where do the bonus missions fit in the main story?

[Retcon Rob]

I'd to like to play everything in chronological order, is there a list or guide of all the missions in order?

[Jig McGalliger]

Khan is before 2033
Pavel is before LL
Anna is at the same time as LL
Kshatriya is probably before the end of LL
No idea about sniper or heavy

[Sovereign]

Most of the bonus missions aren't connected to the main story, the only ones that are are "Khan", "Pavel" and "Anna" and even these are designed to be played after the main story.

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Jig McGalliger:

Khan is before 2033
Pavel is before LL
Anna is at the same time as LL
Kshatriya is probably before the end of LL
No idea about sniper or heavy

Khan and Pavel are set during LL, not before.

[tyke]

K so firstly the missions that aren't chronologically amongst the story:

SPIDER LAIR:
Spider Lair works extremely well as a prologue to Last Light setting the scene.
I always play Spider Lair as the first mission before beginning the story as it's a great bridge leaving off from the end of 2033 of a bunker being discovered and some adventurers going looking for a new one. It's a condensed pure Metro atmosphere adventure and first mission to play.
It's almost like the sort of thing that would be used as in introduction to a story to set the scene, and the way it ends beautifully works as a prologue. It's like it is made to be played first.

Heavy Squad, Sniper Team, Tower, and Kshatriya are the other missions not linked to the story.
Heavy Squad you play as a Nazi, Sniper Team you play as a Red. I generally skip these, but you could play them before Spider Lair. You wouldn't want to put them between Spider Lair and beginning the main story.
Tower is a sandbox fun mission, so don't play it until everything else is played. Kshatriya is another sandbox type mission but atmospheric mission that works well also after everything is played.


K I've put a lot of thought into this subject in the past and the reasoning for where the missions are best played is SPOILER-ish, so just skip to the TL;DR end of where they should be played to avoid spoilers.


Where the 'Chronicles' missions fit into the story in Chronological order:

Bonus mission 'Anna' takes place at the same time as the beginning level 'Ashes', it's just playing from her perspective.

Bonus mission 'Pavel' takes place somewhere after 'Sundown' (around middle of game) and before 'Red Square' (near the end), but most likely it takes place before around 'Quarantine' (about 2/3 or 3/4 through the game).

Bonus mission 'Khan' takes place when Khan is seperated from Artyom at the end of 'The Chase'.


So where is the most fitting place to play these missions?
There's two main things here of
1. They're best played at a sort of break in Artyom's adventure where he may spend some time resting at the end of a level.
2. They're played somewhere that their gameplay and environment contrasts with what is happenining in Artyom's adventure.

ANNA
'Anna' can fit in somewhere as a sort of retrospective rather than around the time that it happens. It's quite a short and quick mission. It could work after 'Nightfall', or at some point before 'Nightfall', as Nightfall is where Artyom first meets Anna again, or it could be played at the end of 'Contagion' where Anna meets Artyom a second time.

Anna is on the surface, mainly fighting human opponents, and it is fast-paced and doesn't have exploration.

I think 'Anna' works in many places. Firstly it can be played after 'Revolution' (where Artyom escapes the Reds and meets Andrew the Blacksmith at the end) as 1. Artyom is resting with Andrew and it's a break in Artyom's adventure, 2. The player has at this point been playing about 8 missions that are underground back to back except a short one on the surface and the player is about to go into another long underground adventure, so the mission 'Anna' on the surface in daylight contrasts with that.

Secondly it could be played at the end of Nightfall where Artyom first meets Anna again(where Artyom reaches the Church to meet the Spartans), so it works as a retrospective of what happened from Anna's point of view when they were split up, it also works here as it's also another point where Artyom is taking a break rather than interrupting his adventure. And it also works here as the player has been fighting many mutants for the past 6 or so missions, and is about to go into a very mutant-heavy level, so the mission 'Anna' works here after 'Nightfall' as a contrast of fighting some human enemies.

However I think it works best after 'Revolution' as it's around half inbetween Artyom seperating from Anna and first meeting Anna again, it contrasts very well with what the player has been doing with endless dark tunnels and is a break from the endless dark tunnels missions for the first third of the game.

There are later parts of the game that Anna could fit into, such as where Artyom meets Anna the second time at the end of 'Contagion', but the reason for not doing it here is that Anna is the only bonus missions that chronologically fits in somewhere in the first half of the game.


PAVEL
So when exactly this place takes place... we can't be sure.
Artyom immediately goes up to the surface and into the swamp and to the Church, and practically it takes longer for Pavel to be captured and where he has probably spent at least a few hours tied up. So really Pavel takes place at earliest after Artyom reaches the Church at the end of 'Nightfall'.

Once Pavel is free he is immediately sent to Red Square. This probably takes a matter of hours at the very least, and then add more hours inbetween the end of the Bonus Mission 'Pavel' and him reaching the Red Line to receive those orders to go to Red Square.
This means that Pavel Chronologically takes place most likely maybe inbetween 'Nightfall' and 'Dead City' where Artyom is resting, but probably around the time that Artyom is resting in Quarantine before beginning the mission 'Quarantine'.

However I don't think it at all works well being played at the end of 'Contagion' before 'Quarantine'.
It is a bad interruption to the story and the flow of the game as the transition in the main story from 'Contagion' to the next mission 'Quarantine' is very good as it is of transition from chaotic burning environment in war to then a station under control, it's a good transition of type of gameplay from killing many humans in a slow methodical grind to then exploration with Khan and a quicky action sequence and then mutants and so on. Furthermore after 'Contagion' you just finished dealing with many human opponents, and 'Pavel' is another butt ton of human opponents.

So this is the other big reason why I say that 'Anna' should be played at the end of 'Revolution' before beginning the next level 'Regina' ... because it is 'Pavel' that is the Bonus Mission that works best being played at the end of 'Nightfall' before beginning the next mission 'Undercity' as it fits in chronologically and it is where it fits in best in terms of game experience.


KHAN
Khan takes place immediately after 'The Chase'. Originally a few times I used to switch straight to playing 'Khan' after completing 'The Chase'. However this doesn't work as it's interrupting Artyom's adventure.

It is great to leave the transition as it is from 'The Chase' to playing 'The Crossing' and continuing as Artyom straight after the train crash. It works great as story, as game experience and so on.

K. So where does Khan fit in best in the game experience and make the most sense as part of the story?

The mission 'Khan' is, like Spider Lair, one of the best Bonus Missions of that it is pure condensed awesome Metro adventure experience fighting mutants. Funnily enough all of Artyom's adventure inbetween the end of 'The Chase', where 'Khan' begins, and 'Polis' where the bulk of the adventure ends before the final level is also pure condensed Metro adventure experience fighting mutants except for one point of 'Depot', however anywhere between 'The Chase' and 'Polis' is interrupting Artyom's adventure where he isn't breaking anywhere and it all flows nicely and interrupting it isn't necessarily optimal.

One place is upon completing 'Bridge' before you then play the next level 'Depot', however it interrupts Artyom's adventure. Another place is when you meet Khan again at the end of 'The Garden' before then playing 'Polis', however it interrupts reaching a pivotal moment in the story, but that could be seen in a good cliff-hangar way.

So it doesn't perfectly fit in anywhere. So 'Khan' is a difficult one to find the right slot for, however then I eventually realised that it works very nicely as an Epilogue mission and I tend to use it as a final mission to the story. You complete the game, you want more immersive adventure relevant to the story that's just finished, but all you have is a soulless sandbox missions Tower or Kshtariya. Well that's where Khan can be used, in my opinion.



TL;DR:

'Spider Lair': Prologue before beginning main story. Just before beginning New game and playing the first mission of main story.

'Anna': Upon completing the map called 'Revolution'
(At the end of the mission a man shouts "Get down or your brain goes splat")

'Pavel': Upon completnig the map called 'Nightfall'
(where you reach the Church at the end.)

'Khan': I'd say upon completing 'The Garden', as it works well as cliff-hangar interrupting a big moment in the story and playing it earlier would interrupt a section of Artyom non-stop adventuring.


'Heavy Squad' and 'Sniper Team': Could be played before or after completing game, but not during it.

'Kshtriya' and 'Tower': should only be played after completing everything else.




And yea this shows that I've put way too much thought into this in the past and played these games too many times

[Jig McGalliger]

Then I totally forgot those stories

[Retcon Rob]

Originally posted by A.M:

TL;DR:

'Spider Lair': Prologue before beginning main story. Just before beginning New game and playing the first mission of main story.

'Anna': Upon completing the map called 'Revolution'
(At the end of the mission a man shouts "Get down or your brain goes splat")

'Pavel': Upon completnig the map called 'Nightfall'
(where you reach the Church at the end.)

'Khan': I'd say upon completing 'The Garden', as it works well as cliff-hangar interrupting a big moment in the story and playing it earlier would interrupt a section of Artyom non-stop adventuring.


'Heavy Squad' and 'Sniper Team': Could be played before or after completing game, but not during it.

'Kshtriya' and 'Tower': should only be played after completing everything else.




And yea this shows that I've put way too much thought into this in the past and played these games too many times

WOW THANK YOU, this is a quality post right here! *reddit gold*
You should think about posting this in the Guides section.

[Darth Nihilus]

Originally posted by JohnnyNoArms:

WOW THANK YOU, this is a quality post right here! *reddit gold*
You should think about posting this in the Guides section.

Anyone who has ears can get it

[Retcon Rob]

Originally posted by A.M:

TL;DR:'Spider Lair': Prologue before beginning main story. Just before beginning New game and playing the first mission of main story.

'Anna': Upon completing the map called 'Revolution'
(At the end of the mission a man shouts "Get down or your brain goes splat")

'Pavel': Upon completnig the map called 'Nightfall'
(where you reach the Church at the end.)

'Khan': I'd say upon completing 'The Garden', as it works well as cliff-hangar interrupting a big moment in the story and playing it earlier would interrupt a section of Artyom non-stop adventuring.


'Heavy Squad' and 'Sniper Team': Could be played before or after completing game, but not during it.

'Kshtriya' and 'Tower': should only be played after completing everything else.




And yea this shows that I've put way too much thought into this in the past and played these games too many times

Just beat the main game following your guide. I still need to do the 4 bonus missions after the main game, but I'll get to that soon. Your guide is spot on. Playing the Spider Lair first prepared me for the spider section of the main game. The other side missions are well placed and make sense in the story. I'm going to make a note of this so I can do this again if I replay the game in the future.