Encounter
When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT.
While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation.
Encounters[1] are the battles (FIGHTs) with enemies that either occur at random or predetermined locations in the underground. During a battle, the protagonist can interact with an enemy in many different ways through ACTs, but the enemies present must be either killed or spared to end the encounter. Alternatively, fleeing can also end the battle, but this method does not always guarantee success and can lead to a skipped turn instead.
During an encounter, the options FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY, the name chosen at the beginning of the game, LV, and HP are all visible like in typical RPGs.
In the dialogue box below the monster sprites, some text is displayed in narrative style. At the start of the encounter, flavor text is given on the nature of the encounter (e.g. "Whimsun approached meekly!")
After the first turn, the flavor text usually describes one of the monsters in battle, which may change depending on the actions the protagonist has taken. The flavor text can also describe the protagonist's actions whether it is from doing ACTs or as a story element.
When choosing an action, the protagonist may be prompted to select a monster to perform the action on. If a monster can be spared, their name when listed in such prompts may be colored yellow, the default spare color. Alternatively, it may also be colored white or pink, depending on the protagonist's response to the third Froggit in the Froggit hallway of the Ruins.
The protagonist is prompted to pick a monster to attack. The protagonist can attack one monster each turn.
Selecting FIGHT triggers a quick-time-event in which a bar slides across a meter, and [CONFIRM] must be pressed to attack. Hitting [CONFIRM] while the bar is at the center mark causes the most damage. Equipping different weapons can alter the quick time event's style, speed, number of bars, and the attack animation for successful timings. Allowing the bar(s) to slide all the way across the meter results in them fading out and a miss. This method is equivalent to selecting Spare, except that it does not cause any monsters to leave the battle, even if the Spare text is on.
If the attack depletes the monster's HP to zero, they dissipate into dust and fade out of the battle, killing them. The number of hits needed to kill a monster depends on a number of factors, including equipped weapon, attack accuracy, and the target's defense stat.
Once a monster's HP is low enough, they can be spared. This method can be used to end a battle if one neglects the ACT menu. Bosses and mini-bosses are an exception. It is possible to kill some monsters, mostly bosses and mini-bosses, in one hit before choosing to Spare them while their name is colored. This method can trigger unique dialogue in certain circumstances. The enemies that can be killed this way are: Toriel, Doggo, Lesser Dog, Gyftrot, Papyrus, Shyren, Royal Guards 01 and 02, Tsunderplane, and Muffet.
The protagonist is prompted to select a monster, and is then given one or more ACT options which are specific to that monster. ACTing against most monsters can result in the battle ending non-violently. It is a safer spare method as opposed to FIGHTing to drain the monster's HP. In some situations, ACTing ends the next turn immediately and the monster can be spared. ACTs may need to be performed in a certain order to allow a monster to be spared (e.g. sparing Greater Dog).
The protagonist can always Check any monster in the encounter. The exceptions are Lemon Bread, the Lost Souls, and Asriel's final form. Checking a monster reveals their name, attack, and defense. A short description is also provided, which provides extra flavor text about the monster.
Unique to the battle against Asriel's final form, the ACT button is replaced with a rainbow-colored SAVE button. Selecting it prompts a battle against the Lost Souls.
Allows the protagonist to use the items in their inventory. Up to four items are shown per page, and each page can be navigated via left or right keys. When Serious Mode is enabled, the names of certain items can be altered.
Consumable items, weapons, and armor items all appear in the battle inventory. Consumable items recover HP and are removed from the inventory upon using them. Weapons and armor, when used, are equipped and replaced with the item the protagonist previously had equipped. Some items are capable of increasing the protagonist's stats for the battle.
Some items have special effects when used in battle. For example, the Bandage acts as a consumable, and the Stick has various effects depending on the monster encountered.
Sparing means that the protagonist does not want to fight. The protagonist is encouraged on multiple occasions on their journey to show mercy to the monsters they fight.
Selecting Spare removes any monster from battle if their name is colored. If the Spare option is not colored, selecting it does nothing in most situations and results in skipping a turn. Some monsters, including some bosses, require the protagonist to continue sparing even if their name is not colored to progress the encounter peacefully.
Selecting Flee makes an attempt to escape the encounter. If successful, the protagonist's SOUL is shown sprouting legs and walking away, and the game returns to the overworld. This option is unavailable in many encounters, including those of bosses. Wearing the Bandage makes fleeing the battle guaranteed (except in Hard Mode), which can be useful for speedruns.
MERCY is not available during Asgore's battle, as he destroys it with his trident, and it only returns when he has been defeated.
The enemy may have some dialogue before attacking. The protagonist can skip the forming dialogue with [CONFIRM] (during some boss fights, particularly the ones with multiple dialogue bubbles per turn, [CANCEL] must be pressed first, as in the overworld). In some situations (such as some cases when the dialogue plays at a slower pace), the dialogue cannot be skipped.
The protagonist's SOUL is placed inside the bullet board. The enemy attacks the SOUL in the box using bullets, weapons, or other alternative offensive options. The SOUL can be controlled using the player's selected input option, such as the keyboard's default arrow keys. The shape of the bullets used in enemy attacks varies, depending on the enemy being fought. When multiple enemies are fought, their attacks overlap in the bullet board.
When holding [CANCEL] during the enemy's turn, the SOUL moves slower. This method can be useful if the protagonist is currently in tight sections where precise movement is needed. It can also be used to move slowly across the bullet board while enemies are directly shooting at the protagonist, effectively taking a while to get to a corner, in which case, the turn is already over.
In most boss battles (and the mini-bosses Muffet and Mad Mew Mew), the color of the SOUL is changed to a certain color. The enemies' attack colors also change in certain battles.
An encounter may end through the following ways:
All monsters are removed from battle, and the music stops. EXP and GOLD are rewarded depending on the monster(s) fought and whether the protagonist killed the monster(s) or did specific ACTs that give them GOLD. Monsters that are removed from battle are either grayed out with a different sprite (usually their "hurt" sprite) or absent from the battlefield entirely.
The protagonist's HP reaches 0. The screen is blacked out, the music suddenly stops, and the SOUL breaks in half before shattering, which results in a Game Over. The song, Determination plays, and dialogue in Asgore's sound bite encourages the protagonist to stay determined. If the player decides to continue, the game loads to the last SAVE Point before the encounter. There are some exceptions when it comes to the SAVEs at some points in the game (such as the elevators in Hotland). However, the outcome of a loss has exceptions during Omega Flowey, Asriel, and Papyrus's battles.
The protagonist flees from battle and returns to the overworld. If earned, they are rewarded with EXP or GOLD for each monster killed or spared during the encounter.
- "Escaped..."
- "Don't slow me down."
- "I'm outta here."
- "I've got better to do."
- Screenshots of an earlier version of Undertale from the "UnderBound 2" joke post[2] reveal that "ACT" was originally called "TALK", "MERCY" was called "SPARE", and a "SPELL" button was planned to be included but was scrapped.[3] This asset can still be found in the game's files.
- The "SPELL" button returns in Deltarune as "MAGIC" which can be used in ACTs and with Tension Points (TP) as a means of limiting it.
- The shade of yellow in the highlighted FIGHT button is lighter in comparison to the others.[4]
- If a monster with no hurt sprite is spared, it is replaced with a grayed out Aaron sprite, which is the sparing placeholder sprite. This replacement is likely because Aaron's name is the first in the alphabet within the game files.
- On the Neutral Route and True Pacifist Route, sparing Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton EX, and Asriel causes the encounters in Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, and the Ruins, respectively, to stop, whereas during the Genocide Route encounters only stop occurring after killing Mettaton NEO.
- When attacking in a cutscene, such as the one that kills Sans and Asgore, the attack animation defaults to a curled, red slash, even if the player has a weapon equipped that normally has a distinct attack animation. This also applies to all attacks made against Omega Flowey.
- In a Nintendo Everything interview, Toby Fox explains that the ACT and MERCY commands were inspired by Shin Megami Tensei.[5]
- ↑
@Pentadact things:
— @FwugRadiation on Twitter, September 20, 2015. Archived on November 07, 2015.
1. encounter rate is higher in the demo + first-ish area
2. most rooms only have 1 encounter
3. can flee from them - ↑
Some people actually think a joke/troll post I made in a friend's forum topic about Undertale originating as an EB ROM hack is true...
— Toby Fox (@tobyfox) on Twitter, March 12, 2016. - ↑ Toby Fox (4 February 2013). "UnderBound" Retrieved on 9 December 2015.
- ↑ Imgur
- ↑
The ACT and MERCY commands were inspired by Shin Megami Tensei. I played just a bit of that game and loved talking to the monsters in it. Since I liked it so much, I decided I wanted to make a game where that was actually the main focus.
— Undertale creator on the games that served as inspiration, changes during development, and more (@NE_Brian, October 27, 2018.) Nintendo Everything.
