Attack On Titan: A Complete Timeline Of The Anime

Few anime bend time, memory, and perspective quite like Attack on Titan.
One minute you’re watching kids train to fight giant naked monsters; a few seasons
later you’re knee-deep in century-old war crimes, geopolitical propaganda, and
metaphysics about freedom. No wonder fans constantly ask, “Wait… what year is this again?”

This complete timeline of the Attack on Titan anime walks through the major
events in story order, from the distant past of Ymir Fritz to the final battle against
the Rumbling. We’ll focus on what happens in the anime (plus how the OVAs and specials
fit in), explain the big time skips, and give you a practical sense of how everything
lines up without needing a corkboard and red string.

Why the Attack on Titan Timeline Feels So Confusing

The anime technically takes place over roughly a decade of “present-day” story, but
it’s layered with:

• Huge time skips (most notably a four-year jump before the Marley arc)
• Flashbacks that go back years or even generations
• Memories that characters can see from the past or future thanks to the Founding and Attack Titans

Add in the fact that the show mostly uses in-world years rather than familiar calendar
dates, and you get a story that’s rich, dense, and occasionally headache-inducing.
For simplicity, the main timeline is usually tracked using the years 845–854 inside
the Walls, with a “long ago” era covering the Great Titan War and the founding of
Paradis.

Long Before the Walls: Ymir, Eldia, and Marley

Long before Eren kicks open any metaphorical doors, the world is shaped by
Ymir Fritz, the first Titan. After making a mysterious pact and
gaining her powers, Ymir’s descendants create an empire known as Eldia,
using Titans as living weapons to rule much of the world.

Over centuries, Eldia and the rival nation of Marley fight a long,
brutal conflict known as the Great Titan War. Eventually, the Eldian king retreats
to an islandParadisbuilding enormous concentric walls and altering the memories
of his people so they believe humanity outside the walls has been wiped out by Titans.

It’s this staged “last bastion of humanity” that we’re dropped into at the start of
the anime. The key takeaway: the world is already full of politics, history, and
resentment long before Eren is born. The people in the Walls are living in a
carefully constructed lie.

Year 845: The Fall of Shiganshina

The main story begins in Year 845 in the Shiganshina District of
Wall Maria. Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlert are kids dreaming of the
world beyond the wallsuntil the day their lives are destroyed.

• The Colossal Titan appears out of thin air and kicks a hole in
  Wall Maria, letting regular Titans pour into Shiganshina.
• The Armored Titan follows up by smashing a gate, ensuring humanity
  has to abandon a huge amount of territory.
• Eren witnesses his mother being eaten by a Titan, a trauma that becomes his
  lifelong motivation to destroy every Titan.

Refugees, including Eren and his friends, retreat behind Wall Rose.
Eren vows revenge, and the world of humanity shrinks dramatically. This single day
sets off everything that follows, even if we don’t yet know the true identities of
the Colossal and Armored Titans.

Years 845–850: Training and the Road to Trost

After the fall, humanity is facing food shortages and social unrest. One “solution”
is sending大量 people on a doomed mission to retake Wall Maria. Most never return.

In the meantime, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin enroll in the 104th Training Corps.
Over several years, they:

• Learn to use ODM (omni-directional mobility) gear
• Meet future key players like Sasha, Connie, Jean, Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie
• Develop their own strengths: Eren’s will, Mikasa’s skill, Armin’s strategy

By Year 850, they graduatejust in time for everything to go wrong again.

Year 850: The Battle of Trost and Eren’s Titan Power

Titans breach the gate at Trost District, echoing what happened at
Shiganshina. The newly graduated soldiers are thrown into their first real battle,
and it goes badly. Eren is swallowed by a Titan and seemingly killed early on.

Then the series flips the entire premise: Eren emerges from a Titan’s nape in Titan
form himself, unknowingly using the Attack Titan. His new ability
turns the tide of battle and allows humanity to plug the breach with a giant boulder.

Trost is the first time humanity wins something that looks like a true victoryand
the moment the story shifts from “humans vs Titans” into “what even are
Titans, and why can some people turn into them?”

The Female Titan and the 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls

After Trost, Eren is placed under the Survey Corps, led by
Commander Erwin Smith and squad captain Levi Ackerman. The Corps launches a major
expedition to retake territory and study Titans.

This is where the mysterious Female Titan appears, tearing through
soldiers with terrifying precision. The arc culminates in:

• The reveal that the Female Titan is Annie Leonhart, one of Eren’s former classmates
• A brutal fight inside Stohess District
• Annie crystallizing herself, hiding crucial information

The takeaway for the timeline: by the end of this arc, humans know that Titans are
people, not just monstersand that enemy agents have been hiding among them for years.

Year 850: The Clash of the Titans & the Truth About the Walls

Season 2 keeps us in Year 850 but zooms in on conspiracy and
identity. The big milestones:

• Titans mysteriously appear inside Wall Rose, hinting something terrible
  about the walls themselves.
• A priest of the Wall cult hints that the Walls are made of hardened Titan material.
• Reiner and Bertolt reveal themselves as the Armored and
  Colossal Titans, shocking everyone and kicking off the “Clash of
  the Titans” arc.

These events don’t jump us forward in time, but they radically reframe the last five
years. The people who destroyed Shiganshina in 845 were sitting at the dinner table
with Eren and his friends. The timeline isn’t just about years; it’s about how long
the characters have been lying to each other.

Year 850: Uprising, Royal Secrets, and the Basement

The second half of the story in Year 850 is pure political thriller. The Scouts clash
with the corrupt royal government, uncovering that the current king is a puppet and
that Historia Reiss is the true heir.

Key timeline beats here include:

• The coup d’état replacing the fake king with Historia
• The reveal that the Reiss family has been passing down the Founding Titan
• Eren learning he can harden his Titan form, giving humanity hope of sealing the walls

This all leads into the most important operation of Year 850: the
Return to Shiganshina.

End of Year 850: Return to Shiganshina and the World Beyond the Walls

The Shiganshina operation is one of the deadliest points on the timeline, but it’s
also where the story finally answers questions that have been hanging since episode 1.

• The Scouts battle the Beast, Colossal, and Armored Titans in a desperate fight to
  retake Wall Maria.
• Erwin leads a suicide charge against the Beast Titan, allowing Levi to nearly
  defeat Zeke.
• Armin sacrifices himself to help bring down the Colossal Titan and is later saved
  by becoming a Titan shifter.
• Eren, Mikasa, and Levi reach Grisha Yeager’s basement.

The basement reveals that humanity is not extinct, that the world outside the walls
is alive and technologically advanced, and that the people on Paradis are
Eldians, hated and oppressed by the rest of the worldespecially
Marley. The season ends with the Scouts reaching the sea, setting up a new phase of
the timeline.

Years 851–854: The Time Skip and Life in Marley

After the basement reveal, the anime jumps ahead about four years.
This is the major time skip that divides early Attack on Titan from its
later war drama phase.

In these new years:

• Paradis modernizes, researching technology and building weapons.
• Marley continues using Warrior candidates and Titans to wage war against other
  nations.
• Gabi, Falco, and the other candidates grow up believing Eldians on the island are
  devils.

The anime shifts perspective to Marley, showing us the other side of the conflict.
It’s still the same timeline, but now we’re watching different lives that have been
running parallel to Eren’s all along.

Year 854: Eren’s Attack on Liberio

In Year 854, everything erupts. Eren secretly infiltrates Marley,
posing as an injured soldier and manipulating events to his advantage.

• During a festival in Liberio, Eren confronts Reiner and forces him
  to admit his guilt.
• Eren transforms and devastates the city, killing countless civilians and major
  Marleyan leaders.
• The Survey Corps arrive with new gear and tactics, rescuing Eren but losing Sasha
  in the escape.

This is the point where the line between hero and villain starts blurring. Chronologically,
it’s near the end of the story, but emotionally, it feels like a second beginning:
the start of the War for Paradis.

Year 854: Jaegerists, Zeke’s Plan, and the Marley Counterattack

Back on Paradis, the timeline becomes a political minefield. Eren begins acting on
his own, forming the Jaegerists, a faction of soldiers and civilians
who support his radical approach.

At the same time, Marley prepares its own counterattack. Battles break out in
Shiganshina once again, this time with airships, anti-Titan artillery, and human
enemies on every side. Zeke and Eren attempt to activate the Founding Titan together
to sterilize all Eldiansa plan Eren secretly intends to hijack.

This part of the timeline is dense with betrayals and shifting alliances, but the
key moment is simple: Eren gains full use of the Founding Titan and breaks the
world’s last line of defense.

Year 854: The Rumbling

The Rumbling is the apocalyptic climax of the entire series. Eren
uses the Founding Titan to free the countless Colossal Titans sleeping in the Walls.
They march out across the ocean, flattening cities and annihilating most of the
world’s population in a shockingly short time.

Meanwhile, a desperate alliance forms between former enemies: Marleyan warriors like
Reiner, Pieck, and Annie join forces with the remnants of the Survey Corps. Their
mission: stop Eren and save what little remains of humanity.

The final confrontation takes place above and within Eren’s monstrous new Titan form,
an eldritch fusion of bones, ribs, and nightmare fuel. Friends fight friends, and
characters we’ve followed since 845 are forced to kill or be killed for the future
of the world.

The End of the Rumbling and the Epilogue

Ultimately, Mikasa delivers the decisive blow, killing Eren and ending the Rumbling.
The Founder’s power vanishes; Titans disappear from the world entirely, including
shifters like Armin and Reiner.

The epilogue then jumps forward several years. We see:

• Paradis rebuilding and militarizing, still fearful of the outside world
• Armin and the others becoming ambassadors, trying to secure peace
• Mikasa visiting Eren’s grave under the tree where it all began

Further flashes suggest that war eventually returns to the island long after the
main cast is gone, implying that cycles of violence are incredibly hard to break
even after the Titans disappear from the timeline.

Where the OVAs, Specials, and Side Stories Fit in the Timeline

The anime includes several OADs/OVAs and side stories that slot
into the main timeline:

• “Ilse’s Notebook” takes place during earlier Survey Corps expeditions
  before the main cast joins, but it’s best watched after Season 1.
• “No Regrets” covers Levi’s criminal past and first meeting with
  Erwin, years before Eren’s story, but is usually watched after Season 1 or 3.
• “Lost Girls” focuses on Annie and Mikasa in side stories that
  fit around the main events of Seasons 1–2.

Chronologically, these episodes jump into the past or fill in gaps, but they don’t
significantly change the core 845–854 timeline. Think of them as bonus puzzle pieces
that make the full picture richer rather than new corners of the frame.

A Simple Chronological Watch Roadmap

If you’ve already seen the show once and want a more timeline-accurate rewatch
(without obsessively rearranging every episode), you can broadly follow this order:

1. Season 1 (Fall of Shiganshina, Training, Trost, Female Titan)
2. Key OVAs like “Ilse’s Notebook” and “No Regrets”
3. Season 2 (Clash of the Titans, Wall mysteries)
4. Season 3 Part 1 (Uprising and royal government arc)
5. Season 3 Part 2 (Return to Shiganshina, basement, the sea)
6. Final Season Part 1 (Marley perspective and Liberio attack)
7. Final Season Part 2 (Jaegerists, Zeke’s plan, Marley’s counterattack)
8. Final Season’s concluding specials/episodes (the Rumbling and finale)

It won’t be frame-perfect chronological, but it preserves the emotional rhythm of
the show while keeping the overall timeline easy to follow.

Living Through the Timeline: The Fan Experience

On paper, the Attack on Titan timeline looks clean: 845 to 854, with a
four-year time skip, plus some flashbacks and distant history. In practice, watching
it unfoldespecially if you followed the anime as it airedfeels like living through
a decade-long global crisis in real time.

For early viewers, 2013’s Season 1 was a shock: an intense, gritty
series about survival, fear, and revenge. The world was small back thenthree walls,
one city, one traumatized boy. For years, the fan experience was shaped by questions
like “What’s in the basement?” and “Who is the Colossal Titan?” The timeline was
less about years and more about mysteries.

Then came the long wait between seasons. In real life, there were multi-year gaps
before new episodes, so fans had their own meta-timeline:

• The “speculation years,” where theories about the walls and Titans dominated forums
• The “politics phase,” when Season 3 dug into coups and royal secrets
• The “Marley shock,” when the anime suddenly shifted perspective

By the time the story jumped to Marley, many viewers felt like they
were in a different show. Suddenly, the “monsters” from the island were the ones
invading, and the people we thought were villains had families, goals, and their
own trauma. The timeline didn’t just move forward; it flipped on its axis.

Rewatching the series with the full timeline in mind is a wild experience. Characters
who seemed simple in 845like Reiner, Annie, or even Erenbecome walking contradictions
once you know what happens in 854. Lines that sounded like throwaway dialogue early
on turn out to be eerie foreshadowing. The flashbacks and glimpses of Titan memories
hit harder because you know where the story has to end up.

A lot of fans also talk about how the Rumbling changes the way you
feel about the earlier years. The wide-eyed cadets of 850 dreaming about seeing the
ocean suddenly feel unbearably tragic when you know that some of them will one day
be dropping from airships into hellish battlefields or standing on a flying boat,
trying to stop their former friend from trampling the world.

Watching the anime in one go (now that it’s complete) compresses that emotional
journey. What long-time fans felt over a decade of real time, new viewers can
experience in a few weeks. One moment you’re laughing at Sasha stealing bread; a
few arcs later you’re watching her funeral amid an escalating war. The timeline
isn’t just dates and events; it’s an emotional gradient from naive hope to morally
complicated survival.

If you want a powerful experience, try this: on a rewatch, pay attention to where
each major character stands in 845 versus 854. How far have they traveled physically,
morally, and emotionally? Mikasa goes from clinging to Eren as her entire world to
making the most painful decision of the series. Armin goes from anxious kid to global
negotiator and Colossal Titan. Even side characters like Jean grow from petty rival
to level-headed leader. The timeline becomes less about “what happened when” and
more about “how long did it take for them to become this person?”

In the end, Attack on Titan uses its timeline like a weapon. The early
years lure you in with a simple monster story. The time skip and Marley perspective
pull the rug out from under your assumptions. The Rumbling forces you to reckon with
the consequences of every choice made along the way. By the time the anime ends, the
dates almost don’t matter. What sticks with you is the feeling of having watched an
entire worldand the people inside itchange over time, for better and for worse.

Conclusion: From a Broken Wall to a Broken World

From the Colossal Titan’s first kick in 845 to the last desperate stand against the
Rumbling in 854, the Attack on Titan anime traces a remarkably tight
timeline for a story that feels so massive. The early years focus on survival inside
the walls; the middle years reveal a wider, hostile world; the final year becomes a
race to decide whether that world will exist at all.

Understanding the timeline doesn’t just help you keep events straight. It highlights
how far the characters travelgeographically, emotionally, and morally. When you see
the whole thing laid out, the series reads less like a random series of shocking
twists and more like a carefully structured tragedy unfolding over just a handful of
years.

Whether you’re watching the anime for the first time or jumping back in for a
chronological rewatch, mapping out the years from Shiganshina’s fall to the Rumbling’s
end adds an extra layer of appreciation. After all, in a world where memories and
futures can bleed together, keeping track of time might be the closest thing anyone
has to true freedom.