Summary
- Five Nights at Freddy's series has entered a new era with Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, introducing new characters and locations.
- Supplemental materials like Fazbear's Frights and Tales of the Pizzaplex novels have provided important context and confirmed characters from the book series in the video game titles.
- The recent releases, such as Help Wanted and Security Breach, further expand the story and introduce new gameplay elements, keeping fans engaged and excited for the future of the franchise.
The Five Nights at Freddy's series entered a new era, following the release of Five Nights at Freddy's 3. The series' next entry, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, gathered every vengeful spirit from throughout FNAF's early titles, as well as Springtrap and Michael Afton, under one roof, in an effort to end the story once and for all. However, it ended up kicking off Five Nights at Freddy's next era, which saw the franchise adopt a more modern approach to survival horror. The title also introduced fans to one of the series' most important locations, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place.
- For those interested in Part 1 of our comprehensive FNAF Timeline, click HERE.
During Five Nights at Freddy's second major era, supplemental materials became an important facet of the series' lore. Acting as parallels to the video games' canon, various collections of short stories offered fans a means of decrypting FNAF's larger events, as well as revealing the origins of its most important characters. Through these supplemental materials, fans have been able to put much of FNAF's early history into context. However, the recent Fazbear's Frights and Tales of the Pizzaplex novels have proven the most valuable, as they feature the first characters and events from FNAF's book offerings to be directly confirmed in the series' video game titles.
Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator
In Pizzeria Simulator, the player is a franchisee of the freshly re-branded Fazbear Entertainment Inc. And runs a restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place. The title sees the player-character, Michael Afton, tasked with preparing the restaurant for a “big party on Saturday” which requires investments in decorations and animatronics, as well as the completion of managerial tasks at night. Michael must also choose whether to salvage or dispose of mysterious animatronics that have been left outside the restaurant at the start of each day, an obligation of his contract under "Paragraph 4." These animatronics are Scrap Baby, which is the “bad part” of Circus Baby following her ejection from Ennard; Molten Freddy, the reconfigured Ennard animatronics; Lefty, a black bear animatronic housing the Puppet; and Scraptrap, a burnt and decaying Springtrap, following his escape from Fazbear’s Frights. During nighttime maintenance, Michael must survive attacks from the salvaged animatronics.
In Pizzeria Simulator’s “Completion” ending, Michael successfully gathers all the souls of victims from past games. After a brief monologue, in which Scrap Baby asserts that she will use the souls to make Afton proud, she is interrupted by Henry Emily, the title’s true orchestrator. Henry burns down the restaurant, with Scrap Baby, Lefty, William Afton, Ennard, and Michael trapped inside, ending Afton’s legacy once and for all. He addresses Elizabeth, Charlotte, and William directly, saying their souls are now freed. He then addresses Michael, whom he believes will wish to die alongside them. The game concludes with the player being told that Fazbear Entertainment is no longer a corporate entity.
Ultimate Custom Night
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Ultimate Custom Night has no true narrative, as it is actually a series of never-ending nightmares from the perspective of William Afton. The most widely accepted explanation for the title comes from the Fazbear Frights book series. In a short story thought to parallel the game’s canon, titled The Man In Room 1280, a burnt Afton, on the brink of death following Pizzeria Simulator, is kept alive by a malevolent entity. The entity keeps him alive in the hospital, despite his mortal injuries, forcing him to pay for his crimes by experiencing a recurring cycle in which he is killed by his own creations. The one responsible for Afton's torment is heavily theorized to be Cassidy, one of Afton’s earliest victims, whose spirit possesses the rare Golden Freddy animatronic in FNAF 1 and FNAF 2.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted
Help Wanted, also called the Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience, is an in-universe VR game, meant to undo the damage caused by a "rogue indie developer", series creator Scott Cawthon. Fazbear Entertainment LLC, established in roughly 2030, first hired Silver Parasol Games as the development team for The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience, which made video games out of the “fake” tales that have been spread about Fazbear Entertainment's restaurants. In order to expedite the process, Fazbear Entertainment supplied the developers with old circuit boards and other technology from vintage animatronics to help with pathing for characters in the game. This released the Glitchtrap Virus, which many now believe to be the mimic1 virus, leading to the death of a playtester named Jeremy.
A character called Tape Girl was tasked with finishing Jeremy’s work. However, she soon discovered the details of his incident through emails between Fazbear LLC and the indie developer, revealing their working together. Tape Girl decides to isolate pieces of the virus among various digital recording tapes. Within these files, she leaves messages for the player character, Vanessa, telling her that collecting all digital tapes will set the stage for Glitchtrap’s escape.
During the Curse of Dreadbear DLC, Vanessa is led to find a bunny mask, which results in her being possessed by the Glitchtrap virus. This possession kicks off the narrative of both FNAF: Special Delivery and Security Breach. Around this same time, construction begins on the Mega Pizzaplex, a massive fun center, filled with arcades and restaurants. During its pre-construction planning, an unknown individual ordered it to be built on top of a pre-existing establishment, Pizzeria Simulator’s Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place
Tales of the Pizzaplex: The Mimic Epilogues and The Storyteller
The Tales of the Pizzaplex Epilogues continue the story of the Mimic. A team of construction workers is given the task of clearing Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place of damaged endoskeletons, left behind by Henry’s burning of the restaurant in Pizzeria Simulator. They aim to turn Pizza Place into a museum as part of the construction of the Mega Pizzaplex. In addition to the workers, a unique animatronic, programmed with the mimic1 virus, is part of the crew. It is given the task of removing the heads and arms from the trashed endoskeletons but begins to do the same to the construction crew. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place is sealed off with concrete to keep the Mimic trapped inside.
Sometime later, a group of teenagers sneaks into Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, through a vent, and encounter the Mimic. The Mimic utilizes its ability to copy human voices, claiming to be someone trapped in the backstage area of the Pizza Place. When the teens investigate, the Mimic ambushes them. With only one Epilogue remaining, all but one of the teens have been killed by the Mimic in this story.
In The Storyteller it is revealed that the Mimic1 virus runs the Mega Pizzaplex. It was installed into a large mechanism called The Storyteller, which feeds information, songs, and stories to the location's animatronics. Many of Tales of the Pizzaplex’s short stories reference the Storyteller’s influence. One of the series' most recent entries, Tiger Rock, sees a virtual animatronic emerge from the Pizzaplex's VR attraction and rip off a child’s arms and legs, following the directive given to the Mimic sealed still sealed within the Pizza Place.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Special Delivery AR
According to Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Ultimate Guidebook, which collects in-universe files and documents from the FNAF series, the success of Help Wanted led Fazbear executives to explore methods of making the FNAF series a reality. Given the success of the VR approach, they sought to “insert FNAF into the real world.” This led to the Fazbear Funtime Delivery Service, which could send animatronics to people’s real homes to keep them company. However, this work was outsourced to another company, which accidentally scanned a virus into its code, leading the animatronics to attempt to kill each home's inhabitants. Emails between the service's developers and Fazbear Entertainment LLC revealed that Vanessa played a major part in its corruption, using it to collect Remnant, a source of energy used to bond souls to inanimate objects, for an unknown reason.
Tales of the Pizzaplex: GGY
Tales of the Pizzaplex features a canon-parallel story in which journalism student Tony hopes to discover the identity of a kid who has risen to the top of nearly every Mega Pizzaplex arcade cabinet’s leaderboard. This player, known only as "GGY" becomes the focal point of a class assignment, in which Tony and two other classmates, nicknamed Boots and Dr. Rabbit, investigate the origin of GGY. Tony discovers that GGY is a hacker who has modified their Play Pass to access employee-only locations in the Pizzaplex. He discovers that GGY has lured others into the Pizzaplex after-hours and that he seems to control the location’s Freddy animatronic, who is now following Tony.
Upon reporting these findings to his teammates and writing the assignment, Tony discovers that Dr. Rabbit has made critical edits to the document. The edits change the character of GGY to a fairytale wizard's apprentice who fights evil. Tony deems his teammates unworthy of cool pennames, revealing Dr Rabbit to be named Gregory. Greg apologizes and offers to cheer Tony up with an after-hours trip to the Pizzaplex, confirming himself to be the true identity of GGY.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach
Prior to the events of Security Breach, Help Wanted’s Vanessa lures all the Pizzaplex’s employees to a staff meeting, promising them a cake. Following this meeting, she is the only employee left on the night shift, setting the stage for Glitchtrap’s plan to come to fruition. However, a small boy, named Gregory, is inhabiting the Pizzaplex as well and allies himself with Glamrock Freddy to survive until 6 am. The two attempt to obtain a series of security badges, in order to access certain exits of the Pizzaplex.
Gregory soon encounters the Sun and Moon animatronic, with the latter version re-appearing every hour throughout the night, in an attempt to catch Gregory. Gregory also sees a mysterious dancing rabbit, Vanny, aka Vanessa, exploring the Pizzaplex. Despite chasing him in certain areas, along with the locations other animatronics - Chica, Roxy Wolf, and Monty Gator, Vanny's motivations are uncertain. While Freddy can see his fellow animatronics, he cannot see Vanny in his present state, leading Gregory to search for alternative means of surviving the night.
Gregory soon starts to upgrade Freddy, using parts from the other Glamrock animatronics. He receives Chica’s voicebox, Monty’s Claws, and Roxy’s Eyes, which allow him to see hidden items, locations, and, finally, Vanny. At 6 am, Gregory has the choice to leave the Pizzaplex, confront Vanny, save Vanny, or explore Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place, below the Pizzaplex. In the game’s seemingly canon ending, Gregory frees Vanessa from the Glitchtrap virus through three Princess Quest arcade cabinets. Gregory, Vanessa, and Glamrock Freddy’s head escape the Pizzaplex.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach RUIN
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach RUIN follows a young girl, Cassie, as she explores the Pizzaplex in response to a radio distress call from Security Breach's Gregory. Cassie is tasked with using Vanessa’s discarded V.A.N.N.I. Mask to disable the Pizzaplex's security nodes, which have locked Gregory beneath Roxy Raceway. Throughout her journey toward Roxy Raceway, Cassie encounters destroyed versions of the Glamrock Animatronics. Cassie is forced to save, destroy, or reboot the animatronics in order to successfully disable every security node, but is hunted by a mysterious digital entity, taking the form of a glitchy Blue Bunny.
Cassie’s journey takes her deep below the Pizzaplex, to the basement of Pizzeria Simulator’s Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place. Upon reaching Gregory's location, Cassie must use a forklift to destroy a cement block that has sealed Gregory in a mysterious room. Upon doing so, it is revealed that Cassie has undone the work of The Tales of the Pizzaplex Epilogues’ construction crew and that the radio distress calls were coming from The Mimic. The animatronic was impersonating Gregory, in order to lure Cassie inside Freddy' Fazbear's Pizza Place to free it.
FNAF RUIN's final moments confirm the Mimic was locked away long before the construction of the Mega Pizzaplex, with the events of both Security Breach and RUIN stemming from its attempts to escape using Vanessa, Gregory, and, later, Cassie to escape. The game’s bad ending sees Gregory explain the Mimic to Cassie, before causing the elevator that she is in to plummet to the ground, keeping the Mimic from finding Vanessa, Freddy, and himself. While some fans believe this voice could again be the Mimic, the game's files confirm that the actual Gregory causes the elevator to plummet. In the game’s secret ending, The Mimic is “scooped” like Michael in Sister Location, and Cassie survives.
The answer as to which of these endings will ultimately prove official may arrive quite soon, as Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2 was recently announced, with a "Late 2023" release date.