Hyper Light Drifter Lore! - Time Travel and history 

Great theory, all makes sense, but I kinda prefer the theory where Judgement and Anubis are fighting for control of the Immortal Cell.

first off, the west are not bears but raccoons, and I'd wager they didn't freeze it, but instead the crystals they used to fight the titans somehow got uber charged by their use as weapons and in doing so trapped the soldiers.

This corruption is known as judgement. No he is not a time traveler the cutscenes are visions sent to him by judgement. If you look really closely you will notice that every time he gets a vision there is either black crows that look possessed nearby when he wakes up or in the east you will notice that just as you wake up black tenticles retract back into the wall.

the drifter is implyed to be a collector for lost knowledge, weaponry and history. And he isn't the only one, and was likely a drifter for a long time. Which is why the pink drifter died as well. Tye illness is the corruption trying to stop drifters from cutting off it's power. While the dog is there to help you end it and release the world from the illness, or at least anyone who doesnt have it yet to be able to get it. And thats just a small piece of the story

they're otters

I noticed in the South labs, there were a series of glass containers in a row, with a Blue, and two more with what appears to be the result of infusing Blues with the pink stuff--which looks to me like Dirks are actually infused Blues that didnt turn out right. Further exploration of the labs show what happens if they keep growing the Dirks, they become the huge green one eyed monsters. Perhaps the Drifters got their abilities from successful infusions of the pink stuff, but of course would have a price of sickness. When you bleed, the pink stuff comes out of you and turns into black stuff. There are also tables with skeletons strapped to them, probably Blues used as experiments during the research to create immortals. When you lose all your health, it seems like you dont die, you reawaken. Its only after destroying the Cell and freeing it of the pink guck the races fed into it that you are finally able to die. Perhaps Drifters were created just to do this job as a means of righting a wrong--the Blues seem like they have made a bad name for themselves. The Hunter can be seen shooting down a Dirk just before you fight, and sees you as another experiment to clean up too. I'm just speculating but after seeing the tanks showing a Blue, then a slightly changed Blue, and then a Dirk, it got me thinking!

I am pretty sure the frog boss is the Hermit based on the song title Disasterpeace provided for his theme song.

I just want to say that your channel is absolutely amazing and got me through some hard times. It's obviously the highest quality videos on the site and it's amazing how you keep consistent uploads. You are the best RU-vidr alive currently (Including the big ones) and deserve all the subs in the world.

I think that the lizards didtn create such things, they only found them, someone before was creatings the akatsuki robots, as well as those green creatures that looks like you (yep, the green recurrent enemys, maybe are not you, mean drifters, but they were artificial, including th hang man) and the titans, and maybe the fourth titan was incomplete, his eyes and hearth were not installed yet, or they were creating a fifth one (or was a prototype)

I was actually blown away by the Hierophant's death animation. It essentially emphasizes that this "priest" is a fraud.

That was along the lines of what i was thinking. the way the light shifts after you die seems to imply that your character is aware or has an inkling that he died. I thought it was part of the curse or sickness that even if he dies he would be forced to travel back to the moment he was alive to try again. it fits with the name of the game too. Hyper light drifter seems to imply that our drifter is a little special than others. And the term hyper light just reminds me of time travel. But then again he can teleport also so it might just be referring to that. Amazing video by the way

Bruh it's REALLY obvious that the king didn't freeze his people. The raccoon hermit straight up tells you that they killed a titan with guns powered by the rapidly regenerating green crystals but it backfired and froze most of them in the crystals. He just broke out and now lives as a hermit cuz all his friends are dead and it's probably a few hundred years since the battle

west- racoons, north- birds, east- otters, south- lizards

Very nicely pieced together :)

What I tought when playing, is that the Hound, and judgement are two halfs of the same being, maybe it got separated during the cataclysm.

I'm replaying the game and i've been looking for lore videos on it. Great video! What i love about this game is that it kinda leaves it to your imagination, so anything is possible. If i remember correctly the creator of the game used his real life experience with a heart attack as inspiration for this game, so i always thought the drifter was ill from the heart, and the dog (probably his dog IRL, inseparable friend) was represented as some sort of guide for him, or represented love maybe? a motivation/beacon? I also thought of the world as some sort of purgatory and Judgement represented death, trying to take everything away, all life forms including the drifter (himself). And finally the ending i took it as him defeating death and using the portal gate to exit this purgatory and return to life. I dunno, i love the game and really liked your theory, could be totally possible

My theory: The drafter is getting corrupted by himself (as he coughs corrupted blood), and he looks for the source to destroy it and stops the spread.

4:50 i think its two birds, one on top of each other, pretending to be a tall priest. the death reveals their false teachings

How do you find the character at 7:41?

Is the black corruption created from the drifter's blood? It seems that the corruption only appears when he coughs up blood. Also in the opening we can see the blood turn into the corruption.

Ngl, I really want Matpat's take on the lore

Well the drifter probably has a lot of "determination" haha....haaaa.... I'll stop.

I will say there’s a big hole in the western part of the theory and it shows his people actually killed one of the titans with a crystal cannon but it overloaded and froze everything in the west in crystal

Honestly it's one of the greatest games and lore i ev ever played

Lovely theory

There is no time travel.

here is my theory about the drifter the drifter him self has lung cancer jugment is cops dog is drifters friend all dose directions metirals for what ? crystal meth

Gr8