Resident Evil Story Explained: the Whole Saga in Order

Resident Evil is Capcom's survival horror series, running since 1996 across 13 main and side-story games, four remakes, CG films and spin-offs. In story order it runs from July 1998, when a police unit stumbled on a secret laboratory outside Raccoon City, to 2026, when Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy went back to the city's ruins. This page walks through every main game in order, with full spoilers, and links to the full story page for each. (Resident Evil; Resident Evil Requiem)

In what order#

The games came out mostly in story order. Resident Evil 0 is a prequel, and Resident Evil 3 wraps around Resident Evil 2, starting a day before it and ending a day after. In story order: (Resident Evil 0; Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

1. Resident Evil 0, July 1998
2. Resident Evil, July 1998
3. Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, September to October 1998
4. Resident Evil Code: Veronica, December 1998
5. Resident Evil 4, 2004
6. Resident Evil: Revelations, 2005
7. Resident Evil 5, 2009
8. Resident Evil: Revelations 2, 2011
9. Resident Evil 6, 2012 to 2013
10. Resident Evil 7, 2017
11. Resident Evil Village, 2021
12. Resident Evil Requiem, 2026

Release dates, platforms and the spin-offs are in Resident Evil games in order, and every dated event, films included, is on the Resident Evil timeline.

Before the games: Umbrella#

In 1966 Oswell E. Spencer and the virologist James Marcus found a flower in West Africa that carried a virus able to rewrite living things. They called it the Progenitor virus. With Edward Ashford they founded the Umbrella Corporation, a drug company that secretly made bioweapons. In 1978 Marcus crossed Progenitor with leech DNA and made the t-virus, which kills its host and brings the body back as a mindless, hungry zombie. (Resident Evil 5; Resident Evil 0)

Umbrella built its secret Arklay Laboratory under a mansion in the mountains outside Raccoon City, a Midwestern town it effectively owned. Two of its brightest staff were Albert Wesker and William Birkin. In 1988 they had Marcus killed on Spencer's orders, and Birkin went on to develop a far stronger strain, the G-virus. (Resident Evil 0; Resident Evil 2)

Resident Evil 0 (July 1998)#

In May 1998 the t-virus leaked inside the Arklay Laboratory. By July, people were being found half-eaten in the woods, and the Raccoon Police Department sent its special unit, S.T.A.R.S., to look into it. (Resident Evil 0; Resident Evil (2002))

On 23 July Bravo Team's helicopter crashed in the forest. Its rookie medic, Rebecca Chambers, found a train, the Ecliptic Express, full of the dead, and a prisoner who had escaped from a crashed transport: Billy Coen, a former Marine sentenced to death for a massacre he said he didn't commit. Leeches swarmed the train, controlled by a young man singing opera. (Resident Evil 0)

The train crashed at Umbrella's abandoned training facility. Rebecca and Billy learned that the singer was the Queen Leech, a creature that had eaten James Marcus's body after his murder ten years earlier and absorbed his memories. Now it believed it was Marcus, and it wanted revenge on Umbrella. The game hints that it was behind the leak that started everything. (Resident Evil 0)

They destroyed the Queen Leech as the facility blew up. Rebecca believed Billy's story, told him she'd report him dead, and let him go. Then she headed for a mansion she could see through the trees. Watching all of it were Wesker and Birkin, and Wesker was already planning to leave Umbrella. For the full story, read Resident Evil 0 explained. (Resident Evil 0)

Resident Evil (July 1998)#

On 24 July Alpha Team, led by Captain Wesker, went looking for Bravo. Monstrous dogs killed one of them and the pilot, Brad Vickers, flew off in panic. Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton and Wesker ran for the nearest building, the Spencer Mansion. (Resident Evil)

The mansion was a puzzle box full of zombies, crows, giant snakes and the reptile-like Hunters. Chris and Jill found Rebecca and the remains of Bravo Team. Barry kept disappearing. Wesker had threatened his family and forced him to help. (Resident Evil)

Under the mansion lay the laboratory. There Wesker revealed he had worked for Umbrella all along and had led his team in to test its weapons against trained soldiers. He woke the Tyrant, Umbrella's prize bioweapon, and it impaled him. The survivors set off the self-destruct, Brad came back with the helicopter, and the team destroyed the Tyrant with a rocket launcher as the mansion exploded. (Resident Evil)

Wesker wasn't dead. Birkin had given him a virus that revived him, and he walked away. The 2002 remake tells the same story but adds the tragedy of the Trevor family, who built the mansion, and Lisa Trevor, kept alive in its grounds as a test subject for decades. Read the full Resident Evil story. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica; Resident Evil (2002))

Resident Evil 2 (September 1998)#

No one believed the S.T.A.R.S. survivors. Weeks later Umbrella sent soldiers, including the operative HUNK, to take Birkin's G-virus by force. They shot him. Dying, Birkin injected himself with the G-virus and became a monster that tore the team apart. The t-virus samples they dropped got into the sewers, rats carried it out, and by late September Raccoon City was overrun. (Resident Evil 2; Resident Evil 2 (2019))

On 29 September the rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy drove into the city for his first day and met Claire Redfield, a student looking for her brother Chris. They took shelter in the Raccoon City Police Department, where the corrupt chief, Brian Irons, had sold out the town to Umbrella. Inside were zombies, the blind, clawed Lickers, and later a Tyrant sent to recover the G-virus. (Resident Evil 2; Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Claire found Birkin's young daughter, Sherry Birkin. Leon met Ada Wong, who said she was looking for her boyfriend but was a spy sent to steal the G-virus. They ended up in Umbrella's lab under the city, where Birkin's wife Annette told them what her husband had made. Birkin had implanted his daughter with an embryo, and Claire saved her with a vaccine. (Resident Evil 2)

Ada fell, apparently dead, after saving Leon. Annette died. Leon, Claire and Sherry escaped on an underground train while the lab self-destructed, and killed the last form of Birkin on the way out. The 2019 remake keeps the main story, with a new route through the station, a bigger role for the stalking Tyrant and a reworked final scene for Ada. Read the full Resident Evil 2 story. (Resident Evil 2; Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Resident Evil 3 (September to October 1998)#

Jill was still in Raccoon City when the outbreak hit. On 28 September, the day before Leon arrived, she tried to get out. Umbrella had sent a new Tyrant into the city with one task: kill the last members of S.T.A.R.S. It was Nemesis, big, smart enough to use a rocket launcher, and hard to stop. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 3 (2020))

Jill teamed up with Carlos Oliveira, a soldier in Umbrella's mercenary force who'd been told he was there to rescue civilians. His squad leader Mikhail Viktor died fighting Nemesis, and their supervisor Nikolai Zinoviev turned out to be collecting data on the creatures for Umbrella. Nemesis killed Brad Vickers at the police station. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

Nemesis infected Jill with the t-virus. She was out of action while Carlos found a vaccine, which puts the second half of her story after Resident Evil 2. Meanwhile the US government had decided to destroy the city. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)

At dawn on 1 October Jill finished Nemesis off, and she and Carlos flew out by helicopter as the missile wiped out Raccoon City. The 2020 remake keeps the outline but cuts and reworks a lot: some locations go, Nemesis takes new forms, and Carlos and Jill reach Umbrella's underground facility before the end. Read the full Resident Evil 3 story. (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; Resident Evil 3 (2020))

Resident Evil Code: Veronica (December 1998)#

Chris, Jill and Barry went to Europe to take on Umbrella's headquarters. Claire went looking for Chris, was caught raiding an Umbrella building in Paris, and was shipped to a prison on Rockfort Island, owned by the Ashford family. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica)

When the island was attacked and the t-virus got loose, Claire escaped her cell and met another prisoner, Steve Burnside. Rockfort was run by Alfred Ashford, an unstable man who dressed as his twin sister Alexia and spoke to her as if she were there. Claire and Steve fled by plane, only for it to fly them to Umbrella's base in Antarctica. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica)

There Alexia Ashford, a child genius, woke from 15 years of cold sleep. She'd injected herself with her own t-Veronica virus as a girl and waited for it to bond with her. She infected Steve, who mutated and died after saving Claire. Chris arrived and met Wesker again: alive, faster and stronger than any human, and working for a rival of Umbrella. Wesker had led the attack on the island. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica)

Chris killed Alexia, fought Wesker to a standstill, and escaped with Claire as the base was destroyed. Wesker got away and swore he'd settle things with Chris. A remake, Resident Evil Veronica, is due in 2027. Read the full Code: Veronica story. (Resident Evil Code: Veronica)

Resident Evil 4 (2004)#

In February 2003 Chris and Jill joined a raid on Umbrella's last facility in Russia, and Umbrella collapsed soon after, its secrets out. Leon had been taken into government service after Raccoon City. By autumn 2004 he was an agent, sent to a village in rural Spain to find the US President's daughter, Ashley Graham. (Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles; Resident Evil 4)

The villagers attacked him on sight. They were infected with Las Plagas, ancient parasites that let a cult called Los Illuminados control them. Its leader, Osmund Saddler, had kidnapped Ashley to infect her and send her home to influence her father. Leon found her, but both were infected too. (Resident Evil 4)

From the village to a castle owned by the young Ramon Salazar to an island base, Leon fought his way through Saddler's followers. The researcher Luis Sera helped him before being killed. Leon's old army comrade Jack Krauser, presumed dead, was working with Saddler and secretly with Wesker. Ada turned up again, also secretly working for Wesker. (Resident Evil 4)

Leon and Ashley had their parasites removed. He killed Saddler, and Ada took the Plaga sample Wesker wanted and flew off, leaving Leon and Ashley to escape the exploding island by jet ski. The 2023 remake keeps the plot and gives Ashley, Luis and Krauser more depth. Read the full Resident Evil 4 story. (Resident Evil 4; Resident Evil 4 (2023))

Resident Evil: Revelations (2005)#

By now Chris and Jill worked for the BSAA, an agency set up to fight bioterrorism. In 2005 Jill and her partner Parker Luciani went to the cruise ship Queen Zenobia in the Mediterranean, where Chris and his partner Jessica Sherawat had gone missing. (Resident Evil: Revelations)

The ship was full of creatures made with the T-Abyss virus, a marine strain. It seemed to be the work of Veltro, a terrorist group believed destroyed a year earlier after it attacked the floating city of Terragrigia, which was then burned by its own solar weapon. (Resident Evil: Revelations)

The truth was worse. Morgan Lansdale, head of the FBC, the government agency meant to fight bioterror, had backed Veltro himself to make his agency look necessary. Jessica was working for him. Chris and Jill exposed him, the Queen Zenobia sank, and the BSAA took over the FBC's role. Read the full Revelations story. (Resident Evil: Revelations)

Resident Evil 5 (2009)#

In 2006 Chris and Jill tracked Spencer to his estate in Europe. They found him dead. Wesker had just killed him, after Spencer revealed Wesker was one of many children bred by his eugenics programme, the Wesker Project. In the fight that followed, Jill tackled Wesker through a window and over a cliff. Neither body was found. (Resident Evil 5)

In March 2009 Chris went to the Kijuju Autonomous Zone in Africa, partnered with Sheva Alomar of the BSAA's West African branch. A deal for a bioweapon went wrong, the locals had been turned by a new kind of Plaga, and Chris's lead pointed to Jill. The trail led to the drug firm Tricell, Umbrella's successor in all but name, and to Excella Gionne, one of its executives, who was working with Wesker. (Resident Evil 5)

Wesker had survived the fall, and so had Jill. He had used her as a test subject and controlled her with a chemical device. Chris and Sheva freed her. Wesker's plan was Uroboros, a virus made from the Progenitor flowers, which he meant to spread across the world so that only those strong enough to survive it would live. (Resident Evil 5)

Chris and Sheva stopped the bomber meant to spread Uroboros, chased Wesker into a volcano and killed him with rocket launchers as he sank into the lava. Read the full Resident Evil 5 story. (Resident Evil 5)

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2011)#

In 2011 Claire and Moira Burton, Barry's daughter, were working for the aid group TerraSave. Armed men took them from a party, and they woke on a prison island fitted with bracelets that reacted to fear. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

The island belonged to Alex Wesker, another of Spencer's Wesker children, who was dying. She was using a fear-driven virus to find a body strong enough to receive her mind. Claire escaped, believing Moira had died in the tower's collapse. Moira hadn't, and she spent the next six months surviving alone on the island. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

Six months later Barry came looking for Moira and met a strange young girl, Natalia Korda, who could sense the infected. Alex had chosen Natalia as the body for her mind. Barry stopped her, and in the best ending he found Moira alive. The epilogue hints that Alex may have won anyway. Read the full Revelations 2 story. (Resident Evil: Revelations 2)

Resident Evil 6 (2012 to 2013)#

Resident Evil 6 tells four linked stories. On Christmas Eve 2012, in the Eastern European country of Edonia, a bioweapon attack wiped out Chris's BSAA team, and he lost his memory. In the same city, Sherry Birkin, now a government agent, found the mercenary Jake Muller, Wesker's son, whose blood could make a vaccine for the new C-virus. (Resident Evil 6)

On 29 June 2013 the US President, Adam Benford, was infected at a speech in Tall Oaks, and Leon had to kill him. With the agent Helena Harper, Leon traced the attack to Derek Simmons, the President's National Security Advisor and head of a secret group called the Family. Simmons had made Carla Radames, a scientist, into a copy of Ada. Carla had released the C-virus as revenge. (Resident Evil 6)

The outbreak spread to Lanshiang in China. Chris and his partner Piers Nivans fought the creatures there. Leon, Sherry, Jake and the real Ada all converged on Simmons, who was by then a monster himself. They killed him. (Resident Evil 6)

Under the sea, Piers injected himself with the C-virus to save Chris and stayed behind as the facility flooded. Jake's blood went to make a vaccine, and Ada destroyed the last of Carla's work. Read the full Resident Evil 6 story. (Resident Evil 6)

Resident Evil 7 (2017)#

Resident Evil 7 starts a new chapter. In July 2017 Ethan Winters got a message from his wife Mia, missing for three years. It led him to a farm in Dulvey, Louisiana, owned by the Baker family. (Resident Evil 7: Biohazard)

The Bakers, Jack, Marguerite and their son Lucas, had become monsters who couldn't die. Ethan found Mia, but she was infected too. Behind it all was Eveline, a child-shaped bioweapon made from the mould by a shadowy group called the Connections. Mia had been one of the agents escorting Eveline when she escaped from the tanker Annabelle in 2014. Eveline had infected the Bakers to make herself a family. (Resident Evil 7: Biohazard)

Ethan got hold of a serum, fought his way to Eveline and killed her. Chris arrived by helicopter, working with a reformed Umbrella that now fought bioweapons, and took Ethan and Mia to safety. In the Not a Hero epilogue, Chris hunted down and killed Lucas, who had been feeding information to the Connections. Read the full Resident Evil 7 story. (Resident Evil 7: Biohazard)

Resident Evil Village (2021)#

In February 2021 Ethan and Mia were living in Europe with their baby daughter Rose. Chris burst in, shot Mia and took Ethan and Rose. The convoy crashed near a remote village, and Rose was taken. (Resident Evil Village)

The village belonged to Mother Miranda, a woman who had found the Megamycete, the mould's source, in caves nearby in 1919. She ruled through four lords: Lady Dimitrescu in her castle, the doll-maker Donna Beneviento, the fish-like Salvatore Moreau and the engineer Karl Heisenberg. Rose's body had been split into four flasks, and Ethan had to take one from each. Miranda wanted Rose's body to bring back her own daughter Eva, who had died a century earlier. (Resident Evil Village)

Miranda tore out Ethan's heart. He woke anyway and learned why: he had died at Jack Baker's hands in 2017, and the mould had been keeping him alive ever since. Chris told him the "Mia" he had shot was Miranda in disguise. The real Mia was alive. Miranda had also been the teacher of Oswell Spencer, Umbrella's founder, decades before. (Resident Evil Village)

Ethan killed Miranda and got Rose back. Then, his body failing, he stayed behind to blow up the Megamycete and died in the blast. Chris flew Mia and Rose out. The epilogue jumps ahead to a teenage Rose at her father's grave, and the Shadows of Rose expansion follows her in 2037. Read the full Village story. (Resident Evil Village)

Resident Evil Requiem (2026)#

Requiem goes back to Raccoon City, 28 years after the missile. Its new heroine is Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst and the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a reporter who survived the outbreak. In 2018 Alyssa was killed at the Wrenwood Hotel while Grace was with her. (Resident Evil Requiem)

In 2026 Grace was sent to investigate deaths among Raccoon City survivors, caused by the virus still lingering in them. The trail led back to the Wrenwood Hotel, and to her mother's research. The former Umbrella scientist Victor Gideon abducted her. Leon, now dying of the same infection, was on Gideon's trail too. (Resident Evil Requiem)

Gideon wanted Elpis, a secret Spencer left behind in a sealed Umbrella facility called ARK. He believed Grace was the key to opening it. Spencer had taken Grace in as a foundling baby and entrusted her to Alyssa, and he thought of her as his hope; Elpis is Greek for hope. (Resident Evil Requiem)

At ARK's terminal Grace had to choose whether to release Elpis or destroy it. It wasn't a weapon but an antiviral that can wipe out almost any infection. In the ending where she releases it, she uses it to cure Leon, Gideon kills Zeno of the Connections, and Leon faces the mutated Gideon in the final fight; the blind girl Emily, whom Grace had protected, survives and ends up in Grace's care. In the ending where she destroys it, Zeno kills Leon. Read the full Requiem story. (Resident Evil Requiem)

Where the story stands#

After Requiem, the ruins of Raccoon City have given up their last secret. In the ending where Elpis is released, Spencer's cure is in the world and Leon is alive. The one story set later is Shadows of Rose, in 2037, where Rose Winters goes into the mould's memory to free herself of it. For the people behind all this, see the Resident Evil characters guide, and for the creatures, every Resident Evil monster. (Resident Evil Requiem; Resident Evil Village)