when Peter Parker was outed as Spider-Man and he was implicated in the cold-blooded murder of Mysterio.

Links

The movie will directly carry on from Spider-Man: Far From Home. It features Doctor Strange, and the events of the movie will tie directly into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
In a very exciting turn of events, cast members from the original Spider-Man trilogy and the rebooted franchise, The Amazing Spider-Man, are confirmed to have roles in the film.

Crew

• Director: Jon Watts (Spiderman: Homecoming, Spiderman: Far From Home)
• Cinematographer: Seamus McGarvey (Bad Times At The El Royale, The Greatest Showman)
• Head Writers: Erik Sommers & Chris McKenna (Spiderman: Homecoming, Spiderman: Far From Home)

Cast

• Tom Holland (Peter ParkeSpider-Man)
• Andrew Garfield (Peter ParkeSpider-Man)
• Zendaya (M.J.)
• Kristen Dunst (Mary Jane Watson)
• Jacob Batalon (Ned Leeds)
• Benedict Cumberbatch (DoctoStephen Strange)
• Jaime Foxx (Maxwell Dillion/Electro)
• Alfred Molina (Otto Octavius/Doc Ock)
• Marisa Tomei (Aunt May)
• Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan)
• Tony Revolori (Flash Thompson)

Hawkeye - Late 2021

Plot

As Clint Barton comes to terms with his new life, post-Endgame, this explores his life as Ronin, his family life after losing them for five years, and his journey in passing on the mantle of Hawkeye to Kate Bishop.

Links

The show has direct tie-ins with Avengers: Endgame, and Barton's life between snaps.
Florence Pugh of Black Widow is in the cast, as well as Clint's children, last seen in Avengers: Endgame.

Crew

• Directors:
  Bert and Bertie (Kidding, The Great)
  Rhys Thomas (Saturday Night Live, Documentary Now!)
  
• Cinematographer: Eric Steelberg (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Dolemite Is My Name)
  
• Head Writer: Jonathan Igla (Sorry For Your Loss, Mad Men)
  

Cast

• Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye)
• Haliee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop)
• Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova)
• Vera Farmiga (Eleanor Bishop)
• Fra Fee (Kazimierz Kazimierczak)
• Tony Dalton (Jack Duquesne/Swordsman)
• Alaqua Cox (Echo)
• Zahn McClarnon (William Lopez)
• Ava Russo (Lila Barton)
• Ben Sakamoto (Cooper Barton)
• Cade Woodward (Nathaniel Barton)
• Jolt (Lucky the Pizza Dog)

Ms. Marvel - Late 2021

Plot

The first Marvel Studios show to title feature a new character, it follows Kamala Khan - a 16-year-old Pakistani-American in Jersey City, who follows The Avengers' stories and idolises Captain Marvel, while being an outcast at home and at school until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to.

Links

Kamala Khan's favourite Avenger and namesake of her own superhero name is Carol Danvers from Captain Marvel.
Ms. Marvel will feature in Captain Marvel 2

Crew

• Directors:
  Adil El Arbi & Bilall Farrah (Bad Boys For Life, Beverly Hills Cop 4)
  Meera Menon (The Punisher, GLOW)
  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (3 Bahadur, Sitara: Let Girls Dream)
  
• Cinematographer: Carmen Cabana (Narcos, Teofilo)
  
• Head Writer: Bisha K Ali (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sex Education)
  

Cast

• Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan)
• Zenobia Shroff (Muneeba Khan)
• Laith Nakli (Sheikh Abdullah)
• Matt Lintz (Bruno Carrelli)
• Yasmeen Fletcher (Nakia Bahadir)
• Aramis Knight (Kareem/Red Dagger)
• Rish Shah (Kamran)
• Travina Springer (Tyesha Hillman)
• Mohan Kapur (Kamala Khan's Father)
• Saagar Shaikh (Undisclosed Role)
• Azher Usman (Undisclosed Role)
• Nimra Bucha (Undisclosed Role)

Thor: Love and Thunder - May 6th 2022

Plot

The first character to get his own 4th movie, Thor: Love and Thunder is based on The Mighty Thor comic run, and features the female Thor. The movie also explores Valkyrie following her promotion to King of Asgard, as she handles that responsibility and looks for a Queen to help her.

Links

Thor was last seen in Avengers: Endgame boarding The Benatar with the team of The Guardians of the Galaxy, some of whom are confirmed to be in this sequel.
Jane Foster is rejoining the team, last seen in Thor: The Dark World, last mentioned in Thor: Ragnarok in reference to her split from Thor. Joining her, Lady Sif is back after a long absence, last seen on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but last on the big screen in _Thor: The Dark World before disappearing, saving her from the slaughter of The Warriors Three and the Asgardian Army

Crew

• Director: Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit)
• Cinematographer: Todd Banhazl (Hustlers, Blow The Man Down)
• Head Writer: Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, What We Do In The Shadows)

Cast

• Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
• Christian Bale (Gorr the God Butcher)
• Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie)
• Natalie Portman (Jane Foster)
• Jaime Alexander (Lady Sif)
• Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord)
• Karen Gillian (Nebula)
• Vin Diesel (Groot)
• Taika Waititi (Korg)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - March 25th 2022

Plot

As Doctor Stephen Strange continues his research on the Time Stone, Baron Mordo returns, once a friend to Strange, now an enemy hell-bent on undoing the work that the Sorcerers have done. When he interferes with Strange's work on the Time Stone, he causes Strange to unleash unspeakable evil in the MCUs first movie to heavily feature horror elements.

Links

The sequel to Doctor Strange, this films comes directly out of the Untitled Spider-Man: Far From Home Sequel and Wandavision, featuring Wanda Maximoff herself.

Crew

• Director: Sam Raimi (Original Spider-Man Trilogy)
• Cinematographer: John Mathison (Logan, X-Men: First Class)
• Head Writers: Michael Waldron (Loki, Rick and Morty)

Cast

• Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange)
• Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff)
• Xochitl Gomez (America Chavez)
• Chiwetel Ejiofor (Baron Mordo)
• Benedict Wong (Wong)
• Rachel McAdams (Christine Palmer)

Black Panther II - July 8th 2022

Plot

After confirming the character of King T'Challa will not be recast, we know that the sequel to the Billion Dollar film will explore more of Wakanda and the characters from there we already know, following T'Challa's revelation of Wakanda's immense power, and promise to bring that to the rest of the world

Links

The film is a sequel to Black Panther, the characters of which were last seen battling Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.

Crew

• Director: Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed)
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writer: Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed)

Cast

• Letitia Wright (Shuri)
• Lupita Nyong'o (Nakia)
• Winston Duke (M'Baku)
• Angela Bassett (Ramonda)
• Tenoch Huerta (Unnamed Villain)

Captain Marvel 2 - November 11th 2022

Plot

The first female led sequel in the franchise will be set in the Present Day MCU, following the revival of her friend Nick Fury, the film will initially be set on Earth.

Links

The sequel to Captain Marvel, the titular character was last seen in Avengers: Endgame.
The movie will feature Kamala Khan from Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau, first seen as a child in Captain Marvel, she will feature in Wandavision before this movie.

Crew

• Director: Nia DaCosta (Candyman, Top Boy)
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writer: Megan McDonnell (WandaVision)

Cast

• Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel)
• Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel)
• Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau)

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special - Christmas 2022

Links

The first Holiday Special of the MCU is released on Disney+ after Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 and features the same cast as Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3.

Crew

• Director: James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writer: James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)

Cast

• Chris Pratt (Peter Quill)
• Zoe Saldana (Gamora)
• Karen Gillian (Nebula)
• Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer)
• Pom Klementieff (Mantis)
• Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon)
• Vin Diesel (Groot)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - 2023

Links

Following on from their time on Earth in Avengers: Endgame, this movie will be released after The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and will be linked to Thor: Love and Thunder, which select cast members will have featured in.

Crew

• Director: James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special)
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writer: James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special)

Cast

• Chris Pratt (Peter Quill)
• Zoe Saldana (Gamora)
• Karen Gillian (Nebula)
• Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer)
• Pom Klementieff (Mantis)
• Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon)
• Vin Diesel (Groot)

Moon Knight - TBA

Plot

An action-adventure series focusing on Marc Spector, a superpowered vigilante with Disassociative Identity Disorder, with the plot encased in the exploration of Egyptology.

Crew

• Director: Mohamed Diab (Clash, Cairo 678)
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writer: Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four, The Umbrella Academy)

She-Hulk - TBA

Plot

The series follows Jennifer Walters, a Green 6' 7" Lawyer who specialises in superhero orientated legal cases.

Links

The cast features The Abomination from The Incredible Hulk, as well as Bruce Banner himself, last seen as Professor Hulk in Avengers: Endgame.
Kevin Feige teased that due to the nature of her job, "you never know what Marvel characters might pop up from episode to episode".

• Directors
  Kat Coiro (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Dead To Me)
  Anu Valia (A.P. Bio, Mixed-ish)
  
• Cinematographer: Unknown
  
• Head Writer: Dana Schwartz (The United States of Detroit)
  

Cast

• Tatiana Maslany (Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk)
• Tim Roth (Eric Blonsky/The Abomination)
• Mark Ruffalo (Bruce BanneThe Hulk/Professor Hulk)

Blade - TBA

Cast

• Mahershala Ali (Blade)

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantamania - TBA

Crew

• Director: Peyton Reed (Ant-Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp)
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writer: Jeff Loveness (Rick and Morty, Miracle Workers)

Cast

• Paul Rudd (Ant-Man)
• Evangeline Lilly (The Wasp)
• Jonathan Majors (Kang the Conquerer)
• Michael Douglas (Hank Pym)
• Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet van Dyne)
• Kathryn Newtown (Cassie Lang)

Marvel's What If (Season 2) - TBA

(10 Episodes)

Crew

• Director: Unknown
• Animation Studio: Squeeze (Marvel's What If? (Season 1), Transformers: Age of Extinction)
• Head Writer: Unknown

Untitled Deadpool Sequel - TBA

Crew

• Director: Unknown
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writers:

Wendy Molyneux (Bob's Burgers, The Megan Mullally Show)
Lizzie Molyneux (Bob's Burgers, The Great North)

Cast:

• Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool)

Secret Invasion - TBA

Plot

Nick Fury and his team grapple with the revelation that a sect of Skrulls have infiltrated every level of life on Earth, and struggle to regain control.

Links

Secret Invasion is one of the biggest crossover events in Marvel Comics and it's unpredictable who might be in this show, but Feige confirms the plot of this show will directly correlate with the MCU's feature films
The show's plot stems directly from Captain Marvel and the set-up was teased by Talos in Spider-Man: Far From Home, the end credits of which showed Nick Fury having formed a base in Space with Skrill allies.

Crew

• Director: Unknown
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Head Writer: Kyle Bradstreet (Mr. Robot, The Philanthropist)

Cast

• Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury)
• Ben Mendelsohn (Talos)

Ironheart - TBA

Plot

The show follows Riri Williams, a young woman who has developed the most advanced suit of armour since Iron Man's.

Links

Kevin Feige confirmed this show will directly tie to the MCU Feature Films.

Cast

• Dominique Thorne (Riri Williams/Ironheart)

Armor Wars - TBA

Plot

The show follows the fallout when the Iron Man technology falls into the wrong hands.

Links

The plot of this show was projected in Iron Man 2, when Tony Stark fought against the government taking his weaponry and argued that the rest of the world was decades away from developing the technology.
War Machine was last seen in Avengers: Endgame.

Cast

• Don Cheadle (James Rhodes/War Machine)

I Am Groot - TBA

Plot

The first series of MCU shorts features Baby Groot on adventures with new and unusual characters

Links

Baby Groot was a member of the team in Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, meaning this series is set between Guardians of the Galaxy and the end credits of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2

Cast

• Vin Diesel (Baby Groot)

Loki (Season 2) - TBA

Crew

• Director: Unknown
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Writer: Michael Waldron (Loki (Season 1), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

Fantastic Four - TBA

Crew

• Director: Jon Watts (Spider-Man Trilogy)
• Cinematographer: Unknown
• Writer: Unknown

(First off, I'm aware that I'm putting way too much thought into creating an in-universe explanation for plot armor. Don't judge me. I have a lot of time on my hands. If you don't want to read all this, just read the bolded parts)
The most important spell used in the Harry Potter books was the one Lily chose to cast over Harry. By specifically choosing to die out of love rather than choosing to live (that's why James's sacrifice did nothing), she created a protection for Harry capable of overpowering Avada Kedavra, the most powerful spell known to wizards. Harry then later chose to make that same deliberate sacrifice for his friends, causing all of Voldemort's spells to be harmless against them.
The Founders of Hogwarts chose to sacrifice themselves in order in order to cast that same protection spell over the grounds of Hogwarts, to protect the students there.
The books themselves even hint at it pretty clearly. Dumbledore mentions that "The castle is a stronghold of ancient magic" (notably, the only other time Dumbledore specifically mentions ancient magic is when he is explaining Harry's protection to him). When Ron discusses how Sirius broke into Hogwarts, Hermione says that "This castle is protected by more than walls.". Finally, Hagrid tells Harry that "Gringotts is the safest place there is-- 'cept maybe Hogwarts."
It seems strange how people regard Hogwarts as safe, given the hundreds of underage witches and wizards with zero training all trying to do magic and make potions. Yet, when there was a single death (Myrtle), people flipped out, and considered closing the school. That indicates that death was incredibly uncommon.
The Founders' spell altered situations and probability to help students escape mortal danger or severe harm
This is basically required to just run the school, even without any of Harry & co.'s hijinks. Students repeatedly test new spells on themselves and others in class, and brew potions that can turn toxic with even a small mistake. They deal with dangerous creatures on a near daily basis, and their one sport literally features hitting opponents with a 40 pound metal ball to try and knock them off their broom to a 50 foot drop. The protection spell makes sure all those situations end up safely (at least relatively so).
Let's just run through a list of examples:
Pre-HP books:

• Tom Riddle attempted to use the Basilisk while at Hogwarts, and Dippet mentions a series of attacks, yet Myrtle is the only death. We can assume there was a series of fantastic coincidences that managed to save them, just like his second attempt.

Philosopher's Stone

• Neville falls about 30 feet off his broom, and is completely fine
• Harry's broom is bewitched by Quirrel/Voldemort, a powerful dark wizard, yet manages to hang on.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione get through a series of deadly traps, and take on Quirrel/Voldemort in person. Yes, Voldemort couldn't kill Harry, but the deadly plants, vicious chess pieces, and poison definitely could. Ron got crushed brutally by a stone chess piece and was fine.

Chamber of Secrets:

• During Riddle's second attempt, via diary, crazy coincidences kept happening: Colin is looking through a camera, Mrs. Norris is looking at a puddle, Ernie is looking through Nick, etc. How could six people/animals/ghosts (along with all the students from the first time) be that lucky?
• Ron carries around a defective wand for his second year, which constantly does spells wrong and backfires, eventually exploding with the force of a grenade. Despite that, there's never any permanent harm.
• Hermione takes a bad polyjuice potion, something that is explicitly stated to be deadly, or at minimum, horrifically painful, yet it's only a minor inconvenience. She also managed to brew Harry and Ron's perfectly, despite it being an incredibly difficult potion to make, even for skilled witches and wizards.
• Harry gets hit by a giant flying piece of metal, falls 40-50 feet to the ground, and only ends up with a broken arm.

Prisoner of Azkaban:

• Harry is attacked by dementors, somehow manages not to get his soul sucked out, and falls over a hundred feet, being conveniently caught by Dumbledore (who apparently didn't decide to save him the other time he fell off his broom).
• Malfoy is attacked by Buckbeak, and receives only a minor injury. He deliberately insulted a deadly, 600 pound beast with razor claws while Hagrid was halfway across the paddock, he should have been ground weasel meat.
• Lupin turns into a werewolf and rampages across the grounds, yet no one ends up being harmed, not even Sirius, who was a far smaller dog.
• Harry is surrounded by dozens of dementors, the most we've ever seen in one place, and manages to pull off the patronus charm. Yes, he had the whole confidence boost, but that's still an insane achievement, especially for a wizard his age.

Goblet of Fire

• First off, literally every Triwizard task. Seriously, they had to take on a dragon, dive into a dangerous lake, and go through a deadly maze. Even with all the "precautions" Dumbledore and the others took, it was still beyond dangerous.
• Snape mentions to the students that he's going to test their antidote knowledge by poisoning one of them. Knowing Snape, that's likely not a joke.
• Malfoy got turned into a ferret, then bounced off of the walls and ceiling. Hilarity aside, that should probably have resulted in a lot of broken bones and bruises, or even death.
• Barty Crouch used imperio to control Krum to attack Fleur and Cedric, but left them both alive. Why would he bother doing so? Krum used crucio, Avada Kedavara wouldn't have been out of the question.

Order of the Phoenix

• Umbridge tortures Harry by magically carving letters into his skin, which he never received medical help for (besides Hermione giving him some weird pus after a few times).
• Fred and George release flaming explosives into Hogwarts specifically designed to destroy things, as well as a full size swamp. Somehow, nobody got third degree burns or died.
• Montague was stuffed into a broken vanishing cabinet by the Weasley twins, and was trapped in a weird limbo. He then splinched his way out into a toilet (horrible brain image), but miraculously survived.
• McGonagall gets hit full on by five stunning spells. Madam Pomfrey flat out says that she should have died, especially with her age.
• Umbridge is flat out willing to use Crucio on Harry, and is only stopped by a really transparent distraction by Hermione

Half Blood Prince

• When Draco sneaks poison into Slughorn's gift for Dumbledore of mead, Slughorn instead decides to keep it, but not drink it. Thus, the poison is kept directly next to the man best suited to counteract potions, as well as who keeps a number of bezoars handy.
• It's unclear exactly where Katie is when she touches the cursed necklace, if she's on Hogwarts grounds or not, but she touches only the smallest bit of the necklace through a hole in her glove, surviving an otherwise deadly curse. Her survival also acts as a warning mechanism to save Dumbledore.
• Draco attempts to hit Harry with the Killing curse in the bathroom, but misses, at very close range
• Harry hits Draco with sectumsempra, a curse that slices open the body, and can't be healed by magic. At that exact moment, who's walking by but Snape, the one person in the castle who knows how to heal those wounds.
• During the battle at the astronomy tower, none of the Hogwarts students or Order members die. That's despite the fact that they're facing an elite Death Eater hit squad, who have all committed numerous murders. The DA members had Felix Felicis, but the Order members didn't. Bill came out the worst, with only some facial scarring.
• Dumbledore's death. Yes, he died. But note that he's not trying to save himself, and purposefully put himself in a position where the odds were stacked highly against him, even with manipulation by a protective spell. Had he attempted to survive, he likely could have.

The Deathly Hallows

• The general activities of the DA at Hogwarts. Seriously, you had a handful of teenagers going up against brutal torturers and killers, and emerging with only some cuts and bruises.
• The Battle of Hogwarts. Obviously, this seems like a bit of a hole in the theory: Plenty of Hogwarts students and allies died. But as we've seen throughout the series, any spell has it's limits, and it can't protect everyone. In addition, it's just a matter of chance. The spell can make it more likely that a student can dodge a hex, or a curse will miss them, but when it's happening hundreds, thousands of times, eventually their luck runs out. In all honesty, the fact that they managed to do as well as they did was incredibly impressive. The defenders only had about 20-25 trained, adult witches and wizards along with a bunch of teenagers, while the Death Eaters had a small army that was highly trained, with powerful dark magic.

How did this happen?
Let's get into the details now.
The four founders were the "most skilled witches and wizards of their age". Given that they apparently built and enchanted Hogwarts alone, that seems like a fair assessment. They also all had a dedication to passing on their knowledge to future generations. However, a school full of kids learning magic is gonna have a lot of inherent dangers. Add on the persecution of witches and wizards at the time, and threat of dark wizard attacks, and there's plenty of potential reasons their school could collapse in a matter of years without them there to defend it. Unless... they could defend it forever somehow. Once the castle was done, by sacrificing themselves, they could protect students for as long as the enchantment stood. For Hufflepuff, this was done out of kindness and concern for others. For Ravenclaw, it was practicality and logic. She was already sick and dying, and her sacrifice could let numerous others seek wisdom. Gryffindor was known for his bravery and nobility, he'd likely jump at the chance to sacrifice himself. The only one who wouldn't was Slytherin, whose self interest prevented him from the sacrifice. This may very well have been the reason he left the group, an argument over whether or not to cast the enchantment. (Interestingly, Slytherin is the only founder we have specific knowledge on his death and burial site). The spell likely required some preparation, as it was extremely complex. That long time preparing may even have been the reason Ravenclaw was sick. In the end, all three founders sacrificed themselves, in order to ensure a better future for their students.

(First off, I'm aware that I'm putting way too much thought into creating an in-universe explanation for plot armor. Don't judge me. I have a lot of time on my hands. If you don't want to read all this, just read the bolded parts)
The most important spell used in the Harry Potter books was the one Lily chose to cast over Harry. By specifically choosing to die out of love rather than choosing to live (that's why James's sacrifice did nothing), she created a protection for Harry capable of overpowering Avada Kedavra, the most powerful spell known to wizards. Harry then later chose to make that same deliberate sacrifice for his friends, causing all of Voldemort's spells to be harmless against them.
The Founders of Hogwarts chose to sacrifice themselves in order in order to cast that same protection spell over the grounds of Hogwarts, to protect the students there.
The books themselves even hint at it pretty clearly. Dumbledore mentions that "The castle is a stronghold of ancient magic" (notably, the only other time Dumbledore specifically mentions ancient magic is when he is explaining Harry's protection to him). When Ron discusses how Sirius broke into Hogwarts, Hermione says that "This castle is protected by more than walls.". Finally, Hagrid tells Harry that "Gringotts is the safest place there is-- 'cept maybe Hogwarts."
It seems strange how people regard Hogwarts as safe, given the hundreds of underage witches and wizards with zero training all trying to do magic and make potions. Yet, when there was a single death (Myrtle), people flipped out, and considered closing the school. That indicates that death was incredibly uncommon.
The Founders' spell altered situations and probability to help students escape mortal danger or severe harm
This is basically required to just run the school, even without any of Harry & co.'s hijinks. Students repeatedly test new spells on themselves and others in class, and brew potions that can turn toxic with even a small mistake. They deal with dangerous creatures on a near daily basis, and their one sport literally features hitting opponents with a 40 pound metal ball to try and knock them off their broom to a 50 foot drop. The protection spell makes sure all those situations end up safely (at least relatively so).
Let's just run through a list of examples:
Pre-HP books:

• Tom Riddle attempted to use the Basilisk while at Hogwarts, and Dippet mentions a series of attacks, yet Myrtle is the only death. We can assume there was a series of fantastic coincidences that managed to save them, just like his second attempt.

Philosopher's Stone

• Neville falls about 30 feet off his broom, and is completely fine
• Harry's broom is bewitched by Quirrel/Voldemort, a powerful dark wizard, yet manages to hang on.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione get through a series of deadly traps, and take on Quirrel/Voldemort in person. Yes, Voldemort couldn't kill Harry, but the deadly plants, vicious chess pieces, and poison definitely could. Ron got crushed brutally by a stone chess piece and was fine.

Chamber of Secrets:

• During Riddle's second attempt, via diary, crazy coincidences kept happening: Colin is looking through a camera, Mrs. Norris is looking at a puddle, Ernie is looking through Nick, etc. How could six people/animals/ghosts (along with all the students from the first time) be that lucky?
• Ron carries around a defective wand for his second year, which constantly does spells wrong and backfires, eventually exploding with the force of a grenade. Despite that, there's never any permanent harm.
• Hermione takes a bad polyjuice potion, something that is explicitly stated to be deadly, or at minimum, horrifically painful, yet it's only a minor inconvenience. She also managed to brew Harry and Ron's perfectly, despite it being an incredibly difficult potion to make, even for skilled witches and wizards.
• Harry gets hit by a giant flying piece of metal, falls 40-50 feet to the ground, and only ends up with a broken arm.

Prisoner of Azkaban:

• Harry is attacked by dementors, somehow manages not to get his soul sucked out, and falls over a hundred feet, being conveniently caught by Dumbledore (who apparently didn't decide to save him the other time he fell off his broom).
• Malfoy is attacked by Buckbeak, and receives only a minor injury. He deliberately insulted a deadly, 600 pound beast with razor claws while Hagrid was halfway across the paddock, he should have been ground weasel meat.
• Lupin turns into a werewolf and rampages across the grounds, yet no one ends up being harmed, not even Sirius, who was a far smaller dog.
• Harry is surrounded by dozens of dementors, the most we've ever seen in one place, and manages to pull off the patronus charm. Yes, he had the whole confidence boost, but that's still an insane achievement, especially for a wizard his age.

Goblet of Fire

• First off, literally every Triwizard task. Seriously, they had to take on a dragon, dive into a dangerous lake, and go through a deadly maze. Even with all the "precautions" Dumbledore and the others took, it was still beyond dangerous.
• Snape mentions to the students that he's going to test their antidote knowledge by poisoning one of them. Knowing Snape, that's likely not a joke.
• Malfoy got turned into a ferret, then bounced off of the walls and ceiling. Hilarity aside, that should probably have resulted in a lot of broken bones and bruises, or even death.
• Barty Crouch used imperio to control Krum to attack Fleur and Cedric, but left them both alive. Why would he bother doing so? Krum used crucio, Avada Kedavara wouldn't have been out of the question.

Order of the Phoenix

• Umbridge tortures Harry by magically carving letters into his skin, which he never received medical help for (besides Hermione giving him some weird pus after a few times).
• Fred and George release flaming explosives into Hogwarts specifically designed to destroy things, as well as a full size swamp. Somehow, nobody got third degree burns or died.
• Montague was stuffed into a broken vanishing cabinet by the Weasley twins, and was trapped in a weird limbo. He then splinched his way out into a toilet (horrible brain image), but miraculously survived.
• McGonagall gets hit full on by five stunning spells. Madam Pomfrey flat out says that she should have died, especially with her age.
• Umbridge is flat out willing to use Crucio on Harry, and is only stopped by a really transparent distraction by Hermione

Half Blood Prince

• When Draco sneaks poison into Slughorn's gift for Dumbledore of mead, Slughorn instead decides to keep it, but not drink it. Thus, the poison is kept directly next to the man best suited to counteract potions, as well as who keeps a number of bezoars handy.
• It's unclear exactly where Katie is when she touches the cursed necklace, if she's on Hogwarts grounds or not, but she touches only the smallest bit of the necklace through a hole in her glove, surviving an otherwise deadly curse. Her survival also acts as a warning mechanism to save Dumbledore.
• Draco attempts to hit Harry with the Killing curse in the bathroom, but misses, at very close range
• Harry hits Draco with sectumsempra, a curse that slices open the body, and can't be healed by magic. At that exact moment, who's walking by but Snape, the one person in the castle who knows how to heal those wounds.
• During the battle at the astronomy tower, none of the Hogwarts students or Order members die. That's despite the fact that they're facing an elite Death Eater hit squad, who have all committed numerous murders. The DA members had Felix Felicis, but the Order members didn't. Bill came out the worst, with only some facial scarring.
• Dumbledore's death. Yes, he died. But note that he's not trying to save himself, and purposefully put himself in a position where the odds were stacked highly against him, even with manipulation by a protective spell. Had he attempted to survive, he likely could have.

The Deathly Hallows

• The general activities of the DA at Hogwarts. Seriously, you had a handful of teenagers going up against brutal torturers and killers, and emerging with only some cuts and bruises.
• The Battle of Hogwarts. Obviously, this seems like a bit of a hole in the theory: Plenty of Hogwarts students and allies died. But as we've seen throughout the series, any spell has it's limits, and it can't protect everyone. In addition, it's just a matter of chance. The spell can make it more likely that a student can dodge a hex, or a curse will miss them, but when it's happening hundreds, thousands of times, eventually their luck runs out. In all honesty, the fact that they managed to do as well as they did was incredibly impressive. The defenders only had about 20-25 trained, adult witches and wizards along with a bunch of teenagers, while the Death Eaters had a small army that was highly trained, with powerful dark magic.

How did this happen?
Let's get into the details now.
The four founders were the "most skilled witches and wizards of their age". Given that they apparently built and enchanted Hogwarts alone, that seems like a fair assessment. They also all had a dedication to passing on their knowledge to future generations. However, a school full of kids learning magic is gonna have a lot of inherent dangers. Add on the persecution of witches and wizards at the time, and threat of dark wizard attacks, and there's plenty of potential reasons their school could collapse in a matter of years without them there to defend it. Unless... they could defend it forever somehow. Once the castle was done, by sacrificing themselves, they could protect students for as long as the enchantment stood. For Hufflepuff, this was done out of kindness and concern for others. For Ravenclaw, it was practicality and logic. She was already sick and dying, and her sacrifice could let numerous others seek wisdom. Gryffindor was known for his bravery and nobility, he'd likely jump at the chance to sacrifice himself. The only one who wouldn't was Slytherin, whose self interest prevented him from the sacrifice. This may very well have been the reason he left the group, an argument over whether or not to cast the enchantment. (Interestingly, Slytherin is the only founder we have specific knowledge on his death and burial site). The spell likely required some preparation, as it was extremely complex. That long time preparing may even have been the reason Ravenclaw was sick. In the end, all three founders sacrificed themselves, in order to ensure a better future for their students.

You can read the post and see Orcus across the editions on Dump Stat

Due to the length of this post, statblocks have been moved to the comments. Spoilers in 5e for Out of the Abyss adventure

Thanks to the TV series Stranger Things (2016), everyone knows Demogorgon. But what about the other original demon lord, Orcus? Arguably the more famous of the two demon lords, Orcus has never been a creature that any hero in their right mind has gone looking for.
Originally a vile mortal whose dastardly deeds resulted in his death, his soul then manifested upon the Abyss as a larva, and the long trek to demon lord began. Slaving away throughout centuries under the cruel command of ancient, and now dead, demon lords, he eventually managed through sheer will to evolve from a larva, to a mane, rutterkin, nalfeshnee, and finally a balor. Unhappy with just that, Orcus conquered the 113th layer, becoming the great demon lord we know today.
Ruling from the Abyss, Orcus lived, died, and was reborn as an undead god. Not bad for an overweight demon that was banished from Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s. A being of immense power, not only is this creature virtually unstoppable, but he wields a wand bearing his name that can obliterate you with a touch. How has this magnificent lord of evil changed throughout the editions?

OD&D

Orcus’ beginnings start in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (1976) and let’s start with the obvious; you don’t screw with a demon lord. Orcus was everything you pictured when you thought of a demon lord and then some. Incredibly obese, Orcus is over 15 feet tall with a goat faced head and ram horns. His body is covered in thick and tough goat hair, and from his back are two large bat wings with a long serpent-like tail with a poison-tipped spike on the end. While his arms were human in shape, Orcus’ legs were that of a goat, and if we had to guess, he probably smelled like a goat too.
Orcus is the prince of the undead and could summon many of these creatures at will. A prince among demons doesn’t get its hands dirty unless it really wants to, so Orcus could summon wights, wraiths, specters, and even vampires to do his bidding. Unfortunately for you, that probably entails killing you and your friends slowly while he watched with glee. If Orcus kills and decides he wants to torment you a bit more, he could mock you in death as he can cast speak with the dead, which is just adding insult to injury.
If undead wasn’t enough, probably because you heard that he is the prince of the undead and brought along a cleric for good luck, he can also summon demons. While he only has an 80% chance of summoning a demon at the best of times, well, demons were no joke and even that feels a bit too dangerous for us. If he even just summoned a type III demon, they had a minimum of 8 hit dice, had armor classes ranging from 4 to -4, and a variety of abilities by type that included darkness at will, immunity to nonmagical weapons, powerful fear spells, and the ability to polymorph, all on top of its normal attacks. There is no mention of a maximum number of times per day Orcus may use this ability, leading us to believe you could be fighting several different demons for as long as Orcus desires, or until you killed Orcus which is… well…
Now let’s say you somehow manage to take out all of the Demon Lord’s minions and get to fight the big guy himself. His natural defenses are incredibly formidable, as Orcus was highly resistant to magic and had an armor class of -6, which means you aren’t hitting him unless you had a +3 or greater weapon. If you think those items are rare in the 5th edition, they were nearly impossible to find in the earliest editions. As you were trying to figure out how to draw blood from Orcus, he was probably using one, if not more, of its special abilities. Those abilities include a ton of spells like feeblemind, polymorph, lightning bolt, wall of fire, animate dead, and far more.
If you are still feeling confident by the end of your turn in a fight with him, well you won’t feel confident for much longer. Orcus wields a powerful obsidian wand with a skull on top, which is known as the Wand of Orcus. Unless you were a godling, a demon lord, or some other massively powerful creatures, which you never were in this edition, you should just give up now while you still have your soul. A single touch from this instrument of destruction renders the creature dead at the very least and annihilated into a small pile of ash at the worst. It had other powers in case you were worried, like allowing Orcus to heal himself or even to move at double his normal speed. Who needs a sword when you have an artifact of insane power that you named after yourself?
Now Orcus, like other demon lords, did have one weakness. Their souls were kept in small amulets that protected them from permanent death. Of course, this also makes them quite vulnerable, sort of. First one must find the amulet which was incredibly hard since it was often hidden in plain sight, could look like anything, and was non-magical. Orcus was known sometimes to wear his around his neck, but it was not required, as it was for the lesser princes. If you managed to possess the amulet, you had control over Orcus for a maximum of 24 hours, after which you lost all control over them and you better be quick in destroying it. If you destroyed the amulet, it would banish Orcus, or the demon prince it belonged to, to the Abyss for a whole year. Which doesn’t really seem like a long enough time for you to live out the short remainder of your life for demons are rarely the forgiving type. Regardless of how you used the amulet or if you destroyed it, Orcus would remember you and plot your demise. You could offer up an incredible bounty of riches and lavish Orcus with flattery of the highest praise and then, just maybe, Orcus may only kill you in 10 years or so.

Basic D&D

There is little mention of Orcus in this edition, but he does finally show up in the BECMI Immortal Rules Box Set (1986). Orcus gains a huge number of names in this edition, like The Goat, Master of the Dead, Lord of Darkness, or the Black Prince, and even Masauwu, the Legendary Guardian of Death. He is a 4th level Eternal, putting him a step below Demogorgon, although many consider him to be Demogorgon’s equal. Along with Demogorgon, Orcus ruled the sphere of entropy. What is the sphere of entropy and what is a 4th level Eternal?
Four spheres govern almost all of existence, those sphere being: matter, energy, time, and thought. The fifth sphere is called entropy, and it serves as a balance for the other spheres. Entropy in the real world is the absence of order or predictability, leading to the gradual decline of everything into disorder. For our purposes, the sphere of entropy is the name for any changes leading to reducing the essence of the other spheres. Basically, everything eventually ends, and the whole process is the domain of the sphere of entropy. Our demon-filled sphere takes what the four Spheres give or create and breaks it down and destroys it. No wonder it is filled with demons.
A 4th level Eternal is just one of the rankings in this book and helps the reader understand who is more powerful between creatures. In this example, Orcus is only a 4th level Eternal, whereas Demogorgon is a High Eternal, or a 5th level Eternal. Only a few experience points above Orcus. There are other classifications, like Empyreal, Hierarchs, and more, just know that there are only six levels above Demogorgon, and seven above Orcus, until you hit max level in this ruleset.
Orcus remains the same in appearance, although looking at the picture of it in the text, we think he may have lost a little weight… and his wings. He stands 15 feet tall, remains a chunky goat-like humanoid, with two great curled ram's horns, human arms, and goat legs. While it no longer has giant bat wings on its back, the stats give him a fly speed, so maybe now he soars through the air like Superman. His tail is much deadlier as those who are stung by it, and fail their saving throw, lose 1 Hit Die forever and with that, every power, ability, hit points, etc. that comes with it, Orcus then gains that power if he is down any points.
Orcus continues to reign over all undead mortals and even has a few Immortals who follow him. Since he is a demon, he gains a long list of abilities, which doesn’t change from the previous edition and are about what you might suspect. Resistance to magic, speak any language, regeneration, moving between the different planes of existence, and more. Also, Orcus has all the standard abilities and immunities of other demons, but he’s also immune to poison, paralysis, turn to stone, and fear. Orcus can even polymorph into pretty much anything, like a goat. You’ll still need a +3 or better weapon even to scratch him, but you’ll probably have one by now if you're also an immortal and your DM has decided you have to fight this horrible creature. Finally, Orcus can choose to summon demons, undead, more undead, maybe a few of his immortal followers, and more. If you’re brave, or stupid enough, to search out the Lord of Darkness, be prepared for a long and arduous fight.

AD&D

Orcus appears in the Monster Manual (1977), and his title is now Demon Lord and Prince of the Undead. He is shown the proper respect, recognized as the most powerful of all the Demon lords in existence, in your face Demogorgon. While there are very few changes, we are given a bit more detail, which is worth reviewing.
Orcus is so powerful that the text talks about how he can lazily slap people around, and still kill them in a blow or two. Or if someone, probably you, have annoyed him enough he can begin trying and just obliterate you with punches and might even use weapons if he gets bored with punching the wizard’s head off. Once he decides he wants to relax, he can just use his tail to inject you with poison, and unless you make your saving throw with a hefty penalty tacked on to it, you just die. Poison in 1st edition, for monsters, was a save or insta-death affair, so Orcus isn’t unique in his incredibly potent poison. To put some perspective on it, if a fighter is hit by the poison, they just need to roll a 7 or higher on a d20, clerics require a 6 or higher, while magic-users and thieves need a 12 or higher or they get to make a new character.
If you still feel pretty confident that you’ll survive messing with Orcus, probably because you are a fighter and have hundreds of soldiers under your command. Well, Orcus doesn’t care too much about your hoard of level 0 soldiers as he can summon undead minions like skeletons, zombies, shadows, and vampires. To top it all off, he can still bring in demons to help kill off everyone in case the undead decide to take the day off.
The wand of Orcus is shown off in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (1979) where it is described as the ghastly weapon of Orcus. It allows him to travel the planes and so long as it is in his hands, he can boop people with it and immediately annihilate them… unless they are gods, demon lords, or other powerful beings.
In module H4 - The Throne of Bloodstone (1988), Orcus is the focal point in the series’ culmination though his priests and temples have been a focus through the previous three modules in this series. This specific module is recommended for characters levels 18-100. Yes, level 100. You’ve pretty much ascended to godhood at that point, and it’s a good thing too since you'll be traveling to the Abyss, fighting hordes of demons, and taking on Orcus himself. Your primary goal is to steal his wand and return with it to the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia. First, you must find a portal in the citadel of a creature known as the Witch King, then travel to the Abyss, find your way to Orcus’ castle on the 333rd level, and then you can finally meet up with Orcus. Along the way, you may run into just about any demon lord you can think of, from Jubilex to Graz’zt to Lolth. You can even meet up with Demogorgon, who might help you with your quest since he’s been locked in a war with The Goat for over 100 years. You’ll find out that Orcus has captured Baphomet, has a tarrasque for a neighbor, and lives in a stupidly big fortress made of bones. Orcus’ stat block is adjusted in its fortress, and let’s just say it’s not to the player’s benefit. It is a bit ridiculous that, even with all his enhanced abilities that the module states that Orcus won’t use his wand, since you know, a single touch kills you. But that’s ok since he still has a plethora of other ways to kill you, like slapping you to the ground and then stabbing you with his tail over and over.
In Dragon Magazine #42 (October 1980), we are presented with Orcus’ favorite horse, Hacamuli. It is actually one of the many messengers of the Demon Lord and it appears as a pale, gaunt horse covered in flies and pestilence. Its eyes are black as night, and those that gaze are drained of three levels of life, we can only assume that these are the most intense puppy dog eyes.

2e

Things get weird in the 2nd edition. Demons and devils were banished from the textbooks in the wake of the Satanic Panic of the early 1980s. In response to this issue, the writers at TSR simply removed the creatures that could be associated with hell, satanic rituals, and demon worship. When demons and devils did make their return, they were called the tanar’ri and the baatezu, respectively. This doesn't mean that Orcus disappeared forever, as the excitement eventually died down and Orcus, along with other demons and devils, slowly crept their way back into the game.
Orcus makes his glorious return though it takes far longer than it should, especially since Demogorgon rises in 1992 in the Monster Mythology book. The Lord of Darkness has a rough start and doesn’t show up until Hellbound: The Blood War (1996), and it is announced that Orcus had been slain by Kiaransalee, a drow demi-goddess of undeath. Later, it is confirmed in On Hallowed Ground (1996), that Orcus is dead and it covers the 113th layer of the Abyss, which is called Thanatos, the Belly of Death. The description of this layer mirrors that of the 333rd layer of the Abyss mentioned in the H4 module from the 1st edition, and so it has had a slight number change. Of course, Kiaransalee is still the undead drow goddess to blame as she dispatched the former Abyssal lord of the undead, casting him into the Astral Plane, and taken over his lands of Thanatos.
It’s not until The Great Modron March (1997) that Orcus begins his epic comeback, but that is all hushed up in the background, with even the DM being left partially in the dark until the next adventure is released. In Dead Gods (1997), we get the entire story of his death and resurrection, and it is a lengthy saga of revenge and trickery.
Orcus was for sure killed by Kiaransalee, who proceeds to take over Thanatos, kill his followers, and hides the Wand of Orcus in a place where she thinks it will never be found, the bottom layer of Pandemonium in a bunch of unreachable stone. Orcus doesn’t remain dead and comes back as an undead godling, taking up the name Tenebrous. Tenebrous plots and schemes to take back Thanatos, but must first begin plotting as he is now incredibly weakened by his brush with death. Eventually, he discovers the Last Word, a declaration that has the power to destroy gods who hear it. The one final item Orcus needed to complete his comeback was his wand. In the process of hunting for the wand, he kills the supreme modron, Primus, and unbeknownst to the other modrons, takes up his position as ruler. He then forces the events that lead up to an early modron march detailed in The Great Modron March adventure anthology, and during this march, the modrons discover the two drow who hid Orcus’ wand. The character’s role in this adventure is simple, find and destroy the wand before Tenebrous catches up to you and kills you. Seriously, Orcus isn’t given a stat block, the DM is just told that if Orcus finds the party before they destroy the wand, he kills them, end the adventure there, there is no fighting Orcus even when he is so weak that a demi-god is stronger than him, that even weakened, he can kill any mortal that would face him.

3e/3.5e

Orcus first appears in the 3rd edition of the Manual of the Planes (2001), and the return of Orcus, or should we say Tenebrous, is expanded upon a little further. When under the moniker Tenebrous, Orcus killed rival gods using the all-powerful Last Word. Orcus found and restored his wand, which allowed the demon to begin a resurrection spell with the help of a faithful servant, the half-ogre Quah-Namog. As adventurers do, they found out about the ritual, swooped in at the last second, and stopped the ritual from being completed. While Orcus did not return at full strength, the ritual was enough to bring him back to life. Besides, the drow deity that originally evicted Orcus from Thanatos is now missing, with many presuming she is dead. Some believe Orcus has now returned to Thanatos and rules it yet again, though very few people are willing to travel the Abyss to find out, and far fewer would ever return from such a trip.
In the text Book of Vile Darkness (2002), Orcus continues his glorious return and the book confirms that he has retaken Thanatos and rules in the city of Naratyr. Of course, there is no rest for the Lord of Darkness and he is immediately back at war against Demogorgon and Graz’zt, attempting to take over their realms and destroy them with his massive army of undead and demons.
While some may know him as the Prince of the Undead, Orcus hates the title, mostly because he hates the undead and sees them only as tools. It probably doesn’t help that many view him as undead-adjacent and he doesn’t like to remember how that one time he got so lazy that someone was actually able to kill him. Intelligent undead, like liches or vampires, won’t worship or venerate Orcus due to his hatred, but that doesn’t bother him in the least. Compared to the other demon lords, Orcus gets the most worship out of all of them, normally from cultists also looking to use undead for their ends and to get some of his power for themselves.
Sometimes, Orcus will relinquish his wand, referred to as a rod, to the world, allowing his cultists to wreak havoc across the world. After a year or two of this, the wand probably switching hands several times, Orcus will call back his wand, and probably the soul of whoever was holding it last so that he has something to play with back in the Abyss. Of course, if you do get this wand, it is quite powerful so we can understand why some people might look at it and think that that was their key to ultimate power and not a way to get Orcus interested in your soul.
The wand of Orcus acts as a powerful mace when wielded in battle, when it touches mortals or weak creatures from the Outer Planes, then it has the chance to immediately kill them. Even the wielder of the wand is in danger as Orcus can just decide that anyone touching his wand right now should die, their soul ripped away and handed to the demon prince who hates to share his toys. Also, the wand can be used to cast a few spells all focused on pain and death, like abyssal might, clutch of Orcus, and other strange spells.
Orcus has legions of followers, priests, and cultists that worship it. Two of the most powerful are the priest Quah-Nomag the Skull King and Orcus’s primary enforcer, the vampire Kauvra. You may recognize Quah-Nomag as the individual that resurrected Orcus, and we aren’t sure whether to thank him or curse his name. Now, if you are captivated by the power of Orcus, you can become a worshipper and gain access to the prestige class Thrall of Orcus. The Demon Lord grants these followers special powers like carrion stench, demon wings, death touch, and the ability to summon greater undead. Is it worth giving up your mortality to Orcus? Probably not, but you’ll never know until you try.
Orcus gets a little bit more information in Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead (2004), and some of it is even a bit surprising. Orcus gets a lot of worship, especially from demons and necromancers, sometimes even undead that he hasn’t yet subjugated, and is thought to be far closer to ascending to true godhood than any other demon. While Orcus isn’t the most powerful of the demon princes, with Demogorgon thought to be more powerful, that hasn’t stopped Orcus from amassing followers and we’d be shocked if Orcus didn’t send passive-aggressive notes to Demogorgon talking about how he feels so divine and god-like, or maybe Orcus isn’t as petty as us.
In addition, we also find out that while Orcus hates the undead, he also despises the living equally. He views most creatures with revulsion and loathing, only seeking to spread misery and destruction to others all to ensure his increase in power. Despite his utter disgust at creatures, he still pulls in that worship and has temples that span the multiverse. Strongholds of the undead, warring nobles, and even entire tribes of orcs pledge their allegiance to him, which probably means we just need to get to know Orcus, that he isn’t that bad when you get to know him.
Our final book, Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006) updates Orcus to 3.5 edition, though much of the demon lord’s abilities remain the same. Orcus’ constant battles against Demogorgon and Graz’zt are given a bit more detail, only detailing the fury that Orcus feels for them. While his primary enemy is Demogorgon, who we are constantly reminded is a bit more powerful than the Prince of the Undead, Orcus really covets the vast empire that Graz’zt controls. This leads Orcus to drive his undead forces deep into the dark prince’s realm while using more subtle means of subterfuge and assassination when battling Demogorgon. Orcus may seem like the least powerful of the three, but his vast empire of loyal followers on the Material Plane dwarfs that of the other two. He uses them to help grow his power and influence, supplying him with a constant supply of undead creatures and sacrifices.
We are also provided with a detailed description of Orcus’ realm, Thanatos. It’s not a vacation spot, as the sun never appears, and the land is covered in gray clouds in a black sky. It is cold and desolate, with moss and fungi as the only plant life. Countless undead minions occupy the plane, traveling in packs on their eternal quest for flesh. You can travel to such wonderful places as the City of Straight Curves, Everlost, The Final Hills, The Frozen Sea, Orcusgate, and many others, but none of these places are bright and shiny places. Of all these places, it is the sprawling city of Orcusgate that attracts the most creatures. Demons comprise most of the population, as they are drawn there by the gate of fire connecting Thanatos to the Pits of Pazunia on the first layer of the Abyss. They are the top demons of Orcus’ cult, holding sway over access to the gate and using it themselves to travel throughout the Abyss to do Orcus’ bidding. Mortals often arrive here but quickly depart for Lash Embrar, a city ruled over by the Skull King Quah-Nomag which is quite far from Orcusgate since Orcus is tired of how self-important Quah-Nomag is getting, it is also much more hospitable to living creatures. All of this, along with the fact that the official name used on the travel brochure is Thanatos, the Belly of Death, makes it a place you don’t want to go unless you truly have to.

4e

Found first in the Monster Manual (2008), Orcus rises in prominence and even graces the cover of the book. You don’t get that privilege if you aren’t the mightiest of the demon lords, and in fact, Demogorgon had to wait until the next Monster Manual. This fat-bellied goat demon gets a cool new title, The Blood Lord, along with the Demon Lord of Undeath and the Demon Prince of the Undead. It’s a strange combination of titles, but we’ll try to explain if we can. If you’re alive, you enrage the Blood Lord because of your very existence and it brings Orcus nothing but suffering and agony for you to be alive. If you are undead, this also causes Orcus a great amount of agony and can only be pacified when he destroys and drinks the blood of his victims. He’s a complicated demon lord, but that’s why you just have to love him.
Looking at his powerful wand, the skull that graces the top of it is now pulled into question. There are two stories behind the possible victim whose skull adorns the top of the obsidian shaft, the first being that the skull belongs to a dead god of virtue and chivalry. The god didn’t die of natural causes, but by the hand of Orcus, who probably lopped off its head, flayed the skin from it, and set it atop the wand. The second story is that the skull is that of a mere human hero, but that must have been one big-headed human since the skull is giant size. No matter the truth, The Blood Lord took the good power from the skull and twisted it into an evil that can kill any creature it touches.
In addition to the information on Orcus, we also get to look at his minions and servants. The Aspect of Orcus allows Orcus to summon a minor version of himself and to send to his followers to help in their endeavors. As for servants, Orcus has several mortal followers that are willing to serve him like the Deathpriest Hierophant, Deathpriest of Orcus, and Crimson Acolyte. The Hierophant is the most powerful of all Orcus’ priests, who can project a vision of death into the mind of its target and invoke the name of Orcus to hurt you while healing any undead around. Deathpriests have mastery over necrotic energies, while the Acolytes wield bloodstained scythes and aspire to the ranks of the Deathpriests. All these servants are members of the various cults of Orcus on the Material Plane, congregating in graveyards, tombs, and other scary and haunted areas. There are several cults, each with their own symbols and icons, although robes of black and crimson are one thing they all have in common. That, and the blood sacrifices they perform in the name of their lord, Orcus.
If you’ve ever wanted to visit Orcus, for some reason, and wish to journey to Thanatos, the Manual of the Planes (2008) provides plenty of information on what you can expect. Ash-gray clouds, blackened skies, hordes of undead thralls, and lots of demons are hallmarks of these lands and little changes from what is revealed in the previous edition. Though Orcus has abandoned his Orcusgate city for a more remote location called Oblivion’s End where his fortress, Everlost, towers over a large desert of powdered bones. This land is rather inhospitable, much to our surprise, and unless you are hoping to curry Orcus’ favor, there isn’t much here beyond Orcus and his elite soldiers.
Orcus’ obsession with the destruction of Demogorgon and Graz’zt is reduced to a dull simmer as Orcus has now set his sights on bigger targets, like the destruction of the Raven Queen and her control over death. This hatred comes to the forefront in almost all of the adventures in this edition. The adventure series is broken into 9 modules starting with characters at level 1 and eventually culminating to 30th level, all the while the party is facing off against the forces of evil, which often, but not always, involves the cult of Orcus who are trying to help him ascend to godhood and kill the Raven Queen. This series involves the heroes jumping across the multiverse, journeying into the Abyss, the Shadowfell and the Feywild, fighting dragons, undead, and more. The main focus of the later adventure, in the E series modules which contain E1 - Death’s Reach (2009), E2 - Kingdom of the Ghouls (2009), and E3 - Prince of Undeath (2009), has the party attempting to foil Orcus’ plans. They must first break the siege against Letherna, where the Raven Queen resides, fighting against Orcus’ elite demons. Eventually, they attract the wrath of Orcus and must deal with his powerful exarch, Doresain the Ghoul King. After that, they continue messing with Orcus’ plans before they finally stop him from destroying the Raven Queen and stealing her godhood.
In The Shadowfell - Gloomwrought & Beyond (2008), Orcus’ relationship with the Raven Queen is further defined and it is revealed that Orcus is constantly trying to send spies and secret cultists to the Raven Queen’s realm to undermine her. Orcus controls huge swaths of the Shadowfell, and the shadar-kai are a constant enemy as they are loyal to the Raven Queen and see anyone who worships the demon prince as only worthy of death. To help his plans move forward, Orcus offers large rewards to any who can kill the shadar-kai and raven knights, and even greater rewards to those who bring them back alive so that Orcus can torture them.

5e

Orcus is first mentioned in the Monster Manual (2014), but no stat block is provided and we only get a few paragraphs, much like all the other demon lords. Described as the Blood Lord and the Demon Prince of Undeath, his hatred of undead creatures seems to have lessened considerably as only living creatures not bound or controlled by him are anathema to his existence. It’s nice that he has finally gotten over hating everything, and now just hates most things. Sadly, little else is revealed about him beyond ghouls and wights seem to like him.
The next drip of information comes in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014) which shows off his home in the Abyss, Thanatos. Still described as a horrible place, much of what is written is from 4th edition and is covered in tombs, mausoleums, and more across its landscapes, and that Orcus’ lair is still in Everlost in the wasteland known as Oblivion’s End. This book also contains the Wand of Orcus, a powerful artifact that has a magically enlarged skull, cause we guess there were no giant skulls available when Orcus was working on his art project, and it is actually rather lame. Sure you can cast a bunch of spells from it, like blight or finger of death, but its power has been shrunken considerably. It can no longer kill with a single touch, though if you pick it up and attune to it, it has the potential to kill you outright. You can summon undead with it, and for the first time, it has sentience and wishes to help Orcus’ goals, though it only acts like it likes the wielder, feigning devotion to whoever wields it. There is also some information on the skull Orcus uses on top of the wand, that it is the skull of an ancient hero and that his soul has been imprisoned by Orcus somewhere.
Orcus finally makes his true appearance in the Out of the Abyss (2015) adventure, but as a minor character only, and is immediately killed in a cut scene by Demogorgon. His only purpose in this adventure is to fight Demogorgon at the end, wounding it so that the adventurers have an easier time to kill the demon lord, and is crushed beneath the tentacles of Prince of Demons. It’s a horrific tragedy for Orcus, but at least he gets a stat block at the back of the book that is quite respectable for such a powerful and well-known being. While there is some lore written in there about him, much of it is similar to what we already found out but we do learn that he actually makes his lair in the fortress city of Naratyr, found on Thanatos, and it is surrounded by a moat fed by the River Styx. Seems like, in 1 year, Orcus decided to move from Everlost and Oblivion’s End and head back to his old stomping grounds of Naratyr, this time with a large moat.
In Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (2018), Orcus finally gets a bit more juicy information, and we can finally start getting his perspective on stuff. We learn that Orcus isn’t hell-bent on the destruction of the world because he hates everything in life, but because he hates all life. To him, life is noisy and messy, that it scratches at his finer sensibilities like a rat scratching through his mind. He just wants the quiet that accompanies death, and we think deep down inside each of us, we can understand that. Aren’t we all just looking for some peace and quiet?
We also get a bit more information on his cultists and those who understand what it is like to live in a cruel, living world. Orcus is revered by individuals who see the gods as the problem, that they can take away the life from loved ones and do nothing to stop death. Orcus is an attractive option, one that can offer them a respite from dealing with the pain of death through undeath. He offers to bring back those who die to undeath, and while it might be a mockery of life, it is far better than the gods who do nothing but sit there and force people to pay hundreds of gold to return the dead to life.
Those who are especially vulnerable include grieving parents, siblings, and others who have recently suffered a great loss. Those who spread his name are rewarded and are granted portions of his power. Those who just spread his name are rewarded with being transformed into ghouls or zombies who serve in his legions, while his favored servants are the cultists and necromancers who murder the living and then manipulate the dead, emulating their dread master. While it might seem a bit greedy that the Blood Lord already has countless ghouls and skeletons under his command, that the only reward he offers is to be turned into more of his mindless legions, for some, undeath is just the peace and quiet they were always looking for.
Orcus might have been misunderstood since the beginning. He is a powerful demon prince of undeath, but not only because he hates all living creatures. It’s because they are noisy and unclean, that their lives cause him physical pain. He only hopes to turn all life into undeath so that he can finally live in a multiverse of peace. The destruction of suns and stars, the destruction of light in the darkness, all these things will eventually end, and then, and only then, will Orcus finally have the rest he so rightfully deserves.

Past Deep Dives

Creatures: Aboleth / Beholder / Chimera / Couatl / Displacer Beast / Djinni / Dragon Turtle / Dryad / Flumph / Frost Giant / Gelatinous Cube / Ghoul / Giff / Gnoll / Grell / Hobgoblin / Kobold / Kraken / Kuo-Toa / Lich / Lizardfolk / Mimic / Mind Flayer / Nothic / Owlbear / Rakshasa / Rust Monster / Sahuagin / Scarecrow / Shadar-Kai / Umber Hulk / Vampire / Werewolf / Xorn

Class: Barbarian Class / Cleric Class / Wizard Class

Spells: Fireball Spell / Lost Spells / Named Spells / Quest Spells / Wish Spell

Other: The History of Bigby / The History of the Blood War / The History of the Raven Queen / The History of Vecna

Introduction:

It's basically trite at this point to say this year has been challenging, but one positive out of everything is that I've been fortunate enough to have the time and funds to play a huge number of games that I've heard so much about, yet never was able to before now. I grew up on almost exclusively Nintendo games and then branched out to indie games in college I could play on my laptop, so I was more than excited when I bought the base PS4 that came bundled with God of War, Last of Us, and Horizon Zero Dawn for $200 (and I snagged Bloodborne for $15 while I was at it).
What ensued was a year of frenzied gaming-- never in any year of my life have I played games as much as I did this year. I enjoyed it, but there were also some surprising drawbacks to placing such an emphasis on gaming as a primary hobby, and I'll discuss those towards the conclusion. But man, there were some absolutely fantastic games that I played this year and I want to share my thoughts on them! Not every game I played this year was PS4, but most were.
Since literally every game I played this year was a good game, I have stratified my rankings into three overarching tiers: Best, Great, and Good. I was lucky enough to not even need a Meh tier this year. Lots of games within the same tier could probably have their orders switched, but I did my best. And all but two of these games I was patient™ on, which is a fun side note.
Disclaimer*:* These rankings reflect my personal opinions on the experience I had after finishing the game, rather than my thoughts on its overall quality as a product for everyone. There are a few rankings that are sure to ruffle some feathers-- I know that God of War, RDR2, Journey, Undertale, and Nier: Automata for example are great games, but they didn't resonate with me nearly as much as some others. So know that I appreciate them and those who hold these games so dear.
Without further ado, let's get going!

The BEST:

1. Bloodborne (PS4): Quite simply, I'm still chasing the feeling I had after playing this game for the first time. So much so you could say, that I played it 7 times this year. Never has a game enraptured me with its shocking world, brutal combat, and the best DLC I've ever played. I want to talk about Bloodborne (and all the souls games, really) constantly, learn everything about them, and play them forever.

1. Last of Us Part II (PS4): One of two games I broke being patient™ on, I waited a couple months before diving in just to stop working to avoid spoilers. I enjoyed the first game but this absolutely blew me out of the water. On a gameplay level I couldn't believe how fluid and visceral the combat was, how immense the encounters were with countless approaches to every situation, and how fun it was to play. The narrative was challenging and forced me to grapple with the same emotions as the protagonist initially, then brilliantly the player and character on divergent emotional tracks as you become more shocked and uncomfortable with what happens. I encourage anyone who hasn't yet to play with an open mind and avoid trying to reduce the story to a single theme or message. It may not be your cup of tea, but it was mine.

3. Outer Wilds (PS4): This game feels like it was made just for me. I love space and rocket physics, I love discovery, and I love it when a game makes me feel clever. The level of wonder and curiosity I felt while playing can only be compared to what I experienced with Breath of the Wild. This game is difficult to talk about without spoilers, but if discovery and outer space get you excited, there is nothing like Outer Wilds.

1. Dark Souls III (PS4): Yeah, I like souls games. While certainly less groundbreaking than DS1 and perhaps less atmospheric than Bloodborne, DS3 is a grand experience with, in my opinion, the best bosses in all the souls games. It's also the best souls game for experimenting with different playstyles without needing to watch 6 hours of VaatiVidya to figure out how to be a pyromancer.
   
2. Control (PS4): Objectively speaking, this game might not have the same merits as the others in the "Best" category. But it sucked me in with it's completely unique visual style. It felt like a strange acid trip and I was always excited to see what was next. The powers and combat were fun even if not terribly original (and even though the gunplay wasn't too strong) but I was completely enthralled by the nonchalance of the cast amid mind blowing supernatural activity. Far from a perfect game, but give it a chance if the style seems intriguing to you!
   

The Great:

1. The Last of Us Remastered (PS4): One of my most anticipated games when I picked up a PS4, having watched my friends play some of it. Though it didn't blow me away as much in 2020 as it might have in 2013, I thought it had decent gameplay, a great story, and a stunning world. The cities and post-apocalyptic environments were a pleasure to soak in, packed with detail, and well paced. Definitely a deserved classic.
   
2. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4): In a lot of ways, this game isn't good as an open world game. It doesn't do a great job of compelling you to explore and engage with all the cool stuff it has. The sidequests are kind of bad, many characters forgettable and oddly animated. But this game is this high on the list because it's just so much fun taking down machine dinosaurs. They nailed gameplay in a technically beautiful world, and actually surprised me with the quality of the main story line. Not groundbreaking, but solid and a joy to play.
   
3. Death Stranding (PS4): For being one of the best games I have ever played, Death Stranding kinda sucks. I absolutely adored the premise and the world Kojima crafted, and delivering packages was really enjoyable. I loved figuring out traversal and just soaking in the graphics. I'm not one that normally cares about technical graphical showcases, but this game has made me reconsider how important graphics can be to an experience. Unfortunately, the dreadful gun mechanics, broken driving, constant NPC interjections, and the game's refusal to just end already kinda bogged it down. There's a lot here though that won me over and is an experience unlike anything I've ever played.
   
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch): The other game on this list I was not patient™ for, since I bought it for my wife... and then got sucked in. Truth is, as a non-creative type, I just loved this game as an outlet for my creativity and expression. I loved having projects like my zen garden, my Domino's Pizza restaurant, and then getting to share them with my friends. I've heard it said something along the lines of "It wasn't the best game of 2020, but it was the game for 2020".
   
5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4): Once I adjusted my expectations of what this game was and was not, it was great. While it doesn't reward open exploration as much as BoTW and Skyrim did, it simply has the best quests of any open world game I've played. Very rich environments and stories, and I even thought the gameplay was more than serviceable. It did kind of drag on by the end though. Also, disclaimer, I haven't played the DLC (sorry).
   
6. Return of the Obra Dinn (Nintendo Switch): I had hoped it would blow me away in a way similar to Outer Wilds, and while it didn't quite reach the same heights for me it was great nonetheless. I loved the nautical setting, the critical thinking and deduction required, and the way it was balanced perfectly between leaving you totally on your own and confirming bits at a time. My only real complaint is that I felt the true ending didn't really reveal anything about the story I didn't already know, I guess I expected some grand reveal.
   
7. Doom Eternal (PS4): White-knuckle, heart pounding, insane. The game forces you to engage with every mechanic it throws at you and is brutally challenging, but all in the best way. Though the gameplay was better than DOOM 2016, I actually preferred the latter since Eternal's levels felt more like a silly mario level than a tense demon-infested place. I get what they were going for and they executed well, I just prefer the more serious tone.
   
8. Hades (Nintendo Switch): Biggest surprise of the year for me, I didn't actually expect to like it. Hades is perfectly polished and a big step forward for integrating its excellent narrative with its roguelike structure. It's very easy to play without investing too much, making it great for unwinding. It deserves all the praise it's getting.
   
9. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Remastered) (PS4): All the mainline Uncharted games are on this list but I enjoyed 2 the most. The set pieces were the most memorable, and I enjoyed almost every second. These games aren't as high on the list because, no matter how you dress it up, it's a pretty simple affair ultimately in terms of gameplay but it nails the style of game that it is.
   
10. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4): An amazing game in its own right, but was ultimately disappointing for me as a From Software fan. I found that what I appreciated most about Souls games was the tension of not knowing if you could make it to the next checkpoint, the terror of encountering something surprising and having to deal with it. Sekiro litters checkpoints left and right, which is of course great for its more boss-focused design, but left me far less immersed in the environments personally. I also wished I had more options for playing aggressively rather than just memorizing the parry patterns. In any case, these gripes are my personal preferences coming through and any hardcore gamer owes it to themselves to conquer this behemoth of a challenge.
    
11. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (PS4): Pure, unadulterated fun. I was absolutely addicted to the core gameplay and the levels, especially in the first game, were so cool to explore. For me the core loop started to get stale by the time I finished all the challenges on the levels, but for those that wanted more there is almost an endless amount of bonus challenges to tackle.
    
12. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4): There's definitely a strong argument that this is the ultimate uncharted game to play-- best gunplay and options in encounters, by far the best puzzles, and the delivery of the story is leagues above the rest of the series. I simply think that Uncharted 2 had the highest highs, so 4 is a tad lower. That, and the beautiful story set up was not brought together in a satisfying way; it in no way felt like Drake had earned Elena's forgiveness, but they kind just glossed over it. Still, a must play and Naughty Dog games at their best.
    
13. Subnautica (PS4): I wanted to love it more than I did. I was hooked on exploring and discovering the mysteries of the alien underwater, but I think I do better with games with less of a survival focus. I got really far into the game, but didn't actually finish since eventually the slow drip of clues started to get a bit too slow for my tastes, and the survival and basebuilding began to get tedious. Minor PS4 technical issues aside though, This is a dang good survival game, and immense in a terrifying and wonderful way.
    
14. Monster Train (PC): Slay the Spire is one of my all-time favorites, so I was pretty excited to be gifted this. It's a blast as a deckbuilder, and I think it was smartly designed in how it throws significant and strong rewards at you at every phase of a run, whereas StS often forces you to make the best of an iffy situation. Had a great time, but I lost interest after 15 or so hours since most runs tend to feel fairly similar. Still would absolutely recommend for StS and deckbuilding fans.
    
15. Spelunky (PC): Not the hardest game I've ever played, but definitely the most unforgiving. The controls took a while to get used to but once I was engaged, the game is a tight, slick, and enthralling adventure and test of skills. Full of secrets (I've only scratched the surface) and deeply satisfying to conquer. But boy, is it unforgiving.
    
16. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Remastered) (PS4): Another strong entry in the Uncharted series, just a tad weaker than 2 I think. I will credit it though with having the most memorable environments and locales in any Uncharted though!
    

The Good:

1. Read Dead Redemption II (PS4): *Full disclosure, I'm still playing through act 5 at the time of this post.* This one is really tough for me to fully form an opinion on. On the one hand, I think this is the most stunning and immersive open world I've ever seen. Deeply authentic towns, regions, unparalleled attention to detail, and great characters and a decent story. But the way the missions force you to do things explicitly one way with terrible hand-holding just isn't fun to me, and makes Uncharted games feel like open-world sandboxes by comparison. There's a lot of quality here and I've enjoyed many elements, but have been disillusioned by others. NakeyJakey explains what I felt far better than I can (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJPKOLDSos&t=392s). Still a good time though.
   
2. God of War (PS4): Like RDR2, an incredible technical achievement, for me hands down the best looking PS4 game, best voice acting, and for most people this should be towards the top of your must-play list. At its best, the characters are great, the combat is crunchy and satisfying, and the world beautiful. I just felt that for far too often the game was far from its best-- too many combat encounters didn't feel like I was a God of War but rather smacking a giant meat sack of health, so many secrets and puzzles that I just stopped caring about because finding treasure chests isn't fun when the rpg/loot elements feel so tacked on and pointless, endlessly recycled bosses... for me it was just pretty good, nothing like the game of the generation in my eyes. That said, most people don't seem too bothered by the things I found mediocre, so the sheer spectacle (looking at you world serpent!) and great moments make this well worth the price of admission!
   
3. Undertale (PC): I did not play this game the way it was meant to be played, let's say that up front. It was a gift, and I played about a half an hour every month for a year and just finally finished it. I loved the music, it was charming, and I see why people love this game so much. I think it just didn't hit those highs for me and I was left with a fairly silly little 8-bit game. Which was good. I'm glad I experienced what it had to offer but didn't leave a huge mark on me.
   
4. Superhot (Google Stadia): I had wanted to play this game forever but couldn't justify spending $20 on it, so I was pleased when I got a free Google Stadia kit and got to play it free! Really neat blend of stylized retro computer flavor and a fabulous central time-stop mechanic. A great 2 hour experience but tough to recommend as more than a novelty.
   
5. NieR: Automata (PS4): I have made it through 1.5 playthroughs so I know I haven't gotten the full experience, but I wasn't enjoying it enough to continue. I think every game developer though should learn from the brilliance of this game-- constantly keeping the player on its toes by not confining itself by a genre and by focusing on what's fun and cool, rather than convention. Excellent music. I get the hype, and the healthy dose of existential musings was interesting... it just didn't ultimately click for me. I can't unequivocally recommend this game to everyone, but if the premise and style stand out to you, this could be your next all-time favorite game.
   
6. Star Wars Battlefront II (PS4): Picked this up for free with PS Plus, and while there's not a lot here that's that special it was honestly super nice comfort food gaming. I just enjoyed shooting stuff in really cool Star Wars settings, a franchise I love. For what it was, I had a blast, minus the fact that I personally feel Jedi/heroes really kinda ruin the game for me. Unfortunately, it also is nothing more than a basic mass multiplayer battlefield game, so don't expect anything crazy.
   
7. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Remastered) (PS4): Definitely weaker than its successors, but still a really fun romp with trope-y but effective narrative and characters, and totally serviceable gunplay. This would be much higher on the list, and I honestly had a great time with it, but man the final third of the game was really painful to play. The switch to zombies was bad, and just wasn't fun to play through.
   
8. Until Dawn (PS4): I did not think I would like this game at all, I don't care for cheesy horror and definitely am not interested in interactive movies. But if you have a significant other or group of friends to play this with, it can be a great time! I played with my wife and we were honestly pretty engaged with the characters and the story was well told and had plenty of nice jump scares. There's not much game here, but for what it is it was a neat experience.
   
9. Shadow of the Colossus (Remake) (PS4): There were some incredible highlights to this game like the flying colossus and the sand worm, and the scale of the encounters with the epic music has earned this game a place as a masterpiece and classic to so many gamers. The remake looks stunning and it was exciting to see what type of colossus was up next. Unfortunately, every great moment I had was accompanied by an equally frustrating moment with mediocre controls and a couple of colossus that were so bad (looking at you, little bull/lion Celosia) that made me have to put down the game for a few days. A great game let down by some dated and poor elements.
   
10. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4): Souls games are my favorites, so it pains me to put this game so low. The best areas in the game (Heide's tower, Drangleic Castle, etc) are up there with the best in the series and most of the excellent combat found in the other games is more or less present here. But I think 2/3 of the game is bogged down by drab areas that feel more like a mario level designed to kill the player more than an area that could really exist. The Iron keep was the worst offender, the area was absolutely nonsensical and like so many other areas, enemies were placed in a way designed to frustrate the player with difficulty rather than engage them with challenge. Bosses were also mostly forgettable, but I did love the Looking Glass knight and the Pursuer!
    
11. Journey (PS4): Look, I'm as surprised as you that this game is on the bottom of the list. I honestly expected to love it. An artistic, beautiful marriage of environmental storytelling and unforgettable online interaction? A smooth and cathartic movement system? It has all these things, and no doubt deserves the acclaim and love it has from so many gamers. It just didn't resonate with me. Especially the ending, I felt for sure that there would be some great climax that contrasted with the struggle of the icy segment, but instead it fell a bit flat. Maybe I'll give it another try someday.
    

Conclusion, Gaming Patiently, and a Warning:

There you have it! I'd love to hear what surprised you in my rankings, where I'm horribly wrong, and what games you recommend I play next! Personally, I'm considering Persona 5 (though I'm not super into JRPGs), Dishonored 2 (am curious about immersive sims), and Jedi Fallen Order.
Gaming patiently is a strategy I absolutely endorse. Not only has it allowed me to form my own opinions of games independent of hype, but has allowed me to play a huge quantity of incredible games for honestly pennies. The average cost per game of everything I played this year was under $20. Now, more than ever, is an amazing time to get a PS4 and be a patient gamer, due to both the relative inexpensiveness and the sheer volume of outstanding games. I still will probably buy the big nintendo titles at launch and occasionally buy into hype, but most of the time it just isn't worth it anymore.
Finally, a friendly warning as a personal story for those of us who deeply love games and devote a lot of time to them. Like many kids, I was pretty limited by my parents growing up on what and how much I was allowed to play. I loved gaming but it was somewhat of a forbidden fruit. In college, I loved gaming and definitely played more, but still was very busy with social activities, studies, and other hobbies. Now, as a working adult with a comfortable job, I suddenly have more time and money than I have ever had in my life, and thus this giant list of games I played was created. For the first few months it was enthralling; all I wanted to do was play. Over the course of the year, however, it has become clear to me that requiring so much of my happiness and fun coming from having a game to be excited about can have some drawbacks. In the middle of a pandemic, if I'm sitting on the couch waiting for video games to make me happy and they just aren't giving me the same enjoyment that Bloodborne did when I played it for the first time, I'm just gonna be stuck there on the couch, slowly getting a bit depressed when my main source of fun isn't cutting it. So what's the point? Well, enjoy your games! Don't let anyone stop you from loving what you love. But if you start to burn out, please take care of yourself and engage in other hobbies, get outside, and keep things balanced. For me, doing so has made gaming all the sweeter.
Thanks for reading and indulging this long post!

Contents:

• Roadmap
• Recommended Key Spending
• List of Bonus Bosses
• Links to Summon Recommendation Guides
• Miscellaneous Notes

Greetings from the Church of Isuka! It's feels like forever since I've put one of these out. Unfortunately I had to remove the TL;DR chart due to hitting the 40k character limit so I replaced it with a summary for recommended Green/Red key spending instead. Compared to the last version, I've also added in Lost Tome, Sword and Wings, Jade's 5 star quest, P5R2, "Tales of," and GoT Part 3. There's been a lot added and it's definitely possible I may have overlooked something so let me know if you notice anything incorrect/missing or if you feel some things should be moved around.
The ^Hopefully Most Efficient Method for "Finishing" the Game:
※ Important Note: Aside from the Two Knights and Azure Rebel side episodes, everything else that is not part of the Main Story is optional. This means that if you do not want to fish, mine, or do Otherlands, etc., you are free to ignore those parts of this roadmap.

1. Start the game
   
   1. As soon as you have control, open up the Menu, go to Other, and Activate ID Transfer. Screenshot your Transfer ID and password and then e-mail the image to yourself. This way you can recover your account in case of catastrophic failure. The Transfer ID is permanent and reusable.
   2. For the tutorial summon, I recommended choosing Bivette as your character. Other popular options include Miyu and Ciel. All three have 5 star potential and can unlock bonus content specific to them, but Bivette has the most use in combat.
2. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 2
   
   1. If you haven't created a Transfer ID yet, go do it NOW. Linking to Facebook doesn't count. Linking to Google Play doesn't count. You are still at risk of losing your account if you need to reinstall.
   2. Get your daily Chronos Stones. Remember to do these every day for a minimum of 50 extra Chronos Stones.
      1. Open up the Menu, go to Inbox, and grab your 20 Chronos Stones.
      2. Open up the Menu, click the '+' at the top of the screen next to your Chronos Stones and watch an advertisement for 10 Chronos Stones from the shop.
      3. The first time you log into the game after 1500 UTC, you will have the opportunity to watch a single ad for 20 Chronos Stones.
      4. Open up the Menu and click the icon at the top left for the opportunity to watch 5 more advertisements for additional rewards.
   3. Open up the Menu, go to Records, go to Symphony, and begin the prologue for the Persona 5 Royal (P5R) Collab: Bound Wills and the Hollow Puppeteer.
   4. Open up the Menu, go to Records, go to Symphony, and begin the prologue for the "Tales of" Series Collab, Tails of Time and the Brave Four: Tales of Chronographia (Cress Series).
3. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 3. Go to Symphony from the menu to begin the prologue for Tales of Chronographia (Velvet Series).
   
4. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 4 which should unlock the orange icon side quests. I recommend doing all the side quests in an area for the Chronos Stones before continuing on. In addition, finish any blue icon character quests available to get Chronos Stones (and later unlock more powerful abilities on the Skill Board).
   
5. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 8. At this point you should have enough Chronos Stones for your first 10-pull. Pull on whichever banner you want. Your main goal is simply to get enough useful characters to form a 6-man team.
   
6. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 9. Go to Symphony from the menu to begin the prologue for Tales of Chronographia (Milla Series).
   
7. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 11 (characters should be around level 20)
   
   1. Upon finishing Chapter 10, you should have gotten a Holy Prayer Spirit. To spend it, go to Menu, go to Dreams, and go to the Regular tab. You will have a choice of four 4 star healers. I would rank them as Erina > Krervo = Prai > Pom. If you already have a 5 star healer, then this choice isn't a big deal.
   2. Go to Acteul near the Man-Eating Marsh. Begin the 1000 Year Ark to unlock fishing and begin to slowly fish pools at your level (If you're trying to fight a turtle, you've gone too far). Ponds refresh every half hour.
   3. Begin spending your Green Keys on Hard Another Dungeons in the Blue Door (H-AD).
      1. Doing main story dungeons (such as H-Moonlight Forest, H-Industrial Ruins, H-Nadara Volacano, etc.) will get you EXP, materials for equipment, tomes and scripts for upgrading certain characters from 3 stars to 4 stars, and a 10% chance at light/shadow in specific dungeons for specific story characters.
      2. Doing the H-Sealed Realm: Transitory Time Space (commonly called the EXP dungeon, found by tapping the purple icon to the top right) gives you about 1 million EXP, EXP badges, and EXP scrolls. However, you will not get any materials, tomes, scripts, or light/shadow.
   4. If you get a White Key at the end of a dungeon, it unlocks the White Gate (Phantom Crystal Dimension). Go run it immediately because you can only have one White Key at a time. It will give you git and character upgrade materials as well as unlock the Paw Stamp Album. Once you have the Paw Stamp Album, make sure to talk to any cat you come across inside the PCD.
   5. Begin fighting Uquaji (found at the far left door next to the fishing spot in the Spacetime Rift). He comes back every 24 hours with a few more levels.
   6. Begin filling out your Cat Catalog (obtained after returning to the Moonlight Forest).
   7. Return to the Mayor's House in Baruoki to do his tutorial missions. Completing the tutorials will reward you with +EXP badges up to +30%.
8. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 13 (characters should be around level 32)
   
   1. If you've completed the P5R prologue from Step 2, go to the Baruoki Tavern to start the P5R Collab event. Complete the entire Collab to get 5 star Joker and 5 star Morgana. Make sure to get all the badges from the dungeon (including a +20% EXP badge!) as well as their level 60 personal weapons.
   2. Go to Unigan near the gate to the Karek Swampland. Complete the Two Knights side episode until VH-Miglance Labyrinth (Unigan) is unlocked. Begin spending your Red Keys here to start getting the rewards. Completing this side episode is required to continue the main story past Chapter 26.
   3. Go to Symphony from the menu to begin the prologue for Tales of Chronographia (Yuri Series).
   4. If you've completed all the "Tales of" prologues, go to the front of the Unigan Tavern to start the "Tales of" Collab event. Complete the entire Collab to get 4 Cress, Velvet, Milla, and Yuri. You can get their personal weapons and 5 star tome by going to the Citadel of Time Ruins and selecting the respective trial (see here).
   5. If you have Miyu, begin Other Story: Little Princess' Little Big Adventure in Miglance Palace. Just go as far as you can and if you find yourself underleveled, put it on hold and come back later.
   6. Keep fishing.
   7. Ignore the Lost Tome side episode for now.
9. Continue the Main Story
   
   1. Once you hit level 40, go to Elzion Theta District. Complete IDA Part 1 until VH-Saki's Dream World is unlocked. Stop spending your Red Keys on Two Knights and begin spending your Red Keys here instead to start getting the rewards. Make sure to also do all the bonus activities related to IDA Part 1 (see here).
   2. Farm the two overworld Horrors in Miglance Labyrinth every 6 hours to finish off Two Knights and get all the rewards. They are located down the well next to the Unigan Tavern on floors 2 and 5.
   3. After completing IDA Part 1, complete the 1000 Year Ark until VH-Dragon Palace is unlocked. Begin spending your Red Keys here to start getting the rewards. Don't forget to check the sparkles hidden throughout the VH dungeon for black pearls. The number of stacked turtles at the start of the dungeon will let you know how many there are. Make sure to also do all the bonus activities related to the 1000 Year Ark (see here).
   4. Begin challenging Azami and Cerrine. They start at level 40 and respawn with 10 additional levels up to a maximum level of 80. Azami can be found in the Serena Coast. Cerrine can initally be found on the 2nd Floor of IDA School H Block after you complete IDA Part 1, but will move to the 3rd Floor Classroom for the 2nd-4th fights and the Sky Terrace for the 5th fight. Defeating them will recruit them to your roster.
   5. Did you remember to keep fishing?
10. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 16. Begin challenging the Flame Eater (Gariyu). It starts at level 40 and respawns with 10 additional levels. It can initially be found in the Zol Planes but will move to a different location every time it respawns. You can find the locations here. Defeating it will allow you to fight Gariyu to recruit him to your roster.
    
11. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 18. If you have Ciel, begin Other Story: Foreign Skies and the Ship to Freedom in Elzion Gamma District. Just go as far as you can and if you find yourself underleveled, put it on hold and come back later.
    
12. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 21 (characters should be around level 45)
    
    1. Visit the various locations offered on the Riftbreaker's main deck to unlock access to Nilva and Rucyana Sands (which leads to Zarbo). In Zarbo, go into the rightmost house on the center lane and tap the straw dummy (it does not have an exclamation mark) to gain access to Sarupa and Charol Plains.
    2. Go inside the Mayor's House in Baruoki. Begin the P5R Part 2 Collab: Bound Wills and the Hollow Puppeteer: Promises, Vows, and Rings. Complete the entire Collab to get 5 star Violet.
    3. Begin the Time Mine side episode. You'll want to stop by here every half hour or so when the sparkles respawn.
    4. Go to Elzion Gamma District. Begin the Lost Tome side episode to unlock the Treasure Quests. Continue to work through this episode as your level allows.
    5. Go do the hidden quest chain for the Adamantine Weapon. You can get only get two weapons, one now and one later, and your decision is permanent so choose carefully. Commonly recommended options are Sword, Katana, and Lance.
    6. You may consider using your Green Keys in H-Tower of Stars to farm materials needed for level 52 and 60 equipment to complete your collection catalogue. Otherwise, use them to farm points for side episodes (other than the 1000 Year Ark) or to farm EXP in the Transitory Time Space.
    7. Are you still fishing?
13. Complete the Main Story up to Chapter 22
    
    1. Go to the Unigan inn. Begin the First Knight and the Holy Sword side episode (requires completion of Two Knights). Completing this side episode gets you a free 5 star character, Deirdre. Make sure to also do all the bonus activities related to the First Knight (see here) which can reward you with things like VC grasta, armor, and a second Adamantine Weapon.
14. Finish the Main Story (characters should be around level 55)
    
    1. Go to Unigan near the gate to the Serena Coast and unlock the Royal Theater. You can cast your characters in different roles of a play and you are awarded chronos stones the first time you get a Disappointing, Excellent, or MAX review for each play.
    2. Go to Baruoki in the Mayor's House and do the two part quest chain beginning with To You of Days Long Past to get the ULTIMANIA Hammer. It can be upgraded through fighting specific enemies so keep an eye out for them as you continue to play.
    3. Go to Derismo Highroad just outside Palsifal Palace. Begin the Sword and Wing Mythos. Complete Chapter 2 to get 4 star Clarte. Complete Chapter 3 to craft Anti-lightning Armor which give +10 SPD.
    4. Go to Baruoki in the Mayor's House and do the quest for The Cat's Tale Beyond It's Territory. This will let you explore new locations as Varuo. You can get grasta and cat equipment this way.
    5. After doing Step 3 above, go start the Cat Battles. Your goal is to finish the quest "Dance the Paw-Rondo!" located in a hidden extended area east of Last Island. If you have Bivette, come back after finishing the quest to unlock a second quest and additional Cat Battles. Finishing the second quest will unlock Bivette's 5 star potential and leveling cat!Bivette to level 40 will give you enough Flame Witch Psalms to upgrade Bivette to 5 stars.
    6. If you have not gotten all the rewards from the Two Knights, IDA Part 1, P5R Part 2, or "Tales of" side episodes/collabs, use your Green Keys to finish collecting points.
    7. If you do not have any points to farm, use your Green Keys to farm H-Ruins of Rucyana for levels, EXP scrolls, git, and scripts.
    8. Begin spending your Red Keys to farm VH-Moonlight Forest, Industrial Ruins, and Nadara Volcano for levels, materials, tomes, scripts, and (if you're doing VH-Industrial Ruins) light for Amy. You also want to try and get the Sun Tome, Empress Tome, and Flame Lord Tome from these VH dungeons respectively.
    9. You will also unlock the VH-Sealed Realm: Transitory Time Space and Ephemeral Time Space. Doing VH-Transitory Time Space gives you about 1.7 million EXP, EXP badges, EXP scrolls, and a chance at treatises. Doing VH-Ephemeral Time Space gives you about 800k git, Git Badges, Gold Lumps, and a chance at treatises (it is recommended to wait until after Chapter 51 when you gain access to Gold Weapons). However, neither of these dungeons will give you any materials, tomes, scripts, or light/shadow.
    10. You will begin earning Tsubura's Gems for completing VH dungeons. You might want to consider saving 400 of these in case you need to buy treatises for an Another Style sidegrade. Any extras are best used to buy Red Keys to run additional VH dungeons. On average, this is superior to buying Chant Scripts with them. It is NOT recommended to use these for buying psalms to upgrade your story characters. You can earn up to 120 Tsubura's Gems a week.
    11. Finish challenging Azami and upgrade her to 5 stars.
    12. Finish challenging Cerrine and upgrade her to 5 stars.
    13. Finish challenging Flame EateGariyu and then upgrade him to 5 stars.
    14. Begin to fight the original bonus bosses for the achievements/Chronos Stones (Goblin King, Red Dawn, True Chronos Menas, Imbrium Basin, Level 90 Flame Eater). Note that Red Dawn and Imbrium Basin are part of the ULTIMANIA Hammer upgrade quest so you might want to hold off on killing them until you reach that point.
    15. Once you reach around level 60, if you have any characters that are capable of getting a Manifestation Weapon, go do the initial battle in the Spacetime Rift located in the room furthest in the back. Once you get the weapon, keep it equipped on anyone in your currently active party so it gains EXP up to level 10. The fastest way to level them is through the Sealed Realm: Transitory Time Space AD. The current list of characters able to get a Manifestation Weapon are: Anabel, Azami, Bertrand, Cerrine, Cetie, Claude, Deirdre, Dewey, Elga, Ewan, Felmina, Gariyu, Isuka, Laclair, Lokido, Mariel, Melina, Mighty, Mighty AS, Myrus, Nagi, Renri, Shanie, Shion, Shion AS, Suzette, Suzette AS, Toova, Tsukiha, and Yuna.
    16. The fish ponds miss you. T_T
15. Begin Ogre Wars, Part 1 (requires completion of Two Knights) (characters should be level 60+)
    
    1. Once you get to Konium, talk to the trader in the tavern. Collect all the Cruel Angel's gear and begin upgrading the Staff and Necklace. You can find a map for all of the special materials here.
    2. Go to the Elzion Cargo Station. Complete IDA Part 2 (requires completion of IDA Part 1) until H-Mayu's Dream World is unlocked. Begin spending your Green Keys here to get all the rewards. Make sure to do all the bonus activities related to IDA Part 2 (see here).
    3. Go to the Charol Plains towards the north end of the map. Complete the Celestial Tower until H-Dogma Tower is unlocked. Begin spending your Green Keys here to get all the rewards. This side episode has extremely high requirements for the final rewards so feel free to take your time once you've finished the side episode.
    4. Finish off Other Story: Little Princess' Little Big Adventure. You can run VH-Forest of Forgetfulness (Miglance Palace) to farm Princess Psalms to upgrade Miyu to 5 stars but it is NOT recommended since she is underwhelming as a character.
    5. Finish off Other Story: Foreign Skies and the Ship to Freedom. You can run VH-Hanging Garden (Garden Island) to farm Melodist Psalms to upgrade Ciel to 5 stars but it is NOT recommended since he is underwhelming as a character.
    6. Finish the Lost Tome side episode if you have not done so already to get Sophia to 5 stars.
    7. You have new fishing pools in the Ancient Battlefield and Snake Neck Igoma so take advantage of them.
16. Finish Ogre Wars, Part 1
    
    1. You may consider spending just enough Green and Red Keys to run H- and VH-Snake Liver Damaku in order to finish upgrading the Cruel Angel's Necklace to +10. Note that a fully upgraded necklace will grant +20 SPD while doing the Sword and Wing Mythos will allow you to craft a comparable +10 SPD necklace without needing to use Green and Red Keys.
    2. You should be able to start challenging the trials inside Mementos AD. Finish all 10 trials to get 5 star Skull. Finishing the trials will also give you Violet's and Skull's personal weapons and VC grasta.
    3. Work toward getting Aldo to 5 stars as you will be forced to use him in a later chapter.
    4. Just keep fishing.
17. Begin Ogre Wars, Part 2
    
    1. Once you get to the Haunted Cheateau and Toto Dreamland, collect all the Toto's gear and begin upgrading the Ring. If you use Renri, upgrade the Ax. If you use a bow-based support (e.g. Ciel), upgrade the Bow. If you use a hammer-based healer, upgrade the Hammer. If you use a spear-based tank, upgrade the Spear. You can find a map for the locations of the Toto marks to get the weapons here. You can find a map for the locations of the armor here.
    2. Work toward getting Amy to 5 stars as you will be forced to use her in a later chapter.
    3. Just keep fishing.
18. Finish Ogre Wars, Part 2
    
    1. Go to Ratle to unlock the jump rope minigame in Konium and Baruoki.
    2. Hopefully you've finished the Time Mine side episode and collected all the rewards. If not, keep working at it.
    3. Go to the Riftbreaker's main deck. Complete the Azure Rebel side episode until H-Former KMS HQ is unlocked. Begin spending your Green Keys here to get all the rewards. Completing this side episode is required to continue the main story past Chapter 44.
    4. Go to IDA School H Block outside the IDEA Operations Room. Complete IDA Part 3 (requires completion of IDA Part 2). No keys are required. Finishing this episode rewards you with a an extremely powerful yet free level 60 5 star character, Mana. After finishing this side episode, take your time grinding out the rest of your friendship points in Lord of Mana to collect all the rewards.
    5. Go to Rinde and begin Devilishness Revived (requires completion of Celestial Tower). This event consists of a series of battles that spawn in a different location each time. Do this 5 times to unlock Cyrus's 5 star potential. Feel free to move on and come back later if the fights are too difficult.
    6. Begin Rebirth of the Beast King. This event consists of a series of battles in different locations. The first 4 battles can be done in any order but they must all be cleared to gain access to the 5th battle. After the 5th battle, you unlock Guildna's 5 star potential. Feel free to move on and come back later if the fights are too difficult.
    7. Begin IDA Part 2: After Incidents in the Elzion Cargo Station (requires completion of IDA Part 2). This event consists of a series of battles that spawn in a different location each time. Do this 5 times to get AS Saki. Feel free to move on and come back later if the fights are too difficult.
    8. Begin One Other Ordeal in the Elzion Theta District (requires completion of the Azure Rebel). This event consists of a series of battles in different locations. The first 3 battles can be done in any order but they must all be cleared to gain access to the 4th battle. After the 5th battle, you unlock Riica's 5 star potential and personal weapon. Feel free to move on and come back later if the fights are too difficult.
    9. Begin Jewel in Shade by the front desk of IDA School H Block (requires completion of IDA 2 and the Lost Tome side episodes). This event consists of a series of battles in different locations. The first 3 battles can be done in any order but they must all be cleared to gain access to the 4th battle. After the 5th battle, you unlock Jade's 5 star potential. Feel free to move on and come back later if the fights are too difficult. After promoting him to 5 stars, make sure to go to the IDA School H Block - Sky Terrace to get his personal VC grasta as well.
    10. Go do the hidden quest chain to upgrade your Adamantine Weapon. You can only get one type of upgrade and your decision is permanent so choose carefully.
    11. Go to Unigan and begin the AS Gariyu questline (requires completion of all three of his character quests as well). This event consists of a series of battles. Do this 5 times to get AS Gariyu. Feel free to move on and come back later if the fights are too difficult.
    12. Just keep fishing, fishing, fishing...
19. Begin Tales from the East: Return of the Goddess of Time, Part 1
    
    1. Go to the Izana Tavern and start investigating the rumors. It takes the guy 30 minutes to finish investigating each rumor.
    2. You will be able to begin farming grasta. For more information, check out this post. (Guide courtesy of u/Typical-Cookie)
    3. Go to Nagsham and participate in the minigames to farm Silver and Gold tokens. Silver Tokens can be traded for souvenirs. Collecting all the souvenirs will only reward 5 Chronos Stones so it's not quite worth the time investment. Gold Tokens can be traded for Gold Weapons that boost the amount of gold earned in battle. It's best to equip these weapons before entering the Ruins of Rucyana or the Ephemeral Time Space.
    4. What do we do? We fish, fish, fish... (There aren't any new fishing locations so just keep fishing the old ones).
20. Finish Goddess of Time, Part 1
    
    1. Begin to equip your main units with Cherry Blossom weapons and Discipline/Tempered armor (crafted from materials that come from the new zones in Garulea) and then start upgrading them. For weapons, the Staff, Sword, Bow, Fists, and Hammer are all worth upgrading. The armors increase max HP/MP. Note that there is only one Master of the Attic (Horror), which means you can only get 1 Steel Mouse Skin every 6 hours.
    2. Use your Green Keys to farm Present Garulea Continent AD (PGAD) for high level grasta. Even if your light/shadow level is low, you can still collect Junk/Paint Materials/Cat Emas inside the dungeon to trade for rewards. Make sure to bring Azami so she can gain light. Your goal is to collect all the T3 grasta from trading Junk at Nagsham and Cat Emas at the start. In addition, buy any Power of Nothingness grasta that you find at Nagsham.
    3. With Present Garulea Continent AD unlocked, you should also start buying Green Keys with Tsubura's Gems from the Nopaew Emporium.
    4. Farm any remaining Psalms needed to upgrade your story characters. This should be done together with VC grasta farming for your other characters. Aldo and Amy should be your priorities to upgrade to 5 stars. Guildna is also a very good option. Riica, Cyrus, and Helena are low priority.
    5. Oh ho ho! How I love to fish! (I'll stop the Finding Nemo reference now...)
21. Begin Goddess of Time, Part 2
    
    1. Make sure to do all of the sidequests as you progress the story. One of them in Chapter 61 will give you a Jadeite of Attack plus a Power of Agony (Lance) grasta.
    2. After Chapter 55, you will gain the ability to create VC grasta from your unused 5 star upgrade tomes at the present time Cat Shrine.
    3. After Chapter 58, you will gain Strawboy. If you level him up to at least level 60, you can return to Zami to reincarnate him. Each reincarnation increases his starting level by 1 (up to a maximum of starting level of 60). Each reincarnation at level 80 will also increase his light value by 1.
    4. After Chapter 60, you will gain the ability to create True VC grasta at the future Cat Shrine. To unlock this ability, you will need to complete a short quest requiring the collection of 88 charms. A map of the charm locations can be found on the wiki here.
22. Finish Goddess of Time, Part 2
    
    1. Once you finish collecting all the limited grasta from Present Garulea Continent AD, switch over to farming Antiquity Garulea Continent AD (AGAD) instead. Make sure to bring Gariyu (NS or AS) so he can gain shadow. Your goal is to collect all the T3 grasta from trading Femurs at Zami and Dogus at the start. In addition, buy any Power of Poison or Power of Pain grasta that you find at Zami.
    2. Begin to craft Dragon Bone weapons and Active/Silence armor (crafted from materials that come from the new zones in Garulea) and then start upgrading them. For weapons, the Ax and Bow are worth upgrading. The armors increase HP/MP regen while in reserves and have the same stats as the Discipline/Tempered Armor.
23. Begin Goddess of Time, Part 3
    
    1. After Chapter 70, you will gain the ability to upgrade your grasta at Nekomasa's House in Itoise.
    2. Continue to upgrade the Icicle Bow using Auretium. Upgrading the bow will allow you to break through additional seals scattered around Kunlun Mountains and Demon Sea Caverns.
24. Finish Goddess of Time, Part 3
    
    1. Once you finish collecting all the limited grasta from Antiquity Garulea Continent AD, switch over to farming Future Garulea Continent AD (FGAD) instead. Make sure to bring Cerrine so she can gain light. Your goal is to collect all 3 unique armors from the vendor at Angal and all 4 unique (seafood) weapons from the vendor at Eeza. Then continue to farm for grasta upgrade materials.
    2. Finish collecting the other 4 seafood weapons scattered around the new areas.
    3. Begin to craft Crafted weapons and Might armor (crafted from materials that come from the new zones in Garulea) and then start upgrading them. For weapons, the Fist is worth upgrading. The Lance is good for Tiramisu and the Staff is good for anyone in the same party as AS Rosetta. The armors increase damage by +15% when at Max HP.
25. Endgame stuff (in no particular order)
    
    1. Use your Red Keys to finishing collecting all the rewards from the side episodes/collabs. Afterward, use your Red Keys to farm for story character light/shadow to reach the AD reward thresholds (Ruins of Rucyana: 96, VH-AD: 120, Otherlands: 180, Garulea AD: 240 and 360).
    2. While you can try to farm for VH-Otherlands weapons, farming the Garulea Continent ADs provide an easier and faster power boost for the same number of Green Keys. If you still want to farm VH-Otherlands, your choices are: Baruoki, Ratle, and Elzion. Which one you do depends on what weapons you want and what team composition you have. While difficulty is subjective, I'd rate them Baruoki > Elzion = Ratle (from hardest to easiest). Note that there are other weapons with similar (but slightly weaker) effects for far less grind.
    3. If you have finished leveling your Manifestation Weapons to level 10, go back and do the second fight to finish powering them up. This fight will be much more difficult!
    4. Go to Konium and talk to the elder to refight the armors from Rebirth of the Beast King to upgrade the Sword of Despair.
    5. Go to Purgatory and refight the Elementals 3 times each to upgrade the elemental weapons.
    6. Finish fishing by catching all the Lake Horrors and then go fight Leviathan.
    7. Finish 1000 Another Dungeons to fight the Nameless Girl.
    8. You didn't forget about Uquaji, did you?
    9. Fight the Present Garulea Eight Demons from the rumors to get their weapons. (Guide courtesy of u/Living_Green)
    10. Fight the Antiquity Garulea Eight Demons after solving their riddles to get their weapons. (Guide courtesy of u/EdenBoy03)
    11. Fight the Velvet Twins, Justine and Caroline, in Lucniva. For every 25% of their HP you take off for the first time, you will get rewards. For example, the first time you bring them down to 75% HP you will get Joker's and Morgana's personal VC grasta.
    12. Fight each of the True Spirits individually (Rogi, Fornjot, Aegir, and Kari). Each spirit you defeat will give you the personal VC grasta for the respective "Tales of" character (Cress, Velvet, Milla, and Yuri).
    13. Fight the remaining superbosses: Insula Ventorum, Mimi, Rotte Rivel, Zennon Shadow, Melvillithan, Regenwurm, Terra Nivium, Ice Jailer, Kudang, and the Baruoki Mayor. Note that Insula Ventorum is part of the ULTIMANIA Hammer upgrade quest so you might want to hold off on killing it until you reach that point. Farming Rotte Rivel and Regenwurm is the most efficient way to get everything from the Cat Road vendors in Moonlight Forest and Sarupa respectively.
    14. Finish all your collection achievements (including the armors from H-Otherlands).
    15. Finish leveling and upgrading all your characters.
    16. Find all 108 cats and level them all to level 50 through cat battles. Don't forget to go back to the Spurr-ace Colony to fight the Four Heavenly Kitties.
    17. Reincarnate your Strawboy all the way to 255 light.
    18. Buy out the entire Auction House including all 3 of Sophia's VC grasta.
    19. Go back and finish getting max friend points for every companion in Lord of Mana, even if you've already gotten the final chant script, for bragging rights.
    20. Fully upgrade your fishing gear and catch 150 of every single fish including the Lake Lords and Rinde Sunfish.
26. Mourn the loss of your social life as you wait for the next patch to drop.
    
27. Go get yourself a VTuber avatar and stream yourself replaying the game from the beginning with story characters only
    

※ Important Note: Aside from the Two Knights and Azure Rebel side episodes, everything else that is not part of the Main Story is optional. This means that if you do not want to fish, mine, or do Otherlands, etc., you are free to ignore those parts of this roadmap.
Recommended Key Spending

• Finish Chapter 11
  • Use green keys on storyline ADs or the EXP AD
  • No place to spend red keys
• Finish Chapter 13
  • Use green keys on storyline H-ADs, the EXP H-AD, or side episode/collab H-ADs (except for 1000 Year Ark and First Knight)
  • Use red keys on side episode VH-ADs (especially 1000 Year Ark and First Knight)
• Finish Chapter 25
  • Use green keys on side episode/collab H-ADs or Ruins of Rucyana
  • Use red keys on storyline VH-ADs
• Finish Chapter 55
  • Use green keys on PGAD
  • Use red keys on side episode/collab VH-ADs or storyline VH-ADs
• Finish Chapter 66
  • Use green keys on AGAD (if PGAD is fully cleared)
  • Use red keys on side episode/collab VH-ADs or storyline VH-ADs
• Finish Chapter 74
  • Use green keys on FGAD (if AGAD is fully cleared)
  • Use red keys on side episode/collab VH-ADs or storyline VH-ADs

List of Bonus Bosses:

• 1.0 Bosses
  
  • Goblin King (Moonlight Forest, deepest area, requires Goblin Loincloth)
  • Red Dawn (Zol Plains, northeast corner)
  • Imbrium Basin (Last Island, northwest corner)
  • True Chronos Menas (Records Room Chronos Umbra, Elzion Pathway boss room)
  • Flame Eater (Corinda Plains, up the southwest vine, requires recruitment of Gariyu)
  • Leviathan (Ocean Palace, requires completion of Ocean Palace and victory over all Lake Lords)
  • Nameless Girl (Spacetime Rift, requires completion of 1000 Another Dungeons)
  • Uquaji (Spacetime Rift, westernmost door)
• 1.5 Bosses
  
  • Insula Ventorum (Hidden passage behind Macminal Museum, requires key from final room in the museum)
  • Mimi (Toto Dreamland)
  • Zennon Shadow (Records Room Ogres Spike, boss room)
  • Melvillithan (Ogres Spike, east of Dominion Spire, requires Resonance Box)
  • The full power 4 Elementals in Purgatory without using the items (there are no actual rewards but they're still a fun challenge)
• 2.0 Bosses
  
  • Rotte Rivel (Moonlight Forest, extended area east of the healing point, requires travelling there first as Varuo)
  • Regenwurm (Cat Road, extended area in the northeast corner of Sarupa, requires travelling there first as Varuo)
  • 8 Demons (Present Garulea, all over the place, requires talking to rumor monger at Izana tavern first)
  • 8 Demons (Antiquity Garulea, all over the place, requires talking to man in Gadaro first)
  • Terra Nivium (Sky Fortress Eeza down the elevator, requires code from KMS)
  • Baruoki Mayor (Baruoki, complete all the tutorial missions given by the mayor and find the cane in Moonlight Forest)
  • Celestial Mushroom (Rippling Forest, hidden area immediately east of the exit of the northern most map)
  • Berserk Tempered Hound (Parallel Unigan Underground Path)
• 2.5 Bosses
  
  • Justine and Caroline (Lucniva, glowing flowers at the very top)
  • True Spirits (Citadel of Time Ruins, basement after finishing all 4 trials)
  • Ice Jailer (Kunlun Mountains, unlocked with a level 5 Icicle Bow)
  • Kudang (Land of Ro: Dungeon Ruins, in the back of Level 5)

F2P Summoning Guides:

• Guide by u/TheMike0088 up through 2.7.70

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Go set up your Transfer ID right now if you haven't already. You have been warned!
• Use your food! You can always get new food by resting at an inn.
• Only use your chronos stones on pulls! If you die in battle, you can force close the game and reload before the battle as long as you don't go past the defeat screen.
• Gear isn't an exceptionally big deal before endgame. Just wear what you can get. If you're running Another Dungeons, you should be getting a decent amount of materials. Also, look into getting the treasure chests hidden behind Horrors to lessen the amount of materials you need to grind. Once you get past Chapter 26, the Cruel Angel's and Toto's gear should last you until the Eastern continent.
• These are the best dungeons for battle EXP aside from the EXP dungeon:

Dungeon	Total EXP	EXP w/o Horrors
VH-Snake Liver Damaku	662094	558318
VH-Riftbreaker	641835	540567
VH-Toto Dreamland	634225.5	525421.5
VH-Beast King's Castle	611173.5	507397.5
VH-Miglance Castle	609550	513310

Additional useful links if you need more details on anything mentioned above:

• The Megathread of Megathreads
• The AE Wiki
• Altema (Use Google Translate JP>EN)
• Global Notice API
• Japanese Notice API

Changelog:

• Added Lost Tome side episode
• Added Sword and Wings Mythos
• Added Jewel in Shade
• Added Persona 5 Royal Part 2
• Added "Tales of" Collab
• Added Goddess of Time Part 3
• Rearranged some stuff
• Removed TL;DR chart due to character limit
• Changed History to Previous Version due to character limit

Previous Version:

• v.2.3.100

Edit: Added additional info as suggested by u/Typical-Cookie and u/Oldnoob36