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Artyom is born in moscow
Our protagonist, Artyom Alekseyevich Chyornyj is born in Moscow, a few years before the great war of 2013. During the years before the war, he probably lived a normal, quite happy life with his mother and father on the surface of Moscow. His father most likely died in the war, because he is not mentioned in the books at any time. His mother dies much later when their station is overrun by rats. -
The great war of 2013 / World war 3
In 2013 a nuclear war occurs, forcing a large amount of the word's surviving population to live underground to avoid the radiation. The war starts as a conflict between middle-eastern countries, and develop into a world war where all of the current superpowers are involved. The result is a massive exchange of nuclear weapons over a brief period. Most of the world is destroyed and the surface becomes inhospitable. Artyom and his family escape to the metro station Timiryazevskaya. -
Timiryazevskaya is overrun by rats
The first station that Artyom lives in gets overrun by a horde of giant mutant rats. He is the sole survivor from the station because he was saved by a man named Sukhoi, who later becomes Artyom's stepfather. They survived because they managed to escape via a cart through the metro tunnels, and there were no other carts to save the rest of the population in the station. Artyom and Sukhoi escape to Sukois home station called VDNKh, where they live up until the events of the book happen. -
Artyom travels to the Botanical Gardens
Artyom and two of his friends travel to the station called the botanical gardens. This is an abandoned metro station next to VDNKh. They decide to try and leave the station and ends up finding a blast door leading to the surface. They manage to open it and to exit the station and explore the surface for a while, but they are attacked a pack of mutants and end up running home to their station. But they forget to close the blast door on their return home... -
Different factions are established
The different stations develop factions to survive. Some factions are based on ideology, while others are based on common interest. Some of the most important factions are:
The red line - a communist faction occupying a line in the middle of the metro
The Fourth Reich - a nazi faction occupying three stations in the middle of the metro
The Hansa- a ring of stations based around economy and prosperity.
Polis - a faction formed by surviving members of the Russian government. -
Hansa - red line war
There is a huge war between two of the main factions, the communist Red Line and the capitalistic Hansa faction. They fight over control over several stations which they believe is both rightfully theirs. This was a very long and bloody war, and at the end, really nothing positive came out of it. -
Hunter arrives at VDNKh
A veteran army official named Hunter travels to VDNKh station to help fight against a new mutant threat, the Dark Ones, who are coming from the botanical gardens. Artyom knows that it is his fault that this new mutant threat is at his station because he was the one who forgot to close the blast doors. -
Period: to
Envents of the book unfold
There were no exact dates mentioned anywhere in the book, but Artyom's journey takes place over the course of 8 days. -
Hunter tells atryom to leave the station
After Hunter sees how dangerous the threat of the dark ones are, he tells Artyom to leave the station and tell the metro about the threat. He says that Artyom needs to get help from the Polis faction, which is located very far away from VDNKh. -
Atryom meets bourbon
On the first part of his journey, Artyom meets with ex-bandit and Metro guide, Bourbon. They travel together for a short time, but after a while, they run into a gang of bandits that Bourbon is in debt to. They almost manage to run away from the bandits, but Bourbon, unfortunately, ends up sacrificing himself so that our protagonist can live on. -
Artyom meets Kahn
After Bourbon dies, Artyom meets a strange man named Khan, who shows him the mystical side to the metro such as ghosts and anomalies. They also travel together for a short while, together with another man named Ace, but they eventually end up losing each other when Fourth Reich troops attack the station where they are currently staying. -
Atryom is captured by nazis
After running from the Nazi troops for a while, Artyom is eventually captured. The nazi troops decide to execute him for killing an Officer, but when Artyom is about to be hanged, he is saved by two Stalkers (the Stalkers are a group of elite soldiers that roam the wasteland in search for supplies). The two Stalkers are called Ulman and Pavel, and they later help him reach Polis. -
Atryom finally arrives at Polis
After a long journey, Artyom eventually ends up at Polis headquarters below the Moscow state library. He delivers the message from Hunter to a man named Melnik who is the leader of Stalkers, but the leaders of Polis decide that they don't want to help Artyom eliminate the threat of the Dark Ones. Melnik, however, decides that the threat is too great to be ignored, and help Artyom anyways. -
Artyom exits the metro
The team leaves the metro and enters the library to find the sacred book. They enter the library and are attacked by the "librarians" (mutated creatures that reside there) Daniel is wounded, but before dying, he gives Artyom his reward anyway. It is an envelope containing the directions to a functioning missile silo. The rest of the team escapes without finding the book. -
Atryom is contacted by the Brahim
a faction known as the Brahmin (who consist of scientists and academics who collect books from the library), contact Artyom. They offer a solution to the threat of the Dark Ones in exchange for Artyom's help in recovering a sacred book. Artyom, Melnik, Ulman and Pavel and a young Brahim named Daniel to prepare to exit the metro. -
Artyom is abducted by a cannibal Cult
After returning to the station, Artyom gets involved in the search for a missing child named Oleg. Artyom and Oleg's father are abducted by a cannibal cult who worship 'The Great Worm'. They manage to find Oleg there and are eventually rescued by Melnik and the rest of the team and manage to escape. -
Atryom bombs the of the dark ones
The team goes back up to the surface to find the missile silo, while Artyom is sent back through the metro so that he can send the team targeting coordinates from a suitable location which is Ostankino Tower (a radio tower in the middle of Moscow). When Artyom is at the top of the tower has a vision telling him that The Dark Ones had been trying to make contact all along. As Artyom realizes that the two races could co-operate, the missiles fall and the Dark Ones are killed.