You wake up in the MCU (RAR, spoilers for Infinity War).

[PREDATOR490]

Without any powers, a normal person is 99% fucked in this universe with future knowledge or not.

You go hunting for SHIELD - You have a 50 / 50 chance of disappearing even if it is the "good" SHIELD because the "Good SHIELD" is surrounded or answers to HYDRA.

Option 1: Your chances of getting near Tony Stark are near 0% and that is just GETTING to him. Tony Stark is going to laugh your ass out the door and even if he DID believe you. The guy is a self obsessed narcissist early in the MCU, Tony might just do fuck all with the information until it is too late or your information sets him off to doing something stupid like building Ultron early.

Option 2: Getting to Thor is equally unlikely because the windows for doing so is extremely small. Getting to him is also hazardous to health since most of the time he is fighting shit or places that would get you killed reaching.

That said, if you have 'unlimited' tries and want to end this scenario as quickly as possible. The best choice is to try and hunt THOR's girlfriend down and either stalk her until she meets Thor or try and join her team. From there, you have the best possible chance to reach Thor in a position where he is vulnerable enough to be forced to listen.
The biggest selling point is probably going to be telling him about Hella. Odin seems to have had some ability to watch over Thor even while sleeping so hopefully he can see you telling Thor about someone that noone else has a clue about except Odin and saves Asgard. A fully defended Asgard that has not been blown to shit might be able to provide a resistance against Thanos. Additionally, Heimdall's super sight can potentially vindicate everything you say because he can simply look where you tell him to.
In addition to meeting THOR, this is the one and only chance you have to meet the one "good" member of SHIELD Coulson and HAWKEYE.

If Agents of Shield is considered valid then getting Coulson's attention could be reasonably possible if you know the stuff to reel off. That said, the biggest issue is that Coulson is a company man this early and is very likely to report anything you say up the chain of command. Your chances of disappearing are extremely high.

However, if Agents of Shield is valid then you can in theory go to a number of locations to secure "cool shit"
Hunting down the Ghostrider - Assuming your not guilty of anything and your willing to sell your soul that could be a way to get super powers.
Hunting down Daisy / SKYE - Without powers she has the "hacking" ability and potentially just enough crazy to believe your shit. If you want to be a bastard, stringing her along with information about who her family is could work. You can try your luck to become an inhuman.
Hunting down Fitz or Jemma - Might work and should be relatively easy than hunting down Coulson. Not sure they are going to believe the science shit though so your best bet hope is to try and show them something.

The Lighthouse from AOS S5 would be a solid win. In theory a Chronom robot should be there which you can spend all the time in the world talking to in a base that will survive the end of the world. Worst case, you end up sitting in that base for 10 years until Fitz and Co. show up for you to reel off the solution to their season problems.
Solving those problems and bitch slapping Coulson with the situation hard enough should convince him to call the Avengers and let them know about the Thanos situation months in advance.


Completely off the wall chances:

1) Try and meet the ANT MAN suit creator - Become ANT MAN
2) Try and get in the Wizard Academy - Become a magic wizard and probably get wrecked trying. Unlimited chances... so fuck it why not.
3) Try and run into Steve Rodgers - Gonna have to wait a few years and pray you survive Avengers Assemble.

[tezunegari]

Guys, we have infinite loops to play out, This is a really long Groundhog Day to do with as we wish. You just need to think fourth-dimensionally.

But then, you are essentially creating/obliterating multiple universes, feeding multiple cosmoses into the meat-grinder, in order to win.

At that point, I'd actually think that you'd qualify as a bigger monster than Thanos.

You get another shot (or, alternatively, are doomed to live through it again and again) if you fail. But that doesn't mean I'd start with deliberately failing as Plan A. Granted, you probably will fail the first run, and maybe the first ten runs (hell, maybe the first million runs). But, even leaving the considerable ethical implications aside, I feel like you'll learn more from those failures if you try and bring your A game every time.

Why should I care about the universes that I run through in the loop?
For all I know the universes where Thanos snaps his fingers just continue to exist with one less human.
Unless Q tells me directly that's what I'm going to assume is the case.

And nowhere in the Rar does it state that we have to be a good guy in the MCU.

Personally, my ultimate goal would be to learn all that I can from the MCU and return that knowledge to our world.
Ark reactor anyone?
Or the Regeneration Cradle?
Exoskeletons based on Ironman armor?
Pym Particles?
Widow's stun batons?
J.A.R.V.I.S. and the computers it needs to run him?!

Even if there is only a slim chance that any of these can be recreated in our world the whole time loop curse would be worth it.

Memorizing all that information though might be a problem - unless body modifications like gene therapy / implanted storage devices stay with us.

[The Romulan Republic]

Without any powers, a normal person is 99% fucked in this universe with future knowledge or not.

Yup. Hence the challenge.

You go hunting for SHIELD - You have a 50 / 50 chance of disappearing even if it is the "good" SHIELD because the "Good SHIELD" is surrounded or answers to HYDRA.

Yes. Contacting SHIELD is something that should be done with great care, and only if you are out of options or have some pretty good contingency plans already in place.

Option 1: Your chances of getting near Tony Stark are near 0% and that is just GETTING to him. Tony Stark is going to laugh your ass out the door and even if he DID believe you. The guy is a self obsessed narcissist early in the MCU, Tony might just do fuck all with the information until it is too late or your information sets him off to doing something stupid like building Ultron early.

All true.

Option 2: Getting to Thor is equally unlikely because the windows for doing so is extremely small. Getting to him is also hazardous to health since most of the time he is fighting shit or places that would get you killed reaching.

That said, if you have 'unlimited' tries and want to end this scenario as quickly as possible. The best choice is to try and hunt THOR's girlfriend down and either stalk her until she meets Thor or try and join her team. From there, you have the best possible chance to reach Thor in a position where he is vulnerable enough to be forced to listen.

This is a genuinely good idea, and I'm ashamed that I didn't think of it.

The biggest selling point is probably going to be telling him about Hella. Odin seems to have had some ability to watch over Thor even while sleeping so hopefully he can see you telling Thor about someone that noone else has a clue about except Odin and saves Asgard. A fully defended Asgard that has not been blown to shit might be able to provide a resistance against Thanos. Additionally, Heimdall's super sight can potentially vindicate everything you say because he can simply look where you tell him to.
In addition to meeting THOR, this is the one and only chance you have to meet the one "good" member of SHIELD Coulson and HAWKEYE.

Also very good points.

If Agents of Shield is considered valid then getting Coulson's attention could be reasonably possible if you know the stuff to reel off. That said, the biggest issue is that Coulson is a company man this early and is very likely to report anything you say up the chain of command. Your chances of disappearing are extremely high.

Yes.

I think I'd contact Hawkeye first, since IIRC, he was ordered to kill Romanov and brought her in instead, which suggests that he's not a man who automatically follows orders if he believes that there's a better option.

However, if Agents of Shield is valid then you can in theory go to a number of locations to secure "cool shit"
Hunting down the Ghostrider - Assuming your not guilty of anything and your willing to sell your soul that could be a way to get super powers.

Extremely bad idea. Selling your soul means that someone, presumably not a very nice someone, now owns your soul- and thus owns you in a far more fundamental and absolute way than any slave. And if there is an eternal soul, then the consequences will follow you forever, even across multiple lives.

Hunting down Daisy / SKYE - Without powers she has the "hacking" ability and potentially just enough crazy to believe your shit. If you want to be a bastard, stringing her along with information about who her family is could work. You can try your luck to become an inhuman.

Also a bad idea. Not only is it cruel, but if Skye finds out that you lied to or manipulated her, especially about this, she is probably going to tell you to fuck off, quite possibly via physical violence. Early season one Skye already has trust issues, will already be trying to find out more than you tell her even if you tell her everything, and will not take being deceived, especially about her origins, lightly. She dumped her boyfriend for selling information, spied on SHIELD while she was working for them because they wouldn't keep her in the loop, and shot Ward in season two (though his was a far bigger betrayal).

You might be able to tell her "There are some things that I have to keep secret" if you had a good reason, and if you're willing to accept that she'll try to find them out on her own. But if you lie to her, or try to manipulate her, and she finds out (which she probably will, because she is neither particularly trusting nor particularly stupid), then congratulations, you just made an enemy.

Hunting down Fitz or Jemma - Might work and should be relatively easy than hunting down Coulson. Not sure they are going to believe the science shit though so your best bet hope is to try and show them something.

More to the point, at this point they'd likely be either students in the SHIELD academy or relatively low-level agents working in a lab, and not in a position to do much except maybe accidentally tip off Hydra.

The Lighthouse from AOS S5 would be a solid win. In theory a Chronom robot should be there which you can spend all the time in the world talking to in a base that will survive the end of the world. Worst case, you end up sitting in that base for 10 years until Fitz and Co. show up for you to reel off the solution to their season problems.
Solving those problems and bitch slapping Coulson with the situation hard enough should convince him to call the Avengers and let them know about the Thanos situation months in advance.

No comment on this.

Completely off the wall chances:

1) Try and meet the ANT MAN suit creator - Become ANT MAN

Again, I think this is a long shot. Pym doesn't seem the most approachable person, and is there any particular reason for him to pick you even if you do convince him that your information is valid?

2) Try and get in the Wizard Academy - Become a magic wizard and probably get wrecked trying. Unlimited chances... so fuck it why not.

My Plan A.

3) Try and run into Steve Rodgers - Gonna have to wait a few years and pray you survive Avengers Assemble.

This is a good idea if you can arrange to run into him, and convince him to talk to you in private. But it requires waiting rather long to be your first move. Too much chance for the timeline to alter beyond recognition accidentally.

Why should I care about the universes that I run through in the loop?

Because in this scenario, they'd be actual universes populated by actual people, not movie characters.

For all I know the universes where Thanos snaps his fingers just continue to exist with one less human.

Maybe, but you don't know that (maybe the Ancient One could tell?). And in any case, in each of those universes, Thanos snaps his fingers.

Unless Q tells me directly that's what I'm going to assume is the case.

I'd assume nothing. Nor trust Q for that matter.

And nowhere in the Rar does it state that we have to be a good guy in the MCU.

Nowhere. You can be the worst villain ever if you want, as long as you are okay with being perpetually reborn or eventually beating Thanos. Its just not a route that I'd want to take, because I would regard it as a villainous one.

Personally, my ultimate goal would be to learn all that I can from the MCU and return that knowledge to our world.
Ark reactor anyone?
Or the Regeneration Cradle?
Exoskeletons based on Ironman armor?
Pym Particles?
Widow's stun batons?
J.A.R.V.I.S. and the computers it needs to run him?!

Even if there is only a slim chance that any of these can be recreated in our world the whole time loop curse would be worth it.

Well, I will agree that bringing that knowledge to our dimension would definitely be a worthy goal. It also means learning interdimensional travel, which likely means either becoming a sorcerer, making a sorcerer friend, or getting access to Asgardian level tech. (or possibly an Infinity Stone).

Memorizing all that information though might be a problem - unless body modifications like gene therapy / implanted storage devices stay with us.

Hmm, allowing body modifications that can cross lives seems to me to be giving too big an advantage. Given time, you could literally hundreds of superpowers, potentially.

I will allow modifications to your mind to cross lives (like if you acquired psychic powers somehow), because if your mind is getting reset then the whole reincarnation thing kind of doesn't work as intended.

[The Romulan Republic]

Actually, I'm tempted as a thought experiment to come up with a plan for going the supervillain route.

[FaxModem1]

Guys, we have infinite loops to play out, This is a really long Groundhog Day to do with as we wish. You just need to think fourth-dimensionally.

But then, you are essentially creating/obliterating multiple universes, feeding multiple cosmoses into the meat-grinder, in order to win.

At that point, I'd actually think that you'd qualify as a bigger monster than Thanos.

You get another shot (or, alternatively, are doomed to live through it again and again) if you fail. But that doesn't mean I'd start with deliberately failing as Plan A. Granted, you probably will fail the first run, and maybe the first ten runs (hell, maybe the first million runs). But, even leaving the considerable ethical implications aside, I feel like you'll learn more from those failures if you try and bring your A game every time.

I'm a civilian who might not even have a Social Security number in the MCU, giving myself an advantage so that I'm not a homeless vagrant is kind of an advantage. Especially since, on the streets in the MCU, as the Netflix-line has shown us, is generally as bad, if not worse for the average person. You might as well as be angry that Phil from Groundhog Day is dooming people to life without him when he jumps back in time each day in Groundhog Day when he tries a scheme in his next loop. From my perspective, it is a time loop. Until I'm shown otherwise, I will treat it as such.

First off, grab a newspaper or look online after the first Wednesday or Saturday in the timeline, look at the winning lottery numbers. Memorize them. Then go jump off a skyscraper. Boom, you're back where you started. Purchase a lottery ticket with said lottery numbers. Using this capital, invest in companies that will take off in the MCU, such as Killian's booming tech business, and buy a controlling share. When AIM takes off, you become much richer. If Killian becomes a problem, either move him out of the way, or get killed, and do the lottery business over again and find another tech giant that will boost our initial incomes. Work to reform Killian if possible. If not, buy time for later.

Oh, I do like the idea of trying to buy out Killian, though it requires having considerable wealth already, as you noted.

We then acquire IGH, and find Karl Malus, and with our league of scientists and financial gains, find what he has, and work on his methods to become stable. See what things he has that are noteworthy, and what are not, and see if some peer review can help him out. His methods are inhuman, but his works do have merit. This, combined with EXTREMIS, might lead to some amazing civilian applications for everyday society.

Second, since Hank Pym is easily accessible at Pym Technologies and work to become Pym's protege. Unlike Darrien Cross, we're not selling to HYDRA, and after he takes us into the fold, we can work on combining Extremis and Pym Particles for civilian applications. This will surely get noticed by SHIELD, and get us a seat at the table. Then we start revealing a limited version of the future, and explain what's going on. Try and get an audience with Steve Rogers, and explain the situation, under the guise of improving both our and his situation with our own science and his biochemistry.

Explain to him that HYDRA is a cancer within SHIELD, but the world will still need SHIELD anyway because there's going to be alien invaders, and it's best to have a force to deal with that threat.

Steve now knows about Bucky, Thanos, and what's going on, and can bring the rest of the Avengers in. And we have an organization that can give people superpowers, while also improving the quality of life for millions, if not billions of people.

And if I fail, just another reset when Thanos snaps his fingers, and I try another method.

Trying to get into the tech. industry could give you an in with Stark, as well. Although I feel like Pym probably won't be very approachable, and I can't for the life of me recall who Malus is. Is he the guy who experimented on Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver?

And as we've already discussed Malus, and I agree Pym might not play ball, but I'm trying my route to improve MCU Earth while also making us ready for space invasion and negating the worst damage some minor supervillains are doing and channeling it into positive changes for society as a whole. It might not pan out, but it's worth a shot.

[FaxModem1]

Oh, that explains it. I don't have Netflix, and thus haven't watched the Netflix shows.

And yeah, I kind of agree. While I can understand concerns about making every person a walking WMD, or a sudden massive social upheaval, just giving everyone some extra durability probably wouldn't do that any more than, say, the invention of vaccines did, and it would save so many lives. And when in doubt, its unquestionably better to have a level playing field than a small number of powerful elites and a world of largely helpless canon fodder.

Hey, that can be part of my MCU campaign platform:

"Socialized Super-Medicine For All! Single Payer Powers! Vote TRR 2020!"

I just realized, HYDRA might deal with you if you run on such a platform, as they are shown to be rather against improving the species in such a way unless it's under their control, and they prefer humanity to be cattle for their living alien god Hive.

[The Romulan Republic]

True, but if you ran past-Winter Soldier, at least Hydra would be in the open as a public enemy, rather than controlling powerful politicians in secret behind the scenes.

Though I'd like to give myself an upgrade first, so as to negate the risks of an assassination. Regenerative abilities or extra durability would be good if I could get them.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Has anyone suggested joining SHIELD instead of attempting to inform them of an impending threat? We know virtually nothing about how they recruit people, save for that supposedly you need a PhD just to get in the door. Which is highly unlikely since as far as I can tell only Fitz & Simmons are that well-educated.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Neither Fury nor Dum Dum Dugan are Ph.Ds. Me, I'd join if I got to drive the helicarrier.

[FaxModem1]

Has anyone suggested joining SHIELD instead of attempting to inform them of an impending threat? We know virtually nothing about how they recruit people, save for that supposedly you need a PhD just to get in the door. Which is highly unlikely since as far as I can tell only Fitz & Simmons are that well-educated.

It seems to be a politically connected organization, with people ascending through merit and/or political connections. If you end up afoul of someone like John Garrett, you may just end up dead. Or worse, what if it isn't a HYDRA operative who is trying to silence you, but someone like Victoria Hand, who blindly throws away SHIELD agent lives because she's a fucking idiot? Do you really want to die pointlessly for some mission because the people at the top didn't want to have an extraction plan for you?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Has anyone suggested joining SHIELD instead of attempting to inform them of an impending threat? We know virtually nothing about how they recruit people, save for that supposedly you need a PhD just to get in the door. Which is highly unlikely since as far as I can tell only Fitz & Simmons are that well-educated.

It seems to be a politically connected organization, with people ascending through merit and/or political connections. If you end up afoul of someone like John Garrett, you may just end up dead. Or worse, what if it isn't a HYDRA operative who is trying to silence you, but someone like Victoria Hand, who blindly throws away SHIELD agent lives because she's a fucking idiot? Do you really want to die pointlessly for some mission because the people at the top didn't want to have an extraction plan for you?

Well as per the OP, if I get killed I just respawn at the very start so that's no big deal. It'll be a bitch to re-live everything if it's years down the line from my arrival though, unless Q is willing to fast-forward me to a key decision point. It's like a time loop, just much longer than the ones normally seen in SF!

[The Romulan Republic]

I think you'll need that prep. time. You start out as an unpowered everyman tossed into the MCU, without any existing allies. Honestly, even with foreknowledge and multiple tries, ten years isn't all that long to prepare for a genocidal nut job who can shrug off punches from the Hulk and has his own starfleet.

[PREDATOR490]

The quickest and safest method is stalking / joining Jane Foster until she meets Thor in the desert. Alternatively, stay around that town until Thor's Hammer comes down. From there, bump into Thor while he is "mortal" and info dump him.

If you do it fast enough, Odin will not have passed out and Helmdal can potentially see / hear you telling him about Loki's bullshit. The only downside is that IF Helmdal fucks up, Loki drops him, Odin cannot do fuck all and Loki sends the Destroyer to take YOU and Thor out.
No-one except Thor seems able to kill the Destroyer and you have no guarantee that he will become "worthy" with your changes. This could end up with you all getting killed.

That said, it will be the shortest reset and retry method you have available with the biggest chance of changing the outcome of the entire franchise.

This also has the benefit of allowing you to run into HAWKEYE and Coulson at a point where you can info dump them AND... potentially use Thor to get asylum on Asgard so you can skip being fucked by SHIELD / HYDRA if either of them do something monumentally stupid. If you info dump Thor AND Odin enough they might swing the idea of sending you + Asgard protectors to gather up the Avengers so you can have the mass info dump in safety and get a surprise drop on HYDRA.

If the start of the scenario is accurate, you have approximately 6 months before Iron Man 2 and Thor's arrival. Nothing you do on Earth should cause any effect on Asgard to stop Thor's arrival so that is 6 months to do the legwork or go on side quests.

AoS S2 has a secret base, formerly used by Agent Carter, that is abandoned and able to be used. Assuming you can get in.
AoS S4 The Darkhold is up for grabs. Using it is unwise but it does make for a good bargaining chip to sell your story to Coulson at minimum. Nick Fury supposedly hunted for this thing so this is the best ticket you get to sit at the big boy table assuming you can survive long enough.
AoS S5 has a secret base filled with stuff that noone appears to know about. Assuming that you can get in. ( It also has the potential to have a specific character that could be insanely useful )
In general, you can possibly hunt down Skye but it is likely to take way too long. At minimum, having a hacker could make staying under the radar and getting around easier.

If you want to play the long odds and get involved quicker...
Getting to Tony Stark MIGHT be possible if you can somehow swing into the events of Iron Man at just the right time for Tony Stark to come back from his forced captivity. I doubt anyone is going to listen or do anything fast enough to rescue Stark from that prison. If anything, Stark might end up getting killed if you mess up those events.
Afterwards, if you can reach Tony and get him to realise that EVILDUDE is behind stuff then even Tony might pay attention enough to listen to you and reward you. Little chance he is going to give you an Iron Suit but... a boat of money that can fund your trip to meeting Thor would certainly be nice.

This is another chance to meet Coulson but I really dont see that being productive and extremely dangerous because Coulson is likely to take you into custody even if he believes you. Once you are in a jail cell, you are pretty much banking on Coulson being able to somehow protect you from HYDRA / SHIELD.

Naturally, going to the Wizards is an option but finding them alone is going to take time unless anyone can literally walk off the street into the New York Sanctum. The only chance is somehow trying to info dump the Ancient One but any information you have is pretty much worthless to her. They did not seem to consider it worth intervening in any of the Avengers events so telling them before hand about them does not seem like it would compel them to intervene.
The upside is they are the most likely to believe you about the Infinity Stones AND if you can swing them to your side you literally have Teleporting Wizards on your side that would be able to help you massively. Walking in with the Darkhold as a gift might be enough to get them interested in you.
The downside is the Wizards might just kick you out on your ass or do nasty things to you even if they believed you. They are not going to like having some nobody running around telling people about their order and the fact they have one of the Infinity Stones in their possession.