The 125 Best SCPs Anyone Should Read

The SCP Foundation is one of the biggest and most popular fiction collaborations on the internet.

It all started back in 2008 on 4chan’s x board when a user posted a log-based creepypasta about an animate statue, SCP-173, and how to contain it which I also included on my list of the best creepypasta of all time.

The post quickly sparked the interest of other users, who soon began writing their own SCPs.

Best SCPs Intro Image
Image by KMBDENNISTRIDENT / CC BY-SA 3.0

I first learned of the SCP Foundation and the horrors it contains back in the late 2000s when SCP-173 was frequently shared on 4chan and on other places online. Yet, I never looked deeper, never visited the actual SCP-Wiki and read none of the many other SCPs.

Since I’m a horror writer, I love all horror fiction, be it as books, manga, or creepypasta shared over the internet.

In recent years, the popularity of the SCP Foundation has grown significantly. Many YouTube channels small and big talk about various SCPs and several video games have been released.

Before long, my interest was piqued and at the end of last year, I finally checked out the SCP Foundation myself. And thus my deep-dive into the world of Secure, Contain and Protect began.

Table of Contents

The SCP-Wiki

To my surprise, the SCP-Wiki and many of its entries differed from what I’d originally thought. I’d expected that most of the articles would be containment procedures for anomalous objects or creepy monsters akin to SCP-173.

Instead, the content of the SCP-Wiki had evolved over the years. By now, it contains many different styles and genres. You can find horror, science-fiction, comedy, historical fiction and even meta-fiction, all in the form of SCPs.

The anomalous objects and monsters, too, have evolved. We can find articles about Elder Gods and monsters, but also concepts, dangerous thoughts, memes, parallel dimensions, the future, the past and so much more.

As part of this deep-dive I read as broad and wide as I could. Many articles, lists or videos concerning the SCP Foundation talk about the most popular articles, but that doesn’t do it justice. Overall, there’s over six-thousand SCPs out there by now.

I didn’t read all of them, of course, but I read a good part of it, almost a thousand entries.

While taste is subjective and not all the SCPs I read were good, I found quite a few that were truly amazing.

That’s why I put together my personal list of the best SCPs of all time.

Notice: All articles cited here are licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Best SCPs – Honorable Mentions

Honorable Mentions Intro Image
Photo by London Mollari / CC BY-SA 2.0

I included a small list of honorable mentions because I sometimes came upon articles I didn’t truly enjoy, but which were too well-crafted to ignore.

The articles here are all outstanding, well-written or took tremendous effort. Many of them are amongst the most popular articles in the SCP-Wiki. And yet, I had my problems with them. It could’ve been the narrative, the story told, the complexity, missing information or certain aspects I didn’t enjoy.

Still, I think they are all worth reading, or at least worth a look.

With that, I present you twenty honorable mentions that didn’t make it into my overall list of the best SCPs.

djkaktus’s Proposal I – The Children by djkaktus

Meta Ike Proposal – The Solution by Jack Ike

SCP-093 – Red Sea Object by NekoChris

SCP-2498 – The Rainbow Body by minmin

SCP-2932 – Titania’s Prison by djkaktus

SCP-3109 – Indeterminate Source by HammerMaiden

SCP-3301 – THE FOUNDATIOn by djkaktus

SCP-3444 – She Took The Midnight Train Going Anywhere… by Tufto

SCP-3939 – [NUMBER RESERVED; AWAITING RESEARCHER] by Croquembouche

SCP-3989 – The Bone Orchard by HammerMaiden

SCP-4205 – In The Eyes of the Beholder by Woedenaz

SCP-4231 – The Montauk House by thefriendlyvandal

SCP-4485 – Such Black Light by Woedenaz

SCP-4840 – The Demon Lancelot and the Flying City of Audapaupadopolis by djkaktus

SCP-5000 – Why? by Tanhony

SCP-5500 – Death of the Authors by Ihp

SCP-5956 – THEREISNOCANNON by HarryBlank

SCP-5999 – This is Where I Died by Shaggydredlocks

SCP-6500 – Inevitable by HarryBlank, Ihp, Grigori Karpin, DarkStuff, Aethris and Placeholder McD

SCP-6666 – The Demon Hector and the Dread Titania by djkatus

Series I

Series I SCPs Intro Image
Image by Michal Příhoda / CC BY-SA 3.0

Series I is where it all started. Those are the very first SCPs, and they were written during simpler times.

Today, Series I is often criticized for being poorly written, having no character development, or being too simple.

While many of the articles in Series I are considered classics and rank high on the best-of-all-time list, it’s often more because of age and popularity than actual quality. A great example is the now defunct heritage collection, which includes some of the most popular SCPs of all time.

And yet, for all the criticism Series I is getting, the articles here can be quite effective. They are short and to the point, often reminiscent of creepypasta, and can be best described as monster-of-the-week articles.

They are less grand, less imposing and there’s no bigger mythos surrounding them. It’s because of this that they have a certain charm to them, at least some of them.

Overall, I read a good chunk of Series I, especially the more popular articles. While I believe the consensus of them being weaker compared to later Series holds true, I still enjoyed some of them. It’s here, I want to share those hidden little gems from Series I that I included in my list of the best SCPs.

SCP-002 – The “Living” Room

SCP-055 – Anti-Meme by by qntm and CptBellman

SCP-140 – An Incomplete Chronicle by AssertiveRoland

SCP-179 – Sauelsuesor by Dr Reach

SCP-184 – The Architect by Dr Gears

SCP-231 – Special Personnel Requirements by DrClef

SCP-342 – A Ticket to Ride by name

SCP-400 – Beautiful Babies by HammerMaiden

SCP-407 – The Song of Genesis by Pair Of Ducks

SCP-439 – Bone Hive by by Multimoog

SCP-453 – Scripted Nightclub by Erku

SCP-610 – The Flesh that Hates by NekoChris

SCP-701 – The Hanged King’s Tragedy by tinwatchman

SCP-748 – Industrial Dissolution by Metaphysician

SCP-804 – World Without Man by Sorts

SCP-882 – A Machine by Dr Gears

Series II

Series II SCPs Intro Image
Photo by Public Domain Pictures / Public Domain (CC0)

With Series II, a lot of things changed for the SCP-Wiki. Series II can be best described as a deconstruction of series I.

During Series I, the SCP-Wiki didn’t have a general tone. While some people wrote more realistic pieces, others wrote wacky and over-the-top articles. Those would later be known as lolFoundation. In these articles, the SCP Foundation is a crazy place, populated by insane, over the top characters.

Series II was a movement against this. The SCP-Wiki grew grimdark in tone. The world of the SCP Foundation became a cold, hard place. It’s dark and horrible, and many of the articles in Series II mirror it by being grim and depressing.

Series II was also heavily influenced by the SCP-1000 contest and its winner. It turned the SCP-Wiki away from its horror roots and more towards, including folklore, the unusual, and the fantastical.

In Series II, we also encountered the very first format screw, articles who incorporated other elements, moved away from the normal SCP format or disregarded it entirely.

Overall, Series II can be best described as a transitional period, one in which the SCP-Wiki moved away from the creepypasta roots of Series I and more towards the grander, more scientific style of Series III. Still, Series II is well worth reading, and many of its articles are amongst the best SCPs on the SCP-Wiki.

SCP-1025 – Encyclopedia of Diseases by Lasergoose

SCP-1048 – Builder Bear by trennerdios  

SCP-1157 – Bifurcating Man by Ink Asylum

SCP-1193 – Buried Giant by ophite

SCP-1281 – The Harbinger by DrEverettMann

SCP-1342 – To the Makers of Music by FlameShirt

SCP-1440 – The Old Man from Nowhere by Dmatix

SCP-1562 – Tunnel Slide by trennerdios

SCP-1678 – UnLondon by AstronautJoe

SCP-1689 – Bag of Holding Potatoes by llama66613

SCP-1692 – Came Back Haunted by AndarielHalo

SCP-1733 – Trapped in a Game by bbaztek

SCP-1739 – Obsolete Laptop by Chubert

SCP-1755 – Cotton Blight by Anaxagoras

SCP-1859 – Life Over Geological Time by Flah

SCP-1861 – The Crew of the HMS Wintersheimer by PeppersGhost

SCP-1981 – “RONALD REAGAN CUT UP WHILE TALKING” by Digiwizzard

SCP-1986 – Imaginary Library by Requitefahrenheit

Series III

Series III SCPs Intro Image
Photo by Dirk Ingo Franke / CC BY 3.0

Series III is where things grew in size. It’s here where we find higher concepts, much more world-building and quite a few of the best SCPs of all time.

The articles of Series III are longer and often more story-driven than earlier ones. They are often grander in style, concerning anomalous creatures or concepts of an entirely different order. We’re not talking about monsters in cages anymore, we’re talking about entities that could threaten the entire SCP Foundation.

In Series III, we also get a much clearer picture of the various groups of interest, their motifs and the impact they have on the world and the SCP Foundation.

Once more, the tone of the SCP-Wiki changed. The grimdark tone that had taken root in Series III was replaced by a more ambiguous one. The SCP Foundation could still be unethical and often was. As a whole, however, it was concerned with keeping the world a safe place and protecting humanity.

SCP-2000 – Deus Ex Machina by HammerMaiden

SCP-2003 – Preferred Option by Kalinin

SCP-2030 – LA U GH IS F UN by PeppersGhost

SCP-2075 – The Way of All Flesh by Metaphysician

SCP-2132 – Most Dangerous Fighting Exhibition and Obstacle Resort by ahbonjour

SCP-2254 – The Demon La Hire and the Valley of Lust by djkatus

SCP-2264 – In the Court of Alagadda by Metaphysician

SCP-2399 – A Malfunctioning Destroyer by djkatus

SCP-2419 – The Laughing Man by The Great Hippo

SCP-2432 – Room Service by LordStonefish

SCP-2510 – Got A Secret, Can You Keep It? by Cerastes

SCP-2571 – Cragglewood Park by The Great Hippo

SCP-2614 – Sometimes I go Out in Pity for Myself by bbaztek

SCP-2682 – The Blind Idiot by faminepulse

SCP-2695 – Lucibelle Perhacs by Accelerando

SCP-2728 – On the Barcelona Skyline by DarkStuff

SCP-2740 – It Wasn’t There by djkatus

SCP-2747 – As below, so above by minmin

Series IV

Series IV SCPs Intro Image
Image by Ittiz / CC BY-SA 3.0

Series IV is known mostly for how Meta it was. Many of the articles in Series IV played with tropes and twisted them in various creative ways.

It features some of the most creative and bizarre articles ever published on the SCP-Wiki. Format screws, Meta narratives, author inclusion and many other concepts came into play here.

While meta-articles were here to stay and would evolve, Series IV can be considered the most meta-heavy series out of all of them. And yet, as many meta-articles as Series IV contains, it also contains of a plethora of fantastic articles and many of the best SCPs of all time.

SCP-3000 – Anantashesha by A Random Day, djkaktus, and Joreth

SCP-3001 – Red Reality by OZ Ouroboros

SCP-3003 – The End of History by Communism Will Win

SCP-3004 – Imago by kinchtheknifeblade

SCP-3007 – World of Two Artists by Zhange

SCP-3008 – The Infinite IKEA by Mortos

SCP-3034 – The Counting Station by The Great Hippo

SCP-3043 – Murphy Law in… Type 3043 — FOR MURDER! by The Great Hippo

SCP-3045 – bzzip.exe by The Great Hippo

SCP-3117 – A Monster-Shaped Hole by The Great Hippo

SCP-3125 – The Escapee by qntm

SCP-3179 – The Seed by Tanhony

SCP-3211 – There is No Canon by Croquembouche

SCP-3288 – The Aristocrats by Metaphysician

SCP-3333 – Tower by Jekeled

SCP-3515 – Unearth by psul

SCP-3626 – Do not stop reading this document by kemoT01

SCP-3733 – Everybody Else by notgull

SCP-3739 – Mind-Milk™ by Moosphere, Inc. by Lt Flops

SCP-3838 – Nomads of the 4th-Dimensional Steppe by Tufto

SCP-3930 – The Pattern Screamer by djkatus

SCP-3935 – This Thing a Quiet Madness Made by djkatus

SCP-3986 – The Observatory of Genghis Khan by Tufto

Series V

Series V SCPs Intro Image
Photo by Mike Prince / CC BY 2.0

Series V is one of the newer Series, and one I haven’t explored as deeply as some of the earlier ones, yet.

In Series V, the SCP-Wiki returned to its horror roots. Once more, many of its articles would center on horrible, ghastly and creepy creatures. It’s also in Series V that one of the most popular and best SCPs in the horror genre was written.

One thing I noticed during Series V is that the writing was absolutely outstanding. It was here I discovered many of my favorite authors on the SCP-Wiki who’ve produced some of the most well-written and best SCPs of all time.

SCP-4001 – Alexandria Eternal by GentleGifts

SCP-4005 – The Holy and Heavenly City of Fabled China by Tufto

SCP-4511 – SWINE GOD. by DrAnnoyingDog and Rounderhouse

SCP-4666 – The Yule Man by Hercules Rockefeller

SCP-4774 – The Ninth Planet by MaliceAforethought

SCP-4833 – The Syncope Symphony by Tufto

Series VI

Series VI SCPs Intro Image
Photo by W.carter / CC0 1.0

Series VI was yet another series that brought fresh wind to the SCP-Wiki. Once more, writers would try out new things and brought forth new ideas.

We can see an influx of different format screws, multi-page articles or entirely fresh forms of SCPs.

Series VI also took a step away from the horror and the more serious articles that dominated Series V. Instead, we saw a multitude of silly or humorous articles, many of which I enjoyed tremendously.

The writing, however, stayed on the same high level as during series V and I once more found many outstanding articles that make a worth addition to this list of the best SCPs of all time.

SCP-5005 – Lamplight by Tufto

SCP-5106 – Goosed by DrAkimoto

SCP-5552 – Our Stolen Theory by Captain Kirby

SCP-5657 – Nicki Knows by T Rutherford

SCP-5935 – Blood and the Breaking of My Heart by djkatus

Series VII

Series VII SCPs Intro Image
Image by stephlynch / CC BY-SA 3.0

Series VII is the current and newest series, but it already features some absolutely fantastic articles.

The SCP-6000 contents might be my all-time favorite contest and features some grand, outstanding and well-written articles.

Overall, the quality I’ve seen in the articles of Series VII so far might be the best I’ve seen on the SCP-Wiki so far. While Series VII is new, many of the articles can be considered among the best SCPs of all time.

SCP-6000 – The Serpent, the Moose, and the Wanderer’s Library by Rounderhouse

SCP-6001 – Avalon by T Rutherford

SCP-6002 – All Creatures Great and Small by bigslothonmyface

SCP-6005 – Cascadia by Tufto

SCP-6140 – The True Empire by aismallard and stormbreath

SCP-6670 – “Mama?” by Ecronak

SCP-6789 – Return. Return. Return. by Its A Bad Idea, Ralliston, and Trotskyeet

SCP-6820 – TERMINATION ATTEMPT by Placeholder McD

SCP-6996 – Does the Red Moon Howl? by Dysadron

Best SCPs – 001-Proposals

001-Proposals Intro Image
Image by Kevin Dooley / CC BY 2.0

Anyone who’s spent some time on the SCP-Wiki has heard about SCP-001 and the many 001-Proposals.

Being the number 001, many people had ideas what SCP-001 was supposed to be. Some said it had to be the very first SCP ever discovered, others said it had to be the most important or dangerous one.

It was eventually decided to keep the slot open, and instead fill it with proposals of what SCP-001 could be.

In-universe, SCP-001 was so important and dangerous, it was to be kept a secret and well-hidden. To keep its identity a secret, a variety of false entries were created to throw off any unauthorized reader.

What this meant is simple. The true SCP-001 could be any of them, it could be all of them, or none of them.

The SCP-001 proposals are a writer’s most ambitious work, their grandest article and the culmination of their efforts.

It’s because of this that the SCP-001 articles are seen as the cream-de-la-crop and the best SCPs on the entire SCP-Wiki.

After reading all of them, I have to agree.

Many of the 001-Proposals are amongst the most ambitious and best SCPs on the entire SCP-Wiki. As the last part of this list, I want to present to you the best of the almost fifty proposals there are on the SCP-Wiki.

Captain Kirby’s Proposal – O5-13 by Captain Kirby

djkaktus’s Proposal III – The Way it Ends by djkatus

I.H.Pickman’s Proposal – Story of Your Life by Ihp

Pedantique’s Proposal – Fishhook by Pedantique

Pickman-Blank Proposal – The Frontispiece by Ihp and HarryBlank

ROUNDERHOUSE’s Gold Proposal – AMONI-RAM by Rounderhouse

ROUNDERHOUSE’s Proposal – MEMENTO MORI by Rounderhouse

S. D. Locke’s Proposal – When Day Breaks by S D Locke

Tufto’s Proposal – The Scarlet King by Tufto

TwistedGears-Kaktus Proposal – The Broken God by TwistedGears and djkatus

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