Main story
The main story of The Last of Us Part I follows Joel, a smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone, as he escorts Ellie, a teenage girl who is immune to the Cordyceps infection, across the United States to the Fireflies. It runs 12 chapters, from Austin on the night of the outbreak in 2013 to the spring of 2034.
- Type
- Storyline
Good to know
- 12 chapters: Hometown, The Quarantine Zone, The Outskirts, Bill's Town, Pittsburgh, The Suburbs, Tommy's Dam, The University, Lakeside Resort, Bus Depot, The Firefly Lab and Jackson.
- The story jumps 20 years after the prologue: the outbreak night is in September 2013 and the journey with Ellie starts in August 2033.
- You play as Joel for most of it, as Sarah in the prologue, and as Ellie in Lakeside Resort and the closing chapter.
- The collectible lists add up to 141 items across the 12 chapters; Pittsburgh has the most (28) and Hometown has none.
- Finishing the story earns the gold trophy No Matter What.
- Part I is the 2022 PS5 remake of the 2013 game (PC followed in March 2023); the story is unchanged, with Left Behind bundled in.
Chapters in order
1. Hometown (Austin). 2. The Quarantine Zone (Boston). 3. The Outskirts (Boston). 4. Bill's Town (Lincoln). 5. Pittsburgh. 6. The Suburbs (Pittsburgh). 7. Tommy's Dam (Jackson). 8. The University (Boulder). 9. Lakeside Resort (Silver Lake). 10. Bus Depot (Salt Lake City). 11. The Firefly Lab (Salt Lake City). 12. Jackson.
Summer in the east
After the 2013 prologue, the game picks up in August 2033 inside Boston's military-run zone. Joel and his partner Tess take a job from Marlene of the Fireflies: smuggle Ellie to the capitol building. The trip goes wrong fast, and Joel ends up heading west with Ellie to find his brother Tommy, passing through Bill's trap-filled town in Lincoln and a Pittsburgh run by hunters, where they team up with brothers Henry and Sam.
Fall and winter in the west
Months later Joel and Ellie reach Tommy's settlement and dam in Wyoming, then ride Callus the horse to the University of Eastern Colorado near Boulder, where the Fireflies are supposed to be. Winter finds Ellie taking the lead around Silver Lake, hunting for food and medicine and running into a man named David and his group.
Spring in Salt Lake City
The last stretch follows the pair into Salt Lake City in April 2034, past giraffes roaming the streets and through flooded tunnels, toward the Fireflies' base at Saint Mary's Hospital. The story closes back in Jackson.
Gameplay through the story
Each chapter mixes exploration, scavenging for parts and supplements, and fights against two kinds of enemy: infected (runners, stalkers, clickers and bloaters) and hostile survivors (FEDRA soldiers, Robert's smugglers, hunters, bandits and David's group). Stealth, thrown bricks and bottles, crafted shivs, Molotovs and bombs, and workbench weapon upgrades carry over from chapter to chapter.
What happens along the waySpoilerShow
Tess is bitten in Boston and stays behind to hold off soldiers. Henry and Sam die in the Suburbs after Sam turns. Joel is impaled at the university and Ellie keeps him alive through the winter, killing David after his group of cannibals captures her. At the hospital the Fireflies plan to operate on Ellie in a way that would kill her; Joel kills his way to the operating room, takes her, shoots Marlene, and later lies to Ellie that the Fireflies stopped looking for a cure.
- AustinAustin, Texas is where The Last of Us Part I begins: the Prologue of Hometown plays out on outbreak night in September 2013 as Joel, his daughter Sarah and his brother Tommy try to escape the city. It is the only region you visit before the 20-year time skip.
- BostonBoston, Massachusetts is the first region after the time skip and the city where Ellie grew up. You play The Quarantine Zone and The Outskirts here, and Left Behind's flashbacks with Riley take place in the same city. FEDRA holds the North End as one of the last working quarantine zones in the country.
- BoulderBoulder, Colorado is where Joel and Ellie search the University of Eastern Colorado for the Fireflies in The University chapter. Left Behind's present-day story picks up nearby at the Colorado Mountain Plaza mall, so this region covers both the campus and the mall.
- JacksonJackson, Wyoming is the home of Tommy's community and covers both the town and the wider Jackson County, including the hydroelectric dam and the Hidden Pines Corral ranch. You visit it twice: in Tommy's Dam and in the short closing chapter, Jackson. It is the one safe, working settlement in Part I.
- LincolnLincoln is a small Massachusetts town a few miles from Boston and the setting of Bill's Town, the fourth chapter. Joel and Ellie come here to call in a favor from Bill, a paranoid survivor who has rigged the whole town with traps, because they need a working vehicle.
- PittsburghPittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a former quarantine zone now run by hunters who ambush anyone passing through. Joel and Ellie spend two chapters here, Pittsburgh and The Suburbs, and meet the brothers Henry and Sam. Expect heavy human combat and the largest pile of collectibles in the game.
- Salt Lake CitySalt Lake City, Utah is the last stop on Joel and Ellie's search for the Fireflies. It is an abandoned quarantine zone where the Fireflies hold Saint Mary's Hospital, and you play the Bus Depot and The Firefly Lab chapters here in spring 2034.
- Silver LakeSilver Lake is a snowbound Colorado resort town and the setting of the Lakeside Resort chapter, where Ellie is playable for most of the winter. A group led by David lives here. Its surroundings include an abandoned coal mine and the Whitefish Lake rest area.
- 1HometownHometown is the prologue chapter of The Last of Us Part I, set in and around Austin, Texas, on the night the infection breaks out in September 2013. You play as Sarah Miller exploring her house, then as her father Joel as the family tries to flee the city with his brother Tommy.
- 2
The Quarantine ZoneThe Quarantine Zone starts the story proper 20 years after the outbreak, inside Boston's military-run zone in August 2033. As Joel, now a smuggler, you and his partner Tess slip outside the wall to track down Robert, a dealer who owes them guns, and end up taking a new job from the Fireflies. - 3The OutskirtsThe Outskirts takes Joel, Tess and Ellie out of the Boston quarantine zone and across the ruined city toward the capitol building, where Fireflies are meant to collect Ellie. It is where you meet clickers and learn to slip past them with thrown bricks and bottles, on a route through downtown, the Goldstone Building and a history museum.
- 4Bill's TownBill's Town brings Joel and Ellie to Lincoln, Massachusetts, a small town that Joel's paranoid contact Bill has rigged with traps to keep the infected out. Bill owes Joel a favor, so you team up with him to find a working car, which means a trip through a clicker-filled graveyard and an infected high school.
- 5PittsburghPittsburgh is the chapter where hunters take over: armed locals who drove out the military and now ambush anyone passing through. Joel and Ellie are forced off the road downtown, fight through the Hotel Grand and the Financial District, and join brothers Henry and Sam to reach the bridge out of the city.
- 6The SuburbsThe Suburbs picks up on a riverbank outside Pittsburgh, with Joel, Ellie, Henry and Sam heading for a radio tower where Henry hopes to meet his group. You cross a flooded sewer that was once home to a community of survivors, then fight hunters and their Humvee on a quiet street in Waverly Township.
- 7Tommy's DamTommy's Dam brings Joel and Ellie to Jackson County, Wyoming, months after Pittsburgh, where they find Joel's brother Tommy helping run a hydroelectric plant for his wife Maria's settlement. It is a short chapter built around a reunion and two fights with bandits, one at the dam and one at an old ranch house.
- 8The UniversityThe University sends Joel and Ellie on horseback across the University of Eastern Colorado near Boulder, looking for the science building where Tommy says the Fireflies are based. It mixes quiet exploration with a dorm full of infected and a fight against armed looters inside the lab building.
- 9
Lakeside ResortLakeside Resort jumps to winter and puts you in control of Ellie near Silver Lake, Colorado, hunting with a bow and searching for medicine. She runs into two strangers, David and James, and for part of the second half the game switches you back to Joel. - 10
Bus DepotBus Depot opens in the spring of 2034 as Joel and Ellie walk into Salt Lake City, aiming for the Fireflies at Saint Mary's Hospital. The route runs along a highway full of dead cars, through the Logan James bus station and an abandoned quarantine zone, and down into a flooded tunnel full of infected. - 11The Firefly LabThe Firefly Lab is the second-to-last chapter, set inside Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where the Fireflies have their base. It is a single section played as Joel, and its five collectibles include the recordings that explain what the Fireflies have learned from Ellie.
- 12JacksonJackson is the short closing chapter of the main story: you play as Ellie, walking through the woods with Joel toward Tommy's settlement in Wyoming in the spring of 2034. It has one section, the Epilogue, and one collectible, the comic Singularity.
Related missions
- Storyline
Left Behind
Left Behind is the prequel story bundled with The Last of Us Part I, played entirely as Ellie. It cuts between July 2033 in Boston, when her best friend Riley turns up and takes her to an abandoned mall, and a winter shopping mall in Colorado where Ellie searches for medical supplies for Joel.
- Story
Back in a Flash
Back in a Flash is the first chapter of Left Behind. After a short flashback to Riley's surprise visit at Ellie's school in Boston, you play Ellie in the snowed-in Colorado Mountain Plaza, searching the mall for anything that can help Joel.
- Story
So Close
So Close is the third chapter of Left Behind, back in the present at the Colorado Mountain Plaza. Ellie has to restore power to reach the crashed military helicopter on the mall's upper level, which means siphoning gas for a generator, fighting stalkers in a flooded stockroom and sneaking through a pet store full of infected.
- Story
The Enemy of My Enemy
The Enemy of My Enemy is the fifth chapter of Left Behind and its main combat chapter. With the medical kit in her pack, Ellie fights back across the Colorado Mountain Plaza to Joel's hiding place while armed survivors and infected roam the halls, and you can turn the two groups on each other.