Prime universe

The Prime universe (tentative) is the universe where Capcom's official canon takes place. It encompasses all console games bar Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D, & Resident Evil: Resistance, and also includes the novel BIOHAZARD Wicked North Sea and the CGI films other than BIOHAZARD 4D EXECUTER. There are some fifty entries in the canon franchise, including guidebooks that contain in-universe documents written just for those books.

The main canon follows a concept known as Bio-real, when compared to other adaptations such as "King's" comics which includes "fantasy" elements.

Media

Name	Type	Original release	Canon notes
Resident Evil	Console video game	1996	Ports such as Resident Evil: Director's Cut (1997); Resident Evil (2002) and Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (2006) contain additional canon elements. Neither Chris or Jill is the canonical scenario; the canon is an unseen third scenario where Chris and Jill both investigate the mansion. Later series entries acknowledge certain aspects (e.g. Rebecca and Barry's survival is confirmed, and Jill is described as having destroyed the Tyrant on the helipad.)
Inside of BIO-HAZARD	Guidebook	1997	Contains in-universe documents. Due to predating Resident Evil 2 and the remake of Resident Evil, facts within the documents may have since been retconned.
Resident Evil 2	Console video game	1998	Like the above, neither the Leon A/Claire B or Claire A/Leon B paths are fully canon, though later games acknowledge certain aspects (e.g. Sherry being infected; Ada injured by the Tyrant).
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis	Console video game	1999	Again, the canon path can only be suggested through later descriptions, with Nikolai's apparent survival suggesting Barry rescued Jill in the end.
Resident Evil Survivor	Console video game	2000
Resident Evil CODE:Veronica	Console video game	2000	Updated port Resident Evil CODE:Veronica X (2001) contains additional cutscenes
BIOHAZARD CODE:Veronica ORIGINAL STORY	Benny Matsuyama novelization	2001
Wesker's Report	In-universe report	2000
Resident Evil Survivor 2 CODE:Veronica	Console video game	2001	Note that this story takes place within a dream, though the files themselves have some validity in the 'real world'.
Wesker's Report II	Supplement literature	2002	Diary released online to advertise the 2002 remake.
biohazard	Benny Matsuyama, novalization	2002	Novelization of the remake by Benny Matsuyama, found in the biohazard kaitaishinsho guide.
"Emergency report"	Supplement literature		in-universe report set after the events of the 2002 remake, found in the biohazard kaitaishinsho guide.
Resident Evil: Dead Aim	Console video game	2002
Resident Evil Zero	Console video game	2002
biohazard 0	Benny Matsuyama novelization		found in the biohazard 0 KAITAISHINSHO guide
Resident Evil Outbreak	Console video game	2003
Resident Evil Outbreak File #2	Console video game	2004
Resident Evil 4	Console video game	2005
biohazard 4 Incubate	Supplement literature	2005	A "diary" explaining the backstory to the village in Resident Evil 4.
biohazard 4	Benny Matsuyama novelization	2005	Benny Matsuyama novelization in the biohazard 4 kaitaishinsho guide.
Report about Ada	Benny Matsuyama novelization	2005	Extra short in the biohazard 4 kaitaishinsho guide.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles	Console video game	2007	Only the scenarios which are new and not retellings are canonical.
Wesker's Extra Report	Supplement literature	2007
BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CHRONICLES: Prelude to the Fall	Manga	2007	Two-part manga prequel to the "Umbrella's End" and "Dark Legacy" scenarios of Umbrella Chronicles.
Resident Evil: Degeneration	CGI movie	2008
Angela's Diary	In-universe report	2008
BSAA Remote Desktop & Adam's Blog	Alternate relativity game	2008	Alternate reality game
Resident Evil 5	Console video game	2009
BIOHAZARD 5	Benny Matsuyama novelization	2009	Benny Matsuyama novelization
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles	Console video game	2010
Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire	Manga	2011-2013
Resident Evil: Revelations - Extended Trailer	Video game trailer	2011	A trailer for Revelations which is its own story.
Resident Evil: Revelations	Console video game	2012
Jessica's Report	In-universe report	2012
Resident Evil: Damnation	CGI movie	2012
Las Plagas: Organisms of War	In-universe report	2012
Resident Evil 6	Console video game	2012
Sentinel Nine Thorough Elucidation	Tokyo Marui article
Samurai Edge History	Tokyo Marui article
Resident Evil: Revelations 2	Console video game	2015
Special Archives	Tokyo Marui article
BIOHAZARD heavenly island	Manga	2015-2017
BIOHAZARD THE STAGE	Play	2015
Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps	Console video game	2016
MUSICAL BIOHAZARD ~ Voice of Gaia ~	Play	2016
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard	Console video game	2017
Samurai Edge AWM01 Archives	Tokyo Marui article	2017
Resident Evil: Vendetta	CGI movie	2017
Survive Magazine #15 Jan 2018	Tokyo Marui article	2017
Umbrella Arsenal system	Tokyo Marui article	2017
Survive Magazine #16 Sep. 2018	Tokyo Marui article	2017
BIOHAZARD THE EXPERIENCE	Play	2017
Resident Evil 2	Console video game	2019	Remake of Resident Evil 2
Survive Magazine #17 Mar. 2019	Tokyo Marui article	2019
Resident Evil 3	Console video game	2020	Remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Resident Evil: Resistance	Console video game	2020
Resident Evil: Village	Console video game	2021

Narrative

Rather than having an overarching plot, the stories of each major game installment are mostly self-contained and generally conclude the newly introduced ideas while being open-ended enough to allow new events and concepts to potentially be follow up on. Later installments conclude with retaining the status-quo of "bio-terrorism" always being a potential threat.

Initial installments

The original Resident Evil takes place in 1998 in the Arklay Mountains region where cannibalistic homicides have been reported to be occurring by citizens of the nearby Raccoon City. The Raccoon Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) unit is commissioned to investigate which starts with their Bravo team being dispatched, failing to report back, and their Alpha team going on a rescue mission for them. While investigating Bravo team's abandoned helicopter, they are attacked by what appears to be rabid dogs which prompts their own pilot Brad Vickers, to retreat without the rest of his team. The Alpha team Captain, Albert Wesker, leads the remaining on foot to take refuge in seemingly abandoned mansion.

The player as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield of Alpha team, are tasked with escaping but presented the possibility of a fowl play by someone through Barry Burton acting suspiciously and Rebecca Chambers theorizing the Bravo team helicopter was tampered with respectively. They also encounter Zombies, other creatures, and "File" items implying shady activity took place in the mansion. By the end, an injured Bravo team member states someone among S.T.A.R.S is a traitor and is then murdered by an unseen assailant, a laboratory owned by the Umbrella Corporation is discovered housing illegal Bio Organic Weapon (B.O.W.s) development through use of the t-Virus, and that captain Wesker is affiliated with said company. In a confrontation between the survivors and Wesker, he formally reveals this fact and how these events were orchestrated by them, and his additional plans to betray the company and take the combat data collected and the B.O.W. called "Tyrant" housed in the lab.

The following game, Resident Evil 2, takes place two months after the events of the original game in Raccoon City itself. With S.T.A.R.S. unable to convict Umbrella for their wrongdoings and its subsequent abolishment (thanks to Raccoon Police Chief Brian Irons who was on Umbrella's payroll), the company continues their experiments within an underground facility. However, a botched attempt to steal a former scientist's (Dr. William Birkin) work results in the t-Virus being leaked into the city's sewage. This results in most of the city's population being turned into zombies, leaving only a few survivors trying to find a way to escape the city alive. The game's focus is on Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie cop with the RPD, and Claire Redfield, a civilian who came to Raccoon to find her missing brother Chris.

The third game, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, takes place around this same time period, and features a similar premise. Also, a powerful monster known as the Nemesis chases Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira, a mercenary hired by Umbrella, around the city, which gives the game its name. The game concludes its story by depicting the city's ultimate destruction by a massive air strike.

The prequel Resident Evil 0 explores the cause of the viral outbreak and Bravo Team's ordeal prior to the events of the Mansion incident, following a S.T.A.R.S. member named Rebecca Chambers and her unlikely ally, a convicted murderer named Billy Coen who escaped from police custody and found himself in the thick of a viral nightmare.

Resident Evil Outbreak and its expansion pack depicts the attempts of normal officers, firefighters, and civilians trying to escape Raccoon City.

Pre-Wesker's death

Resident Evil CODE:Veronica depicts the previous games' survivors attempt to expose the Umbrella Corporation and sabotage their operations. Code: Veronica reveals the existence of a rival corporation, who employs Albert Wesker, the crooked leader of the Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. team, also developing their own bio-weapons.

A scenario in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, set in 2003, details the efforts of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine on aiding the dissolution of the Umbrella Corporation.

A scenario in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, details Operation: Javier, when Leon Scott Kennedy, partnered up with Jack Krauser, are sent to investigate a region in the Amazon Jungle, where teenage girls have been missing, and are investigating the involvement of drug lord Javier Hidalgo, and his connections to the late Umbrella Corporation.

Set six years after the events of the previous games, Resident Evil 4 begins with the dissolving of Umbrella Corporation. When Ashley Graham, the president's daughter is kidnapped, the United States government sends in Leon Kennedy to rescue her. The focus is on a religious cult known as Los Iluminados that uses a breed of ancient parasites known as Plaga to turn victims into mind-controlled psychopaths known as "Los Ganados". The same Organization seen in Code: Veronica also plays a role in Resident Evil 4, by having two of their agents attempt to steal a master sample of the parasite for their disposal.

Resident Evil: Degeneration is a CGI movie that takes place within the canon Resident Evil storyline. As it begins, an airport is overrun by t-Virus zombies, Claire Redfield, reunited with Leon Scott Kennedy, must stop the threats from a new terrorist organization.

Resident Evil: Revelations takes place in the year of 2005, one year after an incident known as the Terragrigia Panic, Jill Valentine and her new partner, Parker Luciani, are sent to a ship called the Queen Zenobia, under orders from the BSAA (an organization dedicated to hunting down bioweapons and preventing their use in terrorism) director, Clive R. O'Brian, to look for Chris and his new partner, Jessica Sherawat, who have been reported missing, and have been traced to the ship, there, Jill and Parker are met with a new infection, brought upon by the seemingly-dead bioterrorist group called Il Veltro, using a new type of mutagen known as the T-Abyss.

Five years after the Los Iluminados incident, Resident Evil 5 catches up with Chris Redfield, now a member of the BSAA, an organization dedicated to hunting down bioweapons and preventing their use in terrorism. When attempting to meet a contact in the African settlement of Kijuju, Redfield and his new partner, Sheva Alomar, discover that forces unknown have infested the local populace with Las Plagas, rendering them all Majini. Redfield and Alomar work together to discover the true plan at the heart of this madness, and stop Albert Wesker from attempting to take over the world with his newly made Uroboros virus.

Post-Wesker's death

Resident Evil: Damnation, a CGI movie sequel taking place after Resident Evil 5, takes place within the canon Resident Evil storyline like Degeneration before it. It deals with an ongoing civil war in the Eastern Slav Republic, with the usage of various Bioweapons, including Plaga Parasites. Leon S. Kennedy has to prevent the war from escalating.

BIOHAZARD THE STAGE takes place in the year of 2010 and a flashback set in 2005 and involve Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers, who is now an adviser to the BSAA, she goes undercover in the Philosophy University as a professor to investigate about Tyler Howard and his father who is linked to bio weapon experiments while an incident takes place.

Some time after the events of Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 took place when the NGO Claire Redfield is working with, TerraSave, is attacked by an unknown bioterrorist and his men. The bioterrorist took Claire and a young TerraSave member named Moira Burton to an island, when he used the two as test subjects against his B.O.W.s.

Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire takes place in the year of 2012 and involve Chris and his new partner, Piers Nivans investigate the high school called Marhawa School, discovering the truth about the outbreak.

15 years after the Raccoon City Incident, Resident Evil 6 catches up with four protagonists; Leon S. Kennedy, who seeks to chase after a terrorist who turned tens of thousands citizens of Tall Oaks city into zombies, including president Adam Benford; Chris Redfield, who battles new species of B.O.W.s around the world; Jake Muller, a mercenary from eastern Europe who is revealed to be the son of Albert Wesker; and Ada Wong, who discovers that she has an evil doppelganger named Carla Radames, the woman who started a global outbreak in 2012-2013.

Resident Evil: Heavenly Island (2015) takes place in 2014 after the global bio-terrorist attacks, Claire Redfield investigates while a TV Show is being prepared to be shot at Sonido De Tortuga island, people on the set are infected one after another, a subordinate of Alex Wesker is revealed to be responsible for the events, meanwhile Chris Redfield orders Parker Luciani to aid Claire in her journey, who discovered that the island is linked to both Spencer and Alex.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps (2016) is set in 2015 explains a background story about the multiple organizations that became interested in leftovers of Umbrella Corporation and Tricell's leftover, these companies send Mercenaries to gather bio organic weapons research data, viral samples and tissues from the infected while also being pitted against each others, these mercenaries find thrill in their mission and consider it as a type of "Sport".

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard takes place in Dulvey, Louisiana in 2017 where you play as Ethan Winters. After receiving a mysterious email from your wife Mia Winters, who disappeared for three years, saying to come get her you track her to a believed to be abandoned house. you then ultimately get captured by the Baker family and find hints towards Tetsu's backfired bioweapon, known as either Eve or E-001, while trying to escape the Bakers and find Mia.

Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017) involves Chris Redfield, who is trying to catch a black market bioweaponry merchant named Glenn Arias. Chris gets a little help from Leon Scott Kennedy to catch him, and also gets help from Rebecca Chambers to produce a vaccine.

Resident Evil: Village (2021) takes place in more than a year, after the tragic events of Dulvey, Ethan Winters has started over with his wife Mia, finally living in peace and putting the past behind them. However, Chris Redfield, yet making familiar appearance, suddenly disrupts their life, throwing a devastated Ethan into a new and twisted nightmare in search of answers, which involves in the mysterious village.