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Welcome to Undertale! An action RPG that's equal parts goofy, quippy, poignant, and horrifying, Undertale will tickle your funnybone while putting your platforming skills to the test. The game starts out fairly low-key, but things ramp up pretty quickly. Let's get started.
Your first task is to choose a name for your character. You can choose almost any name you like, and there are a few that illicit specific reactions from the game. Check out the Easter Eggs page for more information. It's worth noting that if you choose the name 'Frisk' you'll begin Undertale in Hard Mode, which changes the enemies in the first area, making it more difficult. Details on how to Spare these enemies are included in the Dropdown menus below.
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The Ruins - Enemies (Normal Mode)
The Ruins - Enemies (Hard Mode)
You'll start off in a cave. Head east and you’ll meet Flowey, a... friendly... creature who provides a short tutorial regarding the game's mechanics. You can choose to get hit by Flowey's projectiles or avoid them, with different conversational results. Things don't go terribly well either way, and Flowey gets replaced by Toriel, who acts as your guide for the remainder of the Ruins.
Follow Toriel north to find a purple-bricked room. To the north is a sparkling, yellow save point. Save points both allow you to save your game, and fully restore your health. Make a point to use save points every time you see one. (Fortunately, they tend to be placed directly in your path, making save points hard to miss.)
Toriel now leads you on a proper tutorial in several adjacent rooms. Eventually you’ll have to face off against a Dummy, your first proper opponent of the game. This leads us to combat in Undertale.
Combat
At first glance Undertale seems like a regular RPG. Your character has HP, your opponents have HP, and you need to find your way out of combat. Undertale is fairly unique among RPGs, however, in that you have several options for completing a battle. The two dominant methods are as follows:
- Killing your opponent. If you Fight you can reduce the enemy’s HP. Reduce it to zero to end the battle and kill the enemy. When attacking you are provided meter which slides from one side to the other. The closer you stop the slider to the middle of the meter, the more damage you inflict on the enemy. As you explore you'll find weapons that improve your attack power. Kill enough enemies and gain experience (EXP) to level up your character.
- Speaking to and / or Sparing your opponent. If you Act during combat you can stall an enemy and learn more about them with a variety of enemy-specific actions, such as Compliment, Threat, Flirt, and so on. You can drive said enemies away with the proper conversational choices, then choosing Spare. By doing this you'll avoid killing the enemy. You do not gain EXP by Sparing enemies, and if you avoid killing every enemy in Undertale you'll remain at level 1 for the duration. Doable, but difficult.
Which path you take makes a huge difference to the outcome of the game, so choose wisely.
Whether or not you kill opponents you'll have to endure their attacks. At this point Undertale turns into a platforming game, and you’ll need to evade enemy attacks in a small box that appears near the bottom of the screen. The nature of these attacks changes from enemy to enemy, and the mini games get harder and harder.
You can either destroy the Dummy, which displeases Toriel a tiny bit, or chatter at it, which pleases Toriel and sets a more positive tone going forward. Note that defeating the Dummy does not grant your character EXP, an important distinction for the Pacifist run of Undertale. Beat the stuffing out of it if you prefer.
The next room to the north contains a puzzle which you need to solve on your own. The solution’s simple enough: Just talk to Toriel. As you walk through here you may start getting into random battles, though they’re sparse. You can run into the following enemies:
- Froggits. Hoppy frogs, Froggits have easy-to-avoid homing attacks.
- Whimsuns. These things are incredibly timid, and so long as you don’t move around during their attacks you’re perfectly safe. Whimsuns flee if you try to Console them.
- Migosps. Rarer than the other two, Migosps will use cockroaches to take you down, but they're bad at it. Migosps don't stop attacking until they're alone on the battlefield.
Consult the dropdown list at the top of this guide for further instructions on how to Spare each enemy in the Ruins.
The next room is a straight jaunt to the east. At the end Toriel will take off, giving you a Cell Phone. You can use this via the menu to speak to Toriel and learn more about her. Later in the game you can use the Cell Phone to contact other characters, as well. Toriel tells you to stay put, a command you're well-advised to ignore.
There’s a save point in the next room, and the path splits. If you head north you’ll find a room with a pedestal. Upon the pedestal is Monster Candy. You are allowed to take Monster Candy. If you take four pieces at one time, however, the pedestal spills and becomes useless. You can only carry eight items at a time, so don’t jam your inventory up too much. To the south in the save room is the path onward.
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In the next room you may start running into Froggit and Whimsun tag-teams, and their mini games stack, so be prepared for more difficult dodging. The floor ahead is covered in pitfalls, and you need to step on the tiles that correspond with the leaves on the floor in the room below. The picture above shows the pattern through the leaves so you don't fall through.
To the east is a room with three rocks. Move all three into place to advance to the right. (One of them has trouble with this relatively simple task.) You’ll start running into a new brand of enemy in this area:
- Moldsmals. These sexy jigglers drop exploding balls on you. Weave to avoid ‘em. The more Moldsmals you fight, the more projectiles you need to avoid.
Next up is a save room, as well as a Mouse Hole and some cheese. Beyond here is arguably the first boss of Undertale.
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Napstablook
HP: 80
Say hellow to Napstablook. A sad little ghost, and he’ll shower you with tears as attacks. The tears travel in one of two patterns:
- Along the outside of the box, moving steadily inward
- Dropping down as a rainfall torrent
You can beat Napstablook to ‘death’ to end the battle, or, if you want a more benevolent route, you can Cheer him four times. Each time you Cheer Napstablook his crying attacks become less dangerous, and eventually he’ll end the battle and leave. Note that attacking Napstablook does not ruin a Pacifist run.
The path past Napstablook splits. If you take a right you’ll find a ‘Spider Bake Sale’. Approach the smaller web and you can purchase Spider Donuts for 7 gold per donut. Approach the larger web and you can purchase Spider Cider for 18 gold per jug. Either one will allow you to skip a boss battle much later in the game, though you need to hold it in your inventory. North of here are three Froggits with useful information about the game.
The next room over contains six holes in the floor. The important holes are as follows:
- The top-middle hole leads to a switch that will get rid of spikes to your right, allowing you to advance.
- The next hole to the south leads to Napstablook, who got stuck. Somehow.
- In the bottom-left hole you’ll find a Faded Ribbon. You can equip the Ribbon.
- Vegetoids. Made of nutrition itself, Vegetoids attempt to bombard you with falling veggies. Not too difficult to avoid. If you do enough damage to a Vegetoid (it will be labelled as ‘bruised’) you can Devour the enemy and regain 5 HP. This does not ruin a Pacifist run.
- Looxes. One-eyed creeps, Looxes send easy-to-dodge hoops flying at you. Not a big deal.
The next room to the east contains three colored switches and a door to the south. If you go through the door, however, you’ll simply change the room’s perspective. Go through the southern exit to move the room, then hit the blue switch, which is now hidden behind the northeastern pillar. This eliminates the spikes from the western exit. Hit the red switch in the next room, then the green switch (behind the northwestern pillar) in the last room.
The path splits to the east. If you carry on east you’ll find a lovely landscape at the top of some stairs, and to your left is a Toy Knife. Equip it to improve your attack power. You will not need this thing if you're attempting a Pacifist run, so if inventory space is a concern you needn't pick it up.
To the north is a cut scene, and beyond that a small home.
Toriel’s Home
Home, sweet home. You can explore a little, but there’s not a whole lot to see - and Toriel won't let you search the basement. (Keep pushing the issue, however, and Toriel's dialogue changes with each foray into the basement.)
Follow Toriel east and she’ll introduce you to your new room. If you hop in bed you’ll find Butterscotch Pie sitting on the floor when you wake up. Save this item! Butterscotch Pie fully restores your health, and should be saved for boss fights. It also has a weakening effect on a particular late-game enemy, if you keep it in your inventory long enough.
Toriel is now sitting in the living room, to the west. Speak to her and press her on wanting to leave the Ruins. She’ll run into the basement. Follow her down the pathway and you’ll wind up battling the final boss of the Ruins.
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Toriel
HP: 440
Looks like your new mama doesn't want you to leave. Toriel uses the following attack patterns:
- Fireballs fall from the top of the box, down to the bottom. You'll see gaps in the fireballs that you can use to avoid damage.
- Fireballs fall in thick streams, but they're easily avoided if you remain between the streams.
- Fireballs get launched from Toriel's sweeping paws, and attempt to track the player. At the beginning them only come from above, but as the battle wears on theiy come from below as well.
This battle seems epic, but it’s almost impossible to lose. You can’t speak to Toriel, so seemingly your only recourse is to attack. There’s no point in trying to keep your health high, because even though Toriel’s attacks seem potent at first she'll deliberately miss you once your health is low enough. (If you manage to trick Toriel into defeating you she'll look rather shocked when you get a Game Over.)
If you're going for a Pacifist run you'll need to find an alternative to fighting. None of the options seem to do anything, but if you keep attempting to Spare Toriel she'll eventually resort to dialogue. Press forward on Sparing Toriel to end the fight peaceably. Note that if you reach the end of this sequence and attack Toriel just before the fight would end, she'll go down in a single hit. You monster.
Whether you defeat or Spare Toriel you'll find the way out of the Ruins. On the other side of the doorway you'll run into a familiar face, and the resulting dialogue changes based on how you handled the Ruins. Keep going north to discover the next area. (If you're playing on Hard Mode, it ends here.)