Since 2006, theGears of Warseries has been enticing people with its own special mix ofthird-person-shooter action. Campaigns full of a wide cast of characters and some heart-rending moments, and multiplayer full of weaponry and maps that get intense in record time, there is plenty to draw people in.

With such an expansive series, it can be hard to keep the entire timeline straight, especially with new enemies around every corner. But, thankfully, whether you just need a refresher of the on-goings of the Gears series, or you want some background before you hop in to a later installment, here’s a handy timeline for you.

Major spoilers ahead for the Gears of War games as a whole, including their plots and the fates of multiple characters.

Before Emergence

The Pendulum Wars

The world of Sera is quite similar to Earth. The main difference isthe addition of Imulsion: a liquid fuel that is as valuable as it is volatile. The fields with the most amount of Imulsion have become the points of conflict on Sera.

The Pendulum Warsis the name of the nearly hundred-year-long conflict between the two major governments on Sera,the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) and the UIR (Union of Independent Republics).

It is during The Pendulum Wars that Gears like Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, and Colonel Hoffman begin their careers.In the Battle of Aspho Fields, Marcus loses his best friend, Dom’s older brother, Carlos Santiago — a trauma that solidifies Marcus and Dom’s relationship.

Some of the Gears of War novels focus on Aspho Fields and other pre-emergence battles.

It is during this time thatMarcus' father, Adam Fenix, works with the COG to finish the orbital laser battery, the Hammer Of Dawn. It is the use of this weapon that finally brings the UIR to submission and ends The Pendulum Wars for good with theCOG as the victor.

Emergence Day

Nearlysix weeks went byafter the end of The Pendulum Wars beforeearthquakes began to rock Sera’s continents. Holes open up across the globe, some just a few feet across, and others big enough to swallow entire city blocks and change the terrain of cities.

From the holes(emergence holes, or e-holes, as they are later referred to)arrived the Locust. On average, they’re well over six feet tall, with chalky white skin that is thick enough to turn away most bayonets. That, combined with the unusual way they can tunnel under fortifications, makes them incredibly deadly and a tough enemy to counter.

It is in these first months after Emergence Day that Tai Kaliso helps the COG invent the chainsaw bayonet. This weapon came up after an unfortunate run-in with a Locust drone and an electric saw.

On Emergence Day alone, a quarter of the human population is killed. This beginsThe Locust War,just over a month after the peace brought by the end of The Pendulum Wars.

After Emergence

The Locust War

It takes mere days before the COG becomes theonly surviving unified military forceon Sera. Still, they are forced to go to extreme measures to keep up with the Locust army, including raiding military prisons for any inmates that have the training to help fight back.

This marks the beginning of Gears of War 1, where Marcus is released from a four-year stint in prison after going AWOL to try and save his father.

It is during this time that Delta Squad must go on a last-ditch mission to try and turn the tide of the war.Their goal is to find a Lightmass Bomb to deploy in the large caverns underneath the surface of Serawhere the Locust live.

Delta goes on its journey to try and salvage this bomb with the help of Anya Stroud, Col. Hoffman, and various other COG soldiers.

It is also around this time that Prescott takes over the role as Chairman of the COG, a change in command that not all agree with.

Through their journey, they fight various Locust forces and try to dodge the elite units ofGeneral Raam, who senses the importance of Delta’s plan. It is in these first few fights thatLieutenant Kim and Anthony Carmine are both killedby Raam’s forces.

The team is finally successful and goes into The Hollow underneath Sera’s crust to detonate the Resonator mapping device. Here they find out more about how the Locust live, and see their forces move en-masse. They detonate the Resonator and help map part of The Hollow, butthey also find that there is a larger map of these tunnelsthat Adam Fenix once helped to create.

It is around this time that the events of Gears Tactics are also occurring.

After escaping the Locust’s underground lair,Delta rushes tothe Fenix mansion(the same place where Marcus went AWOL in the hope of saving his father) in the hopes of finding the other map. The Locust, at this point, understand the COG plan and meet them there with a surprisingly strong force.

Fortunately, Delta is successful in finding the map data andhops aboard the train carrying the Lightmass Bombfor the final mission. It is here thatRaam decides to fight backin-person, in a vicious shootout on the train. He and his elite forces aren’t enough though, and Deltasuccessfully detonates the Lightmass Bombunder the surface of Sera.

Jacinto, Last Bastion Of Humanity

Somehow,the Locust survivedthe Lightmass explosion. Doubling their efforts,the human race dwindles. The COG continues on their establishment of martial law and requests all living humans on the continent Tyrus to go toJacinto, a city built on a plateauof the same name.

This marks the beginning of Gears of War 2.

It is COG’s goal that the Locust will be hard-pressed to undermine that position, instead being forced to attack in the way of normal human armies by traveling on the surface. Once the mass evacuation is complete,the goal is to deploy the Hammer of Dawn and wipe away the Locust on the surface.

Delta squad joins up in Jacinto proper, now joined by Ben Carmine (Anthony’s younger brother), and Tai Kaliso, who many of the group know from their time together in The Pendulum Wars.

It is revealed that not only the Locust are alive, butthey also have a new weapon that somehow canswallow entire cities. Which means the people of Jacinto may not be safe at all. Instead, Chairman Prescott orders the majority of the COG forces onlarge drill rig trucksto convoy to Landown to enter The Hollow andfight the Locust on their own turf.

The Rush To Landown

The Locust seem to know that a large convoy of COG forces should be stopped, and they throw countless drones at the drill rigs, as well as Brumaks and Corpsers. They also meet the newhead general of the Locust, Skorge, who is all too keen on picking up where Raam left off.

Delta survives thanks in part to the quick thinking of Dizzy Wallin, military drill rig driver, as he takes on Skorge one-on-one. They, along with a few other squads,make it into The Hollowrelatively unscathed.

The Locust’s New Plot

It is while fighting in The Hollow that Delta learnsSkorge has control over a giant Riftworm, the creature that is swallowing cities. It is the Locust’s goal toswallow cities around Jacintoto help undermine it before destroying it completely.

It is directly after this that they find Tai, who has been taken prisoner and tortured since being captured after drilling down. Soon after releasing him,Tai takes his own life. Before leaving, the squad sees more hints that theLocust are taking more and more prisoners.

Having learned about the Locust plot,Delta calls down a King Ravenhelicopter to evacuate them. Their escape is foiled though, as thecraft is damaged and falls into the open mouthofthe Riftwormwho is busy swallowing a town.

This is also the first part of the series where the game hints atLambency and Rustlung, diseases caused by imulsion becoming airborne after the Lightmass Bomb explosion.

They lose Carmine (again) after he is killed by the worm’s stomach acid. After cutting their way through the Riftworm’s hearts, they slay the beast and are evacuated to Jacinto.They do lose Jacinto in the end, but only after meeting the Locust Queen,killing Skorge, and unfortunatelyfinding Dom’s wife, Maria, who they kill out of mercy due to the years of torture by the Locust.

All in all, the team dealsanother critical blowto the Locust, weakening a key point in The Hollow with another Lightmass Bomb and flooding it with seawater.

The End Of The Line

At this point,the human population is separated into small groups. The COG relocates to Vectes, a remote island, and fifteen years after E-Day, things are mostly quiet. That is until theLambent Locustfind them and run them off the island.

This marks the beginning of Gears 3. The plot of Gear of War: Judgement happens briefly before these events as well.

The COG scatter, each of Delta squad going on missions that tie back into their past. It is Marcus and his group that found outhis father might still be alive. They join forces with some Gorasni remnant forces (who they fought with during the Pendulum Wars) to break into a military complex covered by an artificial hurricane.

It is on the road to Azura thatDom sacrifices himself, ramming a truck into a gas station, so Marcus can escape.

A Long History Of Lies

It is at Azura that they find out that not only isAdam Fenix alive, but he and Commander Prescottknew the Locust existed before E-Day. They also learn that Adam has apotential end for lambencyin the form of a neutron bomb.

They move to the roof of the laboratory where the bomb is, in the process killing waves of Locust, Lambent, and the Locust Queen herself.Detonating the bomb, the Lambent are killed across the globe, and it seems like the war might finally be over.

A New Era

Twenty-five years after the end of the Locust war,J.D. Fenix(Marcus and Anya’s son) has left the remade COG with a handful of his compatriots. They are captured by COG robots while stealing some of their tech and accused by First Minister Jinn of attacking COG settlements.

This marks the beginning of Gears 4.

It turns out that there isa new threat to Serainthe form of the Swarm. It is a long series of fights that results in the new group being joined by the old Delta Squad to learn more. The Swarm are revealed as thenext evolutionary phaseof the Locust, brought on by the neutron bomb.

One of the new crew, Kait,sees their mother kidnappedby the Swarm and after trying to free her, it is revealed that Kait is actually thegranddaughter of the Locust Queen.

A New War

The new Delta Squad has been pressed into service for the COG in the face of overwhelming Swarm forces. They are tasked with helping the war effort bytrying to reboot The Hammer of Dawn and help evacuate Settlement 2in the face of an assault.

This marks the beginning of Gears 5.

Both of which aresomewhat successful, withplenty of injuries and losseson top of The Hammer being nearly uncontrollable. Four months later,Kait is havingvisions of the New Hope Facilitythat the original Delta had once broken into.

It is at the facility there, and the following one under Mount Kadar, that it is revealed thatthe Locust are actually an offshoot of humans the COG scientists created while trying to learn more about Rustlung.

Dealing With The Swarm

The group travels tothe former UIR, where, with the help ofGarron Paduk(a former UIR soldier), theylaunch a missilefull of even more Hammer satellites. The group is then attacked byKait’s mom Reyna, now transformed intothe Swarm Queen.

They try to use Kait’s connection to the Swarm to try and find where their base is underground. The game ends with a hint thatKait’s mother will returnas the leader of the Swarm horde.